Start with everyday skills and grind your way to immortality.

Chen Qian suddenly opened his eyes and sat up abruptly in bed.

My right hand instinctively reached under the pillow, touching the cold handle of the wood-chopping knife and the thick book, and my wildly beating heart gradually calmed down.

I slept very soundly, but not peacefully.

Even in his dream, he could hear chirping monsters in the mist, ready to jump out and devour him at any moment.

I slept for half a day.

It was already noon.

As consciousness returned, a sudden wave of soreness washed over my entire body, as if it had been torn apart.

Especially the wound on my thigh, although it has scabbed over, still hurts terribly with the slightest movement.

"Still too weak."

Chen Qian glanced at his pale palms.

Last night, I survived thanks to seven parts brains, three parts luck, and absolutely no hard skills.

If it weren't for that scholar's fear of death, and if it weren't for that "Li Family Soul Contract" being used as a pretext for bullying others.

He's probably just a skeleton by now.

"Eight days left."

Chen Qian muttered to himself, a hint of urgency flashing in his eyes.

Eight days later, the real Li family will come to visit.

Then there won't be any tiger skin left to pull off.

He reluctantly got out of bed, quickly washed up, and then pulled out the three secret manuals he had brought back the night before from under his pillow.

"Miscellaneous Notes on Green Crow", "Eight Steps to Catch the Cicada", and "Golden Bell Cover".

Chen Qian's gaze lingered on the rubbing of "Qingwu Miscellaneous Notes" for a long time, his eyes burning with fervor.

Once you've entered the gate, you can refine pills, create formations, and perform divination...

I took a deep breath and forced it all the way in.

"Distant water cannot quench immediate thirst."

Even with the help of the panel, it's not something that can be accomplished in just three to five days to build up combat power.

He reached out and picked up the other two tattered books.

This was a method he specifically chose to save his life.

After lunch.

The courtyard was quiet.

The elder brother worked at the grain store, and the sister-in-law took Xiaoyu to the well at the alley entrance to wash clothes.

Chen Qian stood under the old locust tree and first opened "Eight Steps to Catch the Cicada".

Although this manual is incomplete, the first three steps, "Cicada Startled," "Cicada Leap," and "Cicada Flash," are recorded in great detail.

Especially the first move, "Cicada Startled".

The key is how to mobilize the muscles of the thighs and waist in a static state to burst out with speeds several times that of ordinary people in an instant.

"Like the moment a cicada is startled into flight."

Chen Qian closed his eyes, his mind replaying the scene of dodging the hidden arrows in the red mist last night.

That was an instinct he was forced out of when he was on the verge of death, and now he wants to solidify that instinct into his body's memory.

Adjust your breathing, activate the "Health Preservation Technique," and let your Qi and blood sink downwards.

Chen Qian bent his knees slightly, his toes gripping the ground tightly.

"The cicadas are startled!"

He gave a low shout in his heart, his thigh muscles tensed up suddenly, and his strength exploded like a spring.

His figure instantly shifted three feet to the side, creating a gust of wind that swept up the fallen leaves on the ground.

[Agility Experience +1]

really!

With proper guidance from the manual and the foundation laid by the previous [Agility] training, the experience points increased much faster than when practicing blindly!

Chen Qian moved around the yard tirelessly.

Sprint after sprint, stop after stop, change of direction after change.

According to the general principles described in the manual.

From initially stumbling and fumbling to later becoming more and more skilled, his movements became faster and faster, and his figure became more and more elusive.

Sweat soaked through his clothes, and his wounds reopened and bled, but he seemed oblivious to it all.

Two hours later.

As he narrowly avoided the branches hanging down from the old locust tree for the umpteenth time during his sprint.

[New Skill Unlocked: Eight Steps to Catch the Cicada (Beginner 1/100)]

Become!

Although it's only the first step of the Cicada's Startling Technique, it's still a beginner's skill.

All that's left is to accumulate.

Chen Qian gasped for breath, leaning against the tree trunk, a look of excitement on his face.

I rested for a while and drank some cold water.

Then he wrapped the wound on his thigh with a strip of cloth.

Chen Qian didn't stop, and picked up the tattered copy of "Golden Bell Cover" again.

"External training of muscles, bones, and skin, ensuring one's breath remains unbroken."

He tried to mobilize his qi and blood to impact the skin membrane, following the methods described in the book.

However, Chen Qian had to stop after only trying it for the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea.

My skin was burning, as if it had been burned, and my blood and energy were being depleted very quickly, leaving me feeling weak.

However, there are no hints about the techniques used in "Golden Bell Cover".

"It's not working as expected. I still need to buy some herbal medicine to help."

The ancients were right: "The poor are learned in literature, the rich in martial arts."

Hard skills are the most resource-intensive, even for beginners. Without the aid of medicinal solutions, simply relying on hard training will not only fail to achieve results but will also ruin your body.

"Looks like I need to go to the pharmacy right away."

Perfect timing! I need to get some good wound medicine for my injuries, otherwise the bleeding will keep making me even weaker.

When I came out of the pharmacy, the sun was already setting.

Those twenty taels of silver weren't wasted.

Apart from a few doses of oral tonics to replenish qi and blood, the majority of the money was spent on the herbs for those few packets of bath medicine.

With the help of potent medicines like Clematis chinensis and safflower, I have a good chance of breaking through the first layer of the Golden Bell Shield tonight.

As for the leg injury, I switched to the best Baiyun powder from the pharmacy, and the cooling sensation penetrated into my muscles.

The excruciating pain that radiated through my nerves has subsided considerably and no longer affects my movements.

Everything is going according to plan.

Chen Qian hurried back along the alley.

When I passed by the low wall next to Zhang the butcher's house.

[Smell recognition experience points +1]

The faint smell of blood from that morning had not dissipated.

It actually turned out differently.

It's no longer the rusty smell of fresh blood.

Last night at the stalls in the City of the Dead, the one selling the limbs of unidentified creatures, that's the smell that wafted through the air.

Something's not right.

Chen Qian glanced at the tightly closed courtyard gate.

Butcher Zhang only slaughters pigs at night; the meat should have been sold out by daytime. How could he have such a bloody smell?

And it's too quiet.

At this time of day, it's usually when Butcher Zhang is drunk and cursing, or when his daughter, Aqing, is chopping vegetables and cooking.

But now, the inside of the wall is deathly silent.

It's like a sealed coffin.

Chen Qian stood still for a moment at the base of the wall.

But it was only for a moment.

His eyes regained their usual cold indifference.

Curiosity killed the cat.

He himself was already carrying the Li family's death warrant, living with his head on the line, so how could he have the extra life to meddle in his neighbors' business?

In this world, everyone sweeps the snow from their own doorstep and doesn't care about the frost on someone else's roof.

"It has nothing to do with me."

Chen Qian looked away and held his breath.

He walked briskly past Zhang the butcher's door with a blank expression, as if he hadn't smelled anything or knew anything.

Back in the courtyard, I paused.

I don't know how much time has passed.

He gently placed the newly bought medicine packet on the steps of the gatehouse, and then tucked the unremarkable wood-chopping knife behind his waist.

He turned around and strode towards the next room.

His eyes were filled with gloom.

I gently pushed the door and found it wasn't locked.

Chen Qian pushed open the door, and the stench of blood became even stronger.

Standing in the courtyard, he didn't rush inside.

"Aqing?"

He called out, his voice not loud, but it sounded exceptionally clear in the deathly silent courtyard.

It's also about confirming something.

"Aqing"

Still, no one answered.

Only the wind rustling through the old persimmon tree in the yard made the withered leaves make a soft, whispering sound.

With night vision, everything became much clearer.

There was no one in the courtyard, and several overturned wine jars were scattered on the ground.

The doors and windows of the side rooms on both sides were tightly closed, decorated with festive paper-cut window decorations, exuding an eerie tranquility.

Only the main hall directly opposite had its door wide open, like a black hole ready to devour anyone who might enter.

That suffocating smell of blood was coming from there.

Chen Qian gripped the machete tightly, his steps extremely light.

With each step I took, my heart pounded harder.

Cross the threshold.

Even though he was mentally prepared, the sight before him still made Chen Qian's pupils shrink to the size of pinpoints.

The main room was dark, with no lights on.

But in the field of vision of night vision, nothing can hide.

The dining table in the center of the main room was overturned, and a blood-stained pig-slaughtering knife lay to one side.

Butcher Zhang, the burly man with a fierce face and thick waist, was now lying face up in a pool of blood.

No, that can no longer be called human.

His clothes were torn to shreds, and his bare skin was covered with countless cuts, the flesh torn and rolled up, a truly gruesome sight.

His eyes were wide open and his mouth was agape.

It seems that he saw something extremely terrifying before he died, or that he experienced extreme pain.

"Dead?"

Chen Qian's gaze sharpened.

Just then, his gaze fell on the shadowy corner of the main room.

My breath hitched.

There, with his back to him, a small, thin figure was curled up.

She knelt motionless on the ground, seemingly holding someone tightly in her arms.

Silent and still, like a sculpture that has lost its soul.

"Aqing?"