There's something wrong with me

'Not bad.'

Zhang Feng felt this was a good specimen, which could help him better study the problem of malevolent energy.

Including this talisman, it also had a peculiar structure.

"I can heal your injury."

In order to continue his research better.

Zhang Feng chose to treat him.

"What?"

"Se... Senior...?"

When the two heard Zhang Feng's words, they couldn't keep up with this expert's train of thought at all.

Because just a few minutes ago, they looked like they were about to 'die together with the villain'.

But now the expert wanted to save them?

They couldn't wrap their heads around it.

But there was excitement and gratitude, and they also knew that they seemed to have misunderstood.

After all, if they were told they'd be beaten to death now, they would be.

Their lives were in someone else's hands.

Especially in the Daoist priest's mind, if the expert really wanted to kill them and was the lackey of Tao General as they suspected.

Then there would be no need to understand the Master Brother's condition.

Just kill them directly, take their heads, and claim the reward.

And in the Master Brother's mind, after seeing Zhang Feng's various methods, he had a great deal of conviction regarding the expert's words.

Because he could see through all his details with a single glance.

He had truly never seen or even heard of such a person.

"Let's talk about the cause and effect of this injury of yours."

Zhang Feng was more curious about the experience of this 'corpse', wanting to know exactly what happened, or if it had any connection to main quests or the like.

For a time, the three of them had their own thoughts.

But they all turned into the Master Brother's intermittent narration and a more detailed account of the events.

About ten minutes passed.

Although Zhang Feng found his intermittent speech a bit frustrating, he also understood everything.

First of all, this Tao General was a big warlord from another province.

According to the Daoist priest and the others, Tao General was more interested in searching for secret techniques and some strange treasures.

Among them, the ruins of 'Yangshan True Person' were said to contain some legendary secret techniques and treasures.

Zhang Feng felt it should be something like spiritual artifacts.

If so, there was a high probability that this was related to non-main quests.

It's just that this Tao General had many capable subordinates, and he seemed difficult to provoke at the moment.

However, although this General was difficult to provoke, General Hang of this province was single-mindedly focused on minting copper coins.

He was a proper businessman.

It was estimated that he also had quite a few treasures in his hands.

Zhang Feng liked businessmen.

So Zhang Feng felt that if he were to contact a General, he could try contacting this General Hang first.

Also, in his memory, the shopkeeper's nephew was one of General Hang's subordinates.

This seemed like a potential connection.

If there were no treasures, then he would wait until the Daoist priest's Master Brother recovered, and then go there to search for the ruins of 'Yangshan True Person'.

This would also be a good opportunity to cultivate his own strength.

In other words.

Before his strength exceeded the standard, if General Hang had any treasures, he could also study them in advance.

These plans were all good.

As for the 'Yangshan Ruins', he wasn't afraid of Tao General taking all the treasures.

Because according to the Daoist priest and his Master Brother, they had also kept some information back, only giving Tao General a rough place name.

But it was precisely this cautious concealment by the Daoist priest's Master Brother that resulted in a hundred muskets pointing at them.

Tao General wanted to force a confession.

His Master Brother was also hot-blooded and directly jumped off the cliff.

"Since you already knew about the secret treasure, why didn't you search for it earlier?"

After hearing all these things, Zhang Feng also asked the question in his heart.

And he thought they would answer that their own strength was insufficient, or that their sect had rules, or that they were missing some mechanism parts and couldn't open the ruins.

Who knew the Master Brother sighed and said: "The ruins are suspected to be inside a large mountain... shaped like a chestnut... My junior brother and I... went to search for it... a few years ago... but we didn't find the entrance.

And thinking about it again, is the matter of Yangshan... real? Or fake?"

He said this, and then added precisely: "That Tao General... I just told him... it's in Pengshan Lin..."

Pengshan Lin is about six hundred li long and one hundred and seventy li wide.

There are over ten thousand peaks inside; finding one mountain would take a lot of searching.

'These two only know the location, but not the mechanism.

They aren't even sure if this matter is real or not.'

Zhang Feng understood in his heart and also felt it must be real.

After all, it was something that naturally came up at the beginning of the game.

So even if it wasn't real, there would definitely be some related clues inside.

It couldn't be without purpose.

As for these two.

Zhang Feng planned to arrange for them to go to The City first, not planning to put them in the inn.

Because in this desolate wilderness, there was only this one place, making them a bit of a big target.

If they were really discovered by Tao General's informants, then there would be a lot of trouble.

Zhang Feng didn't want to stir up trouble unnecessarily now.

Besides, the matter of refining corpses, his own cultivation, and the talisman he just obtained all required a certain amount of time to digest.

While thinking.

Zhang Feng looked at the two and said: "You two go to the nearest The City first.

Every few days, I will treat your Master Brother's injury."

"The City?" The Master Brother showed a troubled expression, "Daoist Brother Zhang... There are many people in The City and it's complicated... If someone named Tao is there, it's a small matter if we two get into trouble... but will it implicate you?"

"Don't worry about this," Zhang Feng said indifferently, "First, Qisheng is a thousand li away from here, his people may not be in this province.

Second, it is precisely because The City is a mix of good and bad that you two can hide yourselves well."

Zhang Feng said this, and then added solemnly: "Don't pretend to be corpse drivers either, that's too eye-catching this time.

Your Master Brother's white cloth can also be removed.

Of course, I will teach you two simple disguises; this technique is not complicated either.

Just some hair and rouge chalk will do.

This technique must also be used."

Zhang Feng said this, looking at the two who were showing their 'true faces'.

Except for the Master Brother being covered with a white cloth, there was no concealment whatsoever on the faces of the two.

Regarding this, Zhang Feng really wanted to say one thing,

'You guys are already like this, can't you use some common tricks used when venturing into the martial world, like disguises?'

Seriously, these two have been pushed to this state, can't they develop cautiously for a bit?

But then he thought that the two were cultivators.

Perhaps they truly had some awkward integrity that ordinary people couldn't understand.

This belonged to a person's character and was difficult to change.

What was strange was that they actually nodded and easily agreed to the matter of disguising themselves.

Because in their minds, since the expert had said this, and the expert felt that hiding was correct.

Then, since even the expert felt that those who understood the times were outstanding, what were they still being stubborn about?

Sometimes it's very strange; when some people see experts doing the same thing.

Then these slightly stronger people feel that this matter is very correct.

Afterwards.

The three of them walked together, heading in the direction they came from.

But after walking for over ten li.

The Master Brother spoke to Zhang Feng again:

"Daoist Brother... I'm sorry... I lied to you before... Actually... Yangshan is not in Chestnut Mountain in Pengshan Lin, but two hundred li outside Chestnut Mountain... It's another hundred-meter peak..."

The Master Brother had chatted with Zhang Feng for so long, and seeing that this expert truly seemed like he was going to help them, he finally felt that this Daoist Brother Zhang was not a bad person.

So he decided to tell the truth.

It was also a case of once bitten by a snake, one fears ropes for ten years.

Regarding important secrets, it was naturally necessary to be tight-lipped.

If it weren't for Zhang Feng's expert demeanor, they would have even continued to conceal it.

Zhang Feng looked at him but didn't pay much attention.

Instead, he felt that this was more like normal people.

Meeting for the first time, not a single truthful word, that's right.

But they were also quite foolish to say it so quickly.

No wonder they fled with their true faces.

These two, seemingly smart, were actually similar to Green Mountain, both were idiots.

They were still too unfamiliar with conventional 'worldly methods'.

The matter with just one warlord seemed like a big loss, but in reality, they hadn't suffered enough.

If it were someone like Wang She Ge, then they could be considered a normally intelligent person.

No matter who he was talking to, there wasn't a single truthful word from him.

Honestly, Zhang Feng didn't even know now if Wang She Ge truly considered him a brother.

But he had always been thinking of him, searching for him every time he was near the border in modern times.

...

An hour later.

The two Daoist priests went straight to The City.

Zhang Feng, on the other hand, returned to the inn.

At this moment, he had just returned.

There was no one in the shop anymore, but the head chef and his apprentice, as well as the shopkeeper, were all waiting for Zhang Feng at the entrance.

Zhang Feng saw that they seemed to be welcoming him and hadn't said anything yet.

The shopkeeper spoke first: "Little Brother Zhang! Why didn't you say earlier that you had such skill!"

'Skill?' Zhang Feng was cultivating, and for a moment, he didn't react.

But when he saw the plate of green vegetables inside the inn, and that a few strands were missing from it.

Zhang Feng knew that the three of them couldn't resist and ate again.

Even though this was a dish for the Daoist master, in the minds of the shopkeeper and others, missing a few strands didn't matter.

Because Zhang Feng had stir-fried this dish very generously, it was a full plate.

And then after eating it.

The shopkeeper felt like he had struck gold!

This cooking skill was absolutely top-notch!

Better than the Yanlai Restaurant in The City.

The head chef of Yanlai Restaurant was the recognized best here.

'Such good skill...' The shopkeeper already felt like he was going to make a fortune, 'It doesn't need much, just this one dish.

As long as the reputation spreads, my inn's business will definitely increase steadily.'

The shopkeeper now regarded Zhang Feng as a money tree.

"I knew how to cook before," Zhang Feng answered casually, "Before coming to the inn, I specifically learned cooking, but my skill wasn't good back then, so I didn't say much.

Tonight, I thought my skill was about right, so I gave it a try."

Zhang Feng had been without ties since he was young, wandered for many years, did many odd jobs, and finally came to this inn three years ago.

He could also be considered the shopkeeper's trusted subordinate.

Because there were only a few of them in this inn.

The shopkeeper was very shrewd; even if he sometimes acted as a waiter himself, he wouldn't hire more people.

If it weren't for the head chef complaining recently, saying he would leave if they didn't find an assistant, then the head chef would also be the only one in the back kitchen.

"From now on, you are the head chef of our shop!"

The Boss now also directly adjusted the personnel, "Sun Chef will be your assistant, let his apprentice run errands at the front."

"Then we need to hire two more people." Zhang Feng became interested when he heard about the restaurant. "After we make money and have more customers, we need to expand.

Do you know about expansion?"

Zhang Feng pointed to the entire inn and the surrounding area,

"Such a large piece of land, and your nephew is working under Hang General. We can work around it, make some arrangements, and take it all.

Think about it, based on the current eight tables in the restaurant being full, with each table taking two hours for a meal, we can serve... a day.

If we expand, we can serve..."

Zhang Feng was talking business with the Boss, emphasizing the idea of 'the more you build, the more you gain'.

"Oh... how much silver would that make in a day..." The Boss also listened with a flushed face, completely overwhelmed by the 'pie-in-the-sky lecture style' of later generations.

This fresh business concept, coupled with Zhang Feng's extensive experience running restaurants in several worlds,

Naturally, what he said had a solid basis.

Furthermore, Zhang Feng's daily contact with the Planning Department meant he was very precise in expressing some operational details.

At least the Boss, who was so shrewd, was left bewildered and completely swayed.

And now, he not only considered Zhang Feng a master in cooking but also a genius in business!

Before, why hadn't he discovered such a talent!

If he had discovered him earlier, wouldn't he have already become rich?

...

'Regret!'

When he returned to his room at night.

The Boss tossed and turned with regret, unable to fall asleep.

But being awake, he suddenly realized there was something he hadn't mentioned.

'I forgot, I forgot, I need to take Little Brother Zhang to The City tomorrow to exchange for silver.

I have to tell him.

It's also a good opportunity to buy some things for Little Brother Zhang while going to The City to improve our relationship.'

The Boss was very planned and quickly put on his clothes, preparing to go find Zhang Feng to discuss it.

...

Early the next morning.

Zhang Feng and the Boss sat in a passing donkey cart and headed straight for The City.

On the way.

This was actually the first time Zhang Feng had experienced this kind of donkey cart.

But he had seen many of them, there were some in the Dan Jin World, in the Prince's World, and in the Martial Arts World.

It was just that in the Dan Jin World, he rode the village tractor.

In the Prince's World, there were tall horses.

In the Martial Arts World, there were Green Mountain.

So, riding one was truly the first time.

How should I describe this experience?

It was actually similar to riding a carriage, but it was quite shaky and unstable.

One could say the donkey was braying and shaking its head, and the driver was humming a tune and shaking his head.

Zhang Feng and the Boss sitting in the cart were also lightly shaking their heads while holding onto the frame of the cart.

It was that kind of unconscious movement.

...

Arriving in The City.

Looking around, it was all low, old brick and tile houses.

Beep beep—

There were also those old-fashioned cars on the uneven roads.

"Boss, where are you going?"

The rickshaws at the city gate were also running around, and you could almost smell their sweat from a distance.

"Master..." There were also some beggars by the city gate.

And some people who didn't look like beggars were also sitting by the roadside, looking sallow and emaciated.

This Republic of China era was different from the glamorous young masters and ladies Zhang Feng saw in TV dramas.

The whole state was very oppressive.

Did it feel like despair was everywhere?

It was a 'total gray' from a black and white television.

The people on the streets were basically dressed in gray and old, dirty clothes.

Truly, at a glance, the whole world was gray.

Including in Zhang Feng's memory, it had always been this gray feeling.

And he still yearned for big cities, thinking that big cities might be better.

But at this moment.

Zhang Feng could also see some well-dressed young masters and ladies, adding some color to this almost 'black and white' world, looking out of place with the people around them and forming a sharp contrast.

It was also when they appeared.

Zhang Feng knew that his yearning for a big city was simply wanting to see more color.

'If I had a lot of time, I could try to fix it.'

Zhang Feng felt that perhaps he was used to benefiting the people. When he saw these dirty and messy scenes, his first thought was to 'fix' them.

But this was broken from the foundation, unlike the Martial Arts World where there were still complete laws.

Like in the Martial Arts World, once the sects were cleared out, it would be over.

But here, if those warlords were cleared out, it would become even more chaotic.

One must know that there were 'ghosts and cultivators' in this world.

He couldn't sort it out in a short time.

"Little Brother Zhang, let's go to the money changers..."

The Boss, however, was accustomed to these dirty and chaotic scenes, and carefully covered his small bag as he walked towards the money changers ahead.

Zhang Feng also went with the flow and decided not to worry about it for now.

And then, while accompanying the Boss to exchange money.

Zhang Feng, having nothing to do, was recalling his research on talismans from last night.

The Taoist had given him that talisman.

On it was an earth-element 'Earth Spike Technique'.

According to their description, after 'activating' it and 'throwing it onto the ground'.

They could use their own spiritual energy to attract more heaven and earth spiritual energy, and then make the ground under their feet deform and produce many earth spikes.

These earth spikes were very sturdy and covered with spiritual energy, capable of breaking spiritual energy.

Since the talisman could only be used once, Zhang Feng hadn't experimented with it.

But theoretically, spiritual energy breaking spiritual energy was also normal.

The enchanted arrows Zhang Feng envisioned in the Martial Arts World were based on this principle.

And regarding this Earth Spike Technique.

Zhang Feng was depicting it.

And at this moment.

Zhang Feng saw the Boss exchanging money at the counter. Having nothing to do for a moment, he also took out the talisman from his pocket and slowly depicted it.

This depiction was done by looking with the 'Yin Yang Eye'.

Zhang Feng could see some very intricate structural arrangements, like the 'ghostly scribbles' of a Taoist, but each connection point was very ingenious and formed a 'structural whole'.

As for more detailed links and arrangements, since there was no spiritual energy microscope, he couldn't observe them on a microscopic level.

But as long as he had this structure, he could just copy it later.

After drawing it hundreds or thousands of times, and making appropriate modifications based on the overall fluctuation of spiritual energy, he would be able to copy it and use it for himself.

Drawing talismans also required practice.

And its power was also great, capable of increasing his combat strength.

For example, if he used normal spiritual energy to draw a talisman, the killing power of this talisman would be 1, equivalent to his own.

When fighting an enemy, if he took out the talisman and then used normal spiritual energy to activate it, the combined killing power might reach around 1.5 to 2.

Especially since these talismans could also be preserved for three to ten days.

Such a storage period could completely serve as a life-saving and offensive item.

For instance, after fighting with someone for a while and both having little spiritual energy left, he could suddenly use this remaining spiritual energy to give the opponent a few talismans with a chuckle.

Then the opponent would definitely be finished.

But compared to life-saving items, and using items for amplification and so on.

Zhang Feng wanted to integrate these structural 'techniques' into himself, as instantaneous self-combat power.

Because it sounded like these items and so on were always external objects, not his own strength.

This gave people a feeling of 'very weak combat power'.

Zhang Feng really disliked this feeling.

So Zhang Feng was more inclined to thoroughly understand the most basic 'principle of technique structure'.

The principle is the knowledge.

Zhang Feng also always felt that the structural principle was the basic '1+1' formula in spiritual energy.

As long as he learned a few earth-element 1+1s, he could then extrapolate upwards or optimize further.

...

Three hours later.

Returning to the backyard of the inn.

After drawing in his mind for most of last night and a few hours this morning, Zhang Feng also felt that he had a rough idea.

He felt like he could draw it now.

However, looking at the happy Boss who had just entered the backyard.

Zhang Feng, after thinking of something, said to the Boss:

"Boss, regarding the expansion of the inn that I mentioned, could you call your little nephew over so we can discuss it in detail again?"

Zhang Feng wanted to contact the little nephew, and then contact Hang General.

Then see if there were more '1+1s' there.

"Of course, of course!" The Boss was now completely focused on money and was very satisfied with Zhang Feng's idea of expansion,

"When I was at the money changers earlier, I already asked the Boss there to leave a message for me.

When my nephew goes to exchange for silver again, tell him to come here, and the few of us can discuss it in detail."

After speaking, the Boss held the silver dollars and happily went to open the front door.

'It's best if his nephew can come.' Zhang Feng nodded and looked at the ground in the courtyard again.

Spiritual Mind controlled the light yellow earth elements in the air, instantly drawing a talisman in mid-air, and then adjusting the arrangement within four seconds.

Rustle—

Zhang Feng did not use spiritual energy to control the soil, but the soil below slightly bulged under the fluctuation of heaven and earth spiritual energy, and then fell back down.

'The drawing time is too slow, it still needs to be optimized to find the best route and direction.

The technique structure is also not quite right, it's still unstable.'

Zhang Feng pondered, feeling that it might take him about a month to instantly cast this technique.

But now, if he were to write it on paper with spiritual energy, writing slowly.

It should be no problem.

The success rate is at least around 35%.

Zhang Feng utilized his past knowledge base, precise control, and ability to draw analogies.

Now, in less than ten hours, he had reached a minor achievement in basic earth-element talismans.