Linhe District was brimming with turmoil, a storm brewing on the horizon. But within Linhe District, Xu Qing was living day to day, fussing over trivial matters.
"They all say that martial arts schools are bottomless pits. You spend silver to buy martial arts lessons, only to cough up more silver to buy nourishing potions to refine your physique. After buying the potions, if you want to learn more advanced cultivation techniques, you have to spend even more money."
Over and over, it equates to this: with the same talent, whoever spends more money becomes stronger.
This model was no different from the flashy, low-end online games he had seen in his past life!
Looking at himself, just advancing to an Iron Armored Wandering Corpse had cost him nearly two hundred taels of silver. Who knew how much more it would take for Silver Corpses, Golden Corpses, and even the higher levels of the Three Corpse Transformations!
The only fortunate thing was that zombies had long lifespans. He could slowly grind for silver and the resources needed for various zombie breakthroughs.
...
That day, the agreed-upon date with the hunter arrived. Xu Qing closed his shop early and went to the East Market to retrieve the animal hide materials he had been longing for.
The hunter hadn't set up a stall; it seemed he had come to Linhe specifically to wait for him, such a big customer. After their transaction was completed, the hunter wrapped himself in a bearskin coat and left the East Market.
Returning to Underground Street, Xu Qing saw from a distance a few government officials in uniform lingering at the entrance of the Funeral Shop.
They were old acquaintances. When he got closer, Xu Qing habitually asked, "You guys delivering again? Let me see. Good condition, pretty decent. How did he die?"
The leading official chuckled, "This unlucky guy was a notorious thief on the wanted list. No one knows whom he offended yesterday; his throat was slit, and he died on the street. When we found him, he was already frozen stiff."
Another wanderer of the martial world who didn't make it back.
Xu Qing shook his head. These days, walking the martial world meant putting your head in your belt loop; you never knew when you might end up running naked.
And it wasn't even easy to die with any dignity!
After seeing off the government officials, Xu Qing casually draped the two pieces of animal hide over the coat rack, then habitually put on donkey skin gloves and sprayed his workbench with homemade disinfectant.
After the routine, he started the corpse's salvation, turning pages of the Sutra of Salvation.
The life of the corpse unfolded before him without any reservation.
The throat-slitted wanderer was named Chen Xiaoyi, a disciple of the Rong Sect, one of the eight secret sects of the martial world.
The so-called eight secret sects are: Bee, Hemp, Swallow, Sparrow, Flower, Orchid, Kudzu, and Rong.
The Rong Sect specifically dealt in thievery, but anyone who called themselves a disciple of the Rong Sect couldn't be a petty thief. They had to be grand thieves operating alone!
They didn't steal from ordinary people, the old, or the weak. They only stole from the highborn or those involved in significant transactions.
Such people were also called "high buyers."
Chen Xiaoyi was a high buyer in the Rong Sect and had a master. He was a disciple of Pan Qianying, the Thousand Shadows Hand, ranking twenty-first in the sect with the title 'Hundred Hands' disciple.
The title 'Hundred Hands' was a rating standard for the disciples' skills.
The lowest level, 'Ten Hands,' meant that when they acted, their hands moved so fast that there appeared to be ten ghost images, making it impossible to tell which hand was real, meanwhile the target's wallet would be stolen.
The 'Hundred Hands' was an advanced level. As for the 'Thousand Hands,' that was a master's level. It's said at this level, they could brush past you and steal your underwear without you noticing!
Even if you had good senses and skills, realizing something was wrong and going back to confront them would get you nowhere.
Why?
Because the moment your underwear was stolen, it was worn by the other person, already on their butt!
Though Chen Xiaoyi didn't have his master Pan Qianying's skills, he ranked highly among the 'Hundred Hands' disciples. Not to mention ordinary people, even keen-eyed Inner Cultivation martial artists would lose a few taels if they got too close to him!
But then again, did this person never fail?
Well, he did!
Yesterday, Chen Xiaoyi encountered a man on the street, dressed in fine Shu brocade white satin, with a white robe gentle as a celestial cloud, wearing a top-quality jade pendant from Yun Dian, a walking bank!
Thinking it would be a waste not to take, Chen Xiaoyi brushed past the man, seemingly accidentally bumping him, snatching both the jade pendant and the coin pouch.
Before he could celebrate, as soon as he passed the man, the white-robed man behind him spoke.
"Your hands are fast, but unfortunately, my sword is faster."
Before the words finished, Chen Xiaoyi only then realized, clutching his throat, blood gushing out like free-flowing water from between his fingers.
In his dying moments, he understood he had encountered an expert!
Seeing this, Xu Qing couldn't help but reveal a wry smile.
It wasn't because of Chen Xiaoyi, but because the one who wielded the sword was the Celestial Heart Sect demon who had once decapitated Liu Youdao!
"This person is really mercurial, but his love for killing remains unchanged."
Xu Qing made up his mind to avoid this white-robed youth as much as possible, never exchanging a word!
His limited impression was that those who had had dealings with this white-robed youth never ended well.
The Sutra of Salvation finally evaluated the corpse, granting a middle-grade human rating, and the reward was a thousand shadows stealing skill for the Yang Pei Technique, based on the art of stealth and rapid theft.
Cultivating Thousand Shadows Technique to its pinnacle could achieve the divine, possibly even stealing someone's underwear.
Unfortunately, he only obtained 'Hundred Shadows Power' from Chen Xiaoyi. Stealing underwear was unrealistic, but stealing earrings or hairpins was still effortless.
Following the Thousand Shadows Technique method, Xu Qing's hands accelerated faster and faster. When all the ghost images disappeared, he fully grasped the core technique.
As for other applications of the Thousand Shadows Technique, it required practice.
For instance, the stealth method could be used for stealing earrings, drawing them out without touching the skin could remove them unnoticed.
For hairpins, a Yang Pei technique of stealing and replacing could substitute a hairpin with a chopstick, without them noticing by quickly swapping them upon touching the target.
Xu Qing now understood why Chen Xiaoyi failed. The Celestial Heart Sect demon had such deep cultivation. Using stealth alone, the opponent would sense the slight weight loss immediately. But if using Yang Pei, Chen Xiaoyi's hand speed couldn't keep up.
This vast difference might only be bridged by the Thief Saint Pan Qianying himself.
...
After granting salvation to the throat-slit disciple of the Rong Sect, Xu Qing began preparations for refining an Iron Armored Wandering Corpse.
But unlike ordinary Corpse Drivers refining zombies, this time he aimed to refine himself!