I live in rivers and lakes, and there are legends of my brother.

Nighttime, Old Wang carefully pondered the young mortal assassin.

He murmured: "Though he may seem an ordinary mortal, that is not entirely accurate. Could it be because my cultivation has yet to fully recover? I actually sensed the aura of our sect's The Chant of the Grand Dao from him."

"Could this be an illusion? Though I have heard that our ancestral master once left a karmic connection on this continent."

"But surely he wouldn't have left The Chant of the Grand Dao behind?"

"Furthermore, that assassin clearly cannot use any techniques, otherwise how could I have noticed the dagger he had concealed?"

Things were becoming more and more interesting.

A hint of a smile appeared at the corner of Old Wang, or rather, Duan Wuya's mouth.

...

...

The next night, Zhang San returned to the backyard of his calligraphy and painting shop in Little Yun County. After pushing open the door, Zhang San carefully inspected the door bolt and floor before finally letting his guard down.

Zhang San opened up a hidden compartment under the bed, revealing a flight of stairs leading downward.

As a steady assassin, having a secret chamber was perfectly normal.

Inside the secret chamber of the calligraphy shop, Zhang San lit some candles to shine some light. Zhang San found some tools and medicinal liquids in the secret chamber, then slowly removed the human skin mask from his face.

Do not assume Zhang San's human skin mask was some cheap product found in the martial world.

Custom made, one hundred percent form fitting, waterproof and fireproof, crafted from the finest materials available in the underworld, a single mask cost five hundred taels.

When Zhang San bought it in the underworld back then, it had pained his wallet dearly.

Incidentally, for professional safety and to protect his wallet, Zhang San had considered making the human skin masks himself, but regretfully, he had spent too much time mastering other professional skills like acting, carpentry, masonry, martial arts research, medicine, invention, etc, that his skills in human skin masks never reached the pinnacle.

After removing the mask, Zhang San took out a book from another box in the secret chamber. The title of the book was: Coping with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Looking at the book, Zhang San swore loudly: "What kind of useless medical book is this? It's all nonsense. To think I actually tried it?!"

The medical book stated that the best way to cure fear induced illnesses was to face your fears directly.

Zhang San continued cursing: "If I could face my fears directly, why would I need to cure this illness?!"

The logic of the author of this medical book was clearly flawed.

Ridiculous!

Zhang San sat down on the floor, the more he thought about it, the angrier he got.

He had wasted five whole days observing so carefully, utilizing so many methods to verify Old Wang's external martial arts, internal martial arts, lightness arts...

Especially that moving performance, and the intricate, flawless background he had fabricated, leaving no holes no matter who asked.

With great difficulty, he had confirmed that this Old Wang was just an ordinary person.

Yet at the final moment, he had failed.

Fifty taels, gone!

Damn it!

Especially on that final night, now that Zhang San thought back on it, he really must have been crazy.

He cursed softly: "What was I doing back then? If I couldn't overcome the heart devil, then I just needed to sneak up and finish him off with one strike when he was sleeping!"

Alas.

Zhang San couldn't help but sigh. Just one moment of lapse in judgement had cost him fifty taels.

After all, the calligraphy shop he used as a front for his identity, as well as all the various professional skills he learned over his career to ensure stability, meant that Zhang San had already been poor for over twenty years.

Zhang San raised his head and gazed at the night sky.

What, gazing at the night sky from a secret chamber?

Didn't I say not to mind the small details too much?

Zhang San murmured: "I'm somewhat pitiful for feeling resentful over fifty taels... Yet who knows, I, Zhang San, once led the rise of the Dawu Country's underworld, working diligently in the assassin trade to catalyze two major leaps in progress?"

As expected, true heroes of the underworld remain unknown.

...

...

Zhang San once said this to himself: "I stand tall in the martial world, and legends of me exist in the martial world."

The meteoric rise of the Dawu Country's underground societies, expanding domestically and spreading influence to surrounding nations, Zhang San did contribute greatly towards this development.

Because in the history of the Dawu Country's underworld, the first international assassin was none other than Zhang San!

That's right, as the first to walk beyond the nation's borders, Zhang San left behind thick strokes in the pages of legend.

It was ten years ago, shortly after becoming an independent assassin, Zhang San quickly realized a major problem - after losing his master's assistance, a mid stage Earth rank expert, his mission success rate had fallen sharply.

Apart from Zhang San's inferior martial arts at the time, this was also because his professional skills like acting, medicine, observation...and so on, had yet to rise to their current level.

Back then, Zhang San often lamented how truly difficult the human rank missions were in the Dawu Country's assassin trade.

The low paying ones, though simple and not too difficult, for the sake of stability Zhang San would expend great amounts of effort on an ordinary target, investing time stalking them in secret, as well as monetary costs like purchasing Seven Step Powder.

For example, for a job paying sixty, seventy taels, he'd already spend over half just on Seven Step Powder.

As for the higher paying jobs, several hundred taels, he didn't need to painstakingly use poison, but the assassin trade was ultimately labor intensive. The more they paid, the greater risks you had to undertake - the target was either a high level martial artist, or a wealthy merchant with a horde of bodyguards, or a government official.

At that time, Zhang San was unwilling to take such risks. It must be known that only after reaching the mid stage of Earth rank in martial arts did Zhang San dare accept assignments at the upper stage of Human rank, and even then he'd invest huge amounts of time scouting and probing each target.

Thus, despite the high payout, he didn't dare accept those difficult missions back then.

This led to a dilemma. Zhang San felt the low paying jobs didn't earn enough to support the fees needed to improve his various skills. But the high paying jobs were too difficult, going against Zhang San's cautious personality.

But as the saying goes well:

Where there's a will, there's a way.

Trapped in declining mission success rates and a swiftly emptying wallet, Zhang San thought of something absolutely unprecedented - going abroad!

Bringing his many years of experience in the Dawu Country's underworld, Zhang San chose to set out abroad.

After carefully calculating the costs of traveling overseas and lodging abroad, Zhang San finally worked up the courage to borrow three hundred taels from his master and set off on his journey.

But please do not misunderstand.

As the world's most meticulous, eternally cautious self-proclaimed number one steady assassin in the Dawu Country, even if Zhang San wanted to find work overseas, he would not recklessly plunge directly into foreign underworlds.