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.
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
u serious?" Chen Feng watched helplessly as his painstakingly trained disciple, fresh off a championship victory, publicly abandoned him. "You had your chance, but you didn’t appreciate it. Now, face the consequences of your choice!" Chen Feng possessed the "Master System," a treasure trove of supreme martial arts techniques, capable of molding ordinary individuals into peerless prodigies. "Legs like yours? A shame not to train in the Crippling Kick." "Ever heard of a palm strike that descends from the heavens?" "Auntie! I see extraordinary bone structure in you—a martial arts prodigy, one in ten thousand." The once-defiant senior disciple, now watching her juniors rise to fame one after another, dominating the internet, was consumed by endless regret.
orn and Humiliation】【Forced Love】 In his past life, Lin Ran was betrayed and murdered by his girlfriend and family, while the yandere female aristocrat, who had treated him as a mere plaything, avenged him by doing in his enemies. Upon seeing the yandere female aristocrat lying in the same coffin, ready to die with him, Lin Ran realized how profoundly mistaken he had been. Reborn, he abandoned the fickle campus beauty and wholeheartedly embraced the yandere female aristocrat's arms. "Ran! If I dig out your eyes and turn them into a specimen, you'll only be able to look at me!" Lin Ran: "Darling, kiss me!" "Ran! If I break your legs, you won't run away anymore, right?" Lin Ran: "Love, hold me tight!" "Ran! If..." Lin Ran: "Hush now! Love me more!" Luo Yao: ... Seeing his scumbag dad: "Take him out!" Seeing his stepmother: "Get rid of her!" Seeing his brother: "Eliminate him!" Seeing his white moonlight: "Send that to Southeast Asia!"
Explosive Plot Song Gua crossed over into another world, bringing along a whole crew of his doppelgangers—all of them mischief-makers. This was a world where everyone could choose a class. Song Gua became a "Bondweaver," capable of borrowing power, while his doppelgangers took on a wide variety of classes, covering just about everything. The number of doppelgangers grew day by day, each one a talented individual with a charming way of speaking. Under Song Gua's brilliant leadership, they would "greet" each other daily and engage in friendly "sparring," pulling off one major scheme after another on Earth. Sometimes they were bandits—stealing bosses, plundering mines, snatching resources. Sometimes they were saviors—descending like divine warriors to face world bosses threatening to massacre cities. Sometimes they even went undercover, infiltrating various major factions to stir up trouble from within, keeping their enemies constantly on edge. To prevent their doppelganger abilities from being exposed, Song Gua made them wear masks with mahjong tile patterns and don Taoist robes in various colors. "Remember, in front of outsiders, call me 'The Dice.'" "Got it! Boss!" "Not 'Boss'—it's 'The Dice.' Think about the vibe, pay attention to the vibe." "Yes! Boss!" "For crying out loud..." From then on, whenever they appeared, they would have their own theme song playing: ~Hey~ paying respects at the mountain stronghold at night~ whose arm is draped over whose shoulder~ gather your courage and follow along...
