I Live Forever With My Proficiency

Chapter 8: Ambush

The main point was explained for the entire morning, and many people were getting sleepy.

But Chen Ping listened with great interest.

For those cultivators who were already familiar with the basics, this kind of popular science stuff might be boring, but for Chen Ping, these explanations gave him a comprehensive understanding of the theoretical knowledge of making talisman skins.

Most of what Master Qi talked about was in the books, but there was a difference between reading it and hearing it.

In Chen Ping's previous life, the knowledge in the compulsory education textbooks for nine years was all there, but only a few people could pass the exam for Peking University.

So Chen Ping listened with great enthusiasm.

During the tea break, he didn't miss the opportunity and kept pestering Master Qi with questions, squeezing out as much knowledge as possible from him.

When it came to the practical session in the afternoon, Chen Ping found that his "dissection technique" was indeed very helpful in making talisman skins.

Many things became clear to him.

This made him extremely surprised.

But he didn't show it and continued to study the making of talisman skins diligently, step by step.

Whenever he saw that Master Qi had some free time, he would stop him and ask relevant questions.

"You little brat, can you let me have a sip of tea? I teach five students at a time, and it feels like I spend more time on you than the other four combined," scolded Qi Jianglun.

Chen Ping repeatedly smiled and said, "Master, they are talented and understand with just a little explanation. But I'm different. If I don't clarify the details, I won't be able to learn."

"What's your cultivation level?" Qi Jianglun's face turned dark.

Chen Ping put on a mournful face and said, "Qi Refining, first level. I haven't made any progress for many years."

"No wonder you haven't been able to grasp these simplest principles and techniques," Qi Jianglun said, seemingly pitying Chen Ping. But in his heart, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Just now, he saw Chen Ping asking all sorts of questions, and the angles of his questions were very tricky. He was afraid that Chen Ping would learn everything from him.

Now it seemed that Chen Ping's cultivation level was too low and his aptitude was not good enough to master so much.

"What are you doing? Have you forgotten what I just taught? When picking a hard vein, you should gently lift it without damaging the surrounding skin. After picking it, you should also repair the groove. Otherwise, when drawing talismans later, these grooves will automatically absorb ink, and the talisman skin will be ruined," Qi Jianglun angrily scolded.

He thought, how could there be such a foolish person?

It made him itch with anger.

"After you graduate, don't say you learned from me," Qi Jianglun added.

Chen Ping smiled inwardly. The reason he acted like this was to find out how to fill in the grooves.

When Qi Jianglun was giving the lecture just now, he was evasive about this point.

Obviously, he didn't want to teach it in depth.

Chen Ping took advantage of the situation and said, "Master, how do I repair it?"

Qi Jianglun hesitated for a moment, wanting to evade the question, but since he had already brought it up himself, he felt it wasn't quite right.

He could only vaguely explain the techniques and essentials to Chen Ping.

"You are still a beginner now, and your cultivation level is low. Don't think too much about these things," Qi Jianglun said regretfully after finishing his explanation.

Chen Ping smiled awkwardly and said, "Yes, yes. I'm just a bit curious as a student."

...

After a day of learning, Chen Ping felt that he was about to touch that threshold, but there were still many details and techniques that he needed to extract from Qi Jianglun.

Fortunately, there were still two days left, which was enough time.

Chen Ping returned along the same path from Qi Jianglun's house.

By now, it was already dark.

Chen Ping realized that it was not good to study so late and decided to leave early the next day. It was not safe to walk on the road after dark.

It would be troublesome if he got robbed.

Fortunately, he was overly cautious, and there were no incidents along the way.

He arrived home safely without encountering any danger.

But just as he was about to push open the courtyard gate, Chen Ping's hand paused.

He had a feeling that something was not right.

Has someone been inside?

Chen Ping bent down cautiously, tightly gripping the hilt of his long sword.

He crawled forward, keeping a low profile, and circled to the side and back of Yu Qingyi's house.

After waiting for a while and not hearing any movement, he lightly jumped onto the low courtyard wall at a blind spot of a window in one of the houses. He scanned the surroundings and found that the yard was empty.

Could it be that I'm overthinking?

He quietly leaped into the corner of the courtyard and crawled to the corner of the house.

The front door was not damaged, and the lock was intact.

But the window had been tampered with, and the blade of grass he had deliberately wedged in the gap had fallen out.

Is it a thief?

Or something else?

Could there still be someone inside the house?

Chen Ping remained vigilant in the corner of the wall, motionless, wanting to listen to any movement inside.

But after listening quietly for about half a stick of incense, there was no sound.

Chen Ping breathed a sigh of relief.

If it was just a thief during the day, he wouldn't be too concerned. Valuables were on his person, and the only relatively expensive things at home were the Spirit Rice and the beast meat.

But thieves generally wouldn't break in to steal Spirit Rice and beast meat.

Because they were heavy and not easy to take away silently.

Just as Chen Ping was about to relax his guard, he suddenly heard a faint conversation from inside the house.

Chen Ping's scalp tingled.

His body instantly tensed up.

"Boss, I clearly saw that kid walking over from the street just now. Why hasn't there been any movement for so long? Did I see wrong?" a soft voice said.

"Damn it, did you see wrong?" another voice, rough but equally soft, replied.

If Chen Ping wasn't right under the window outside the wall, he might not have been able to hear it.

"Huh, maybe I saw wrong. It's dark and hard to see clearly," the first voice said.

"You better be more careful and not get caught," the second voice said.

"Boss, don't worry. I only made a small hole in the window. It's impossible to notice from the outside."

After finishing this conversation, the house fell silent again.

Chen Ping suppressed his heartbeat and quickly analyzed the current situation in his mind.

Based solely on these two voices, Chen Ping's first thought was that it was the gang led by the stubble-faced butcher.

The voices matched perfectly.

The way they addressed each other also matched.

Chen Ping just couldn't figure out what they wanted to do and why they targeted him.

Just because he helped He Xianxiang sell meat for a few days?

And now they want to kill me?

While Chen Ping was contemplating, the faint conversation inside resumed.

"Boss, could that person just now be Yu Qingyi coming back?" the voice said.

As soon as this was said, there was a sound of something being knocked over, followed by a low curse.

After a while, the voice of the subordinate came again:

"Boss, no, Yu Qingyi's house doesn't have any lights on."

"Damn it, don't startle me like that, you idiot," the boss of the stubble-faced butcher said, followed by a heavy sigh of relief.

The scene fell silent once again.

Inside, it was silent, and Chen Ping didn't make a sound either. He had the patience to wait for the best opportunity.

Not only that, based on the voices of the several people, he silently calculated their respective positions in his mind, rehearsing how to strike and quickly subdue the enemy.

Until the voices sounded again:

"Boss, do we have a chance to kill this kid?"

"What the hell do you mean? Didn't you find out that he was a servant driven out by the Ning Mansion, with no family or relatives, and only at the Qi Refining stage?" the boss of the stubble-faced butcher said in an annoyed voice.

"That's true, there's no doubt about it," the third voice said. "I'm just worried about He Xianxiang."

"Don't worry about that. He Xianxiang is out on business and won't be back for a few days. By then, this kid will have been chopped into minced meat and sold. Without evidence, how can He Xianxiang pursue it?" the boss of the stubble-faced butcher said.

"That's true. Once you and I learn that set of knife techniques, we can continue selling meat in another city. Won't we be thriving? That set of knife techniques, tsk tsk, I've been selling goods in Cloud Link City for decades and have never seen such exquisite knife techniques."

"Second brother is right. If this kid at the Qi Refining stage can learn it, we can too."

The boss of the stubble-faced butcher's voice rose a notch.

"Damn it, it's me, the boss, who will learn it, not you guys."

"...I know, I know, the boss is right."

"Enough talking, be alert."

(End of this chapter)