Stealthy Theft and Sun-Stealing

Linhe Fang was seething with turmoil, the whole place wearing the look of a storm about to break. Yet Xu Qing, who was inside Linhe Fang, approached life with a live-and-let-live attitude, spending all day haggling over trivial matters.

"Everyone says a martial arts academy is a bottomless pit. You pay silver for martial arts lessons, then have to shell out more for nourishing potions to temper your body. Once you've bought the potions, if you want to learn more profound techniques, you have to top up again."

Over and over, with equal talent, whoever spent more money became stronger.

This model was no different from the flashy, third-rate web games on those gaudy pages he had seen in his previous life!

Looking at himself, he had already spent nearly two hundred taels of silver just to advance to an Ironclad Wandering Corpse. As for the Silver Corpse, the Golden Corpse, and even the higher-level Three Transformations of Crouching Corpse, who knew how much more money he would have to throw into them!

The only consolation was that zombies lived long lives. He could slowly grind out silver and gather the resources needed for all kinds of zombie breakthroughs.

That day, the date he had arranged with the hunter arrived. Xu Qing closed the shop early and went to the East Market, bringing back the animal hides he had been dreaming about.

The hunter had not set up a stall. It seemed he had come to Linhe specifically to wait for Xu Qing, his big customer. Once the money and goods had changed hands, the hunter wrapped himself in his bearskin coat and left the East Market.

When he returned to Jingxia Street, Xu Qing saw several yamen runners in black uniforms loitering outside the Corpse Driver's Shop from afar.

They were all old acquaintances. When Xu Qing reached them, he habitually asked, "You fellows are here to deliver goods again? Let me have a look. The condition's pretty good, and the little fellow's rather presentable. How did he die?"

The leading yamen runner said with a smile, "This unlucky bastard was a notorious thief on the wanted list. Who knows which faction he offended yesterday? Someone slit his throat, and he died in the street. By the time we found him, he was already frozen stiff."

Another Jianghu wanderer who would never return.

Xu Qing shook his head. These days, anyone who went out to roam the Jianghu was living with his head tucked into his waistband. Who knew when he might end up running around bare-assed?

And even dying with a shred of dignity was no easy matter!

After seeing the yamen runners off, Xu Qing casually draped the two animal hides over the coat rack. He then habitually put on his donkey-hide gloves and sprayed his homemade disinfectant over the workbench.

After going through the whole process—raising the corpse and performing the deliverance ritual—the Duren Sutra turned a page.

The entire life of the corpse appeared before him without reservation.

The Jianghu man whose throat had been slit was named Chen Xiaoyi. He was a disciple of the Rong Gate, one of the Eight Dark Gates of the Jianghu.

The so-called Eight Dark Gates referred to the Bee, Hemp, Swallow, Sparrow, Flower, Orchid, Ge, and Rong Gates.

To put it bluntly, the Rong Gate dealt in thievery. But anyone who could call himself a Rong Gate disciple could not be some petty thief who stole chickens and dogs. He had to be a lone, roving bandit!

They did not steal from common folk, nor did they take money from the old, young, sick, or weak. They only robbed people of noble birth or took on jobs involving truly large sums.

That was why people of this sort were also called "High Buyers."

Chen Xiaoyi was a High Buyer of the Rong Gate, and he had a proper lineage to boot. He was the "Hundred Hands" disciple under Thousand Shadow Hand—Pan Qianyin, ranked twenty-first within the gate.

The so-called Hundred Hands was actually a rating system for the abilities of the gate's disciples.

The lowest rank was Ten Hands. It meant that with a single move, the thief's speed could produce the afterimages of ten hands. While you could not tell which hand was real, he would already have stolen your money pouch.

Hundred Hands was the advanced rank. As for Thousand Hands, that was a level reserved for masters. It was said that someone who reached that level could brush past you, steal your underwear, and you would not even know!

Even if your eyesight and physical skills were superb and you noticed something amiss, by the time you turned around to look for trouble, you would neither see nor find the missing underwear.

Why?

Because the instant your underwear went missing, the other party had already put it on and pulled it over his own rear!

Although Chen Xiaoyi did not possess his master Pan Qianyin's skill, he was still one of the higher-ranked Hundred Hands disciples in the gate. Let alone ordinary people—even an inner-refining martial artist with sharp ears and keen eyes would have to lose several taels of silver before leaving his presence!

But then again, could this man really have never slipped up?

Actually, he had!

Just yesterday, Chen Xiaoyi had encountered a man in the street. The man wore the finest Shu brocade and white satin, his white robe soft as the auspicious clouds in the heavens. The jade pendant at his waist was also a top-grade water-jade piece from Yunnan. A wealthy young master like that was practically a walking silver bank!

Since he was already there, he might as well take what was there for the taking. Chen Xiaoyi brushed past the man, seemingly bumping into him by accident, and the other man's jade pendant and money pouch both landed in his hands.

But before he could celebrate, the moment he had passed by, the white-robed young man behind him spoke.

"Your hands are indeed fast. Unfortunately, my sword is faster."

The instant the words left his mouth, Chen Xiaoyi belatedly clutched his throat. Gushing blood poured through the gaps between his fingers as if it cost nothing.

On the brink of death, how could he not understand that he had encountered an expert!

Seeing this, Xu Qing could not help baring his teeth.

But it was not because of Chen Xiaoyi. It was because the one who had drawn his sword was none other than the Tianxin Cult fiend who had once severed Liu Youdao's head!

"This man truly is mercurial, but at least his love of killing has never changed."

Xu Qing made up his mind. If he encountered this white-robed young man in the future, he would give him as wide a berth as possible and absolutely not say a single word to him!

That was because, in his limited impression, the endings of everyone who had crossed paths with this white-robed young man had been less than beautiful.

At the end, the Duren Sutra gave the corpse a grade: Human, mid-grade. The reward was the Thousand Shadow Thievery Technique, Stealthy Theft and Sun-Stealing, Uncovering Boxes and Exploring Pouches.

When the Thousand Shadow Technique was cultivated to its profound depths, its art could reach the divine. Perhaps there really was a chance of stealing the underwear right off someone's body.

Unfortunately, he had only obtained a hundred strands of skill from Chen Xiaoyi. Stealing underwear was unrealistic, but casually taking an earring or hairpin was well within his grasp.

Following the Thousand Shadow Technique's method, Xu Qing moved both hands as if he had pressed an acceleration key. They grew faster and faster. When all the afterimages vanished, he had completely grasped the core of the technique.

As for the Thousand Shadow Technique's other applications, he still needed practical experience.

For example, when stealing an earring, he could use the Stealthy Theft Method. Without touching the other person's hair or skin, he could remove the earring.

For an item like a hairpin, however, he needed to use the Sun-Stealing Method of exchanging one thing for another. He would replace the hairpin with a thin chopstick, swapping the chopstick and hairpin at the instant he accidentally touched the other person. That was Sun-Stealing.

Xu Qing now understood why Chen Xiaoyi had failed. The Tianxin Cult fiend's cultivation was profound. If Chen Xiaoyi had used only the Stealthy Theft Method, the other party would certainly have sensed the sudden weightlessness when his money pouch and jade pendant vanished. But if he used Sun-Stealing, Chen Xiaoyi's hand speed could not keep up.

With such a vast disparity between them, perhaps only the Thief Saint Pan Qianyin himself would have had a chance of succeeding.

After performing the deliverance ritual for the Rong Gate disciple whose throat had been slit, Xu Qing began preparing to refine an Ironclad Wandering Corpse.

Only, unlike ordinary Corpse Drivers who refined zombies, this time he would be refining and nurturing himself!