My Father, Ren Shanshi, Has the Makings of a Great Emperor

Ren Qing had been delayed a while by the dog carcass. By the time he left the cave dwelling, the woman had already walked out of the shop.

Ren Shanshi stood at the entrance to the back courtyard, watching the woman's retreating figure. At the same time, he held a roughly formed wooden cane, carefully shaving away the splinters on its surface.

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He gazed after her reluctantly for quite some time. But when he turned around, he saw Ren Qing standing behind him.

"Uh, A-Qing, wh... when did you get back?"

"Dad, why didn't you ask her to stay for dinner?" Ren Qing spoke with the air of someone experienced.

A flash of panic crossed Ren Shanshi's face, and he hurriedly explained, "Don't talk nonsense. Your father here accidentally knocked himself about while practicing, leaving myself covered in bruises. I only had Yun Niang help apply some medicated wine."

Ren Qing gave him a brief once-over. His bargain-bin father's chest was indeed covered in bruises, the whites of his eyes streaked with blood, and even his arms could barely bend.

Ren Shanshi went on applying a layer of tung oil to the wooden cane.

"Yun Niang was born with an eye disease and can't see things clearly. I thought, since I had nothing better to do, I'd make her a blind cane. It'll make getting around easier for her."

Seeing his bargain-bin father's coy manner, coupled with the corded muscles he had built through polishing his body and the newly grown full beard on his face, Ren Qing suddenly had the strange illusion of a fine Chengdu man.

He shuddered. Even his Dao heart, tempered through countless trials, had nearly been affected.

The Daoist scriptures had been right after all: women would only affect one's cultivation.

Ren Shanshi set the blind cane out beside the well to dry, then repeatedly cautioned Ren Qing, "There's been no shortage of trouble in the city lately. Be careful whenever you're outside. Some wealthy families have already left the city and abandoned their homes. Sigh, and it's not even peaceful during the New Year."

Leave the city?

Ren Qing looked toward the city gates. Water Mouth City had only one official road leading to Three Rivers Prefecture. Anyone leaving the city now would inevitably run into the tiger demon prefect—who knew how they would die.

Ren Shanshi lowered himself into a horse stance and stood his post, lightly slapping his skin to absorb the medicated wine.

"Yun Niang has no children. She usually mends clothes at the Black River Martial Arts Hall. Just now, she even suggested we move into the martial arts hall too, so we could look out for each other..."

"But after thinking it over, I figured we'd better forget it."

"Why did you turn her down?" Ren Qing studied Ren Shanshi intently.

"At least here in the shop, we can make a few coffins and earn some silver. If we went to the martial arts hall, your old man and I wouldn't have any other livelihood. What, would we live under someone else's roof?"

Ren Qing asked about the recent situation. "How is Wish-Fulfillment Abbey now? Did something happen there a while ago?"

"I'm not too sure about the details. I only know that plenty of people still go there every day to offer incense. Some say they replaced the immortal statue they worship in the abbey, and that it seems even more efficacious now."

During Ren Qing's seclusion, there had only been one or two Black Rat Dao Children outside.

They had replaced the immortal statue. Could it be that some unorthodox cultivator had taken advantage of Song Baizhou's death to occupy the magpie's nest?

Slap! Slap! Slap!

Ren Shanshi's movements grew broader as both arms continuously struck different parts of his body, especially his chest.

Ren Qing frowned slightly. He could sense that his bargain-bin father already had hidden injuries inside him. "Dad, training needs to proceed step by step too. You're injured this badly—rest for a few days first."

Ren Shanshi chuckled twice, but his eyes darted away, not daring to look at Ren Qing.

"A-Qing, besides the Iron Body Art, I got another external martial art from the hall that tempers the internal organs. Practicing them together means a few minor injuries are inevitable. It's nothing."

Ren Shanshi sighed. It was not because of Yun Niang that he had begun striving with such diligence.

Rather, he himself felt a sense of crisis. He even vaguely sensed that the disasters occurring in the city were becoming increasingly sinister. Leaving their homeland might well be unavoidable.

A-Qing had been frail since childhood, and Yun Niang had a congenital ailment as well.

Since I still have some talent for martial arts, how can I slack off in the slightest?

With that thought, Ren Shanshi endured the discomfort and continued pounding his chest. Before he knew it, bloody fluid was flowing from his nose and mouth, while the bloodshot whites of his eyes worsened.

Ren Qing shook his head slightly. A sweep of his divine sense revealed papers tucked into his bargain-bin father's clothes, recording an external martial art called the Inner Strength Art, which tempered the internal organs.

Its principle was to transmit external force into the five viscera and six bowels, supplemented by a specific medicated wine, making the organs tougher.

But the drawbacks of the Inner Strength Art were plain to see.

At the intensity with which Ren Shanshi trained, even if he survived by luck, he would lose thirty or forty years of his lifespan. Even if he began training only once every ten days or half a month from now on, he still could not avoid hidden injuries to his five viscera and six bowels.

Naturally, Ren Qing would not stand by and watch his father cultivate himself to death with a miraculous Dao medicine.

Just as he was about to project his divine sense and influence Ren Shanshi, he suddenly remembered something. A wisp of cloud qi silently entered Ren Shanshi's body, spreading through his entire body with his blood.

Ren Shanshi seemed to sense the anomaly. As he sank his waist and settled into a horse stance, the wind of his fists gradually rose.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Though each move was still somewhat raw, his fists grew heavier and heavier.

At first, Ren Qing's expression remained calm. But as Ren Shanshi received the cloud qi's enhancement, his fists stirred up gusts of wind, and his feet stamped a pit into the ground. Ren Qing could not help revealing a faint, almost imperceptible smile.

"A-Qing, the instructor said your father has outstanding talent for standing post, but that when it comes to fighting techniques, I've got a head of elmwood. Looking at it now, I'm not bad either."

Not bad?

With cloud qi empowering him, what need was there for any technique when throwing a punch?

Ren Qing then released another wisp of water qi.

Ren Shanshi staggered. The water qi immediately gathered toward the injuries within his body. The bruises faded at a visible rate, and the stabbing pain in his five viscera and six bowels disappeared.

"Qing, with the Inner Strength Art, you really have to be ruthless with yourself. Once you tough it out through the initial stretch, what discomfort could there be in the five viscera and six bowels? It only gets more and more comfortable!!"

Once Ren Shanshi's Nanfu battery was fully charged, he became even less human. He picked up the wooden mallet used for making coffins and, laughing uproariously, hammered his abdomen with all his might.

Ren Qing's eye twitched. It was a long while before his bargain-bin father finally calmed down again.

He hesitated slightly over whether to keep charging Ren Shanshi.

At Ren Shanshi's current rate of consumption, it would more or less affect his cultivation of the Vapor-Feeding Immortal Art.

Just then.

Ren Shanshi finished circulating his art and exhaled a stream of white vapor.

"Hm?"

Mixed within the white vapor were three wisps of heaven-and-earth breath, which actually took the initiative to return to Ren Qing's Imperial Court Scroll.

Ren Qing's blood and qi immediately surged. His five viscera and six bowels gave off a faint hum, his bones crackled, and after a brief bout of muscle soreness, his body swiftly returned to normal.

"Qing?"

Coming back to his senses, Ren Shanshi hurriedly looked toward his youngest son.

Ren Qing stretched his limbs. His strength had clearly increased, and his five viscera and six bowels had grown tougher as well.

Hiss.

Put simply.

While he helped his bargain-bin father recharge, any progress Ren Shanshi made in martial arts would allow heaven-and-earth breath to feed back into him. And because of the Imperial Court Scroll, he could practically replicate it perfectly at a one-to-one ratio.

As a true orthodox immortal of the Daoist path, there was little point in Ren Qing spending his energy practicing martial arts and holding stances.

But if he could temper his body just by going AFK, no one would turn that down.

"Qing, you..."

Noticing Ren Qing staring at him without blinking, Ren Shanshi could not help feeling a little ashamed. "Your father really has been putting the cart before the horse with martial arts lately. Don't worry, I'll definitely mind my limits from now on. The coffin shop's business will..."

"Dad, since you have talent for martial arts, you absolutely mustn't let it go to waste."

The more Ren Qing looked at his bargain-bin father, the more gratified he felt; the more he looked, the more moved he became. He even felt that Ren Shanshi's prospects on the martial path were boundless.

My son...

No, my father Ren Shanshi has the makings of a Great Emperor.