Chapter 385 - 68_4

Words : 1532 Updated : Oct 11th, 2025

Chapter 385: Chapter 68_4"Or, have you considered staying here a little longer? For example, stay for a month, so you can at least ensure mastering one technique." "It’s okay, just teach me." "Then I’ll list all twelve techniques, and you choose one for us to get familiar with tonight?" "No need, just start from the first one." "Oh... alright then." At first, even though he knew the other party was from the Liu family, the old man still thought the boy was crazy, his ambitions higher than the sky. But as he taught, he realized that he was actually the frog in the well. For each technique, he would describe it once, then demonstrate it, and lastly give some pointers. The boy sat on the chair, pondered for a while, then managed to use it; the first attempt was awkward, the second smooth, and the third perfect. The second, the third... all were like this. Midway, he even began to suspect that the other party had already learned the Yin family’s Underworld techniques and came here pretending, just to verify, but he soon dismissed this thought. Because for the last three techniques, he himself did not know how to perform them, he could only repeat the ancestral teachings and points of caution to the boy without demonstration. The boy still did the same, sat on the chair and thought for a while, then started analyzing with him: based on the preceding nine techniques following the same lineage, should the next step be this way or that, and where the crucial points lie. And then, the boy just did it. After performing, he even taught it back to him, asking him to try and practice. Unnoticed, the roles of teacher and student had reversed. The old man never dreamed that one day, someone would come to impart his family’s ancestral techniques to him; it was truly absurd, but the reality was right in front of him, undeniable. What was even more crushing was that after mastering them, the boy broke them down further, explained them in detail, resulting in significant insights for him, deepening his understanding, yet he still couldn’t perform them immediately. By the time the boy had learned everything, it was still dark outside, still some time until the rooster’s crow. The old man felt frustrated; he slumped against the wall, looking at the still vibrant boy and exclaimed, "No wonder you’re from the Liu family." To this, Li Zhiyuan merely smiled; to him, this was really just basic stuff, like reviewing foundational concepts he had skipped earlier. "It’s like being liberated now. If it were the old days, once you grew up, you would definitely be a major figure who could command the winds and the rains." "Old master, was the Liu family really powerful before?" After finishing his learning, Li Zhiyuan was actually willing to chat, especially about the stories of the Liu family from before. "Listen to you, there used to be a saying on the river surface, ’The river is the court, Water Transport Gang is iron-forged.’ Many of the famous bosses of the Water Transport Gang were just like the Dragon King figures of the Liu family, pushed to the foreground as minor deities. Back then, the only family that could match the Liu family in reputation was the Qin family. Such major families didn’t care about those trivial matters on the river surface; they were more focused on the secrets beneath the river, that’s where their real strength lay." "Old master, you know a lot." "Ha, there are many passengers from all over in this place, and I used to like making friends and showing off in my early years. It’s almost dawn, you should rest now; actually, I’m exhausted too, haha." "Mm." Li Zhiyuan nodded, "Just two guests today?" "Yes, that’s right." The first guest had entered right when the doors opened, the second guest came in the middle of teaching. "But, the second guest didn’t pay." "What?" The old man was taken aback, he remembered that the boy had his eyes closed in contemplation then, but still noticed this issue, and immediately explained, "The deal didn’t go through, naturally, there was no need for payment." "The deal didn’t go through? But after the second guest left, your complexion immediately turned very bad." "I’m just tired, really, haven’t worked this hard in a long time." "You said they were all basics, and demonstration of the first nine techniques, even if repeated, was just a small effort. So, old master, was it really because you were tired, or because you gave a big chunk of your lifespan to the second guest?" "You’re joking, haha." "I can read faces; you are nearing your end." "You..." "Is it inconvenient to say?" "I’m too ashamed to speak." The old man lowered his head, stroking his face with his hand, half in shame and half in fear. The boy, who had obviously noticed earlier, had waited until he had finished teaching all the Twelve Techniques before bringing this up. This mindset and temperament were truly terrifying. "Then let’s not talk about it." Li Zhiyuan raised his hand to snap his fingers to end the Underworld task; today had taken a bit too long. He felt that he should sleep until noon; luckily, it wouldn’t delay the afternoon boat. "Let’s just say it, I’m afraid if you leave late in the day, you will still find out." "I will find out?" "My son is dead." "Yin Meng said, after her parents divorced, her dad went to work in the south, and then there was no news from him." "I originally thought that he couldn’t bear the shock of the divorce and immediately ran to the south alone, abandoning his daughter and this family." "What’s the truth?" "He’s dead." "Dead?" "He disagreed with the divorce. The woman, along with the man she has now married, killed him, and his body was dumped at the bottom of West Bay." "How did they get divorced?" "In our small place, the rules might be stricter now, but in the past, to marry, you just needed to hold a ceremony, there was no need to register it. If you needed the certificate later, you could just get it then. Divorce was even simpler, just returning to one’s own home was considered a divorce. At that time, he left a letter, claiming he was useless, a waste who couldn’t even keep his wife, ashamed to stay at home, he went to work in the south to make something of himself, and to not worry about him. The man was already dead by then, and the letter was forged." "Didn’t you ever suspect?" seaʀᴄh thё NôvelFire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I’m stupid, I really never suspected." "Who told you?" "He came back himself, last month, during the temple fair. He returned home and told me himself. Because they were repairing the bridge near West Bay, digging the foundation had uncovered his remains. It had been so long that the police couldn’t investigate it. I’m furious, so I plan to..." "I’m tired, my head hurts." "Huh?" "Let’s not talk anymore, I’m going to sleep." After waking up, he really had slept until midday. Li Zhiyuan climbed out from the coffin, while Run Sheng was holding a cloth, helping to wipe the counter. Seeing Xiao Yuan awake, he immediately went inside the room to wake up Tan Wenbin, who was also still sound asleep. "Hey, you really can sleep," Yin Meng said smiling. "Uh-huh," Li Zhiyuan responded. Tan Wenbin rubbing his eyes came out, and right in the midday, he directly shouted: "Yin Meng, your grandfather isn’t dead, right?" "Of course he isn’t dead, I never said he died yesterday, he just had a cerebral infarction and hasn’t woken up." "Is that so? Didn’t you say that yesterday?" Tan Wenbin recalled carefully. Li Zhiyuan: "She didn’t say that." But the implication, inside and out, was almost like the grandfather was dead, although, it was indeed almost the same. Tan Wenbin immediately apologized with a smile: "Oops, sorry about that, hehe, I was mistaken." Yin Meng said: "Are we eating lunch? I’ll make it." Li Zhiyuan: "Let’s eat out." The pig’s feet from last night still left a bit of a shadow. At this moment, two boys walked into the store from outside, looking to be just two or three years older than Li Zhiyuan, with red eyes they ran inside. "Sis, sis." "Sis." The two boys shouted for sister Yin Meng as soon as they came in. "Who are they?" Tan Wenbin asked. "They were born to my mom later." "How come they seem close to you?" "Uh, when they occasionally come to the county town, I would buy them some food and give them some pocket money." Tan Wenbin: "You’re actually quite nice." "Really?" "As nice as if your brain was waterlogged." At that moment, the two boys came running over, hugging Yin Meng and crying: "Wuu wuu wuu, sis, it’s terrible, both our mom and dad drowned in the pond this morning!"

Chapter 385 - 68_4

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