Chapter 65: Digging Pits

“The twenty-sixth.”

Counting the number silently in his heart, Zuo Zhicheng took Tuoki’s life last, under his desperate gaze.

“The number is indeed twenty-six.” Since the count matched his tally before taking action, the next step was to dispose of the bodies.

No matter the era, after killing someone, making sure the body was never found was the best way to hide the crime. The small grove where Tuoki and the others had brought Zuo Zhicheng was a decent spot for hiding corpses. It was just that their earlier methods had been too unprofessional.

Zuo Zhicheng walked into the bushes and retrieved the shovel he had thrown earlier. Then he started digging pits in the clearing of the grove.

Based on Zuo Zhicheng’s experience, for burying bodies like these, the pit needed to be at least two meters deep. The body that Tuoki had buried, on the other hand, was clearly done hastily—likely not even one meter deep. At such a shallow depth, it could easily be washed out by rain or dug up by animals, and the smell of decay would be easy to detect. In Zuo Zhicheng’s view, this was extremely amateurish.

So, later, Zuo Zhicheng would have to dig another pit for that body to prevent it from being discovered someday and implicating the twenty-six bodies he had just dealt with.

That brought the total to twenty-seven bodies. To be safe, Zuo Zhicheng needed to dig twenty-seven pits, each two meters deep. In his previous life, he might not have been able to finish even in a day and a night. Fortunately, his physical strength had greatly increased now; it had reached a monstrous level, making the digging much easier.

After pushing another body into a pit, Zuo Zhicheng filled the hole, tamped down the soil firmly, and then spread the surrounding weeds back over it.

It looked as if nothing had ever happened.

“It’s been a long time since I last did something like this.”

As he buried the bodies, Zuo Zhicheng couldn’t help but recall his previous life in Mexico City, where he had also transported bodies outside the city with the intention of burying them.

But back then, he had only dug one meter deep when he discovered that the spot he was digging already had a body buried in it.

Back then, he had no choice but to refill the pit and travel fifteen kilometers to dig another for the body. Thinking back now, what had felt frustrating at the time seemed like an amusing memory, Zuo Zhicheng reflected.

After burying the bodies and returning to Xiao Lan’s home, he had to explain that he had been helping at a restaurant washing dishes—an excuse he had been using frequently lately. In fact, he really did go to wash dishes for others a few times recently.

“Big Brother Zuo, you’re working too hard. I think you should stop working so late from now on. You still have to practice martial arts and clean during the day.” Xiao Lan massaged Zuo Zhicheng’s shoulders gently, her voice full of concern. “Are they sore?”

“Not too bad,” Zuo Zhicheng said. “You should go to sleep first. You need to wake up early tomorrow.”

“I’m fine.” Xiao Lan had only stayed up because Zuo Zhicheng had not returned. She yawned and asked, “Big Brother Zuo, are you hungry? Do you want me to make you something to eat?”

Seeing her looking like a sleepy little kitten, forcing herself to stay awake to say this, Zuo Zhicheng ruffled her hair and said, “It’s nothing. I’m tired and will wash up and go to bed. You should go to sleep now too.”

“Okay.” Xiao Lan nodded and yawned again. “Then I’ll go to bed first. Good night, Big Brother Zuo.”

“Good night.”

Thankfully, two months ago, Old Man Song had set sail to go deep-sea fishing, which saved Zuo Zhicheng a lot of explanations.

Even though he had managed to cover up his recent late returns, Zuo Zhicheng still felt it was time to find an opportunity to move out of Xiao Lan’s home. Otherwise, as his activities increased, the risk of exposure would grow, and it might implicate Xiao Lan and her father.

About two hours later, Zuo Zhicheng, like a black ghost, stepped into the night again. He took his usual detour and, after confirming no one was following him, arrived once more at the secret base.

It was the same routine as every day. He first practiced the Authentic Transmission Martial Arts, Northern Peng Hanging Heaven Style, in the yard. He watched as the Purple Innate Qi grew stronger and stronger, tempered by each movement of the Authentic Transmission Martial Arts.

Due to his earlier need to recover from injuries, Zuo Zhicheng had not been able to train properly. Up to now, the proportion of Purple Innate Qi had reached 45%.

After finishing his practice of the Authentic Transmission Martial Arts, he spent half an hour on Nourishing Qi with Vast Righteousness.

No matter the wind or rain, Zuo Zhicheng maintained this daily training routine without fail, witnessing his own strength grow step by step.

In fact, if not for the lack of Spiritual Energy Food, which limited the extent of daily training, Zuo Zhicheng might not have practiced martial arts at the martial arts school during the day. He would have found another way to conceal his identity, just like in the Ancient Tomb, and pushed his training beyond limits every day.

Unfortunately, without Spiritual Energy Food, Zuo Zhicheng’s body had its limits. The training volume every night had basically reached its maximum. Any more would likely lead to overexertion, causing various hidden or internal injuries.

As for information on Spiritual Energy Food, Zuo Zhicheng had inquired extensively in Xinlu Port but still had no leads. It seemed that Spiritual Energy Food in this era was even scarcer than he had imagined.

After finishing his training, Zuo Zhicheng went to the basement, lit an oil lamp, and walked over to the experiment table.

On the table, several blackened containers were placed together, alongside lumps of dark-gray unknown metal.

All these items on the table were daily-use goods Zuo Zhicheng had bought from street stalls. Based on the intelligence he gathered and the tests he conducted, many metal utensils in this era still contained significant amounts of lead.

This was quite normal, just as he had suspected earlier. After all, in Earth’s history, lead had been recognized by humans very early on due to its wide distribution, ease of extraction and processing, high malleability, and low melting point.

It was then used in various everyday items, weapons, gunpowder, and even cosmetics.

It seemed this world was no different—humans had discovered lead early and used it as an alloy element in various metal tools and containers.

The reason Zuo Zhicheng was collecting these items was to extract some lead to make a radiation-proof suit for himself. He intended to use it to prevent Taoist Priests from detecting the presence of Innate Primordial Breath with their Spiritual Energy Vision.

After all, his current coverage of Innate Primordial Breath was quite high. Ordinary people wouldn’t notice it, but anyone trained in Dao Arts using Spiritual Energy Vision would immediately detect his difference.

Moreover, if they had also seen Ghost Fist, they would instantly realize the two were the same person. Although Zuo Zhicheng hadn’t encountered such a situation in the past few months, he started preparing just in case, to plan for the future.

After all, this underground base was originally built for creating such small gadgets.

Day after day passed uneventfully. Zuo Zhicheng followed his own pace, practicing martial arts, making things, helping out at the martial arts school or with Xiao Lan’s small troubles, all while growing stronger bit by bit.

Master Jiang was busy with various matters of the Martial Arts Association. Jiang Qing had also become known to students of other martial arts schools due to the association’s establishment and was being enthusiastically pursued by several people.

Old Man Song had been out at sea and hadn’t returned. Zuo Zhicheng decided to postpone moving out until after Old Man Song came back, so Xiao Lan wouldn’t be left alone and potentially face danger.

Time passed slowly until trouble arrived once again.