Kill Me More Times, Chapter 253:

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Two dark shadows, one in front and one behind, were swiftly moving across the eaves, light and agile like swallows.

Even in broad daylight, these two shadows were so fast that ordinary people could hardly see them clearly.

Qiao Mu followed behind, watching the agile and nimble Impermanent Demon Cat ahead, feeling surprised.

This cat, with its belly almost touching the ground, how could it still be so flexible and fast.

After eighty years of practicing the Heavenly Dragon Eight Steps in his dreams, Qiao Mu had achieved a basic level of proficiency and could now leap like a fish, reaching heights of tens of ters.

At this stage of lightness skill, Qiao Mu could easily move across roofs and walls, effortlessly walking on overhangs, cliffs, or rivers as if they were flat ground.

Although he had taken King Qin’s body before leaving, carrying the heavy Blazing Essence Gold King Qin Sword in his hand did affect his lightness skill.

However, this fat cat was not slow either, continuing to lead the way ahead.

Qiao Mu’s mind sank into the Ouroboros Long Life Lock, and a ssage imdiately appeared in his heart.

Death Assessnt this ti: A (fighting against many using martial arts to defeat immortals).

Lifespan consud by death: 80 years (16*5).

Remaining resurrection chances this week: 2 out of 5.

Current age: 375 years old.

Vitality: 65%.

Skills: basic.

Agility—Heavenly Dragon Eight Steps (leaping like a fish, basic proficiency).

Strength—Iron Head Skill (mastered) Iron Palm (advanced) Dragon Tiger Vajra Skill (basic proficiency).

Power Burst Technique – Red Moon Burning Blood Technique (Perfected) and Blood Sword Technique (Great Achievent)

…………..

In this life, Qiao Mu chose to practice several tough skills from the martial arts arsenal of the lonely city. He practiced skills like Iron Head Skill and Iron Palm to perfection and great achievent levels during the long years of training. ??

Qiao Mu is also familiar with the techniques of the "Human Path Sutra" and the "Pure Yang Wuji Skill". However, mastering the "Human Path Sutra" takes a long ti for ordinary martial artists.

Qiao Mu has reached the seventh level. Continuing to train further, although the increase in qi and blood seems to be only 5%, it doesn’t an that Qiao Mu’s total qi and blood has only increased by 5%.

There is a difference between soone who is 295 years old with 60% and soone who is 375 years old with 65%.

"Following the practice principles of the ‘Human Path Sutra’, by the ti I reach the eighth level, I should be around 508 years old. By then, the breakthrough in martial arts will likely lead to a significant increase in qi and blood."

The percentage of qi and blood actually asures the proportion compared to the body’s pri period, which is the ratio of qi and blood during youth and adulthood.

If one day Qiao Mu’s blood reaches the ideal 100%, it ans his body will be as strong as when he was a young adult, as if hundreds of years have passed without any harm. It’s like an old tree getting a new lease on life.

Thinking this, Qiao Mu quickly climbed up onto the city wall and left the Great Qin City.

The Impermanent Demon Cat sniffed the air carefully, then continued chasing after the direction of the forest outside the city.

It could sense deathly energy, but as a demon cat, its other senses were also excellent.

As Qiao Mu chased after it, a faint mist appeared in the small forest on the hillside.

Normally, at this ti of the afternoon with the sun shining brightly, there shouldn’t be any mist.

Qiao Mu sensed sothing strange but didn’t look back and kept walking at the sa pace.

Co on, he was super brave, why would he chicken out?

Qiao Mu just called out to the demon cat leading the way, placed it on his shoulder, and walked into the thin mist.

In the dark depths of the forest on the hillside.

Dao Zhen stared at where Qiao Mu was, his eyes shimring.

In his palm, a small sword only two fingers long slowly rotated, with tiny runic symbols like tadpoles flowing on its blade.

His most precious two treasures, the Xiaojian Sword and the Heart Demon Mirror, were gifted by Master Elder Qingyi.

The Xiaojian Sword was granted after forming the Golden Core, while the Heart Demon Mirror had been with him for decades.

However, both the Xiaojian Sword and the Heart Demon Mirror were not only used for fighting.

When not activated, the Xiaojian Sword was only two fingers long; using it as a flying sword was underutilizing its potential.

The Xiaojian Sword could multiply into a thousand, as long as one infused it with power, inscribed runes on the main sword, and created a thousand identical swords with the sa runes inscribed on them.

Formation deploynt using the Xiaojian Sword was one of its abilities but consud a considerable amount of power.

As for the Heart Demon Mirror, its na derived from inner demons, and it was not just a simple mirror for replicating images.

Today, Dao Zhen is setting up a magical formation using the Heart Demon Mirror as the foundation and the Xiaojian Sword as part of the formation.

Dao Zhen enjoys watching brave ordinary people, including mbers of the Qiao family.

He has been observing the mbers of the Qiao family for a long ti, witnessing the deaths of many of them, and even having killed an Qiao Miao himself.

"Let’s see, if it’s a mber of the Qiao family, what choices will they make in the magical illusion of the Heart Demon…" Dao Zhen said to himself calmly.

There was no complex expression in his eyes, only the usual curiosity, as innocent as a child.

The mist in the small forest beca thicker and thicker.

………………..

Qiao Mu held the King Qin Sword in his hand, with a cat that sucked people’s blood on his shoulder, stepping into the misty small forest.

Although he didn’t like death, he wasn’t afraid of it to the point of running away.

"If it’s here, then accept it."

"Since you’re here, let’s bury my body here. The scenery is beautiful here."

Qiao Mu walked into the thin fog, the view suddenly cleared, revealing a village ahead, and in the deep desert, there was a city.

"Is there a desert in the depths of the forest?" Qiao Mu’s mind was a bit confused at first, but he quickly sensed sothing strange and beca alert.

In the ti of just a few breaths, he found himself inside an old city deep in the desert.

This familiar old city was the lonely city in the Hundred-mile Desert.

"This feels like a dream." Qiao Mu looked at his hands.

The King Qin Sword in his hand was gone, the vampire cat disappeared without a trace, and even his own body had turned into that of a young boy of around ten, much shorter than before.

In the dream, he was not Qiao Mu but a strange young boy.

"Ah Zhen, why are you wandering around? Don’t run around during wars, don’t cause trouble." A woman holding Qiao Mu’s hand walked through the streets.

The woman had a round face, slightly plump, and was dressed in red silk, clearly not from an ordinary family.

"Let’s go ho."

"Really?"

Qiao Mu was slightly surprised.

He had heard from Storyteller Clairvoyance that Dao Zhen’s real na was Gu Zhen.

So in this dream, he was playing the role of young Dao Zhen? What was going on?

Is this an illusion created by magical ans? A dream?

Qiao Mu couldn’t figure it out, and didn’t want to. Whatever tricks Dao Zhen pulled, he would just go along with it.

The dream struck Qiao Mu’s surfboard just right. As soone who had spent over three hundred years in dreams, no one understood dreaming better than him. So, he knew how to stay awake in a hazy dream and have a lucid dream.

At this mont, he was feeling brave and daring, not trying to stay awake but letting himself get lost in the dream, as if he had truly beco a child nad Dao Zhen.

Then, a blurry mory ca to mind.

At this ti, his real na was Gu Zhen, a local born in a lonely town.

Gu Zhen’s father was a local landlord with a hundred acres of good farmland. After taking over the family business, he also beca a rice rchant, managing the business quite well, thriving in recent years and expanding his business.

Even though his business was thriving, during these years when cultivators appeared in the world, he had also led efforts to open up granaries to help during disasters, earning a good reputation in the city.

Gu Zhen’s mother was also a wealthy local, with the family’s influence even greater before Gu Zhen’s father beca successful.

In addition to his parents, Dao Zhen had a middle-aged older brother who was a sowhat famous martial artist in the city, skilled in dancing with a spear and stick. He joined the army after the town was besieged.

Gu Zhen’s mother guided Dao Zhen through winding streets and alleys, leading him to the main road at the city gate.

At this mont, there were many people on the main road, with many citizens stopping at the street corner, craning their necks in anticipation.

Qiao Mu followed their gaze and saw the gates of the solitary city wide open, with a group of soldiers in blood-stained armor walking in from outside the gates.

Leading them was a middle-aged general riding a tall horse, with sharp eyes and a noble appearance mixed with a scholarly air.

Despite his good looks, he was already half covered in blood at this mont, showing clear signs of fatigue in his expression, indicating that the battle just fought was far from optimistic.

The soldiers in front were stained in blood, while the rear carried bodies in horse-drawn carriages, their faces covered with white cloth.

"This ti, even fewer soldiers have returned," remarked a passerby sorrowfully.

"After all, they are fighting against immortals, how could mortals possibly stand a chance against them… They must pay the price."

"Though they have died, they all died as heroes…"

The Hundred-mile Desert had ford for two to three years now, while the remnants of the Great Yan army had been trapped in this city for two to three years.

"Stop looking." As Qiao Mu stared at the corpse on the carriage, Gu Zhen’s mother reached out and turned his head back.

"How did you all co here?" Among the soldiers, a young man took off his helt and looked at Dao Zhen and his mother. He was Dao Zhen’s older brother.

"Ca to see when you would die." The woman visibly relaxed, but there was still no kindness in her words when she saw the young man.

"Don’t co here again in the future." The older brother of the Gu family spoke in a low voice.

He was full of spirit, but the thought of his own grueso body being brought back if he died was unbearable to him.

The scene changed, and in the blink of an eye, they were already inside the Gu family’s ho.

Dao Zhen squatted in the courtyard, playing with ants with a straw. But then he heard his parents arguing inside the house.

"Still dividing the grain? Haven’t we already received enough in our family?" Gu Zhen’s father spoke, clearly getting a bit worked up.

"We are businessn. Distributing grain for disaster relief earns us so face, so reputation. Gu family has already done enough, what more do you want?"

Gu Zhen’s mother’s voice said, "Don’t we still have three full granaries at ho?"

"Sending so food to the garrison is not too much. Do you think we are dying for soone? Every ti the garrison goes out to fight, there are many casualties."

Gu Zhen’s father beca angry, "Are you trying to act like a saint here? If we give away the food, what will happen to our family?"

Gu Zhen’s mother replied, "We still have three granaries, and there are only a few of us here. It’s okay to give away a small portion, I’m not asking you to give away all of our family’s food."

Gu Zhen’s father beca even more upset, "It’s not your family’s food, and you don’t feel sorry for giving it away? The land outside the city has turned into a desert, how much of our ancestors’ hundred acres of good farmland is left to cultivate? This city has been besieged for two or three years, the food in the city is decreasing day by day, sooner or later we will face famine, I am just preparing for the worst."

"If this city continues to be besieged, money will soon be useless, food is the real currency, I am setting aside a family fortune for our old family. Many families have fallen in troubled tis, but we are not wealthy enough to be in that position yet."

As a landlord who built up a successful business as a rice rchant, Gu Zhen’s father had foresight… but this city was not experiencing ordinary unrest, it had been completely cut off from the outside world. No matter how much food he had, it couldn’t be exchanged for wealth, and even if it could, it would be aningless.

Gu Zhen’s mother argued back, "How can soldiers fight on empty stomachs? If the garrison can’t hold on, will we still survive? Your eldest son is also a soldier, why don’t you think about that?"

Gu Zhen’s father’s face stiffened, but he continued to argue:

"These grains are grown in our fields, which have been passed down from our ancestors. They belong to our family. Why should we give them away for free?"

Gu Zhen’s father and mother stopped arguing when they noticed Dao Zhen, the two brothers, standing at the door.

The argunt ca to a sudden stop.

"Father, didn’t you donate grains to help during disasters in the past years? Why are you being selfish today?" Gu Zhen’s older brother looked disappointed.

He thought their father was a kind rchant, a "great philanthropist