Staying Alive Cautiously in the Celestial Realm and Becoming the Strongest

"Who could have expected this? No matter how tough things get, one shouldn\'t choose such a desperate exit!"

"Gambling truly brings death!"

"Poor Hu, so young, and Old Zhu and his wife were such good people, this world…"

The neighbors gathered at Zhu\'s doorstep were abuzz with conversation, their words full of regret, sympathy, and helplessness.

Many had watched Zhu Xiaohu grow up, and they had a good relationship with Uncle Zhu and his wife; witnessing the tragic demise of the entire family left everyone with a heavy heart.

At that moment, a man dressed in plain clothes hurried over.

His face was flushed with excitement and agitation, shouting, "Hu, Hu!"

The man in plain clothes shouted so loudly that he immediately attracted everyone\'s attention.

All eyes turned to him!

Feeling inexplicably guilty, the man stopped in his tracks and asked, "What happened?"

A neighbor queried back, "Zhong, you\'re looking for Hu?"

This man in plain clothes was not old; he and Zhu Xiaohu had been friends since childhood and shared a very close relationship.

And everyone knew him.

"Yes."

Zhong touched his head and stammered in reply, "I came to tell him some good news, Happy Gambling House was raided last night, many people from the Three Rivers Association died, Duan Laosi who came to collect the debt yesterday is dead too!"

"What?"

The neighbors could hardly believe their ears.

Some of them had sensed some disturbances last night but didn\'t know what had happened, and news around here was relatively isolated, so they had just found out.

"Of course it\'s true!"

Zhong nodded vigorously: "The entire Happy Gambling House was burned down, I saw it with my own eyes, and then I heard others say that Duan Laosi is dead, the vice president of the Three Rivers Association is dead too."

He relished the schadenfreude: "This is what they call \'good begets good, evil begets evil, the wheel of karma turns, and justice is clear\'!"

The neighbors looked at each other, unsure what to say.

Only then did Zhong realize, "Why are you all gathered here? Have you seen Hu?"

The neighbor he was talking to sighed, "Dead, Hu is dead, Old Zhu and his wife too, they severed their own meridians last night, we just found them."

Zhong was stunned.

His lips trembled a few times, he wanted to say something but was unable to speak.

Then he clenched his fists and hit himself several times.

He crouched down on the ground.

Some onlookers shook their heads, dispersing with mixed emotions.

Hou Zheng also quietly slipped away from the crowd.

He walked through the long alley, turned a corner, and arrived in front of a dilapidated small house.

Looking around, Hou Zheng opened the lock and slipped inside.

As quickly as possible, he closed the door and bolted it, his thin face breaking into a schadenfreudian smile.

"Good, good, a good death!"

Hou Zheng vigorously slapped his thigh, his mouth splitting into a grin that almost reached his ears.

This Qi Cultivator of the third level eagerly pulled over a small table and took out a pot of liquor and a packet of side dishes from the ragged Storage Bag, beginning to drink and eat with delight.

The liquor was fermented rice beer, and the dish was pickled vegetables from leftovers.

But Hou Zheng drank with great joy and relish, and ate with gusto.

Like Zhu Xiaohu, he owed Happy Gambling House many Spirit Stones, part of which were lost gambling, and the rest accumulated due to high interest rates.

To pay off his debts, Hou Zheng had no choice but to sell his ancestral home and rent this rundown little room to live in.

But his gambling debts did not get cleared; instead, they continued to grow over time.

So Hou Zheng hated the Happy Gambling House, and the Three Rivers Association that owned it, more than anyone else!

That\'s why, when he had just heard that the Happy Gambling House was swept away and burned to the ground, and that the Three Rivers Association had fallen on hard times, his heart was filled with joy, but he cautiously ran back home to celebrate.

"Duan Laosi, oh Duan Laosi!"

Hou Zheng\'s drinking became more jovial, "Who would have thought you would have such a day, serves you right!"

He didn\'t use mana to sober up, his face glowing with a bloody light under the illumination of the luminous stone lamps, his eyes gradually becoming blurry as he alternately muttered to himself and cursed loudly.

By this time, it had become completely dark outside, and Hou Zheng\'s drinking intensified, nearly finishing a jar of strong liquor.

Suddenly, he sensed something strange and subconsciously turned his head to look at the window.

The window was half-open, and a person stood outside, staring blankly at Hou Zheng.

Zhu Xiaohu!

Once Hou Zheng recognized the face, most of his drunkenness dissipated in an instant, and he couldn\'t help but cry out.

Zhu Xiaohu\'s complexion was deathly pale, his eyes hollow and bleeding tears, like a soul reaper from hell.

He just stared straight at Hou Zheng, and the temperature in the room seemed to drop to freezing point.

In a panic, Hou Zheng fumbled for an Evil-Repelling Talisman from his Storage Bag, but as soon as he infused mana into it, the Storage Bag, despised by even the debt-collectors, tore open with a "hiss," scattering all the messy items inside.

The Storage Bag, most commonly used by cultivators, has durability; the longer it\'s used and the more it\'s used, the more it wears and eventually falls apart completely.

The few Spirit Stones that Hou Zheng usually earned were spent on food, drink, gambling, or repaying debts, so he could not afford to replace his Storage Bag with a new one, and now, after his long-term mistreatment, it had reached the end of its life.

"Damn it!"

Hou Zheng cursed, and quickly abandoned the damaged Storage Bag, crouching down to rummage for talismans among the clutter.

In the end, he found not a single Evil-Repelling Talisman!

Hou Zheng\'s hands trembled involuntarily, and he eventually grasped a rusty dagger.

A cultivator could still fend off Evil Wraiths with their own blood essence in the absence of Evil-Repelling Talismans.

But when Hou Zheng stood up again, he found that the window was now empty, Zhu Xiaohu\'s figure nowhere to be seen.

However, Hou Zheng did not feel the slightest bit relieved.

The hairs on his back and neck stood on end, beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and his teeth chattered uncontrollably.

The cultivator looked down and saw his shadow on the ground was distorting continuously!

"Hu..."

Hou Zheng squeezed out a smile uglier than crying and said, "Misfortune has its root, debt its owner. It\'s the Happy Gambling House, the Three Rivers Association that harmed you, it has nothing to do with me!"

How could it have nothing to do with him!

Zhu Xiaohu had stepped through the doors of the Happy Gambling House due to Hou Zheng\'s instigation and enticement.

Hou Zheng wasn\'t the main culprit behind the Zhu family\'s tragedy, but he was an accomplice!

He had pulled Zhu Xiaohu into the water, and he himself benefitted from it.

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So, these few sentences were spoken without any confidence, betraying immense guilt.

"Ah!"

As soon as Hou Zheng\'s words fell, he suddenly jumped up, flailing his limbs wildly, his entire face completely contorted.

The cultivator crashed heavily to the ground, rolling and struggling desperately, slapping his face fiercely.

After thrashing around for almost the time it took to burn a stick of incense, Hou Zheng lay on the ground like a limp dog, motionless.

After a while, he slowly lifted his head again.

With an entirely different face.

A simple and honest countenance!

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Here is the first update.