Chapter 140: Chapter 129: Cramming

Zou Feng took the two manuals. They were the ones he had just chosen: the *Ghostly Shadow Mysterious Step* and the *Mountain-breaking Palm*.

The names of these two Cultivation Skills weren’t very impressive. In fact, you could even say they were tacky.

And in reality, they were.

The *Ghostly Shadow Mysterious Step* primarily used quick, shuffling steps to create afterimages and confuse the opponent.

But it was too flashy. Against a strong enemy, you’d often fail to confuse them and just end up exhausting yourself.

As for the *Mountain-breaking Palm*, its power was actually decent. It focused on Gathering Strength and Charging Power to deliver a heavy, mighty palm strike.

However, its flaw was obvious: it was too slow. The moves were straightforward and direct, with no subtlety to speak of.

So what if it was powerful? If it couldn’t hit the target, it was useless.

Therefore, this Skill usually had to be paired with a sharp Body Skill to be effective in actual combat.

But learning a new Body Skill just for this one technique was like building an entire restaurant for a single dish—clearly not worth it.

But Zou Feng hadn’t chosen these two Cultivation Skills at random.

He was certain they could genuinely increase his combat power in a short amount of time.

The reason was simple.

The *Ghostly Shadow Mysterious Step* could be fused with the *Drunken Immortal Moon Gazing Step*, and the *Mountain-breaking Palm* could be fused with the *Great Universal Hand*.

Of course, he wasn’t one hundred percent sure the fusions would work, but it was definitely worth a try.

If not for this, he would have no reason to practice these Low Grade Evil Skills.

For example, even if he mastered the *Mountain-breaking Palm* to the Peak Realm, he would still only use his *Five Poison Skill Fire Lotus Skill* when fighting a strong opponent.

The *Five Poison Fire Lotus Skill* was a Fusion Skill Zou Feng had created himself. After extensive refinement, testing, and the integration of numerous Exotic Poisons, its power was maxed out!

Therefore, even if two Cultivation Skills were at the same Realm, their power could still differ—just like how Martial Artists of the same Realm could belong to completely different tiers.

Not to mention, a Low Grade Evil Skill like the *Mountain-breaking Palm* probably didn’t even have the potential to be cultivated to the Peak Realm, unless one found a way to improve it themselves.

All in all, with Zou Feng’s current strength, it wasn’t that he couldn’t practice Low Grade Evil Skills. But he had to be selective and find Cultivation Skills that truly suited him.

Otherwise, it would be a complete fucking waste of time.

This time, although he had chosen to cultivate the *Mountain-breaking Palm* and the *Ghostly Shadow Mysterious Step* based on the theoretical possibility of fusion, he would only know for sure after trying.

“By the way, I heard that a distinguished guest seems to have arrived in Yuan Guang County Town recently…”

“A distinguished guest?”

“Mhm, I don’t know the specifics, but when this person arrived, Magistrate Huang supposedly went out of the city to welcome them personally.”

Zou Feng, however, had no desire to pay attention to such matters. He was already completely overwhelmed. “It doesn’t matter. Yuan Guang County is chaotic enough as it is.”

“No matter how distinguished they are, they’ll probably have to tuck their tail and run when faced with the clash between the Ten Directions Sect and the Celestial Essence Sword Sect.”

Neither the Ten Directions Sect nor the Celestial Essence Sword Sect had yet to publicly announce that they had Gang Qi Realm masters overseeing things.

For now, only Zou Feng and Wang Xingjian, the two survivors of the Immortal Treasure incident, knew the truth.

“That’s true…”

Soon after, the two finished their chat. Zou Feng said goodbye to Luo Yong and hurried back to the Dragon Gate Boat.

Not knowing when Deng Guangxin would make his move, Zou Feng didn’t dare to be away for too long.

After all, the plan was for him and Bian Yixia to face Deng Guangxin together. If something happened to Bian Yixia, Zou Feng had little confidence he could handle it alone.

Deng Guangxin was all but confirmed to be at the Half-Step Gang Qi Realm, and he had cultivated the *Six Harmonies Reincarnation Skill* to an extremely high Realm. He was on a completely different level from the likes of Sun Kai.

Returning to the pharmacy, Zou Feng slept for only two hours before immediately getting up to start practicing.

With his current strength, it was almost effortless to cultivate some Low Grade Skills to the level of Entering the Hall and the Room.

Reaching Integration and Mastery wouldn’t take much time either.

But to reach the Realm of Refining Fire was not something that could be achieved in just a few days, or even ten.

It would require much more time and corresponding cultivation resources.

Zou Feng knew he probably couldn’t wait that long. Deng Guangxin could be ready at any moment and make his move on Bian Yixia.

Therefore, his plan was to begin the fusion process as soon as he cultivated the *Ghostly Shadow Mysterious Step* and the *Mountain-breaking Palm* to the level of Integration and Mastery.

Even if fusing them at this stage meant a higher risk of failure, he couldn’t wait any longer.

With a clear plan in mind, Zou Feng began to train nonstop.

For the next few days, he chose not to continue cultivating his *Five Poison Fire Lotus Skill*, *Great Universal Hand*, or other such skills.

The reason was simple: the Cultivation Technique Realms of these skills were already quite high. No matter how much he practiced for a few short days, he was unlikely to see any substantial improvement.

So, it came back to the same point: to increase his strength in a short time, his only hope was to quickly fuse skills like the *Mountain-breaking Palm*.

Of course, to ensure Fang Jingchuan would take longer to recover from his injuries and not come looking for trouble, Zou Feng still took the time to drink a cup of Evil Eye Wine and cultivate his *Drunken Immortal Moon Gazing Step*.

As a result, it only took one day for the *Drunken Immortal Moon Gazing Step* to finally reach the Realm of Refining Fire, just as he had expected.

At this point, among all the Cultivation Skills Zou Feng practiced, only the *Tribulation-Indestructible Body* had yet to reach Refined Skill.

It wasn’t that he was lazy; he truly didn’t have enough time. This was already the progress he’d managed to make after fusing and thus streamlining the number of skills he had to cultivate.

But it wasn’t a major issue. The cultivation requirements for the *Tribulation-Indestructible Body* were not harsh at all for Zou Feng, who could transfer the side effects.

He just needed to grind it out for a while, and he would eventually get there.

Over these past few days, many people could tell that the atmosphere within the entire Black Flood Dragon Gang was anything but normal.

First, although the Gang Leader, Deng Guangxin, had clearly returned, he had never called a gang meeting to formally take back control of its affairs.

The ones actually handling matters were still Bian Yixia and Vice Gang Leader Xiang Kang.

Meanwhile, no one knew what Deng Guangxin was doing every day, and he rarely appeared in public.

This made many of the gang members feel like the Gang Leader’s return had been a complete non-event.

But the higher-ups in the Black Flood Dragon Gang who could read between the lines clearly sensed the oppressive stillness of the calm before the storm.

It seemed the Black Flood Dragon Gang was, after all, about to undergo a major upheaval…

Five days later, in the Practice Room, Zou Feng and Bian Yixia were both sweating profusely, training almost manically.

However, their sparring these past few days wasn’t just for practice. They were consciously training to coordinate and fight as a team.

This last-minute cramming was better than nothing.

Besides, both of them were already considered experts of the Martial Dao. Once they developed synergy, their combined power would be immense.

In short, the more Zou Feng trained, the more confident he became.

Deng Guangxin was strong, yes, but he probably couldn’t withstand the various Combined Skills he and Bian Yixia had developed.

For instance, he could imprint the “Poison Fury Fire Lotus Seal” onto Bian Yixia’s Round Hammer.

That way, when Bian Yixia smashed her hammer down, the resulting power would be much greater than if they had used their moves separately.

And after Bian Yixia attacked, he could continue to launch more Poison Fury Fire Lotus Seals to further support her.

Infected by Zou Feng’s confidence, Bian Yixia’s initial despair gradually faded.

Now, she had shouted it in her heart more than once: ’We’ll win!’

After they finished practicing their Combined Skills, Zou Feng wiped his sweat and asked, “Miss, has the Gang Leader still not given you an opportunity?”

He was, of course, asking if Bian Yixia had found a chance to absorb Song Sixing.

Bian Yixia shook her head. “No, I don’t think there will be a chance. I don’t even know where my adoptive father is keeping Old Sixth.”

Zou Feng pondered, “What about the Gang Leader’s other apprentices?”

“My adoptive father summoned them individually to ask about their cultivation progress, then told them all to focus on closed-door Cultivation,” Bian Yixia replied.

“Uh… are you sure they’re all in seclusion? They haven’t already been…?”

“No. Besides the Second and Old Sixth, whose situations I’m unsure of, my adoptive father didn’t deliberately hide where the others are secluded. I’m sure nothing has happened to them yet.”

’What the hell is that old bastard waiting for…?’

Zou Feng couldn’t figure it out, but this was actually a good thing. It meant that he and Bian Yixia had more time.

Over the past few days, both the *Mountain-breaking Palm* and the *Ghostly Shadow Mysterious Step* had reached the level of Entering the Hall and the Room, and they weren’t far from Integration and Mastery.

Achieving this much progress in just five days seemed heaven-defying, but it was actually to be expected.

First, these two Cultivation Skills weren’t difficult to begin with and were the kind of Evil Skills that could be learned quickly.

With his current Realm, Zou Feng cultivating a Low Grade Evil Skill was basically overkill, making it incredibly easy.

Not to mention, these two Cultivation Skills were already highly compatible with him.

Take the *Ghostly Shadow Mysterious Step*, for example. It had too many similarities with the *Drunken Immortal Moon Gazing Step*.

By drawing parallels, cultivating it was truly simple.

The real difficulty still lay in whether the fusion would ultimately succeed.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep