Ya Fei

Throughout all of Wu Tan City, Feng Wu had never found a cultivation method above Yellow Rank Medium Grade. Higher-grade methods were all tightly held by the great families.

Even if ordinary people happened to obtain one, they would treat it as a family heirloom secret. Forget selling it—they would rather no one even caught wind of it.

This was no exaggeration. The three strongest cultivation methods in all of Wu Tan City belonged to the Three Great Families: two were Mysterious Rank Medium Grade, while one was Mysterious Rank Low Grade.

The Xiao Clan's fire-element cultivation method was poor, at most only Yellow Rank High Grade.

And Feng Wu's target was precisely this cultivation method that had only been mentioned once in the original novel: the Refining Flame Mantra.

Feng Wu was certain that the cultivation method Xiao Yan obtained from the Dou Qi Pavilion after his coming-of-age ceremony would be the Refining Flame Mantra. This was the "back door" Xiao Zhan had specially prepared for Xiao Yan.

Moreover, Feng Wu was even more certain that Xiao Yan would definitely trade with him. After all, Xiao Yan's destined cultivation method was the "Burning Flame Mantra"!

To Xiao Yan, this Refining Flame Mantra was useless meat after a full meal.

But in Feng Wu's hands, it could at least be raised to Mysterious Rank!

Another fifty days later, at Wang Family Butchery.

"Young Master Feng, your strength has grown again these past few days. Did you break through in cultivation again?"

Butcher Wang looked at the burly ox lying on the ground, weakly struggling with its neck twisted at an unnatural angle, clearly on the verge of death, and fawned over Feng Wu.

"You flatter me, Boss Wang. Here are my wages for these past days." Feng Wu casually handed over a bag of Gold Coins, and Butcher Wang smiled until his eyes narrowed into slits.

Over these past two months, his shop alone had made three to four thousand Gold Coins off Feng Wu for nothing. Moreover, Feng Wu had been helping with the most dangerous slaughtering work for free, making the profits even more stable than running the Slaughter Shop itself.

However, Butcher Wang would soon be unable to smile.

"I won't be coming anymore from today onward. You don't need to keep livestock for me in the future, Boss Wang." After settling the final payment, Feng Wu gave his instructions.

"Our shop is getting two burly oxen tomorrow... Wait?" Butcher Wang had still been talking away when he suddenly froze.

"No, Young Master Feng, why are you...?" By the time Butcher Wang reached out to call after him, even Feng Wu's last trace had vanished from the Slaughter Shop.

"Next, it's time to go to the Mittel Auction House." Walking down the street, Feng Wu flipped his hand and produced a stack of black, silver, gold, and purple cards.

The smallest held five thousand, while the largest were worth tens of thousands!

Over these fifty days, Feng Wu had not been idle. He had long since reached the limit of Dou Qi Ninth Stage.

However, Feng Wu had never condensed his Dou Qi Cyclone, because he had discovered that as long as he did not do so, his experience could continue accumulating without overflowing!

By now, Feng Wu's experience points had accumulated far beyond the upper limit of his realm.

And it was not only his cultivation that had improved. His Mountain Splitting Palm had not only returned to the Major Completion Realm, but had even taken another step beyond it, reaching Entering the Hall!

Nearly all the slaughtering proficiency Feng Wu had gained these days had been fed to Mountain Splitting Palm.

Going from the Major Completion Realm of Mountain Splitting Palm to Entering the Hall had cost a full 200 experience points. The next level, Returning to Simplicity, required an even more terrifying 1,000 points!

It was extremely terrifying. But the improvement was enormous as well. Mountain Splitting Palm at the Entering the Hall level had even surpassed its own rank.

It far exceeded its current Mysterious Rank Low Grade classification, and its power had even reached the threshold of Mysterious Rank High Grade!

As for his other two Soul Techniques, it was not that Feng Wu had refused to allocate slaughtering experience to them.

Rather, after Feng Wu killed a chicken with those two Soul Techniques, the Slaughter Shop owner had never again allowed him to use them while slaughtering livestock.

Because with one pull and one push from Feng Wu, that chicken had exploded... exploded!

That's right, it exploded!

The immense crushing force had directly pulverized that poor chicken into a pile of mangled flesh beyond recognition.

Chunks of meat, blood, feathers, bones... and other things that could no longer be identified were piled together. The Slaughter Shop owner's face had turned green!

Therefore, the proficiency of Feng Wu's two Soul Techniques had improved far more slowly compared to Mountain Splitting Palm.

They had only just barely entered the Minor Completion Realm. Even that had only been achieved after Feng Wu spent some realm experience.

(Note: From now on, experience used for leveling up will simply be called realm experience. Experience used to level up Dou Skills will be called proficiency experience.

Realm experience can be converted into Dou Skill proficiency experience at an equal rate, but not the other way around.)

However, because these Dou Skills were inherently of such high rank, if Feng Wu used the two against each other now...

He felt that he could even fight Dou Zhe at the one- or two-star level.

Furthermore, Feng Wu's offensive methods were fairly well-rounded. At range, he had the Absorption Palm and Cloud Dispelling Palm combo; up close, he had the fierce Mountain Splitting Palm!

By the time he arrived at the Mittel Auction House, Feng Wu was still dressed in his usual black cloak and white mask.

Before he even reached the entrance, a maid had already approached him on her own initiative.

Over these past two months, Feng Wu's identity as an "Alchemist" had become fairly well-known within the Mittel Auction House.

The Second Grade Rejuvenation Pills Feng Wu had sold had become famous throughout Wu Tan City for being effective, cheap, and highly cost-effective.

However, Feng Wu had stopped doing business with these pills recently. The price of Rejuvenation Pills had already fallen.

The main reason was that Wu Tan City's high-end healing medicine market had basically become saturated.

Essentially, the experts of every faction in Wu Tan City that had Martial Artists at the Dou Shi level or above already had a bottle each.

The higher-ups of the great families had passed the age when they frequently bled and suffered injuries. It was difficult for them to use up a bottle of Rejuvenation Pills containing ten pills.

Without consumption, the market naturally became saturated, and prices fell.

Still, with the funds he had already obtained from these transactions, Feng Wu felt that he should be able to accomplish what he wanted to do.

Following the maid into the Mittel Auction House, Feng Wu was led to its most famous figure, Ya Fei.

After selling pills so many times, Feng Wu had long since become acquainted with Ya Fei.

Whenever Feng Wu came, Ya Fei would inevitably be the one to receive him. Just as the original novel said, Ya Fei was a blazing flame that could set someone alight with just a single glance!

Seductive, alluring, intelligent, mature... practically every word Feng Wu could think of to praise a mature woman fit her perfectly.

After seeing Ya Fei in person, Feng Wu could only say, "The world knows that Xun'er next door is lovely, yet fails to understand the charms of Ya Fei at the auction house!"

Feng Wu moved his gaze away from Ya Fei's slightly bowed figure before him.

Mm, this melon is ripe!

Feng Wu secretly reminded himself to be three times more vigilant. He had nearly fallen for it.

Anyone who regarded her as nothing more than a pretty vase would be making a grave mistake. That was merely a layer of disguise over this woman's shrewd nature.

Yet that layer of disguise alone was enough to instantly defeat countless people!

Straightening slightly, Ya Fei saw that Feng Wu's eyes beneath the mask remained clear. She felt somewhat disappointed. Another failure.

Yet she revealed nothing on her face. Instead, she became even more respectful as she asked, "Has sir come this time with new Rejuvenation Pills to continue auctioning?"

"No. I simply came to see whether the auction house has anything that interests me."