Squelch.
Blood sprayed wildly.
It spattered in every direction.
As Zhao Kuo fell to the ground, a large patch of earth was soaked red.
His body shrank considerably, returning to its original size, but his eyes remained fixed on Su Chen, brimming with resentment.
Just like Lin Hai back then, he died with his eyes wide open.
Seeing that Zhao Kuo was well and truly dead, Su Chen finally pulled the Steel Saber from his body.
"Good thing this guy was so confident in his Black Armor and never saw through my disguise. Otherwise, killing him with a single blow would've been pretty difficult."
The Black Armor Zhao Kuo wore had astonishing defensive power. Even the Yellow-Clothed Woman's Precious Sword had struggled to pierce it.
Su Chen had trained his Raging Wave Saber Technique to its limit. Going all out, he could break through Zhao Kuo's defense, but he still wasn't quite skilled enough to kill him in one strike.
"I wonder what Martial Art he practiced!"
Full of anticipation, Su Chen went over to Zhao Kuo's corpse, bent down, and felt around his body.
"Nothing?"
After searching for a while, Su Chen's brows gradually knitted together. He was reluctant to give up.
"Hm? There seems to be something inside this armor."
Just as Su Chen was losing hope and preparing to give up, he suddenly noticed an unusual color peeking out from Zhao Kuo's armor.
He pulled it free and took a look. Su Chen froze for a moment. It was a piece of parchment.
"No wonder I couldn't find it. So he hid it here!"
Su Chen opened the parchment, and his face lit up with delight. It seemed to contain a cultivation method.
"Hurry, he's right here!"
Before he could examine it closely, Su Chen heard hurried footsteps coming from nearby.
He put away the parchment, picked up his saber, and turned to leave.
A short while later, two of Zhao Kuo's subordinates arrived. The moment they spotted Zhao Kuo's corpse, they froze on the spot.
Before long, the entire area had become a hive of activity.
White Jade Gang Headquarters.
A man dressed in white stared at Zhao Kuo's cold, pale corpse, his face dark with anger.
He looked at Zhao Kuo's two subordinates and asked in a low voice, "Tell me what happened."
"Gang Leader, it happened like this..."
The two subordinates recounted everything truthfully.
When the man in white heard that Zhao Kuo had been killed by a Yellow-Clothed Woman, he immediately cursed, "Useless!"
He'd been chasing after other men's wives, and then lost his life for it. He'd brought shame on himself.
With a wave of his hand, the man in white ordered someone to carry the corpse away, then issued a command:
"Pass down the order. Notify every branch to find out who that Yellow-Clothed Woman is. Hmph! She thinks she can kill someone from my White Jade Gang and get away? No chance! The moment you discover her whereabouts, notify me at once."
"Yes, Gang Leader!"
As one order after another went out from the White Jade Gang, every district under its control became tense and alert.
But none of this had anything to do with Su Chen. After killing Zhao Kuo, he went straight home.
"This piece of parchment records not one cultivation method, but two!"
Su Chen took a bath to wash away the smell of blood, then took out the parchment and studied it closely.
After examining it, Su Chen was overjoyed. He had managed to make out two cultivation methods from the parchment.
One was the Turtle Shell Skill.
The other was the Bone Shrinking Skill.
"The Turtle Shell Skill must be the Martial Art Zhao Kuo practiced. Once mastered, it covers the body in a layer of Black Armor. It doesn't show under normal circumstances, but when activated, the Black Armor appears and greatly boosts the body's defense."
"But practicing the Turtle Shell Skill changes your body shape to a degree, so you need to train with the Bone Shrinking Skill as well. The two complement each other and bring out the best in one another."
"According to the parchment, the Turtle Shell Skill is very difficult to practice. You have to temper your skin in all sorts of ways, and even the slightest mistake can damage your bones and leave you permanently crippled."
"Even if you do master it, it isn't perfect. It has a weakness: the defense above the neck is about the same as an ordinary person's."
After reading the sections on the Turtle Shell Skill and the Bone Shrinking Skill, Su Chen fell into thought.
Looking at the two manuals on the parchment, Su Chen's eyes flickered. He soon made up his mind. "Weaknesses are normal. Besides, I have the panel. What do I have to fear?"
An incense stick's time later, Su Chen finished practicing the movements for both skills, and the panel abruptly changed:
...Turtle Shell Skill (Beginner 1%) Bone Shrinking Skill (Beginner 1%)
Afterward, he spent twelve taels of silver to activate Easy Mode for each skill.
Easy Mode for the Turtle Shell Skill was sunbathing. It took ten minutes to reach minor mastery and twenty minutes to reach major mastery.
Easy Mode for the Bone Shrinking Skill was squats. It took fifty reps to reach minor mastery and a hundred reps to reach major mastery.
Training both skills took one hour in total. When he was done, the panel changed again:
...Turtle Shell Skill (Major Mastery 1%) Bone Shrinking Skill (Major Mastery 1%)
Looking at the two skills on the panel, a smile crept onto Su Chen's face.
Then he took off his clothes and examined his body.
Unlike what the parchment described, his body shape hadn't changed at all.
It seemed that Martial Arts trained through the panel could avoid certain flaws.
When Su Chen activated the Turtle Shell Skill, he felt his entire body grow hard.
It was as if a thin layer of Black Armor had covered the surface of his body.
He clenched his fist and punched himself. A crisp clanging sound rang out at once.
"What an incredible Turtle Shell Skill! It hasn't just strengthened my body's defense. The defense of my arms and legs has improved too!"
Su Chen looked at his arms. There was no Black Armor on them, but they felt solid all the same.
"Now to test the Bone Shrinking Skill!"
After testing it, Su Chen was sure that the Turtle Shell Skill did indeed provide a slight boost to other skills.
Then he turned his attention to the Bone Shrinking Skill.
With a series of crackling sounds from his bones, Su Chen's height of one meter eighty-eight suddenly shrank to one meter seventy-eight. His arms and legs had shortened by ten centimeters.
Even though he had been prepared, the sight still shocked him.
Fortunately, Su Chen quickly recovered and returned to normal.
"The Bone Shrinking Skill isn't as useful as the Turtle Shell Skill in combat, but it's very powerful as a support skill. It helps me just as much as the Turtle Shell Skill does. If I disguise myself as the One-Armed Yang Guo again, I'll be even more convincing—and it'll be easier, too."
After two battles, Su Chen had grown used to disguising himself as the One-Armed Yang Guo.
After all, who would expect a complete arm to be hiding inside a torn sleeve, just waiting to deliver a fatal blow at the crucial moment?
"Too bad. Iron Sand Palm cost me a hundred taels of silver. Otherwise, maybe I could've advanced these two skills even further."
Su Chen, back to normal, felt a little regretful.
Of course, he didn't regret training Iron Sand Palm to its limit. He regretted being broke again.
"But after Iron Sand Palm reached its limit, it actually required Iron Wire Fist at its limit to activate Easy Mode!"
Su Chen was a little surprised. He looked at the panel, where the following lines appeared:
Iron Sand Palm (Limit)
Iron Sand Palm 0 times (Limit Iron Wire Fist/times)
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