"You... you... you..."
Niu Kangsheng could hardly believe it.
He had considered everyone, but never Zhang Ming.
"What's wrong? Still want to make a move?"
"Why don't you look in a mirror? Your face is purple, old man!"
At this moment, the deadly poison had spread throughout Niu Kangsheng's body. His skin had turned purple, his lips blackish-brown, and the star of death hung high above him.
"Heh-heh, hiss-hiss."
Strands of black clotted blood flowed backward. Niu Kangsheng opened his mouth, pointing at Zhang Ming as though he wanted to say something.
But the backflowing black blood prevented him from uttering a single word.
"Hmph."
With a cold snort, Zhang Ming simply watched Niu Kangsheng struggle desperately in the poison as he rapidly stepped into the Abyss of death.
"A false Warrior: competing in hot-blooded ruthlessness, winning only after a bitter battle."
"A true Warrior: poisoning and ambushing, quietly waiting for the opponent to die."
With a few soft laughs, Zhang Ming looked at the small vial in his hand. "This Crane Top Red, extracted and refined from ore, works quite well."
"A Postnatal Martial Artist will die once the poison enters the five viscera and six bowels and spreads through the body, all within a short while."
"I just wonder whether it works on Innate Martial Artists."
Zhang Ming did not know, but as long as Innate Martial Artists were still human and needed grains and food to live—
Poison would always be effective.
It was merely a matter of dosage.
"Forget it. I'll deal with drugging Innate Martial Artists later. First, I should handle this guy."
To be safe, he waited a while in case the corpse pulled some trick.
Only after Zhang Ming confirmed that Niu Kangsheng, this Postnatal Martial Artist, was completely dead did he swiftly step forward, put on the gloves he had prepared in advance, and begin searching the body.
"Nothing. Sure enough, those storybooks where people carry secret manuals on them are all lies."
His gaze swept across the study.
"The various cultivation methods of the martial arts school should be in this room, right?"
"But there's no rush. I should dispose of this guy's corpse first."
With that, Zhang Ming dragged Niu Kangsheng's corpse into the courtyard.
He casually dug a deep pit and poured the prepared Bone Dissolving Water over the body.
'Sizzle, sizzle.'
After several plumes of foul yellow smoke, the corpse quickly dissolved into bloody water, and he buried it again.
No one would ever know that Niu Kangsheng, the famed master of Yang City's Mighty Bull Martial Arts School, was "lying" in his own small courtyard.
"Alright, time to collect the spoils of war."
A moment later.
"There's good news, bad news, and news that's neither good nor bad."
Looking at the cultivation manuals and several letters he had just found, Zhang Ming muttered to himself.
"The good news is that I found every cultivation method and Martial Skill of the Mighty Bull Martial Arts School. Not one is missing."
"The bad news is that Niu Kangsheng was a discarded disciple of the Hundred Beasts Sect!"
"The Hundred Beasts Sect is a Martial Dao sect in Liangguang, neighboring Jiangnan Province. Its sect master is a Grandmaster, known as the Hundred Beasts Grandmaster."
"Though Niu Kangsheng was a discarded disciple, these letters show that he still kept in contact with his former fellow disciples."
"Every year, he sent those senior brothers quite a number of good things as tribute."
Zhang Ming's expression turned helpless.
"In other words, if they learn that Niu Kangsheng is dead, there's an eighty to ninety percent chance they'll seek revenge."
"The final piece of neither-good-nor-bad news is that Niu Kangsheng did not contact those senior brothers often, and his last contact with them was several days ago."
"Neither good nor bad means that his fellow disciples likely won't notice anything wrong for the next few months. By the time they truly realize something is amiss and come to Yang City, it will be at least half a year later."
"The Hundred Beasts Sect is powerful, but it has only one Grandmaster. Therefore, the strongest fellow disciples who can avenge Niu Kangsheng will only be Innate Martial Artists."
"So, I have more than half a year to prepare."
An urgent feeling rose involuntarily within Zhang Ming's heart.
"Looks like I need to speed things up. Breaking through to the Innate Realm in half a year..."
"Should be possible, right?" Zhang Ming was somewhat uncertain.
"Using conventional methods and cultivating properly seems a little difficult, but..."
With [Ignite Comprehension], Zhang Ming felt that he could push himself a little harder.
And while he was at it, place a little faith in himself.
Several days flashed by.
The major martial arts schools, Gangs, and some hidden gray forces in Yang City—
Before Zhang Ming, a Postnatal Martial Artist who possessed medicine and poison at Grand Completion, several offensive skills at Grand Completion, had no shame, excelled at sneak attacks, and also had the deeply entrenched intelligence network of the Zhang Family behind him—
Eliminating the leaders was effortless.
In only a few days, every master of a martial arts school and every gang leader had died.
The sudden deaths of these people caused a small amount of chaos in Yang City.
But with those powerful figures gone, and under the pressure of the Zhang Family and Zhang Ming, no great waves could be stirred.
This day.
Study.
Looking at his gains from the past few days, Zhang Ming was extremely satisfied.
[Great Sea Claw], [Blood Saber Scripture], [Chain Arrow], [Withered Glory Palm], [Longevity Cultivation Method], and a whole series of other cultivation methods.
"Not bad. Murder and arson truly bring golden belts; the ancients did not deceive me."
"If I had gathered these dozen or so cultivation methods through legitimate means, who knows whether it would have taken until the year of the monkey or the month of the horse."
"Unlike now, when I obtained all the cultivation methods in just a few days."
"It's just a pity that these cultivation methods are not of particularly high grade, though they are fairly comprehensive."
After sorting them slightly, Zhang Ming divided the dozen or so cultivation methods into several broad categories.
"[Longevity Cultivation Method], [White Cloud Method], and the like can serve as nourishment and be incorporated into the [Mighty Bull Cultivation Method]."
"[Withered Glory Palm], used together with my current medicine and poison, should produce miraculous effects."
"I can even expand it—rather than limiting it to the palm, extend it into sabers, fists, legs, and even bows and arrows."
Over the past few days, Zhang Ming had personally experienced just how lethal medicine and poison at Grand Completion was against ordinary Warriors.
Liquid poisons, odor poisons, mixed poisons, and all manner of poison arts came to his hand with effortless familiarity.
Zhang Ming was even confident that, given enough time and resources, poisoning everyone in an entire city to death would merely take a little extra effort.
It was the finest assistant for slaughtering low-level Warriors.
"[Chain Arrow] is perfectly suited for archery. Arrows fire in chains, multiplying the power, and it gives me another method."
"But I can tell from the name alone that this cultivation method is simple. I'll use [Ignite Comprehension] to strengthen it a little and develop it toward hidden weapons."
"[Blood Saber Scripture], [Overlord Saber], and the rest will be fused into [Five Tigers Saber] to improve my saber arts."
"Movement techniques such as [Light Cloud Steps] will be integrated into [Great Wind Leg] to improve my movement speed."
Zhang Ming nodded, thoroughly excited.
"Once all these cultivation methods are fused and upgraded through [Ignite Comprehension], my strength should swell by another level."
"I really am strong!"
Even Zhang Ming himself could no longer estimate how strong he was.
At the very least, when he killed the last master of a martial arts school, Zhang Ming had tried not playing any tricks.
He fought head-on, saber against saber, in a genuine clash.
The result went without saying.
That hall master, also a Postnatal Martial Artist, had been cut down by Zhang Ming after only a few exchanges.
One had to know that Zhang Ming's strongest offensive method was not his saber arts.
It was the fist and leg techniques inherently contained within the Innate cultivation method, [Mighty Bull Cultivation Method]!
"I really wonder how powerful I'll become after fusing all of these."
"Compared to those Innate Martial Artists, how great will the gap be?"
After his excitement faded, Zhang Ming thought of another matter.
"My Martial Dao has achieved success, and the future is promising."
"But what about my Immortal Path?"
"Spiritual Energy, Spiritual Energy—what exactly is Spiritual Energy? In this world that appears to be a Martial Arts World, how am I supposed to cultivate immortality?"
Zhang Ming had already entertained the idea of trying to cultivate immortality through [Ignite Comprehension] several months ago.
But the few attempts at [Ignite Comprehension] had yielded nothing, leaving him utterly without a clue.
Still, Zhang Ming had sensed that the main reason he could not cultivate immortality was Spiritual Energy.
This world had no such illusory, ethereal, invisible thing as Spiritual Energy.
"Wait. Could it be that it isn't absent, but that ordinary eyes and ordinary senses simply cannot perceive it?"
"Or perhaps Spiritual Energy exists, but relies on some sort of substance to exist?"
"Hm... perhaps."
"Maybe I should find some cultivation methods that sharpen the eyes or cultivate the spirit?"
With a light sigh, Zhang Ming lamented.
"But a special cultivation method with miraculous effects like that would be impossible to gather in a small place like Yang City even in a hundred years."
The cruelty of reality left Zhang Ming helpless.
"Forget it, forget it. I'll think about that later."
"For now, I should honestly be the local tyrant of Yang City. Once my cultivation reaches the limit of my methods and I can advance no further, I'll deal with it then."
"Anyway, I still have a long life ahead of me. There's no need to rush for this moment."
"[Ignite Comprehension] isn't some system that will force me to do anything. There's no need to hurry."
Before you continue