Ultimate Martial Arts

Inside the carriage, Feng Xiu lowered his head to examine the silver mace in his hands.

The mace's guard was shaped like a dragon spitting its tongue, the whole body hexagonal in form. Every three finger-widths along its length, a ring of circular protrusions circled the shaft. On the silver-white surface, fine patterns from repeated forging and hammering were faintly visible.

This silver mace had been specially commissioned for Feng Xiu by Uncle Zheng. Because his own strength was enormous, ordinary Body Refining cultivators couldn't withstand even a few of Feng Xiu's punches.

Thus, to unleash his full combat power, whips, maces, or other heavy weapons became Feng Xiu's first choice.

Adding to that, martial arts had the concept of "first-strike kills." Feng Xiu's only experience with weapons came from the heavy mace techniques Han Che had taught him to stabilize his lower stance.

Later, he had used a mace to kill the strange fish man. Naturally, Feng Xiu had grown quite fond of this type of weapon.

"Too bad I'm not surnamed Qin. 'Mace strikes three prefectures and six commanderies'—how imposing would that be?" Feng Xiu couldn't help thinking to himself.

Then, he raised the silver mace in his hand until it was perfectly straight, gave it a small swing, and said with satisfaction.

"I'll call you Ten Provinces."

After setting down Ten Provinces, Feng Xiu opened the wooden chest. Inside were a full month's worth of training resources—over a dozen types of medicinal herbs, neatly arranged and stacked.

On top of several Blood-Vitalizing Bones sat three small, dark brown wooden boxes.

He reached for one, opened it, and a pill of deep emerald green came into view.

The pill was cold in his palm, wrapped in a layer of wax. Even with the wax seal blocking it, the moment he opened the box, a fresh, fragrant aroma hit him. Feng Xiu's whole body trembled.

Blood Returning Pill!

Blood Returning Pills were extremely valuable, completely unavailable on the open market. Every pill eaten was one fewer in existence.

The root cause was that one of its main ingredients had already gone extinct: the White Jade Blood Rhino. The White Jade Blood Rhino's body was pure white like jade, famous for the blood-red horn growing from its crown.

In the territory of Cloud Province, there had long been a saying: "One blood-red horn, ten thousand catties of gold."

However, the White Jade Blood Rhino's extinction wasn't due to natural causes.

It was because the former Emperor Hui of Liang had scoured the realm for rare beasts and gathered them all in the imperial menagerie.

In other words, Blood Returning Pills were tribute items—and their grade was not low!

"Uncle Zheng once advised me that this pill is most effective when taken during a breakthrough. I've reached the peak of Body Refining. If I take it now, I could definitely break through to Blood Burning in one go!"

Feng Xiu leaned back against the soft cushion behind him, thinking to himself.

"Of course, that reasoning is partly about fully utilizing the pill's potency to reach a higher realm, but it also considers that my body can't handle this medicinal power."

"Uncle Zheng was right."

Back then, even the effects of a White Deer Pill had forced him to run through his fist techniques several times before he could barely digest it.

Though the Blood Returning Pill's name sounded ordinary, the blood and qi energy contained within was absolutely not something a Body Refining cultivator could absorb.

Feng Xiu thought this over, then put the Blood Returning Pill away.

He took out a few Qi Gathering Pills from the pouch at his waist and chewed them.

Similarly, Qi Gathering Pills weren't cheap. The cost of a single pill was ten taels of silver, and that was only because the Chu Family Apothecary gave Feng Ao face.

Calculating carefully, in this one month alone, he had spent over five thousand taels just on martial training resources.

Only a clan as wealthy and well-established as the Feng Clan could afford to eat Qi Gathering Pills like snacks.

"I still need to keep building my foundation, preparing for the breakthrough ahead."

Feeling the subtle increase in blood and qi within his body, Feng Xiu made up his mind.

In the short term, he would continue searching for new martial techniques to solidify and fill out his attributes.

It wasn't that Feng Xiu was deliberately suppressing his strength. For him, reaching Blood Burning at twenty-six was definitely something to be proud of.

The real reason was that his current four-dimensional stats hadn't yet reached their limit!

[Life: 17]

[Spirit: 7]

[Strength: 12]

[Agility: 7]

[Technique Record: Eight Sections Vajra Skill (Perfected: Life +2, Spirit +2) Cannot be upgraded]

[Five Force Fist (Perfected: Strength +5, Life +5, Spirit +2)]

[Eight Trigrams Stance (Perfected: Agility +5)]

[Synthesis: All Perfected (Can be synthesized)]

Calling up the panel data, Feng Xiu stared at the few lines of text on the light screen and carefully calculated.

"Based on my previous experience gaining attributes from cultivating techniques, if a technique is trained to the Perfected level, it produces a corresponding change."

"Then, assuming a Life-focused martial art, even at later stages, it wouldn't continue increasing Life intensity."

The longer he trained, the more Feng Xiu felt that his Technique Record was tailor-made for hard work.

As long as he cultivated, there would always be gains!

Feng Xiu lowered his eyes, slowly savoring the thought. "Martial arts are a transcendent power rooted in the human body, but they also follow certain rules."

"At the end of the day, martial arts begin with blood and qi. The richer the blood and qi, the stronger the power."

"But conversely, if blood and qi are insufficient, you can't muster a decent attack. The same applies to other attributes."

In short, Feng Xiu didn't feel he had hit any kind of bottleneck. His four-dimensional attributes should still be able to rise further.

Only when he had trained his martial skills to the point of perfection, and the numbers stopped increasing—

That would be true "Body Refining Mastery."

Of course, thoughts were one thing; the actual training plan would depend on what came next.

The Feng Clan's crisis was still unresolved. Advancing to Blood Burning early would give him a sliver more ability to protect himself.

"But this skill synthesis function... hmm." Feng Xiu pondered for a moment.

Then, shifting his gaze slightly, he looked at the highlighted synthesis text on the light screen, licked his lips, and thought to himself with some interest.

Skill fusion was an unknown option after all. How much change it could bring to him—he had already been anticipating plenty.

It would take a while to reach Dendrobium Village anyway. Since there was nothing to do on the road, he might as well give it a try.

Without hesitation, he sank his mind into the synthesis.

Instantly, countless memories of training the Five Force Fist, the Eight Sections Vajra Skill, and the lower-body Eight Trigrams Stance flooded his mind like force-feeding.

Feng Xiu's expression froze.

After hurriedly sorting through the various moves and postures, an upward arrow abruptly appeared on the synthesis text.

Feng Xiu took a shallow breath, extended his mind toward it, and pressed down hard!

Boom~

Feng Xiu's heart jolted. The next second, his blood and qi began circulating on their own, without his command.

Like crashing waves, the blood and qi surged violently and tyrannically, pressing against his chest and making his bones creak faintly.

[Five Force Fist...]

[Eight Trigrams Stance...]

[Eight Sections Vajra Skill...]

The text of the three skills slowly faded. Finally, with an extremely subtle compression and condensation of blood and qi, thin streams gathered and surged toward his arms.

The bones of his forearms and upper arms cracked as if shattering—like his radius and ulna were being ground to dust, his elbows reforged from flesh and blood.

The sudden, searing pain struck. Feng Xiu's ruddy complexion instantly turned deathly pale, his teeth clenched tight!

He didn't let out a single sound, but his heart trembled violently, and a suppressed, pained grunt escaped his lips.

"Hold on, hold on. The martial path is bright—I have to endure it!" Feng Xiu's whole body trembled.

In a daze, only this one thought remained in his mind as his body swayed unsteadily.

He didn't know how long passed before he sensed the strange sensation gradually fading.

Feng Xiu gasped for air, cold sweat beading on his forehead. It took a while before he slowly recovered.

[Life: 17]

[Spirit: 7]

[Strength: 12]

[Agility: 7]

[Synthesis: Not Yet Perfected (Unavailable)]

And on the panel, besides the four-dimensional values, all the progress bars for his martial skills had vanished, replaced by a single line of text.

[Ultimate: Vajra Finger Blade]