"Sun Qifeng!"
Huang Tiansheng seemed deeply wary of the figure. He roared in a low voice, "That brat's been playing me for half the day. Unless I chop him into mincemeat, I won't be able to quell the hatred in my heart."
"You're going to protect him?"
Strands of white mist poured continuously from Huang Tiansheng as he roared, swirling around him.
"Hm? You dare use True Essence inside the Yamen? Even if Huang Tianhe came, he couldn't save you..."
Sun Qifeng raised a palm as large as a fan, and a vast cloud of white mist gathered over it, transforming directly into a gigantic hand.
Just as the palm was about to fall, Huang Yuan'er suddenly bowed and called out, "Lord Sun, before the Autumn Hunt, the clans agreed to cease hostilities..."
But as soon as she finished speaking, the giant hand didn't pause for even an instant. It came straight down on Huang Tiansheng.
With a tremendous crash, the ground beneath Huang Tiansheng split into crisscrossing gullies, forming a massive palm print.
The difference in strength was plain to see.
The white mist around Huang Tiansheng dissipated. There was no longer any anger or ferocity in his gaze as he looked at Sun Qifeng; instead, it held a trace of fear.
He couldn't withstand that palm.
"Sun Qifeng's cultivation has actually advanced by a huge leap..."
Huang Tiansheng was secretly alarmed, but he also felt deeply humiliated. He had actually been spared by a junior.
Sun Qifeng withdrew his hand and glanced over the two of them, then softly uttered a single word.
"Get lost!"
Huang Tiansheng's face darkened until it looked ready to drip with water, but staying here would only bring him further humiliation.
He turned to leave, then caught a glimpse of Chen Zhuo holding out his palm. Resting in it were his three Gu worms.
Seeing Chen Zhuo watching him with a cheerful smile, he suddenly felt a sense of foreboding.
"Crack!"
Right before Huang Tiansheng, Chen Zhuo brought his palms together with all his might. The Gu worms were crushed to bits without even letting out a final wail.
Huang Tiansheng trembled three times but said nothing. He stared fixedly at Chen Zhuo for a couple of seconds, then turned and left without looking back.
Seeing this, Huang Yuan'er silently mouthed something to Chen Zhuo, then followed him away.
"So, we'll meet at the Autumn Hunt..."
Watching the two depart, Chen Zhuo rubbed his palms together carelessly and shook his hands, finally flicking off the remains of the Gu worms.
Chief Clerk Sun shook his head with a smile. "You really can't stand to take a loss. He was already leaving. Why provoke him again?"
Chen Zhuo cupped his hands and thanked Chief Clerk Sun, then left the Dianshi Office and returned to the kitchen.
With the evening glow at his back, Chen Zhuo stepped into the kitchen.
But when he reached the stove, he found that the cook was not Senior Brother Yan but an unfamiliar, fat chef.
"Who are you?"
Chen Zhuo furrowed his brow slightly.
"You must be Master Chen, right?"
The fat chef set down his big ladle, wiped his hands on his clothes, and pulled a letter from his breast pocket. He handed it directly to Chen Zhuo and added, "I'm a cook Master Chef Yan hired from outside. While he's away, I'll take care of the stove for him. He asked me to make sure I gave you this letter."
Hearing this and looking at the letter in his hand, Chen Zhuo's brows knitted into a deep frown.
He really couldn't understand why Senior Brother Yan had suddenly decided to disappear without a word.
No wonder he hadn't seen Senior Brother Yan all day.
Puzzled, Chen Zhuo opened the letter.
There were only three brief lines.
"I'm going away for a while. It's urgent, so I don't have time to explain. Work hard, and stay safe. Oh, and remember to burn incense for Master and the senior brothers every day."
"You've gone away and you're still telling me to work? You taskmaster..."
Chen Zhuo laughed as he cursed, then looked solemnly at the fat chef. "Before he left, did he tell you anything else?"
The fat chef shook his head. "No. He just hired me to mind the stove and gave me this letter. He said you'd be in charge of everything."
Though Yan Ming's sudden departure worried Chen Zhuo, there was nothing he could do about it.
The letter hadn't mentioned what had happened or when he would return.
All Chen Zhuo could do was silently pray in his heart:
"Master, Senior Brothers, please watch over Senior Brother Yan and keep him safe."
After a moment of silence, he looked up at the steaming pot, tucked the letter into his clothes, and said, "I'll handle the chopping board, and you take the ladle. Let's cook."
"Oh, once we're done, remember to have someone boil a few more pots of Blood-Strengthening Soup and send them to the courtyard next door."
"Yes."
The fat chef immediately got to work.
Chen Zhuo also began cutting fish and chopping up chickens...
[Dissection Technique +1]
"I put on a real show today, but in truth, my Dissection Technique still isn't enough. I'll have to dissect as much as I can during this time..."
After a busy stretch, under a bright moon and sparse stars, Chen Zhuo carried a food box back to the small courtyard.
Sitting in the courtyard, he glanced at the spot where Yan Ming had sat before and began to eat.
He had no shortage of meat now, but with someone suddenly gone, even the food tasted bland.
After wolfing down his meal, he lit a stick of incense for Master and the senior brothers, then carried several large buckets of Blood-Strengthening Soup into the Practice Room.
As he poured it in, the Blood-Strengthening Soup quickly filled the pool.
As usual, he took off his clothes and stepped into the soup.
The demon beast's True Blood had run out yesterday, so tonight he could only use False Blood.
He poured an entire bottle of demon beast False Blood into the soup.
But that wasn't all.
He picked up another porcelain bottle and poured in the Demon Blood.
One bottle, two bottles, three bottles...
By the time the soup's searing heat began to sting, he had poured in five whole bottles of Demon Blood.
Chen Zhuo drew a deep breath, raised his slightly trembling hand, and poured in another bottle of Demon Blood.
As though a basin of oil had been thrown onto a raging fire, he felt heat unlike anything he had ever experienced, as if he were being roasted over flames.
[Seeking Demons Art +6]
"That's about enough."
Gritting his teeth, Chen Zhuo stood in a fighting stance and began slapping his whole body.
His flesh was continually tempered by the intense burning.
[Iron Cloth Shirt +10]
[Iron Cloth Shirt +10]
The suffering was worth it. With the support of six whole bottles of demon beast False Blood, the progress of Iron Cloth Shirt was not as great as it would have been with True Blood, but it still received an additional boost.
Under the unprecedented scorching heat, Chen Zhuo's mind seemed to grow hazy.
After an unknown length of time, a line of text appeared before his eyes of its own accord.
[Training Method: Iron Cloth Shirt: 250/250 (Perfected)]
The next moment, a rumble seemed to sound in his head, jolting him back to his senses.
Iron Cloth Shirt had finally reached perfection!
Then, what came next...
The Iron Cloth Shirt line vanished from before his eyes, replaced by another line of text.
[Training Method: Dragon-Roar Iron Cloth Shirt: 0/80 (Not Yet Initiated)]
Chen Zhuo seemed to hear a dragon's roar, ringing beside his ears without end.
A warm current also surged forcefully into his mind.
After a long while,
Chen Zhuo panted several times, then twisted into a contorted pose, rotating his body almost a full circle. His bones and sinews writhed and trembled in a peculiar way.
He didn't open his mouth, yet a faint dragon's roar came from his body, resounding through the room.
[Dragon-Roar Iron Cloth Shirt +10]
"The boost from the demon beast False Blood is actually the same as before."
At that moment, Chen Zhuo clearly felt that his qi and blood had improved by a huge margin compared to before Iron Cloth Shirt reached perfection. His skin had also taken on a faint jade-like sheen.
"Not enough."
Chen Zhuo didn't let the joy of perfecting Iron Cloth Shirt cloud his judgment. This was something he had expected.
There was something even more important to do tonight.
The scene of strands of white mist curling around someone flashed through his mind. Chen Zhuo calmed his thoughts and slowly closed his eyes.
Tonight,
he would break through to Aperture Opening.
Before you continue