Five Poisons Palm

Yuan Guang County, Yang Estate.

My ass hurts so much...

The searing, fiery pain jolted Zou Feng awake from his bed of straw.

That was close... I almost got beaten to death this time...

Zou Feng had transmigrated here with no one to rely on, forced to sell himself into slavery just to scrape by in the Yang Family.

Yesterday, he had merely eaten some leftovers intended for the masters of the Yang Estate, but he was accidentally reported by a petty villain and subsequently received a sound thrashing.

The reason was that these leftovers were originally meant to feed the guard dogs.

So, just because he ate dog food, he was nearly beaten to death.

What a shitty world...

Even when he sold himself into slavery, Zou Feng knew that in this world where martial arts reigned supreme, the life of a servant was cheaper than livestock.

But it wasn't until yesterday that he truly felt it in his bones.

At this moment, the humiliation of living worse than a dog was even more unbearable than the stinging pain in his backside.

To change his fate, he had to practice martial arts.

But as a mere servant, how could he possibly have the means to do so?

Gritting his teeth, he climbed off the bed and walked shakily to the corner of the woodshed.

He then carefully pried out a loose brick from the base of the wall.

Hidden behind the brick was a book wrapped in oilcloth, made of animal hide.

The cover bore only three characters, yet it exuded an eerie, sinister aura.

These three characters were certainly not Jin Ping Mei, but rather... Five Poisons Palm.

That's right, Zou Feng had studied it for a long time; it was indeed a cultivation technique.

Unfortunately, it was a wicked art.

During cultivation, one had to soak their hands in a specially prepared venom.

Beforehand, one had to drink a corresponding medicinal decoction, supplemented by several rather unseemly movements.

Clearly, the cultivation process for this technique was not complex; one might even call it "idiot-proof."

However, the cost of purchasing the medicinal ingredients was something an ordinary family could hardly bear, let alone a servant like Zou Feng.

Furthermore, since it involved testing poison on one's own body, the greatest difficulty was that a single moment of carelessness could kill the practitioner.

But high risk usually came with high reward.

The greatest advantage of a wicked art was that it allowed for rapid progress.

This was a gamble: win, and he could live the high life; lose, and he'd end up feeding the fish.

But if he wanted to change his fate, Zou Feng had no choice.

As for why he possessed this Five Poisons Palm manual...

It was almost certain that it had been left behind by the previous servant who lived in this woodshed.

When Zou Feng first arrived at the Yang Estate, he heard that his predecessor had died inexplicably in this very shed.

It was almost certainly because he had practiced the Five Poisons Palm and killed himself in the process.

So, even though he had been prepared for a long time, Zou Feng had never dared to truly commit to practicing it.

The special venom required for this technique only needed five common poisonous creatures: snakes, spiders, centipedes, toads, and scorpions.

Such unremarkable pests often came to share the woodshed with Zou Feng, so collecting them was not difficult.

As for the medicinal decoction...

As a wealthy household, the Yang Family consumed various medicinal meals every day.

While working in the kitchen, Zou Feng had many opportunities to secretly skim off the herbs he needed.

After accumulating them for many days, he had finally managed to scrape together enough materials to brew one bowl of the medicinal soup.

Having personally experienced what it was like to live worse than a dog, Zou Feng finally made up his mind to go all in.

Practice!

Otherwise, this life was truly not meant for humans.

Even if he kept his head down, he might one day be beaten to death by a Yang master for a "legitimate" reason, like "I don't eat beef."

At least this time, only his backside was injured; it wouldn't stop him from performing the cultivation movements later.

Now, he only hoped that the medicinal decoction he brewed according to the manual wouldn't go wrong.

The previous servant who died while secretly practicing this might have just made a mistake in some other aspect...

Zou Feng immediately began brewing the medicinal decoction in the woodshed.

He had been severely punished, and a kind-hearted fellow servant had brought him a packet of medicine right away.

So, even if the smell of medicine permeated the area around the shed, it wouldn't arouse suspicion.

The decoction simmered for nearly an hour. The smell grew increasingly foul, and Zou Feng nearly fainted from the stench.

Is this even drinkable?!

Just smelling it made him feel lightheaded; wouldn't drinking it send him straight to the afterlife?

But Zou Feng had steeled his heart—success or death.

The next moment, he pinched his nose, tilted his head back, and downed the bowl of "Meng Po soup."

Fighting back the urge to vomit, Zou Feng quickly plunged his hands into the clay pot filled with the special venom.

At that moment, it felt as if he had shoved his hands into a pile of red-hot nails.

"Ooh, ooh, ooh—"

Zou Feng wailed repeatedly, like a baboon in the middle of a mating ritual.

Yet, he stubbornly refused to pull his hands out.

Only by enduring the poison can one become a master among men!

As he suffered through the agony, a few lines of text suddenly appeared in his mind.

Five Poisons Palm (Entry Level), Progress: 1%
Cultivation Side Effect: Intense pain, chronic poisoning.
Do you wish to transfer the side effect?
Current available transfer target: Li Rui

Zou Feng was stunned, then overjoyed.

As expected, it finally arrived!

Moreover, his golden finger was simple and straightforward.

Beyond the common proficiency display, it also had the function of transferring the side effects of cultivation.

For his current situation, it was like someone sending a pillow just as he was getting sleepy.

As for the available target, Li Rui, Zou Feng certainly knew him.

It was precisely thanks to this petty villain that he had been reported for eating leftovers.

As fellow servants of the Yang Family, everyone usually turned a blind eye to small transgressions.

Occasionally stealing leftovers for nutrition was an unspoken hidden benefit for kitchen helpers.

Yet this petty man had insisted on making a mountain out of a molehill.

Zou Feng couldn't even remember when he had offended him.

But since he was an enemy, he felt no psychological burden about transferring the side effects.

Without hesitation, Zou Feng chose to let Li Rui suffer in his stead.

However, he also had some lingering questions.

Li Rui, who reported him, was certainly an enemy, but Yang Yanpeng, the Third Young Master of the Yang Family who had casually ordered thirty lashes, should also be on the list.

Yang Yanpeng was a notorious young villain in Yuan Guang County, and those vicious guard dogs in the estate that had tasted human flesh were his playthings.

If any other member of the Yang Family had handled the matter, it would likely have been a punishment like skipping a meal.

It would never have resulted in thirty lashes.

Zou Feng even suspected that Yang Yanpeng had intended to beat him to death, after all, those guard dogs hadn't tasted human flesh in quite some time...

But since Yang Yanpeng wasn't on the list, he didn't need to worry about it for now; perhaps there were other trigger conditions.

He would just milk Li Rui for now.

The selection was made, and the transfer took effect immediately.

Zou Feng's hands suddenly stopped itching and hurting, and his head cleared.

It was as if the special venom soaking his hands had been replaced by a basin of cool mountain spring water.

However, his beaten backside still burned with pain.

After all, that wasn't a side effect of the cultivation, so it couldn't be transferred.

The subsequent cultivation process actually made Zou Feng feel uneasy.

After all, what was supposed to be a perilous, wicked art now felt like nothing more than soaking in cold water...

It was so refreshing that Zou Feng almost wanted to scoop some up to wash his face.

Of course, he only thought about it; he wasn't stupid enough to court death like that.

He knew that washing his face with venom wasn't part of the Five Poisons Palm, and heaven knows if that could be transferred.

He practiced for a full half-hour before stopping.

It wasn't out of pity for Li Rui, but because according to the manual, the limit for practicing the Five Poisons Palm when first starting out was half an hour per day.

To force a continuation after the time limit was exceeded was to invite a sudden, violent death.

In reality, being able to persist for the duration of a cup of tea was already quite impressive.

Half an hour was considered pushing the intensity to the absolute limit.

One would have to be a prodigy of poison arts with a unique constitution, an innate resistance to toxins, and astonishing willpower to attempt to max out the time every single session.

Zou Feng did not consider himself any sort of poison arts prodigy, but fortunately, there was someone else bearing the burden for him.

After finishing his cultivation, Zou Feng looked at the text in his mind again.

"Five Poisons Palm (Entry Level), progress: 9%"

To have such progress after only a single session was clearly due to maxing out the time intensity.

However, the two characters for "Li Rui" appeared noticeably dimmer now.

It seemed this wool couldn't be sheared for much longer.

He just hoped Li Rui could hold on until he reached the next stage of the Five Poisons Palm.

Or that a successor would appear as soon as possible...