Five Poisons Stake Art? (Please Keep Reading)

From the seemingly honest-looking man, Zou Feng found a few bits of loose silver and several banknotes totaling forty taels.

He had been worrying about running out of money.

Who would have thought someone would come to offer him warmth so soon?

Sure enough, murder and arson brought golden belts...

After tossing the corpse into the East River, Zou Feng swiftly left the scene.

He took a long detour through the night, and only after making sure no one was following him did he climb through the window and return to Jade-Horizontal Pavilion.

Sister Zhang was still sleeping deeply and would not wake before dawn.

There were still several hours until daybreak.

Zou Feng simply decided not to sleep and began practicing in his room.

Taking out the manual, he chose to practice the Drunken Immortal Gazing at the Moon Step first.

The cultivation formula for the Drunken Immortal Gazing at the Moon Step was not difficult to memorize.

Its various techniques for exerting force posed no challenge to Zou Feng, who already had the foundation of a martial art at the "entering the hall" level.

Besides, as the saying went, most evil arts were not difficult to learn.

The real difficulty was whether one could withstand their deadly side effects.

Once he confirmed there was no problem with circulating his energy, Zou Feng began guzzling the alcohol in the room.

The only fly in the ointment was that the wine was terribly poor in quality, little more than water mixed with alcohol.

Fortunately, even so, a display soon appeared on the panel in his mind.

"Drunken Immortal Gazing at the Moon Step (first glimpse of the doorway), progress: 1%"

"Cultivation side effects: muddled consciousness, alcohol poisoning."

"Transfer side effects?"

"Current available transfer target: Yang Ling."

With only Yang Ling available, there was no choice at all.

Brother Ling, sorry about this...

After that, Zou Feng trained bitterly in the room for more than an hour.

Though the room was not large, it was perfect for training the Drunken Immortal Gazing at the Moon Step's swift turns and agile maneuvers in a confined space.

And although the side effects had been transferred, Zou Feng still felt lightly tipsy.

That sensation was necessary. Without it, he could not bring out the exquisite subtleties of the Drunken Immortal Gazing at the Moon Step at all.

It seemed that only muddled consciousness and alcohol poisoning were judged to be side effects requiring transfer.

The lightly tipsy state was not included.

After finishing his practice, Zou Feng checked his progress. It had already risen to 12%.

Worthy indeed of an evil art capable of rapid mastery.

Of course, that also had much to do with him already being an external martial artist at the "entering the hall" level.

He glanced outside. It was still dark.

Since he had nothing better to do, he might as well practice the Passion-Chaos Finger too.

Until he loaded these evil arts onto the panel as soon as possible, he would never feel at ease.

It was just that he would have to trouble Brother Ling again...

"Cock-a-doodle-doo—"

The distant crowing of a rooster finally made Sister Zhang, who was sprawled across the bed, open her eyes.

The instant she woke, she instinctively tried to turn over, only to find her entire body limp and weak, as though it had been taken apart.

This... what exactly had happened last night?

Had this old lady been completely handled!?

The thought left Sister Zhang somewhat incredulous. In most cases, she was the one handling her customers.

The next moment, Sister Zhang struggled to prop herself up and, sure enough, saw that handsome face again.

Zou Feng was currently pretending to have just put on his clothes and was about to get up and leave.

"Sir, you really are... amazing!"

"I feel as if I was run over back and forth by eight horse carriages last night..."

Sister Zhang praised him from the bottom of her heart.

With his back to her, Zou Feng rolled his eyes.

It was only weakness caused by poisoning. Was she not exaggerating a little too much?

"I have things to do. I'm leaving first."

With that, he headed for the door without looking back.

Even though he had done nothing and drawn no sword, he was still utterly heartless.

Yet Sister Zhang asked reluctantly, "Sir, will... will you come again?"

Zou Feng could not be bothered to answer. He pushed open the door and slipped away.

On the way back to the Yang Estate, Zou Feng did not forget to spend some money on two jars of good wine.

He also bought his master, Luo Yong, a pouch of fine tobacco.

Naturally, Luo Yong knew that Zou Feng had spent the previous night outside.

He had also guessed that Zou Feng had most likely visited the pleasure quarters.

Luo Yong did not criticize him too harshly. He had been that age himself and understood the suffering brought by such instincts.

"You brat, remember to restrain yourself!"

"Your master now suspects that Li Rui's death may have been caused by some strange disease he caught in those disreputable places..."

There was nothing Zou Feng could do about being misunderstood by his master.

He could only pretend to take the lesson to heart and say, "This disciple understands. Master, please rest easy."

Luo Yong nodded. "Drink the ginseng soup your martial mother brewed first, then go to the front courtyard to practice your stance."

The ginseng soup was a tonic the direct line of the Yang Family drank every day.

But where cooks did not steal, the grains did not grow; they could always skim off some for themselves.

Zou Feng's physique had grown ever more proportionate and sturdy, no longer the scrawny state he had been in before practicing martial arts. That was because, after becoming Luo Yong's disciple, he had been eating too well.

However, as his realm improved, eating like this would no longer be enough.

Especially once he entered the ranks, the standard of his meals would have to rise accordingly...

He should not be far from entering the ranks.

Although the Five Poisons Palm manual did not contain the follow-up method for entering the ranks, he had now learned the Drunken Immortal Gazing at the Moon Step and the Passion-Chaos Finger.

Even though all three evil arts were low-grade and unranked.

If all three arts advanced together and each reached "entering the hall," he could still attempt to force his way into the ranks.

After drinking the ginseng soup, the fatigue Zou Feng had accumulated from staying up all night eased slightly.

He actually wanted more to catch up on some sleep, but the Yang Estate required stance training. He could not skip it.

Practicing evil arts at night, then putting on a show of practicing the Five-Beasts Stance Exercise during the day—he was busy to death...

When he reached the front courtyard, Xu Haoran was already there ahead of time, standing in his stance until sweat covered his head.

Xu Haoran, the newly recruited servant, was indeed hardworking enough.

He regarded this as perhaps the only chance in his life to change his fate. No matter how agonizing the training was, he gritted his teeth and persevered.

Zou Feng was rather moved by this.

If he had not had his cheat, he would probably have been fighting just as desperately right now...

After taking his position, Zou Feng stopped thinking and began his stance training as well.

The Five-Beasts Stance Exercise corresponded to five stance methods: tiger stance, deer stance, bear stance, ape stance, and bird stance.

At present, all the martial-practicing servants were still stuck on the tiger stance, the first one they had begun training.

Naturally, Zou Feng was an exception. He had long since nearly mastered all five stance methods.

Every time he practiced stances, all he thought about was how to improve the Five-Beasts Stance Exercise into the Five Poisons Stake Art.

Snake stance, scorpion stance, centipede stance, spider stance, toad stance.

The more Zou Feng considered it, the more he felt it had promise.

The Five Poisons Palm was truly too lacking in actual combat. It would not do without improvement.

"You call this stance training? It's simply a complete mess!"

"Stop, all of you! This young lady will demonstrate it for you again!"

A fiery female voice suddenly rang out from the courtyard gate.

"The young lady is here!?"

"What's going on? Wasn't Martial Master Zhao always responsible for teaching us martial arts?"

While Zou Feng was modifying the tiger stance into a spider stance, the other servants around him were already murmuring among themselves.

Turning his head, he saw that Yang Qianqian had indeed arrived.

This girl had accidentally killed the Blood-Handed Butcher's son. For this period of time, the family head, Yang Wu, had confined her and forbidden her from going out again.

Naturally, this was for Yang Qianqian's safety.

However, it seemed Yang Qianqian was the sort who could never sit still. Even with nothing to do, she had to find something to occupy herself...