On the little fishing boat.
Fang Han sat beneath the canopy, leafing through the Netherworld Bone-Rending Claw manual.
The canopy was woven from bamboo strips and had long fallen into disrepair.
River wind slipped through the gaps, stirring the manual's pages with a faint rustle.
Fang Han pressed the beast-hide cover against his knee and studied it page by page.
The more he read, the more he marveled, his eyes growing brighter.
The claw manual was short, barely a dozen pages in all.
But every page was densely packed with diagrams, explanations, and Force Qi circulation routes.
The technique diagrams were drawn in exquisite detail.
The angle of every finger, the point where each finger bone exerted force, even the direction the nails faced—all were clearly marked.
The circulation diagrams were more intricate still.
Red and black lines crisscrossed diagrams of the human meridians.
Red marked the outward flow of Force Qi, black its return. The tangle was enough to make anyone's head spin.
Fang Han spent a full incense stick's time reading before he finished.
Closing the manual, he drew a deep breath and thought, I never expected the Xiao Family's claw technique to be an Earth-grade Martial Art!
He had assumed the Netherworld Bone-Rending Claw was Profound Grade at best.
After all, though Xiao Kui's claw technique was vicious, the power he had displayed had not exceeded the bounds of Profound Grade.
But after examining the circulation routes, Fang Han realized he had underestimated it.
A Profound-grade Martial Art already counted as a supreme art in Azure Cloud City.
If any of the Three Great Families of the Inner City possessed a complete Profound-grade Martial Art, it would be enough to serve as a clan treasure for centuries.
Yet the Xiao Family had obtained a complete Earth-grade Martial