Targeted

After dealing with Senior Brother Zhou's corpse, Zhou Feng did not immediately return to Bitter Bamboo Peak.

Instead, he chose to find a place to recuperate.

He planned to return only after his injuries had healed. Going back in his current state was simply too dangerous.

With the passive effect of his Self-Healing Physique, and since his injuries were not too serious,

they would fully recover before long.

While recovering, he began carefully considering what he should do next.

His next plan was naturally to continue hunting down those senior brothers and sisters.

By devouring Demon Devouring Gus, he could rapidly raise his cultivation realm

and free himself from the threat posed by Senior Disciple Brother Wang Ming.

He did not know much about Senior Disciple Brother Wang Ming's realm.

However, Wang Ming was most likely at the Ninth Level of Qi Condensation and was preparing to forge his spiritual platform at any moment.

By that standard, Zhou Feng had to at least reach Qi Condensation before he could possibly contend with Senior Disciple Brother.

He might even need to reach the Ninth Level of Qi Condensation, since his method of breaking through was somewhat opportunistic.

Compared to others at the same realm, his combat strength should be somewhat weaker.

He was currently at the Ninth Level of Qi Induction, so how was he supposed to break through to the Qi Gathering Realm?

Although there were no bottlenecks below the spiritual platform realm, different methods of breakthrough varied in efficiency.

Unfortunately, Bitter Bamboo Peak was fundamentally chaotic.

There were neither stewards nor teaching elders.

There was only the Grand Elder and a group of disciples. Terms like senior brother and senior sister were merely casual forms of address they used in daily life.

Unlike Bitter Bamboo Peak, the other peaks were much more normal.

Not only did they have dedicated teaching elders, they also had all sorts of missions and benefits, and communication between disciples was extremely smooth.

The difference between the Qi Gathering Realm and the Qi Induction Realm lay in that single word.

The Qi Induction Realm involved drawing small amounts of heaven and earth spiritual energy into one's body, tempering the flesh, and converting it into spiritual power.

The Qi Gathering Realm, on the other hand, involved absorbing heaven and earth spiritual energy with all one's strength, while the body could also withstand the tempering of that spiritual energy.

At the same time, the body, spiritual power, and everything else would enter a state of transformation.

Judging from the descriptions alone, there did not seem to be much difference between the two.

Honestly, if there was no other way, Zhou Feng planned to force a breakthrough without relying on any blessed land, spiritual pills, or the like.

There must be offensive spells on Bitter Bamboo Peak. I just didn't know about them before!

What Zhou Feng was considering now was the matter of offensive methods.

He had most likely been deceived by Senior Disciple Brother before. No matter how powerful the Demon Devouring Art was,

the Grand Elder of Bitter Bamboo Peak could not possibly have become Grand Elder by relying solely on a single Demon Devouring Art.

There had to be several spells. Even if they followed the path of body cultivation, there should be several martial techniques, right?

It seemed that Senior Disciple Brother had deceived him from the beginning. That Demon Devouring Art was definitely not the complete version.

After returning to Bitter Bamboo Peak, Zhou Feng planned to immediately look into what spells or martial techniques were available to learn there.

At present, he only had the Ghost Shadow Steps he had obtained from the Scripture Repository.

Moreover, since he rarely practiced the Ghost Shadow Steps, he could only use them while traveling. It was truly rather shabby.

After this simple round of thinking, he felt much clearer about what he needed to do next.

Before long, thanks to the passive effect of his Self-Healing Physique, his injuries had basically healed.

At the same time, Old Skin's passive ability seemed to have triggered. He felt that his skin had become even tougher.

If he were in a game world, the words +1 Defense would probably have appeared above his head.

After returning to Bitter Bamboo Peak, Zhou Feng also received the protection fee sent over by Qian Shang.

This was also the first time he had collected protection fees.

"Hmm? This much stuff?"

Because he had never collected protection fees before, he did not know exactly how much they were supposed to be.

However, he still had a fairly good understanding of the value of certain things.

For example, spirit stones were absolute hard currency in the Inner Sect.

A single spirit stone was enough for a Qi Induction Realm cultivator to cultivate for three days.

Unlike drawing in the scattered spiritual energy between heaven and earth, the spiritual energy within spirit stones had accumulated over many years and was extremely gentle.

It was also very convenient to absorb, unlike the violent spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

Thus, cultivating with spirit stones was several times faster than cultivating without them.

Because of this effect, spirit stones had directly become currency.

Taking an ordinary Inner Sect disciple as an example, their monthly allowance was roughly three spirit stones, enough for nine days of cultivation.

Yet Qian Shang had actually sent over ten spirit stones!

One had to know that this was merely part of the protection fee, and there would be more every month afterward.

Could such a tiny shop really earn so many spirit stones?

"This is an Origin Blood Pill? And some Blood Pills as well?"

Zhou Feng suddenly realized that the shop owner seemed to have gone all out.

These things should amount to most of a shop's profits, right?

After deducting daily expenses, there would not be much left.

At that thought, he felt that he ought to keep an eye on Shopkeeper Qian's store.

The man had paid such a heavy price. Taking the money without doing anything was not Zhou Feng's style.

Now that he had cultivation resources, Zhou Feng naturally continued cultivating.

Although he could raise his cultivation by devouring Demon Devouring Gus,

he could not neglect his everyday cultivation.

If he relied solely on devouring Demon Devouring Gus to raise his cultivation while doing no cultivation at all in daily life,

then he would truly have fallen onto the demonic path.

Right now, he only had one foot on the demonic path. He had not truly fallen onto it.

Over at the marketplace, Qian Shang had also changed the sign outside his shop.

As a result, Zhao Wu and Jia Ju, who had once been Qian Shang's backer, both learned that Qian Shang had changed backers.

This left both Zhao Wu and Jia Ju unhappy.

Zhao Wu was unhappy because someone had cut him off. He had finally found an opportunity to bring a shop under his wing.

And now someone had actually cut him off?

Besides, why did that name sound somewhat familiar?

"This person... it was actually him?"

When Zhao Wu learned that the one who had cut him off was Zhou Feng, he was instantly stunned.

He had never imagined that a brat who had crawled out of the Gu Cultivation Den could grow to this extent.

He was now directly competing with him for shops in the marketplace?

Had those Starving Ghosts of Bitter Bamboo Peak not made a move?

"Courting death! The Martial Arts Tournament is in just a few days. I'd like to see exactly what this Zhou Feng is capable of!"

Zhao Wu hated this fellow who had repeatedly cut him off to the bone.

Once at Zhao Jun's place, where he had even lost his Storage Bag.

Then once at Xiong Dan's place, which had cost him a Qi Induction Realm subordinate.

And now this time, Zhou Feng had ruined his plans three times in total.

No matter how good-tempered someone was, they could not endure that.

Thus, Zhao Wu planned to teach Zhou Feng a proper lesson at the Martial Arts Tournament a few days later.

And in a few days, it would also be the day Zhao Wu officially made his name.

Aside from Zhao Wu, Jia Ju was also extremely enraged. Though he was injured, he was not someone to be bullied.

A brat in the Qi Induction Realm actually dared to steal his protection fees?

At the Martial Arts Tournament, he would see just how capable this Zhou Feng truly was.

In that instant, Zhou Feng had drawn the attention of both men.