Poison Sand Palm Reaches Perfection (1 / 2)

"Shan’er, go play in the courtyard by yourself..."

Leaving the little girl to play in the courtyard, Zhao Er ground the teeth and Poison Gland into powder, then carried it into a small room off to the side.

The room was a temporary structure that sheltered him from wind and rain and contained a cooking stove. This was where Zhao Er practiced. Since many things inside were poisonous, he was normally the only one who entered.

First, he stripped off his clothes and put them in a cabinet nearby. Then he lit the stove and lifted the lid from the pot on top. The iron pot was filled to the brim with fine, dark sand.

Once it heated up, Zhao Er poured the powdered Poison Gland into the fine sand. Without using a spatula, he thrust his hands into the poisonous sand and used them to stir-fry it.

Mix river sand with poisonous substances and steam it into poisonous sand, thrust bare hands into it or strike it daily, and combine this with a special breathing method—that was the entirety of Poison Sand Palm.

It had no combat moves or method for condensing qi and blood. It was merely the crudest of basic cultivation arts, using poisonous substances to temper the body.

"Swish, swish, swish..."

Holding a horse stance, Zhao Er thrust his hands into the poisonous sand and pulled them out again, alternating left and right over and over.

As the firewood burned beneath the iron pot, the temperature rose. The Poison Gland heated up inside, and a faint, rank odor began to emerge.

"Hiss..."

Once the temperature was about right, Zhao Er picked up a small bowl from beside him. It held rice wine he had prepared earlier. He splashed it into the pot, producing a soft hiss and a thin mist.

The wine activated the poison and helped mix the poisonous powder with the sand. Zhao Er set down the bowl, then sped up the repeated plunging and withdrawal of his hands. At the same time, he opened his mouth and breathed in a special rhythm, drawing wisps of mist into his lungs with each breath.

As he inhaled the poisonous vapor, Zhao Er distinctly felt his blood boil. His body temperature rose, and his arms felt as though they had been plunged into boiling water. All the aching, numbness, and itching vanished at that moment, leaving only pain.

Once the mist was exhausted and the poisonous sand had been stir-fried dry, Zhao Er poured in more rice wine.

He repeated this seven times. The stove fire had gone out, and only when his palms and wrists had turned black tinged with red did Zhao Er stop practicing.

Zhao Er covered the iron pot with its lid, washed himself clean with fresh water, and put his clothes back on from the cabinet. Text appeared before his eyes again.

"Event completed. Beginning settlement!"

"Settlement event: Cultivation"

"Cultivated art: Poison Sand Palm"

"Experience gained: Poison Sand Palm +1"

[Cultivation: Not yet initiated]

[Art: Poison Sand Palm lv. Perfection (98+1+1/100)]

[Skill: Trapping lv.2 (142+1/500)]

[Poison Resistance (passive): lv.1 (95+1/100)]

[Available skill points: 0]

Poison Sand Palm has reached perfection just like that. If I had a method for condensing qi and blood, I could cultivate them and become a true martial artist.

Looking at the panel before him, Zhao Er felt both joy and worry.

He was glad that his practice had just added one proficiency point to the panel. Together with the point awarded by the settlement, it had upgraded his Poison Sand Palm.

That meant he had completed the body-tempering stage. All he needed was a method for condensing qi and blood, and he could break through directly to become a martial artist.

Yet that very same reason worried him.

Zhao Er had specifically asked his elder brother, Zhao Da, to find this Poison Sand Palm technique for him in the county town.

After awakening his cheat, Zhao Er's first thought had naturally been to cultivate the Martial Path. But a quick calculation of all the expenses involved showed that he would need more than fifty taels of silver.

Even with the Settlement Panel cutting his cultivation expenses by at least half, he would still need more than thirty taels.

That was simply not a sum his family could afford.

But the appearance of Poison Resistance, combined with their location on the outskirts of the Clear Radiance Mountains, where the forests had no shortage of poisonous creatures, gave Zhao Er a different plan: take an unorthodox path, using poisonous creatures as martial cultivation resources and practicing poison-related martial arts.

Cultivating Poison Sand Palm was Zhao Er's attempt at putting that plan into practice.

Now he had confirmed that the Settlement Panel's increases to his Poison Resistance allowed him to ignore the side effects of such unorthodox cultivation methods.

But Poison Sand Palm was far too low-grade, and its body tempering focused only on his palms and arms. Although he had now cultivated it to the point where he could break through,

if he used it to condense qi and blood, his odds of success would be minuscule. Even if his Settlement Panel allowed him to disregard those odds and ultimately condense qi and blood to become a true martial artist,

his strength would likely fall short even of martial artists who practiced Ginseng Spirit Art, let alone orthodox martial artists who tempered their entire bodies.

That meant he would become the weakest of true martial artists, and the improvement to his strength would certainly be limited.

It would have been fine if he could keep leveling it up; continual improvement could make up for its shortcomings. But this was the crudest of cultivation methods. Merely filling its lv.1 experience had brought it to perfection, leaving no room for further improvement.

I have to switch cultivation arts. I wonder whether my eldest brother has found a suitable one for me. If not, I'll have to see how much the dried centipedes can sell for...

Looking at Poison Sand Palm on the panel, which could no longer improve, Zhao Er began considering selling the dried centipedes he had stockpiled lately.

He had to obtain a new cultivation art, but he could not stake everything on a single source. If his eldest brother had found nothing, he would have to find another way.

Stepping outside and shutting the side room's door, Zhao Er glanced around the courtyard. Little Zhao Shan was nowhere in sight, but cooking smoke was rising above the roof at the back.

Zhao Er went to the kitchen and found the little girl sitting beside the stove, tending the firewood while scratching at the ground with a small stick.

Zhao Er sniffed, catching the scents of burning wood and rice cooking in the pot.

"Second Brother, I've already put the rice on!"

Seeing Zhao Er enter, little Zhao Shan looked up at him, her face plainly asking for praise.

Though young, Zhao Shan was considerate. Every day, when the time came, she would take the initiative to put the rice on.

"Mm, very good. Keep an eye on the fire. I'll cook the rabbit."

Zhao Er patted the little girl's head, then busied himself in the kitchen.

By the time dusk began to fall, his parents had returned from the fields, and Zhao Er had finished preparing dinner. Of course, these everyday chores did not count as settlement events, so they yielded no rewards.

By the last lingering rays of daylight, the family sat around the table and began eating a reasonably sumptuous dinner.

"Father, Mother, I've arranged to go to the county town tomorrow with Tiger and his father. I'll take all the centipedes along and sell them."

At the dinner table, Zhao Dazhu and Zhang Xuan'e had been chatting about village trifles when Zhao Er suddenly spoke up.

"Sure! It really is time to sell another batch. I worked it out—if we sell them all, we should get close to five taels of silver. Together with our savings, that should give us ten taels, right?"

Zhao Dazhu was not surprised, but his face brimmed with smiles as he spoke. In the past, the family had always struggled to make ends meet. There had never been anything left over.

Ten taels of silver—that was something they would not even have dared dream of before.

"Yes, I haven't touched a single coin from the centipedes our second son sold the last few times. It adds up to five taels."

"Then go find the village matchmaker tomorrow and ask whether there are any suitable girls in the nearby villages. Our second son isn't that young anymore. It's time he married. Once he's married, he shouldn't go into the mountains anymore. It's too dangerous."

“All right! I hear there's a girl in neighboring Li Family Bay who's very pretty and virtuous...”

Before Zhao Er could say anything more, Zhao Dazhu and Zhang Xuan'e had already begun discussing finding him a wife.

"I don't want to get married right now. I want to keep practicing martial arts!"

As Zhao Er spoke again, their conversation stopped abruptly. Silence fell over the dinner table, leaving only the sound of little Zhao Shan steadily shoveling rice into her mouth.