The Peak Master's Summons

Chun Xiaobai stepped forward and discovered that the cultivation text originally inscribed on the wall had vanished, replaced by a portrait.

Simply put, it was a picture of a beautiful woman.

And judging by her appearance, this beauty seemed quite young.

"Hiss... why does she look a bit like that woman in red?"

He examined it carefully and discovered that, aside from a tiny bit of extra baby fat in her face, the woman in the portrait looked exactly like that woman in red!

"Son of a bitch!"

Could this be a warning to watch out for that woman?

After thinking it over, he felt that was quite possible. Otherwise, why carve her portrait here for no reason?

And so, he steeled his resolve once more.

Within ten years, I have to break through beyond Nascent Soul!

Only with that kind of divine power will I stand a chance of holding that woman off!

Then Chun Xiaobai turned sideways and continued examining the martial arts he had not finished looking through earlier.

Further along, they were all either fist techniques or kicking techniques.

Soon, he stopped beneath a diagram resembling an eagle claw technique. "Could this be some kind of Shaolin Dragon Claw Hand?"

Kicks and punches-he was proficient in all of those, but he had never actually learned a claw technique.

"Should I... give it a try?"

Since I'm already here, I might as well!

Having made up his mind, Chun Xiaobai immediately copied the first movement in the diagram, curling his right hand into a claw and reaching forward.

Yet that single movement sent a sudden tremor through his soul, and a technique called "Heaven-Rending Hand" instantly appeared in his mind.

It contained only the first level, "Rending People," with none of the subsequent levels.

"Holy shit, this technique sounds badass as hell!" Chun Xiaobai nodded repeatedly in satisfaction.

However, Rending People did not mean literally tearing someone apart alive. Instead, it targeted the weak points where the body's meridians and bones connected.

At full mastery, it could dismantle all three hundred and sixty-five bones in a person's body in an instant, tying their meridians into knots and severing them along the way.

Put simply, it was a set of tendon-separating, bone-dislocating hand techniques.

Once he learned the first diagram, all the formulas for circulating the technique appeared in his mind.

"It's this easy to learn? Just like the Martial God Art!"

As long as he copied the outward form, he could automatically comprehend its essence.

However, only the first level was here, specializing in the human body. To obtain the second level of this technique, he would most likely have to reach the little tower's second floor.

Then he looked at the second diagram.

It worked the same way: as soon as he assumed the pose, the formula and key points of the movement automatically appeared in his mind.

There were thirty-six diagrams in total, meaning thirty-six moves, corresponding to the human body's three hundred and six bones and seven hundred and twenty meridians.

The first eighteen diagrams concerned dismantling people, while the latter eighteen concerned dismantling various external objects, though these external objects appeared in his mind as arrangements of nodes.

Every mechanism and formation had corresponding nodes. By circulating the technique and gathering power in his hands, he could locate those nodes.

Half an hour later, he had learned "Rending People," the first move of Heaven-Rending Hand, and could already put what he had learned straight into practice.

"Not bad! Not bad! Now, if anyone else fails to recognize who they're dealing with, I can actually 'dismantle' them!"

"And this seems to be part of some larger technique."

Chun Xiaobai looked up overhead. The continuation of this technique was very likely one floor above.

After learning this move, he continued forward and discovered that he had reached the end, where the finger technique he had seen earlier was located.

He had no interest in finger techniques at the moment.

However, he remembered seeing a footwork technique earlier.

Soon, he arrived beneath the diagram he had seen before.

This footwork technique consisted of only three diagrams.

The figure in the first diagram leaned forward with its toes touching the ground, its bearing light and graceful. Its posture closely resembled the legendary Wave-Treading Steps, as though it might ride the wind away at any moment.

Chun Xiaobai immediately copied the pose in the first diagram, lowering his body slightly and extending his right foot forward in a diving motion.

Sure enough, that same sensation appeared again, and profound secrets of the technique instantly flooded his mind.

This was indeed a top-tier footwork technique, called "Heaven-Treading Steps."

The footwork was divided into three moves, each exquisitely ingenious and possessed of its own wonders.

First move: Treading Shadows, Thousand Traces.

Once this move was unleashed, his figure would become like a phantom, merging with the shadows.

Not only could it greatly increase his speed, but it could also conceal his aura within the shadows, making it the unrivaled method for stealth and ambush.

Second move: Cloud Ladder.

This move could form a ladder to the heavens, allowing a person to step straight into the clouds, much like the Sky-Soaring Technique.

Third move: Shrinking Land to Inches.

This was the most profound move, touching upon the rudiments of spatial laws. At full mastery, a single step could send mountains and rivers spinning backward, bringing the ends of the earth within arm's reach!

"Holy shit! This is powerful!"

Chun Xiaobai was utterly stunned.

He could sense that these three diagrams represented only the first three moves of Heaven-Treading Steps.

But if the first three moves were already this heaven-defying, there had to be even more powerful moves afterward, hidden on the little tower's higher floors.

That final move, Shrinking Land to Inches, alone was already an extraordinary Divine Ability!

Once I learn this, I can run whenever I can't win. Who the hell under heaven could catch this Great King then?

"Son of a bitch, I really underestimated this tower."

He had assumed the martial arts in this tower were all flashy, empty forms, but after following the diagrams and learning them, they proved anything but ordinary.

They could be said to utterly trounce those Spirit Techniques and cultivation methods.

Chun Xiaobai muttered happily, then settled his mind and began devoting himself fully to comprehending the first move's formula.

After mastering the first diagram, he continued on to comprehend the second, "Cloud-Ladder Traverse."

Finally, when he turned his gaze toward the third diagram, he discovered that its difficulty far exceeded that of the first two.

He spent more than an hour on it alone, which showed just how complex it was.

Chun Xiaobai had wanted to test its effects when his head suddenly grew heavy.

He knew this meant he had reached the limit of his time inside the little tower.

This time, he had entered of his own accord and received none of the special treatment he had enjoyed on his previous visits. His allotted time was actually even shorter than before.

Rather than wait for an invisible force to kick him out, Chun Xiaobai left on his own.

The scene before his eyes shifted, and he appeared inside the Cultivation Room.

Then another feeling of utter weakness washed over him, and his stomach growled with hunger.

He turned his hand over and took out another thirty bottles, downing their contents like beans and finishing them all in no time.

After he let out a satisfied burp, the exhaustion rapidly faded.

Happy occasions lifted the spirits.

Having gained two ultimate techniques in one go, Chun Xiaobai found himself unable to sit still. He desperately wanted to find someone to practice on and beat up a couple of people to celebrate.

"Maybe... I should head out tonight and pull a job?"

Still, he decided to hold off for now.

The woman he had seen in the peak master's residence today was almost certainly the peak master of Green Bamboo Peak.

He had seen every inch of her naked body, so she would probably...

Just as that thought crossed his mind, he heard Fang Yuan muttering outside the Cultivation Room, apparently saying something about the "peak master"...

His heart lurched.

"Holy shit! Are they really hunting down a peeping tom?"

He yanked open the Cultivation Room's door.

Fang Yuan immediately came up to him. "Great King, Great King! Have you received the notice? The Peak Master has summoned all of us disciples at the summit of Green Bamboo Peak. We have to head to the Peak Master Hall immediately!"

"Son of a bitch! Does this woman really have such a bad temper? This Great King only took one little peek at her..."