Cold Toad Art

Ten minutes later.

Cao Jinxing walked out of the dark room with his saber, locked the door behind him, and began searching his memories for the room of the third chief, Wang Xuanying.

Wang Xuanying is a disciple of the Luoyang Golden Blade Gate. He never studied poison arts, so his Heart-Piercing Poison Insect must have been spoils from an escort robbery...

Someone who neither practiced poison arts nor knew how to control insects could not carry many of them without risking a backlash. There would be no reason for him to carry all the antidotes around, either.

There must be some left!

Cao Jinxing set off at once.

Perhaps they trusted the mountain road's traps too much. The three chiefs had taken most of their men to fortify Hoof Pass, leaving pitifully few bandits behind in the stronghold.

But Cao Jinxing did not let his guard down.

He cautiously used the Lightning Movement Step, skirted the crowds, and slipped silently up to Wang Xuanying's quarters.

Two bandits sat at a stone table in the courtyard, drinking, eating meat, and chatting.

"What are we even guarding? This stronghold's impregnable. Who could break in? Honestly! And we're not allowed to let anyone near it... You think the third chief's hiding a woman in there?"

"Bullshit! The first chief only cares about martial arts and won't touch women. The second chief couldn't care less about them, either. If neither of his elder brothers wants one, what would the third chief need to hide? Who would he be hiding her from?"

"Fair point..."

"Besides, the first and second chiefs know about it. I've seen them go inside. Probably something like venomous insects. Better be careful."

"Venomous insects? Hiss! Like the one that Embroidered Uniform Guard spy swallowed? Since when did the third chief start playing with poison?"

"No idea. He's been like this ever since we robbed that Longwind Escort Agency shipment a month ago..."

"An escort robbery?"

Cao Jinxing stepped out from behind the wall, looked at the two bandits, and smiled. "What escort robbery?"

"It's you?!"

Both bandits recoiled in shock. One immediately grabbed his saber, while the other opened his mouth to shout for help.

With a casual flick, Cao Jinxing drove his saber flat into the shouting bandit's throat, choking off his cry. Then, without losing momentum, the blade sliced his entire head off!

The head rolled to the ground like a ball, and blood gushed out!

The saber traced a bloody arc through the air and buried itself in the wooden door, all the way to the hilt!

That terrifying, overwhelming strength left the surviving bandit stunned. His hand froze halfway toward his saber, and his face turned deathly white.

"I'll ask again. What escort robbery?"

"It was... it, it..."

The bandit's teeth chattered. He stammered for ages without managing a single complete sentence.

Cao Jinxing waited patiently. Only after another while did the man finish his halting account.

A month earlier, at the invitation of Boss Zhang of the Great Circulation Money Shop, the Longwind Escort Agency had escorted five thousand taels of silver to somewhere in Western Hunan.

Unfortunately, the Crouching Tiger Gang had caught wind of it as the shipment passed through Binzhou.

How could they turn down silver delivered right to their doorstep?

All three chiefs had gone out that day, slaughtered the entire escort party, and returned in triumph!

News of the incident had spread far and wide. It had prompted the prefect of Binzhou to launch another extermination campaign, suffer another crushing defeat, and finally seek help from the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Cao Jinxing knew about it, too.

But one detail differed from his intelligence.

According to the bandit, that raid had not been a resounding victory, but a bloody, costly one!

Not only had all eighty-odd elite bandits accompanying them been wiped out, but Wang Xuanying and Han Dang had also been severely wounded, while Yan Baihu had suffered seven broken ribs...

It was almost unbelievable!

The escort master leading that shipment had only been at the peak of Houtian. How could a three-on-one fight have ended like that?

The rank-and-file bandits had found it strange, too, but the three chiefs had been tight-lipped about it, so no one dared ask much.

In any case, from that day onward, no one had been allowed near the third chief's courtyard.

"Interesting..."

Cao Jinxing's mind raced as he lowered his head in thought. There must have been a core disciple of the Five Poisons Cult in the party... Maybe the silver was just a cover, and escorting that disciple was the real mission... Then he must have been in pretty bad shape, if he needed an escort party to conceal his movements... An injured peak Houtian fighter couldn't have hurt them this badly in a two-on-three fight... Anyone who could break seven ribs through the Nine-Layer Golden Bell Shield probably had martial skills even stronger than his poison arts... Putting it all together, they most likely ran into a severely wounded Xiantian expert... Which means, inside this room...

Cao Jinxing looked toward the door.

The bandit beside him turned to flee while his attention was elsewhere. Without even looking back, Cao Jinxing flicked a chopstick into the back of his head!

The bandit collapsed.

"Let's take a look."

Cao Jinxing strode forward, pulled out his saber, and pushed open the door, raising his voice. "Whoever you are, I'm only here for medicine. I want nothing from you. It's best if we leave each other alone. Don't force me to burn this room down!"

He looked around.

The room was large and bare, with only a few tables, chairs, and beds scattered about. Everything else was empty space.

There was no severely wounded or imprisoned person.

Nor was there any antidote.

Goddammit!

Cao Jinxing cursed inwardly. The room was too clean. There was not even a bottle or jar that looked as though it might contain an antidote.

"Do you take me for an idiot? If there's really nothing here, what the hell are you guarding?"

Cao Jinxing sneered. Standing in the doorway, he swept his sharp gaze over every inch of the room like an iron comb.

Soon, he spotted a floor tile beneath a table whose wear differed slightly from the others. The dirt around its edges had fallen away, likely because it was frequently lifted.

He went over and pried it up, revealing a rope beneath it. When he pulled hard on the rope, the wooden wall in the northeast corner opened into a hole only half a person's height.

Saber in hand, Cao Jinxing charged inside.

Beyond it lay a damp, gloomy dungeon.

A cross-shaped wooden frame stood directly ahead. A man hung from it in iron chains, his head lowered. Judging by his gray-white hair, he was quite old, and wounds covered his body.

He seemed to have stopped breathing.

Cao Jinxing stayed fully on guard.

Whether the man was playing dead or truly dead, he certainly was not going near him.

Looking around, he finally spotted a table and chair against the dungeon's western wall. White sheets of paper littered the floor around them, covered in black writing and marked with large red crosses.

The black characters were neat, while the red crosses were wild.

It was easy to guess that someone had first written the black text, found something unsatisfactory, then vented his anger by crossing it out in red.

On the table sat writing brushes, ink, paper, and an inkstone, along with a red porcelain bottle and a black wooden box containing a Heart-Piercing Poison Insect. He could hear the insects chewing on the wood inside.

Cao Jinxing breathed a sigh of relief.

He had finally found it.

He walked over briskly and saw dozens of strange golden insects writhing and tangling together inside the box. He quickly looked away and picked up the porcelain bottle to inspect it.

An antidote that kills the insects... To be safe, I should test it on these bugs first...

He poured out a pill and sniffed it. Nothing seemed unusual; instead, it gave off a pleasant medicinal fragrance. Then he crushed a little of it and sprinkled the powder onto the venomous insects.

Screee-

After a shrill screech, the insects it touched immediately went rigid and stopped moving.

The other insects caught the scent and immediately crawled aside.

Harmless to hold, but fatal to insects on contact. This should be it... Too bad I can't analyze it. I'll have to take the risk...

Cao Jinxing's expression shifted uncertainly. I don't know whether those three bastards can control the insect. If they make the thing in my belly bite me during a fight, I won't stand a chance...

He gritted his teeth, took out a pill, and swallowed it, secretly circulating the Origin Embracing Art as a precaution.

Fortunately.

In fewer than thirty breaths, Cao Jinxing distinctly felt the faint sensation of something foreign in his abdomen disappear. The Heart-Piercing Poison Insect was dead!

"Whew..."

Cao Jinxing let out a long breath. With that hidden danger removed, his mood improved considerably, and his gaze happened to fall on the white sheets scattered across the floor.

On closer inspection, every sheet had been carefully numbered. One had noticeably larger lettering: just three characters that filled the entire page.

-Cold Toad Art.

"Just as I thought."

The only thing those three could covet was the martial art this Xiantian expert had used to thrash them despite his severe injuries.

But why destroy it after obtaining it?

Had this expert tricked them with a fake, or... were those three idiots unable to practice it?

Cao Jinxing grew interested.

He found the first page and skimmed it. It seemed to contain the general principles, but felt inferior to the Origin Embracing Art, with too much empty, lofty nonsense. Then he picked up the second page. Hmm? It seemed rather interesting-it was actually ice-aligned. The third page seemed to corroborate the first. Then came the fourth, the fifth...

Other people read more carefully as they went, afraid to miss a single word. He was the exact opposite, reading faster and faster.

Because he had studied the first page carefully, he soon discovered that every subsequent page contained something that corresponded to it.

He even found quite a few errors in this "fake manual." The expert had probably planted them to sabotage the three chiefs. Hidden in inconspicuous places, they ran completely counter to the original method. Practicing it that way would be pure suicide!

Only the general principles on the first page are free of errors...

He thought to himself, The whole text describes ways to condense true qi and store power. It's like a spring-the more you compress it normally, the more explosive force it releases in battle... Long-term practice can condense true qi and transform it into energy of utmost yin and cold... This Cold Toad Art seems like a pretty good internal cultivation method. Should I give it a try?

He knew only the Origin Embracing Art and had extremely limited knowledge of internal cultivation methods. He had no idea what grade this one was, only that it was far stronger than the Origin Embracing Art.

On impulse, he instinctively circulated his energy along the pathways described in the method. A surge of cold immediately radiated outward from his body!

Frost flowers formed beneath his feet!

The temperature in the dungeon plummeted!

"Stop, stop, stop!"

Cao Jinxing hurriedly halted. He suddenly remembered the prisoner nearby, whose condition he still did not know. He quickly dropped the pages, picked up the box of venomous insects, and headed out.

Just before leaving.

He glanced back at the old man, who reminded him of himself when he had first arrived in this world-isolated and helpless...

After a moment's thought, he flung his saber over. With a sharp metallic clang, the blade shattered the chain around the old man's left hand.

"Consider that repayment for your cultivation method."

With that, Cao Jinxing quickly put distance between them, rushed out of the dungeon, and vanished.

The next second.

The "corpse's" eyes shifted slightly, then opened.

He smiled.

A powerful surge of frost spread from his heart and lungs into every limb and bone. Freezing winds streamed outward, setting his clothes fluttering!

Even dressed in rags, he radiated the bearing of a grandmaster!

At the same time, the true qi within him rapidly climbed: Houtian realm, Xiantian realm, Tongyou realm, Faxiang realm...

The wounds covering his body healed instantly!

In the blink of an eye, the dungeon became an ice cavern!

Suddenly, the old man frowned slightly. For some unknown reason, his cultivation fell again. He sighed.

"Still a little short... But there was an unexpected reward."

He looked in the direction Cao Jinxing had left, his smile warm and gentle, as though he had found a treasure lost for a thousand years. Softly, he said, "Silly child, you can't get away now. Hahahahaha..."

He burst into wild laughter.

That laughter rolled on in overlapping waves, lingering without end!