Free Web NovelChapter 103: Chapter 102: Poisonous Seed, Minor Accomplishment
On the third floor of the garden villa.
Fu Juemin changed into a set of training clothes and sat lazily in a white wicker chair in the sunroom.
His eyes were half-closed, making it seem as if he were taking a nap on a winter afternoon, but in reality, he was studying his character panel.
’I can’t upgrade the Pharmacist Skill.’
In the Cultivation Technique section, after he had just obtained one Skill Point, the familiar golden "+" appeared behind every technique he had learned—with the sole exception of the [Pharmacist Buddha’s Glazed Body].
’Is it because the [Pharmacist Buddha’s Glazed Body] is one of the four top-tier body-strengthening techniques and has too high a grade? Or is the gap between Mastery and Great Success for the Pharmacist Skill too wide, so one Skill Point isn’t enough?’
Fu Juemin mused.
Previously, he had used only one Skill Point to push the [Eight Extremes Bone Forging Skill] from Mastery to Great Success. So, he had naturally assumed that reaching Great Success in the Pharmacist Skill would also only require one point. However, the additional attribute boosts from each realm of the two techniques were worlds apart. It didn’t seem right for their upgrade costs to be the same.
It was just like how he had recently discovered that after his Basic Attributes reached 10, each subsequent increase required more than one Attribute Point.
Just a moment ago, his attribute Energy Slot had filled up, but he couldn’t add any points to [Life] at all.
’It’s the same principle as Martial Dao cultivation. The further you go, the more resources you need...’
Since he couldn’t upgrade the Pharmacist Skill for now, his only option was to improve his other techniques.
He had no intention of saving the point. He was new to Shenghai. While calling his situation precarious would be an exaggeration, he was still in an unfamiliar place with no connections. It was best to convert resources into strength as soon as possible.
Take the Painted Ghost from Fuxi Village, for example. Although dealing with it had gone exceptionally smoothly, that creature was an anomaly. The moment he released the aura of his Demon Soul Seed, it was scared witless and didn’t even try to resist. But what if the next enemy he encountered was a troublemaker who, despite being afraid, was still bold enough to attack?
’I’ll upgrade first. Since this place is called the city of Demon Fiends, there’s surely no shortage of evil spirits. Sooner or later, I’ll save up enough Skill Points for a big upgrade...’
As Fu Juemin thought this, his gaze swept over the cultivation technique list, and he quickly selected the [Five Aggregates Profound Slaughter Technique] as his target.
In truth, he didn’t have much of a choice. Following the principle of prioritizing higher-grade techniques, only the [Five Aggregates Profound Slaughter Technique] and the [Pharmacist Master Purifying Light Saber] were worthy of this Skill Point.
The latter would be upgraded along with the Pharmacist Skill, so that left only the [Five Aggregates Profound Slaughter Technique].
The [Five Aggregates Profound Slaughter Technique] had always been a great help to Fu Juemin. It could break a Tongxuan Qi Membrane, resonate with his Snake Demon Soul Seed, and pose a threat to evil spirits and demons. Upgrading it was a no-lose situation.
Fu Juemin hesitated no longer and directly spent his one Skill Point on the [Five Aggregates Profound Slaughter Technique].
The golden "+" disappeared. As the words "Entry Level" after [Five Aggregates Profound Slaughter Technique] quietly changed to "Mastery," a torrent of memories flooded his mind.
In an instant, countless images of himself tempering his body with poison and cultivating arduously flashed through Fu Juemin’s mind.
Every scene was filled with snakes—dense swarms of venomous vipers. In a trance, he thought he could even see the Black-Scaled Snake Demon from Taohuang Village, slowly slithering among the tens of thousands of snakes, coiling around his body inch by inch.
The next second, an indescribable, intense pain erupted from the crevices of every bone in his body, as if countless tiny vipers were frantically gnawing at his marrow.
The white wicker chair beneath him instantly shattered. Fu Juemin fell to the ground, the color of his lips and fingernails rapidly turning a deathly blue-purple.
Immediately after, the blood vessels under the skin on the inside of his forearms bulged, like dark green roots snaking their way upward.
In the blink of an eye, the Poison Meridians crawled past his elbows, and the sliver of "Innate Primordial Qi" he had accumulated over the past few days was rapidly consumed.
Acting on instinct, Fu Juemin struggled to his feet and rushed into his bedroom next door. He grabbed bottle after bottle of tonics from a bedside cabinet and desperately poured them into his mouth as if they were free.
Blood streamed from his nose, and his skin continuously shifted between a deathly dark-blue and a pale white. His entire body seemed to be rapidly alternating between being poisoned and being healed.
Finally, the Poison Meridians from both arms reached his heart and began to converge.
BOOM!
Fu Juemin felt a ringing in his ears, followed by a strange chill like that of a high fever. In an instant, his entire body was drenched in a cold sweat that reeked of a heavy, fishy smell....
When all the strange phenomena subsided, Fu Juemin collapsed limply to the floor, as exhausted and weak as if he had just recovered from a major illness. Even his face had become much paler.
’And this was with an upgrade from adding points. If I had to cultivate step-by-step, god knows how much I would have had to suffer...’
Fu Juemin couldn’t help but sigh with emotion.
Feeling some of his strength return, he struggled to his feet, eager to test the effects of the upgraded technique.
He wasn’t sure if it was because of the foundation he’d laid during the Entry Level or the influence of the Snake Demon Soul Seed in his body, but the first Poisonous Seed condensed after the [Five Aggregates Profound Slaughter Technique] reached Small Success was surprisingly the Snake Form.
He could now clearly perceive a stream of exceptionally pure Poisonous Killing Qi, far surpassing what was in his Three Hand Yin Meridians before, gathering at his heart. With a slight thought, this Poisonous Killing Qi dispersed slightly, and a web-like network of black meridians appeared under the skin over his heart.
At the Entry Level of the [Five Aggregates Profound Slaughter Technique], Fu Juemin’s Poisonous Killing Qi could only travel to his palms and the tips of his ten fingers.
After reaching Small Success, the area it could cover was much, much larger.
Raising his palm to the sunlight, Fu Juemin could faintly see a barely perceptible, transparent distortion at the edge of his hand.
’This is basically equivalent to the Vitality that only a Blood Gate Martial Artist possesses...’
Normally, Vitality could only be generated from Qi Blood after a Martial Artist broke through the Blood Barrier. This was the key reason why Blood Gate Martial Artists were many times stronger than Martial Artists who had not yet broken through.
When Vitality grew strong enough to cover the entire body, forming a Qi Membrane, that was the so-called "Tongxuan" realm.
However, the [Five Aggregates Profound Slaughter Technique] used external forces to allow its practitioner to ignore the gap between realms and possess this ability ahead of time. Moreover, due to the inherent poisonous effect of the Poisonous Killing Qi, the power it could unleash in a fight might be even stronger than ordinary Vitality.
’The further I progress, the more bizarre and powerful this technique becomes.’
’Once I reach the Tongxuan realm, relying on the effects of the Five Phases Poison Seed, I’ll have a huge advantage even when fighting ordinary Tongxuan Martial Artists...’
With one Poisonous Seed condensed, the [Five Aggregates Profound Slaughter Technique] was officially at the Small Success stage. The next step was to condense the other four phase-based Poisonous Seeds. When all Five Phases were united, that would be the legendary Great Success realm.
However, according to Li Tong, there have been very few people throughout history who could cultivate the [Five Aggregates Profound Slaughter Technique] to Great Success.
The main reason was that their bodies couldn’t withstand it; the vast majority died halfway through from the poison’s backlash.
’They really couldn’t handle it. Circulating the energy is equivalent to self-mutilation. Even with my Small Success Pharmacist Skill, I find it a bit strenuous...’
Fu Juemin pushed the Poisonous Seed harder, and he could clearly see a circle of meridians around his heart bulge, turning black and ferocious, like a nest of small snakes.
He was already feeling a slight discomfort from the process. In the Yin Five Elements, the Snake Phase Poison Seed belonged to the Water Element and represented the Cold-Erosion Poison. The symptom of the technique’s backlash was waves of coldness spreading through his body.
And this was under the condition that his [Life] Attribute was at 10, he had already generated a sliver of "Innate Primordial Qi," and his constitution was stronger than that of a typical practitioner at the Small Success stage of the Pharmacist Skill.
’Since a Pharmacist can control the Five Poisonous Creatures, it doesn’t make sense that the Small Success Pharmacist Skill can’t suppress the Small Success Five Poison Skills...’
Fu Juemin stroked his chin, thinking silently, ’Is the key to the problem the Five Beasts? Do all three techniques need to be cultivated in concert to achieve a perfect balance?’
For now, Fu Juemin had no leads on collecting the Five Beasts Skill.
Li Tong’s suggestion was for him to wander around the martial arts circles when he had time. He might just run into a few inheritors of the Five Beasts Skill who had opened schools to teach students.
But the problem was that the Five Beasts Skill inheritance from the previous dynasty was scattered among various branches. Searching without any clues would make his progress far too slow. freewёbnoνel.com
’Without resources and without connections, it’s really too difficult for an ordinary person to get anything done...’
Fu Juemin shook his head, stopped circulating the technique, and got up to leave the bedroom.
As he went downstairs, he glanced at his character panel again and discovered that his [Attack] Attribute had actually increased by 1 point.
Great poison is a great tonic. Reaching Small Success in the [Five Aggregates Poison Killing Skill] had caused his Qi Blood to surge as well.
It just hadn’t fully manifested yet. He wondered if, after he finished digesting this round of improvements, he could break through to Blood Refining Great Success in one go.
