Chapter 393: Not Playing by the Rules

“Golden Finger?” Wu Di’s breathing quickened. The name alone suggested something extraordinary, and he was determined to capture Zuan and seize this martial arts manual.

Martial arts techniques and cultivation methods were equally rare in this world.

He had toiled dutifully for so long in the Wu family, yet apart from some primeval stones and medicinal offerings, he had only received a few mediocre martial arts manuals. For a Sixth-Grade expert like him, those low-tier techniques were utterly useless.

Thus, for years, he had been limited to using the Flame Blade, a technique he acquired through an early adventure. With age, his cultivation had stagnated. To enhance his combat prowess, he desperately needed to practice more martial arts. Just when he was lamenting his inability to find any, Zuan unexpectedly delivered himself to him.

Heaven truly favored him; knowing his need, it had not only brought his enemy before him but also a high-tier martial art, and even two Grandmasters’ storage pouches.

He felt that all the luck he had accumulated over a century of life didn't compare to what he had today.

With a surge of excitement, he lunged at Zuan again, his blade whistling through the air, creating a dense flurry of afterimages. He was extremely pleased with his performance today, feeling as if he were fighting at 120% of his full strength.

He was confident that, currently, across Moonbright City, only the City Lord, the Headmaster, and a few patriarchs of major families could possibly contend with him; everyone else was no match.

Zuan dared not be careless. He swiftly employed the Sunflower Phantasm movement technique, dodging attacks while looking for opportunities to counter.

The two exchanged blows for nearly a hundred moves.

During this time, Zuan not only adapted to his current speed and strength but also thoroughly mastered the various finger techniques of the Sunflower Finger.

Wu Di, on the other hand, grew increasingly alarmed with each exchange. Initially, he had a clear upper hand, but Zuan, like an unkillable cockroach, always managed to hold on.

Later, Zuan’s finger techniques visibly matured, gradually turning the tide and leaving Wu Di struggling to keep up.

The more he fought, the more dismayed he became, finally realizing that Zuan was using him to practice his moves.

Rage from Wu Di +513!

He knew he couldn't continue like this, or he risked an embarrassing defeat.

He changed his strategy, deciding to overwhelm skill with brute force.

He plunged his long saber into the ground, and a wave of scorching flames erupted from him as the epicenter, spreading rapidly outwards.

The flames writhed like fiery serpents, consuming everything in their path.

“You rely on your movement technique to dodge, do you? Let’s see you dodge this indiscriminate attack!” Wu Di scoffed.

Zuan’s expression changed. Seeing no escape, he quickly summoned Tai’e and unleashed the Snowflake Divine Sword.

Although it lacked the surrounding ice-sealing power of Chu Chuyan’s version, snow began to fall, and the intense cold was enough to counteract the incoming flames.

“Snowflake Divine Sword!” Wu Di’s pupils contracted slightly. He remembered this clearly; it was the technique that had defeated him when wielded by Chu Chuyan.

Hmph, he thought, I refuse to believe you possess the same power as Chu Chuyan! Besides, even if Chu Chuyan herself were here, he wouldn’t lose to her again.

Wu Di’s heart burned with indignation. The flames on his saber surged, and he roared, “Sweeping Army Slash!”

He then raised his saber above his head, forming a fiery blade tens of meters long, and brought it down fiercely upon Zuan.

Zuan quickly executed Sunflower Phantasm (Modified), instantly splitting into two figures that dodged to either side.

A cold smirk flashed across Wu Di’s lips. His move wasn’t that easy to evade.

Activating his internal energy, the descending fiery blade instantly split into over a dozen smaller blades, all striking downwards simultaneously.

If the initial strike was a linear attack, these dozen-plus blades falling together transformed into a fan-shaped assault. No matter how profound the opponent’s movement technique, escape was impossible.

With a thunderous boom, a large area of land before them turned to scorched earth. The green grass had vanished, revealing the yellow soil beneath, littered with shattered rocks. The air was thick with the smell of burning.

“Burned to ashes?” Wu Di sneered. “That was too easy for him.”

He felt a pang of regret, lamenting that he wouldn't get the “Golden Finger” manual. However, considering Zuan’s astonishing combat prowess, he knew he couldn’t have held back earlier.

“You’re quite dishonorable, aren’t you? You shout ‘Sweeping Army Slash,’ but what you actually used was ‘Forceful Mount Hua Split’?”

At that moment, an exasperated voice suddenly spoke from behind him.

Wu Di was horrified. He swiftly turned to slash, but his saber was only halfway up when a finger jabbed his back. His body instantly went limp, and his vision plunged into darkness.

His last thought was: "How did this guy get behind me?"

Zuan was panting heavily. A Sixth-Grade cultivator was indeed formidable. If not for Queen Sister’s intensified training, which allowed him to manifest a third figure, he might have truly been killed by Wu Di's previous attack.

Thus, Zuan had held nothing back, seizing the chance to directly strike Wu Di’s vital point with the “Sunflower Finger.” He hadn't expected Wu Di to be so fragile, dying from a single poke.

If he had known, he would have used less force, allowing him to slowly accumulate more rage points.

However, considering that Wu Di had served his purpose as a training dummy and held no further value, Zuan quickly felt much better.

As Zuan regulated his somewhat chaotic breathing, he replayed the details of the recent battle in his mind.

He had fought powerful opponents before, but those encounters usually relied on unexpected advantages provided by the Keyboard System. This was his first time defeating an adversary fair and square, relying solely on his cultivation and martial skills.

After a long while, having recovered, Zuan approached Wu Di’s body and retrieved the storage pouches belonging to Old Man Mi and Wei Dan.

Suddenly, his hand brushed against something hard in Wu Di’s tunic. He pulled it out to find a wrapped bundle containing various bottles and jars.

Wu Di didn't possess a spatial storage pouch; such spatial artifacts were quite rare in this world. Even as a Sixth-Grade expert, Wu Di wasn’t qualified to own one.

Opening the bundle, he saw that the hard objects were indeed medicinal bottles, clearly containing common healing remedies. Having grown accustomed to Divine Doctor Ji’s spiritual elixirs, these were completely unimpressive.

Zuan continued to search his body, whistling to himself as he rummaged. “You don’t want your corpse left exposed in the wilderness, do you, brother? Hand over all your banknotes. If you have a few hundred, I can even arrange for you to be neighbors with two Grandmasters. What a great opportunity! Underground, you can even ask those two big shots for advice on cultivation.”

“Huh, there’s nothing? Even one would be good! A single banknote can save you from loss or deception. Good heavens, there’s not even one banknote? You pauper!”

“Oh, what’s this?”

Zuan’s face showed indignation, but eventually, he found two tightly wrapped books.

One of the booklets had three large characters on its cover: “Flame Blade.”

My goodness, what’s your connection to Kumārajīva?

He had to admit, although Wu Di was a despicable person, his martial arts technique was quite flashy. If he could master the Flame Blade to the point of wielding it bare-handed, it would be even more impressive.

When venturing out, the power of a martial art isn't as important as its flair!

He eagerly flipped it open, only for his heart to sink. To cultivate this martial art, one needed to be an awakened fire-elemental ability user.

Zuan had no fire abilities, so he regretfully had to give up on it.

Suddenly, he noticed a mention in the manual: this was a growth-type cultivation method. The power of its techniques was directly correlated with the user's fire ability; the stronger and rarer one's fire ability, the greater the power of the same techniques.

Zuan realized why Wu Di, that unlucky fellow, always lost: his fire was merely the most common type. If someone like Pei Mianman, with her special black flames, were to use this technique, its power would be magnified countless times.

“Alright, I’ll keep it. Even if I can’t use it myself, I can give it to Big Manman in the future,” Zuan mused, tucking the Flame Blade manual into his Glazed Pearl.

Next, he looked at the second book, which had four ancient characters on its cover: “Primeval Gathering Ancient Scroll.”

“Oh?”

Zuan opened it and found it was a book on how to refine pills.

Unfortunately, it was an incomplete scroll, with a significant portion of its content missing from the latter half.

However, the initial sections covered alchemy fundamentals and how to refine a pill called the Primeval Gathering Pill, which could enhance a cultivator’s primeval energy and accelerate their cultivation.

He recalled Mi Li’s earlier mention that to speed up cultivation, one needed to consume rare spiritual treasures and various pills. He hadn't expected to find something so quickly!

Relying solely on rage points to obtain primeval energy fruits was indeed too slow. If this Primeval Gathering Pill could boost his cultivation, then with both methods combined, wouldn’t he just take off?

However, as he continued to flip through the pages, Zuan’s heart grew colder. To master this ancient scroll, the entry requirement was still an awakened fire-elemental user. Moreover, the rarer and more precious the flame, the higher the quality of the refined Primeval Gathering Pills, and the greater their benefit to the cultivator.

While he had previously felt indifferent about cultivating the Flame Blade, with the addition of this Primeval Gathering Ancient Scroll, he realized he absolutely had to find a way to awaken a fire-elemental ability.

The immense number of pills he needed for cultivation and advancement meant he couldn’t rely on others; he had to do it himself.

But a fire-elemental ability wasn't something that could be awakened just by wishing for it.

After all, he was already at Fifth Grade, yet he hadn’t awakened any elemental ability whatsoever.