Ultimate True Lord

That night, the Gray-Clad Gang quickly received news that several of their members had been attacked and killed. They immediately sent people to investigate, but they didn't get any useful clues.

The area north of Fenghepu was never their territory. After some discussion, the members of the Gray-Clad Gang concluded that someone was probably warning them not to overstep their bounds.

After much speculation, some people thought it might have been the Red Sand Martial Arts School that was behind it. However, even though the Gray Clothes Gang had grown in power during this period, they were still far from being a match for the Red Sand Martial Arts School.

They could only swallow their anger and suffer in silence.

the next day.

Jiang Ming began practicing the martial arts he had just acquired yesterday, a palm technique called Blackwood Hand.

Unfortunately, none of the Grey-Clad Gang members carried any martial arts manuals with them last night. Those gang members were probably new recruits. They came to the north of Fenghepu hoping to abduct people; they had no martial arts skills whatsoever.

In the courtyard, Jiang Ming practiced his Blackwood Hand technique.

The Black Wooden Hand technique is simple to learn at first, but the moves become increasingly tricky and require considerable palm strength. To master it, one needs to repeatedly hone the palm's power, making it a martial art that is easy to learn but difficult to master.

Fortunately, he doesn't need to worry about the aftermath of the Blackwood Hand technique; he only needs to get to the basics.

Jiang Ming, with his powerful and vigorous cultivation level, naturally progressed much faster in learning the basics of a normal martial art.

This time, he mastered the Blackwood Hand technique in just six days. In between, Jiang Ming spent over a day accompanying the herb-gathering team out of the city, which delayed him somewhat; otherwise, it would have been even faster.

By the end of May, the weather was getting hotter and hotter.

The new home, in a courtyard with white walls.

Jiang Ming kept slapping his arm against the air, his four fingers together, his thumb pointing upwards, and slashing diagonally downwards. Whether it was an upward slash, a straight thrust, or a heavy chop, these were all basic palm techniques and routines for beginners in the Blackwood Hand style.

"call!"

After striking again, he stopped, turned around, casually picked up the tea from the table, and hid in the shade of the trees.

On the surface of the original stove, the inscription of the black wooden door quietly emerges.

[Technique: Blackwood Hand - Beginner's Guide]

"It's done."

"Next, we just need to wait another month for the essence and blood to fully recover."

Jiang Ming took a deep breath, drank some tea, and the heat in his body slowly subsided. He looked at the primitive furnace on the back of his hand, and suddenly a thought struck him. His novice black wooden hand immediately fell into the slot of the primitive furnace.

"Buzz..."

The furnace body trembled slightly, and a line of black and gold characters appeared.

[The following is the next enhancement for Red Sand Palm]

Firstly: Increases the speed of practicing the Red Sand Palm by 30%! (Success rate: 60%)

Thirdly: The hardness of the palm increases by 40% when using the Red Sand Palm! (Success rate: 90%)

Fourthly: When Red Sand Palm is cultivated to the Brown Sand level or above, it will generate a martial arts trait called "Bone-Penetrating Strength"! (Success Rate: 30%) (Special Enhancement)

Jiang Ming's gaze sharpened slightly. He hadn't expected that he could know the success rate of the next enhancement in advance through this method.

His gaze swept quickly over the three options, his expression slightly somber.

"The success rate of the second attempt to increase the speed of Red Sand Palm cultivation was only 60%."

If the success rate is over 90%, you can still gamble on luck. But with a 60% success rate, it's not much different from a 50/50 chance of success or failure.

Jiang Ming had to become cautious. He closed his eyes and sensed the consequences of failure.

This accumulation of essence and blood will be lost, and the Blackwood Hand will lose its effect and cannot be used as a strengthening material again.

"Thinking about it, I was actually quite lucky before, with a 90% success rate. If I had failed, it would have been a significant loss..."

Jiang Ming took a deep breath. He immediately decided that he needed to find another auxiliary martial art. Combining two auxiliary martial arts would significantly increase the overall success rate.

Otherwise, he would have no choice but to choose Enhancement Level 3 to increase the hardness of his palms. However, Jiang Ming was not willing to accept this.

Without a doubt, the most important thing to strengthen in the early stages of a martial art is to reduce the difficulty of breaking through bottlenecks and to increase the speed of cultivation. These two aspects are the most basic and effective, and the earlier they are strengthened, the better.

He called these two things basic reinforcements.

Next, if Jiang Ming obtains any major martial arts skills, he will first choose to improve those two skills until they cannot be improved further before considering other skills.

"I also need a martial art."

"I hope that one-armed martial artist surnamed Li will return from the countryside soon."

He was always law-abiding and didn't like causing trouble. If he could buy martial arts skills safely with money, that would be ideal.

As for the Gray-Clad Gang, ever since Jiang Ming seized three martial arts techniques from them, the more he thought about it, the more suspicious it seemed. How could a small, low-level gang have so many martial arts techniques circulating among them? There must be some powerful force supporting them.

It's fine to take action once or twice occasionally, but if you do it too often, you'll likely attract attention. Then you won't even know where you'll end up.

He's only at the level of hard force, far from soft force, or even a master of entangling force, so he doesn't have that much confidence at all.

"We still lack the strength."

"If I had Master Liu's strength right now, I would wipe out the entire Gray-Clad Gang. After all, they're just a gang that preys on the common people and traffics children; keeping them around is just asking for trouble."

Jiang Ming deeply felt the limitations of his insufficient strength.

He slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, relaxed, and continued practicing the powerful method of controlling his qi and blood. Even a slow bird can start early, and diligence can make up for lack of talent.

Not to mention, Jiang Ming is no longer considered a slow learner.

After his cultivation speed increased by 50%, he felt that he was almost on par with a disciple of average talent, barely catching up with the cultivation speed of a formal disciple of the Red Sand Martial Arts School.

Although it doesn't have any particular advantages, it won't hold us back too much either.

Time flies.

More than half a month has passed, and it is now late June.

The cicadas chirped incessantly in the shady trees, their noise irritating the ears.

A day ago, Jiang Ming finally mastered the control of qi and blood. He used his right hand continuously with strong force, and the water in the bowl in his left hand did not spill.

In a short period of time, he could rapidly unleash three bursts of powerful energy, perfectly matching the characteristics of fierceness, concentration, and brevity described by Elder Liu. This also meant that Jiang Ming had surpassed the initial stage of mastering powerful energy, becoming more experienced and confident.

"In ten days, the essence and blood will be fully restored."

He glanced at the taotie pattern on the primitive furnace and slowly raised his head.

However, to everyone's dismay, the martial artist surnamed Li, who went back to his hometown to see his son, has not returned even after a whole month.

Jiang Ming secretly planned that today he would be escorting the Wen family's herb-gathering team out of the city to gather herbs, and on the way back in the next two days, he could take the opportunity to visit the old man Li's hometown.

He had already found out that Old Man Li's Li Family Village was located east of Wangyue City, about three or four kilometers away, which was not too far.

If you're lucky, the round trip will only take about half an hour.

It was past 7:30 AM.

Jiang Ming, equipped with a full set of hidden weapons, arrived at the Wen family's residence. After some preparation, the group finally set off at 9:00 AM to gather herbs on the outskirts of the Yancang Mountains.