Chapter 31: Upgrade to Perfection, Martial Art Mutated Version

Swish swish swish.

Finger bones hooked in a bizarre shape swiftly and precisely clamped onto iron bead after iron bead; the sound of repetition again and again echoed in the cramped bedroom.

Probably because he changed his brain when he went out, he adjusted his mindset.

Feng Mu flattened his mindset, reducing the emotional fluctuations caused by failure; his movements grew increasingly stable, each repetition like a copy-paste of the previous one.

Thus, tirelessly repeating failure, until a certain instant, his waving finger froze in midair.

Ding—

The swish-swish-swish of repetition was overridden by a crisp prompt tone inside his skull.

【Detected 100 consecutive successes, satisfying the entry condition for this technique.】

【Crane Claw Technique】·Elementary (1/300)

On his retina, a new skill icon quietly generated and emerged.

Feng Mu was delighted, and sighed in his heart: "Finally made it; cheating the crooked way isn't that simple either~"

【Crane Claw Technique】: "....." You won, so whatever you say is right.

All ten fingertips felt slightly hot; Feng Mu released the grotesque bone hooks, retracting them back into the flesh, and saw that the color of all ten finger pads had darkened considerably.

Rubbing his fingers together, he could feel thick calluses on each other, and fingernails that had become much harder.

Feng Mu waved his hand; the finger pads instantly tensed, swept across the basin surface, and precisely hooked an iron bead while the basin surface remained utterly undisturbed.

"Using the finger pads can also achieve it without any hindrance." Feng Mu flicked the iron bead away.

He thought for a moment, then made a single index finger protrude a bone hook, and hooked once more in the same way.

Crack!

The motion was identical to just now; the difference lay in the iron bead clamped by the bone hook — its surface cracked with fine lines.

Feng Mu had a clear idea in his heart: "I can execute two versions of 【Crane Claw Technique】: one is the regular flesh version, one is the bone mutation version; the latter's lethality is roughly three times the former's."

"Using the flesh regular version as the norm, the bone mutation version concealed within it suddenly transforming adds a further insidious viciousness — perfectly suits my taste."

Of course, this is still far from enough; he still needs to strive to continuously strengthen it.

Feng Mu: "Fate, add points!"

Feng Mu, who now had a clearer understanding of his own bone quality aptitude, couldn't be bothered to laboriously experiment on himself anymore; rather than trust his own talent, better to devoutly believe in his own ability to cheat.

From now on, if he can cheat he will cheat, absolutely no hesitation; for skills that truly cannot be cheated, he'll just swap in one that can be cheated.

This is the skill growth guideline Feng Mu set for himself.

Raising Crane Claw Technique from Elementary to Middle Level requires 300 points, three times that of Basic Fist Technique; Feng Mu felt a twinge of heartache inside, but more than that, doubled anticipation.

More expensive means stronger, nothing wrong with that~

This is, after all, the first Second Grade Martial Art he painstakingly cultivated to completion relying on his own wit and wisdom.

【Crane Claw Technique】·Middle Level (1/1500)

Heat surged through all ten fingers; a large segment of cultivation scenes was stuffed into his skull, audio-visual synchronized knowledge forcing its way into his brain.

Feng Mu grinned his teeth: "Not enough, still not enough; Fate, keep adding points for me."

The freshly warmed Middle Level 【Crane Claw Technique】 instantly blurred and distorted.

【Crane Claw Technique】·High Level (1/3000)

Add points again.

【Crane Claw Technique】·Perfection

No more add-point symbols available.

Three consecutive segments of point-adding flooded in all at once; Feng Mu felt something was off, a sensation like eating too fast in one breath, choking himself.

Ten fingers scorching hot and red, as if about to melt; if not for the bones cooling them down, the flesh might really have melted into meat paste.

The skull CPU was smoking; a segment of nearly 10 years of sleepless, unceasing cultivation of 【Crane Claw Technique】 memories was madly instilled into him.

【Crane Claw Technique】 Thirteen Forms.

Practicing by day, practicing by night, practicing with eyes open, still practicing with eyes closed; day after day, year after year, month after month — a feeling of wanting to vomit from over-practice.

Feng Mu felt his brain wanted to vomit too, and the memories themselves seemed a bit unable to endure the "traffic jam" sensation.

The memory data transmitted by the three upgrades squeezed into a single transmission path, none yielding to the other — isn't that a traffic jam?

Then, Feng Mu felt his skull was about to split; the sensation was like data originally transmitted via data cable suddenly getting angry, directly prying open his skull and brutally physically plugging the entire hard drive into his brain.

Visibly, black smoke drifted from the top of Feng Mu's head; if not for the skull emitting a Yin chill to cool it down, his brain might already have burned into tofu soup.

Three minutes later.

Feng Mu sat drained on the bed edge, eyes still a bit dazed and sluggish.

His fingers still retained scorching residual heat; the color settled from deep red to dark red, and with slight exertion a faint blackish-purple surfaced.

Fingernails hard as iron sheet; Feng Mu tried to cut them with nail clippers, couldn't budge them at all; a fierce squeeze and the nail clippers cracked and were scrapped.

Using just a single finger, he pressed lightly on the tabletop and, like stabbing tofu, poked a finger-sized hole.

Feng Mu made a comparison in his heart: "The flesh version's power has already caught up to the previous bone mutation version; then the bone mutation version's power right now would be……"

Feng Mu subconsciously flicked out a bone finger, executed the first form of 【Crane Claw Technique】, and hooked at the basin surface.

The basin surface dented and cracked, like a still lake surface fracturing from the center, water overturning and spilling from both sides.

Yet it was not water, but iron-gray powder turned to dust rustling down.

Feng Mu himself was shocked: "Is this power 5 times or 10 times stronger?"

The lethality shocked even himself, to the point he could hardly accurately assess it; but in terms of raw power alone, the bone mutation version · Crane Claw Technique definitely exceeds the upper limit of a Second Grade Martial Art.

Perhaps it ranks in the upper reaches among Third Grade Martial Arts, or even approaches the power of a Fourth Grade Martial Art?

Feng Mu's thoughts ran wild; he couldn't wait to go out right now, find someone to test the moves on, gouge and crush a head or two to satisfy his itch.

"No wonder they say: when one carries a sharp blade, killing intent arises of its own accord."

"Martial arts are the bane of evildoers!"

Feng Mu restrained the impulse in his heart and used a cloth to wipe the lubricant off his hands.

He thought: "Next time, I'll upgrade level by level; I dare not cut in line and change lanes like that again."

While thinking, Feng Mu grabbed a handful of iron beads, clenched his five fingers, and the iron beads all crushed into powder, which he poured into his mouth and swallowed with saliva.

Three levels of upgrades, and his stomach was empty.

Swallowing several more handfuls of iron powder and downing a few mouthfuls of water, Feng Mu then stopped and thought: "In the future, I can crush them all into powder first; this way digestion and absorption will be better, and the speed of proficiency increase should be able to rise another level."

After thinking it all through, Feng Mu looked at the panel with a pained expression.

【Crane Claw Technique】·Perfection

Basic Fist Technique (Middle Level) 【1/500】

Basic Leg Technique (Middle Level) 【1/500】

Body Forging Exercise (Not Mastered)

【Remaining General Skill Proficiency: 5080】

Feng Mu closed the panel and muttered: "The remaining skill proficiency can probably push a Second Grade Martial Art to Perfection."

The time had just passed 12 o'clock; it was still early.

Since the 【Crane Claw Technique】 was cracked by the unorthodox path, the night hours can continue to be spent on the Body Forging Exercise.

No nonsense about the car, start the exercise.

Before exercising, first take out the syringe and draw two tubes of blood.

Feeling the blood flowing out of his body, Feng Mu's complexion turned slightly pale, a morbidly pleased smile on his face: "Comfortable now."

Thanks to Xi Fo for the 2000 reward, mua mua.

Tomorrow going live for a test push, hope everyone follows along, those stockpiling chapters remember to flip to the last page every day, please~

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(End of Chapter)