Chapter 80: Looking Back, I Am Already a Hundred-Year-Old Man

After thirty years of cold and heat, 【Crane Claw Technique】 broke its limit.

After another twenty years, basic fist and foot techniques reached Great Completion Perfection.

After another thirty years, Heart Crushing Palm reached Great Completion Perfection.

Eighty years of passing time, truly painstaking dedication, wholeheartedly toward martial arts.

Although Feng Mu's appearance was only eighteen or nineteen years old, his "actual age" was already a hundred-year-old man.

Even if these eighty years were all dull and monotonous repetition, his state of mind ultimately grew; at least, in enduring loneliness and solitude, in the solitary grinding of the liver, Feng Mu gained extreme psychological resistance.

Commonly called: Perseverance.

This was probably the hidden benefit brought by skill upgrades.

No matter how crude a piece of pig iron is, hammering it continuously for eighty years, even if it is still pig iron, it is worlds apart from that original piece of pig iron.

Anyway, in the past, when Feng Mu stayed up late grinding his cultivation, he felt it was boring and unbearable, relying entirely on the rise of the "experience bar" to tempt himself.

Now, Feng Mu no longer needs that; staying up late grinding means nothing to him, except that his body can still feel exhaustion, his spirit seems to have been hammered into a piece of pig iron, and even the slightest ripple cannot splash out a spark.

After 【Heart Crushing Palm】 reached Perfection, Feng Mu did not stop for a moment, took no rest at all, and began cultivating 【Bull Demon Force】.

【Bull Demon Force】 was not a martial art cultivating a single part of the body, but a stance art integrating strength from the whole body; in other words, 【Bull Demon Force】 cultivates a set of whole-body force.

It required coordinating with breathing techniques and feeling the movement of force throughout the body; the difficulty of cultivation suddenly rose by more than one level.

Roughly equivalent to crossing from plane geometry to solid geometry.

The difficulty of the problem rose from two dimensions to three; martial arts moves were no longer rigid, but had a somewhat mysterious feeling of force.

From intuitive to abstract; if you don't get it, you really don't get it.

Three hours passed.

Feng Mu struck a strange pose, his attention always on the breathing rhythm, deep shallow deep shallow deep, nine turns one return, his breath held until his rice almost came up, his thighs squatting until they were sore and numb.

He did not feel his chest heating up, nor did he feel force like small snakes moving along his spine.

Sweat drenched his back, and his waist and back stiffened, which he truly felt.

"How to cheat to get started with feeling force?"

This time Feng Mu truly encountered a difficult problem; all the skills, traits, or entries he possessed were useless; if he didn't know, he didn't know.

Thinking was useless, pondering was fruitless.

Feng Mu lay on the bed and fell asleep in a daze.

The next day.

Burned 7 E Corpses, four up and three down.

I don't know if it was a coincidence or some reason, but this week the frequency and quantity of E Corpses received by the Incineration Plant obviously increased, and Feng Mu and Wang Jian's workload both grew larger.

Wang Jian complained while working: "Why are there so many E Corpses lately; did those Martial Artists all mutate one after another?"

Feng Mu frowned; he felt something was suspicious.

Mainly E Corpses came from human mutation, and after E Corpses mutated, they followed instinct and irrationally attacked surrounding living things.

But he carefully recalled; recently seven or eight E Corpses were burned daily, but the city had not heard of any place suffering E Corpses disaster, causing casualties.

Actually it was not just recently; from the first day he became a Cremation Worker, he seemed to rarely hear such news or folk rumors.

At that time, Feng Mu only thought the Nine Districts feared causing panic and blocked the news.

But after experiencing the "Black Pillar" incident, Feng Mu gained a further understanding of the Nine Districts' simple and rough law enforcement.

It was not that he looked down on the Nine Districts' Executive Officials, but rather, he felt the Nine District Executive Government truly could not block the news so tightly.

In both ability and attitude, they could not be so meticulous and rigorous.

Unless... the city really had not experienced several E Corpses mutation disaster events.

"Then where do these E Corpses come from?"

Limited by the scarcity of known information, Feng Mu could not guess the truth, but he felt a chill in his heart.

Fortunately, the story behind this should not implicate him... right.

Feng Mu simply put this matter behind him; every day he clocked in and out of work, burned corpses and collected Black Cores, with a mind free from distraction, busy and happy.

By the way, Feng Mu's Black Core collection business was no longer limited to Wang Jian alone; the two Cremation Workers at the other Incineration Room were also included by him in the purchasing business.

Business expansion doubled.

The quantity of Black Cores purchased this week tripled compared to before.

Feng Mu no longer hid anything at all; he again used Wang Jian's mouth to spread rumors in the plant.

One rumor was that Feng Mu had Patrol Bureau people at home; he collected for the Patrol Bureau, just making a handling fee in the middle.

Another rumor was that Feng Mu had a stroke of dog-shit luck, was taken a fancy to by the new leader of the Blue Wolf Gang; this was the job the Blue Wolf Gang threw to him, so he could earn some pocket money.

Blah blah blah...

The news went around several times; it was hard to say how many times it was added to; anyway, more than one version had already spread.

Feng Mu's reputation was somewhat tarnished; the workers in the plant sometimes looked at him with strange eyes; Feng Mu turned a deaf ear and collected Black Cores as usual with a normal expression.

In this way, in just one week, these rumors seemed to be completely confirmed.

As for the two Black Market merchants who did not know life or death, nor their whereabouts, whether they would believe this rumor, or whether they would come to Feng Mu for trouble again.

That was inevitable.

But Feng Mu's mindset had changed now; he not only did not hide, but even openly used himself as bait, just wanting to lure them out again.

Feng Mu now was not afraid they would come, but afraid they would not come.

Another calm day passed.

Feng Mu carried several Black Cores in his bag and swaggered out of the factory area, not feeling any malicious gaze.

"The fool who played with ants, and that old farmer who smiled like a chrysanthemum, they couldn't really both be dead, right; did all three brothers pass away that night?"

Feng Mu sighed, very worried for them.

One hour later.

Feng Mu appeared at the Gate of Douqiong Martial Hall.

"I am now Feng Mu, not 【Mask】, I do not know Crane Claw Technique, nor Heart Crushing Palm, I only know basic fist and foot techniques; I came here to accumulate combat experience."

Feng Mu told himself in his heart, so that he would not slip up during real combat sparring.

This is easy to understand: a person's growth has traces to follow; 【Mask】 and 【Feng Mu】 are equivalent to two game accounts, and when switching accounts, skills naturally cannot be shared.

Otherwise, if it falls into the eyes of someone with intent, is it not equivalent to merging the accounts into one?

Feng Mu came to Douqiong Martial Hall today with many purposes and calculations, and the most important among them was to put together a set of displayable skills for the main account Feng Mu who walks in the light.

"I cannot always hide behind 【Mask】 acting like a waste, can I? The identity of 【Feng Mu】 must also be brought out to show off from time to time; otherwise, sooner or later I will slip up."

"【Mask】 can stir up wind and rain in secret, 【Feng Mu】 must also breathe in the light; thus, the two identities can cooperate with each other, cover for each other, and obtain more rewards together."

"Hmm, the identity of 【Feng Mu】 can gradually reveal some Martial Dao talent; hmm, this talent cannot be too conspicuous, it must be hidden deeper, and must be discovered by a discerning eye before it can be unearthed."

"Thus, the change will not be abrupt, and it also fits the waste performance of the original body's low-grade Bone Quality."

"If this is the case, then if someone still examines me with a magnifying glass, seeks trouble for me, and insists on framing and entrapping me, then it is not my fault."

"Hmm, yes, exactly like this!"

Feng Mu went over the 【Persona Change】 train of thought in his mind again, then took a deep breath, squeezed a bit of simple-minded color onto his face, and raised his foot to walk into the Martial Arts Hall.

Bang—

Just as Feng Mu's front foot stepped into the Martial Arts Hall, his back foot's signboard seemed to be possessed, swayed and fell to the ground, emitting an ear-splitting sound, and a conspicuous Crack appeared between 【Dou】 and 【Qiong】.

Feng Mu's expression stiffened, and the foot that had just stepped in quietly retreated: "......"

End of Chapter