Chapter 425: Tiger Minion Substitute Zombie Technique

The light cast by the candles all around covered the flat basket surrounded by the crowd, the handwriting dark as congealed ink.

After Tie Niu presented the item, Zhou You was the first to see it, finishing the contents in a few glances.

While the others were still suspicious of the old beggar's identity and the intention behind leaving these words...

"Tiger Minion Substitute Zombie Technique!"

When Zhou You spoke the name of the secret technique represented by the text, two gasps of surprise sounded by his ears, "It's actually this secret technique?"

Zuo Lv and Lan Chengxiu had once followed Bo Xiaolin and heard many things about the inner workings of Dayin Mountain.

Back in the day, Bo Xiaolin had also served as a Tiger General for a period of time, but after being ousted by a powerful enemy and failing to get ahead, he left the mountain to open a martial arts school in the bustling city.

He had mentioned this secret technique, the Tiger Minion Substitute Zombie Technique, to his disciples, along with a supplementary secret technique called the Tiger Devour Technique.

Inside Dayin Mountain, it is a world of the jungle, where if you are not the fierce tiger, you are the meat; losers have no human rights, and all their Qi, blood, and Essence Energy are subject to the winner's demands and arbitrary extraction.

The Tiger Devour Technique is a secret technique that relies on devouring the opponent's Qi, blood, and Essence Energy to strengthen one's own abilities.

However, the human body has a capacity limit; if the realm cannot be raised, a mere flesh-and-blood body cannot absorb much.

Therefore, the Tiger Minion Substitute Zombie Technique came into being, refining alien Qi, blood, and Essence Energy into a kind of strange energy body, which is usually hidden within the body and released upon encountering danger to take a fatal blow in one's stead.

"Master never mentioned there was such a secret technique."

Shi Gaofei shook his head; clearly, Wang Jianxiong had not told him.

Zhou You did not explain; when he was disguised as Moyunzi, he had forced Wang Laohu to use this move to evade the killing blow of the Ice Marrow Finger.

It could be said that this secret technique was more core and advanced than any White Tiger Seven Kills; it was Wang Laohu's true trump card.

Zuo Lv and Lan Chengxiu looked at each other, cupped their hands, and said, "School Master, that old man must be a senior of the Tiger Fist, sending this secret technique as a congratulatory gift."

"It is a pity there is no Tiger Devour Technique; the power of this secret technique is greatly discounted."

The two secret techniques complement each other, one responsible for external absorption and the other for refining alien energy.

Zhou You did not think so; the Tiger Devour Technique was useless to him, and such an evil secret technique was only applicable in the harsh and cruel environment inside Dayin Mountain—in the environment of Fucheng, whoever used it would be a demon!

Besides, if alien Qi and blood are useful, can't one's own Qi and blood be cultivated?

Zhou You possessed the Eight Hearts Power, and his Qi and blood were shockingly abundant; the consumption of the Tiger Minion Substitute Zombie Technique was merely a drizzle to him.

"Experience Points -10,000, Tiger Minion Substitute Zombie Technique Lv1."

Zhou You slightly operated the panel, and in the blink of an eye, he had fully mastered this secret technique; it turned out the Tiger Minion Substitute Zombie Technique was not picky about Qi and blood—whether it was his own or swallowed from others, it all worked.

Inside Dayin Mountain, survival of the fittest meant that through the Tiger Devour Technique, Qi and blood converged toward the upper echelons, and the surplus was digested by this very technique.

When Wang Jianxiong performed it back then, the flesh on his chest squirmed into twisted facial features, the expressions of terror and roaring ready to burst forth.

Zhou You gently stroked his chest, wondering what the content would be if he leveled it up further.

"Everyone disperse; don't speak of today's events."

Zhou You ordered the flat basket to be placed in the warehouse as a memento; except for him, no one knew that this was the last gift Wang Laohu had sent him.

When listening to Tie Niu's description, Zhou You had already judged that Wang Laohu did not have long to live.

Thinking of his master, who was once majestic and peerless, now also setting like the sun behind the western hills, one could not help but lament the cruelty of time.

After returning to his private room...

Zhou You activated a Profound Heart of the Outsider, and pure Qi and blood surged out, running along the path of the Tiger Minion Substitute Zombie Technique, instantly condensing into a strange, cold air current. This air current gathered in his chest, and the moment it appeared, noisy sounds of hellish screaming, roaring, and crying echoed in his ears.

Zhou You was a person of extraordinary willpower, yet he felt a psychological chill upon hearing it, and it was only with great difficulty that he steadied his mind.

Looking down at his chest, the skin and flesh squirmed, and several holes of varying sizes appeared, as if they were deformed human facial features, or like the shape of someone pressing their head against plastic wrap.

This human face struggled and twisted, as if it wanted to drill out of his chest and escape to the outside world.

Zhou You savored his current state; although the situation looked scary, as if his skin and flesh were about to be pierced, it was merely the deformation of the skin and flesh under the influence of that cold, strange energy.

Once the energy broke out of the body, it would not tear the skin or flesh at all, and his chest would return to its original state.

The Lv1 Tiger Minion Substitute Zombie Technique was the level at which Wang Laohu had condensed a human face to replace death when resisting the Ice Marrow Finger.

With the help of Experience Points, Zhou You had already raised this secret technique to the level of Wang Jianxiong's decades of accumulated cultivation.

One had to say, the panel's function was heaven-defying.

What if it were Lv2? "Content incomplete, unable to upgrade."

Zhou You had wanted to use Experience Points to upgrade it, but he did not expect the panel to prompt him that the Tiger Minion Substitute Zombie Technique was incomplete and could only be cultivated to Lv1.

Strange, did Wang Laohu hide a hand at the end, or was the version passed down by Dayin Mountain incomplete from the start?

Zhou You summoned the Faceless Copper Puppet from the Armory, fed this secret technique to the little copper man, and added a few large Charm Cores.

The little copper man swallowed the Charm Cores and began to slowly deduce the Tiger Minion Substitute Zombie Technique, with the progress clearly listed at 18%.

"Hmm?"

Zhou You thought for a moment, then fed the supplementary Jade Tiger Art and the Tiger Evil Application Technique into it; as an aid to the deduction, it improved at a visible speed to 20%, and the panel prompted that it could be upgraded to Lv2.

"Experience Points -20,000, Tiger Minion Substitute Zombie Technique Lv1 → Lv2."

The second stage of this secret technique was displayed before Zhou You, shocking him into puffing out his chest...

The upgraded Tiger Minion Substitute Zombie Technique had an even stronger cold and strange energy, with a touch of something resembling vitality added inside, appearing restless and ready to burst forth.

Suddenly!

Zhou You felt a wave of nausea rise in his throat and abruptly opened his mouth forward...

With a *whoosh* from his chest, like the sound of high-speed wind passing through a needle-sized hole, an object jumped into the air, swaying like a fish entering the sea, and finally hovered in mid-air.

"What is this?"

Zhou You looked at the... human-head balloon in front of him, a semi-transparent, irregular mass with seven orifices and facial features, exaggerated and twisted.

He guessed that this object was likely the concretization of that strange energy of the 'Tiger Minion'.

How to put it, this thing cost him the weight of the Qi and blood of one Profound Heart, and resisting the attack of an Intermediate Martial Master was not a problem! One novel thing wasn't enough, so he did it again... Not long after, a second human-head balloon appeared, this one with even more exaggerated features, ugly in a unique way.

The two heads gathered together, looked at each other, and then began to sigh and look miserable.

However, when Zhou You glared, they immediately became obedient, circling around him like loyal dogs, waiting for orders.

After Zhou You's testing, each human-head balloon can carry 5 tons, which is 10,000 catties of weight, more capable than large livestock.

There is no upper limit to the speed; it follows Zhou You, moving fast when he is fast and slow when he is slow, tsk tsk!

The tiger-servant is not a physical object, but is condensed from cold and strange energy; although it does not emit light itself, it dyes the originally warm candlelight into a cold tone leaning toward cyan, making the atmosphere of the environment feel eerie and gloomy.

(End of this chapter)