Chapter 55: The Sky Demon Claw

The deeper Long Feng walked, the more powerful the aura surrounding the scrolls became.

As he walked past one shelf, a faint sword intent suddenly swept across his skin.

His eyes narrowed as he stopped and looked around. There was no one around him. The sword intent had come from a scroll resting quietly on the shelf.

Long Feng didn’t touch it and merely glanced at the scroll before continuing forward.

Even a remnant aura from a technique is this powerful?

He finally understood why the sect placed different ranks of techniques on separate floors.

These weren’t ordinary martial arts. Every one of them had been created by powerful cultivators.

Some scrolls were even covered by faint formations, clearly indicating that they were among the most powerful techniques on this floor.

Long Feng’s gaze swept across them.

"So many techniques..."

He had initially planned to carefully search for a suitable technique.

But just as he reached another section, a familiar voice suddenly echoed inside his mind.

[Ding! New task issued.]

[Task: Choose the Sky Demon Claw from the Technique Pavilion.]

[Reward: One bottle of Bone Marrow Essence.]

"Not again?" Long Feng’s expression twisted.

The system had done something similar when he visited the Treasure Tower. Whenever he was in an important place, this thing suddenly decided to interfere.

But complaining was useless. There was no alternative.

Long Feng could only search for the technique named by the system. After searching for a while, he finally found it.

Sky Demon Claw.

A dark-colored scroll quietly rested on a shelf.

Long Feng picked it up and opened it to read its introduction.

Unlike ordinary books, these technique scrolls weren’t meant to be casually opened and read. Each scroll was protected by a restriction.

A disciple could only open a scroll after meeting the requirements of the corresponding floor. Even then, they could only read the introduction and general description of the technique. The complete cultivation method remained sealed.

This was one of the rules established by the sect.

After all, if disciples could freely read the complete contents of every Earth-rank technique, someone could simply memorize dozens of powerful techniques before choosing the one they wanted.

The sect obviously wouldn’t allow such a loophole.

The Sky Demon Claw was an extremely overbearing claw technique.

It focused on concentrating one’s entire strength into the five fingers, turning the hand into a terrifying weapon capable of tearing through powerful defenses.

According to the introduction, once cultivated to a high enough level, the technique could even allow the user to capture a flying beast from the ground with a single claw.

Its power was astonishing.

But there was also a warning attached to the technique.

’This technique places an extremely heavy burden on the body.

If the user’s physical body is insufficiently strong, forceful cultivation may damage the muscles, bones, and meridians of the hand.’

Long Feng’s eyes narrowed. He slowly closed the scroll.

The technique was indeed powerful. And considering his improved physique, the side effect wasn’t enough to make him give up.

He took the scroll and returned to the elder. The elder glanced at the scroll in Long Feng’s hand and frowned slightly.

"Sky Demon Claw! You’ve chosen this?"

"Yes."

The elder looked at him for several breaths.

"Do you know its side effects? Your cultivation isn’t particularly high. Even if your physical body is somewhat stronger than ordinary cultivators, you should think carefully before cultivating this technique."

"I’ve already decided."

Seeing Long Feng’s determination, the elder didn’t say anything more. He reached out and took the scroll.

"You cannot take the original scroll out of the pavilion."

"I understand."

The elder placed the scroll on a strange crystal platform. A faint light immediately emerged from the crystal.

The characters written on the scroll began to flow across its surface like countless streams of light. Moments later, the information entered the crystal.

"This is a special recording crystal."

The elder explained.

"Earth-rank and higher techniques in the sect cannot be directly taken away. The crystal will record the technique into your disciple token. Once you read it, the recording will disappear."

"Thank you, Elder." Long Feng nodded.

Taking the crystal stone, Long Feng stored it in his storage ring. He took one final glance at the rows of Earth-rank techniques before turning around.

His next goal was clear.

He needed to return and cultivate the Sky Demon Claw.

As Long Feng left the Technique Pavilion, a faint smile appeared on his face. With this technique, his combat power would rise another level.

After leaving the Technique Pavilion, Long Feng returned directly to his residence. He didn’t waste any time. Once he entered his room, he immediately went to the training chamber.

The door closed behind him, cutting off the outside world.

Long Feng activated the formations surrounding the room. A faint spiritual light flashed across the walls.

These formations were enough to prevent the fluctuations from his cultivation from disturbing anyone outside.

He sat down cross-legged in the center of the room and took out the recording crystal. The transparent crystal rested quietly in his palm.

Long Feng looked at it for a moment before placing it against his forehead. The instant his spiritual sense touched the crystal—

Boom!

A massive amount of information surged into his mind.

Long Feng’s body trembled. For a brief moment, it felt as though his mind had been thrown into an endless sea of information. Countless characters appeared one after another. Everything was recorded with astonishing detail.

Long Feng didn’t dare to be careless. He immediately focused his mind and began absorbing the information.

The Sky Demon Claw wasn’t simply a technique that required him to circulate spiritual energy into his hand and then attack.

It was far more complicated than that. The technique required the spiritual energy within his body to first circulate through several major meridians before being divided into multiple streams.

Those streams would then converge near his shoulder, travel down his arm, and eventually enter his palm. But that was only the beginning. Once the spiritual energy reached his palm, it had to divide again.

Long Feng’s expression gradually became serious.

No wonder this technique is classified as Earth-rank.

He carefully memorized every detail. After nearly an hour, he finally opened his eyes.

"Let’s try it."

Long Feng raised his left hand. He slowly circulated his spiritual energy according to the circulation route recorded in his mind.

At first, everything went smoothly. But when the energy reached his palm, his expression suddenly changed.

"What’s this?"

He could clearly feel several extremely subtle energy pathways inside his palm.

They weren’t ordinary meridians. They were incredibly small and deeply hidden. If he hadn’t obtained the complete circulation route of the Sky Demon Claw, he would never have discovered their existence.

Long Feng carefully guided his spiritual energy through them. The moment the energy entered those hidden meridians, his expression became solemn.

The circulation route of the Sky Demon Claw wasn’t randomly constructed.

Those hidden meridians were positioned at the most crucial points of the palm. They acted as channels that allowed the enormous force generated by the technique to escape through the fingers.

Without their guidance, the spiritual energy would simply accumulate inside the palm.

It was like continuously pumping gas into a sealed jar, pressure would continue increasing. And eventually, the jar would explode.

In the same way, if a cultivator forcibly attempted to unleash the Sky Demon Claw without opening and controlling these hidden meridians, the accumulated energy could cause the entire palm and arm to explode.

Long Feng’s expression became ugly.

"That old man wasn’t exaggerating."

The warning attached to the technique wasn’t some meaningless precaution. This technique really could cripple the user.

Long Feng took a deep breath. He immediately took out a mid-grade spirit stone.

Compared with a low-grade spirit stone, the spiritual energy contained inside a mid-grade spirit stone was not only several times denser, but also noticeably purer.

For a technique as demanding as the Sky Demon Claw, ordinary spiritual energy simply wasn’t enough.

Long Feng held the spirit stone in his right hand and began absorbing its energy. A pure stream of spiritual energy immediately entered his body. He guided it toward his left arm.

Slowly and carefully, he pushed the energy toward the hidden meridians in his palm.

But still, his first attempt failed and spiritual energy scattered.

Long Feng tried again. This time, he managed to force a tiny stream through one of the hidden pathways. Pain immediately shot through his palm.

"Hiss!"

His eyebrows tightened, but he didn’t stop. Sweat gradually appeared on his forehead. The pain became increasingly intense as more spiritual energy was forced into the hidden meridians.

His fingers trembled. His palm felt as though countless needles were stabbing into it from the inside.

Long Feng clenched his teeth.

"Open!"

Boom!

A stronger stream of spiritual energy surged forward. The muscles in his arm bulged slightly. His veins became visible. The pain instantly intensified.

Long Feng’s entire face twisted. For several breaths, he couldn’t even move his hand. Yet he continued enduring it.

He had already cultivated an Earth-rank sword technique before.

Because the system had directly rewarded him with the technique, he had never personally experienced the difficulty involved in cultivating an Earth-rank technique from scratch.

Only now did he understand. The gap between receiving a technique and actually cultivating one was enormous.

"Fuck..." Long Feng gritted his teeth. "If I didn’t have this physique, my hand would probably already be crippled."

But just as he was preparing to continue, he suddenly remembered something.

The system’s reward!