Chapter 22: Parchment, Turtle Shell Skill, Bone Shrinking Skill

Chapter 22: Chapter 22: Parchment, Turtle Shell Skill, Bone Shrinking Skill

SLASH. Blood spurted wildly, splattering everywhere.

As Zhao Kuo crashed to the ground, a large pool of blood soaked the earth. His body suddenly shrank significantly, returning to its normal size, but his eyes glared at Su Chen with intense resentment. Just like Lin Hai before him, he died with his eyes wide open.

Seeing that Zhao Kuo was dead beyond any doubt, Su Chen finally pulled his steel saber from the body.

"Good thing this guy was so confident in his black armor and didn’t see through my disguise," Su Chen thought. "Otherwise, killing him in one strike really would have been difficult."

The black armor on Zhao Kuo boasted astonishing defensive power; even the yellow-clad woman’s precious sword had struggled to pierce it. Su Chen’s Frenzy Wave Saber Technique had already been trained to its absolute limit. Striking with all his might, he could break through the opponent’s defenses, but achieving a one-hit kill was still slightly beyond his reach.

"I wonder what kind of martial arts he was cultivating!" he muttered inwardly.

Filled with anticipation, Su Chen walked over to Zhao Kuo’s corpse, bent down, and began patting him down.

"Nothing?"

After searching for a moment, Su Chen’s brows gradually furrowed in reluctance.

"Hm? There seems to be something inside this armor."

Just as he grew disappointed and was about to give up, he suddenly noticed a jarring patch of color peeking out from Zhao Kuo’s armor. Pulling it out, Su Chen paused in surprise. It was a piece of parchment.

"No wonder I couldn’t find it. It was hidden in here all along!"

Upon unfolding the parchment, his face immediately lit up with joy. It appeared to contain a Cultivation Technique.

"Hurry, over here!"

Before he had time to examine it closely, Su Chen heard the hurried sound of approaching footsteps not far away. He carefully stowed the parchment, picked up his saber, and turned to leave.

A few moments later, two of Zhao Kuo’s subordinates arrived. Catching sight of Zhao Kuo’s corpse, they froze in their tracks. Before long, the entire area became swarming with activity.

White Jade Gang headquarters.

A man dressed in white stared at Zhao Kuo’s cold, pale corpse, his expression incredibly gloomy. Looking up at Zhao Kuo’s two subordinates, he demanded in a deep voice, "Tell me exactly what happened."

"Gang Leader, it was like this..."

The two subordinates recounted everything truthfully.

When he heard that Zhao Kuo had been killed by a woman in yellow, the white-clad man immediately cursed in rage. "Useless trash!"

It was one thing for the fool to have a penchant for married women, but to lose his life over it was an absolute disgrace. Waving his hand, the man in white ordered his men to take the corpse away. Then, he issued a command.

"Pass down my orders. Notify all branches to uncover the identity of this yellow-clad woman. Hmph! She thinks she can just kill a member of the White Jade Gang and get away with it? It’s never that simple! The moment you discover her location, inform me immediately."

"Yes, Gang Leader!"

As the White Jade Gang’s orders were dispatched one by one, every territory under their jurisdiction fell into a tense state of high alert.

However, none of this mattered to Su Chen. After killing Zhao Kuo, he had simply returned home.

"This parchment doesn’t just record one Cultivation Technique, but two!"

He took a bath to wash away the stench of blood, and then took out the parchment to study it carefully. After some thorough research, Su Chen was pleasantly surprised to extract two distinct Cultivation Techniques from the text.

One was the Turtle Shell Skill. The other was the Bone Shrinking Skill.

"The Turtle Shell Skill must be the martial art Zhao Kuo practiced," Su Chen deduced. "Once mastered, the body is covered by a layer of black armor. It remains hidden normally, but when activated, the black armor manifests, drastically increasing one’s defensive power.

"However, because cultivating the Turtle Shell Skill causes a certain degree of bodily mutation, it requires the auxiliary practice of the Bone Shrinking Skill. The two complement each other perfectly, bringing out the best in both.

"According to the parchment, the Turtle Shell Skill is incredibly difficult to cultivate. It requires tempering the skin and membrane through various harsh methods. The slightest misstep can damage the bones and muscles, leading to a lifetime of disability.

"Furthermore, even if successfully mastered, it isn’t flawless. It has a fatal weakness: the defense from the neck up is no different from that of an ordinary person."

Having read the contents regarding the Turtle Shell Skill and the Bone Shrinking Skill on the parchment, Su Chen couldn’t help but ponder. Staring at the two secret manuals, his eyes flickered, and he quickly made a decision. "It’s normal for it to have flaws. Besides, I have the system panel. Why would I worry about failing to cultivate it?"

An incense stick’s worth of time later, Su Chen finished performing the starting postures of the two Cultivation Techniques. The panel suddenly refreshed:

[...Turtle Shell Skill (Initiate 1%) Bone Shrinking Skill (Initiate 1%)]

Following that, he spent another 12 taels of silver to activate the Simple Mode for both Cultivation Techniques.

The Simple Mode for the Turtle Shell Skill was sunbathing. It required ten minutes to reach the Minor Mastery stage and twenty minutes to reach Major Mastery.

The Simple Mode for the Bone Shrinking Skill was doing squats. Reaching Minor Mastery required fifty squats, while Major Mastery required one hundred.

Cultivating both Cultivation Techniques took a total of one hour. Once he finished, the panel updated once again:

[...Turtle Shell Skill (Major Mastery 1%) Bone Shrinking Skill (Major Mastery 1%)]

Looking at the two Cultivation Techniques on the panel, a smile crept onto Su Chen’s face. He then took off his clothes and inspected his body. Unlike what was recorded on the parchment, his physique hadn’t undergone any changes.

It seemed that martial arts cultivated through the panel could bypass certain flaws.

When Su Chen circulated the Turtle Shell Skill, he could instantly feel his entire body becoming incredibly tough. The surface of his body felt as though it were covered by a thin layer of black armor. Clenching his fist and striking his own body, a crisp metallic CLANG rang out.

"What an excellent Turtle Shell Skill! Not only has it enhanced my torso’s defensive power, but the defense of my arms and legs has also increased right along with it!"

Su Chen looked at his arms. Although there was no visible black armor on them, the profound sense of sturdiness was undeniably real.

"Now let’s try the Bone Shrinking Skill!"

After a series of tests, Su Chen confirmed that the Turtle Shell Skill indeed provided a slight boost to his other Cultivation Techniques. Immediately after, he shifted his focus to the Bone Shrinking Skill.

CRACKLE.

As his bones emitted a series of popping sounds, Su Chen’s tall height of one meter eighty-eight unexpectedly shrank to one meter seventy-eight. His arms and legs had both shortened by ten centimeters.

Even though he had braced himself for it, he was still shocked by the sight before him. Fortunately, Su Chen quickly recovered his wits and reverted to his normal size.

"The Bone Shrinking Skill definitely isn’t as useful in direct combat as the Turtle Shell Skill, but its auxiliary capabilities are incredibly strong. Its utility to me is no less than that of the Turtle Shell Skill. If I disguise myself as the one-armed Yang Guo again, I imagine it’ll be far more realistic and effortless."

Having summarized his experiences from his last two battles, Su Chen had grown accustomed to operating under the guise of the one-armed Yang Guo. After all, who would ever expect a perfectly intact arm to be hidden inside an empty, severed sleeve, just waiting for the crucial moment to deliver a fatal strike?

"It’s a pity that the Iron Sand Palm cost me one hundred taels of silver. Otherwise, I might have been able to push these two Cultivation Techniques a step further," Su Chen muttered, feeling a slight pang of regret now that he had returned to normal. Of course, he wasn’t regretting training the Iron Sand Palm to its limit, but rather regretting the fact that he was broke once again.

"It’s just that, now that the Iron Sand Palm has reached its limit, it actually requires an Extreme Iron Wire Fist to unlock its next Simple Mode!"

Su Chen was mildly surprised. He cast his gaze toward the panel, only to see the following written on it:

[Iron Sand Palm (Limit)]

[Iron Sand Palm 0 times (Extreme Iron Wire Fist/time)]