Moreover, Zou Feng suspected that Yuwen Shuo’s formation of the Rebel Army would draw experts from the Ten Directions Sect in surrounding areas, who would rush to Yuan Guang County as reinforcements.
If that were the case, the threat from the Ten Directions Sect could very well surpass that of Yuwen Shuo.
After returning to the Dragon Gate Boat, Zou Feng continued to focus on his Cultivation. The formation of the Rebel Army also proceeded as usual.
「Three days passed in the blink of an eye.」
In the early morning, Zou Feng felt it was about time, so he first checked the progress of the three new Evil Skills he had been practicing.
"Blood Coagulation Claw (Integration and Mastery), Progress: 8%"
"Enchanting Heart and Soul Stealing Technique (Integration and Mastery), Progress: 56%"
"Dragon Scale Iron Armor (Integration and Mastery), Progress: 20%"
This was the benefit of the successful Snake Catching.
The three newly practiced Evil Skills had advanced to the Realm of Synthesis and Mastery with almost no obstacles.
This meant that he could finally try to integrate these three Evil Skills into his existing Cultivation Skills.
Without further hesitation, Zou Feng immediately began the attempt.
First was to fuse the Dragon Scale Iron Armor into the Tribulation-Indestructible Body.
The Tribulation-Indestructible Body was the only Cultivation Skill Zou Feng had that had not yet reached Refined Skill.
But as long as the fusion of the next two Cultivation Skills was successful, reaching the Realm of Refining Fire was a certainty.
After selecting Fang Jingchuan as his ’Number One Patron,’ Zou Feng sat cross-legged and entered Meditation for a full hour.
He was already an old hand at Skill Fusion, so naturally, there were no mishaps.
"Tribulation-Indestructible Body (Refined Skill), Progress: 39%"
This Cultivation Skill had finally reached Refined Skill, and its progress had even jumped by a large chunk.
However, the name of the Cultivation Skill didn’t change.
The moment the fusion succeeded, Zou Feng clearly felt that he had become harder.
This was true for every part of his body. It was practically a body of steel.
He could clearly feel that when he was cultivating, an ordinary Seventh Grade Martial Artist’s attacks would do little more than scratch him.
As long as the opponent didn’t have any special techniques, or their strength wasn’t clearly a cut above his own, there was almost no need to use the Drunken Immortal Moon Gazing Step.
He could just take a page from the Fire Cloud Evil God’s book and tank the hits directly.
In addition, after reaching Refined Skill, the Tribulation-Indestructible Body gained an additional move.
Some body parts need to be engorged with blood to become harder.
But the state of the Tribulation-Indestructible Body at full hardness relied on being "inflated with qi."
It involved accelerating the circulation of Inner Qi within his body. This enhanced the Inner Qi’s power, which was then channeled back into his entire body or specific parts like his fists.
Zou Feng didn’t even need to test this move to know its power; it was probably similar to a certain anime protagonist’s "Second Gear."
A move that strengthened Inner Qi through acceleration could only be used after practicing certain Body Refining Skills to a considerably high Realm.
Otherwise, before the Inner Qi could even be fully enhanced, one’s meridians and other body parts would fail to withstand the strain, resulting in internal injuries. In the worst-case scenario, one could even explode and die...
Zou Feng simply named this move "State Two."
After all, once he entered the state to use this move, not only would his defense be maxed out, but the striking power of his other Cultivation Skills’ moves would naturally be enhanced as well.
Of course, he couldn’t just focus on the move’s benefits.
An Evil Skill was still an Evil Skill. Using this move would place an unavoidably massive burden on the body.
Unfortunately, entering this state wasn’t considered Cultivation, so the burden couldn’t be transferred.
Realizing this, Zou Feng simply jumped out the window, leaped into the Jiayue River, and entered "State Two" to test it out.
But not long after entering the water, Zou Feng hurriedly leaped out from the river’s surface.
Under the astonished and confused gazes of some gang members, he dashed back to his room.
Then, he eagerly took out the already cured and stored Demon Snake Meat. He didn’t even bother to cook it, simply holding it and taking several large bites.
With his similarly enhanced bite force, chewing through the cured meat in two or three chomps was a piece of cake.
Only after the Demon Snake Meat was in his stomach did Zou Feng let out a long sigh of relief.
’So close... I almost starved to death...’
While a slight exaggeration, Zou Feng had just been ravenously hungry.
And if it hadn’t been Demon Snake Meat he was eating, he would have needed at least a meal of rice mixed with Elixirs to recover quickly.
The move "State Two" was even more powerful than he had expected.
But without powerful supplements, he could currently only maintain it for one minute at most.
Just now, Zou Feng had gone over the time limit. He had wanted to hold on a little longer, and the result was that he almost fainted from hunger.
There was nothing to be done; the move’s consumption was just too great. Fortunately, Zou Feng’s physical constitution was far beyond that of an ordinary Martial Artist. If it weren’t, exceeding the time limit would have caused not only near-fainting from hunger, but also internal injuries.
In short, unless absolutely necessary, it was best not to exceed one minute when using "State Two."
But the greater the limitation, the greater the reward.
For that one minute, Zou Feng was in an absolute "True Man" state.
He even had the confidence that while using this move, he could go toe-to-toe with a Gang Qi Realm expert.
And as his Realm increased, this move could also be continuously upgraded. In the future, it was very likely that Zou Feng could extend it from one minute to three minutes!
He hadn’t expected the Tribulation-Indestructible Body to bring such a pleasant surprise. After recovering his strength, Zou Feng almost threw his head back and let out a few cackles.
But this wasn’t the end. There were still two more Evil Skills waiting to be fused...
Zou Feng ate the meat, rested for a short while, and then began the next round of attempts.
This time, however, it didn’t go as smoothly.
Fusing both the Enchanting Heart and Soul Stealing Technique and the Blood Coagulation Claw into the Great Universal Hand at the same time would not be easy. Even if the Cultivation Skills were highly compatible, it was impossible to succeed on the first try.
After all, the grade of the Great Universal Hand was considerably high, possibly even higher than Zou Feng’s main Cultivation Skill, the Five Poison Fire Lotus Skill.
Zou Feng was mentally and physically exhausted from the effort. Just as the sky was about to turn dark, he suddenly trembled all over, his eyes widening in a moment of bizarre epiphany.
"Great Universal Hand (Refined Skill), Progress: 75%"
Before the successful fusion, the Great Universal Hand’s progress was only at thirty-something percent, and no matter how crazily he practiced, it was difficult to achieve any significant increase.
So, Skill Fusion was truly the only way to maintain this rapid pace of advancement.
Although he didn’t advance to the Peak Realm after the successful fusion, Zou Feng didn’t mind. After all, this was within his expectations.
The Great Universal Hand was a Cultivation Skill that could be effective even at the High Grade stage. How could it reach the Peak of Perfection so easily?
Moreover, after the cultivation progress jumped by a large chunk, the power of the Great Universal Hand had already been strengthened several times over.
The fusion of the Blood Coagulation Claw gave birth to a new move: "Blood Hand Seal."
Once the "Blood Seal" was placed on an enemy, Zou Feng could influence, or even control, the person’s emotions from over ten zhang away!
He could make them cry or laugh on command.
Or even turn them into a human fountain!
In short, the Blood Hand Seal allowed Zou Feng to remotely trigger the mental corruption of the seven deadly sins.
As for the Enchanting Heart and Soul Stealing Technique, it gave Zou Feng an exaggerated sound effect whenever he used the Great Universal Hand.
It was as if Zou Feng brought a giant sound system with him every time he attacked.
The sound arrived before the palm. For those with a slightly weak will, the sound effect alone could scare them into soiling their pants on the spot.
Once the fusion was complete, Zou Feng stood up with a Crooked-Mouthed Dragon King’s Smile. He suddenly felt inspired, walked out onto the deck, and stood with his hands behind his back, looking up to admire the moon.
He had every reason to be in a great mood. After all, things like prior arrangements, schemes, and plotting against the Ten Directions Sect were ultimately just minor tricks.
After his strength had skyrocketed, simply crushing all opposition with overwhelming force was the simplest, most straightforward, and most reliable method.
Compared to Tian Yun, Zou Feng had always appeared very calm about Yuwen Shuo’s troublemaking. The reason for this wasn’t that he had immense confidence in his own plans.
Instead, he knew that the half-month deadline given by Yuwen Shuo was enough time for his strength to rise by another large margin.
His current self could no longer be described as merely Half-Step Gang Qi.
If one only looked at the intensity of his Inner Qi, it was indeed only equivalent to Half-Step Gang Qi. But the techniques he could unleash were enough to give even a Gang Qi Realm expert more than they could handle.
Currently, when combined with his "One-Minute True Man" state, he couldn’t say for sure that he could defeat Yuwen Shuo’s Gang Qi Realm guard, but killing Yuwen Shuo himself should be no problem at all!