Cultivating the Five Poison Palm to the "Integration and Mastery" stage before attempting a breakthrough was, of course, the best choice.
The problem was...
[Five Poison Palm (Entering the Hall and the Room), Progress: 75%]
Zou Feng was speechless as he glanced at his status panel.
The cultivation progress for his Five Poison Palm had been stuck at 75% for several days now.
He had just been cultivating the Five Poison Palm, yet his progress hadn't increased by even a single percentage point.
In fact, ever since his Five Poison Palm reached the "Entering the Hall and the Room" stage, his progress had become extremely slow.
It no longer matched the rapid advancement characteristic of an Evil Skill.
This wasn't because Zou Feng wasn't working hard enough, of course.
Before, he had Yang Ling to take the abuse, and now he had the even more durable Yang Yanpeng. Regardless of who it was, Zou Feng always trained at maximum intensity, never letting either of the "big brothers" slack off.
So, the problem had to be with the poison concoction he used for his cultivation.
However, even after Zou Feng used more potent poisonous creatures to reformulate the concoction, the effect was still subpar.
'Still not poisonous enough...'
Zou Feng was fairly certain he had already found most of the poisonous creatures in the outskirts of Yuan Guang County Town.
There really weren't any particularly potent ones.
Although he still had the Red Flower Scorpion, a creature with the Poison of Confusion, he still couldn't induce a qualitative change in his cultivation concoction.
This was the nature of a Poison Skill; cultivation almost always required external aids.
After all, humans aren't naturally venomous.
Fortunately, Zou Feng had already made arrangements to deal with this problem...
Next, he pulled another chamber pot out from under his bed.
When he opened the lid, the acrid stench was enough to knock a person out cold.
The pot was caked with a thick, multicolored liquid, along with the severed limbs and remains of countless insects.
Just as Zou Feng was about to lean in for a closer look, a faint green light flashed as something suddenly leaped out, lunging for his face.
"Don't mess around!"
Zou Feng wasn't the least bit surprised by the sudden attack.
He casually caught the creature in a two-fingered pinch, a display of his Chaos Finger skill.
The venomous creature between Zou Feng's fingers was bizarre.
It looked like a centipede, but it had a scorpion-like tail with a Poison Needle.
On its head was an extra pair of pincer-like Poison Fangs.
Such a strange insect wasn't even recorded in the Materia Medica of Herbs.
In truth, this thing could no longer be considered an insect.
It was a Gu!
A few days ago, under the guise of visiting a brothel to listen to music, Zou Feng had made another trip to the Ghost Market.
His purpose was to buy the method for Gu Cultivation, as well as the "primer" needed to start the process.
For Zou Feng, Gu Cultivation wasn't difficult.
After all, as a human-shaped poisonous creature himself, he could keenly sense the presence of other venomous beings nearby, and when capturing them, he was largely immune to their toxins.
Therefore, Zou Feng had no shortage of the vast amount of materials needed for Gu Cultivation.
But this was, after all, an unknown Gu that Zou Feng had haphazardly created by throwing a large number of poisonous creatures together using the crudest of methods.
Using this Gu Poison to concoct the venom needed for his Five Poison Palm cultivation was incredibly risky—practically a death wish.
But it didn't matter. He was only responsible for the "courting," while Yang Yanpeng would be the one to do the "dying."
In any case, he had already decided during the day to bleed Yang Yanpeng dry first.
Next, Zou Feng held onto "Xiaolv" and squeezed the venom from its mouth and tail stinger into another chamber pot.
This chamber pot already contained the special poison concoction Zou Feng used for his Five Poison Palm cultivation.
Now, with the addition of the Gu Poison, it immediately began to bubble furiously, like boiling water.
The sight left even Zou Feng secretly clicking his tongue in amazement.
But the next moment, he was already Cultivating as he raised his hands and plunged them into the chamber pot.
'Third Young Master, you'd better hold on tight!'
Midnight arrived, and it was once again Zou Feng's turn for night patrol.
After swiftly putting away the chamber pot, Zou Feng prepared to leave the woodshed.
He glanced at his status panel again, a look of unconcealed disappointment on his face.
[Five Poison Palm (Entering the Hall and the Room), Progress: 76%]
'What's going on? Even with the Gu Poison added, it only went up by one percent?'
'It seems this Gu I haphazardly raised isn't very effective.'
'If only I could find some more potent poisonous creatures to feed to Xiaolv...'
But for now, there was no solution to this problem.
The poisonous creatures on the outskirts of Yuan Guang County Town were all mediocre, and he'd already scoured the Ghost Market for anything good.
'Is this forcing me to attempt Entering Grade with just three Evil Skills at the "Entering the Hall and the Room" stage?'
Leaving the woodshed, Zou Feng temporarily pushed these thoughts aside.
He still had to be on high alert during his night patrol.
Not to protect the Yang Mansion, but for his own safety.
Although the chances of the Blood-handed Butcher sneaking into the Yang Mansion for an assassination were low, especially with tensions so high right now, it wasn't entirely impossible.
What if, grieving the loss of his beloved son, the man's anger got the better of him and he lost all reason?
The Household Servants never patrolled alone.
They were in pairs, at the very least.
And most of the time, Zou Feng's patrol partner was Xu Haoran.
Speaking of which, Xu Haoran used to proactively come to the woodshed early, trying to buddy up with him with an easy familiarity.
But for the past few days—perhaps because the kid had achieved some success with his Five Beasts Pile Skill and it had gone to his head—his attitude was completely different.
He no longer called him "Brother Feng" when he saw him and was even obviously trying to distance himself.
Of course, none of that mattered. What Zou Feng was truly curious about was how Xu Haoran, who clearly had no Talent for martial arts, had suddenly gotten so capable...
"Haoran, time for patrol!"
Seeing that it was time and Xu Haoran still hadn't come out of his room, Zou Feng called out.
There was no response from the room. Instead, Xu Haoran's voice came from the direction of the latrine: "Coming!"
When Xu Haoran emerged, he adopted an attitude of not wanting to engage with Zou Feng, saying, "Let's just go..."
With that, he picked up his lantern and started walking ahead.
Zou Feng followed behind Xu Haoran. After just a few steps, he asked in a joking tone, "Haoran, why is it that you came from the latrine, but you smell so fragrant?"
Hearing this, Xu Haoran froze for a moment, then answered perfunctorily, "I... I'm carrying a sachet..."
Before he could finish, Zou Feng flashed around to face him, his expression turning vicious. He lowered his voice and growled, "Speak. Are you practicing a Poison Skill?"
"Ah!" Xu Haoran was completely blindsided. His face drained of color as he stumbled back five steps, frantically waving his hands. "No... I'm not, I haven't... Don't make things up..."
Zou Feng snorted coldly. Done with the pointless chatter, he stepped forward and threw a palm strike.
The wind from his palm howled, carrying a sweet fragrance.
Seeing this, Xu Haoran's eyes widened. Then, almost by instinct, he mirrored the action and threw a palm strike of his own.
And the surface of this guy's palm had already turned jet-black.
SMACK! The two palms met as they exchanged a blow.
Afterward, Zou Feng stood perfectly still, while Xu Haoran let out a mournful cry and fell backward.
"Well, well, what a picture-perfect Five Poison Heart-Pushing Palm!"
"And you still dare to say you're not practicing a Poison Skill?" Zou Feng sneered, though he wasn't at all surprised by the outcome.