Base

The patrol inspector arrived with great fanfare.

However… he did nothing.

They ate, drank, and had fun as if they were on vacation.

Some people were stunned at first, but then they calmed down.

Most of the forces in the city felt that the situation was fine, except for the White Sand Gang.

The Ferocious Tiger Fist Dojo did not change much.

After Eldest Senior Brother returned, he began to take over the daily affairs of the dojo.

Lu Chuanfeng was still in charge of the dojo but he was no longer as busy. When he had time, he would check on Zhou You's cultivation progress.

Apart from cultivating the Ferocious Tiger Fist, Zhou You also began to cultivate the Iron Skin Technique. His strength increased quite quickly.

Lu Chuanfeng was surprised, but he did not pay much attention to it.

In the Strength Training Stage, because of the difference in physique, the increase in strength of each person varied a lot.

In the blink of an eye, two months passed.

It was a dark moonless night.

Meanwhile, in the small courtyard.

Pah pah pah pah!

Zhou You's body moved with his fists, palms, legs, shoulders, back, chest, and abdomen colliding against the wooden dummy, producing dull thuds.

Soon, most of his skin turned red and swollen.

Zhou You retreated a little. His palms swung out, forming a series of afterimages that landed on the spot that he had not hit before.

Before long, after confirming that other than a few fragile parts of his body, he had already tempered the other parts, a soft sound sounded in his ear.

Zhou You stopped cultivating and jumped into the medicinal bathtub that he had prepared long ago. He sat down cross-legged and groaned happily.

Practitioners of the Iron Arm Fist could still apply medicine to reduce swelling. However, people practicing Iron Skin Technique could only use a medicinal bath to take care of the entire body.

The medicinal bath formula that Zhou You used was naturally not the medicinal bath used by the Iron Skin Dojo to cultivate the Iron Skin Technique. He had concocted it using his medicinal knowledge. He was unsure how it compared to other medicinal baths since he had nothing to use as a comparison, but it was enough for his cultivation.

The drug took effect, and the pain all over his body subsided a little. He rested his head on the edge of the bucket and opened the interface with a thought.

Name: Zhou You

Affinity: 5

Aptitude: Ferocious Tiger Fist (22%), Green Snake Fist (60%), Gale Phantom Kick (52%), Iron Arm Fist (60%), and Iron Skin Technique (44%).

Comprehension: 100%

Martial Arts: Ferocious Tiger Fist (Level 2) (710/1000)

Green Snake Fist (Perfection), Gale Phantom Kick (Perfection), Iron Skin Technique (Perfection Perfection), and Iron Arm Fist (Perfection).

Martial Arts Points: 1

Without hesitation, he added a number behind his Affinity. His Martial Arts Points disappeared, and his Affinity became 6.

After two months of cultivation, the Iron Skin Technique had been cultivated to Perfection. His compatibility had increased from 31% to 44%.

As for the Ferocious Tiger Fist, he controlled the speed of his training with the intention of breaking into the late-stage Body Forging Stage in six months.

It met Master Lu's expectations.

Now that four and a half months had passed, his cultivation speed was slightly slower.

Since he did not have any other martial arts to practice, Zhou You planned to practice the Ferocious Tiger Fist with all his might at least five hours a day.

As he refined his flesh, his muscles continued to strengthen. While his strength increased, his endurance and recovery speed also increased.

His daily cultivation time was also increasing.

Ten minutes later, the swelling on his body had disappeared. Zhou You got up and put on his clothes. He stretched his limbs and suddenly threw a punch at the wooden dummy at lightning speed.

PAH!

Pftt!

The cowhide covering the wooden dummy was deeply dented, forming an inch-deep fist mark.

Ever since he had broken the wooden dummy, Zhou You had replaced it with a wider wooden dummy with a thicker layer of leather.

From the depth of the fist mark, one could roughly determine the strength of the punch.

Zhou You's punch was about 1,000 kilograms.

Compared to two months ago, it had doubled!

This was brought about by the improvement in his Ferocious Tiger Fist and the complete cultivation of the Iron Skin Technique.

Among them, the improvement brought by the Iron Skin Technique was at least 250 kilograms.

It was far beyond Zhou You's expectations.

Perhaps this was because the Iron Skin Technique was an external martial art that allowed one to train more muscles.

This was only the basic level of external martial arts.

If he could obtain the Iron Skin Technique manual at the internal force level, how much more would his cultivation improve?

Unfortunately, the manual was a secret technique belonging to the Iron Skin Dojo. It was even more strictly protected than the Ferocious Tiger Fist technique.

It was too difficult to obtain it. It was almost impossible.

Moreover, even if he obtained it, he would not dare to use it in front of outsiders after he had mastered it.

Iron Skin Dojo's hunting order was also very scary.

He drained the water from the wooden bucket, washed it, and placed it in the courtyard room. He made it seem as though he had already gone to bed.

Zhou You came to the osmanthus tree beside the courtyard wall. He stretched out his hand and easily jumped onto the courtyard wall. After looking around in the shade and finding nothing abnormal, he slid down the courtyard wall and landed in the courtyard next door.

Taking out the key from his pocket, Zhou You opened the door and entered the room.

After closing the door, Zhou You squatted in front of a table in a corner of the hall. He hooked a corner of the floor with his fingers and lifted a thick wooden board that was two feet long and wide, revealing a black hole.

Zhou You covered his mouth and nose with a mask and jumped down.

He landed on the ground and stabilized himself. He restored the wooden board above his head and rubbed it at the side for a while. A trace of fire lit up, illuminating the entire underground space.

The underground space was not high, so it was just enough for him to stand up straight.

It was only three meters wide, but it was very long, more than ten meters in length.

It was divided into several compartments with various herbs and utensils.

This was Zhou You's laboratory. It was specially used for various research. The main research content was poison.

After entering the apothecary, Zhou You was interested in learning how to make poison.

No matter how powerful his martial arts were, he could still get poisoned.

It was indeed something necessary for all occasions and could be used against thieves and defeat the strong.

In the end, when Cheng Yiqing found out, he reprimanded him harshly for not doing his job properly.

After that, Zhou You had no choice but to temporarily put aside the idea of researching poisons and obediently study apothecary.

It was not until he moved out that he secretly bought the courtyard next door. He connected the vegetable cellars in both courtyards and restarted the research on poison.

After restarting his research, Zhou You realized that poison was very easy to refine. It could be refined by anyone.

When many ingredients were combined, they would produce considerable toxicity.

After extracting and tempering it, it was a poison.

However, the characteristic smell was too obvious. Ordinary people could easily distinguish it. In fact, people in the poison trade did not even think that it was poison.

In the eyes of those in the poison trade, the basic quality of a qualified poison was that it was colorless and odorless, silently poisoning people without them knowing.

Alternatively, the poison had to be extremely potent. It had to have the ability to attack all organs before the subject knew it and was impossible to save.

If he wanted to achieve both characteristics, it was actually much more difficult than brewing tonics like Blood Strengthening Pills.

With Zhou You's current level, he could not do it for the time being. He could only refine some ordinary poisons.

He estimated that he had to at least reach the level of an alchemist before he could refine a qualified poison.

The top poisons in the world were often made by alchemists.

However, the reason why Zhou You had spent so much effort to create this underground space was not only to study poison but also to build a secret base for himself.

Although Master Lu treated him very well, he could not rely on him too much.

After studying the poison for a while, Zhou You went straight to a cubicle farthest from the laboratory to rest.

A cool breeze seeped in from the top of his head.

Zhou You looked up at the simple self-made periscope beside him, checked the threads wrapped around the head of the bed, and fell asleep peacefully.