I Can Strengthen Infinitely

Chapter 438 - 280: The Evil Tiger Soul, New Divine Skills (Part 3)

Now Sanhuang has become the King of Jiangnan, holding what amounts to nearly one-third of the world, so it’s certain the imperial court won’t just let things slide and turn a blind eye. Qin Yuesheng must go ahead to the Central Plains to scout things out and understand the situation there.

The Central Plains is a gathering place for all the greatest martial artists under heaven—it could be said that experts are everywhere, and masters fall like rain.

Even Qin Yuesheng has to strengthen his own abilities once more to feel truly secure.

These days, Du Xiaoqing has been constantly sending people to swiftly deliver the pills and medicinal herbs he’s collected outside, bringing them back to Yangzhou Prefecture for Qin Yuesheng.

As a result, Qin Yuesheng’s All-Purpose Essence has steadily climbed, the quantity truly astonishing.

Most of Sanhuang’s forces are people swallowed up from other places—not many are raised by Sanhuang himself—so Qin Yuesheng previously used the Life-and-Death Cold Ice Talisman to control a select few, who then managed the bulk of the soldiers themselves.

Sitting in the Mountain Ghost Pearl’s residence, Qin Yuesheng searched his own list of martial arts for a long while, finally locking onto one technique.

Life-and-Death Cold Ice Talisman.

Ever since Qin Yuesheng first mastered this martial art, he’d scarcely used it and hadn’t fortified it. Now, intending to head to the Central Plains and unable to regularly relieve the internal cold energy of those affected by the Life-and-Death Cold Ice Talisman—

This duty would have to be handed off to someone else.

"The Life-and-Death Cold Ice Talisman is formidable, but it’s a double-edged sword, both boon and bane. I can’t teach it fully to others and risk a disaster later, so I’ll keep the Gathering Talisman Skill to myself and only teach the solution method." After pondering, Qin Yuesheng began to enhance the ’Life-and-Death Cold Ice Talisman.’

This martial art, Qin Yuesheng could feel its potential—if upgraded to Divine Skill Level, perhaps it’d yield unexpected rewards.

Thanks to days of frantic consumption of herbs and pills, Qin Yuesheng now possessed over 89,000 points of All-Purpose Essence, and didn’t fret about splurging at all.

All-Purpose Essence – 33,000

[Start enhancing ’Life-and-Death Cold Ice Talisman’]

[Life-and-Death Cold Ice Talisman → Life and Death Ice Seal]

Suddenly, Qin Yuesheng’s mind lit up with a flash of clarity—information about the Life and Death Ice Seal poured in.

The Life and Death Ice Seal is at Divine Skill Level, its power far surpassing the Life-and-Death Cold Ice Talisman by dozens of times. The Life-and-Death Cold Ice Talisman had required Qin Yuesheng to channel Inner Strength through the Yin Meridian, condense the Cold Ice Talisman, and cast it into someone’s body.

The Life and Death Ice Seal is vastly more domineering—just a strike of the Cold Ice Divine Palm, and anyone hit will have an ice seal on their skin, cold energy invading the heart meridian, constantly threatening life itself. Even masters of Inner Strength cannot purge it by themselves; the fate of their life and death is completely in Qin Yuesheng’s hands.

Without Qin Yuesheng’s intervention to resolve it, the cold energy will burst forth as ice spikes, piercing the target’s heart and chambers, killing them outright.

You could call this the upgraded version of the Life-and-Death Cold Ice Talisman—greater power, with more opportunities to put it to use.

Aside from this, Qin Yuesheng began to enhance Star-Picking Hand as well.

This martial art was truly handy for Qin Yuesheng—whether grabbing someone or retrieving objects from afar, extremely convenient. Naturally, he didn’t see why not to upgrade it even more.

All-Purpose Essence – 38,000

Star-Picking Hand immediately transformed from a third-rate art into a Divine Skill.

[Marvelous Hands Shape the World] (Divine Skill)

This Divine Skill is extremely mysterious—not only can it snatch objects at a distance, but it also excels in grappling. Each move hides the subtleties of shaping the world itself, the palm locks onto the enemy’s vital breath, leaving them nowhere to run. All that’s left is to fight back or get caught by Qin Yuesheng right then and there.

Gaining two Divine Skills at once is nothing unusual for Qin Yuesheng, so he appeared quite indifferent about it. But if the folks of the martial world heard, their eyeballs would likely pop out in utter shock then and there.

Two Divine Skills are enough to establish a prestigious clan that would echo throughout the realm—after all, Divine Skills aren’t like cabbages in the vegetable patch, cheap and in abundance.

Ah Song sat not far from Qin Yuesheng, gnawing speedily on a nut. Though it could talk like a human, it still couldn’t shake off its squirrel nature.

Just as it ate happily, a ruckus suddenly sounded from outside the residence.

Qin Yuesheng turned to look and saw a soldier running in in a hurry, saying, "Master, someone from Chang’an is here. They said they want to see Lord Sanhuang."

"Chang’an?"

Having not heard anything from the imperial court in ages, Qin Yuesheng almost forgot the nation still belonged to the Great Tang. Though the Great Tang is beset by enemies on all sides nowadays, no one dares underestimate this old camel on the verge of collapse. For the Tang to stand strong through generations, hundreds of years, it certainly still holds some aces up its sleeve.

"Let them come to me." Qin Yuesheng ordered.

Soon, the soldier returned with a group of people. At the head of the group was, unexpectedly, a eunuch.

The oily look on his face and pointy chin showed he was nothing like an honest man.

"So you’re the one in charge here." Seeing Qin Yuesheng calmly seated on the stone chair, not bothering to get up, the eunuch blurted out immediately.

"People from the court—what brings you to Yangzhou Prefecture at this hour?" Qin Yuesheng ignored the question and asked coldly.

"I’m here at His Majesty’s command to persuade Cao Mengda to surrender. If he turns back from the brink, the emperor will let bygones be bygones, appointing him Governor of Jiangnan to oversee Jiangnan. But yesterday I got word that the tides in Jiangnan have shifted—Cao Mengda was beaten by a nameless youngster, so I must fulfill the imperial edict here. Can you speak on his behalf?" the eunuch asked.