Chapter 2305 — A New Martial Art

What exactly was the reason for that? Shaking his head, Wei Zhao set the question aside for the moment. With Han Jingyi beside him, a walking pill furnace, it hardly mattered whether he himself was an alchemist; would it not be far better to devote himself single-mindedly to the study of smithing?

It seemed he must hurry and gather the three materials—pure yellow jade, blue crystal powder, and colored steel—as quickly as possible. Only the more of these three he collected could he refine the essence inner core necklace and the storage space! Still, he guessed the Tagan clan must possess these three materials, or at least several of them. Back when Tagan Long had sought to condense the essence necklace, he must already have begun collecting these auxiliary materials; otherwise, even finding a spirit beast's essence inner core would have been useless.

That was impossible now. In the future, once his strength had grown, he would find an opportunity to pay the Tagan clan in Ruileida Town another visit and steal a few good things. Never mind the auxiliary materials—just Tagan Long's Five Elements Eight Trigrams Palm alone made Wei Zhao's mouth water.

Only the first stance, and its power was already boundless. What kind of overbearing martial art was this?

At the thought of that Five Elements Eight Trigrams Palm, an itch crept into Wei Zhao's heart. Such a martial art was simply unheard of; had he not experienced it himself, he truly could never have imagined that in this world there existed a martial art even more refined than one as superior as the Frenzied Fire Fist!

The Frenzied Fire Fist, as the cornerstone martial art of Uncle Qing's ancient sect, was certainly formidable. Over several thousand years, several sect masters had cultivated it, and among them were not a few masters who had reached the peak of the late Heaven rank, perfect and complete. That alone showed how superior the art was!

Even if Uncle Qing's sect was merely a second- or third-rate ancient sect, anything touched by the ancient world could not be simple! Feng Nitian and Zhang Naipao, for instance, were likewise not to be underestimated.

At this moment, Wei Zhao felt an urge to steal the art. Even the mere thought of the Five Elements Eight Trigrams Palm's might was almost more than he could contain. He wanted to probe the Tagan clan once more! Wei Zhao was quite certain that if he could learn this martial art, then defeating a late Earth rank peak expert while fighting above his own level would no longer be a dream!

Tagan Long's defensive ability was nothing much, but his offensive power was beyond doubt. Though he had ultimately been gravely wounded by Wei Zhao, the damage he had dealt Wei Zhao was by no means small! Wei Zhao knew very well that had he not held the Fireflow Divine Bullet in hand, it would have been hard to say who fell first... Of course, Wei Zhao could have fled halfway through, but that would have left him rather unwilling.

The Five Elements Eight Trigrams Palm, stealing the art—these were but a flash of inspiration in Wei Zhao's mind. Yet once the thought surfaced, it could hardly be suppressed, taking root and sprouting in his heart like bamboo shoots after the rain, clamoring to drive him into action!

Of course, that was impossible—it was plainly an act of delivering himself to death. Wei Zhao would certainly not do it. Even without the fearsome Old Twelve and Old Six lifting a hand, Tagan Gan, Tagan Hao, the Second and Third Estate Guardians—these alone would be enough to give Wei Zhao a bitter cup to drink.

So rather than take the risk, better to carefully savor the scene of last night's exchange with Tagan Long!

At that thought, Wei Zhao's eyes narrowed slightly, and scene after scene from last night in the Tagan clan's library slowly replayed before his eyes like a film.

From the moment Tagan Long entered the library and made his first move, everything surfaced in Wei Zhao's mind. The circumstances then had been pressing, however, and his attention had not initially been fixed on Tagan Long's martial art, so the earliest moments were somewhat incomplete. But Tagan Long's later movements—especially those twin palms flickering with an eerie light—remained fresh in Wei Zhao's memory!

Wei Zhao frowned and unconsciously extended his own palm, imitating Tagan Long's posture and replaying it back and forth from memory. Yet Wei Zhao could only recall the way Tagan Long had channeled this martial art; the mental cultivation formula and oral incantation he cultivated, Wei Zhao did not know.

So Wei Zhao could only draw a gourd and paint a ladle, mimicking Tagan Long's method of channeling, the way he struck with his palms, and his movements!

As for the mental formula and oral incantation used to channel the martial art, Wei Zhao could only make up for it with the Xuanyuan Dragon Riding Formula, then use the Frenzied Fire Fist's method of channeling to convert his true qi into the fire-attribute true qi of the Frenzied Fire Fist, and pour it into his palms!

"Hah—" Wei Zhao gave a furious shout and thrust out both palms. To avoid disturbing Sun Jingyan, he used only the fire-attribute true qi of the Frenzied Fire Fist's first stance!

"Boom!" "Boom!"

Two tremendous roars, as though shattering the void, rang out in the air—the might produced in the air after Wei Zhao's palms struck out!

Though Wei Zhao's "Five Elements Eight Trigrams Palm" looked somewhat motley, like a hybrid of Tagan Long's "Five Elements Eight Trigrams Palm" and Wei Zhao's own "Frenzied Fire Fist," its power exceeded Wei Zhao's imagination!

This stance, channeled using only the oral incantation of the Frenzied Fire Fist's first stance together with Wei Zhao's own imitation and inference of Tagan Long's "Five Elements Eight Trigrams Palm" method, produced a "Fire Dragon Eight Trigrams Palm" that possessed power even greater than the "Frenzied Fire Fist"!

It could not compare with Tagan Long's authentic Five Elements Eight Trigrams Palm, but it was far greater in power than Wei Zhao's former Frenzied Fire Fist—this first stance of his was at least equal to the might of the second stance!

Even so, Wei Zhao's heart brimmed with wild joy and pride. He did not know whether the second stance of the Fire Dragon Eight Trigrams Palm, released by pairing the oral incantation of the Frenzied Fire Fist's second stance with the Five Elements Eight Trigrams Palm's method, would have the power of the fourth stance of the Frenzied Fire Fist, but one thing was certain: it would be far more formidable than an ordinary second stance of the Frenzied Fire Fist!

He himself had actually created a martial art? In Wei Zhao's understanding, only the founding patriarchs of the various ancient sects or martial grandmasters could create martial arts—and yet Wei Zhao had created one himself?

True, its power could not rival the original Five Elements Eight Trigrams Palm, but for a martial art that Wei Zhao had dismantled, recombined, and rewritten to be successfully channeled at all was a miracle—how could one ask for more?

One must remember that not every founding patriarch of the many ancient sects had been able to create martial arts. The arts they cultivated were likewise handed down from ancient times, tempered a thousand times over by generations of martial predecessors!

Even in ancient times, only a very few cultivators of extraordinary talent could summarize and create a unique martial art of their own; even modifying and perfecting an existing martial art was no easy matter.

To say nothing of Wei Zhao, who had casually, in but a short time, fused two martial arts into one! (To be continued)