This was highly probable!
Everyone has essence energy and strength.
What martial artists had and ordinary people didn't was internal force and martial arts.
If he could extract a corpse's internal force, then he should be able to do the same with martial arts!
Su Jingxing's breathing intensified at the thought.
If he could obtain a couple of secret martial arts manuals directly through the corpses, it would save him a lot of trouble.
It's time to get those corpses moved!
However, he would have to shift his focus to corpses of martial artists, since they held the most value.
Oh, how good it was to be a martial artist, to be highly sought-after in life and in death!
…
The plan was great.
But things didn't work out the way Su Jingxing wanted them to.
For the next week, he toiled away at moving corpses without skipping a single day.
The corpses yielded mostly Essence Energy Cards and Strength Enhancement Cards.
Essence Energy Pills and Vigor Pills were daily loots for Su Jingxing.
However, the secret martial arts manual he hungered for remained elusive.
That's right, it eluded him, despite the fact that there had been corpses of martial artists.
For the past week, Su Jingxing had been keeping an eye out for martial artist corpses. Whenever one of these was sent to the crematorium, he would search for an opportunity to get close and extract a card from it.
Unfortunately, among three martial artist corpses, the first two only gave Strength Enhancement Cards, yielding a total of seven Strength Pills.
Finally, when he was at the third corpse, he extracted an Internal Force Card.
To make matters worse, the Internal Force Card only contained three months' worth of internal force cultivation.
This paled in comparison to the first Internal Force Card he got, which had contained a whole two years.
There was also no trace of any secret martial arts manual.
Su Jingxing mulled over this.
He had learned something from these three corpses; not every martial artist corpse gave Internal Force Cards.
Only one fact was certain: Internal Force Cards only came from martial artist corpses, but not all martial artist corpses gave Internal Force Cards!
If Internal Force Cards are already this rare, then isn't it normal for secret martial arts manuals to be even rarer?
After arriving at this conclusion, Su Jingxing slowly curbed his impatience.
And so, he continued toiling away at the crematorium as he did before.
This went on until one afternoon; as he was relieving the morning shift, he heard someone talking sympathetically about the death of an eighth-grade martial artist. Almost acting on instinct, Su Jingxing made his way to the hall where farewell ceremonies were held. When he got close enough to the eighth-grade martial artist's corpse, he managed to extract a new card.
A skill card!
Walking out of the farewell ceremony hall, he went to a corner and took out the card to examine it. When he saw the description of the card, he almost fainted from excitement.
Seven Steps Fist.
It was a secret martial arts manual! The Skill Card contained a secret martial arts manual!
He finally got one!
Such was the way serendipity worked.
Seven Steps Fist—a fist technique that was supplemented by footwork.
It wasn't an advanced technique, but still decently strong once mastered.
The name of the technique was representative of its main feature.
Seven steps!
Every level was separated by a step, and each level differed greatly in terms of difficulty.
At the highest level, all enemies would drop dead by the time the practitioner takes seven steps.
In a way, the power of this fist technique could increase endlessly.
Taking Su Jingxing as an example, the strength of each of his arms currently exceeds two thousand catties.
If he could cultivate the Seven Steps Fist to the highest level, he would be able to unleash 14,000 catties of strength by the time he takes seven steps!
That amount of power was enough to wound or even kill a seventh-grade martial artist, let alone a ninth-grade one.
To become a ninth-grade martial artist, one needed to generate internal force and have arms that both exceeded 1000 catties of strength.
To become an eighth-grade martial artist, one needed to exude internal forces and have arms that both exceeded 3000 catties of strength.
To become a seventh-grade martial artist, one needed to be able to converge their internal force to one spot and open up their dantian. Both of their arms should exceed 10,000 catties of strength.
If a seventh-grade martial artist was caught off guard and struck by 14,000 catties of mighty strength, they would be left crippled even if they managed to survive.
From this, one could see the power of the Seven Steps Fist.
Su Jingxing had to take a few deep breaths to contain his excitement, before he stuck the card in between his eyebrows.
As soon as he unlocked the card, every bit of information regarding the Seven Steps Fist was engraved into his mind.
There was no need to worry about getting it wrong or failing to comprehend it.
The particularity of Skill Cards was that they allowed Su Jingxing to immediately know how to cultivate the technique and make breakthroughs as soon as he absorbed the card's information.
However, he couldn't master the fist technique instantaneously like how he acquired internal force.
Still, it saved him a lot of trouble by letting him learn the ropes immediately.
It was like that adage: The master leads his disciples onto the right path, but how far one can go depends on themselves.
The skill card taught Su Jingxing how to practice the technique, but the level of mastery he could achieve in the future depended on his own actions.
Would he give up halfway because the training was too tedious and tiring?
Or would he remain focused on his goals and persevere to the end?
Su Jingxing, who had hungered for secret martial arts manuals for the longest time, obviously chose the second option.
He still had a score to settle with Wan Rong, his "mortal enemy".
But before that, he should find out more about the practitioner of the Seven Steps Fist.
In Qinghe City, an eighth-grade martial artist could be considered to be quite capable.
It would indeed be a pity if such a person had died from an accident.
Of course—
The reason why Su Jingxing wanted to find out his identity was to learn more about the origin of the Seven Steps Fist.
On Earth Star, most secret martial art manuals had a traceable origin.
Due to various reasons, secret martial arts manuals were controlled by a few people.
These people strictly guarded the secret martial arts manuals. If they discovered that someone had secretly practiced them, they would either rob them of their cultivation or cripple them, and in worse cases, silence them.
Therefore, it was very important to learn the origins of the Seven Steps Fist!
…
Su Jingxing returned to the farewell ceremony hall.
Using his identity as a crematorium staff member, Su Jingxing checked the deceased's identity.
Wei Zhongting!
That was the name of this eighth-grade martial artist.
After leafing through the information, he left quietly.
Deep down, Su Jingxing heaved a sigh of relief.
Wei Zhongting, who had just turned 40 this year, owned a martial arts dojo.
Seven Steps Fist was his heirloom technique.
More than ten years ago, the Wei Family's dojo once had its time in the sun.
The reason was that Wei Zhongting's late father was a sixth-grade martial artist, and was considered a powerful figure in the western region of Qinghe City who enjoyed great fame.
He had cultivated the Seven Steps Fist to the highest level and was unrivaled in the Qinghe City.
Unfortunately, he died from an illness.
His death put an end to the Wei Family's prestige.
Wei Zhongting, who had inherited the dojo, was only average in terms of aptitude for martial arts.
He had expended a lot of energy and financial resources to barely break through to the eighth-grade. Having cultivated his family's ultimate heirloom technique—the Seven Steps Fist—to the Advanced level (but not the highest), he barely managed to preserve the Wei Family's dojo.
As for the cause of his death, it was because he was too eager for progress and suffered from a qi deviation.
Su Jingxing learned some new information from the conversations of farewell ceremony attendees: The Wei Family's dojo had been in a precarious position.
The Wei family's assets were being both openly and secretly coveted.
This caused Wei Zhongting to panic and make a mistake during cultivation, ultimately dying from qi deviation.
Now that Wei Zhongting was gone, the Wei family was on thinner ice.
Of course—
These had nothing to do with Su Jingxing.
Had he been a sixth-grade martial artist, he wouldn't mind secretly lending a helping hand as a token of gratitude for the Seven Steps Fist.
Unfortunately, he wasn't even an eighth-grade martial artist.
There weren't any problems with the origin of Seven Steps Fist; many people had practiced it at the Wei Family's dojo.
Practicing it shouldn't give Su Jingxing any future trouble.
…
At night, past work hours.
Su Jingxing made up an excuse so that he could go out, then headed straight to the back mountain of the crematorium.
He stuffed an Essence Energy Pill into his mouth to get rid of his fatigue and slowly started practicing the Seven Steps Fist.
Tap!
…