All that was lacking was the Divine Wood King Tripod.

Jiang Mingzhe nodded, circulated his inner qi a few more times, and extended his palm. Ah Zi poured a small amount of the poisonous blood from the jade bowl onto his palm.

Pulling his hand back below his lower abdomen, he covered it with his other hand, closed his eyes, and began to channel his technique, absorbing the toxic blood from his palm. He felt a viscous, lingering, yet tenacious strand of vital energy surge into his body.

Wherever it passed, the poison felt as though it wanted to seep into his meridians and take root. He hurriedly accelerated his cultivation technique, forcefully wrapping around this strand of energy and guiding it forward until it settled into the metal-aligned acupoints.

Ah Zi squatted nearby, watching intently. She saw dark cyan wisps of Qi emerge across Jiang Mingzhe's hands, quickly moving upward and vanishing into his cuffs.

Before long, he opened his eyes with a smile and extended his hand once more. His palm was completely clean, without a single trace of blood or stain.

Ah Zi cheered, "Incredible! You actually absorbed all the poisonous blood! As expected, using your own blood to assimilate the poison is far more formidable than using someone else's!"

She then said thoughtfully, "However, because of this, the amount of poison assimilated each time must be enormous. If not for your innate poisonous physique, anyone else attempting to assimilate poison this way would most likely suffer a deviation in their cultivation and go mad."

Jiang Mingzhe did not fully understand what she meant and hurriedly pressed her for details. After Ah Zi explained at length, Jiang Mingzhe finally came to understand—

It turned out that the poison-assimilation method of the All-Encompassing Astral Tribulation Classic was not the Star Palace's most profound art. Compared to the Art of Demonic Might mastered exclusively by Ding Chunqiu, its efficiency was far lower.

In Jiang Mingzhe's understanding, assuming a snake's toxicity was 1, once mixed with human blood to form toxic blood, its potency would drop to 0.5. When assimilating poison using the method of the Tribulation Classic, a large crust of blood would inevitably be left on the palm, and the actual toxicity successfully integrated into the body would only be about 0.1 or 0.2.

The reason for the distinction between 0.1 and 0.2 was that some people could only endure a certain amount of assimilated toxicity before reaching their limit, and they had to wait until the poison was completely integrated into their acupoints before they could practice the technique again. Others, however, were naturally endowed to assimilate more. This was due to differences in innate aptitude. Therefore, although Jiang Mingzhe's method of "self-blood poison assimilation" yielded superb results, it was difficult for others to emulate.

On the other hand, the Art of Demonic Might could assimilate all the toxic blood directly into the body, meaning the integrated toxicity reached 0.5, making it far superior to the Tribulation Classic.

At the same time, Ah Zi had a suspicion: the Divine Wooden King Tripod wielded by Ding Chunqiu was capable of compelling venomous insects to voluntarily ingest human blood, and then leverage the power of the tripod to force that blood back out. The toxicity contained in this kind of blood far surpassed that squeezed out from a human after being bitten. According to Jiang Mingzhe's calculations, it was at least 0.8. Coupled with the inherent absorption efficiency of the Art of Demonic Might, while ordinary disciples absorbed 0.1 or 0.2 of toxicity during a single session of cultivation, Ding Chunqiu's efficiency during a single session was four to eight times that of his disciples.

Furthermore, with the Divine Wooden King Tripod in hand, Ding Chunqiu could effortlessly capture a vast multitude of rare and exotic poisons, presenting yet another massive advantage that his disciples could never match. Taking everything into account, under the same cultivation conditions, the gap between Ding Chunqiu and his disciples would only grow wider and wider.

At this point, Jiang Mingzhe finally understood why Ding Chunqiu dared to foster such a ruthless school code: he knew that no matter how high his disciples' aptitudes were or how diligently they practiced, they would never have the opportunity to surpass him, their master.

But now...

Jiang Mingzhe rubbed his hands together, feeling a slight sense of pride—

Although the cultivation technique he practiced was inferior to the Art of Demonic Might, he had pioneeringly chosen to use his own blood for his practice, enabling him to achieve a hundred-percent absorption rate of the toxicity within the blood. At the same time, given his innate poisonous physique aptitude, he would not suffer from cultivation deviation due to absorbing an excessive amount of poison.

Calculated this way, the gap between Jiang Mingzhe and Ding Chunqiu was merely a Divine Wooden King Tripod.

"Come on, let's continue!"

Having fully grasped the principles behind it and freed from any worries, Jiang Mingzhe urged Ah Zi. Without hesitation, Ah Zi poured another small amount of toxic blood into his palm.

After several repetitions, the toxic blood forced out earlier had all been successfully assimilated into his acupoints. Jiang Mingzhe let out a long laugh, stood up, and assumed the stance of the Three Yin Centipede Claws. As his inner force circulated, faint dark cyan Qi flickered across his three fingers. He executed a few random strikes, and the cyan Qi tore through the air, leaving afterimages as a strange, fishy stench permeated the cavern.

"Hhahahaha, congratulations to Big Ginger on the phenomenal success of your divine art!" Ah Zi was routinely immersed in venomous matters, so she naturally paid no mind to these unpleasant odors. She hopped around in laughter and playfully bowed to Jiang Mingzhe.

Jiang Mingzhe smiled and said, "If not for Senior Sister helping me, I wouldn't know when I could have successfully assimilated the poison. As for some phenomenal success of a divine art, Senior Sister aren't you afraid of turning my head with too much praise? My claw technique can only be said to have just begun to show its might. Come, let me continue assimilating the poison!"

Jiang Mingzhe raised his middle finger.

Next came the ring finger, followed by the index, middle, and ring fingers of his other hand...

Moreover, having gained experience, the duration he endured the centipede's venom injection grew longer with each attempt.

Before he knew it, midnight arrived. When Jiang Mingzhe extended his little finger, the six-winged flying centipede bit him listlessly, let its head drop with a thud, and died—its venom entirely exhausted, its vital essence drained to the last drop.

The seven metal-aligned acupoints Jiang Mingzhe had previously opened were no longer sufficient, so he immediately opened three more on the spot. This left Ah Zi staring in astonishment, her lips pursed as she barely managed to hold back tears.

According to Ah Zi, normally filling a single acupoint with toxicity required at least a hundred or so ordinary venomous creatures.

For Jiang Mingzhe to charge nine and a half acupoints using just a single centipede—the formidable nature of this six-winged iron centipede could well be imagined.

The two had traveled all day, followed by combat and poison assimilation. Even for martial artists with abundant vigor, they were utterly exhausted by this point. They added more wood to the fire pit and fell fast asleep back-to-back.

I do not know how much time had passed when Jiang Mingzhe impatiently blinked, opened his eyes slightly, and was immediately forced to look away by the glaring sunlight, only to realize he was sleeping on the ground.

"Senior Sister!" Jiang Mingzhe called out in a low voice, getting up and walking out of the cave. He saw Ah Zi walking slowly toward him, holding a water jar, and smilingly saying, "You're awake? Go rinse your mouth and wash your face, then we'll eat something and set off."

Jiang Mingzhe nodded, walked dazedly to the riverside, scooped up some water, and splashed it on his face. The river water was icy cold, causing Jiang Mingzhe to shudder and instantly snap to alertness. After washing up, he returned to the cave where Ah Zi handed him a dry flatbread. The two ate it with warm water and refilled their gourds.

At that moment, Ah Zi put on her gloves, retrieved the still-unconscious Little Ginger, pinched a tiny amount of yellow powder, and rubbed it against the creature's snout. Little Ginger sneezed and immediately opened its eyes.

Ah Zi picked up the carcass of the six-winged iron centipede and handed it over. Little Ginger grabbed it, and just as it was about to take a massive bite, it suddenly stopped, sniffed the creature with an expression of sheer disbelief, tossed its little hand upward, and smashed the dead centipede right into Ah Zi's face, letting out an aggrieved cry.

"Ouch! If you don't want to eat it, fine, how dare you smash it into me!" Ah Zi had been careless for a moment and failed to dodge in time, causing her to jump up and curse in anger. Little Ginger also shrieked incessantly. The large and the small creatures bickered as if hurling insults at one another, leaving Jiang Mingzhe laughing heartily at the sight.

Furious, Ah Zi shoved it back into her tunic layer: "If you won't eat, then starve! Let you starve to death! Big Ginger, let's go!"

Leaving the cave, the two headed south along the Zhaqu River. After walking twenty odd miles, a mountain peak suddenly jutted up before their eyes.

The mountain was about twenty to thirty zhang high and nestled among a series of mountain ridges, appearing utterly unremarkable. Yet while the surrounding mountains were lush with rolling greenery, this single peak was entirely devoid of vegetation, covered only by rugged, grotesque rocks, and faintly shrouded in a layer of dark cyan mist.

Behind Jiang Mingzhe, Little Ginger shrieked repeatedly, appearing extremely excited, while Ah Zi also revealed a look of joy: "Centipede Ridge has arrived!"

With that, she grabbed Jiang Mingzhe and ran forward, stopping at the foot of the mountain. Only then did Jiang Mingzhe notice that the wild grass covering the ground all the way here abruptly stopped right at this spot, exposing black soil ahead as if someone had drawn a circle around the mountain.

Ah Zi fished out the carcass of the six-winged iron centipede and smiled at Little Ginger: "You refused to eat it when I gave it to you, and now that you want to, it's gone!"

With a flick of her wrist, she tossed the dead centipede down at the base of the stone mountain.

Moments later, the entire stone mountain seemed to spring to life. A rustling sound echoed intensely as countless centipedes emerged from the crevices of the rocks. Some were as long as a small human forearm, while others were barely an inch long. Some were black, some red, some golden, some blue; some had vermilion heads and golden horns, while others possessed dark bodies and blue feet. They varied endlessly, resembling a colorful, surging tide sweeping fiercely toward the corpse of the six-winged iron centipede.