Chapter 157: Mediation
Chapter 157: Mediation
After “Poisonous Hand Fist” advanced to become “Secret Luo Hand,” it undoubtedly transformed from Poisonous Hand Fist into the Demonic Implant Secret Art. This meant that “Secret Luo Hand” went beyond the scope of ordinary martial arts.
He continued to hold his stance, coordinating his muscles with his mind, using his breath to move his blood and energy. He could feel the “Cadaveric Toxin” inside his body being activated and gathering in his hands, which also made his two hands feel slightly numb and itchy.
The corpse spots turned into black and yellow patterns, centered on the back of his hands, forming three tattoo-like black patterns that wrapped around his entire arms.
Fang Jing felt that the originally strong foul smell in the air had changed somehow, becoming a faint but vulgar and sickly sweet fragrance.
“The Cadaveric Toxin has undergone some kind of qualitative change.”
He calmly extended one hand, using his mind to push the accumulated Cadaveric Toxin in his hand. A faint black mist, like fog, appeared from his palm.
As he continued to use his mind to move his blood and energy, something strange happened. The patterns formed by the corpse spots gradually faded, gathering from his arms toward his palms. Like living things, they were pushed to his five fingers through his breathing and blood adjustment method.
In the final stage, the corpse spot patterns completely disappeared from his hands, and only the nails on his five fingers turned a charred black color.
Fang Jing had already noticed that the itching sensation on his skin was gone, and he also had an intuition that he could control the Cadaveric Toxin.
“They say… Cadaveric Toxin is something that the human eye cannot see.”
He walked over to a digital video camera placed on a tripod in a room and reached out to take the DV camera from the tripod.
By playing back the footage, he saw something astonishing. After rewinding the video, everything that had happened in the past forty minutes was completely recorded.
He also discovered that throughout the footage, there was nothing unusual about his hands.
There were no black and yellow spot-like patterns; both his arms looked completely normal.
Fang Jing snorted and chuckled… In other words, except for himself, outsiders could not see the abnormalities on his hands.
Secret Luo Hand was indeed not simple.
He had an intuition that if he continued cultivating Secret Luo Hand, he might be able to explore a path from it.
This could be a way for weak humans to resist supernatural forces.
Of course, he couldn’t be sure about this yet.
“More experiments are needed. Without practical verification, talking about these things is useless.”
He muttered to himself, but a thought emerged in his heart—only the practitioner himself could see it; this was not a conventional toxin. Yes, it was indeed an altered curse.
So, how strong was this newly acquired power of his?
Fang Jing felt that he should seriously test it out.
——————
After testing it out at the Chemical Plant, he was quite satisfied with this new skill.
First, he caught a few test animals—a dog and two chickens. Just by holding them in his hands, he could use the Cadaveric Toxin to corrode them, causing them to die instantly.
However, testing only on animals wasn’t reliable enough, so he decided to find a living person to experiment on.
He didn’t go crazy and attack randomly. Instead, he called over that thug named Tsutsuga, patted him on the shoulder, and secretly released the Cadaveric Toxin.
A moment later, Tsutsuga started vomiting blood. His body looked as if he had been infected with smallpox or hemorrhagic fever, covered in pus-filled sores, vomiting continuously. Before long, he collapsed and died from bleeding.
During this time, Tsutsuga had been helping him manage some tasks related to cultivating Poisonous Hand Fist, as well as secretly doing some unknown work.
However, this person had to be silenced after all.
Fang Jing made a phone call and summoned a group of people in full protective suits. They collected the bodies and test animals, taking samples.
Next, these people skillfully entered the warehouse. First, they sprayed disinfectant everywhere. Then, they placed the items in sealed body bags and put them on a cart, preparing to take them to a specialized incineration facility for disposal.
“Cadaveric Toxin is a curse, not a toxin, so it shouldn’t be contagious. But for safety’s sake, we still need to be careful.”
Fang Jing remembered the records in “Outer Demon Gate”: Cadaveric Toxin was not a toxin and would not cause infection.
No abnormal viruses were detected on the samples from Tsutsuga, whom Fang Jing had killed, or the test animals.
Even when sent to specialized facilities for testing, only mixed toxins from snakes and some poisonous insects were found, but the dosage was not high and not enough to cause such a gruesome death.
Fang Jing himself didn’t show many abnormal changes either. However, after leaving the Chemical Plant, he found a pair of black gloves to wear on his hands and also wrapped both arms completely with medical bandages.
“No matter what… Cadaveric Toxin is very dangerous. Right now, I’m just suppressing this toxic power inside my body. If I’m not careful and lose control, it might be released. Besides… my sweat and bodily fluids might also carry traces of the Cursed Power from the Cadaveric Toxin.”
Fang Jing found that he could only advance “Secret Luo Hand” to the fourth level for now. To successfully cultivate this technique, he had spent a total of 47 Growth Value points.
However, he didn’t plan to continue advancing and raise Secret Luo Hand to the fifth level just yet.
Although he could feel that he could still level up, the appearance of side effects made him a bit cautious.
The side effects just now were quite strong, and he felt that they had somewhat damaged his vital energy. For the next period of time, he should rest and recuperate a bit.
“Besides, the cost is a bit high. The remaining points should be used to push skills and raise the Three Core Attributes instead.”
Fang Jing no longer had to worry about funds or resources now. He could fully seek out various schools or find professional fighters and martial artists to come teach him various fighting techniques, boxing, and martial arts.
After the last battle with Kuki Muen, he had lost a lot of his Stamina Attribute. Next, he would need to put in some effort to build that up as well.
“I can entrust Hatakena Gensai to help me search for antiques and artworks that possess Yin Energy. This is a major direction. I can also get the Sunao-gumi and Iwamoto Group involved in this matter…”
Both the Sunao-gumi and Iwamoto Group had plenty of manpower and very extensive connections. With their help, collecting the things he needed would naturally be much easier.
Fang Jing now realized that his search targets should be antiques and artworks that were either very old or had negative rumors associated with them.
He walked out of the training room at the Chemical Plant and passed through the rusted iron gate.
The pale yellow afternoon sunlight slanted onto the asphalt road. The streets on both sides were quiet and deserted, with a green belt nearby.
A black advanced-level sedan was parked by the roadside, its shiny body reflecting a faint yellow light.
Crossing the green belt, Fang Jing pulled open the car door and got in.
“You’ve been very busy lately. I’m surprised you have time to come find me.”
He noticed that Higashi Yuantai was also in the car and couldn’t help feeling a bit surprised, knowing that Higashi Yuantai had been extremely busy recently.
After the Takaha Group collapsed, problems kept increasing, and Old Man Wakabayashi, grieving the loss of his wife, was hit hard and hospitalized with a serious illness.
For a while, Higashi Yuantai had to shoulder the burden alone, maintaining operations and rebuilding their reputation.
It was easy to imagine that he had been swamped with work recently.
It was really rare for him to come find Fang Jing.
“Can’t I come find you if nothing’s wrong?”
Higashi Yuantai smiled slightly, took out a rather thick envelope, and handed it to Fang Jing.
Fang Jing took it, casually opened it, and found a check for a huge amount, along with an offshore trust fund account number.
“This is twenty percent of this quarter’s earnings, as we agreed before… But we can’t deposit it directly into your account because it’s all gray income…”
Higashi Yuantai folded his hands and placed them on his knees.
Fang Jing glanced at the numbers and felt a jump in his heart. The earnings from just three months were this huge; he really hadn’t thought about this before.
Just this amount of money, in his previous life, would have taken him hundreds of years of hard work to earn.
He never thought that in this life, by casually killing a few people, he could earn such a huge sum.
He put the envelope away and sighed softly.
“But being in the underworld is too profitable! This is only twenty percent of the revenue. If you calculate it carefully, the annual earnings are really substantial.”
As if reading his thoughts, Higashi Yuantai let out a bitter laugh.
“You can indeed make money in the underworld, but most of it is gray income that can’t be shown openly. Not to mention, a majority consists of non-liquid assets and parts that can’t be cashed out. Besides that, we have various expenses. The money we work hard to earn isn’t easily pocketed either.”
“That’s true.”
After all, it involved a lot of illegal activities. Even if they made money, they would be watched from all sides.
Fang Jing thought for a moment and said quietly, “I’ll take these things, but you don’t need to give them to me in the future. I know your Sunao-gumi is involved in some commercial investments. I’d like to get involved too. You can take charge of all the funds, and just give me dividends later.”
After careful consideration, he realized he was asking for quite a lot. Although it was agreed upon by both sides, based on Fang Jing’s experience, disputes and disagreements over money were very common. He still hoped to continue cooperating with Higashi Yuantai.
Higashi Yuantai was a smart person, a capable and intelligent one. Working with someone like that was very comfortable.
He was essentially treating the future funds he would receive as an investment. If the Sunao-gumi’s ventures grew in the future, he wouldn’t have to worry about lacking funds. As for the money on the books, it wasn’t very useful to him now anyway. The checks and trust account money he already had were a considerable fortune.
Rather than causing envy or future disputes over money that could lead to falling out, he might as well treat this twenty percent share as an “investment” in the future. This investment could bring him and Higashi Yuantai closer.
Higashi Yuantai was stunned for a moment, but soon, he laughed out loud.
“Alright, I understand what you mean. Our Sunao-gumi does have a few investment projects recently. Compared to the old gray income, these can steadily earn legitimate money without worrying about police investigations. But the initial investment is quite high…”
While he was talking, the car’s driver slammed on the brakes. The four tires screeched on the road, and the entire rear of the car lifted, barely stopping in the middle of the road.
“I’m very sorry, boss.”
The driver was also a member of the Sunao-gumi. He was sweating profusely, his lips dry, and he looked extremely nervous.
“There’s a car blocking the road ahead…”
Higashi Yuantai frowned and saw a convertible parked sideways, blocking the road. That was why their car almost crashed into it, nearly causing an accident.
Just then, a beautiful woman got out of the convertible. She was wearing a white shirt with a suit, her long legs covered in black stockings. Her light golden hair was smooth and neatly draped over her shoulders. She walked gracefully toward Higashi Yuantai’s car. With her cold smoky eye makeup, she had a proud and confident expression.
“Troublesome woman!”
Higashi Yuantai couldn’t help but sigh.
“Is that woman from the police?”
Fang Jing asked curiously.
“No.”
Higashi Yuantai tightened his brow and said quietly, “That woman is a Dispute Mediator. She’s quite a bothersome and annoying character.”