Chapter 2389 — Wei Zhao's Deduction

But the Verdant Forest Phantom Thousandfold Transformation was different. That was a wood-attribute mental cultivation method, not of the same attribute as the fire-attribute Heaven-Splitting Earth-Rending Claw. So when the two were fused together and the technique failed to activate, that had to be the reason!

At this thought, Wei Zhao's mind suddenly lit up. He combined the Frenzied Fire Fist with the Verdant Forest Phantom Thousandfold Transformation and tried to activate them—and sure enough, the attempt ended in failure! Moreover, whether he paired the mental method and chant of the Frenzied Fire Fist with the activation method of the Verdant Forest Phantom Thousandfold Transformation, or paired the mental method and chant of the Verdant Forest Phantom Thousandfold Transformation with the activation method of the Frenzied Fire Fist, neither succeeded in activating. This indirectly proved that Wei Zhao's earlier conjecture and judgment had been correct!

Only martial techniques of the same attribute could be fused and activated together; techniques of different attributes could not be fused and activated at all! In other words, if Old Sixth Pu's technique today had not been fire-attribute or wood-attribute, but rather one of the metal, water, or earth attributes, then Wei Zhao truly would have had no way to imitate it—when the time came, it definitely would not have activated!

At this thought, Wei Zhao inwardly breathed a sigh of relief at his good fortune and his narrow escape. What luck—Old Sixth Pu's technique just happened to be fire-attribute. Wei Zhao had stumbled onto the right approach by pure chance, directly using the Frenzied Fire Fist he knew best to form the combination, and then it had activated successfully!

If Wei Zhao had used the Verdant Forest Phantom Thousandfold Transformation for the combination at the time, and the activation had failed by some mischance, then in that moment of urgency, if he had been unable to think of anything else and had given up on continuing to experiment with the Frenzied Fire Fist for the fusion, today would truly have ended in disaster!

But once Wei Zhao had worked this out, a new question arose: why could Tagan Long's Five Elements Eight Trigrams Palm be fused with both the Frenzied Fire Fist and the Verdant Forest Phantom Thousandfold Transformation?

And just what attribute was this Five Elements Eight Trigrams Palm?

Five elements... Wei Zhao unconsciously grimaced. Surely it was not really of the five-element attribute? Could it be that this was a martial technique that could be activated and cultivated under any of the five elemental attributes? At this thought, Wei Zhao could not help clicking his tongue in secret amazement. Tagan Long really did have tremendous luck to have cultivated such a martial technique!

Still... Wei Zhao suddenly recalled the multicolored true qi on Tagan Long's body. Could it be that he had a five-element constitution, and used five-element true qi to activate the Five Elements Eight Trigrams Palm? The more he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed—otherwise, why would this martial technique's power be so monstrous?

If Tagan Long truly had a five-element constitution and possessed five-element true qi, then the third stance of the Five Elements Eight Trigrams Palm ought to be as formidable as the fifteenth stance of an ordinary superior martial technique. But clearly, Tagan Long had not achieved that!

Of course, these were only theoretical figures. Although the strength of a martial technique had much to do with the technique itself, it also depended on the practitioner's mastery. Take Wei Zhao's use of the Frenzied Fire Fist—his mastery surpassed even Uncle Qing's. That was why, when Wei Zhao used the Frenzied Fire Fist, its first stance carried the power of an ordinary technique's second stance, and so on by the same reckoning. Uncle Qing, however, could not manage this.

So although Tagan Long's martial technique was formidable, theory was theory and practice was practice. That he could unleash even his present level of power was already quite remarkable!

Having deduced the power of Tagan Long's martial technique, Wei Zhao felt a pang of covetousness. Even though he himself had a triple constitution of wood, fire, and metal, if he were to cultivate and activate the Five Elements Eight Trigrams Palm, he ought to be able to bring out the fifteenth stance's power at the fifth stance—and that would already be extraordinary enough!

Such power was simply heaven-defying. No wonder Tagan Long was so strong. But Wei Zhao had cultivated the Universal Martial Technique, which allowed him to master any cultivable martial technique to perfection. In that case, he would certainly surpass Tagan Long.

"Phew..." Wei Zhao let out a long breath and silently repeated Tagan Long's name. It seemed that once he was strong enough, he ought to pay the Tagan clan another visit and steal Tagan Long's martial technique for himself. Then, even against more formidable enemies, he could stand undefeated!

That was right—had not his "master," the Heaven-Ranked Oddball, said that he was stealing the enemy's cultivation mental methods? If he truly could, as he claimed, steal the mental method and chant of the Five Elements Eight Trigrams Palm, that would be a fine thing indeed!

But where was he supposed to find the Heaven-Ranked Oddball now? The treasure of the Ulanhot Mountains had already been retrieved; the Heaven-Ranked Oddball could not possibly return to those mountains. And with his mad temperament and scatterbrained mind, there was no telling where he might have run off to. Finding him would be a thousand times harder than hard!

Outside the room, Shen Yushu sat on the sofa in a daze. Though her eyes were fixed on the television, a single glance showed she was clearly absent-minded.

"Xiao Shu, what on earth is the matter with you? Is something troubling you?" Gu Mengyao had sensed that something was off about Xiao Shu ever since she had poured the tea earlier. She could not shake the feeling that the girl was hiding something.

"Ah?" Shen Yushu started, then came back to herself. "Sister Yaoyao, what did you say?"

Gu Mengyao frowned slightly. "Xiao Shu, is something on your mind? You did not even hear what I just said?"

"No, nothing at all—Xiao Shu was just too absorbed in the television..." Shen Yushu's heart gave a small jolt, and she hurriedly answered with a smile.

"Is that so? Then what was playing on the television just now?" Gu Mengyao asked.

"On the television..." Shen Yushu instinctively darted a glance toward the screen, then said, "Wasn't it Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf..."

"I only just changed the channel!" Gu Mengyao was caught between laughter and tears. "It was clearly SpongeBob SquarePants before!"

"Oh, right, SpongeBob SquarePants!" Shen Yushu nodded.

"SpongeBob was yesterday. Just now it was Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf—I never changed the channel." Gu Mengyao was somewhat speechless. "Xiao Shu, what has gotten into you? Are you hiding things even from me?"

"Ah? Is that so?" Shen Yushu had not expected Gu Mengyao to be so crafty as to trick her. Even so, she shook her head. "There really is nothing—maybe I just used my brain too much in the casino today..."

"Is that so?" Gu Mengyao naturally did not believe her. She pondered for a moment, then lowered her voice and asked, "Is it because of... Wei Zhao?"

After turning it over and over in her mind, Gu Mengyao could come up with no other reason. Xiao Shu liked Wei Zhao—Gu Mengyao knew this clearly. Shen Yushu had never once denied her feelings. And with Wei Zhao suddenly confessing to Wang Xinyan, it was understandable that Xiao Shu would be in low spirits.

But then again, this did not seem to fit Xiao Shu's character at all!