I Can Merge Techniques

"Are you just red-eyed with jealousy?"

"It’s not jealousy." Wang Meng shook his head, his expression suddenly turning serious. "I just... I can’t figure it out!"

His gaze swept across the crowd as he said in a low voice, "You all say he relies on some powerful Magical Treasure to pull off these incredible feats."

"I believe that, but the power of a Magical Treasure Secret Artifact is ultimately limited by the user’s own strength!"

"Without enough vast and pure Primordial Qi to sustain it, you couldn’t activate a heaven-defying Exotic Treasure even if you had one. You’d probably be sucked dry the moment you tried!"

"He’s a rookie who’s only been with the Demon Suppression Bureau for a few months. How could he possibly take that heaven-shattering sword strike from Princess Zhaohua and walk away unscathed?"

"If it were me, even with a powerful Magical Treasure, I wouldn’t have an ounce of confidence I’d survive!"

Wang Meng’s words gradually silenced the boisterous crowd.

Many of them fell into deep thought.

It was true. They had only vaguely chalked it up to a "powerful Magical Treasure" without ever thinking through the logic.

A more thoughtful Demon Suppression Guard frowned and asked, "Old Wang, you’ve been going on for a while. What’s your point?"

"Don’t tell me you want to challenge Chu Fan to a spar and test his strength for yourself?"

"That’s the idea!" Wang Meng slapped his thigh, a fervent glint in his eyes. "I just want an answer! This question has been rattling around in my head every day, and it’s driving me insane!"

"I can’t even sleep soundly until I get to the bottom of it!"

"Hahaha!" The surrounding Demon Suppression Guards roared with laughter. "Old Wang, you better think this through! Chu Fan has a Ghostly Appearance; he’s completely unpredictable. He’ll probably beat you senseless!"

"Not necessarily!" someone immediately retorted. "Chu Fan is ruthless with his enemies, but surely he wouldn’t use lethal force on a colleague?"

"Besides, it’s a spar. He can’t possibly use his powerful Magical Treasure!"

"Old Wang is a master at the First Heaven of the Acupoint Realm, after all. His body is tough as nails from all that Horizontal Training. If it’s a real head-to-head fight, the outcome is anyone’s guess!"

"Exactly!" another person chimed in. "They say he was only in the Spirit Awakening Realm before he joined. It’s only been a few months! Even if he’s a once-in-a-ten-thousand-year prodigy, he couldn’t have broken through to the Acupoint Realm already, could he?"

"Something like that is completely unheard of!"

"That’s right! This new colleague of ours is too low-key and mysterious, yet also far too powerful..."

"His true strength is just so intriguing!"

The chatter rose and fell as everyone’s curiosity was piqued. They all began to whoop and egg him on.

"Go on, Old Wang! Challenge him and give us a good show!"

"Yeah! Go find out what he’s really made of for the rest of us!"

Spurred on by the crowd, Wang Meng’s gaze grew more resolute. He gave a firm nod, having seemingly made up his mind.

"All right! The next time Chu Fan is at the Bureau, I, Wang Meng, will challenge him to a proper, honorable fight!"

"Even if I take a beating, I have to find the answer!"

...

Meanwhile, Chu Fan was completely oblivious to all this.

He was on his way to the Demon Suppression Bureau, carrying a heavy cloth sack.

The sack was filled with tomes he had borrowed from the Library Pavilion. He had already read them several times and was now on his way to exchange them for new ones.

The streets of Qing Province City were bustling with people. The cries of vendors, the clatter of horse hooves, and the laughter of children wove together into a lively, worldly tapestry.

But as Chu Fan turned onto a familiar street, he immediately sensed something was wrong.

The once-bustling avenue was now utterly deserted and eerily quiet, without a single soul in sight.

The doors and windows of the shops lining the street were shut tight, as if everyone had vanished into thin air.

The sky had become pitch-black, and the sweltering evening breeze from moments before had vanished without a trace.

The air was stagnant, so thick it felt hard to breathe.

Stranger still, he had walked this street countless times and knew it like the back of his hand, yet now he seemed to be walking forever without reaching the end.

Was the scenery on either side repeating itself?

’A ghost wall?’

Chu Fan stopped short. His expression shifted, his gaze turning as sharp as a hawk’s.

The Spirit Array Map of the Demon Dragon Celestial Spirit Scripture activated instantly!

The strength of his Divine Sense surged more than tenfold in an instant!

But as soon as the world before him began to change, he sensed the anomaly—

His Divine Sense, which could normally cover a radius of a hundred yards, was now being fiercely suppressed by an invisible force, barely able to extend ten yards from his body!

Beyond those ten yards was an inky, roiling chaos, as if an unseen barrier had sealed everything off.

And it wasn’t just his Divine Sense...

He tried to circulate the Primordial Qi in his Dantian, only to find it sluggish and stagnant. It was flowing at less than thirty percent of its normal speed!

Chu Fan’s heart went cold.

’With this level of suppression,’ he thought, ’an ordinary expert at the Second Heaven of the Divine Power Realm probably couldn’t even exert half their full strength!’

He slowly tilted his head back to look at the sky.

The dome of the sky was pitch-black. There was no Blood Moon, no stars—only an impenetrable, inky darkness.

And yet, the entire landscape was bathed in the glow of a Blood Moon...

And from the depths of that endless darkness, Chu Fan clearly felt a pair of enormous, cold eyes watching him with detached indifference.

The feeling was identical to the one he’d had back in the Chaotic Stone Forest when he used the Five Elements Cauldron to seal Baili Bing.

Only back then, he had been the one doing the sealing, and Baili Bing was the one being sealed.

’Could it be? Was I pulled into some kind of Magical Treasure without even noticing?’

’Their methods are bizarre beyond belief!’

SWOOSH!

Chu Fan casually tossed the sack aside, his muscles tensing like a cheetah poised to strike.

"Oh? You’ve figured it out? Quick on the uptake."

A crisp, pleasant female voice, tinged with a playful tone, abruptly echoed through the void.

Before the voice had even faded, ripples spread through the darkness above, and an enormous, beautiful woman’s face slowly emerged.

Her eyes were smiling as she gazed down on him from on high.

"Little one..."

The enormous face held a faint smile, its voice echoing throughout the space. "My Moon Worship Sect means you no harm."

"We’ve brought you here today to extend a formal invitation for you to join our sect."