Chapter 73: Chapter 73 - The Forced Retirement Plan and Boutique Manufacturing

Su Bai executed his daily sign-in at Clear Cloud Peak. He successfully acquired a reward of three additional Slumbering-Lotus Fog Talismans.

"Perfect," Su Bai smiled. These talismans had been a lifesaver. Restocking his tactical inventory was always a good feeling.

With his daily tasks complete and the evening stretching out before him, Su Bai decided it was time for some professional development.

He pulled the storage ring Tang Yuyan had given him and extracted the Tang Clan Needle Technique Manual.

He sat on his favorite flat stone and opened the leather-bound book.

Instantly, a slight shiver ran down his spine.

The first section of the manual was an excruciatingly detailed map of the human body’s acupoints. Su Bai had studied meridian charts in the Radiant Sky Sect’s Grand Archives before, but the Righteous Sect viewed the body as a vessel for enlightenment.

The Tang Clan viewed the human body as a machine meant to be dismantled.

Their charts were terrifyingly precise. It detailed exactly how much pressure, Qi, and angle was required to trigger catastrophic biological failures.

Healing or killing? It was all just a matter of hitting the right button.

Flipping past the anatomy section, Su Bai arrived at the combat combos. As his eyes scanned the text, his corporate brain lit up. These weren’t just martial arts... They were highly optimized tactical workflows.

But one combo in particular made Su Bai stop and slowly gulp.

[The Three-Gates Severing Lock]

Strike 1: The Base of the Skull ("Wind Pool" Acupoint). The needle strikes exactly where the spine meets the brain, instantly scrambling the victim’s vestibular system. The enemy experiences extreme, violent vertigo. Their vision doubles, and their brain stops sending clear signals to their legs, forcing them to stumble and completely lose their balance.

Strike 2: The Shoulders ("Shoulder Well" Acupoint). Striking this pressure point triggers a massive, localized muscle spasm. The victim’s arms go completely dead and numb. They instantly drop their weapon and lose all physical ability to raise their hands to block, parry, or cast hand-seals.

Strike 3: The Lower Spine ("Gate of Life" Acupoint). Located directly opposite the navel, this is the central junction of the body’s motor functions. A Qi-infused needle here acts as a catastrophic circuit breaker. It completely severs the connection between the upper body and the legs.

The manual concluded with a chilling footnote: The moment the third needle strikes the Gate of Life, the victim collapses to the floor. They remain completely conscious and fully able to feel pain, but are entirely incapable of moving a single muscle below their neck.

"That isn’t an assassination," Su Bai whispered as he wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. "That’s a permanent, non-negotiable forced retirement."

It was utterly ruthless. He loved it.

He eagerly flipped to the next section, which detailed Qi manipulation methods for the needles.

The first was the Armor-Piercing Needle. By vibrating a sliver of Qi at a hyper-specific, fluctuating frequency, the needle didn’t try to forcefully shatter an enemy’s defensive shield. Instead, it perfectly matched the frequency of the opponent’s Qi, allowing the needle to quietly slip straight through their barrier like a ghost phasing through a wall.

’This changes everything,’ Su Bai realized. His eyes gleamed. ’This is how I bypass a Golden Core’s dense Qi barrier!’

The second technique was the Weeping Needle. The manual taught how to forge needles with microscopic hollow chambers inside the shaft. Tang Clan assassins would fill these hollow spaces with highly concentrated liquid poison, injecting the payload directly into the victim’s bloodstream upon impact.

Reading this, a spark of inspiration ignited in Su Bai’s mind.

Closing his eyes, Su Bai mobilized the Yin-Crystal Asteroid in his Dantian. With meticulous Qi control, he drew out a pitch-black Yin Needle, then deliberately hollowed out a microscopic chamber inside the razor-thin shaft.

He raised his hand, and a cluster of ash-grey fire flickered to life at his fingertips. His Ashen-Frost Blight Flame. It radiated a terrifying, necrotic cold.

Using his precise Qi control, Su Bai condensed a tiny spark of the Ashen-Frost Blight Flame and carefully sealed it inside the hollow chamber of his qi needle.

He stood up, turned toward a thick, sturdy pine tree at the edge of the cliff, and flicked his wrist.

Swish!

The silver needle crossed the courtyard in a blur. It sank deep into the tree trunk.

For half a second, nothing happened. Then, the microscopic Qi seal inside the needle broke.

BANG!

A muffled, localized explosion echoed from inside the trunk. The Ashen-Frost Blight Flame violently expanded, instantly devouring the tree from the inside out. In the blink of an eye, the towering pine flash-froze into a solid block of grayish-blue ice, before crumbling into a pile of necrotic, ashen dust.

Su Bai stood in the courtyard, completely shocked.

"The payload delivery system is fully operational," Su Bai grinned as his heart pound with excitement.

Combining the Armor-Piercing frequency with the explosive payload of the Weeping Needle, and targeting the Three-Gates Severing Lock... Su Bai felt a massive, surging boost in his combat confidence. If he ran into a Golden Core cultivator now, he wouldn’t just run away. He might actually be able to liquidate them.

A massive grin appeared on his face.

Having upgraded his tactical software, Su Bai decided it was time to upgrade his hardware.

He returned to his hut and sat cross-legged on his bed. He took out the pile of spirit stones he had confiscated from the bad guys. Then, he took out the remaining Shattered-Soul Oblivion Pills.

It was time to clock in for the night shift.

Su Bai popped an Oblivion Pill into his mouth and swallowed.

Instantly, his mind hyper-focused, and his meridians forcefully expanded, entering an extreme overclocked state.

He activated The Starving Wraith’s Devouring Maw.

Unlike his usual slow, cautious cultivation, Su Bai turned into an industrial vacuum. The Devouring Maw ripped the pure spiritual energy out of the mid-grade spirit stones, shattering the crystals into grey dust as a torrential river of Qi flooded into his meridians.

Under the agonizing but highly efficient overclocking of the Oblivion Pill, his meridians easily handled the violent influx. He immediately ran the Void-Sunflower Supreme Method, then refined the stolen energy and violently smashed it into his Yin-Crystal Dao Pedestal.

His cultivation base began to surge.

When the duration of the Oblivion Pill wore off, Su Bai simply popped another one and kept the assembly line running.

He became an emotionless cultivation machine, churning through spirit stones and pills as the moon arced across the night sky.

As his corporate brain monitored his progress, he couldn’t help but run a quick ROI (Return on Investment) calculation on the pills.

’My Transcendent-Grade Oblivion Pill lasts exactly 50 seconds,’ Su Bai calculated, ’But it takes me a full 30 minutes to manufacture just one.’

He thought of Liu Meng, the corporate god.

’In 30 minutes, Junior Sister Liu Meng can mass-produce a dozen standard-grade Oblivion Pills using a traditional cauldron. Even if hers only last 10 seconds each, a dozen pills equals 120 seconds of overclocking time. Her automated assembly line yield completely destroys my boutique, artisanal manufacturing process.’

"Praise be to the industrial revolution of Verdant Peak," Su Bai muttered respectfully. He fully acknowledged Liu Meng’s superior manufacturing capabilities once again. He made a mental note to secure more inventory from her later.

Su Bai only ceased his relentless cultivation when his remaining Oblivion Pills finally ran dry.

He exhaled a long, heavy breath of pure, frosty Qi.

His Foundation Establishment Stage 2 cultivation was now immaculately solidified, perfectly compressed, and steadily pressing against the boundary of Stage 3. He felt lighter, faster, and infinitely more lethal.

Su Bai opened his eyes, then stretched his neck until it popped.