Beast God
Chapter 63: Profound Nether Yin Fire Palm

The Profound Nether Yin Fire Palm carries a semi-yin semi-yang yin fire energy. When struck by this palm, the yin fire invades the body and burns the victim's Primordial Energy, quickly depleting it and rendering them unable to use Secret Skills. 

Moreover, the yin fire energy disrupts the body's yin-yang balance. Ordinary people hit by this technique experience alternating sensations of extreme heat and cold, as if simultaneously suffering from heatstroke and hypothermia. Besides developing high fever, their bodies become extremely weak.

The Profound Nether Yin Fire Palm can be considered an exceptionally vicious technique, with effects surpassing even many legendary Secret Skills. 

However, it has one fatal flaw - at level 1, each use consumes 21 points of Primordial Energy. 

First Awakening cultivators, even those practicing top-tier Secret Techniques, rarely exceed 20 points of Primordial Energy at level 10 unless they've cultivated special techniques or consumed rare treasures that increase Primordial Energy capacity. Before Second Awakening, virtually no one can use the Profound Nether Yin Fire Palm.

Those strong enough to meet the technique's requirements would already have access to higher quality and more practical Secret Skills, making the Profound Nether Yin Fire Palm rarely used even if learned.

After Second Awakening, the yin fire effect becomes relatively weaker compared to Second Awakening level techniques, and with more options available, few would invest time and effort to upgrade such a resource-intensive rare technique.

Thus, while the production rate of this technique is low, demand is equally scarce, keeping prices affordable.

Chen Guan, however, showed great interest in this technique. Before Second Awakening, the Profound Nether Yin Fire Palm would be a devastating weapon. While others couldn't use it, this wasn't a problem for him - he only needed one more level to utilize it, and by level 10 he could employ it freely, significantly boosting his combat power.

"Young man has good eyes! This is indeed the rare-grade Profound Nether Yin Fire Palm technique core. These only drop from Profound Yin Ghost Mothers, which are elusive and hard to find. In the past month, I've only obtained this one. Since we hit it off, I can give you a discount," the shopkeeper said with a smile.

"How much?" Chen Guan inquired.

"A rare-grade technique core normally sells for at least 1,000 Divine Land coins. But seeing you're new here and we get along, I'll give you a special price - 800 coins. Don't bargain - I've never offered such a low price to anyone else," the shopkeeper said seriously.

Chen Guan turned and left immediately. Not only did he not even have eight coins currently, even if he had 800, he wouldn't spend it on this.

Divine Land currency had decent purchasing power - 800 coins was no small sum, enough to feed a family of three dining out every meal for a month.

"Young man, wait! We can negotiate - 780? No? 700... 600... 500..." The shopkeeper kept lowering the price, but Chen Guan walked faster. He truly had no money, and couldn't use it now anyway.

The Profound Yin Cave was pitch black, but Chen Guan wore a high-power headlamp with matching power bank - standard exploration equipment prepared by Chen Yulian.

Moving through the winding cave system with his headlamp, he initially encountered several cultivators, most hunting Profound Yin Ghosts. Two who had found ghosts fought them while wearing similar headlamps.

This was Chen Guan's first time seeing Profound Yin Ghosts - wearing tattered shoes and leather armor, with pale, ferocious faces and eyes emitting black smoke, resembling crazed underworld soldiers.

Not lingering to avoid misunderstandings, Chen Guan pressed deeper into the cave.

Warring States and Evil Cute Rabbit scouted ahead. Warring States' keen sense of smell and night vision could detect hidden ghosts. Soon, he began barking fiercely at a dark corner. Chen Guan immediately sent Evil Cute Rabbit charging forward.

Sure enough, a Profound Yin Ghost emerged silently from the shadows, gliding swiftly toward Rouge like a specter riding yin winds.

CRACK!

Rouge cleaved the ghost's head off with one slash. The head rolled away as the headless corpse collapsed before her.

She stabbed her Bloodsucking Blade into the corpse's heart, draining its blood until the blade turned crimson.

Chen Guan left the ghost's boots and armor - inferior to his current gear. Carrying extra items would only hinder his progress deeper into the cave.

After Rouge finished draining the blood, they continued exploring, killing seven or eight ghosts in an hour but only obtaining worthless tattered gear.

"If only Qin Ziyu were here - at least we'd get some pets. Profound Yin Ghost pets are quite valuable," Chen Guan mused.

After learning the ghosts' patterns, Chen Guan engaged one directly. His Blood Palm shattered both arm and hand of a ghost using Triple Yin Claw.

The ghost's arm hung limply like boneless flesh, surprising Chen Guan slightly.

Despite being two levels higher and also using Secret Skills, the ghost's arm was utterly destroyed - bones likely pulverized. His Blood Palm had never been this powerful before. Enhanced by The First Secret Technique, it now surpassed even his level six capabilities.

Another Blood Palm strike to the chest reduced the ghost to a boneless heap on the ground.

"This is too overpowered. The First Secret Technique significantly enhances Secret Skills too," Chen Guan thought joyfully. His Blood Palm's offensive power now seemed comparable to Rouge's.

Subsequent encounters saw Chen Guan defeating ghosts with single palm strikes - any direct contact reduced them to boneless corpses, his palm force terrifyingly potent.

Through testing, Chen Guan concluded The First Secret Technique doubled Blood Palm's power.

The only regret was that unlike the Stealth Kill Art, The First Secret Technique couldn't directly absorb Primordial Energy from slain Mystical Spirits during combat.

However, Chen Guan discovered operating The First Secret Technique in the Profound Yin Cave yielded far more Primordial Energy than in Samsara City. Practicing near slain spirits also absorbed more energy - likely gathering some of their dissipated Primordial Energy.

But this required active cultivation, unlike the Stealth Kill Art's combat absorption.

"To accelerate cultivating The First Secret Technique, I need an energy-rich location," Chen Guan frowned slightly.

Such places were usually haunted by powerful spirits - the richer the energy, the stronger the spirits, making cultivation there dangerous.

Unless using areas already secured by human cultivators - which would require payment.

"Need to earn money first," Chen Guan was thinking when suddenly countless gray particles converged in his hand, forming a gray crystalline core.

Evidently, energy from a ghost slain by Rouge had coalesced into a Secret Core.

"Profound Yin Art technique core - useless to me, but can be traded for Seven Mysteries Steps or sold later." As Chen Guan stored the core, an eerie, spine-chilling laughter suddenly echoed from the cave ahead.

The shrill, raspy sound pierced his brain like needles, causing such intense pain that he instinctively clutched his head, covering his ears with his arms.