"It's good to have a scar." Charles Carter said calmly, "It can remind me of what I need to do."

David Sullivan narrowed his phoenix eyes.

Charles Carter crossed his arms and sized up David Sullivan's fine-browed, phoenix-eyed appearance, clicking his tongue, "I may be a bit ugly, but if you were a woman, you'd actually look pretty good... Actually, you don't even need to be a woman, just put on women's clothes and that would do."

David Sullivan glared angrily, "Do you think I can't kill you?"

"Uh..." Only then did Charles Carter remember that this wasn't the real world, joking around with the guys. Friends in the real world would just laugh at this kind of talk, but here, they might actually want to chop you up, and they weren't even that close yet.

Thinking of this, Charles Carter lost interest, realizing the world had changed: "Fine, you take the bed, I'll take the table."

David Sullivan's angry expression froze, and he asked in surprise, "Why the sudden change in attitude? All along the way, you hogged the big bed and didn't ask me a thing."

"Back then, I didn't feel I owed you anything. In fact, it seemed like I saved you. You gave me the cold shoulder, so why should I cozy up to you? Now that everything's over..."

"Didn't expect it, your skills aren't much, but your temper stinks."

"Heh... right back at you." Charles Carter waved his hand, "Go to sleep, I'll read for a bit—surely you won't say you refuse to sleep somewhere I've lain? Grown men, making a fuss over nothing."

David Sullivan: "...Suit yourself, read your book."

The book referred to was the manual for "Blood Fiend Technique."

Though the mountain stronghold was new, it was fully equipped; there was even an oil lamp in the room, though for Charles Carter the light was rather dim. But, strangely enough, he found he didn't have any trouble seeing. This so-called "eye in the back of the head" seemed to not only enhance his normal vision and hearing, but also gave him a bit of night vision. He felt there was more to be discovered.

The only problem was, reading traditional Chinese characters was really tiring.

It seemed that Fang Buping had casually tossed him the manual, as if it wasn't very valuable, but Charles Carter noticed that the surrounding cultists had looked at his booklet with quite a bit of envy.

He wasn't sure if it was because the technique was actually pretty good, or just because any martial art was already hard to come by for most people...

What a pity, this pledge of loyalty of his really shouldn't have only gotten him this much.

He sat at the table, staring at the manual in a daze, while David Sullivan leaned against the head of the bed, watching him.

Seeing his absent-minded look, David Sullivan had a bit of a schadenfreude smile at the corner of his mouth, and leisurely comforted him, "No need to be discouraged, getting the Blood Fiend Technique is already pretty good..."

Charles Carter asked, "You've heard of it?"

"This technique is fairly well-known, I've heard a bit about it," David Sullivan said slowly. "It's said that only bandits who have made contributions under the Blood God Cult can be taught this, to quickly build up combat strength. So, the advantage of fast progress is real. Judging by the envy from others, it's definitely a good thing, much better than my lousy outer sect technique. Of course, since it's allowed to be taught to non-core bandits, it can't be that amazing..."

Charles Carter asked, "If it's not bad, do you want it? The booklet doesn't say I can't show it to others."

"You're pretty generous." David Sullivan was a bit surprised. "You earned this with your own merit, and you'd just give it to me?"

Charles Carter sighed, "The demonic cult isn't a good place... Right now, our fates are tied together. If we don't stick together, we'll just get bullied. What's the point of splitting hairs over whose merit it is?"

David Sullivan looked at him for a while, the schadenfreude smile fading, his voice much softer, "Even though it doesn't say you can't show it to others, there's no guarantee it's not a test for you. Hall Master Fang doesn't seem to like you much, so you'd better be careful not to get caught out."

Charles Carter scratched his head and said nothing.

David Sullivan continued, "Besides, my internal technique foundation is already set, this one wouldn't do me much good. What I really need is to find a chance to return to the Luo Family Manor and see if the core techniques passed down from father to son are still under the ruins—hopefully they haven't been dug up by someone else."

After a pause, he added, "Mm... If you want my lousy internal technique, it's not that I'm stingy, you can have it if you want. But as I said before, your age isn't really suitable for practicing orthodox internal arts. The Blood Fiend Technique is probably more suitable for you."

Charles Carter didn't care about that lousy outer sect technique, and kept his head down, reading the Blood Fiend Technique in his hands. From the preface, it really did seem like one of the most suitable techniques for his current situation.

Chapter 8: Book of Chaos

These days on the road, Charles Carter had already been subtly asking David Sullivan and some Blood God Cultists about some basic knowledge. This basic knowledge was still somewhat similar to what he knew from the real world: martial arts were also divided into internal and external techniques. As the saying goes, "internally train the breath, externally train the muscles, bones, and skin." No matter which you practiced, once you reached a certain level, you qualified to try opening the mysterious human acupoints.

If you had enough luck, you could of course train both internal and external arts. It's said that this makes opening the acupoints easier and makes you stronger in combat. All the famous masters in the world are said to be proficient in both.

External techniques aren't as profound as internal ones, but they have their own intricacies. For example, if you want to learn Iron Sand Palm, you need to know what kind of iron sand to use, how to train, what medicines to soak your hands in, as well as the moves, routines, and techniques for channeling force. Most people never even get the chance to learn these. Anyone who has learned a bit can barely be called a "jianghu hero," and they form the foundation of the vast martial world.