He eventually gave up and left to find work, which he did for over a decade.
After more than a decade, Zhou Daniu had barely managed to reach the threshold of Ming Jin, landing him in the Early-stage Mingjin Realm—the weakest of the weak, mere cannon fodder.
And he had only managed that by grinding it out with sheer brute force.
’What if... what if this thing really is Tai Sui Flesh? If I eat it, will my stagnant Early-stage Mingjin Realm finally advance like I’ve always dreamed?’
The moment this thought surfaced, Zhou Daniu’s eyes began to shine.
He hesitated no longer. He shot to his feet and began rummaging through his belongings, finally producing a dagger.
Dagger in hand, he returned, squatted down, and stared at the hunk of black flesh once more.
With a swift chop, he easily sliced off about a tenth of the black flesh.
The small piece of flesh was still twitching in his palm. Zhou Daniu stared at it and gulped.
’Eat it?’
’Don’t eat it?’
’Eat it?’
’Don’t eat it?’
Two voices warred in his mind. In the end, greed triumphed over fear.
Gritting his teeth and shutting his eyes, he stuffed the small piece of black flesh into his mouth, chewed a few times, and forced it down.
Instantly, Zhou Daniu froze. He felt a searing current of heat erupt in his abdomen!
The heat was like a volcanic eruption, surging through his blood vessels, meridians, and bones before rushing madly toward every inch of his body!
Zhou Daniu’s face instantly flushed crimson—not a normal flush, but a deep, boiled-shrimp red that seemed to emanate from within!
His features twisted, and veins bulged on his skin. His muscles swelled, the blood vessels standing out in sharp relief, looking as if they might burst at any moment!
"ARGH!!!" Zhou Daniu’s mouth gaped open as he let out a series of irrepressible roars.
But his roars contained no pain, only exhilaration.
In that instant, he clearly felt the intoxicating thrill of immense power.
’Such incredible power!’
Wherever the searing current passed, the meridians that had been stagnant within him for over a decade were forced open! The acupuncture points that had been blocked for just as long were cleared!
His Realm was skyrocketing!
Early-stage Mingjin... Mid-stage Mingjin... Late-stage Mingjin... Peak of Mingjin...
The next moment, Zhou Daniu felt something explode in his mind.
It was the power of Dark Force—the very Dark Force that countless Martial Artists dreamed of achieving.
’I actually broke through?’
Zhou Daniu stood there in a daze, staring down at his hands.
They were the same rough, calloused hands, but he could now feel that they held more than ten times the power they had just moments ago!
And that wasn’t all. An indescribable power was surging within him.
It was Dark Force—true Dark Force.
He tried to channel the power, guiding it down his arm and into his palm.
He was in the Early-stage Anjin Realm. And it wasn’t just the early stage; Zhou Daniu could feel the energy from the still-unrefined black flesh surging within him, so abundant it felt like it was about to overflow.
He was now just a hair’s breadth away from the Mid-stage Anjin Realm.
Zhou Daniu stood there, stunned into silence. In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea—a single cup of tea—he had transformed from a worthless Early-stage Mingjin cultivator into an Early-stage Anjin Martial Artist.
He had leaped over an entire major Realm, a threshold that countless people could never cross in a lifetime.
Suddenly, Zhou Daniu began to laugh. It was a strange laugh, filled with excitement, ecstasy, and an indescribable... crazed desire.
He lowered his head and looked at the remaining nine-tenths of the black flesh on the floor.
The flesh was still pulsing, as if beckoning to him.
At the sight, Zhou Daniu immediately squatted and reached out to touch it. He gulped, his eyes filled with avarice.
After a moment, Zhou Daniu hesitated. The torrent of heat from the Immortal Flesh had not yet been fully absorbed.
He could feel the power still slowly widening his meridians, his Realm solidifying bit by bit.
If he ate more now, Zhou Daniu feared his body wouldn’t be able to withstand it.
So, he took a deep breath, suppressed the impulse, and quickly squatted down to wrap the remaining black flesh in his outer coat.
Then, Zhou Daniu got on the floor beside his bed and reached underneath it.
There was a hidden compartment there he had secretly dug after moving in, just big enough to hide a few things.
Zhou Daniu stuffed the bundle into the compartment, smoothed the loose dirt over the top to ensure no traces were visible, then stood up and dusted off his hands.
"It seems this really is the legendary Tai Sui Flesh..." he murmured, an expression of excited greed on his face.
In truth, Zhou Daniu didn’t know the first thing about Tai Sui Flesh. All he knew was what it could do, something he had just experienced firsthand.
A tiny piece of Tai Sui Flesh had allowed him to leap from the Early-stage Mingjin Realm to the Early-stage Anjin Realm.
’What if I ate the rest? Mid-stage Anjin? Late-stage Anjin? The Peak of Anjin?’
’Or even... a Grandmaster of Huajin?’
Zhou Daniu didn’t dare to think any further. The smile on his face deepened, completely devoid of his former simple honesty.
In its place was an expression so foreign it was unsettling to behold.
As the saying goes, "With a sharp blade in hand, thoughts of murder arise." The same was true for one who had obtained great power.
Who was Zhou Daniu before all this? He was a bottom-rung servant of the Lu Family.

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