Who let him join the Sword Sect?!

Li was being carried around by her senior sisters in the night market, enjoying the boundless joys of the mortal world.

However, Zhang Ze discovered some big secrets.

Previously, he adhered to the principle of taking small but quick steps and was very cautious with his experimental reforms.

He only tried to reverse-engineer the Heart Methods of the Beast Taming Sect and the Sword Sect.

Each time he advanced just a tiny bit, striving to achieve some progress with each step.

However, perhaps due to unfavorable timing and circumstances tonight, Zhang Ze struggled for a long time but couldn't get into the right state.

The bottleneck from before remained unbroken, and Zhang Ze felt as if he had reached a dead end, with nothing but fog ahead, with no path to follow.

The fused Heart Method could only run for at most sixteen breaths, beyond which it would surely go awry, causing even the lightest injury of total paralysis.

Zhang Ze even doubted if he had taken the wrong path.

By the thirty-sixth death tonight, Zhang Ze was frustrated.

He thought that since he was going to die anyway, he might as well do it creatively and grandly.

Although the rewards for a few long-term and side quests in the Underground City hadn't arrived, the daily rewards were already in Zhang Ze's pocket.

With some extra funds, Zhang Ze decided to do something big.

In addition to the Heart Methods of the Beast Taming Sect and the Sword Sect, he could now also experiment with the Hundred Demons Sect's Heart Method.

So, Zhang Ze directly added the Heart Method Outline of the Hundred Demons Sect too.

The three Heart Methods mixed together and ran simultaneously; Zhang Ze wanted to see what new kind of death he could achieve this time.

"Hmm, this cramping sensation in the meridians has about a one-third chance of causing an explosion in the right hand."

"It didn't explode, so let's continue... The Dantian is starting to feel it; should explode this time, right?"

"Ah, nothing happened again; let's increase the power and try channeling the Spiritual Qi through the five organs..."

However, to Zhang Ze's surprise, this reckless attempt instead broke through the bottleneck, and the Heart Method's operation time reached twenty breaths.

And the side effect was merely that in the end, Spiritual Qi went out of control, destroying an arm and causing a facial paralysis on the right side.

"Did it work?"

Zhang Ze pushed his drooping mouth back up, reset his state, and ran through the Hundred Demons Sect's Heart Method alone.

The Hundred Demons Sect Heart Method really lived up to its name, as there were indeed a hundred kinds.

Aside from the initial outline, once you reached the second-layer of Foundation Establishment, it branched into a hundred different kinds, named after various demons.

The Heart Methods of different branches varied greatly, for example, the Cold Shark Technique compared to the Blood Lion Technique; saying they are as different as the north and south poles wouldn't be an exaggeration.

Zhang Ze chose the Heart Method from the Spirit Snake Lineage, which he was most familiar with, and ran three Circulations.

He carefully savored the feeling of Spiritual Qi entering his body, nourishing his limbs with its venomous power, using poison to refine his body...

Then, he couldn't figure it out.

He tried again separately with the Blood Lion and Fierce Horse techniques, but still didn't understand.

Zhang Ze felt that apart from being flashy, the Hundred Demons Sect's Heart Method didn't have much else going for it.

For instance, compared to the Sword Sect's Heart Method, the Blood Lion Heart Method was practically nothing.

Though he couldn't figure it out after several attempts, Zhang Ze felt it was no big deal.

"Doesn't matter, I will exhaust all possibilities."

Zhang Ze selected twelve kinds from the Hundred Demons Sect's Heart Methods, including the Wild Rat, Thunder Bull, Moon Tiger, and Bone Rabbit.

Though the Hundred Demons Sect had a wide variety, there was indeed no Dragon, so Zhang Ze replaced it with a crocodile.

"The details don't matter; the Piggy Dragon is still a dragon."

"Let's start with the twelve zodiac animals."

Zhang Ze began the permutations and combinations while simultaneously running the Heart Methods of the Sword Sect and Beast Taming Sect.

However, the results weren't as he imagined.

Instead of achieving supreme Divine Techniques by merging all things in one go, he exploded immediately.

This massive jumble of Heart Methods ran for less than a single breath before Zhang Ze blew up, shredded to pieces.

Altogether, he exploded over thirty times, with the longest lasting just eight breaths.

After resetting, Zhang Ze's figure reappeared in the system trial space. Scratching his head, he wondered where his logic had gone wrong.

"Logically, by bypassing the Hundred Demons Sect Outline and starting directly from more advanced branches, the effects should have been better."

"Why did it explode so quickly?"

"Was it the twelve zodiac animals that were wrong?"

"Then let's try the twelve constellations... but they lack Virgo and Libra can't be found..."

Unsurprisingly, the twelve constellations lacking some signs also exploded, and the result wasn't even as good as the twelve zodiac animals.

Not one to easily give up, Zhang Ze then tried various combinations such as the Beast Squad and Armored Warrior, but to no effect.

The only difference was a slight variance in the way he died.

After the eighty-ninth death, Zhang Ze stopped; he seemed to have identified the problem.

In the only successful attempt previously, Zhang Ze had only run the Hundred Demons Sect's pre-second-layer Foundation Establishment Outline.

In the failed attempts afterward, Zhang Ze had added subsequent specific Heart Methods like Spirit Snake to push further.

"The key issue should be with the Outline of the Hundred Demons Sect's Heart Method."

"The Demon Sect Outline can be compatible with the Hundred Demons Sect branch Heart Methods; perhaps it can also be compatible with the Six Sects' Heart Methods."

Having sorted his thoughts, Zhang Ze tried again. This time, the fused Heart Method ran for only eighteen breaths, less than when he first recklessly succeeded.

And the side effect wasn't another facial paralysis but rather an explosion of the sea of consciousness.

Still, better than the twelve zodiac animals and Armored Warrior.

"Where did this Hundred Demons Sect Outline come from?" Zhang Ze muttered to himself.

"Though there are few characters, and it can only be cultivated to the second-layer of Foundation Establishment."

"Why do I feel this thing has a certain beauty of simplicity in Dao?"

"Far superior to those flashy Demon Sect branch Heart Methods afterward."

However, having a direction is good enough.

Originally, there was no path, but when Zhang Ze walked it alone often enough, a path emerged.

Refreshed once more in the trial space, Zhang Ze stretched, got himself together, and sat cross-legged on the ground.

"My life is like walking on thin ice; do you think I can make it to the other side?"

But since Zhang Ze was the only one in the trial space, no one responded to his bad pun, not that he was embarrassed.

"System, another round."

...

After five hundred ten repetitions, Zhang Ze finally managed to stabilize the operation of the new Heart Method for seventy breaths, with the only cost being subsequent Spiritual Qi disarray and right side facial paralysis.

Zhang Ze felt that for tonight, this would suffice. Although he was in the system's trial space and free from external concerns, fatigue was inevitable.

"There's no rush."

He opened his eyes and exited the system.

Zhang Ze noticed the Spiritual Incense he'd lit earlier had already burned out, and daylight was breaking outside. He guessed only a night had passed.

Yawning, Zhang Ze prepared to go out, intending to roam around the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion's Underground City area.

If there were many people today, he would wear Gao's vest, enter the Underground City to watch the Loose Cultivators suffer, and relax a bit.

But just as he pushed open the door, Zhang Ze was stunned.

Outside, the snow piled more than a foot deep, the cold courtyard eerily silent, with not a sound of human presence.

Zhang Ze reached out, grabbed a handful, and rubbed it carefully, confirming it to be snow.

"What is this?"

"Did the script change?"

"From 'Zhang's Cultivation Chronicles' to 'Global Freeze'?"

"Or did my seclusion last until this winter?"

Zhang Ze swept his hand, clearing the snow in front of the door with a wave of energy.

He wanted to step out and take a look, but as soon as he took one step, Zhang Ze heard a clicking sound in his ear.

He had stepped on a trap mechanism.