Bright Path is for geniuses, a rat race to the death;

As for the worthless, they must blaze another trail and take some crooked paths.

This isn't called cowardice, it's called opening up a new track, a unicorn's strategic wisdom.

Thus,

Feng Mu threw the [Crane Claw Skill] manual onto the bed, plopped into the chair, gripping an Iron Ball with his left hand, while the pad of his right index finger cracked open, and a bone segment extended outward.

If the finger can't hook the Iron Ball, then I'll use the bone to hook it.

Fingers are smooth and can't exert force, what can you do, human fingers truly are inconvenient things.

Bones are different; they can be shaped at will. After all, Feng Mu's bone, emerging from the flesh, can be molded.

Can't the finger hook the Iron Ball?

Simple, carve a groove inside the joint!

Can't the groove hold it, does it slip out easily?

Simple, carve irregular lines on the bone like anti-skid tires, and if that doesn't work, grow a ring of barbs around the groove.

Normally, to start learning [Crane Claw Skill], you need a good Root Bone and comprehension, requiring endless practice, summarizing experiences, forming muscle memory until your fingers become iron hooks, eventually mimicking the essence of a Crane Claw.

Feng Mu doesn't need that; with [Molded Embryo], he doesn't need to imitate. He can directly shape them into Crane Claws, or even Eagle Claws, Cat Claws, or any strange shape.

He can perfectly bypass all the Martial Arts requirements of [Crane Claw Skill].

All he needs is a bit of physics knowledge, a little imagination, and some patience in craftsmanship.

"If it were any other martial arts entry, I'd have to rack my brains, but for [Crane Claw Skill], heh, I can totally control you, believe it or not?"

Feng Mu muttered to himself, his arrogant smirk fully resembling an evil villain.

[Crane Claw Skill]: "..." The master's coffin lid is almost being held down.

Grabbing the Iron Ball, attaching it to the bone, using his mind to form a groove, carve anti-skid marks, grow barbs, then, with a click, embed the Iron Ball inside.

"Let's try it." Feng Mu walked back to the iron basin, and hooked with all his might.

The finger hook tightly bit onto a single Iron Ball, perfectly fixed without a chance of falling.

Feng Mu inspected it for a while, tried several times, and like a craftsman, made subtle adjustments to the bone's shape.

All ten fingers have different angles of exertion, so each one requires experimentation and adjustment.

Though tools like hammers and files aren't needed, Feng Mu can manipulate with his mind, but adjustments still consume mental energy.

The main thing is, the bones don't seem that obedient; making a groove is easy, but to raise fine textures on the cavity walls is ten times harder, if not more.

Feng Mu can understand, after all, [Molded Embryo] is currently just white, still with great growth potential.

Moreover, dealing with [Crane Claw Skill] is already more than enough.

Four hours later, Feng Mu had finely carved all ten finger bones.

Standing before the iron basin again, his confidence soared: "Hooking is not a problem; the hardest step is solved; the rest is not to hook the wrong one and control the force not to affect the surrounding Iron Balls."

Swing arm, flick wrist, finger hooks graze by, like a dragonfly's touch on water.

The basin surface remained motionless, Feng Mu flipped his finger, and an Iron Ball was quietly embedded in the hook.

Feng Mu extracted the Iron Ball, flicked it gently back into the basin, counting: "One success."

Originally, hooking accurately and controlling force was also extremely difficult, but because he didn't have to worry about the hook falling off, the difficulty of the remaining two tasks sharply declined.

It's like shooting at a target; you originally had to endure the recoil, but now a device absorbs it for you, all you need to focus on is aiming and pulling the trigger.

Can you still miss the target?

Transform into a sharpshooter in no time, right~

Once, success.

Twice, success.

Thrice, success.

Four times, success.

Five times, failure!

Well, there's still a bit of distance to go before being a flawless sharpshooter.

Fifth failure, according to [Crane Claw Skill], requires a reset and recount, what the heck.

Sadly, counting is a hurdle that cheating can't bypass.

Feng Mu looked down at his phone: 3.27 01:17.

Unknowingly, it was already 1 a.m., with three unread text messages.

—Boss, today I asked Bin if I could work with him, and he agreed.

—Bin had someone continue investigating the people on the list, further narrowing the range through statements. Bin highlighted some people in it. I counted, about 50 still need close surveillance and investigation.

—This afternoon, a Chief Constable came to the gang, saying he wanted to search the bar, Bin let him, but later Boss Zheng came, very angry, and admonished Bin.

After reading the messages, Feng Mu pondered: "Ma Wei is moving fast; no, I should say Ma Bin is eager for him to come close. After all, keeping the person who closed the mouth under his own eyes is the safest."

"Narrowed down to 50 people? Since none were circled based on suspicion, the statement investigation was just for show. Am I in this circle?"

Feng Mu certainly didn't think Ma Bin was targeting him; Ma Bin doesn't know him.

But, Ma Bin was using the guise of pursuing the killer, acting thoroughly, possibly drawing extra innocents into the circle to cover his real target.

It's a bit like a certain type of serial killer - you think his killings are random, but in fact, he increases the victim count randomly to hide that one specific target and the true murder motive.

Feng Mu worried about becoming that random target.

He is indeed the real culprit, but being avenged by the Cyan Wolf Gang in this way would be genuinely unjust.

Staring at the third message, Feng Mu pondered for a long time before texting back to Ma Wei twice.

—Send me the list.

—Are Ma Bin and Zheng Si on good terms? Ma Bin is tracking down the culprit; what is Zheng Si doing lately?

Putting the phone aside, Feng Mu returned to the iron basin.

Finger hooks slicing through the air, skimming the basin, succeeding, succeeding, and succeeding again, only to be halted by failure, starting anew.

Time ticked by second by second.

Soon, it was 4 a.m.

Feng Mu could clearly feel that the entry-level difficulty of [Crane Claw Skill] had been driven into the ground; success was within reach.

"The highest consecutive success count so far is 81."

Feng Mu exhaled deeply, feeling the bitter malice of "hitting the mark every time"; such a strict zero-mistake repetition is prone to causing mental breakdowns.

It's different from a situation with poor Root Bone, where there's no light; this is basking in the light yet plagued by a lingering shadow of failure.

The former is finding no soup from one rat turd, the latter is one rat turd spoiling a pot of soup.

Not just one pot, Feng Mu had started over 119 times already, averaging one and a half minutes each, and he was about to hit 120.

The 120th time, failure, halted at the 67th attempt when the pinky touched the basin.

With force, Feng Mu squeezed the Iron Ball, misshaping it with a creak, then stuffed it into his mouth, chewing as if gnawing on an enemy's flesh, swallowing it down.

"Screw you, if my liver doesn't die, I'll grind it to death."

Tomorrow is Sunday, Feng Mu decided not to sleep; he would battle [Crane Claw Skill] to the bitter end, fighting till dawn…..

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