“Heh...”
The dark shadow seemed to have anticipated this. He tilted his body slightly, easily dodging the blade's gleam. At the same time, he waved his wide sleeve, raising it violently forward.
Whoosh!
A cloud of lime powder flew straight at Tian Erhu's face, scattering explosively in the night wind!
“Ah! My eyes!”
Caught completely off guard, Tian Erhu had his entire face plastered by this underhanded trick. The burning sensation stung his eyes, forcing a miserable shriek from him as he instinctively lowered his head and flailed his arms to block.
Shen Xiuhan's right hand snaked out like a venomous serpent, bypassing Tian Erhu's wildly flailing arms. His five fingers, now iron hooks, clamped precisely onto the man's throat. His blood qi surged as he squeezed with violent force!
Crack, crack, crack... A succession of tooth-gritting bone-shattering sounds rang out.
In the next instant, Tian Erhu's tower-like frame collapsed straight to the ground, as still as a sleeping infant.
The commotion from their brief clash had not been quiet, echoing with exceptional clarity in the silent night. Fearing complications, Shen Xiuhan immediately bent down to search the corpse.
However, after a thorough search of the body, he found nothing on Tian Erhu. Shen Xiuhan's brow furrowed, and he immediately darted into the house.
The interior was dim, but using the faint light filtering through the window, he searched rapidly. Moments later, Shen Xiuhan had tucked several items into his robes: four taels of loose silver and a handwritten copy of a physical tempering technique with a worn cover, titled the Iron Bone Technique.
Shen Xiuhan did not examine them closely, stuffing everything into his robes. Returning to the courtyard, his gaze swept over the five bloody, bone-deep finger holes on the top of Tian Erhu's head, and his brow furrowed slightly. Such a gruesome and fatal wound was far too recognizable. If he dumped this body at the Golden Dragon Gang's headquarters as well, it would look like an obvious attempt to cover up his tracks.
“Forget it. Early spring is approaching, and the wolves, leopards, and tigers in the Dali Mountains that have starved all winter should be coming out of their dens to forage.”
Shen Xiuhan let out a cold snort.
With the blood qi in his body surging, he exerted his arm and hoisted the tower-like corpse, which weighed easily over two hundred catties, onto his shoulder. Though such a heavy consumption of blood qi could not be sustained for long, it was more than enough for him to sprint to the foot of the Dali Mountains under the cover of night.
After throwing the corpse deep into a hidden patch of thorny brambles, he immediately slipped away, vanishing back into the dark night.
...
Guided by the moonlight, Shen Xiuhan made his way back along a secluded path. On the way, he pulled out the copy of the Iron Bone Technique and began flipping through it.
“No wonder Tian Erhu could take one of my strikes head-on despite not even entering the blood-tempering realm. So he practiced this kind of hard qigong.”
He turned the pages one by one, the surprise in his eyes deepening as he silently pondered.
If I can wait a bit longer and gather enough intelligence points to deduce this Iron Bone Technique to Great Accomplishment or even Great Perfection...
With the Heavenly Mystic Eagle Force for offense and the Iron Bone Technique for defense, I'll have another life-saving trump card!
“Not bad. Such a life-saving technique is truly meant for me!”
He tucked the old booklet securely against his chest.
With a thought, the other pieces of intelligence refreshed by the system today surfaced in his mind.
【Intelligence 3: Two miles to the north, deep within the outer perimeter of the Dali Mountains, a nest contains the naturally nurtured 'Precious Beast: Blue-Spire Chicken', along with three unhatched 'Precious Beast Spirit Eggs' inside the nest!】
The Dali Mountains!
A Precious Beast!
Shen Xiuhan's gaze narrowed slightly, and he instinctively glanced toward the north.
The reason he had dumped Tian Erhu's corpse at the foot of the Dali Mountains was because he had heard that the mountains were teeming with wild beasts and fraught with unpredictable dangers. The hunters of the Outer City dared not venture deep inside unless they were in groups. Although the 'Blue-Spire Chicken' mentioned in the intelligence was located in the outer perimeter, he still could not afford to be careless!
I heard that Uncle Chen next door used to hunt in the mountains in his younger years and knows the terrain quite well. I should find some time to ask him about it before making any plans.
As good as treasures are, one must be alive to enjoy them.
Shen Xiuhan was a cautious person and did not have the impulsive urge to rush into the mountains for treasure immediately. Putting the matter aside for the moment, he continued reading down. The remaining pieces of intelligence were still the same.
The original manual of the Tongbei Stance, and the legacy left behind by the 'legacy disciple of Diaohai Pavilion' deep within Cloudwater Lake...
Shen Xiuhan shook his head, withdrew his gaze, and quickened his pace toward home. Pushing open the wooden door of the thatched cottage, the interior was as quiet as ever. Madam Zheng and Shen Momo were still fast asleep.
Shen Xiuhan gently took off his outer robe and lay down on the bed. Looking up at the pitch-black roof beams, he let out a long breath. Then, he closed his eyes.
...
On the day after he killed Yu Zhe and Tian Erhu, as the horizon turned slightly pale, Shen Xiuhan stepped through the gates of the Mei Family Martial Arts Hall as usual.
As soon as he entered the front courtyard, he saw a few early-arriving outer courtyard disciples gathered by the weapon racks before morning practice began, whispering to one another with excitement they could hardly conceal.
“Have you heard? The Golden Dragon Gang went completely crazy first thing this morning!”
“What happened?”
“Word is that a member of the Golden Dragon Gang was slaughtered last night. He died a horrific death, and his corpse was dumped right at their own headquarters!”
“Whoa, that must have been the Luanbo Gang's doing!”
“The Luanbo Gang? Isn't that the territory of Zheng Dadao, the master of both fists and sabers?”
“That's him! Zheng Dadao is a veteran soldier who retired from the military. Among the Mingjin Rank martial artists in Changyun County, he's said to have barely any rivals!”
“Can the Golden Dragon Gang really swallow this insult?”
“Swallow it? Like hell they would! Gao Fu, the leader of the Golden Dragon Gang, gathered his men before dawn and charged straight into Xuanhua Ward, screaming for Zheng Dadao to pay in blood! But the thing is...”
“What?”
“The Luanbo Gang's reaction is very strange. They seem extremely aggrieved. One of their hall leaders even swore an oath that it absolutely wasn't their doing, or else they'd be struck down by lightning!”
“Ah? You mean someone framed them in the shadows?”
“Exactly! Many suspect that someone is deliberately diverting trouble onto them. But so what? The two factions are already like fire and water over the profits from the West Market. The Golden Dragon Gang doesn't care if they were framed or not; as long as someone died, this blood debt is being pinned squarely on the Luanbo Gang's head!”
“Good grief... Doesn't that mean Zheng Dadao is taking the blame for someone else for no reason? How could he be happy about that?”
“He's actually thrilled! Not only did Zheng Dadao show no fear, but he even mocked Gao Fu in the middle of the street, saying that Changyun County has suffered under the Golden Dragon Gang for too long, and that the corpse was proof that the heavens had opened their eyes! He even took the opportunity to raise his banner, calling on everyone who had been bullied by the Golden Dragon Gang to join forces and completely wipe out their headquarters!”
“Hiss... What deep calculation! What happened after that?”
“After that? After that, they naturally clashed with weapons drawn! The two major gangs fought a massive brawl in the streets, fighting until heaven and earth lost color. They say even the main roads were completely pulverized...”
“Oh, come off it! You're just talking out of your ass now, getting more ridiculous by the second!”
The outer courtyard disciples spat as they talked, bragging about all sorts of rumors as if they ruled the world. Suddenly, the disciple who was speaking most enthusiastically stopped dead in his tracks, his face turning pale. He hurriedly stood up straight and stammered,
“S-Senior Brother Shen!”
The others froze upon hearing this and instinctively turned to look. There stood Shen Xiuhan, who had appeared at some point, standing in the wind and snow of the courtyard with his hands clasped behind his back. His posture was straight and tall, the solid, iron-like contours of his muscles faintly visible beneath his slightly open collar. His deep, cold eyes were quietly watching them.
Startled, the group hurriedly stood with their hands at their sides, bowing and clasping their fists in unison.
“Greetings, Senior Brother!”
Within the Mei Family Martial Arts Hall, the status of inner courtyard and outer courtyard disciples was as different as heaven and earth. When new disciples entered, aside from receiving personal guidance on their stance work from Hall Master Mei Shuangfeng during the first few days, the remaining half-year of their training was basically supervised by the senior brothers and sisters of the inner courtyard on behalf of their master.
Therefore, to these outer courtyard disciples, Shen Xiuhan—who had eaten and trained alongside them just yesterday—now represented an earth-shattering shift in status as he stepped into the inner courtyard today. It was the instinctive awe that those at the bottom felt toward superior martial artists.
Shen Xiuhan had listened for a moment. Seeing that his presence had been discovered, he waved his hand casually and, without saying a word, walked straight into the inner courtyard.
Watching his departing figure, the expressions of the outer courtyard disciples were incredibly complex. Just yesterday, he was Junior Brother Shen, who had only entered the gates half a month ago. Today, he was an elite inner courtyard disciple who had opened his blood gate and stood high above them. He had truly soared to the heavens in a single step!
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