Harvest

Arriving at his own front door, Lin Sheng leaped up, caught the top of the wall, and vaulted straight inside.

After making sure Lin Hong and Xie Guilan were still fast asleep, he drew a bucket of water and washed the bloodstains from his body.

Lying in bed, his heart was far from calm.

Tonight was the first time he had killed someone—and he had killed five.

Even though he had prepared himself mentally, he could not help but feel shaken.

Five living lives had died by his hand just like that.

For the first time, he truly felt how fragile life was. In the blink of an eye, a vibrant life could vanish completely.

Once life was gone, everything else naturally went with it.

Suddenly, he clenched his fists. His own life was just as fragile.

If he had not awakened his golden finger, had not integrated the Iron Yak, and had not cultivated the Raging Bull Fist, then he would have had no power to resist hooligans like Liu Ergou. When that time came, the ones who would be harmed—or even lose their lives—would have been himself and his family.

"Strength... is everything..."

Lin Sheng murmured, the realization in his heart deepening.

He had no sleepiness left at all. He simply rolled out of bed, went into the courtyard, assumed the Yak Fist stance, and began training.

Once... twice... three times...

He punched without pause, his speed gradually increasing from slow to swift. Bursts of wind-tearing sounds rang through the courtyard, the forceful gusts stirred up as he shifted between movements.

As he practiced his punches, he subconsciously began circulating the Raging Bull Fist's Qi Circulation Method.

For some unknown reason—perhaps because of the change in his state of mind—his training now felt smoother than it had during the day, while the qi and blood within his body grew ever more active.

Suddenly, he felt a heat in his lower abdomen, and a warm current spread toward every limb and bone in his body.

"I... broke through!"

A sharp gleam flashed in Lin Sheng's eyes.

The changes in his body at this moment were precisely the signs that his Raging Bull Fist had entered the minor mastery stage.

Carefully sensing the changes within himself, more than half of the warm current in his body had gathered in his hands, while the rest was evenly dispersed throughout every part of his body.

Looking at his hands, he could see that his pores had grown larger than before, and his skin had become somewhat rougher.

He found a stone the size of a human head in the courtyard, held his breath, focused his mind, and smashed his fist into it.

With a muffled bang, a depression appeared in the stone, along with a web of tiny cracks.

His own palm, meanwhile, was only slightly reddened.

The Raging Bull Fist was a hand technique. After reaching minor mastery, not only did one's strength increase greatly, but one's hands also seemed to be covered in a layer of oxhide, providing impressive protection.

"With one punch, I can split steles and crack stones. I can now be considered to have entered the Body Tempering realm and become a true martial artist."

Lin Sheng took a deep breath, his heart filled with joy.

In times like these, nothing gave a person more of a sense of security than an increase in strength.

"Right now, I should be stronger than an ordinary Body Tempering martial artist. I just don't know exactly how much stronger."

As Lin Sheng pondered, when he had dealt with Liu Ergou and the others, only Liu Ergou had possessed some ability to resist his sneak attack.

Liu Ergou had died by his hand partly because Lin Sheng had seized the advantage of the sneak attack, and because the other man had clearly been drunk. Otherwise, Lin Sheng would not have succeeded so easily.

But even if Liu Ergou had been in perfect condition, Lin Sheng should not have been inferior to him.

After all, having integrated the Iron Yak, Lin Sheng's pure strength was definitely greater than Liu Ergou's, who had only just entered the Body Tempering realm. And from the fact that Lin Sheng had sent him flying with a single punch, it was not hard to see that Lin Sheng's strength surpassed his by quite a bit, though he might have been lacking in other aspects.

And now that his Raging Bull Fist had successfully broken through and he had officially entered the Body Tempering realm, his true overall strength had undoubtedly surpassed Liu Ergou's by a great deal.

"It's just a pity that after the Raging Bull Fist broke through, the improvement to my basic physical abilities wasn't amplified on top of the Iron Yak integration. It was amplified based on my body's original physical abilities."

That was somewhat regrettable. Although he had already foreseen this outcome from the amplification at the entry stage, he had still held onto a sliver of hope. Clearly, he had been overthinking it.

After one began the Raging Bull Fist, it could raise one's physical abilities by around thirty percent. Upon reaching minor mastery, the boost to strength directly doubled.

And this improvement was still based on the physical abilities one possessed after entering the technique.

At its current level, the amplification to his strength alone was nowhere near as powerful as the Strength Boost granted by integrating the Iron Yak.

If the Raging Bull Fist's enhancement could have taken effect based on his physique after integration, then the increase in his strength would undoubtedly have been far more obvious.

Simply put, before integration, his strength was equivalent to a hundred jin. After successfully beginning the Iron Yak integration, his strength would reach one hundred and thirty to one hundred and forty jin. Then, after successfully reaching minor mastery, his strength would rise to around two hundred and sixty to two hundred and eighty jin.

But after integrating the Iron Yak, his strength had skyrocketed directly from its original hundred jin to three hundred, four hundred, or even five hundred jin. If his strength were amplified on that foundation, he would be much stronger than he was now.

And if he later integrated even more powerful ferocious beasts, this advantage would be magnified without limit.

It was just a pity that imagination was beautiful, while reality made such a thing impossible. Still, he was not particularly discouraged. He had already been mentally prepared for this, and besides, possessing the Mountain Sea Illustrated Record already gave him far too many advantages over others.

"One can't be too greedy."

Lin Sheng shook his head and laughed soundlessly, casting aside those impractical thoughts as he began considering his future cultivation.

"The Raging Bull Fist has successfully reached minor mastery, but there's no more cultivation method after this..."

He sighed. Without a subsequent cultivation technique, his cultivation speed would undoubtedly be greatly reduced.

Although he could spend time researching it and slowly figure out and deduce a further cultivation method himself, it would inevitably delay his cultivation progress.

After what had happened with Liu Ergou, he felt a deep sense of urgency about increasing his strength.

After all, if he had been even a little weaker, the outcome this time might very well have been completely reversed.

Moreover, although he believed he had left behind no clues when dealing with Liu Ergou and the others, and no one should suspect him, Liu Ergou's identity was special. He was the younger brother of the Tooth Gang's Second Gang Leader.

There was no need to think about it to know that this matter would never pass so easily.

Better safe than sorry. Even if there was only a one-in-ten-thousand chance that suspicion might fall on him, the consequences would still be more than he could bear in his current state. So he had to raise his strength as much as possible.

If his strength reached the Tendon Forging realm or even the Blood Circulation realm, then even if he were exposed, it would amount to nothing. A Blood Circulation realm expert wiping out the entire Tooth Gang would likely be no great matter.