Old Yue Flies into Rage!

Bang!

A deep, heavy thud of flesh striking flesh.

The twisted, delighted smile on the Fat Shopkeeper's face—the smile of someone about to kill an unparalleled genius—froze solid.

The searing pain erupting from his chest left him unable to believe it.

His two tiny eyes bulged wide and round, as though they might pop straight out.

Blood trickled from his lips beneath his disbelieving gaze, dripping onto Ji Boying's left fist and making Ji Boying feel a little sick.

"How..."

The moment the Fat Shopkeeper opened his mouth and let out a faint, hoarse sound, blood came gushing out in great mouthfuls again.

"How is that possible?! You... you! You were still hiding your strength!"

Ji Boying merely frowned slightly. With a flick of his sword, he lightly pried the Iron Abacus from the fat man's hand and flung it to the ground, where it clattered noisily.

The fat man's short, pudgy hand remained frozen two inches from Ji Boying's chest.

Ji Boying's fist, meanwhile, had sunk half an inch into the man's chest.

Suppressing his disgust, he pulled out his fist and shoved the fat man, who only came up to his neck, onto the ground.

The breastbone in his chest had been smashed to pieces by Ji Boying's Stone Splitting Jade Breaking Fist, leaving a sunken hollow. On his back was a bulge slightly larger than a fist.

He lay on the ground. The flesh around the fist-sized hollow in his chest was unbroken, yet without bone to support it, it rose and fell with every breath.

Even as darkness swallowed his vision completely, disbelief still filled his eyes.

He could not understand how a force capable of killing three or four men like himself still had not forced out all of Ji Boying's strength.

He had not known that a true genius could master three or four profound martial arts in merely two months.

He had not expected Ji Boying's seemingly ordinary punch to possess such terrifying power.

Ji Boying casually swung his sword, cut a clean strip of cloth from a corpse beside him, and wiped the blood from his hands.

Linghu Chong and Lu Dayou approached, both wearing expressions of utter shock.

Lu Dayou looked at his Junior Disciple Brother, drenched in blood and surrounded by corpses, calmly wiping the blood from his hands as if no one else existed. It made his hair stand on end.

"What is it?"

Ji Boying looked up and asked, puzzled by the way Lu Dayou was staring at him.

But Lu Dayou did not dare meet Ji Boying's eyes at all. He only felt that the killing intent in Ji Boying's gaze had yet to fade; a single glance sent chills through his entire body. He lowered his head and did not dare speak.

"Junior Disciple Brother, I'm sorry, I..."

Linghu Chong's face was full of shame.

Ji Boying smiled as if nothing had happened. "Senior Disciple Brother, it's fine. Who could have imagined that someone would go to such lengths to kill me at the foot of Mount Hua? Even without you, they would have found another reason. As long as I wasn't on guard, I would have fallen into their trap sooner or later. Let's go. We should leave before they have more tricks waiting."

Linghu Chong gave a quiet hum and headed outside with Ji Boying.

Then he said admiringly, "Junior Disciple Brother, your martial arts have improved again. I thought my Xiyi Swordplay had advanced greatly, but the man who beat me so badly was killed by you with a single punch."

Ji Boying stepped out of Spring Rain Tower. The sky had not yet darkened. He took a deep breath of air free of bloodshed, while the streets stood nearly empty, everyone having fled far away.

Then he chuckled again. "Haha, Senior Disciple Brother, that fellow was simply stupid! If he had fought me head-on, victory and defeat would have been hard to predict. Instead, he chose to play a dangerous move and opened his chest for me to hit."

"I was over a foot taller than him, and my arms were more than half a foot longer. Yet he used palms while I used fists. How could he possibly have hit me? All he could do was take the beating. My punch looked plain and unremarkable, but it happened to land squarely on him with a Stone Splitting Jade Breaking Fist."

Only Ji Boying's laughter and casual conversation echoed through the street. Though his laughter was not loud, it carried far.

Seeing his Junior Disciple Brother so bold and heroic, Lu Dayou no longer dared show even the slightest disrespect.

He, who had always been the quickest with a joke, did not even deserve to open his mouth now.

Only after they had gone far away, their figures vanishing at the end of the street, did the townsfolk finally dare poke their heads out.

As they looked at the bloody footprints fading as they stretched toward the end of the street, Ji Boying's light, untroubled laughter seemed to echo in their ears still.

"That must be the young disciple Master Yue brought back to Mount Hua just over two months ago, right?"

"What a dashing and bold young man—a true hero!"

"A famous master truly produces outstanding disciples. It has only been two months, and he is already this formidable..."

"A hero! A hero! A heaven-sent talent!"

"Where exactly did they go?"

Yue Buqun noticed his daughter hemming and hawing, looking thoroughly uneasy!

"How dare you encourage your Junior Disciple Brother to go down the mountain! You have the audacity of the heavens!"

Yue Lingshan was somewhat afraid, but also somewhat unconvinced.

"Father, I know I was wrong. Don't be too angry. Just wait a little longer—Junior Disciple Brother should be back soon."

"Bastard!"

Yue Buqun felt his heart pounding wildly!

The veins at his temples bulged.

He had cultivated his composure for years; he would not even sully his mouth with the word "lowly." Yet for Ji Boying's sake, he had completely lost his poise.

"I'll go look!"

Yue Buqun gripped his sword and hurried down the mountain.

Ning Zhongze was somewhat worried as well. She patted her daughter's hand, then turned and followed him.

Seeing this, Yue Lingshan ran after them too.

"Father, there's no need to worry so much, is there? He's only in Huayin County. What could possibly happen?"

Yue Buqun snorted coldly!

"What do you know? How could you understand the perils of the martial world!"

Yue Lingshan felt that her father was overreacting!

She and so many of her senior disciples had secretly gone down the mountain countless times. Her father had merely reprimanded them for breaking the rules.

When had he ever worried like this?

"Father, even if the martial world is perilous, if Junior Disciple Brother can't even go down the mountain, then us Mount Hua disciples can forget about roaming the martial world. After all, even Senior Disciple Brother stopped being a match for Junior Disciple Brother long ago."

Yue Buqun and Ning Zhongze were both taken aback!

Recalling the punch Ji Boying had thrown into Yue Buqun's palm that day, it was clear that his inner strength had indeed surpassed Linghu Chong's.

They no longer found it particularly surprising.

But with Yue Lingshan's confirmation, Old Yue became even more worried about this precious treasure of his.

He had just activated his Lightness Skill and run several hundred paces when several figures emerged from the Mount Hua mountain path.

A heavy stench of blood drifted over, making Yue Buqun's and Ning Zhongze's hearts skip a beat.

With a flash of movement, they appeared before Ji Boying and the other two.

Seeing that Ji Boying's green robes had been dyed nearly entirely red, Yue Buqun was greatly alarmed.

"Boying, where are you hurt?"

He hurried forward and reached for Ji Boying's wrist pulse.

When Ji Boying suddenly saw a figure flash over and reach for his wrist pulse, he instinctively dodged and drew his sword. Only upon seeing that it was Yue Buqun did he hastily stop.

"Master, I'm fine. I wasn't hurt in the slightest. It's all the enemy's blood."

Hearing Ji Boying say this and seeing him covered in blood, Yue Buqun had already imagined a brutal battle of slaughter.

Ning Zhongze's heart ached so badly at the sight that she nearly burst into tears.

Her silver teeth clenched tight!

"Who dares be so outrageously bold as to harm Mount Hua disciples at the foot of our Mount Hua? We must investigate this matter to the very end!"

Seeing Ji Boying covered in bloodstains, with a faint murderous aura still clinging to him, Yue Lingshan's delicate face had drained utterly of color. Her body swayed as if she might collapse, and tears streamed down her cheeks.