Cripple Your Legs

Afraid that things would spiral out of control and that Wang Meng would hold a grudge against him, the clan elder.

He no longer cared about his dignity and fawned over him.

"W-Wang... Brother Wang! Hero! Y-you saw it all! Fang Yuan is a madman!

"A beast who recognizes neither kin nor kinship! Our Fang Family has no such descendant! He... he was expelled from the ancestral hall by this old man long ago!

"He has nothing whatsoever to do with our Fang Family!"

He raised his aged face and tried his best to squeeze out the most sincere expression he could.

"Y-you are ridding the people of evil! You are helping Fang Family Village clear away a menace! This old man... on behalf of the entire Fang Clan, th-thanks you for stepping in so righteously, hero!"

This old bastard truly did not want even the last shred of his dignity just to clear himself of any connection!

With a disgusted kick, Wang Meng sent the clan elder tumbling away. "Get lost! Useless old trash!"

The clan elder rolled half a circle across the ground from the kick, filthy and disheveled, yet he did not dare show the slightest resentment. Instead, he forced out another smile and nodded repeatedly.

"Yes, yes, useless old trash... Hero, you are right... As long as you can get rid of this scourge, anything goes... anything goes..."

His cringing appearance, as though he wished he could personally hand Wang Meng the knife, made every Fang Family member who still possessed a shred of shame lower their heads, too ashamed to show their faces.

Fang Yuan watched this farce coldly. His grip on the chopping knife tightened, and a frigid curve tugged at the corner of his lips.

Fang Yuan moved!

He kicked off hard, blasting a spray of debris from the frozen earth. Like an arrow loosed from the bowstring, he lunged straight at Wang Meng, who stood surrounded by the crowd!

The chopping knife in his hand swept out a slash of icy light—simple beyond compare, yet so fast that only an afterimage remained!

Wang Meng's vision blurred, and a freezing killing intent instantly enveloped his entire body!

Instinctively, he tried to raise his club to block and retreat, but Fang Yuan was simply too fast!

This was none of the fighting styles he had ever seen in his usual brawls. It was merely the simplest, most direct, most basic chopping advance,

yet with speed and strength far beyond that of an ordinary man, it became utterly lethal!

My legs!! This was the only terrified thought that flashed through Wang Meng's mind.

The cold gleam swept past!

"Srrrip!"

The chilling sound of a sharp blade slicing flesh and severing tendons rang out clearly!

"Ughhh—!!!"

Wang Meng let out a shriek so miserable it barely sounded human. His right leg instantly lost all support, and like a felled wooden post, he crashed down onto his knees!

The jujube-wood club flew from his hand and landed far away.

But the attack did not stop!

Like a ghost, Fang Yuan shifted his steps and was already behind and to the side of the kneeling Wang Meng. The chopping knife thrust out soundlessly once more!

Another icy cut!

"Aah—!" Wang Meng's scream suddenly rose into a desperate shriek. His left leg was crippled as well,

and his entire body collapsed limply onto the cold mud like a heap of rotten flesh. All that remained were heart-rending wails and constant convulsions from the excruciating pain.

Blood rapidly poured from his ankles, staining a wide patch of ground red.

Fang Yuan withdrew his blade and took a step back, standing before the screaming, rolling Wang Meng. Drops of blood still slid slowly from the tip of the chopping knife.

Looking down at Wang Meng's face, twisted by unbearable pain, he spoke with a calmness that made one's blood run cold.

"You wanted to cripple my legs."

"Now, I have crippled yours!"

The entire scene was terrifyingly silent. Only Wang Meng's pig-slaughtering screams echoed through the air.

Every Wang Family thug who had been shouting so fiercely moments ago stood frozen in place as if struck by a petrification spell,

their weapon-clutching hands trembling as they stared at Fang Yuan as though he were an Asura crawling out of hell!

Wang Meng's gut-wrenching screams still echoed through the air, like a dull blade scraping across everyone's nerves.

The remaining hoodlums, including the brothers Wang Meng had brought and the hired hands, were all rooted to the spot.

The chopping knives and iron forks in their hands seemed to weigh a thousand pounds, impossible to lift again.

Seeing Wang Meng convulsing in a pool of blood, then looking at Fang Yuan standing there with his knife, not a ripple on his face,

they felt a chill shoot from their tailbones to the crowns of their heads, leaving their limbs ice-cold.

They had seen ruthless men before, but never anyone ruthless to this extent—someone who struck so decisively and cleanly, who could not even be bothered to utter a threat,

and simply crippled the leader's legs... They had truly never seen such a person. This was not fighting or throwing one's weight around. This was the King of Hell calling out names!

Fang Yuan's gaze, like two thin blades of ice, slowly swept over the pale-faced hoodlums.

"Yesterday, I said this." His voice was not loud, but it drilled clearly into every ear, drowning out Wang Meng's wails.

"Whoever comes to cause me trouble again, I'll tear his bones apart."

He paused, and his tone even seemed to carry a trace of regret. "Did you take my words for wind in your ears?"

The few hoodlums who had always fought the fiercest felt their calves cramping. Their lips trembled as they tried to beg for mercy.

But Fang Yuan suddenly changed tack. "Still, I have studied for a few days. I do not like fighting and killing all day long."

Just as a flicker of relief appeared in the hoodlums' eyes, thinking there might be a turn for the better—

Fang Yuan moved!

His figure flashed out like a ghost! The same basic yet astonishingly fast footwork! The chopping knife in his hand drew several simple streaks of cold light!

"Aah!"

"My leg!"

"Mercy..."

Several sharp cries and screams rang out almost at once!

The blade flashed, and blood sprayed!

Each of the remaining hoodlums now had a wound at the ankle of his left leg, deep enough to expose bone. Their tendons had been precisely severed!

Screaming, they fell one after another like cut wheat stalks, clutching their crippled legs as they rolled wildly on the ground and wailed.

Fang Yuan withdrew his knife and stood still. The blood droplets on the chopping knife joined into a line and dripped onto the frozen earth, spreading into a small patch of dark red.

He looked at the screaming people rolling on the ground as though they were a pile of useless garbage.

"Get lost."

Two words, cold and devoid of any emotion.

From this moment onward, no one in Fang Family Village—or in the surrounding villages for miles around—would dare take Fang Yuan's words for wind in their ears again.

That blood-dripping chopping knife and those icy eyes held more force than any threat or shout.

Seeing several Fang Clan members trembling as they tried to sneak away with the Wang Family men, Fang Yuan's cold voice rang out again.

"Did I say you could leave?"

Their bodies stiffened. Slowly, they turned around, all color draining from their faces as they forced out ingratiating smiles uglier than tears.

One man of somewhat higher seniority spoke in a trembling voice.

"F-Fang Yuan... no, Brother Yuan... Look, th-this was all the clan elder's doing... it was Seventh Uncle-Grandfather who forced us to come! We... we had no choice..."

"Yes, Brother Yuan, we all came from the same ancestor. Break the bones, and the tendons are still connected..."

"Please be merciful and let us go as if we were nothing but a fart..."

They all talked at once, playing the sentiment card and trying to move Fang Yuan with their ties as clansmen.

But Fang Yuan's gaze passed over them and landed directly on the clan elder, who lay limp on the ground, ashen-faced.

A cold curve rose at the corner of his lips.

The moment the clan elder met his gaze, his whole body jolted. An enormous sense of foreboding seized him instantly, turning his hands and feet cold.

Fang Yuan raised a hand, pointed at the clan elder, and said blandly to the clan members begging for mercy, "Go. Slap him."

"Ah?" Every one of them froze, thinking they had misheard.

He wanted them to beat the clan elder? This...

"What?" Fang Yuan's voice remained calm, yet it carried an unquestionable pressure.

"I am kind-hearted. I'll give you one more chance."

He paused, then added a sentence that made their hairs stand on end. "Do not prove useless."