There was no sensation of a sharp weapon piercing flesh, nor did any blood flow.
"Clang..."
Amid the clash of metal, there was also the faint bellow of a thunderous bull.
Gao Han was shocked to discover that no matter how hard he pressed, the short saber in his hand could not break through that thin layer of skin in the slightest.
After reaching the limit of Marrow Tempering, Chu Feng's skin had been strengthened once again.
Gao Han raised his head and saw a hint of mockery in Chu Feng's eyes.
So this was your trick?
This was something I'd already played with to death.
Just then.
A loud shout suddenly came from the distance.
"Brother Gao, do you need help?"
A burly man seven feet tall and covered in corded muscle came running across the eaves.
"Could the newcomer be Green Serpent Gang's Left Protector, the Soul Locking Hand Zhao Wen Tai?"
Gao Han was overjoyed. He had never expected that Heaven would leave no man in a dead end—his reinforcements had arrived.
"That's right. Long time no see, Brother Gao!" Zhao Wen Tai cupped his hands in greeting.
But the air shrieked as a Mò Dāo came hurtling over.
"Brother Zhao, watch out!"
Gao Han cried out, but it was already too late.
"Swish!" The saber fell, blood gushed, and a huge head shot into the sky.
Still holding his hands together in greeting, Zhao Wen Tai toppled stiffly to the ground.
[Slain an Early Tendon Transformation martial artist, plundered ten years of lifespan!]
Chu Feng raised an eyebrow. This piece of trash was a Muscle Tendon Realm martial artist? He really hadn't expected that!
How could he have known that Zhao Wen Tai had never regarded Chu Feng as an opponent? He had thought Gao Han was bullying an ordinary martial artist again and had merely come over to exchange pleasantries.
He had not guarded against him at all, which was why his head had been chopped off in a single exchange.
Of course, even if he had been cautious, he would have lasted at most three to five moves!
Gao Han's expression was vacant. He had thought a powerful reinforcement had arrived, but it turned out to be a fool who had been cut down in a single move!
"Lord Gao, you're really lucky. Even on the verge of death, someone's rushing to keep you company!"
"Rest easy on your way!"
Chu Feng snorted coldly. The Mò Dāo swept across like a silver flood dragon twisting its prey, carrying the force of ten thousand jun, and violently slaughtered everything in its path!
Only then did Gao Han come to his senses, and he was horrified to discover that the peerless Mò Dāo had already reached his waist.
There was nowhere to dodge!
The blade of Heavy Sword Without Edge carried an unstoppable force and smashed his body into two halves.
"This strength is probably already thirty thousand jin. How did this monster train?" Gao Han thought in confusion. He did not feel pain at first.
He had tempered 464 muscles and entered the Muscle Tendon Realm in his thirties, already a genius in the eyes of ordinary people. Only now did he realize that he had been a frog at the bottom of a well.
The two halves of his body fell to the ground. His powerful vitality allowed Gao Han to struggle to raise his head and look at Chu Feng.
Lying in a pool of blood, he rasped, "To die at the hands of a monster like you, I won't have lived in vain! But you offended the Fang family. I imagine you'll be coming to keep me company soon enough. Hahaha..."
Gao Han laughed maniacally. Chu Feng found him noisy, so he severed his head with one slash, ending the other man's pointless rambling.
[Slain an Early Tendon Transformation martial artist, plundered ten years of lifespan! Plundered cultivation art: Tiger Demon Body Tempering Art, Muscle Tendon Chapter.]
"Brother Chu, is it really you?"
Even after Gao Han's death, Lin Da Niu still could not believe it.
"Of course. I should be thanking you for your Golden Toad Muscle Tempering Art!" Chu Feng smiled faintly, revealing a pair of large white teeth.
"So that weak-looking man that day was you. Brother Chu, you hid it from me so painfully!"
Lin Da Niu gave a bitter laugh, finally understanding everything.
"Enough. This isn't the place to talk. Let's find somewhere else."
Chu Feng glanced around and noticed quite a few commoners peeking from the shadows deep in the street.
"Right. Let's leave first. People from the Fang family might show up at any moment." Lin Da Niu knew this was no place to talk either.
He immediately pulled Chu Feng into an alley. He was familiar with the area and knew how to take a more concealed route.
Only after Chu Feng left did the commoners dare to come out.
When they saw Gao Han, split into two pieces on the ground, quite a few recognized him at once.
"Gao Han, you devil, you're finally dead! Heaven really does have eyes!"
A woman looked at Gao Han, lying in a pool of blood with his eyes still wide open, and threw her head back in laughter. Tears of excitement filled her eyes.
She was the daughter of the owner of a tavern. That year, on that day, her entire family of five had been slaughtered by this devil.
Her husband had lived in constant fear and had driven her out of the house, leaving her to wander the streets.
Now that she saw her mortal enemy slain in the middle of the street, she could not have felt more gratified.
The agitated woman picked up a broken weapon scattered on the street and hacked at Gao Han's corpse.
"I want you to die without a complete corpse, never to rest in peace!"
Her actions drew cheers from the surrounding commoners. Relying on the Fang family, Gao Han had run rampant and tyrannized Yong'an City.
The woman was not the only victim. Seeing this, many people did the same.
In less than the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the two still fairly intact halves of Gao Han's corpse had become a bloody mess. Even the five guards and servants were flogged after death by the enraged crowd, leaving none of them with a complete corpse!
Chu Feng led Lin Da Niu and Lin Qiao Er to the small rented courtyard.
"Brother Chu, you killed Gao Han. The Fang family definitely won't let you off. Find a way to escape as soon as possible."
Lin Da Niu had spent many years in the Fang family and knew deeply how terrifying they were.
Gao Han's strength could not even rank among the Fang family's top three. Old Master Fang was a Bone Forging Realm expert.
The Fang family ran rampant, openly shielded murderers, and even the County Magistrate did not dare utter a peep because the Fang family had Old Master Fang, a Bone Forging Realm martial artist.
"Why should I run? I've hidden for so long already. How much longer am I supposed to hide?"
"Besides, what will happen to you if I leave? Given the Fang family's vicious nature, they won't show you any mercy!" Chu Feng said.
"Uh..."
Lin Da Niu fell silent. With the Fang family's ability to cover the sky with one hand in Yong'an City, finding them would be a matter of minutes.
"If everyone in the Fang family were dead, wouldn't we be safe? Da Niu, you could live a good life too?"
Chu Feng narrowed his eyes into slits and spoke with a chuckle.
"How could that be possible? How could the entire Fang family die?" Lin Qiao Er instinctively objected.
"Brother Chu, you aren't thinking of going to the Fang family, are you?" Seeing Chu Feng's expression, Lin Da Niu guessed what he was planning.
He said urgently, "Absolutely not! The Fang family isn't so easy to deal with!"
Chu Feng smiled. "I never fight a battle I'm not sure I can win!"
As he spoke, his thoughts sank into the panel.
[Name: Chu Feng.] [ cultivation: Late Stage Marrow Tempering.] [Plundered lifespan: 50 years] [Cultivation arts: Dark Gold Marrow Polishing Method perfected, Breaking Edge Saber Technique perfected, Savage Bull Golden Toad Muscle Tempering Art perfected, Butcher Ding's Ox-Dissecting Saber Technique at Great Accomplishment.]
I've never fought such a wealthy battle before!
Chu Feng shouted inwardly.
"Hasuo!"
[Year One, you attempted to cultivate the Muscle Tendon Chapter of the Tiger Demon Body Tempering Art, breaking it down word by word in an effort to understand its meaning.] [Year Ten, you finally fully understood the profundity of the cultivation art. You tempered the sixty-seven great sinews in your left hand, linking your muscles and bones. Your fist, palm, and fingers could all mobilize one hundred percent of the strength in your entire arm!] [Year Twenty, your cultivation progress was gratifying. You tempered the 108 great sinews in your upper body and advanced to the Early Tendon Transformation stage. As you circulated your qi and blood, the great sinews shone with a lustrous jade-green glow, extraordinarily mystical.] [Year Thirty, you successfully tempered all 236 great sinews in your body and reached the Middle Tendon Transformation stage. You sensed a bottleneck, and your cultivation speed dropped sharply.] [Year Forty, you tried various methods but still made no progress. You finally determined that the Muscle Tendon Chapter was incomplete—the Fang family had deliberately erased an important part of the cultivation art.] [Year Fifty, you used a clumsy method, slowly tempering 299 great sinews through painstaking effort, yet you remained just short of the Late Tendon Transformation stage.]
Fifty years was half a person's lifetime, yet to Chu Feng, it passed in the blink of an eye.
Unfortunately, because the cultivation art was incomplete, the gains from Lifespan Deduction had been greatly reduced, causing him no end of heartache.
If he had possessed a complete Muscle Tendon cultivation art, his strength might have doubled again. Unfortunately, reality had never offered a perfect life. With such gains, Chu Feng was already thoroughly satisfied.
As for the cultivation art, he could slowly perfect it later.
With the Lifespan Deduction function, this minor problem would be solved sooner or later.
After sorting out his thoughts, Chu Feng examined himself. He circulated the qi and blood throughout his body, and each great sinew moved beneath his skin like a swimming dragon.
The incomplete Muscle Tendon cultivation art had caused the tempering of his great sinews to vary in depth, and their colors differed as well: pale green, dark green, and the deepest purplish green.
Even though the cultivation art was incomplete, the increase in realm had still given Chu Feng's strength a tremendous boost.
The great sinews intertwined across the surface of his body like a gorgeous tiger-striped kasaya.
Chu Feng circulated the qi and blood throughout his body, and Kui Niu's Hide and the Flesh Vajra manifested.
Thunder patterns flickered deep within his skin, and a one-legged Kui Niu appeared with an angry roar.
His muscles bulged high, revealing the image of a Flesh Vajra with furrowed brows, glaring eyes, and fangs bared.
As if sensing something, the great sinews on Chu Feng's body swam like living creatures, combining with Kui Niu's Hide and the Flesh Vajra to form a strange scene.
A Vajra divine statue sat cross-legged atop the one-legged Kui Niu, draped in a gorgeous kasaya of fierce tiger stripes. With furrowed brows and glaring eyes, it seemed poised to subdue demons, exterminate monsters, and purify every evil in the world!
The aura around Chu Feng surged, and his long hair flew without wind.
Lin Da Niu and Lin Qiao Er merely glanced at him, yet it was as though Gods and Devils were watching them. Every hair on their bodies stood on end!
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