Blood Splatters the Long Night, Body Tempering Shows Its Might

Ye Qingxuan wanted to pursue, but the Mottled Fish didn't engage him in a protracted fight. With a powerful push of his feet, it turned and fled desperately towards the gap in the courtyard wall.

The night wind howled, stirring up fallen leaves on the ground. The figure moved with swift leaps and bounds, and was about to vanish into the deeper darkness.

A surge of blood rushed through Ye Qingxuan's chest.

If he let it go, tonight's events would be for nothing. Such a golden opportunity, who knew when the next one would come.

He gritted his teeth, exerted force with his feet, and his body shot forward like an arrow, in hot pursuit. The two, one fleeing and one chasing, weaved through the ruins, broken stones and debris constantly crunching underfoot.

The Mottled Fish had an injury on its left shoulder, making its movements somewhat sluggish as it ran, nearly being caught several times. It felt both startled and enraged, turning its head and shouting, "Kid, are you really going to hunt me down to the bitter end!"

Ye Qingxuan didn't reply, just kept chasing with his head down, the distance between them shrinking bit by bit.

Seeing no hope of escape, the Mottled Fish's ferocity flared. It reached a corner, suddenly stopped, and instead of retreating, spun around. It swung its right leg, carrying a fierce wind, straight towards Ye Qingxuan's waist and ribs.

This whip kick was powerful and heavy, making a muffled sound in the air. It was a technique honed through years of hard practice in Body Tempering second stage. It could even break ordinary wooden stakes with a single kick.

It calculated that Ye Qingxuan, being young, would definitely block or dodge such a vicious move. As long as there was a slight delay, it would find a chance to survive.

However, Ye Qingxuan's response was completely beyond its expectations.

Ye Qingxuan didn't dodge or evade. He actually thrust his chest forward, meeting the whip kick head-on.

"Bang!"

A dull thud echoed, jarringly loud in the silent ruins.

The Mottled Fish felt as if its instep had kicked an iron plate wrapped in cowhide. A powerful counter-shock force coursed back up its leg bones, numbing half its body.

The ferocity on its face instantly froze, replaced by utter shock.

It knew exactly how much force it had put into that kick. An ordinary person would have broken several bones, if not died, from taking it. Yet, the young man before it merely swayed, grunted, and managed to stand his ground.

A dull ache transmitted from its waist and ribs through the clothes, blood surging, but no bones or tendons were injured.

After the complete mastery of the Indestructible Vajra Body, the skin and flesh all over the body became tough, and strength was contained within. Such external force could hardly harm its foundation.

In a life-and-death struggle, a moment's hesitation was a chasm.

In the instant the Mottled Fish was stunned, Ye Qingxuan moved.

He took half a step back along the force of the whip kick, dissipating the remaining power, then suddenly lunged forward. Spreading his arms, he grabbed the Mottled Fish's right leg, which hadn't yet been retracted, like iron pincers.

The Mottled Fish was greatly alarmed.

With its right leg captured, its entire weight was on its injured left leg. The shoulder pierced by the arrow had already affected the circulation in half its body. Now, losing its balance, it swayed precariously.

In this critical moment, its survival instinct erupted. It forcefully twisted its body and used its only supporting left leg to violently lift up, delivering a heart-piercing kick straight at Ye Qingxuan's face!

This kick was vicious and deadly, a desperate, all-or-nothing move.

Ye Qingxuan, however, seemed to have anticipated it.

The hands holding the opponent's right leg suddenly loosened. At the same time, his body sank, his right knee rose, and before the Mottled Fish's left foot could reach his face, he fiercely slammed it into the outside of the opponent's left knee joint.

"Crack!"

A bone-chilling crack echoed clearly.

"Ah--!"

The Mottled Fish let out an inhuman shriek. Its left leg, which bore all its weight, bent inward at a bizarre angle, and it immediately lost all balance.

Ye Qingxuan pressed his advantage relentlessly.

The moment the Mottled Fish began to fall, he stepped forward, raised his right foot, and stomped heavily on the Mottled Fish's right instep.

"Crunch!"

Another series of fine bone-cracking sounds.

With both legs crippled, the Mottled Fish's face drained of all color, leaving only despair in its eyes. It fell to the ground but didn't give up. It rolled over and used its only good right hand to punch Ye Qingxuan's abdomen.

Ye Qingxuan didn't dodge or evade, taking the punch head-on.

The fist landed on his abdomen, causing a dull ache, but that was all.

He, in turn, used this opening to lean down and land a straight punch squarely on the Mottled Fish's face.

"Bang!"

His nose bone shattered, and blood mixed with broken teeth sprayed from the Mottled Fish's mouth. It was sent flying backward, its head ringing, stars swimming before its eyes.

Ye Qingxuan's assault, however, was like a storm, continuous and relentless.

He delivered a low sweeping kick to the Mottled Fish's waist, knocking it completely to the ground.

Before the Mottled Fish could get up, Ye Qingxuan closed in, kneeling down. His right knee, carrying his entire body weight, pressed precisely and ruthlessly onto the Mottled Fish's Adam's apple.

"Gak... gak..."

In the Mottled Fish's eyes, ferocity and despair were rapidly replaced by suffocating panic. Its hands clawed frantically at Ye Qingxuan's knee, its legs kicked uselessly on the ground, and its throat made a wheezing sound.

Ye Qingxuan's expression was blank as he slowly lowered his center of gravity.

He could feel the resistance of the throat bone beneath his knee, the violent struggle of the body, and even more so, the warm life rapidly ebbing away under his hand.

Finally, a faint crisp sound came from beneath his knee.

The Mottled Fish's body suddenly sprang, then went completely limp.

Its wide-open eyes still held a final trace of attachment and unwillingness towards the world, but all vitality had already left them.

In the abandoned courtyard, silence returned.

Only the night wind blew, stirring the smell of blood on the ground.

Ye Qingxuan slowly stood up from the corpse, his legs feeling a bit weak.

He lowered his head, looking at his own hands.

These hands had just ended a person's life.

A nauseating feeling, like the sea churning, surged from his stomach to his throat. He leaned against the broken wall beside him and retched a few times, but nothing came out.

He wasn't someone who had never taken a life. In his past and present lives, he had personally slaughtered chickens, ducks, and fish for food. But killing a person, this was the first time.

The sensation of bone shattering under his knee, the tremor of a life's final struggle, were all clearly imprinted in his mind.

He leaned against the wall and slowly sank to the ground, his chest heaving violently as he gasped for air.

The places on his body that had been struck now began to throb with pain. But this physical pain was far less than the emptiness and confusion he felt in his heart at this moment.

The moonlight was cold, illuminating the gradually stiffening corpse, and also his own bloodless face.

He sat there, and he didn't know how long had passed.

The night wind grew cooler, drying the cold sweat on his forehead, and also allowing his muddled mind to slowly clear.

He didn't make any excuses for his actions.

In this turbulent world, it was either you die or I die. If he had shown the slightest hesitation just now, Ye Qingxuan would be the one lying here.

He stood up, walked to the corpse, and squatted down.

He checked the Mottled Fish's breathing and felt its pulse at the side of its neck.

Confirmed it was dead.

His heart also sank completely.

Surviving was more important than anything. For Nannan, and for himself, he could not die.

Once his mind was made up, the discomfort after killing was forcefully suppressed.

He began to consider his current predicament.

The words on the wanted poster surfaced in his mind.

"Whoever can lead a group to capture and kill them will be rewarded with thirty taels of silver and one merit point!"

Thirty taels of silver!

One merit point!

This merit point, neither big nor small, was enough to allow him, a temporary Constable not on the official registry, to knock on the door of the Fengtian Division as a formal member.

Once he was registered, he could legitimately receive the martial arts training from the government, and his own mysterious martial arts would have a cover.

The debts of the Fierce Tiger Hall, his sister's future, all the burdens weighing on his heart, would be resolved.

A hint of uncontrollable joy appeared on his brow.

But this joy lasted only a brief moment before it was completely extinguished by a more pressing problem.

How should he report this?

He, alone, a temporary Constable unknown within the Fengtian Division, how could he explain to Chief Constable Hong, to Chief Constable Zhang, or even to the high-ranking Deputy Envoy Xiao, that he could single-handedly kill a notorious bandit at the second level of Body Tempering?

Even if the Mottled Fish was heavily injured, he was still at the second level of Body Tempering.

And he, Ye Qingxuan, in everyone's eyes, was just a thin and weak youth who had gotten into the Fengtian Division through his father's influence.

If this matter were reported, the first to disbelieve would be the old timers in the Fengtian Division.

They would ask, they would investigate.

His martial arts were his greatest secret. Once exposed, it would bring not rewards, but endless trouble, even the danger of death.

But if he didn't report it...

What about this corpse? This thirty taels of silver, this merit point for becoming a registered official, wouldn't it all be given up in vain?

Wouldn't that life-or-death struggle just now become a joke?

Ye Qingxuan's brows furrowed deeply.

He seemed to have fallen into a dead end.

Moving forward was a cliff, and retreating was an abyss.

He looked down at the corpse at his feet, then at his own blood-stained hands.

Having killed someone, he found himself in an even more difficult situation than before he killed.

The rules of this turbulent world were far more complex and cruel than he had imagined.

What should he do?