Simplified Snake-Style Deft Hand

[Simplification successful]

Martial Artist: Zhao Han

Realm: Skin Refining

Martial Arts: Black Wolf Fist, Snake-Style Deft Hand

Simplification: Black Wolf Fist [Simplified, low-tier, proficient 120/1000, practice Black Wolf Fist 1,000 times]

Snake-Style Deft Hand [Simplified, low-tier, not yet initiated 0/10, learn to imitate a snake]

"Learn to imitate a snake? Like this? Hiss, hiss, hiss?"

Zhao Han was at a loss for words. The Black Wolf Fist required him to imitate a wolf, and Snake-Style Deft Hand required him to imitate a snake. Did that mean the Wild Boar Fist required him to grunt like a pig?

"It's pretty simple. A snake just goes like this, right...? Hiss, hiss, hiss..."

Zhao Han immediately began practicing.

After a few tries, he found the trick, and his Snake-Style Deft Hand proficiency began climbing by leaps and bounds.

Before long, he broke through.

The moves of Snake-Style Deft Hand surged into his mind from nowhere, and his whole body became slightly more agile.

Snake-Style Deft Hand [Simplified, low-tier, initiated 0/50, kill five snakes]

"Huh, that's different from the Black Wolf Fist's requirement. It doesn't involve imitating a snake's movements."

Zhao Han was a little surprised.

Still, killing five snakes wouldn't be difficult. Finding them was the troublesome part.

If I were a leader like Liu Gang, I'd have plenty of elite and ordinary gang members looking for five snakes for me.

Zhao Han's ambition swelled. His eyes narrowed as other ideas took shape in his mind.

This was a chaotic age. Chaos was a ladder; if you didn't climb, you waited to die.

Setting Snake-Style Deft Hand aside, Zhao Han turned his attention back to the Black Wolf Fist.

He now had two more Energy Pills. He could strike while the iron was hot and make his Black Wolf Fist proficiency surge.

Gulp!

An Energy Pill went down, and Zhao Han's exhausted body came back to life.

"Keep going!"

Ten times, twenty times... a hundred times!

One Energy Pill could only sustain him for about a hundred repetitions.

Zhao Han didn't save the remaining pill either. He swallowed it and practiced his fist.

Black Wolf Fist, proficient 320/1000

In less than a day, he had nearly pushed his proficiency to a third of the way there.

If he had enough Energy Pills, Zhao Han was confident he could reach mastery in the Black Wolf Fist today, then tell Liu Gang and the others, "I don't eat beef."

As for the supposed danger of exhausting himself to death, Zhao Han assumed Liu Gang had just made it up.

That afternoon, Zhao Han returned to the Mine for dinner. There, he ran into Wang Liang, who had leaked information to Zhang Long and Zhao Hu.

Zhao Han didn't give himself away. He even greeted Wang Liang with a smile and a friendly chat, clearing himself of all suspicion.

Wang Liang was surprised, too. Zhao Han had made it back unharmed, and he didn't seem to have run into Zhang Long and Zhao Hu.

Afterward, Zhao Han returned to the shared bunkhouse to rest.

Zhao Da and the others were chatting warmly with him, but Zhang San was nowhere to be seen.

Before long, Liu Gang came looking for him.

Liu Gang's face was dark, his expression hostile.

Amid the envy and resentment of the crowd, Zhao Han walked up to him and asked, "Leader Liu, what is it?"

"Come outside."

Once they had left the bunkhouse, Liu Gang stared straight at Zhao Han and asked, "Have you seen Zhang Long and Zhao Hu?"

"Zhang Long and Zhao Hu? Who are they?" Zhao Han replied, feigning confusion.

Zhang Long and Zhao Hu—those were pretty imposing names.

I wonder if anyone in the gang is called Wang Chao or Ma Han. That'd be amusing.

Seeing that Zhao Han really did seem to know nothing, Liu Gang's face darkened.

"Zhang Long and Zhao Hu are missing. The others said they went into the woods to the east. You often practice there, so have you seen them?"

"No." Zhao Han shook his head without hesitation.

If you're looking for them, you've missed your chance. By now, wild animals have probably gnawed their bodies to pieces.

I wonder if anyone will find the evidence I left behind when I used the Black Wolf Fist.

Liu Gang's face darkened until it seemed ready to drip with water.

Zhang Long and Zhao Hu were men he had gone to great lengths to recruit. He had even spent Energy Pills on them, and now they had disappeared.

If they were merely missing, that would be fine. At least they could still be found, and they couldn't have left the Poisonous Snake Gang for good—they would have to come back.

But if something had happened to them, all his hard work would go down the drain.

"Damn it! Where the hell did they go?"

"I'm leaving. If you find anything, tell me right away."

"Understood. Take care, Leader Liu!" Zhao Han said with a respectful expression.

After Liu Gang left, Zhao Han returned to the bunkhouse. Zhao Da and the others crowded around him.

"Brother Zhao, what did Leader Liu want? Was he going to promote you to an elite gang member?" Zhao Da asked with a fawning smile.

Zhao Han shook his head. "Two elite gang members are missing. Zhang Long and Zhao Hu. I figure the Black Wolf Gang secretly took them out."

"Ah! Even elite gang members can be ambushed? Then what about us...?" The others immediately panicked.

Being a gang member kept you on tenterhooks. You might as well be a mine slave.

If the Black Wolf Gang could kill elite members, killing ordinary ones would be even easier.

Zhao Han warned them, "Just be a little more careful. Don't wander around, and settle everything at the Mine."

"Brother Zhao's right. We understand."

"Thanks for the warning, Brother Zhao."

Zhao Han shook his head and prepared to sleep.

But soon, the two leaders, Liu Gang and Wang Hu, arrived outside the bunkhouse with several elite gang members.

They woke all the ordinary gang members and split them into groups of three, each led by an elite gang member, to search the surrounding area for Zhang Long and Zhao Hu.

They needed to find them alive or bring back their bodies.

They were seasoned elite members of the Poison Dragon Hall, after all—not just any stray cats or dogs on the street.

Someone had to answer for this.

"Come with me to the woods to the northeast."

"Everyone else, come with me to the southeast."

"The rest stay behind at the Mine and keep a close watch."

The assignments were soon handed out. Ten teams of gang members, forty people in all, lit torches and searched the eastern area in the dark.

Zhao Han had the honor of being included in the search party, but his team was headed southeast, not east.

Before long, a flare shot into the sky from the east.

It meant they had found something.

Everyone immediately gathered in the east.

At the scene lay two bodies, partly gnawed and missing pieces.

According to the gang members who found them, three starving wolves had been chewing on the men. Luckily, the wolves hadn't been at it long. If they had continued for even a little longer, the men's faces would have been unrecognizable.

After seeing the flare, Liu Gang, Wang Hu, and Wang Bao also hurried into the woods. When they saw the men's gruesome condition, Wang Hu and Wang Bao exchanged a knowing smile.

The two men had been Liu Gang's trusted subordinates. Their deaths worked in Wang Hu and Wang Bao's favor.

Liu Gang's face turned deathly pale. He had finally managed to recruit the two of them, and now they were dead?

"Investigate! Zhang Long and Zhao Hu were clearly cut down by someone."

"Whoever dares to kill a member of the Poisonous Snake Gang, I'll tear them limb from limb!" Liu Gang roared, mad with rage.

All his efforts to recruit them had come to nothing. Anyone would be furious to see so much hard work go to waste.

His position in the Poison Dragon Hall was now even more precarious.

An elite gang member immediately stepped forward to examine the bodies.

"Huh? These wounds..."

"They look like they were caused by the Black Wolf Fist. Whoever did this must have trained the Black Wolf Fist to at least the fourth level!"

"In other words, the culprit is at least a master in the Skin Refining Realm. It was probably a leader of the Black Wolf Gang."

Everyone who heard that felt a sinking dread.

It was the Black Wolf Gang! This was serious.

The two gangs were already mortal enemies, and now the Black Wolf Gang had secretly attacked them near the Mine. They'd be lucky to sleep soundly at night.

Liu Gang and Wang Hu both furrowed their brows, knowing the situation had turned grave.

This was a dangerous signal—the Black Wolf Gang was preparing to wage war against the Poisonous Snake Gang's Poison Dragon Hall.

The Poisonous Snake Gang was as strong as the Black Wolf Gang, so there was no need to fear them.

But the Poison Dragon Hall stood on its own. If the Black Wolf Gang deliberately targeted it, the entire hall could be slaughtered.

"Bury the bodies at once. Everyone, return to the Mine," Wang Hu ordered.

"Yes!"