"Little tiger, you're dead!" Zhao Han charged over with his saber. Mountain Lord dodged swiftly, not daring to meet him head-on.
Zhao Han hadn't meant to kill Mountain Lord. He wanted to cripple its limbs, then improve his Tiger Subduing Fist.
"Mad Saber Three Stacks Wave, second wave!"
Zhao Han brought his saber down with the force of splitting Mount Hua. His strike was swift and fierce, heavy and powerful, unstoppable in its might.
Mountain Lord was badly wounded, and its legs and feet had also been burned by the limewater. It couldn't move freely, let alone defend itself.
It could only grit its teeth through its injuries and barely raise both forepaws to fend him off.
"Shrrk!"
"Roar..."
The saber fell, severing both of Mountain Lord's forearms. Its paws dropped to the ground, blood gushing from the stumps.
Mountain Lord had been thoroughly crippled.
Its flank was badly wounded, its ears were injured, and its forehead was hurt. Now even the tiger paws it had relied on to survive were gone.
Its two remaining hind paws couldn't compare to its forepaws at all.
With the threat gone, Zhao Han sheathed his saber and began throwing punch after punch, pounding Mountain Lord mercilessly.
"Yowl..."
Screams rang out nonstop. Every punch landed squarely on its flesh, leaving Mountain Lord in agony.
Blood spurted everywhere under the crushing blows, and Mountain Lord grew weaker by the second.
After fifty punches!
Tiger Subduing Fist [Simplified, Classified, Proficient 0/100, kill one tiger with Tiger Subduing Fist]
"You've got no one to blame but yourself. You shouldn't have offended the system!"
Zhao Han glanced at the panel, then put more strength into his fists.
Before long, he had beaten Mountain Lord to the brink of death.
Mountain Lord pleaded weakly, "I only ate a few people, and I've been doing it for just two and a half years... You humans kill your own kind more brutally than I do. Why single me out..."
"You should've known better than to get on the system's radar!"
Zhao Han sneered, then slammed his final punch into Mountain Lord's forehead, killing it.
A mighty Mountain Lord, a terror across the land, had been beaten to death with bare fists.
Tiger Subduing Fist [Simplified, Classified, Mastered 0/1000, kill ten tigers using only Tiger Subduing Fist]
"Phew..."
Zhao Han exhaled a breath of stale air, then took stock of the changes throughout his body.
With Tiger Subduing Fist reaching the mastered level, his strength had increased dramatically all over.
Combined with his proficient Mad Saber Three Stacks Wave and the accumulated benefits of his four other unclassified martial arts, Zhao Han's strength now rivaled the peak of the Muscle Refining Realm.
He was just one step away from the Bone Refining Realm.
"That was fast. How long has it been? I've already covered the ground that takes others ten or twenty years!"
He performed a set of mastered Tiger Subduing Fist on the spot, each move fierce and domineering.
He treated every person or beast as a tiger when he fought. Against an actual tiger, the technique was even more effective—a fist style that completely overpowered a tiger's movements.
Afterward, Zhao Han began carving up Mountain Lord with his saber.
It had become a spirit monster, after all. Every part of it was a treasure.
Tiger paws, tiger gallbladder, tiger head, tiger tail, tiger whip, tiger hide, tiger meat, tiger bones...
Every bit was valuable and could fetch a high price, especially since this wasn't an ordinary tiger.
Once he'd carved it up, Zhao Han realized there was too much tiger meat to fit in his space.
He checked his silver, too: 85 taels of silver, 2 taels of gold, and more than 3,000 copper coins.
"System, open up ten cubic meters of space." Zhao Han swept his hand grandly, full of swagger.
Eighty taels of silver and two taels of gold vanished just like that, leaving him with only five taels of silver and his copper coins.
"Money comes and goes so fast!" Zhao Han grumbled.
Then he thought about it again. Once he sold this tiger, wouldn't the money come right back?
After gathering all his spoils, Zhao Han also stowed away the animal hides. Then he searched Yang Li's body, finding another five taels of silver and a copy of Fierce Tiger Fist Technique.
By the time he left Gutter Cave, evening had fallen.
Zhao Han checked the luggage the others had left outside.
It was mostly dry rations, drinking water, clothes, tents, and things like Realgar Powder.
"A pile of junk."
Zhao Han didn't bother looking any closer. He tossed it all into his space.
Ten cubic meters was about the size of a slightly spacious bathroom, enough to hold ten tons of water.
He'd only filled a little over one cubic meter so far, just one corner.
"How am I supposed to get back now?"
Once he entered the forest, Zhao Han realized he had a problem. He was lost and couldn't find his way back.
Only Old Zhang knew these paths well enough to make a living as a guide. Anyone else would just get lost.
He should've left Old Zhang alive and knocked him out instead.
Too bad he'd acted too quickly...
It had felt satisfying, but after killing him, Zhao Han realized he'd really been too trigger-happy.
Night had fallen. After wandering aimlessly through the woods for a while, Zhao Han had no choice but to find a clearing, build a fire, and roast some meat for dinner.
"Awooo!"
Wolves howled throughout the forest, and wild beasts prowled nearby. But when they saw the firelight and caught the scent of the small piece of tiger meat Zhao Han had set on the ground, they all fled in terror.
Mountain Lord had been the overlord of this area, like the Gang Leaders of the Poisonous Snake Gang and the Black Wolf Gang.
Mountain Lord was dead, but its fearsome presence still lingered!
After his meal of roasted meat, Zhao Han climbed onto a thick branch and leaned against the trunk to sleep.
Of course, he only dozed lightly, ready to wake at the slightest rustle.
Fortunately, with a small piece of Mountain Lord's meat nearby, he slept peacefully through the night. Not even mosquitoes, snakes, or ants dared come close.
At dawn, Zhao Han ate breakfast, then studied the rising sun to work out his direction.
This time, he really did find the right way. Along the route, he spotted plenty of signs that hunters had been active there.
At noon, Zhao Han met a hunter and asked him where tigers were often sighted.
"Young man, you're a Martial Artist with a bright future ahead of you. Still, I'd advise you not to provoke tigers."
"The tigers in these mountains have eaten plenty of people. Some have become Mountain Lords and can even speak human language. Ordinary Martial Artists like you aren't the only ones helpless against them—even the constables in the County Town and the Hall Masters of the gangs can do nothing about Mountain Lords!"
"If you really want to hunt a tiger, you'd better find a few people to go with you."
The hunter kindly tried to dissuade Zhao Han, not knowing that Zhao Han had already killed a Mountain Lord even more terrifying than a tiger.
"Thanks for the advice, brother."
Looks like hunting tigers couldn't be rushed.
Tigers weren't like lions. They usually lived alone.
There weren't many to begin with, and in such a vast forest, killing ten tigers in a short time was a pipe dream.
By evening, Zhao Han had returned to Mad Saber Martial Arts School. As soon as he entered, he saw Old Man Mi bent over his dinner.
What surprised Zhao Han was that even at his age, Old Man Mi ate remarkably fast.
"Old Man Mi, you're having dinner? Lucky me—I got back just in time!"
Old Man Mi looked up at Zhao Han. His expression didn't change, but a flash of shock flickered in his eyes.
What on earth had this kid been doing? How had he changed so much in a single day?
Why was his strength improving so quickly?
He'd only been at the school for a few days, and he was already almost at the peak of the Muscle Refining Realm?
Could this kid have practiced some kind of quick-burn martial art?
Quick-burn martial arts were powerful, but their side effects were severe. They damaged the foundation and left little future ahead.
And that wasn't all. Zhao Han was surrounded by a heavy Killing Intent, along with traces of demonic aura from mountain sprites and monsters.
Clearly, he'd killed a great many people or beasts—even mountain sprites and monsters—to accumulate such an aura.
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