First Kill

Xu Feng narrowed his eyes, watching the Octopus Monster lunging toward him, the life-or-death crisis stirring a flicker of madness deep in his gaze.

"Bow Bridge Hand!"

With a low shout, he stepped forward with his right foot, toes touching the ground, left knee slightly bent, right hand clenched into a fist, left hand forming a palm.

Just as the monster charged in with a reeking wind, his left hand shot out like lightning, a swift poke and push that somehow redirected the massive creature's momentum, forcibly shifting it from straight ahead to his side.

The next second, Xu Feng's left leg sprang like a coiled spring, every muscle group in his body bulging instantly, channeling all his strength into his right fist.

"Gold Splitting Fist!"

The fist, wrapped in a whistling wind, slammed viciously into the monster's soft head.

A dull thud rang out—the head caved in by a large chunk, and the monster's body flew like a cannonball, crashing hard into the tree trunk behind it.

Crack—

The old tree's bark burst open on impact, splinters flying everywhere, dead branches and withered leaves raining down.

Even the little black cat hiding in the treetops was so startled it let out a "Meow!" and scurried frantically to another tree.

The Octopus Monster shook its head dizzily, a clear fist print stamped on its crown.

It couldn't fathom how the prey it had been pummeling without resistance moments ago had suddenly erupted with such terrifying power.

But Xu Feng gave it no chance to catch its breath.

With a light tap of his right foot, he leaped into the air like a tiger pouncing on its prey, left fist guarding his chest, right fist pulled back behind him.

His whole body resembled a drawn bow, every bone and sinew emitting a series of crisp, fine cracks!

"Draw Bow Shoot Eagle!"

A low roar shook the forest, his right fist shooting out like an arrow from the string, crashing down with thunderous force, the sharp wind even bursting into faint crackling sounds in the air.

Thud—!

This punch landed with precision and ruthlessness, hitting the exact same fist print from before.

Smack—!

A sharp crack, and the Octopus Monster's head exploded, pale blue blood splattering everywhere.

The wildly thrashing tentacles stiffened for a moment, then drooped limply, only twitching weakly.

"Huff—"

Xu Feng landed, exhaling a long breath of stale air, his back drenched in cold sweat.

His right fist was covered in blood, skin scraped off in many places, crimson slowly dripping through his fingers.

In that instant, he had truly smelled death.

Yet it was precisely in that desperate situation that he had fully unearthed his potential.

In strength and speed, he was far inferior to this E-class Demonic Beast.

But his Iron Wire Fist, trained to perfection, had unleashed power far beyond his physical limits.

Under the extreme exploitation of human potential through martial arts, even a ferocious demonic beast had fallen to his fist.

"Breakthrough Points plus five."

A cold, mechanical voice suddenly rang in his ears.

Xu Feng looked up at the attribute panel floating before his eyes, seeing the Breakthrough Points column jump steadily from a glaring zero to five.

Can't find the book by title? Try searching by author—maybe it just changed names!

"Five points added just like that!" Xu Feng's heart surged with joy.

He knew that before, watching demonic beasts far stronger than this octopus get slain by other Hunters, the most he'd ever seen was one or two points added.

It seemed that personally hunting a beast gave a much bigger boost to Breakthrough Points.

He glanced at the gray plus sign next to Iron Wire Fist on the panel—five Breakthrough Points clearly weren't enough to trigger an upgrade, and the excitement faded slightly.

But when his eyes swept to the grass nearby, his heart clenched.

"My kitchen knives!"

There they were—both handles snapped clean in two, the broken ends jagged and rough, clearly beyond repair.

"Damn it, my little savings are going to take a huge hit now!"

Xu Feng glared at the Octopus Monster's corpse, grinding his teeth in fury, itching to go over and land a few more punches.

His family had clear rules: whoever broke something paid for it. Besides his mom, he was the only one who tinkered with things.

This blame, he had no choice but to take.

He couldn't exactly tell his mom a demonic beast had snapped the knives, could he?

His already meager wallet was now in even worse shape.

"Speaking of... how much can an E-class Demonic Beast corpse sell for?"

Xu Feng's gaze fell back on the body, a sharp glint flashing quickly in his eyes.

He swiftly yanked an oversized black trash bag from his backpack.

He'd made a special trip to the supermarket that evening to buy it, just waiting for the chance to put it to use.

He dragged and hauled the entire octopus corpse into the bag, not even leaving behind the scattered bits of flesh on the ground, meticulously scraping them clean.

"By the way... can this monster's meat be eaten?"

Xu Feng sniffed the faint sea-salt smell wafting from the bag's opening, and a bold idea suddenly popped into his head.

His dad, Xu Shan, occasionally brought home some monster meat for the family to cook, but it was always only the size of a palm.

His dad had said that low-level monster meat was fine for ordinary people to have a bite or two now and then, but high-level meat could only be handled by Hunters.

"I'll have to look up some info on monster meat when I get back."

Xu Feng made up his mind, tightly tied the trash bag shut, hoisted it over his shoulder, and slipped back along the same path to the bottom of his building.

He nimbly grabbed hold of the external water pipe, scaled up to the fifth floor in no time, and climbed back in through his bedroom window.

He sprayed a hefty dose of air freshener around the room until the fruity scent overpowered the sea smell, then felt safe enough to shove the bag of monster meat into the storage cabinet under his bed.

After finishing that, he climbed back out the window and returned to the grove of trees from earlier.

Little Black Cat was long gone, along with the remaining ham sausage and the rat corpse—probably all carried off in one go.

The inconspicuous rat hole had now collapsed into a dark, gaping pit, from which a stronger, rank stench faintly drifted out.

This opening was clearly connected to the city's sewer system.

That octopus monster had most likely crawled out from the sewer.

Xu Feng stared at the pitch-black entrance, gritted his teeth, and pulled a household flashlight from his backpack.

"The forum said that with the experience of killing one of these octopus monsters, even if I run into two or three more, I can at least run away if I can't fight, right?"

"The bigger the waves, the pricier the fish! Let's go for it!"

With those words, he took a deep breath, bent down, and crawled into the hole.