First Kill

Xu Feng narrowed his eyes as he watched the Octopus Monster pounce toward him. The threat of death stirred a trace of madness in his gaze.

"Bow Bridge Hand!"

With a low shout, he abruptly stepped forward with his right foot, planted his toes, slightly bent his left knee, clenched his right hand into a fist, and formed his left hand into a palm.

At the instant the monster came lunging forward with a foul, fishy wind, his left hand shot out like lightning. With a thrust and a push, it redirected the momentum of the enormous body, forcibly sweeping it from directly in front of him to his side.

The next second, Xu Feng's left leg suddenly exerted force like a tightly wound spring. Every muscle in his body bulged at once, and all his strength concentrated into his right fist.

"Gold Splitting Fist!"

Wrapped in the sound of tearing wind, his fist slammed viciously into the monster's soft head.

With a muffled thud, the head caved inward by a large chunk. The monster's body flew backward like a cannonball and smashed heavily into the tree trunk behind it.

Crack--

The old tree's bark burst apart on the spot. Splinters flew everywhere, and withered branches and leaves rustled down.

Even the Little Black Cat hiding in the treetop was startled into a frightened "Meow!" and hurriedly darted to another tree.

The Octopus Monster shook its head dizzily. A clear fist mark was stamped on its crown.

It could not understand how the prey it had been beating helplessly just moments ago had suddenly erupted with such terrifying power.

Xu Feng gave it no chance to catch its breath.

He lightly tapped the ground with his right foot and leaped into the air like a fierce tiger pouncing on its prey. His left fist guarded his front while his right fist was drawn behind him.

His entire body was like a powerful bow drawn to its limit, every tendon and bone giving off a series of fine, crisp cracks at once!

"Draw Bow Shoot Eagle!"

His low roar shook through the forest. His right fist shot out like an arrow released from the string, crashing down with thunderous force. The sharpness of the wind it carried even burst into tiny crackling sounds in midair.

Boom--!

This punch was precise and brutal, landing squarely on the previous fist mark.

Smack--!

With a crisp sound, the Octopus Monster's head suddenly exploded, spraying pale blue blood everywhere.

Its wildly flailing tentacles froze for an instant before drooping limply, twitching only weakly.

"Whew--"

Xu Feng landed and let out a long breath of foul air. The clothes on his back had long since been soaked through with cold sweat.

His right fist was covered in bloody marks, the skin scraped raw in many places, and blood slowly dripped between his fingers.

In that instant just now, he had truly smelled the breath of death.

Yet it was precisely under such desperate circumstances that he had completely unearthed his potential.

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

But his Iron Wire Fist, trained to perfection, had allowed him to erupt with power far beyond his physical limits.

Under the ultimate excavation of the human body's potential through martial arts, even a ferocious Demonic Beast had ultimately fallen beneath his fists.

"Five Breakthrough Points added."

A cold mechanical voice suddenly sounded beside his ear.

Xu Feng lifted his eyes toward the Attribute Panel that had appeared before him. In the Breakthrough Points column, the glaring zero had steadily jumped to five.

"Even five points at once!" Xu Feng was ecstatic.

He knew that previously, when he had personally watched Demonic Beasts far stronger than this Octopus Monster get slain by other hunters, they had yielded at most one or two points.

It seemed that personally hunting a Demonic Beast really did grant a much higher Breakthrough Points bonus.

He glanced at the gray plus sign after Iron Wire Fist on the panel. Five Breakthrough Points were clearly not enough to activate the upgrade, so his joy instantly faded somewhat.

But when his gaze swept toward the grass beside him, his heart suddenly clenched.

"My cleavers!"

The handles of both cleavers had been snapped cleanly in two. The breaks were jagged, making it obvious they were completely ruined.

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

Xu Feng glared at the Octopus Monster's corpse, his teeth itching with hatred. He wished he could rush over and punch it a few more times.

The rules of his family had always been clear: whoever broke something had to pay for it. Aside from his mother, he was the only one in the family who tinkered with things.

He would have to take the blame whether he wanted to or not.

It was not as if he could tell his mother that the Demonic Beast had broken the cleavers, right?

His already meager wallet had now suffered another blow.

"Come to think of it... how much can an E-class Demonic Beast's corpse sell for?"

Xu Feng's gaze fell back onto the corpse, a glint swiftly flashing through his eyes.

He briskly pulled an oversized black garbage bag from his backpack.

He had specifically bought the bag at a supermarket that evening, waiting for it to come in handy.

Dragging and hauling, he stuffed the Octopus Monster's entire corpse inside. He did not even leave behind the scraps of flesh splattered on the ground, carefully scraping everything clean.

"Right, can this Demonic Beast's meat... be eaten?"

As Xu Feng smelled the faint fishy odor drifting from the mouth of the bag, a bold idea suddenly sprang into his mind.

His father, Xu Shan, occasionally brought some Demonic Beast meat home for the family to cook and eat, though each time there had only been a piece about the size of a palm.

His father had said that ordinary people could occasionally have a couple of bites of low-level Demonic Beast meat without issue, but higher-level meat was something only hunters could afford to consume.

"I'll have to properly look up information about Demonic Beast meat after I get back."

Xu Feng made up his mind, firmly tied the garbage bag shut, slung it over his shoulder, and slipped back to the building where he lived along the route he had come.

He nimbly grabbed the water pipe on the outer wall. In a few quick moves, he climbed to the fifth floor and flipped in through the bedroom window.

He sprayed several bursts of air freshener around the room. Only after the fishy odor had been overwhelmed by the strong fruity scent did he feel safe stuffing the bag of Demonic Beast meat into the storage cabinet beneath his bed.

After finishing everything, he climbed back out the window and returned to the patch of woods from before.

The Little Black Cat had long since vanished. Even the remaining Ham Sausage and the mouse corpse were gone, presumably carried away in one go.

The inconspicuous mouse hole had now collapsed into a large, pitch-black opening. An even heavier stench faintly drifted from within.

The entrance clearly connected to the city's sewers.

That Octopus Monster had most likely crawled out of the sewers.

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

"The forum says that after gaining experience killing this kind of Octopus Monster, even if I run into two or three more, I might not be able to beat them, but running away shouldn't be a problem, right?"

"The bigger the waves, the more expensive the fish! Let's take them on!"

After saying this, he took a deep breath, bent down, and crawled into the entrance.