Fists Kill Two Men, Brazenly Looting the Bodies

The night was deep, and the dead-end alley lay silent.

Yun Yi had nowhere left to retreat. Her body trembled as she pressed herself against the icy wall.

Before her, two men in black were closing in step by step.

The two were Hu Teng of Black Wind Stronghold's lackeys, Ding San and Mao Si.

Yun Yi's face was deathly pale. "I already made it perfectly clear. I know nothing about Hu Jiao's death. Why are you still hounding me so relentlessly?"

Ding San snorted. "Is that so?"

Mao Si bared his teeth. "We investigated during the day. Hu Jiao had wanted you for quite some time. Do you dare say his death had nothing to do with you?"

"Speak! Did you hire someone to kill him?"

Ding San opened his blood-red maw and was about to pounce.

Yun Yi gritted her teeth. "It's true that I refused him, but what ability do I have to kill someone? Besides, where would I get the money to hire a killer?"

"That's hard to say!"

Mao Si barked, "You're so pretty. If you went to hire someone, you wouldn't need money."

"You!"

Yun Yi was instantly furious.

Of course, she understood what Mao Si meant.

"Still refusing to admit it?"

Ding San stepped forward again, his eyes gleaming viciously. "Do you really need to taste my fists before you'll talk?"

"In that case," Mao Si suggested, "Third Brother, let's strip her clothes first and have some fun, then kill her and take the corpse back to give Senior Brother Hu an answer."

"Fine, we'll do it that way!"

"You bastards..."

Yun Yi wanted to cry out for help, but it was the middle of the night, and this was an empty dead-end alley. Who could she call for?

Besides, even if someone happened to pass by, would they dare help her?

"Hehehe!"

Ding San's hand reached brazenly for Yun Yi's chest.

Mao Si flanked her from the side, preventing her from escaping.

Whoosh!

Just as Ding San was about to succeed, a red sack filled with stones flew out of the darkness.

It flew straight for Ding San's head without the slightest deviation.

"Third Brother, watch out!"

Mao Si hurriedly warned him.

Ding San had no time to dodge. He could only pull back his arm and raise a hand to block the sack.

Crash!

The sack hit the ground, scattering broken stones everywhere.

"Who is it?"

Ding San and Mao Si immediately turned around.

Under the moonlight, a black figure swiftly appeared at the entrance of the dead-end alley.

"It's you!"

Mao Si recognized the newcomer.

The Black Shadow was naturally Shen Han.

He moved like the wind, crossing several strides to reach Yun Yi's side. He said coldly to Ding San and Mao Si, "You two wanted to know who killed Hu Jiao, didn't you? I'll tell you now."

"Was it you?"

Ding San clenched his fists. He had already guessed it.

"Heh, you're quite clever!"

Before his words had faded, Shen Han struck.

He concentrated his strength into his right fist and hammered it toward Ding San's face. One against two, he had to seize the initiative and catch them off guard.

Ding San was startled and hurriedly threw a punch to block.

Thud!

Fist met fist.

Shen Han stood firm without moving an inch.

"Not good!"

Ding San staggered back several steps, the bones on the back of his hand aching as though they had been smashed apart. "Fourth Brother, this guy isn't easy to deal with. Let's attack together and kill him!"

Hearing this, Mao Si raised his fist and charged in from the side.

"Little Shen!"

Yun Yi's limbs turned ice-cold with fright.

"Is that all?"

Shen Han remained utterly calm.

That punch had already let him gauge the two lackeys' strength. Neither of them had even entered a realm, while he himself had already stepped into the Skin Refining Realm.

Thus, facing the ferocious charge of Ding San and Mao Si, Shen Han neither dodged nor retreated.

The next moment, both his fists shot out, each meeting one of them.

Boom!

The four fists collided, and Shen Han was still the one who remained unmoved.

The cultivation of the Skin Refining Realm was indeed extraordinary.

"Pfft..."

Ding San and Mao Si felt as though they had struck a mountain. Both were sent flying and slammed viciously into the stone wall of the dead-end alley. Blood spewed from their mouths, and they could no longer move.

"Die!"

Shen Han's gaze was razor-sharp. He leaped before Ding San and reached out to seize the top of his head.

"N-no..."

Ding San wanted to beg for mercy, but it was too late.

Shen Han twisted his wrist.

Crack!

Ding San's neck spun around in a full circle and was snapped alive. His body slumped sideways, and his breath ceased.

After killing Ding San, Shen Han returned to Mao Si.

"Shen... you, you..."

Mao Si's eyes were filled with terror. He was so frightened that he could barely speak coherently.

He had never imagined that Shen Han, such a weak-looking kid, could possess such terrifying strength.

"Shen Han, as long as you let—"

Crack!

Before Mao Si could finish, Shen Han repeated the same move and snapped his neck.

In the blink of an eye, Ding San and Mao Si had died on the spot.

Yun Yi could not believe it.

Only after a long while did she gather the courage to ask, "Little Shen... was Hu Jiao really killed by you?"

Shen Han smiled. "Yes."

"So when you told me to rest easy that night, you were going to kill him."

Yun Yi's chest rose and fell without pause.

Seeing her tremble, Shen Han comforted her softly. "Sister Yun Yi, don't pity people like them. Think about it—if they hadn't died, we would have been the victims."

"Mhm, I understand."

Yun Yi was no foolish woman.

She knew perfectly well that if Shen Han had not suddenly appeared, her fate would have been worse than death.

"Sister Yun Yi, this matter is settled. Go home first. To avoid further complications, I need to deal with the bodies."

"Little Shen, be careful in everything."

After Yun Yi had gone far away, Shen Han let out a sigh of relief.

At last, he could loot the bodies openly and properly.

Under the dim moonlight, he moved quickly, searching Ding San and Mao Si's corpses.

He found more than four taels of silver.

"Not bad. There's barely any silver left from killing Hu Jiao, and I was just worrying that I didn't have enough to spend. These two lackeys came right to my door!"

Shen Han muttered to himself.

His expenses had been considerable lately. Every day, three hundred copper coins went toward ingredients for Blood-Qi Soup, plus another hundred coins for food. Only then could he ensure that his clone cultivated at full capacity.

Four taels of silver would last nearly ten days.

After squeezing every last bit of value from the corpses, Shen Han went all the way. He poured out the remaining stones from the red sack, stuffed the bodies inside, then wandered through streets and alleys until he found a dry well and threw them in.

By the time he finished all this, it was already midnight.

"The air is dry and things are flammable—beware of fire!"

Avoiding the county town's Night Watchman, Shen Han quietly returned to his small courtyard.

The moment he entered his room, the oil lamp in Yun Yi's room next door went out as well.

He bathed, changed clothes, and lay down.

"Good thing I broke through to the Skin Refining Realm today..."

Covered by a thin quilt, Shen Han reviewed everything that had happened that day.

If he had not raised his cultivation in time that evening, dealing with those two lackeys would never have been so easy.

But on the other hand, if there had been two more of them, I probably wouldn't have been able to handle them so easily.

Strength—strength was the foremost productive force.

Without enough strength, one had no right to speak at all.

Next, he had to break through to the Flesh Refining Realm with everything he had!

He remembered Guard Zhan saying that the Four Stages of Martial Arts were Skin Refining, Flesh Refining, Tendon Refining, and Bone Refining.

The so-called Flesh Refining Realm meant that, on the foundation of tempering one's qi and blood, one completely opened the Ren and Du meridians, making the true qi within the body abundant and condensed, achieving the effect of cleansing the marrow and clearing the channels.

Compared to the five hundred jin of strength in the Skin Refining Realm, a Flesh Refining Realm martial artist could wield over a thousand jin. They had already surpassed the imagination of ordinary people; lifting a cauldron was no difficult feat.

Yet achieving it was harder than climbing to the heavens.

Even within great sects and powerful factions, among five Skin Refining Realm disciples, it was difficult for even one to reach the Flesh Refining Realm.

"Clone, I'm counting on you!"

Shen Han glanced at the clone in the Bronze Mirror.

The clone was meticulous and tirelessly cultivating the Breathing Technique.

"Good brother, for life!

"Don't worry. I'll make sure you have more than enough food and medicinal soup!

"Starting tomorrow, I'll buy venison for you to eat!"

After making that grand promise, Shen Han placed the Bronze Mirror over his heart and fell into a deep sleep.