"Bang!"
The crack of breaking bone rang out. Zhou Wu's head lolled to one side, disbelief still etched across his face.
His body crumpled to the ground, kicking up a spray of snow.
It had all happened in the blink of an eye.
The two servants beside him were completely dumbstruck. They had always thrown their weight around with Zhou Wu, bullying others at every turn.
Who would have dared fight back?
By the time they came to their senses and tried to flee, Li Yuan had already turned toward them.
He darted forward and caught up with one of them. With a single blow, his fist slammed into the servant's back.
The servant spewed a mouthful of blood and pitched forward onto the ground. He was clearly beyond saving.
Li Yuan used the same method on the other man, leaving him no time even to beg for mercy.
The mountain forest fell silent once more.
Li Zhi and Chen Quan had gone pale as death. They trembled as they stared at what had happened.
They looked at the three corpses on the ground, then at Li Yuan, their minds completely blank.
"Yuanwazi, you killed someone from the Zhou Family..." Chen Quan's voice shook with fear.
In Chen Quan's eyes, if the scions of powerful families wanted to take their things, they should simply hand them over.
There was no way to fight back anyway. As long as they stayed alive, that was all that mattered.
Li Yuan turned around slowly, his face flushed.
Looking at his frightened uncle and Uncle Chen, he said gravely, "Uncle, Uncle Chen, how could we give them the things we worked so hard to get?
"If we refused to hand them over but didn't kill them, then we'd all be dead, and our families would be dragged into it too."
Yes. Zhou Wu had made it perfectly clear just now that he would never let them go.
"Get rid of the bodies." Li Yuan took a deep breath. "And search them for everything they're carrying. We can't leave behind a single clue!"
Li Zhi and Chen Quan sighed. The men were already dead; there was no point saying more. They had to deal with the bodies as quickly as possible.
The three of them quickly dragged the corpses aside, searched them thoroughly, then dug a shallow pit and buried them.
By the time they were done, Li Zhi and Chen Quan were nearly spent.
Li Zhi fretted, "Will... will we be able to keep this hidden? If the Zhou Family realizes Zhou Wu is missing, they'll definitely send people to look for him."
"We'll hide it for as long as we can. Don't worry. I'll handle it."
Li Yuan hadn't expected to keep it hidden for long. He had been selling bear meat when Zhou Wu died. Anyone with half a brain could figure out what had happened.
He paused and looked at the enormous black bear's corpse. "Right now, we need to move this Black Lump and get rid of it. We should leave here as soon as possible."
The other two said nothing more. They went nearby and chopped down a few wooden poles, tied the black bear's limbs to them, then carried it away, one pair in front and one behind.
The three of them carried the black bear into the county town.
The four-hundred-pound black bear ultimately sold for sixty taels. After the commission was deducted, Li Yuan received a little over thirty-nine taels of silver.
Li Yuan took out five taels each and gave them to Li Zhi and Chen Quan.
The two refused at first, but finally accepted under Li Yuan's firm gaze.
Li Yuan himself ended up with thirty taels, as well as the thirty pounds of choice bear meat and one bear heart he had deliberately kept.
He still remembered Steward Lin from the Lin Family, who had told him to bring him any big game he hunted.
But Li Yuan wanted to eat the meat and bear heart himself. How could he sell them to him?
After what had just happened, he no longer thought the powerful families were good people.
If he took the goods to Steward Lin, he probably wouldn't even get to keep the bear heart.
He had already offended the Zhou Family, so he might as well offend one more.
As the saying went, more skills never weighed a person down, and neither did more debts.
The only person Li Yuan could trust to protect him was himself and his own strength.
After returning to Blue Stone Village, Li Yuan immediately set to work. He divided the thirty pounds of bear meat into portions, cured them with coarse salt and whatever simple spices he could find, then lit a charcoal fire and slowly roasted them into dried meat that would keep.
The rich aroma of meat filled the little stone house, drawing several barks from the neighboring dogs.
After preparing the dried meat, Li Yuan wrapped the bear heart in oiled paper and planned to take it back to the county town for safekeeping.
As he walked into the cramped, densely packed Shanty Town, a jumble of odors hit him.
The muddy lanes reeked of urine and feces, sour rot, and the musty smell drifting from some of the houses, all mingling together.
Li Yuan held his breath and hurried through the area until he reached his own house.
He pushed open the wooden door. Inside, there was only a bed, a stove, a table, and a chair.
Li Yuan put the bear heart inside, intending to come back and cook it that evening.
It was still early—barely midday.
After resting for a while, he got up and headed to the Martial Arts Hall.
Today's fight to the death and his breakthrough into the Bear Form Fist had given him a deeper understanding of the martial path.
That afternoon, Li Yuan returned to the courtyard, assumed his stance, and tempered his blood and qi.
As he performed the tiger and bear forms, his movements were more focused and forceful than before.
There was even a hint of being able to control every motion at will. After finishing a set of forms, he looked at the panel:
[Skill: Consumption (Minor Mastery)] [Progress: 110/1000 points]
[Skill: Archery (Minor Mastery)] [Progress: 600/800 points]
[Skill: Five Animals Tiger Form Fist (Minor Mastery)] [Progress: 150/1000 points]
[Skill: Five Animals Bear Form Fist (Beginner)] [Progress: 120/500 points] [Notice: Heaven Rewards Diligence. As long as you're willing to train, you'll reap rewards.]
Thinking back on his practice bout with the black bear in the courtyard, Li Yuan realized that his progress in reaching the beginner level of Bear Form Fist had been much faster than it had been for Tiger Form Fist.
It seemed that observing an animal that matched a form, and grasping its spirit and shape, was the way to make faster progress.
Li Yuan understood. He put the matter aside and kept practicing until dusk, then went to the study to read for a while and improve his skill.
[Skill: Literacy (Beginner)] [Progress: 200/500 points]
Back at his house in Shanty Town, Li Yuan lit a fire beneath the earthen stove, preparing to stew the bear heart to nourish himself.
"Knock! Knock! Knock!"
Just then, a heavy knock sounded at the door.
Li Yuan grew wary and stood up.
Who could it be at this hour?
He had just killed people from the Zhou Family. Could they really have found him so quickly?
He silently approached the door and asked in a low voice, "Who is it?"
"Chen Xiao." A low, hoarse male voice came from outside.
Chen Qing's older brother? Li Yuan narrowed his eyes.
He had thought Chen Xiao had given up on the matter of Chen Qing's death, but he hadn't expected him to come knocking after all.
Li Yuan considered this for a moment, then opened the wooden door.
A burly man stood outside, dressed in a white top and around thirty years old. He had a full beard and a face somewhat like Chen Qing's, but his eyes were sharper.
He wore finely tailored silk clothes from the Inner City. He looked at Li Yuan, then glanced at the clay pot on the stove inside.
"I couldn't find you in the village. I asked your uncle and learned you'd rented a place in the county town," Chen Xiao said. His voice wasn't deep, but rather hoarse.
"A few days ago, Chen Qing died in an alley. He was struck in the back of the head by a small pebble and bled to death.
"I questioned everyone in the village about what they were doing that day, so now I've come to ask you. What were you doing that day?"
Chen Qing was Chen Xiao's only younger brother, so Chen Xiao was determined to find the killer and avenge him.
Chen Xiao stared hard at Li Yuan and said, word by word, "I heard from others that on the day Chen Qing died, someone saw you hurrying to the county town."
Li Yuan didn't step aside to let him in, but Chen Xiao forced his way past him into the house. Li Yuan's thoughts immediately raced.
He shut the door and said, "Brother Chen, please accept my condolences. I don't know anything about what happened to Chen Qing."
Before you continue