Stronger! Stronger Still! Stronger Than Ever!

"That woman. That woman is a gift for you, sir."

Zhao Liuye pointed toward the carriage. "The young lady of the Li Mansion, the apple of her father's eye. She excels at the four arts, is nineteen years old, and is still a virgin."

Chen Han's fist tightened unconsciously. Realizing that was inappropriate, he quickly relaxed it.

"Did you kidnap this young lady?"

Zhao Liuye bowed deeply, his face full of ingratiation. "You can rest assured, sir. Her father, Squire Li, personally promised her to me as a concubine. To put it bluntly, he sold her to me."

"That old bastard is ruthless. To work with my family, he was even willing to give up his own daughter. He didn't care whether she agreed or not—he drugged her and sent her over. Naturally, I was happy to accept."

Hearing this, fury surged into Chen Han's eyes. He had never imagined that Li Muyun had been sold off by that old bastard, Squire Li.

Li Muyun had helped him immensely. If not for her, Hou Chun might have found someone to kill him long ago. He wouldn't have made it this far.

Now, seeing Li Muyun—who had indirectly saved his life—treated this way, he naturally felt awful.

After all he had been through, after killing so many people, he admitted that he was indeed cold by nature, quick to strike someone down at the slightest disagreement. But he wasn't devoid of feeling.

"Good. But... it's not enough."

Zhao Liuye grew so anxious that sweat poured down his face. His eyes darted around before he finally went to the carriage and took out an old book.

With his head lowered and his manner deferential, he carefully offered it to Chen Han.

"Sir, this is a second-rate martial arts manual I once promised Squire Li. It's one of a kind in Black Lion City. It was also the main reason Squire Li was willing to pay such a steep price."

A second-rate martial art!

Chen Han's heart shuddered. In this chaotic world, people were divided into ranks, and martial arts also came in different grades.

The Chen Family's Mountain Breaking Fist was a third-rate martial art. Though powerful, it could only cultivate its practitioners to the Martial Master realm, and unavoidable hidden injuries would accumulate along the way.

When practitioners grew older, they might even suffer from weakness and kidney failure, plagued by all manner of illness and dying sooner than ordinary people.

That was the greatest unavoidable flaw of third-rate martial arts.

The gap between second-rate and third-rate martial arts wasn't great. The main difference was that practitioners remained strong and healthy in old age, without hidden ailments, and lived longer than ordinary people.

As for first-rate martial arts and ultimate arts, those were beyond Chen Han's reach for now.

Though third-rate martial arts had considerable flaws, they were still an unattainable dream in the eyes of ordinary people. Most families couldn't get their hands on them at all and could only learn martial arts that didn't even rank, unless they were extraordinarily gifted.

Chen Han took the book. A few bold, sweeping characters were written on its cover: Thunderbolt Extreme!

He flipped through a couple of pages and, after confirming that everything was in order, said, "Good. I'm satisfied with this martial art. You can leave..."

Only after watching the two disappear at the end of the street did Chen Han approach the carriage and lift the curtain. Li Muyun lay quietly inside, soft and dazzlingly beautiful, with skin like polished jade. She was tall and stunning, and her long legs had to be angled to fit inside the carriage.

Her bodice was in disarray, revealing much of the springtime beneath.

Without hesitation, Chen Han slipped one arm beneath her knees and the other behind her back, then hurried away.

Before long, he had returned to the Chen Mansion without a sound.

The Chen Mansion was enormous. As a martial artist, he naturally had a place of his own. After carefully settling Li Muyun in, Chen Han washed up and changed out of the outfit stained red with blood, which looked like a wedding robe.

Then he lay down on the bed, curled around the pillow beside Li Muyun, and fell into a deep sleep.

Early the next morning, Li Muyun awoke to unfamiliar surroundings and was seized by fear. She felt over her body, and only after confirming that no villain had taken advantage of her did she let out a long breath of relief.

Recalling the last moments she remembered, she had eaten and then gone for a walk in the courtyard. Somehow, her head had suddenly grown dizzy. Sensing that something was wrong, she had wanted to find the only younger brother she trusted, but it had already been too late.

Everything had gone black. When she opened her eyes again, she was here.

She looked around. The room was plain and small, but it felt very comfortable.

A few garments hung in the cabinet. Li Muyun found them somewhat familiar, and their scent seemed familiar too.

After thinking it over, she recalled that they seemed to belong to Chen Han.

Then she noticed a note on the bedside table, with words written on it.

After reading it, Li Muyun was filled with lingering fear. She murmured to herself, "Thank goodness, thank goodness I happened to run into Chen Han. Otherwise, I would've been done for. But who drugged me...?"

Chen Han had hidden the despicable thing Squire Li had done, planning to tell her about it another time.

Of course, he'd also written in the note that Li Muyun mustn't leave the room, or it would be troublesome if she were discovered—whether by outsiders or by people inside the Chen Mansion.

Li Muyun sat back down on the bed, relieved. She naturally followed Chen Han's instructions without question, since he had saved her life yet again.

She was grateful to him and thought that she would have to thank him properly someday.

The next day, a shocking story exploded across the city, setting the whole place abuzz.

In a single night, more than fifty members of the Black Mountain Gang had been slaughtered by a vicious fiend. It was a gruesome scene: not one of them had been left with a whole corpse. Some were barely recognizable as human!

At that moment, a great many people were already practicing in the training ground behind the courtyard. Dressed in short shirts and shorts, they punched forward as dull thuds rang out without pause. Every move was as fierce as a dragon soaring or a tiger pouncing.

Chen Han looked at the familiar faces and began his own training without a word.

Bang!

His breathing was steady, his stance straight as a pine or cypress. His simple Mountain Breaking Fist struck the iron post with a dull thud that drew sidelong glances from all the martial apprentices.

"It's Chen Han. He's back."

"Did you hear about last night? They say he's reached the bottleneck of Transformation Force, and is only a step away from breaking through."

"Tsk, terrifying! How old is he, anyway? He might even rival the family head in his prime."

"Senior Brother Chen Han, I heard you've already reached the threshold of Transformation Force. This junior sister has a few questions about her punches. Would you be kind enough to teach me?"

Chen Han's fists cut through the air. He didn't so much as glance at the pretty junior sister who had come from who-knew-where to ask him for guidance. He simply said, "Get lost..."

Praise and admiration poured in from every side. Chen Han heard it all, but his face remained expressionless. He paid them no mind and simply practiced his punches over and over.

Once, he had fallen from the heights, and all that had greeted him were disappointment and mockery. Now he stood at the pinnacle of these martial apprentices, welcomed by praise and awe.

It all came down to one simple, brutal thing: strength.

He had every reason to believe that if he grew weak again, they would go right back to looking down on him as they had before.

So he showed these people no warmth. If anything, he was cold.

[Heaven rewards diligence; all effort will bear fruit!]

[Name: Chen Han]

[Lifespan: 20/110]

[Skill: Mountain Breaking Fist (Minor Achievement) 97/100]

[Skill: Taiji Health Cultivation Technique (Proficient) 1/500]

Stronger! Stronger still! Stronger than ever!

That was his only goal now...