Counter-kill!

Zhang Tieyi said in his usual tone, "Pack your things; we depart today."

As he did every day, he walked up to Chen Ye and pressed his palm directly against the Guanyuan Acupoint three inches below Chen Ye's navel, injecting a strand of probing internal energy to determine the state of the true yang within Chen Ye's body.

Then, he sensed something was wrong.

The qi and blood within Chen Ye's Guanyuan Acupoint were not the lukewarm temperature he remembered; they were scorching!

Abnormally hot.

He instinctively looked down and saw three golden glimmers of light shining through the fabric of Chen Ye's lower abdomen, burning like fire and far brighter than they had been when he last saw them.

Suddenly, alarm bells rang in Zhang Tieyi's mind, and he immediately moved to pull back.

It was too late.

The immense power Chen Ye had been accumulating for days, held in check until now, erupted in a single moment!

A violent force surged back along the meridians, gathering entirely into his right fist. Carrying the momentum of wind and thunder, it smashed fiercely into the right arm Zhang Tieyi had pressed against his abdomen!

Bang!

A dull thud exploded within the narrow courtyard.

Zhang Tieyi's right arm snapped instantly, hanging limp and completely devoid of sensation.

Overcome by searing pain, he hurriedly reached for the short blade at his waist with his left hand.

But for someone who favored their right hand, the left was inevitably sluggish.

Chen Ye did not give him the chance to draw the blade; he threw his entire body forward, slamming into Zhang Tieyi's chest.

Clang.

The short blade slipped from his hand and hit the ground.

Zhang Tieyi was knocked flat onto his back.

Chen Ye seized the opportunity to pin him down with his full weight, his knee digging hard into Zhang Tieyi's waist.

The Array-Breaking Style went into full operation, launching in a continuous chain. His fists turned into a torrential storm, striking at the man's face again and again without regard for anything else.

This was his final chance!

He had to kill him.

The first punch struck above the eye socket, shattering the brow bone;

The second punch...

The second punch was blocked.

Zhang Tieyi was a veteran who had undergone Mortal Shedding twice and survived life-and-death struggles.

After all, he had spent ten years as a guard for the Gao Family, licking blood off the edge of a blade; his reflexes were far superior to an ordinary person's.

Enduring the agonizing pain, he locked one of Chen Ye's wrists with his left hand while simultaneously thrusting his knee upward, using his waist to exert force as he kicked Chen Ye hard in the lower abdomen.

Bang!

An irresistible, immense force exploded in Chen Ye's lower abdomen.

He flew backward like a broken sack, slamming heavily into the earthen wall.

His spine struck the cold, hard surface, and the dull thud traveled up his backbone to the back of his head.

A sweetness rose in his throat, the metallic taste of blood surging up from his chest, and his vision blurred for a brief moment.

Zhang Tieyi stood up slowly, clutching his crippled right arm and spitting out a mouthful of blood.

His right arm hung uselessly from the elbow joint, swaying with his movements as he rose.

Zhang Tieyi looked down at his ruined arm, then lifted his gaze to Chen Ye, who was gasping for air against the wall.

That look was not the gaze one gives an enemy, nor was it the look one gives an opponent.

It was the look one gives a dog about to be slaughtered!

"You mongrel. When did you learn to bite?"

He suppressed the pain from his broken arm, his voice sounding a few degrees deeper than usual.

Zhang Tieyi picked up the short blade with his left hand and pounced like a leopard, pinning Chen Ye—who hadn't yet caught his breath—tightly against the wall.

Chen Ye struggled twice, but the force Zhang Tieyi exerted was astonishing.

Even with one hand, and even having just lost the use of his dominant arm, a martial artist who had undergone Mortal Shedding twice was still not someone he could face head-on.

The cold tip of the blade pressed firmly against his Adam's apple.

"Save your strength," Zhang Tieyi said, his voice calm. It didn't sound like a threat, but rather like he was stating an inconsequential matter.

"The Xie Family wants you alive for medicine, but they never said I couldn't remove both of your arms."

His gaze lingered on Chen Ye's face for a moment before dropping to the three golden glimmers on Chen Ye's lower abdomen that had yet to fully fade.

The hand clutching his broken arm was still seeping blood, which dripped through his fingers onto Chen Ye's hem, but he seemed completely unaware of it.

"I never imagined your talent for martial arts would be so terrifying. To complete your first Mortal Shedding in just a few days using only the basic Foundation Cultivation Technique—it's simply incredible!"

A burning heat flashed through Zhang Tieyi's eyes: "As expected of someone possessing three True Yang seeds! The Xie Family will be more than satisfied once they see such quality."

"And he's sharp-witted, too."

Chen Ye forcefully swallowed the metallic tang of blood surging up his throat.

He had planned this so meticulously, yet it still wasn't enough.

Zhang Tieyi stood a full two meters tall, half a head taller than him.

As a veteran who had undergone Mortal Shedding twice, he pinned Chen Ye against the wall with a single hand, leaving Chen Ye feeling utterly desperate.

His breathing grew increasingly rapid, and within his desperate heart, a sliver of madness quietly took root.

Fine, fine, fine.

Since he was going to die either way.

Then keeping this last year of his lifespan was useless.

Pawn!

Pawn it all!

Pawn the remaining lifespan!

The Foundation Cultivation Technique had already reached perfection; he didn't know how the system would handle this excess lifespan.

And he didn't want to know anymore.

He only wanted the other man dead.

Familiar visuals flickered and flashed violently before his eyes.

A prompt he had never seen before popped up.

[Deducted one year and one month, providing one year, one month, and twenty-seven days of cultivation.]

[Foundation Cultivation Technique has reached perfection]

[Unlocked limit-breaking move: Foundation Cultivation Technique · Mountain-Shattering Style]

[This move is self-comprehended by practitioners of the Foundation Cultivation Technique when breaking their limits; it can temporarily unleash multiple times the user's strength upon execution.]

BOOM!

A massive, unprecedented surge of power erupted.

This power didn't just flow in; it exploded into him.

His entire body was torn open from within, muscles expanding rapidly, veins bulging and writhing like horned dragons beneath his clothes.

The golden-gray keratin on his hands spread from the back of his hands all the way to his forearms.

Beneath his dantian, three glowing seeds burned brightly, and immediately after, a fourth seed emerged without warning from his Shenque Acupoint, hovering an inch away from his body.

Zhang Tieyi looked down and saw the appearance of that fourth light at the Shenque Acupoint; the calm on his face finally shattered.

"You..."

Chen Ye exerted sudden force, breaking free from the restraint of his left hand, then grabbed the wrist of the hand holding the blade.

A dull sound of bone cracking rang out beneath the blade, and the short knife clattered to the ground.

"Ah!"

Zhang Tieyi let out a miserable scream, but Chen Ye didn't let him get a second word out.

Mimicking Zhang Tieyi, he kneed him in the stomach, kicked him to the ground, and flipped over to pin him down.

He smashed a fist down.

Two fists.

Three fists.

There was no technique.

He no longer cared about vital points or finesse.

There was only the crushing weight of pure, primal power.

The Mountain-Shattering Style stacked with the Array-Breaking Style.

Every punch carried power that exceeded the limits of what this body could withstand.

The flesh on his right hand split from the recoil, blood gushing from the wounds, indistinguishable between his own and Zhang Tieyi's.

"Spare me..."

Fear finally appeared on Zhang Tieyi's face.

Chen Ye turned a deaf ear.

Each punch was heavier than the last.

Gradually, Zhang Tieyi's breathing grew faint, his face becoming a bloody mess, completely unrecognizable.

He stopped moving.

Chen Ye still felt uneasy, so he reached for his short blade and slit the man's throat.

Bright red blood bubbled out.

Zhang Tieyi had completely become a corpse.

Chen Ye finally stopped.

The violent power brought by the Mountain-Shattering Style receded like a tide, and an intense sense of exhaustion surged up instantly.

He rolled off Zhang Tieyi and slumped to the side, looking down at his own hands, which were already a bloody mess.

Then he began to retch.

It wasn't nausea.

Nausea is a physical reaction.

This was mental and psychological.

The fear of killing someone for the first time and the extreme weakness after his strength had been completely drained made him unable to suppress this instinctive reaction.