Counter-Kill!

Zhang Tieyi's tone was as usual as he said, "Pack your things. We are setting off today."

He walked up to Chen Ye as he did every day, pressing his palm straight down onto the Guanyuan Acupoint three inches below Chen Ye's navel, channeling a probing strand of True Qi along the meridians to determine the state of the True Yang within Chen Ye's body.

Then he felt a hint of something amiss.

The Qi and blood within Chen Ye's Guanyuan Acupoint were not warm like in his memory, but burning hot!

Abnormally hot.

He instinctively lowered his gaze, only to see that at the position of Chen Ye's lower abdomen, three spots of golden Radiance were piercing through his clothing, blazing like fire, more than twice as bright as when he last saw them.

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

It was too late.

The vast and mighty strength that Chen Ye had accumulated over several days and held back without releasing erupted with a crash at this moment!

A violent force surged upstream along the meridians, converging entirely into his right fist, carrying the momentum of wind and thunder as it smashed fiercely into the right arm Zhang Tieyi had pressed against his belly!

Bang!

A muffled impact suddenly exploded in the small courtyard.

Zhang Tieyi's right arm snapped in response, hanging limply down and completely losing all sensation.

Amidst the excruciating pain, his left hand hurriedly fumbled toward the short blade at his waist.

Yet for someone whose right hand was dominant, the left hand was sluggish after all.

Chen Ye did not give him the chance to draw his blade; he threw his entire body forward in a fierce charge, slamming heavily straight into Zhang Tieyi's embrace.

With a clatter, the short blade slipped from his grip and hit the ground.

Zhang Tieyi was knocked over and pinned to the ground.

Taking the opportunity, Chen Ye used his entire body weight to press him down, his knees jamming viciously into Zhang Tieyi's lower back.

The Array-Breaking Style operated at full force, launching in rapid succession, turning his fists into a torrential downpour as he desperately smashed blow after blow toward Zhang Tieyi's face.

This was his last chance!

He had to beat him to death.

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

The second punch...

The second punch was blocked.

Zhang Tieyi was a seasoned veteran who had undergone Mortal Shedding twice and experienced life and death.

After all, having served as a guard for the Gao Family for ten years and licked blood from the blade, his reflexes far surpassed those of ordinary people.

Enduring the piercing agony, his left hand fiercely locked onto one of Chen Ye's wrists while his knee thrust upward, his waist exerting ferocious strength as a heavy kick slammed savagely into Chen Ye's lower abdomen.

Bang!

A colossal, irresistible force exploded in Chen Ye's lower abdomen.

He flew backward like a tattered sack, smashing heavily against the earthen wall.

His spine struck the cold, hard surface, and the muffled impact traveled up his spine to the back of his head.

A sweetness rose in his throat, a bloody taste surged up from his chest, and his vision blurred briefly for a moment.

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

His right arm dangled completely from the elbow joint downward, swaying with the movement as he rose.

Zhang Tieyi glanced down at that crippled arm, then raised his eyes to look at Chen Ye, who was panting against the wall.

That gaze did not look like he was looking at an enemy, nor did it look like he was looking at an opponent.

It was as if he were looking at a dog waiting to be slaughtered at any moment!

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

Suppressing the pain caused by his broken arm, he spoke in a voice duller than usual.

Using his left hand, Zhang Tieyi picked up the short blade and lunged forward like a leopard, pinning Chen Ye—who had yet to catch his breath—firmly against the wall.

Chen Ye struggled twice, but the force with which Zhang Tieyi pressed down was shockingly immense.

Even with just one hand, even having just had his dominant hand crippled, a martial artist who had undergone Mortal Shedding twice was still not someone he could confront head-on.

The chilly blade tip pressed tightly against his Adam's apple.

"Save your breath." Zhang Tieyi's voice was very calm, not sounding like he was uttering harsh threats, but rather as if he were stating an insignificant triviality.

"The Xie Family wants living people for medicine, but they never said I couldn't chop off both your arms."

His gaze lingered on Chen Ye's face for a moment, then moved downward, resting on the three spots of golden Radiance on Chen Ye's lower abdomen that had not yet fully dimmed.

The hand clutching his broken arm was still seeping blood, dripping down the gaps between his fingers onto the hem of Chen Ye's garment, yet he seemed completely oblivious to it.

"I never imagined your talent for martial arts would be so terrifying. In just a few short days, relying merely on the Foundation Cultivation Technique to complete your initial Mortal Shedding—it is simply unimaginable!"

A trace of burning fervor flashed across Zhang Tieyi's eyes: "As expected of someone who harbors three grains of True Yang! With this kind of quality, when the Xie Family sees it, they will likely be more than satisfied."

"And you're resourceful, too."

Chen Ye forced down the bloody sweetness that had rushed to his throat.

Despite planning so meticulously for so long, it was still not enough.

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

As a veteran of two Mortal Shedding breakthroughs, he had pinned him against the wall using just a single hand; a profound despair filled the depths of Chen Ye's heart.

His breathing grew increasingly rapid, yet within the despair of his inner self, a sliver of madness quietly took root.

Fine, fine, fine.

Since it was death either way, keeping this last year of lifespan was of no use anymore.

Pawn!

Pawn it all!

Pawn the remaining lifespan in its entirety!

The Foundation Cultivation Technique had reached perfection; how the system would deal with this excess lifespan, he did not know.

Nor did he care anymore.

He only wanted the other person dead.

Familiar visual displays flickered before his eyes, flashing violently.

A line of prompts he had never seen before popped out.

[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 technique: Foundation Cultivation Technique - Mountain-Shattering Style]

[This technique is comprehended independently by practitioners of the Foundation Cultivation Technique when breaking through their limits, allowing a temporary explosion of multiple times their strength upon execution]

Boom!

An unprecedented, majestic surge of power emerged.

This power did not merely rush in; it exploded inward.

His entire body was blown open from within, his muscles expanding drastically, and beneath his clothes, his tendons bulged and writhed like coiling dragons.

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

Beneath his Dantian, three grains of Radiance blazed to life, immediately followed by a fourth grain of Radiance that emerged without warning from the Shenque Acupoint, standing a full inch away from his body.

Seeing the appearance of that fourth grain of Radiance at the Shenque Acupoint, Zhang Tieyi lowered his gaze, and the calmness on his face finally shattered.

"You—"

Chen Ye exerted sudden force, breaking free from the restraint of Zhang Tieyi's left hand, and then countersurged to grab the wrist of the hand holding the blade.

A muffled sound of bones cracking rang out beneath the blade, and the short blade clattered to the ground.

"Ah!"

Zhang Tieyi let out a miserable scream, but Chen Ye did not give him the chance to cry out a second time.

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

A punch smashed down.

Two punches.

Three punches.

Devoid of any technique or form.

He no longer cared about vital points or skills.

There was only the crushing weight of pure, most primitive strength.

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

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

The flesh of his right hand split open from the recoil, blood gushing out from the ruptures, indistinguishable as to whether it was his or Zhang Tieyi's.

"Spare my life..."

Fear finally surfaced on Zhang Tieyi's face.

Chen Ye turned a deaf ear.

Each punch was heavier than the last.

Gradually, Zhang Tieyi's breathing grew as thin as a thread, his face battered beyond recognition into a bloody pulp, completely stripped of human form.

He stopped moving.

Still uneasy, Chen Ye felt around for the short blade and slashed the other man's throat.

Crimson blood gushed out in torrents.

Zhang Tieyi had completely turned into a dead corpse.

Chen Ye finally stopped his hands.

The violent strength brought by the Mountain-Shattering Style receded like a receding tide, and an intense wave of exhaustion instantly washed over him.

He rolled off Zhang Tieyi's body, sitting limply to the side as he lowered his gaze to look at his own hands, which were also mangled and bloody.

Then he began to retch.

It was not from nausea.

Nausea was a physical reaction.

This was spiritual and psychological.

The terror of killing for the first time and the extreme weakness after completely exhausting his strength made it impossible for him to suppress this instinctive reaction.