Anger

Time passed in a blur.

More than ten days went by in the blink of an eye.

The effects of cultivating all three disciplines at once were exceptionally obvious. Chen Fan's appetite grew by the day.

His body developed and grew at an astonishing pace.

By then, Chen Fan's Tiger Fist had reached its final stance. It was improving by more than ten percent each day, and it would be fully perfected in only a few more days.

When Chen Fan's fifth Tiger Fist stance reached 80% progress.

Pi Liu came to collect the debt again.

He still had two lackeys behind him as they strode into Chen Fan's home with the gait of dragons and tigers.

Chen Fan had long since sent his sister-in-law and little Chen Xi to hide at a neighbor's house, leaving himself to deal with Pi Liu.

Although only a month had passed, Chen Fan felt far more confident when facing a few street thugs.

His gaze remained fixed on Pi Liu.

The man was around thirty-five or thirty-six, tall and sturdily built, his body packed with knotted muscle.

Chen Fan silently observed the man's movements and footsteps.

Sure enough, he was different from the other thugs.

His steps were steady, and his breathing even.

Chen Fan had already mastered four stances of Tiger Fist, while Soft Cloud Palm and the Great Hand Seal were also progressing rapidly and would soon reach perfection.

His body had become even more solid and powerful, and his strength had doubled once again.

Only a little over twenty days had passed since Chen Fan began cultivating Tiger Fist, yet his physical condition had undergone earthshaking changes.

Chen Fan even believed that his current strength far surpassed that of his previous life at his peak, when he had worked out regularly.

And he was not yet fourteen. A month ago, he had still been the son of a common family, even somewhat malnourished.

This so-called strength-training martial art had improved Chen Fan's body far beyond his own expectations.

"Kid, where's the money?!"

One of Pi Liu's men, a skinny, tall fellow named Wang Gang, stretched out an arm like a bamboo pole. Grinning, he repeatedly patted the back of Chen Fan's head and said rudely.

Chen Fan suppressed the urge to smash his fist into the thug and test his own strength...

Taking a deep breath, he instead offered up two taels of silver on his own initiative!

Pi Liu chuckled and shot Wang Gang a sidelong glance. "Let's go."

The other thugs followed Pi Liu out, but Wang Gang lingered at the very back.

Wang Gang chuckled again, his eyes rolling around in their sockets before he lightly patted Chen Fan's cheek. "Only sensible people get to live long lives. Unlike some people..."

His tone brimmed with mockery and teasing.

Then his eyes swept across Chen Fan's courtyard, and he laughed once more.

Only then did he leave.

Chen Fan rubbed his cheek and suppressed his emotions once again.

He knew.

It was not time yet...

Though his strength had grown quickly, he had never truly fought anyone before and did not know the extent of his abilities.

Not to mention that he had no idea of Pi Liu's true strength.

Even if he could beat Pi Liu now, there was no need to fight openly.

Pi Liu was, after all, a member of the Tiger Gang.

If he offended the Black Tiger Gang, Chen Fan believed that even if he were ten times stronger, his entire family would still suffer along with him.

After handing over another two taels of silver.

Chen Fan had thoroughly fallen into an awkward predicament.

He had already drawn a month's wages in advance. But with his ever-growing appetite and his insistence on having meat at every meal, the family's savings could at most support another half month of expenses.

There would definitely be no money to repay Pi Liu next month!

Yet he did not regret his actions.

Because personal strength was everything. He also believed that with his effort and special talent, even if he could not solve the problem of Pi Liu within a month, he could still find a way to earn some money!

And on the day after Pi Liu collected the money.

Inside the accounting room of the Great Passage Trading Company.

Chen Fan, whose hands flew across the abacus, suddenly froze. He felt a warm current coursing through his entire body.

"Have I broken through?"

It felt as though he were soaking in a hot spring.

He let out a comfortable cry, then rose to his feet, tilted his neck, twisted his waist, and produced a series of crackling sounds throughout his body.

Chen Fan's fifth Tiger Fist stance had finally reached 100% progress!

And at the moment of his breakthrough, Chen Fan's body underwent a leap to an entirely new level of power.

His body had not abruptly changed because Tiger Fist had reached mastery, but his strength was completely different.

A mastered Tiger Fist and an unmastered Tiger Fist, even if separated by only 1% progress, were entirely different concepts!

After completing his Tiger Fist cultivation, Chen Fan felt something wondrous.

While practicing the boxing art, he could clearly sense that warm and marvelous breath within his body continuously extending and circulating along with every punch he threw!

Bang! Bang!

As his fists shot out, they continuously produced the sounds of tearing air.

"How marvelous. Now that I've completely mastered the five stances of Tiger Fist, its overall power has all risen and fused into one. The inner breath in my body also moves with my fists, strengthening their power!"

If his earlier epiphany had allowed him to initially sense the inner breath within his body, then after truly mastering a basic boxing art, Chen Fan could now wield it as easily as an arm or finger. With nearly any casual punch, he could mobilize the inner breath in his body!

And after his breakthrough in strength, Chen Fan also directly began the automated cultivation of Duck-Walking Fist.

The ducks at home finally had a purpose.

At dusk, Chen Fan hurried home anxiously.

Only to find the front door standing wide open.

He frowned but did not think much of it.

Without even greeting his sister-in-law and niece, he immediately headed toward the corner of the yard where the ducks were penned.

But when he got there, he could not help but freeze.

The two ducks and one goose his family had raised had vanished without a trace.

Only mud and a complete mess remained in the duck pen!

Chen Fan was stunned.

Only then did he remember the open front door, and his expression changed slightly.

When he returned to the main room, he found it just as ransacked.

Faint sobbing came from the inner room.

Chen Fan's heart tightened. He immediately entered the inner room and found his sister-in-law lying facedown on the bed, her eyes red and swollen.

The little girl stood obediently beside her mother. Her face was red as well, filled with fear and grievance. Tears pooled in her eyes, yet she struggled desperately not to let them fall.

Only when she saw Chen Fan enter did the little girl step forward, hug her uncle's leg, and burst into bitter tears.

Chen Fan held his niece heartbrokenly and asked his sister-in-law what had happened.

Only then did he learn.

During the day, while Chen Fan had been away, Wang Gang, Pi Liu's subordinate, had suddenly come to the house. Claiming to collect a debt, he had actually forcibly taken the family's belongings, even taking all of their poultry along with him.

Upon hearing this.

"That bastard!"

Raging fury blazed in Chen Fan's heart.

He and Pi Liu had agreed that he would repay money once a month.

It was nowhere near the agreed time!

His sister-in-law sobbed, "I don't think that man came on Pi Liu's orders. He saw that there was no grown man in our home and deliberately bullied us!"

Chen Fan narrowed his eyes, then immediately understood.

Pi Liu wanted to recover those twenty taels of silver from Chen Fan, so naturally he could not drain the pond to catch every fish. He could only take things slowly and steadily.

The purchasing power of one tael of silver was considerable, roughly equivalent to a thousand dollars in Chen Fan's previous life.

It was not something that two or three pieces of poultry could compare to!

But the full twenty taels were meant for Pi Liu.

It was likely that Wang Gang had acted on his own initiative, hoping to squeeze some money out of Chen Fan's family!

Ducks would be easy enough to replace—surely someone in the surrounding households raised them too—but the fire in Chen Fan's chest burned ever fiercer!