Blood-Handed Butcher

"The martial art I am passing on to you is called the Five-Beasts Stance Exercise!"

"As the name implies, this art chiefly trains standing stances. Watch carefully..."

The martial instructor responsible for teaching them was a broad-shouldered, thick-waisted brute named Zhao Tianhu.

Once he finished speaking, Zou Feng heard the other servants nearby immediately begin to murmur among themselves.

"Five-Beasts Stance Exercise? I heard that technique can only strengthen the body, can't it?"

"This technique is far too ordinary..."

"Ah, looks like we really shouldn't have expected much..."

Naturally, those murmurs reached Zhao Tianhu's ears.

His eyes bulged as he roared, "Quiet!"

"What the hell do you know? Though the Five-Beasts Stance Exercise is a body-strengthening art, if you truly master all five stances, you will be reborn from the cocoon and transformed into a butterfly. You'll learn any martial art much faster afterward!"

"Besides, whoever among you reaches the 'entering the hall' realm in stance training, I will personally teach him the Five Animal Fighting Method!"

Stance work was merely a training method, not a fighting technique.

No wonder everyone had been so disappointed earlier.

But now that Zhao Tianhu had promised to teach them fighting methods if they mastered the stances, things were immediately different.

The crowd was overjoyed once more, every one of them looking as though they had been injected with chicken blood.

Unfortunately, even with a martial instructor's guidance, how could stance work possibly be so easy to train to the entering-the-hall realm?

Zhao Tianhu's promise was more like handing them a blank check.

Zou Feng was no longer the greenhorn he had once been, so he naturally understood such things very well.

Still, though the Five-Beasts Stance Exercise was lackluster, he wanted to try it and see whether practicing this orthodox martial art would have any supporting effect on him.

Would anything appear on the panel?

Although practicing orthodox martial arts was safe, if he trained like mad and viciously overdraw his body, that should count as producing side effects, right?

If even those side effects could be transferred away, that would be absolutely incredible...

Yet Zou Feng was soon disappointed.

After training with Zhao Tianhu for a while and officially beginning the stances, let alone any transfer of side effects, the Five-Beasts Stance Exercise did not even appear on the panel.

It definitely was not because Zou Feng had failed to meet the basic requirements for "first glimpsing the path."

After all, as an external martial arts expert who had already trained the Five Poisons Palm to the entering-the-hall realm, learning an ordinary technique like the Five-Beasts Stance Exercise was like a high school student doing elementary school problems. There was practically no difficulty at all.

That made things rather awkward. It seemed he was fated to practice only evil arts.

Still...

Learning the Five-Beasts Stance Exercise was not a bad disguise.

It would make it easier for him to openly attain a martial rank in the future and escape his lowly status.

Only ranked martial artists could be considered to have truly stepped into the privileged class of the Great Yan Dynasty...

Once the morning stance training ended, Zou Feng immediately returned to the back kitchen to work.

Practicing martial arts had its benefits, but having to train and work at the same time was still asking too much.

But to the Yang Estate, household servants were no different from oxen and horses. They would never care whether such labor was reasonable.

After the noon rush was over, during their break, Zou Feng probed, "Master, who exactly has our Yang Estate offended?"

He knew Luo Yong was friendly with several martial instructors, so he was likely aware of the specifics.

Luo Yong took a few puffs from his dry tobacco pipe, his eyes filled with worry for the future. "Yesterday, Miss Qianqian accidentally beat to death a lecher who verbally harassed her at a restaurant."

"After an investigation, it turned out that lecher was a wanted criminal. Not only was Miss innocent, she had actually rendered a service."

"But the problem is that the man had a very formidable father, who was also a wanted criminal."

"He was called the Blood-Handed Butcher. He learned the rarely mastered Blood-Burning Bone-Devouring Claw, and from then on, he seldom met an equal. He committed major crimes time and again before escaping, leaving the authorities of the nearby counties with splitting headaches."

At this point, Luo Yong rubbed his temples and gave a bitter smile. "Once such a vicious fiend begins his revenge, it will most likely bring disaster upon the entire household..."

Blood-Handed Butcher?

Blood-Burning Bone-Devouring Claw?

He was unquestionably one of the evil path.

Cut from the same cloth as himself.

Still, just from the name, some Blood-Burning demonic art sounded far grander than his Five Poisons Palm.

I really want to learn it. It's not like I'd have to suffer myself anyway.

But after hearing the full story, though Zou Feng feared the Blood-Handed Butcher as well, he felt that at least in the short term, there was no need to live in constant fear.

For such a vicious criminal to repeatedly commit major crimes yet remain at large, the man had to be extremely cautious and would never act on impulse.

Even if he absolutely had to avenge his son, he would never choose this moment, when the wind was at its fiercest.

Now, practically all of Yuan Guang County knew that the Yang Estate's young lady had killed his son and would face retaliation.

The authorities had naturally already prepared countermeasures, merely waiting to catch a turtle in a jar.

Not to mention that the Yang Estate also had support from Heartfelt Martial Hall.

So unless the Blood-Handed Butcher was an idiot, he would not rush over to court death.

A gentleman's revenge could wait ten years. That man would surely lurk in the shadows, biding his time until their guard relaxed...

By then, Zou Feng would most likely have already escaped his lowly status and left the Yang Estate.

Of course, when that time came, he would take Master Luo Yong's family with him as well.

That night, Zou Feng joined the night patrol.

Though several teams took turns patrolling at different times, so it was not as if there was no time to rest, the entire Yang Estate was under tight guard. Zou Feng had no way to secretly slip out again.

Fortunately, as long as it did not interfere with their duties, household servants could still request leave to leave the estate.

Thus, Zou Feng picked a day when he was not assigned to night patrol. At dusk, he found an excuse, requested leave, and departed the Yang Estate.

After leaving the Yang Estate, he headed straight for one of the cheapest brothels in the area.

Before his death, Li Rui had been a regular there.

He had thrown nearly all his wages into the place.

Some servants in the prime of their lives naturally had such needs, and the Yang Estate had no reason to interfere.

As for why Zou Feng had come here, it was naturally not to satisfy any needs, but to conceal his tracks and avoid drawing attention.

After all, the Yang Estate was currently as tense as a flock of startled birds. Who knew whether his request for leave would arouse suspicion and lead to someone following him?

His true objective, of course, was to visit the Ghost Market afterward...

Whether in his previous life or this one, Zou Feng had never visited such a place of pleasure.

Thus, as he looked at the scantily clad, heavily painted women standing at the brothel entrance, even his Dao heart wavered somewhat.

There was no helping it. As a normal man who had just turned eighteen, he was at that age of tigers and wolves when he woke every morning with a body of steel.

He was truly starving!

Fortunately, a moment later, the cheap face powder on those women, along with the faint but impossible-to-hide smell of seafood, immediately jolted Zou Feng awake.

No, he could not choose food without regard for hunger.

In a brothel this cheap, who knew how many strange diseases lurked within?

If he caught one, there would be no way to transfer it away!