Harvest!

"Heh..."

The shadow seemed to have anticipated it. With a slight shift of his body, he evaded the blade's flash.

At the same time, he swept his wide sleeve forward with a fierce flick.

Whoosh!

A cloud of lime powder burst straight at him, exploding through the night wind!

"Ah! My eyes!"

Caught off guard, Tian Erhu had his head and face completely plastered by this underhanded trick.

The burning pain stabbed into his eyes. He cried out miserably, instinctively lowering his head and flailing his arms to block.

Shen Xiuhan's right hand shot out like a venomous snake, slipping past Tian Erhu's wildly swinging arms. His five fingers became iron hooks, accurately clamping down on his throat bone.

His qi and blood surged as he squeezed hard!

Crackcrackcrack...

A string of bone-cracking sounds that set teeth on edge rang out.

The next moment, Tian Erhu's tower-like body toppled stiffly to the ground, like an infant fallen asleep.

The clash just now had made quite a commotion, especially clear in the silent night.

Worried that something might go wrong, Shen Xiuhan immediately crouched down and searched the corpse.

But after patting down Tian Erhu from head to toe, he found nothing on him.

Shen Xiuhan frowned and immediately darted into the house.

The room was dim. By the faint light filtering in through the window, he searched quickly.

A moment later, several items had appeared in Shen Xiuhan's arms...

Four taels of loose silver.

A tattered handwritten body-tempering manual titled "Iron Bone Technique."

Shen Xiuhan did not inspect it closely, stuffing everything into his clothes in one go.

Returning to the courtyard, his gaze swept over the five bloody finger holes on Tian Erhu's head, deep enough to expose bone, and his brow creased slightly.

Such a gruesome fatal wound was far too distinctive. If he threw the body outside the Golden Dragon Gang's hall now, it would only look like he was trying to conceal the truth.

"Fine. Early spring is nearly here. Those wolves, tigers, and leopards in Great Mount Li that have gone hungry all winter should be leaving their dens to hunt."

Shen Xiuhan snorted coldly.

Qi and blood erupted within him. With a shake of one arm, he hoisted the tower-like corpse, weighing over two hundred catties, onto his shoulder.

Though such intense expenditure of qi and blood could not be sustained for long, it was enough for him to race beneath the cover of night to the foot of Great Mount Li.

After tossing the corpse deep into a hidden thorny thicket, he immediately greased the soles of his feet and vanished into the darkness.

By moonlight, Shen Xiuhan hurried back along secluded paths.

Along the way, Shen Xiuhan took out the Iron Bone Technique and began reading it.

"No wonder Tian Erhu hadn't entered the realm of qi and blood yet could withstand one of my blows. So he had cultivated this hard technique."

As he turned the pages, the surprise in his eyes deepened, and he silently pondered.

If I wait a while longer and save enough intelligence points to deduce this Iron Bone Technique to great mastery—or even perfection...

Then I'll have the Heavenly Mystic Eagle Force for attack and the Iron Bone Technique for defense. That will give me another trump card to keep myself alive!

"Not bad. A life-preserving method like this truly has an affinity with me!"

He tucked the old booklet close to his body.

With a thought from Shen Xiuhan, the other intelligence that the system had refreshed today surfaced in his mind.

[Intelligence ③: Two li north, within a nest deep in the outer reaches of Great Mount Li, lies a heaven-and-earth-nurtured 'treasure beast, Azure Awl Chicken,' along with three unhatched 'treasure beast spirit eggs' in its nest!]

Great Mount Li!

A treasure beast!

Shen Xiuhan's gaze sharpened, and he instinctively turned to look north.

The reason he had thrown Tian Erhu's corpse beneath Great Mount Li was because he had heard that the mountain was filled with wild beasts and held unfathomable dangers.

Hunters from the outer city did not dare venture deep into it unless they traveled in groups.

Though the Azure Awl Chicken mentioned in the intelligence was located in the outer region, he still could not afford to let down his guard!

I heard that Old Uncle Chen next door often went into the mountains to hunt in his younger days and knows the terrain well. When I have time, I'll ask him for advice before making plans.

The treasure may be good, but I need to be alive to take it.

Shen Xiuhan was a cautious man. He did not immediately feel the urge to enter the mountains in search of treasure.

For the time being, he set the matter aside.

He continued reading. The remaining intelligence was the same as usual.

The original Through-Back Stance;

And the inherited relics of a "Sea-Fishing Tower true disciple" in the depths of Cloudwater Lake...

Shen Xiuhan shook his head, withdrew his gaze, and quickened his pace home.

Pushing open the wooden door of the thatched hut, he found the room as quiet as ever. Madam Zheng and Shen Momo were still asleep.

Shen Xiuhan quietly took off his outer robe and lay down on the bed. Staring at the pitch-black roof beam, he let out a long breath.

Then he closed his eyes.

The day after killing Yu Zhe and Tian Erhu.

The sky had only begun to pale when Shen Xiuhan entered Mei Martial Hall as usual.

The moment he stepped into the front courtyard, he saw several outer court disciples who had arrived early gathered by the weapon racks before morning practice began, whispering among themselves with excitement written all over their faces.

"Have you heard? The Golden Dragon Gang went crazy early this morning!"

"What happened?"

"I heard a Golden Dragon Gang member was slaughtered last night. He died horribly, and his corpse was right outside their own hall!"

"Hah, then the Turbulent Wave Gang must have done it!"

"The Turbulent Wave Gang? You mean the territory of 'Zheng Dadao, peerless in both fist and blade'?"

"That's him! Zheng Dadao is a hardened soldier who retired from the army. Among Longcloud County's practitioners of overt force, he is said to have scarcely met an equal!"

"Can the Golden Dragon Gang swallow that insult?"

"Swallow my ass! Gao Fu, the Golden Dragon Gang's leader, gathered his men before dawn and charged into Xuanhua Ward, shouting that he'd make Zheng Dadao pay for blood with blood! But here's the thing..."

"What?"

"The Turbulent Wave Gang's reaction was strange. They seemed terribly wronged. One hall master even swore that this absolutely wasn't the Turbulent Wave Gang's doing, or may Heaven strike him with five bolts of lightning!"

"Huh? So someone secretly framed them?"

"Right! Plenty of people think someone deliberately diverted the disaster eastward, but so what? These two sides have long been like fire and water over the profits from the western market. The Golden Dragon Gang doesn't care whether it was a setup or not. As long as someone died, the entire blood debt goes on the Turbulent Wave Gang's head!"

"Good heavens... Doesn't that mean Zheng Dadao got saddled with a black pot for nothing? Would he be happy about that?"

"He's more than happy! Not only did Zheng Dadao not shy away from battle, he even mocked Gao Fu in the street, saying Longcloud County had suffered under the Golden Dragon Gang for far too long, and this corpse was proof that Heaven had finally opened its eyes! He even raised a banner and called on everyone the Golden Dragon Gang had bullied to join forces and completely destroy their hall!"

"Hiss... What deep scheming! And then?"

"And then? Then naturally, weapons met weapons! The two great gangs fought a bloody battle in the streets, fighting until heaven and earth went dark. They say even the main road was ground away..."

"Oh, cut it out! Your mouth's running wild—your bragging is getting more ridiculous by the second!"

The outer court disciples sprayed spittle as they grandly discussed and exaggerated all manner of rumors.

Suddenly, the disciple speaking most animatedly cut off mid-sentence. His face changed slightly as he hurriedly stood straight and stammered:

"Sh-Shen, Senior Brother Shen!"

The others froze, then instinctively turned to look.

Shen Xiuhan was standing with his hands behind his back amid the courtyard's wind and snow, though none of them knew when he had arrived.

He stood tall and straight. Beneath his slightly open collar, the outline of firm muscles like iron could be faintly seen. Those deep, cold eyes watched them quietly.

The group jumped in fright. They hurriedly stood with their hands at their sides, then bowed and cupped their fists in unison.

"Greetings, Senior Brother!"

Within Mei Martial Hall, the status of inner court and outer court disciples was as different as heaven and earth.

After new disciples entered the hall, aside from the first few days when Hall Master Mei Shuangfeng personally instructed them in stance work, for the remaining half year or so, they were generally supervised in their training by inner court senior brothers and sisters acting in their master's stead.

Thus, Shen Xiuhan, who had eaten and trained alongside them only yesterday, had entered the inner court today. To these outer court disciples, his status had undergone an earth-shaking change.

It was the instinctive awe of those at the bottom toward a martial artist above them.

Shen Xiuhan had been eavesdropping for a while. Seeing that he had been discovered, he casually waved a hand without saying a word and walked straight into the inner court.

Watching his departing back, the outer court disciples wore exceedingly complicated expressions.

Yesterday, he had been Junior Brother Shen, who had only entered the hall half a month ago. Today, he had already knocked open the blood gate and become a lofty direct disciple of the inner court.

One step to heaven!