Never Let Enemies Go

"If I refuse to hand it over?"

Feng Chen's voice was calm, as if he were asking about something that had nothing to do with him.

"Refuse? Then we'll make sure you die!"

The smiles vanished from the two men's faces in an instant, replaced by savage, violent expressions.

Without another word, they gripped their sabers and rushed toward Feng Chen.

Their footwork was hardly exquisite, but their coordination was remarkably tacit. One attacked from the left and the other from the right, their blades striking high and low to seal off both paths of retreat.

They had done this sort of thing many times.

Most people they targeted would piss themselves in terror at the sight of two gleaming sabers chopping toward them, obediently handing over their silver and begging for mercy.

Only a few dared to resist to the bitter end, but they were still dealt with in the end!

After all, they had good judgment too. They would never provoke true experts or hard bones they could not afford to chew.

Someone like Feng Chen, dressed in rags, traveling alone, and still so young, was obviously just a hunter from some nearby village. No matter how strong he was, how strong could he possibly be?

Feng Chen did not hesitate. He set the bundle of medicinal herbs from his arms on the ground, drew the brand-new short blade from his waist with his right hand, and charged straight at them.

Basic Movement Technique, Perfection.

Basic Blade Technique, Perfection.

Combined with his martial cultivation at Body Tempering, First Heaven.

The blood-qi within these two middle-aged men was indeed much more vigorous than that of ordinary people, and their bodies were thick and solid from training. They were only a final thread away from breaking through to become Martial Artists.

But they were not Martial Artists in the end.

Feng Chen's strength, agility, and speed did not merely crush theirs!

Rather, these two had not the slightest idea where his limits lay.

Swish!

With a movement of his feet, his body shot past the edges of the two sabers like a gust of wind. Before the blade shadows in the air had faded, he had already appeared behind them.

Two strikes.

The first blade sliced across one man's neck.

The man did not even have time to retract his saber. He only felt a chill at his neck, and all strength suddenly drained from his hands. His saber clanged onto the bluestone pavement.

Clutching his neck with both hands, he staggered forward two steps before his knees buckled and he collapsed. Blood gushed from between his fingers, quickly pooling into a small puddle on the ground.

The second strike came just as the other man turned around and raised his saber to slash. It cut directly across his back and spine.

The blade slipped precisely into the gap between two vertebrae, producing a crisp yet dull cracking sound.

The man let out a miserable scream. His entire body toppled straight forward like a sawed-off log, his face smashing against the bluestone and leaving a bloody mark. His hands clawed desperately at the cracks between the stones as he tried to crawl forward, but his lower body no longer obeyed him at all.

The man on the ground stared with eyes wide and round, his pupils shrinking violently from shock and fear as he fixed Feng Chen with a gaze as though he had seen a ghost.

He had never imagined that this ragged mountain brat would be stronger than the two of them combined.

This was no fat sheep waiting for slaughter. He was clearly a wolf in sheep's clothing.

"A Martial Artist... you're a Martial Artist!"

He struggled to squeeze out the words from his throat, his voice hoarse and weak like a broken bellows.

Feng Chen nodded. Holding his blood-dripping short blade, he walked over, crouched before him, and said, "You guessed right. Too bad there's no prize. Tell me, aside from you two, is there anyone else?"

The man breathed with difficulty on the ground, as though something were pressing down on his chest. Every breath came harder than the last.

Upon hearing Feng Chen's words, a vicious look suddenly surfaced on his pain-twisted face, as though he had found something to rely on. "Yes, of course there are! We're from the Black Tiger Gang. You'd better let me go."

"As long as you release me, I can let today's matter slide and pretend it never happened. If you don't believe me, go ask around on the streets. The Black Tiger Gang's signboard is right there. Offend our Black Tiger Gang, and you won't find anywhere to stand within a hundred miles of Green Mountain Town!"

"Oh, the Black Tiger Gang."

Feng Chen swept his gaze toward both ends of the alley.

The alley was silent. Apart from two rats fighting in a corner by the wall, there was not a single person in sight.

He withdrew his gaze and let it settle once more on the middle-aged man's face. "Then it seems there's no one else here."

The middle-aged man's facial muscles twitched fiercely.

He was not stupid. He understood what Feng Chen meant.

He felt the utterly unruffled killing intent emanating from Feng Chen—a calmness that meant once a target had been confirmed, he would definitely act.

His viciousness crumbled at once. His expression shifted from threat to pleading, and tears even glimmered in his eyes as he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Spare me! I was wrong, sir, please spare me! Take the money, take the herbs, take everything! I'm begging you, leave this dog's life to me!"

"Heh heh, you were wrong?"

Feng Chen looked down into his eyes and gently shook his head.

There was not the slightest ripple of emotion on that handsome, sharply defined face, as handsome as all the esteemed readers. "No, you weren't wrong. Your only mistake was being too weak."

As his words fell, a chill flashed through Feng Chen's eyes. With a lift of his hand, the short blade swept directly across the man's neck.

The blade sank cleanly through flesh. The middle-aged man let out one final muffled gurgle, his body convulsed twice, and then he moved no more.

He lay on his back atop the cold bluestone pavement, his eyes still open. Within his gradually dulling pupils lingered an indescribable emotion—not anger, not fear, but resentment.

It was as though even in death, he could neither understand nor accept it: You clearly had such strength, so why pretend to be a weak hunter?

If you had revealed your identity as a Martial Artist from the beginning, how could we have dared provoke you?

Feng Chen did not look into his eyes.

Because the moment the two men had decided to attack him, he had already decided not to spare either of them. Sparing enemies was merely cruelty toward himself.

He stood up and shook the remaining blood from his short blade. Droplets splattered across the bluestone, mixing into the black mud within its cracks.

Then he took out an old piece of cloth, carefully wiped the blade clean, and returned it to the sheath at his waist.

Looking at the two corpses on the ground, still carrying a trace of warmth, Feng Chen crouched and swiftly searched them.

His movements were clean and efficient as he searched the two men from head to toe.

He found roughly three taels of broken silver, several copper coins, and two bundles of medicinal herbs wrapped in oil paper.

He opened the oil paper and leaned close to sniff. A faint medicinal fragrance drifted out, but compared with the rich fragrance of the High-Grade Blood-Qi Medicinal Herbs in his possession, it was clearly several grades weaker.

They were probably only low-grade Blood-Qi Medicinal Herbs, but the two bundles were still worth twenty taels of silver. It was not a bad haul.

Feng Chen put everything away, tucked the broken silver into his clothes, and packed the herbs together with the ten portions of High-Grade Blood-Qi Medicinal Herbs he had bought earlier.

Then he stood, glanced at the two corpses on the ground, and looked toward both ends of the alley.

The alley remained quiet. Sunlight was gradually moving across the earthen walls on either side, but it had yet to reach the corpses at the bottom of the alley.

No one passed by, and no one poked their head out to look.

As for the Black Tiger Gang the man had mentioned, Feng Chen had heard of them before while gathering information in town.

The Black Tiger Gang was a gang faction within Green Mountain Town. They operated gambling dens and pawnshops in town, and secretly trafficked people as well. In short, they were no decent gang.

There were Martial Artists stationed within the gang. It was said their gang leader was already a veteran Martial Artist at several heavens of the Body Tempering Realm, with quite a few Body Tempering Realm underlings beneath him. With Feng Chen's current strength, he was far from being their match.

So after killing them, he needed to leave quickly. He could not remain in town for long.

Feng Chen lowered his head, pulled his collar higher to conceal half his face, and quickly left the alley.

After passing the last few scattered homes, he went straight out of Green Mountain Town.

After leaving town, Feng Chen did not relax. Once he entered the mountain path, he used the Basic Movement Technique at Perfection.

The mountain road beneath his feet flew backward, while the trees on either side became blurred shadows racing past him.

He sprinted along a wild path on the ridgeline, flinging the outline of Green Mountain Town far behind him amid the mountains.

More than half an hour later, Feng Chen returned to the hillside outside Green Mountain Village.

From afar, the gray little village lay quietly nestled in the mountain hollow as always, wisps of cooking smoke curling up from the rooftops.

He did not take the main road through the village. As usual, he bypassed the village lanes and jogged all the way home through the shrubs at the foot of the mountain.

Pushing open the door and securing the courtyard gate behind him, Feng Chen set the heavy bundle of medicinal herbs from his arms on the stove.

He looked around the house. Lin Qing'er was not there, and the bamboo basket that usually rested beneath the courtyard wall was gone as well.

She had probably gone out to work again, either to the fields or to gather wild vegetables.

"That girl really is hardworking."

Feng Chen stood in the empty courtyard, looking at the marks left where the basket had once stood by the wall, feeling somewhat moved.

She had been poor for so long that even though life had improved now, she still did not dare idle around. She always felt that if she worked a little more, the family's days would become a little more secure.

He soon gathered his thoughts and placed the ten portions of High-Grade Blood-Qi Medicinal Herbs he had bought into a dry, ventilated cabinet in the kitchen, sorting and arranging them neatly.

Then he returned to his room, sat at the table, opened the oil-paper packages, and laid the four manuals he had bought today on the table.

Giant Strength Art, Baji Fist, Five Tigers Gate-Breaking Saber, Meteor Step.

He began with the cultivation art as usual.

He picked up the Giant Strength Art and opened its first page.

This manual was much thicker than the incomplete Tiger Fist manual he had bought before. Though its pages were somewhat yellowed as well, its contents were relatively complete, and the cultivation methods from beginning to end were clear and coherent.

From the Body Tempering methods of the first three heavens, to the accompanying stance training and breathing techniques, then to the key points and taboos for breaking through each heaven, everything was written clearly.

Feng Chen carefully flipped through the pages one by one, his gaze sweeping over the illustrations and annotations as he read every word with care.

After the time it took for an incense stick to burn, he finished the final page.

Ding dong. Giant Strength Art template recorded. Please check it, host.

A notification sounded in his mind. Immediately afterward, the full contents of the Giant Strength Art spread clearly through the depths of his consciousness like illuminated scrolls.

By reading the complete Giant Strength Art, he gained a clearer understanding of the cultivation art.

Once cultivated to Great Mastery, the Giant Strength Art could greatly increase one's strength, granting greater force than Martial Artists of the same realm.

For example, among those at Body Tempering, First Heaven, someone who cultivated the Giant Strength Art might throw a punch with twice—or even more—the force of an ordinary Martial Artist.

It was quite a decent cultivation art, but unfortunately, it was incomplete and could only be cultivated up to Body Tempering, Third Heaven.

But for the current Feng Chen, the first three heavens of Body Tempering were enough.

As for the later sections of the cultivation art, he could think of another solution when the time came.

Feng Chen then picked up the other three martial techniques.

He opened the Baji Fist manual first. This fist manual was far more profound than the Basic Fist Technique he had practiced before.

Every move was hard close-quarters combat, its fist momentum fierce and compact. It emphasized striking, collapsing, squeezing, leaning, and short, explosive bursts of force. It was said: with Taiji, literature pacifies the world; with Baji, martial prowess settles heaven and earth.

Then came the Five Tigers Gate-Breaking Saber. Its twelve saber moves were each ruthless, aimed solely at vital points, without the slightest unnecessary flourish.

Lastly came Meteor Step, a movement martial technique known for speed and flexibility. Once mastered, one's body would move as nimbly as a meteor streaking across the night sky.

Half an hour later!

He had finished reading all three martial technique manuals.

Ding dong. Baji Fist template recorded.

Ding dong. Meteor Step template recorded.

Ding dong. Five Tigers Gate-Breaking Saber template recorded. Please check it, host.

Three consecutive notifications rang out in his mind. Feng Chen put down the final manual and closed his eyes, sensing the three brand-new bodies of knowledge arranged neatly within the depths of his consciousness.

The fist forms of Baji Fist, the saber forms of Five Tigers Gate-Breaking Saber, and the footwork variations of Meteor Step were like three books filled with answers, ready to be opened and consulted at any time.

He opened his eyes and looked at the four manuals on the table, which had cost him twenty taels of silver. A satisfied smile appeared on his face.

With cultivation arts and martial techniques, with Blood-Qi Medicinal Herbs, it was time to begin another round of grueling training.