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"I'm Hall Master Zheng of the Green Snake Gang's man... You... you kill me, and Hall Master Zheng won't let you off!"

The wind of his fist howled, driving straight at Zhao Tai's face.

Zhao Tai cried out in terror!

"Fuck your mother!"

One punch.

Blood streamed from Zhao Tai's nose and ears.

Jiang Shu closed in, his eyes fixed on him like a tiger's gaze. His arms drew taut like a fully drawn greatbow as he hooked Zhao Tai's neck and wrenched hard!

Pounce... So this was the pounce of the Tiger Form Three Styles!

The Tiger Form Three Styles were arts of killing.

How could one grasp their subtle essence without killing?

The Green Snake Gang, Hall Master Zheng, Tu Er Ye—and then he recalled the way Zhao Tai had looked at him today, as though he were prey.

A suspicion surfaced in Jiang Shu's mind.

"Damn it. What rotten luck."

He picked up the electric baton from the ground and tucked it into the small of his back. After casually feeling a few taels of loose silver out of the bundle of clothes on the table, he tipped the candle flame onto the two men's clothing.

Jiang Shu turned amid the blaze and headed for the low house he had already scouted out. He lightly stepped on several earthen bricks, then vaulted over the wall.

Behind him—

"Which damned bastard started a fire?!"

"Fire! Fire!"

"Quick, bring water!"

"Someone's dead! Someone's dead!"

"This is Zhao Tai from the Green Snake Gang. The killer was a short-haired masked man. Hurry and notify the Hall Master!"

Listening to the panicked cries from Green Grass Lane, Jiang Shu returned to his small ten-odd-square-meter room in Crooked Snake Alley. With a flicker of thought—

His figure vanished, as if he had never been there.

Qingjiang Garden.

Jiang Shu pulled open the curtains. The sunlight stabbed at his eyes, and the occasional honk of passing cars traveled through the air into his ears.

Perhaps it was because he had practiced the stance training and Breathing Technique of the Hungry Tiger Martial Hall—or perhaps this was simply his nature.

Though it had been his first time killing someone—

Not only did he feel no discomfort, his whole body felt incomparably at ease. His blood surged, and every pore seemed to tremble with exhilaration.

No wonder books from his previous life said that heroes used martial prowess to defy prohibitions.

With martial arts in one's body, one could not endure even the slightest grievance.

Endure too many grievances, and one's thoughts became blocked.

If one's thoughts could not flow freely, how could one climb high mountains and cross deep waters?

How could one become a person of great perseverance and grand spirit?

Pounce! Lift! Shear!

Within the tiny room, Jiang Shu shed his padded jacket and moved, shifting and transforming.

"What a pity, what a pity! If that useless Zhao Tai had been in the Blood Qi Sensing realm, it would have been good if he could have forced a few more moves out of me!"

After practicing the pounce several more times, Jiang Shu let out a long sigh. The Tiger Form Three Styles were true killing techniques.

Unfortunately, only the pounce came naturally to him. Both the lift and the shear lacked a thread of killing intent.

Ending his practice, Jiang Shu's Blood Qi settled. He undressed and climbed into bed.

From waking in the school dormitory at dawn yesterday until six in the morning today, he had gone more than twenty hours without sleep.

It was time for a proper rest.

Jiang Shu slept straight through until his eleven o'clock alarm rang. After practicing martial arts, his heart was as clear and transparent as crystal, free of stray thoughts. Nearly every time he slept, it was Deep Sleep.

Three hours were enough to equal six hours of sleep for an ordinary person!

Several messages popped up on the phone he had barely checked.

"Jiang Shu, you've taken a leave of absence, so I borrowed your chair."

"Jiang Shu, if you're not coming, let me put some books on your desk."

"You're not staying in the dorm anymore, right? The water and electricity fees from last semester were refunded. It's fifty-three yuan eighty in total..."

"Jiang Shu, are you still using your meal card after taking leave? Lend it to me."

He swiped away every message without replying to a single one.

He had been in the humanities class during his second and third years of high school. There were only seventeen boys in the class, yet even those seventeen had formed their own factions and paired off in twos, acting as if they were dating.

Throughout his entire second year, he had not had a single friend he could talk to. He had always eaten and read alone.

In his third year, after breaking free of the Mystery of the Womb, he had simply stopped caring to associate with others.

It was precisely because of this that, as an observer, he could see more clearly what sort of people his classmates were.

The ones asking about his chair and desk had in fact already taken them over. Their messages were merely notifications.

As for the dorm water and electricity fees and the meal card, one of them probably had never intended to give him the money at all. Otherwise, they could have simply sent a WeiXun red packet—simple and clear.

The other one was likely eyeing whatever balance remained on his meal card.

Without closing WeiXun, Jiang Shu swiped to the pinned chats, tapped an avatar of Long Cao Yan Tuanzi, and sent a message. "Are you up? Let's go eat."

"Not up. No money. Planning to starve to death in bed."

"My treat." Jiang Shu typed rapidly. "Barbecue or hotpot?"

"Barbecue! All-you-can-eat!"

"Get up."

"Alright!"

He slipped his phone into his pocket, opened the door, and stood outside his sister's room. "I'm going to shower first. Come out in ten minutes."

"Got it, got it. Jiang Shu, can I wear pajamas? I'm freezing to death."

"Wear them. I'm going to shower."

"Shower, shower, all you know is showering. Idiot! I mean you should wear pajamas too later."

"Why?"

"Then I won't look so weird."

"Oh."

Jiang Shu returned to his room, took out the thick blue fleece pajamas Jiang Yan Yue had picked out for him during the New Year, and entered the bathroom. He spent a few minutes washing up, using the toilet, and brushing his teeth before putting on the pajamas and opening the door.

Jiang Yan Yue was already waiting outside, dressed in the same thick blue fleece pajamas. Her hood was over her head, and the long rabbit ears looked adorably cute. She kept rubbing her hands and breathing into them. "I'll take ten minutes too!"

"Got it. Around an hour, then."

"Bullshit."

Watching his sister puff out her cheeks as she headed into the bathroom, Jiang Shu went to the living room. He practiced the Horse Stance while turning on the television to play the news.

The Horse Stance's proficiency slowly ticked upward on the Panel.

Though its ceiling was not as high as the Hungry Tiger Sitting Cave Stance—

The Horse Stance currently had two excellent points for Jiang Shu.

First, it had no side effects. Unlike the Hungry Tiger Sitting Cave Stance, which left him ravenously hungry after practicing for one or two hours and in desperate need of secret medicine or meat to replenish himself.

Second, he had already raised the Horse Stance to Minor Mastery. Raising it to Major Mastery would always be easier than raising the Hungry Tiger Sitting Cave Stance to Minor Mastery, allowing him to enter the stage of Blood Qi Circulation more quickly.

The facts proved that Jiang Shu understood his sister very well.

When she said an hour, she meant an hour.

The siblings left the residential complex and arrived at the bus stop.

"Jiang Shu, once I become a CEO, I'm definitely buying a huge, beautiful car! This wind is way too cold! Boohoohoo."

Jiang Yan Yue glanced at the notice on her phone saying the bus would arrive in another ten minutes. Her little face had been blown deathly pale by the wind.

If not for the temptation of barbecue, she would have wanted to go straight home.

Air conditioning and a blanket were better than an Immortal.

"Yeah, buy a domestic one. Just mindlessly get the refrigerator, color TV, and big sofa package. It's not like you know how to look at an engine anyway." Jiang Shu took off his pajama top and handed it to Jiang Yan Yue. "Put both hands inside."

"Jiang Shu, are you insane? Aren't you cold?"

"Do you understand the worth of a martial dao genius? You think a little cold wind can freeze me?"

Jiang Shu wore only an undershirt. Though he had not yet reached the realm of Blood Qi Circulation, he had one stance training and Breathing Technique at the beginner level, and one stance training at Minor Mastery. The Blood Qi within him had grown far stronger than before. He might still struggle against prolonged cold—

But for merely ten-odd minutes, all he needed to do was circulate his Breathing Technique.

"Bro, you're so good to me."

Jiang Shu assumed the Hungry Tiger Sitting in Cave stance and circulated his Breathing Technique, failing to answer in time.

Yet Jiang Yan Yue's next words nearly made him lose his form. Even his beginner-level Hungry Tiger Breathing instantly fell into disorder.

"Once I become a CEO and buy a luxury car, I'll definitely hire you as my driver and let you have some fun too."