"Hall Master Lü, could we discuss this?"
"Manager Liu, do you think that's appropriate?"
"One thousand taels!"
"Five thousand taels!"
"Two thousand taels!"
"Deal!"
"I'll give you the banknotes tomorrow."
"Then see you tomorrow."
Heavy footsteps sounded, heading straight for the rear courtyard of the Fierce Tiger Martial Hall at the foot of the mountain.
Su Xinghe shrank back, but the weeds beside him could only cover half his body.
What was going on? Why did they have to come down the mountain this way?
It was Su Xinghe's first time here too. He could not tell the front courtyard from the rear one at all. Under the night sky, he had merely spotted this landmark little hill and run over.
But there was no longer time for him to retreat.
They were barely a dozen meters apart, and he was below them on the slope.
The moment he dared stand up, the other party would spot him.
Two breaths later.
A towering figure over two meters tall appeared before him.
"Who's there!"
Lü Chenggong came to an abrupt halt, but the momentum of running downhill still carried him two meters forward.
In that instant, one hundred and eighty-eight plans flashed through Su Xinghe's mind.
For example, he could say his stomach hurt and he was relieving himself in the grass.
Or say he was drunk, lying on the ground and playing dead.
He could even pretend to be sleepwalking...
But in the end, only one word burst from his mouth.
"Kill!"
He unleashed the Golden Ape Fist move Leaping Arm Splits the Mountain, propelled by the power of Qi-Blood. His body sprang up in an instant like a spring compressed to its absolute limit.
Layered with the 1.5-fold strength of the Transcendent Mastery Listening to Tides Art, his strike drove straight at the other man's lower abdomen and dantian.
Seeing a madman suddenly appear halfway down the path, Lü Chenggong loosened his grip on the little wooden box. His two thick arms swung across, crossing protectively over his little treasure.
With a thunderous boom, the two figures touched and immediately separated.
One merely staggered several steps uphill before steadying himself, while the other stumbled back several paces, stepped into empty air, and fell flat on his backside.
Despite launching a sudden ambush,
Su Xinghe had failed to achieve anything with a single strike against an Upper Ninth Rank martial artist.
But how could he let go of this chance to obtain a Grade-Eight True Art?
Seeing that the other party had yet to react and was only standing dumbly on the slope, he slapped both hands against the ground, sprang up, and charged uphill.
At that moment, Lü Chenggong was stunned.
Both his arms had been forcibly broken at the shoulders.
He was only at the Bone Forging Initial Stage. Apart from his head and upper limbs, the bones in his torso had not yet been tempered, no different from a Body Tempering martial artist.
Even when erupting with all his strength, he could only barely reach around 3,500 jin.
That was only because he had thoroughly mastered his stance art and could bring out one hundred percent of his combat power.
Yet that punch just now had carried at least 5,000 jin of force.
But that was not right either.
A punch with 5,000 jin of force should mean Bone Forging Peak. Why would someone need to ambush a Bone Forging Initial Stage martial artist halfway down the road?
Before he had time to think further, another enormous fist descended.
"Manager Liu, save me!"
With both arms ruined, the long saber on his back had become a mere decoration. He could barely even maintain his balance. Even if he dodged this punch, it would be useless.
Liu Jin on the slope was even more bewildered.
An Upper Ninth Rank Bone Forging martial artist was actually begging him, a Lower Ninth Rank martial artist, for help.
Wasn't this screwing him over?
Yet he did not dare delay. Drawing the saber at his waist, he rushed down the mountain in quick strides. He feared that if he arrived too late, the rare Grade-Eight True Art would fly away.
Boom!
Su Xinghe's second punch had been aimed at the other man's head, but a knee strike knocked it away.
He staggered back a few steps and shook his numbed fist.
Bone Forging martial artists truly were hard bones. His peak punching force exceeded 5,000 jin, yet all he had managed was to send the other man flying.
"Stop!"
A shrill, slightly trembling scream rang out from the slope. The newcomer was about to arrive.
Su Xinghe stirred his Qi-Blood power once more and smashed viciously down at Lü Chenggong's head again.
"No!"
Amid a terrified roar of fury.
Descending Mountain Tiger Lü Chenggong lay on the ground and struggled to raise the last leg that could still move to block it.
Crack!
With that blow, Su Xinghe understood.
The other party had not emerged unscathed.
Without anyone noticing, all four of his limbs had already been crippled.
He now lay sprawled on the ground, spread-eagled, looking utterly ripe for the picking.
But wasn't he supposedly an Upper Ninth Rank Bone Forging martial artist?
Su Xinghe had no time to dwell on it. An old man with a goatee had already charged down from the pavilion with a saber in hand.
Without another word, Su Xinghe rose to meet him.
"Don't! I'm not from the Fierce Tiger Martial Hall!"
Liu Jin only wished he had grown two more legs. Why had he let a moment of madness drive him down here to help? The other man could take down even a Bone Forging martial artist in three moves. What use could a Body Tempering martial artist with only Qi-Blood be?
It was definitely that Grade-Eight True Art's fault!
That was what he thought in his final moment.
Splat!
A fist smashed down into the back of his head, and juices instantly burst across the mountainside. This fellow, who did not even possess 2,000 jin of strength, had no ability to resist whatsoever.
With a flick of his hand, Su Xinghe tossed the man called Manager Liu toward Lü Chenggong.
Then he pounced after him.
"Spare my life, hero! Take the things! I have another eight thousand taels in banknotes and fifty bottles of Bone-Forging Pills at home!"
Seeing a headless corpse fly over, Lü Chenggong nearly wet himself. But lying on the ground, the only thing on his entire body that could move was his mouth.
Another Lu Family member had lost his head.
This had to be the famed Head-Chopping Bandit.
Unfortunately, that hero did not spare him a glance.
Su Xinghe merely found a decorative stone the size of a water vat nearby and walked toward him.
Then darkness fell before Lü Chenggong's eyes, while his mind boomed like war drums.
Clang clang clang!
Clang clang clang clang clang!
The head of a Bone Forging martial artist was terrifyingly hard!
Two breaths later, Descending Mountain Tiger had become another man without a head.
Su Xinghe searched the two men and found a bulging waist pouch and a money bag.
Blades and swords were forbidden in the city, and the other party's weapons were far too conspicuous.
Taking them home would invite unnecessary trouble.
As for the two men's Travel Pass Talismans, he had no use for such things.
Without even looking, Su Xinghe turned and charged toward the foot of the mountain.
Because when he had thrown his first punch, a little wooden box had fallen from the other man's hand. It should contain the pills and martial art they had been discussing.
Crack.
The little wooden box opened, revealing five bottles lying every which way and a scroll about a foot long crammed inside.
Without examining them closely, he threw the waist pouch and money bag inside as well, then tucked the box under his arm.
Perhaps the sounds of battle had alarmed the Fierce Tiger Martial Hall below. Its courtyard was lively now, filled with shouts and the sounds of blades being drawn.
Su Xinghe lowered his head and calculated the likelihood that the eight thousand taels and fifty bottles of Bone-Forging Pills the other man had mentioned were real.
"Seeking wealth amid danger?"
The thought had barely surfaced before he ruthlessly crushed it.
The Fierce Tiger Martial Hall was not small. It occupied more than ten mu of land.
What was more, there were two Ninth Rank martial artists inside, and judging from the commotion, no fewer than fifty or sixty other disciples.
Under the current circumstances, he probably could not launch a stealthy ambush.
Once the constables from the Public Security Office arrived and more than a dozen firearms fired in unison, he would be unable to escape even with wings.
After weighing the pros and cons, the greed in his heart gradually faded.
Ten birds in the forest were not worth one in the hand.
He lowered his head to glance at the little wooden box, then turned and sprinted into the distance.
Thanks to his exceptional hearing, the journey went smoothly. Su Xinghe even had time to find a riverbank pier and wash the bloodstains from his body.
He quietly climbed in through the window and stood before it, listening intently for a moment. Finding no movement on the street and everything normal at home,
he finally relaxed.