Fire Rises, Severing Former Ties; Smoke Clears, Farewell to Old Faces

Lin Feng was no longer particular about such things. He picked up the buns from the ground and began wolfing them down.

With no water to drink, he simply swallowed them dry.

In a few bites, he had finished one huge bun.

Seeing the way Lin Feng ate, Li San could not resist running his mouth again.

"Damn it, was this kid reincarnated from a starving ghost?"

In less than a minute, Lin Feng had devoured more than a dozen large meat buns.

It was all because of the uncontrollable hunger gnawing at his body.

The moment he finished the buns, his stomach felt empty again.

Still, that hunger had indeed faded, and his body was no longer breaking down its own muscles.

The Vitality on his attribute panel had also risen back to 7.

The deficit in his body had not yet been fully replenished, but at least he was no longer trembling.

Lin Feng looked up and asked, "Is there anything else to eat? I'm not full."

The three bandits felt their scalps go numb. Had this guy really become a starving ghost?

In this short while, he had eaten more than the three of them combined.

Li San started cursing again. "Fuck, you ate over half a steamer basket of buns. What more do you want?"

Wang Gousheng narrowed his eyes at Lin Feng. The kid had eaten so many buns, yet his stomach had not even swollen.

Where had all those buns gone?

He did not dare let Lin Feng eat any more. If the kid ate himself back into strength and gained the ability to resist, killing him would become troublesome.

So Wang Gousheng said, "Little brother, even death-row prisoners in the yamen only get one bowl of noodles before they die.

"You've already eaten ten large meat buns.

"We brothers have treated you well enough. Go in peace."

The moment Wang Gousheng finished speaking, Li San made his move.

Whoosh! He swung his staff at Lin Feng's head.

Lin Feng suddenly rolled to the side.

Bang! Li San's staff smashed a huge crater into the hard-packed ground.

Still lying prone on the ground, Lin Feng directly used Wild Donkey Kick from the Beast Hunting Fist.

His waist and legs exerted force as his right foot snapped upward, lashing toward Li San's crotch.

Thud! Crack!

Aaaah! Aaaah!

Lin Feng seemed to hear the sound of a fish bladder bursting.

Li San leaped high into the air. When he landed, he threw down his staff, lay on the ground with his legs clamped together, and screamed miserably.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Before Lin Feng could strike again, Wang Gousheng and Zhang Er's staffs were already sweeping toward him.

Lin Feng directly used Lazy Donkey Roll, tumbling wildly across the ground and dodging both men's staffs.

Wang Gousheng and Zhang Er were horrified.

This kid had just looked half-dead. How had he suddenly become as lively as a dragon and fierce as a tiger?

More importantly, he even knew martial arts. One move had crippled Old Third.

When they captured him yesterday, he had seemed as weak as a little chick.

How had he become this formidable overnight?

After rolling several times across the ground, Lin Feng rolled to Wang Gousheng's side and raised a hand with Monkey Steals Peach.

Smack! Smack! Two crisp sounds rang out.

Aaaah! Aaaah!

Wang Gousheng also jumped high into the air, then lay on the ground screaming.

Seeing the miserable state of his two brothers, Zhang Er felt a chill sweep through his crotch.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Zhang Er used two staff strikes to force Lin Feng back, then hurled his staff at Lin Feng and turned to run for the door.

He knew he was no match alone. He was trying to flee.

Lin Feng had long seen that this guy intended to run and had deliberately exposed an opening.

The instant Zhang Er turned around—

Lin Feng used Eagle Leaving Nest from the Beast Hunting Fist.

Lin Feng sprang up from the ground, instantly leaping into the air behind Zhang Er.

While still airborne, Lin Feng followed up with Venomous Snake Flicking Tongue. His palm shot out and struck the back of Zhang Er's neck.

Crack! Zhang Er's neck broke. He staggered forward two steps before collapsing to the ground.

Zhang Er lay on the ground with his eyes wide open. Blood streamed from the corner of his mouth. He twitched twice, then stopped moving.

It seemed Lin Feng had killed him in a single blow.

In less than ten seconds, two of the three bandits were crippled and one was dead.

The Beast Hunting Fist at Minor Mastery actually possessed such power. His every move was like a savage beast hunting prey, every strike lethal.

Although these three had higher Vitality than him, their martial skills were only at the beginner level. They were no match for him at all.

Lin Feng looked at his hands. In just two days, he had undergone a complete transformation. He was no longer that youth incapable of trussing even a chicken.

He had System Daddy to thank for all of this.

With the System's support, reaching the pinnacle of martial arts was just around the corner.

Looking at the two bandits screaming on the ground—

Lin Feng's first thought was to send them to the yamen.

Then Lin Feng suddenly remembered that this was no longer the peaceful, prosperous age of his previous life.

Never mind getting caned if he sent them to the yamen—he might even be charged with a crime.

Forget it. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Lin Feng picked up a staff and walked over to the thug Li San, then smashed it down onto Li San's head.

Li San immediately fell silent.

Lin Feng then walked toward Wang Gousheng.

Wang Gousheng endured the pain and begged, "Sir, for the sake of those dozen or so buns, spare this little one's life."

Lin Feng gave a cold chuckle. "Is your life worth only a few buns?"

Wang Gousheng hurriedly added, "I have silver too. It's all beneath the bed in the room across the way. As long as you spare my life, you can take it all."

Lin Feng shook his head. "Those things are only enough to earn you a quick death."

Wang Gousheng copied Lin Feng's words.

"You ate my buns and took my silver. If you still won't spare my life, I won't let you go even as a ghost."

"Fuck you."

Lin Feng brought the staff down on Wang Gousheng's head.

"Trying to pull feudal superstition on me? That's what I fear least."

After killing three people, Lin Feng did not feel afraid.

That had to do with mastering the Beast Hunting Fist and having his qi and blood brimming.

It also had to do with merging with the original owner's memories.

The original owner often saw people who had starved to death by the roadside. Over time, he had stopped fearing such things.

After finishing off the three, Lin Feng entered the room across the way.

Inside was a large wooden bed made of planks. Several strings of cured meat hung on the wall, along with his family's ancestral hunting bow.

Lin Feng found a money pouch beneath the wooden bed. It contained over thirty taels of silver and around a hundred copper coins.

Who knew how many people these three hooligans had harmed to earn so much bloodstained money.

His own family had spent only ten taels of silver to marry a wife and build a house.

These thirty-odd taels of silver truly counted as an enormous sum.

Lin Feng searched the room again and found a copy of "Mad Demon Staff Technique" beneath the pillow.

The more skills, the better. Lin Feng's eyes lit up, and he immediately began reading it.

The Wind Demon Staff Technique was also an unranked martial art, of the same grade as his Beast Hunting Fist.

This copy of the Mad Demon Staff Technique was clearly handwritten. The writing looked like Old Zhang crawling across the page, and it only contained the first three levels.

After Lin Feng finished reading it, the words Mad Demon Staff Technique (Unranked) (Not Initiated) appeared after Martial Skills on his attribute panel.

Every manual he read would appear on his attribute panel. This learning efficiency was simply too high.

Since he had learned it, there was no need to take this handwritten manual. Lin Feng casually tossed it aside.

Even after eating more than a dozen buns, Lin Feng's hunger had not vanished. He was also terribly thirsty.

After searching the bedroom, Lin Feng entered the kitchen.

Once inside, he picked up a water ladle, scooped several ladles of water from the water vat, and poured them down his throat.

Only then did he feel less thirsty.

On the wooden rack in the kitchen sat less than half a sack of rice, less than half a sack of flour, and fifty or sixty corn buns.

Corn buns did not spoil easily. Each time they were steamed, usually a hundred or so were made—enough to last seven or eight days.

Lin Feng ate two with each bite, stuffing all fifty or sixty corn buns into his stomach within minutes.

Only then did Lin Feng's hunger finally disappear.

The Life on his attribute panel had also risen back to 8.

Lin Feng washed his face, slung the money pouch over his back, gathered the cured meat, half a sack of rice, half a sack of flour, and the ancestral hunting bow, then walked out of the small courtyard.

He could not leave the food behind. At home, he still had his mother, his wife, and five children crying to be fed. They were nearly out of food.

Before leaving, he also set a fire to destroy the evidence.

Walking along the mountain path, Lin Feng looked back at the raging blaze behind him.

That fire had also burned away the place of his rebirth. It counted as a farewell to the past.

The people and events of his previous life no longer had anything to do with him.

The morning breeze stirred several strands of hair at Lin Feng's temples.

Lin Feng looked up at the fiery red sun in the sky and improvised a poem.

"Fire rises, severing former ties; smoke clears, farewell to old faces.

"The past drifts away with the wind; the red sun shines upon a new body.

"From this day on, brother and sister take to the roads of the martial world."

Lin Feng turned and left without looking back.