Great Hero of Qinghe

The two groups together numbered more than fifty people.

Lin Feng swept his gaze over their attributes and found that four of them had mastered the Mad Demon Staff Technique.

Those four were probably the leaders.

The rest were nothing special.

But there were truly a lot of them.

If they scattered, how long would it take to fight them all?

He had not learned any movement martial arts either. He was not much faster than these people, and chasing them down would be quite troublesome.

If he knew how to use hidden weapons, dealing with these people would not be difficult.

But now, he knew neither movement techniques nor hidden weapons. Fighting them would take far too long.

If the Iron Rod Gang sent more experts as reinforcements, he would be in danger.

Lin Feng made a snap decision and turned to run into the dense forest beside him.

"Chase him."

"Catch him and kill him."

With a great rush, both groups charged after Lin Feng.

The sky was gradually darkening, and the dense forest was shrouded in gloom.

On top of that, the ground was uneven, with tangled roots twisting everywhere.

People who did not often enter the forest could not run fast at all.

Lin Feng had been born a hunter. Combined with the memories gained from breaking through in the Beast Hunting Fist, he had spent more time in the forest than at home.

Naturally, his familiarity with the forest was beyond anything these people could match.

He quickly left most of them so far behind that they vanished from sight.

Many people feared getting lost and did not dare venture too deeply into the woods.

Only two people clung tightly to Lin Feng's trail.

Lin Feng glanced back. It seemed he had run into fellow professionals.

The two men behind him ran through the forest like rabbits. They were clearly extremely familiar with the woods and were hunters as well.

Lin Feng had practiced more martial arts than those two, had higher vitality attributes, and possessed greater stamina.

Lin Feng had originally intended to run a while longer and shake them off.

But when he looked back, he discovered that the two were among the four leaders, and both carried money pouches on their backs.

He might as well deal with them while he was at it and make another small fortune.

Lin Feng deliberately slowed down first, pretending that his strength was failing, luring the two men into taking the bait.

Sure enough, the two chased even more fiercely.

Before long, Lin Feng entered their attack range.

Without a word, the two raised their iron rods and struck.

One swung at Lin Feng's head, the other at his back.

Lin Feng neither dodged nor blocked. Instead, he turned and thrust his iron rod into their chests.

These two were ruthless men as well. Faced with Lin Feng's mutually destructive style, they chose not to pull back.

Clang! Clang!

Pfft! Pfft!

The two iron rods struck Lin Feng's head and shoulder as though they had hit an iron man.

Lin Feng felt no pain at all where he had been struck, only a slight numbness.

The Golden Bell Shield withstood their attacks, and Lin Feng was completely uninjured.

But the two men were in far worse shape. The iron rod had pierced straight through their chests.

One died on the spot.

Blood seeped from the other's mouth. He spat out three words, "Golden Bell Shield!"

Then his head lolled to one side, and he died as well.

This man was quite knowledgeable to have recognized the Golden Bell Shield.

Lin Feng removed the money pouches from their bodies and found more than ten taels of silver on them. Then he turned and continued running.

After looking at the stars to get his bearings, Lin Feng headed straight back to Xiaohe Village.

All three money pouches were stained with blood, and the smell was too strong.

Lin Feng first went to the stream and washed the money pouches.

He washed the silver inside as well, counting it roughly while he did so.

The three money pouches actually contained more than one thousand three hundred taels of silver.

A farming household had to toil bitterly for an entire year just to earn a few taels of silver.

These people produced nothing, yet raked in gold by the day.

Lin Feng felt that robbing them had been the right choice.

He washed his clothes as well and took a bath.

Only after finishing everything did he return home.

After he got back, he gave his wife and mother five taels of silver each, saying it was money earned from selling furs.

He hid the rest of the silver away.

He planned to take it to the Black Market to buy Martial Arts Manuals.

Though he could remember everything after reading it once and might not need to spend silver to buy them.

But what if they refused to let him read them?

It was always better to be prepared with enough silver.

The next day, Lin Feng did not go to the County Town. He feared that the Iron Rod Gang might make another move, and if he was not home, his family might be bullied.

As it turned out, the next day passed peacefully.

After Aunt Lin's family returned to the village from selling grain in town, they spoke with beaming faces about what they had heard there.

"Have you heard?

Those Iron Rod Gang thugs who went to the countryside to collect protection money yesterday ran into trouble.

More than a dozen Iron Rod Gang thugs were beaten to death.

Even the City Guards were alerted, but they were unwilling to handle the matter and told the Iron Rod Gang to settle it themselves.

They say only one person made the move."

"Really? I wonder which great hero did it."

"Those bullied by the Iron Rod Gang in town secretly call that person the Great Hero of Qinghe."

"This person rid the people of evil. He truly deserves to be called a great hero."

Lin Feng merely smiled when he heard the news.

Most of the people oppressed by the Iron Rod Gang were honest, law-abiding folk.

They hated the Iron Rod Gang but had no power to resist, so they placed their hopes on someone else solving the problem for them. Thus, the Great Hero of Qinghe came into being.

Lin Feng had no desire to be any great hero. He had only two wishes.

His first wish was to climb to the pinnacle of martial arts.

His second wish was to let his family live a good life.

As for saving all living beings, forget it. He did not have that kind of ability yet.

Since the Iron Rod Gang had not suspected Xiaohe Village, Lin Feng was relieved.

He planned to go to the County Town tomorrow to find Steward Li and have him take him to the Black Market to buy Martial Arts Manuals.

The next day, Lin Feng stayed in Xiaohe Village for another morning.

The Iron Rod Gang still did not come to Xiaohe Village.

Lin Feng was completely reassured and decided to head to the County Town after lunch.

While eating lunch, Lin Feng put down his bowl and said, "In a while, I'm going to the County Town. I'll stay in the city for one night and come back tomorrow."

Mother Lin placed a piece of meat into Xiaoyueyue's bowl, then looked up and asked, "Xiaofeng, what are you going to the city for? You even have to stay overnight? Inns are so expensive."

Zhou Chunlan said nothing. She felt that her husband was becoming more and more mysterious.

She even suspected that her husband was the Great Hero of Qinghe.

Yesterday, her husband had comforted her by saying those Iron Rod Gang thugs would not live long. Then he went out, and the next day came news that the thugs had been killed.

Zhou Chunlan only harbored some suspicions. She still did not think Lin Feng possessed such great ability.

Zhou Chunlan thought that her husband could do whatever he wanted, so long as he did not spend every day drinking like before.

After thinking for a moment, Lin Feng said, "I heard the night market in the city is especially lively.

I want to go broaden my horizons.

I'll also see what price furs fetch at the night market.

If they sell for more than in town, I'll go to the County Town's night market to sell furs in the future.

The Iron Rod Gang squeezes people in town too viciously, causing fur prices to drop quite a bit."

Mother Lin sighed. "Ah, when will that damned Iron Rod Gang finally die out completely?"

Zhou Chunlan sighed as well. "Ah, even if the Iron Rod Gang disappears, other gangs will emerge. As long as times do not change, the ones who suffer will always be hunters and farmers like us."

Zhou Haitao scratched the hair on his chest. "Once my brother-in-law and I have mastered martial arts, no one will dare bully us.

Once no one bullies us, life will finally get better."

Lin Feng nodded.

Over this period, his brother-in-law Zhou Haitao had made him see him in a new light.

The boy was simply too capable of enduring hardship. When he trained martial arts, he trained as though his life did not matter.

Of course, it also helped that Lin Feng's family ate well. Otherwise, training that hard would have ruined his body.

On this trip into the city, Lin Feng also intended to buy Zhou Haitao some of the herbs required to practice the Golden Bell Shield.

After lunch, Lin Feng took one thousand taels of silver and headed for the County Town.