His first kill

"Die..."

"Bang..."

Feng Qiufeng, who had bowed to Chen Yang's tyranny, finally came back to his senses.

The wooden club he had hesitated over finally came crashing down.

But to his surprise, Lin Shisan did not fall.

Instead, the club he swung snapped in two again, right before everyone's eyes.

Lin Shisan still did not kneel.

Even his knees had straightened.

What was going on?

Chen Yang's eyes bulged again.

He stared in shock at Lin Shisan, who remained standing, and unease flickered through his heart for the first time.

When had Lin Shisan become so powerful?

The club had been imbued with his Divine Sense Blade, enough to knock someone at the third layer of body tempering flat.

And Lin Shisan was already covered in wounds.

Yet even so, Lin Shisan had not only held out, but straightened his body.

"He advanced?"

"The third body tempering realm?"

"Th-this dark-skinned brat advanced?"

"Could... could he have been hiding his true cultivation at the third body tempering realm?"

The spectators, especially the two stewards, watched closely.

They were the first to sense the spiritual energy fluctuations emanating from Lin Shisan.

All of them stared incredulously at Lin Shisan, who had just advanced to the third body tempering realm.

This completely overturned everything they knew.

Under such circumstances, he had not only survived, but actually advanced.

It was like a tale from the Arabian Nights.

It was simply unbelievable.

But the truth stood before their eyes. Even if they did not believe it, they had no choice but to accept it.

In the end, they leaned toward the explanation that Lin Shisan had concealed his cultivation.

At the same time, they cast meaningful looks at the equally stunned Chen Yang.

"Roar..."

Like a dragon entering the ocean, the Jiaolong True Spirit roamed and surged with boundless joy.

Thread after thread of flood dragon power, accompanied by sizzling lightning, flowed back into Lin Shisan.

The moment the Jiaolong True Spirit had leaped out, Lin Shisan's bottleneck to the body tempering third layer had indeed opened.

As rising water lifted a boat, the Jiaolong True Spirit's freedom had also carried Lin Shisan's cultivation through that bottleneck.

He had advanced.

Although Lin Shisan's external injuries remained, his body was sturdier than before.

It was as though he had swallowed a Great Strength Magic Pill. Both his spiritual energy and his spiritual sense had undergone a qualitative leap.

"Damn you, Lin Shisan! Die!"

"Damn it, Lin Shisan, go to hell."

After all, Feng Qiufeng was a veteran of the body tempering third layer.

Chen Yang was beside him, and he had backing.

There were also so many Servant Disciples watching.

He could never allow Lin Shisan to steal all his glory just like that.

Not only had Chen Yang signaled for him to kill Lin Shisan on the spot, but his fellow townsman in the Inspection Team had also nodded his tacit approval.

"Shing, shing..."

Metal rang out.

As Feng Qiufeng turned, he drew an Azure Peak Sword from one of the spectating Servant Disciples.

To everyone's surprise, the sword quivered and thrust straight toward Lin Shisan's back, aimed at his heart.

Too much speed, too much hatred.

At such close range, death was certain.

"Junior Brother Lin..."

"Watch out..."

"Behind you..."

Zheng Qian and several other Servant Disciples worried about Lin Shisan called out warnings in unison.

"Dark-skinned brat..."

A figure in blue raced in through the gate.

It was Tiny Waist, who had disguised herself as a man and slipped into the Servant Disciples' District C.

She arrived just in time to see Feng Qiufeng thrust his sword.

But she was too far away to stop him. She could only watch helplessly as the sword stabbed toward Lin Shisan's heart from behind.

"Roar..."

It was instinct.

The instant the Jiaolong True Spirit roared, Lin Shisan also sensed mortal danger descending.

His feet crossed as his body shifted sideways and twisted.

The sword reached him at that moment, scraping past Lin Shisan's clothes with a ripping hiss.

"Squelch..."

A mist of blood sprayed out. Lin Shisan and Feng Qiufeng both stood motionless.

The scene fell utterly silent. Everyone stared, tongue-tied and wide-eyed, at the source of the spraying blood.

It was not Lin Shisan, but Feng Qiufeng.

A thumb-sized opening had appeared in Feng Qiufeng's neck, while Lin Shisan held a barbed, double-edged dagger.

When Tiny Waist had tossed Lin Shisan the Sea-Sound Conch, she had also thrown him this three-inch-long, double-edged dagger.

"Gurgle..."

It was like a fountain.

Blood shot wildly from the opening in Feng Qiufeng's neck.

He could not stem it even with his hands.

"You... you..."

Feng Qiufeng could no longer speak.

Only moments later, he fell to the ground with a thud, disbelief in his eyes and heart-piercing regret within him.

Both hands still clamped tightly over his spurting neck, and his legs kept curling and flailing.

In the end, he resembled a frozen prawn.

"Shisan, are... are you all right?"

Tiny Waist, Mu Ling, was so terrified that tears streamed down her face.

Her heart, which had nearly leaped out of her chest, finally settled back into place.

"I... I'm fine."

Lin Shisan turned back in surprise, warmth filling his heart.

He had not expected Tiny Waist to be so reckless as to run into the Servant Disciples' District C anyway.

Although she had disguised herself as a male Servant Disciple, he recognized her at a glance.

"You're fine?"

At Chen Yang's signal, the Inspection Team member asserted his authority.

"Lin Shisan, you killed your fellow disciple Feng Qiufeng right in front of me, before all these witnesses. You have committed a capital offense."

The Inspection Team member shouted aggressively.

Two more Inspection Team members rushed in through the gate, both at the third body tempering realm. He refused to believe Lin Shisan could overturn the heavens this time.

"A capital offense, my ass!"

Tiny Waist charged to the front and planted herself before Lin Shisan.

Pointing at the Inspection Team member's nose, she berated him. "Donkey-face, are your eyes blind, or is your heart blind?"

"...I..."

The donkey-faced Inspection Team member was so stifled that his chest hurt.

"I, my ass! Did those two black holes in your face see nothing? That bastard Feng Qiufeng clearly drew his sword and stabbed at Lin Shisan first. Heaven merely had eyes and let Lin Shisan kill Feng Qiufeng instead. He acted in self-defense. Not only was killing him no crime, it was a meritorious deed!"

"You... you..."

Tiny Waist's tongue-lashing left the donkey-faced Inspection Team member speechless.

His right hand trembled, but he could not squeeze out a single word.

"You... you... you what? You donkey-face! You're deliberately playing favorites and seizing the chance to murder him."

Tiny Waist looked perfectly capable of angering someone to death without losing a wink of sleep.

She glanced at Chen Yang and the two deacons nearby.

"With all these eyes watching, you still want to turn black into white and blot out the sky with one hand, just to put Lin Shisan to death? Donkey-face, you're awfully determined to kill him, aren't you?"

The two newly arrived Inspection Team members had intended to say a few words in support of their colleague.

But when they saw the two deacons watching them, they voluntarily shut their mouths and stepped back.

Inwardly, they both blamed Donkey-face as well. How could he pull something like this when the truth was so obvious? His favoritism had stretched all the way to his grandmother's house.

"Stop slandering me!"

Donkey-face tried his best to control his emotions. He instantly realized he had pushed too far and been isolated.

Even Chen Yang, who was involved in the affair, now seemed to be deliberately avoiding Feng Qiufeng's gaze.

The first rule of survival: when life and death hung in the balance, protecting oneself came first.

"You... you..."

Donkey-face had sharp eyes indeed, as befitted a member of the Inspection Team.

He spotted Tiny Waist's true identity at a glance.

At his signal, a young Servant Disciple who had gone to summon the two Inspection Team members tore a sheet of human skin from Tiny Waist's face.

Tiny Waist revealed her true appearance: a beautiful young girl.