A good kill!

Li Xuan clutched the sodden little booklet tightly, his heart pounding.

Others couldn't practice it because it was incomplete. Forcing it could send their cultivation running wild. But I have the panel... can it recognize this? If it can, even if it's only a fragment, as long as I can get it to "beginner" and add points...

Once that thought arose, he could no longer suppress it.

Internal martial arts were incredibly powerful!

Even cultivating a trace of internal qi would bring a qualitative leap in his strength!

Suppressing the urge to check the panel's reaction immediately, Li Xuan carefully wrapped the damaged manual he had unexpectedly acquired in oilpaper and tucked it inside his clothes, against his chest.

He made another quick search. Once he was certain there was nothing else worth his attention on Wang Kui or in the shack, he wasted no more time.

Dragging Wang Kui's corpse, he went to a relatively open slope downwind of the shack.

With the Woodcutter's Blade, he cut several more deep gashes across the corpse's neck, chest, abdomen, and other vital areas.

He let the thick stench of blood spread all the more freely.

Then he simply dumped the corpse in a conspicuous spot on the slope.

The howling from the distant mountain ridge seemed clearer and more frequent now, with a faint undercurrent of agitation.

Li Xuan dared not linger. After one last glance at the bloody scene and toward the other two corpses farther down the mountain, he turned and left.

His steps were swift and light, and he soon disappeared into the deepening night and the drizzle that had yet to stop.

He first took a detour to where Monkey and his companion had died, tied up the scattered chunks of wild boar meat again, and prepared to leave.

Behind him, deep in the mountain woods, the wolves' howls drew ever closer.

The icy rain washed over the muddy ground, washing away everything that had just happened as well.

Before long, this stretch of mountainside would be "spotless."

As though those three hunters with ill intentions really had simply had the misfortune to encounter a wolf pack, or lost their footing and vanished into the vast mountains.

The mountain path was especially treacherous late at night. Rain had soaked the yellow earth into mud that swallowed his feet up to the ankles with every step.

With the heavy meat on his shoulder, Li Xuan felt his way downhill, stumbling through shallow patches and deep.

He had just rounded a hollow when two dim yellow lights suddenly appeared in the darkness ahead-pine torches.

Then the anxious figures of Li Shan, leaning on his crutch, and Li Zhong, holding a battered umbrella, emerged in the light.

"Dad! Big Brother! Why did you come back up?" Startled, Li Xuan hurried over to them.

Li Zhong rushed forward to take the meat from his shoulder, only to falter at the strong reek of blood coming off him. When the torchlight revealed the dark red stains on his younger brother's face and body, his expression changed at once.

"Third Brother, you... all this on you..."

Li Shan said nothing. He merely drew a deep breath through his nose.

The old hunter's keen senses told him instantly that this was not just the smell of wild boar blood. Human blood was mixed in with it.

His clouded eyes fixed on Li Xuan in the torchlight. After several breaths of silence, he lowered his voice and asked, slowly and distinctly, "...Did you clean it all up?"

Li Xuan's heart jolted. He knew he could not fool Old Dad's nose and eyes.

Meeting his father's scrutinizing gaze, he nodded and answered steadily.

"Yes. Fed them to the wolves. Once this rain keeps falling a little longer, there won't be any traces left."

"Fed... fed them to the wolves?" Li Zhong's hand shook, and he almost dropped the torch. His face went white.

"Third Brother, you... you killed Wang Kui and the others..."

He might have been straightforward and a little slow, but he was not stupid.

Now he understood what his younger brother meant by "cleaning it all up"!

Murder! In his simple view of the world, that was an earth-shattering matter!

"What are you panicking for!"

Li Shan barked the words, driving his crutch hard into the mud and sending muddy droplets flying.

He looked at Li Zhong, then at Li Xuan. Shock and lingering fear mingled in his complicated gaze, but in the end, they hardened into ruthlessness and resolve.

"Those three filthy dogs pushed us too far! Stealing our game, insulting their elders, and trying to throw their weight around because they outnumbered us! When they hurt other people before, I didn't have the strength to stop them. But now they've come after our family, and they expected to walk away unscathed? Xuan did the right thing! A good kill! Vermin like that do nothing but waste grain alive. Who knows when they'd stab us in the back!"

He took a breath, as though exhaling all the bitterness bottled up over the years.

"You think your dad never wanted to kill them before? Back when they stole Fourth Chen's roe deer and broke his leg, I wanted to risk everything and do it! But you were still little then, and your mother was frail. We were outsiders, with no roots or backing here. I... I wasn't sure I could finish them in one strike. I was afraid I'd drag you all down with me!"

He looked at Li Xuan, an indescribable emotion in his eyes.

"I just never imagined... you'd be more ruthless than your dad, and more capable, too. All by yourself, you... you got it done."

Li Xuan remained silent. He could feel the helplessness and the hard edge that life's trials had ground into his father's words.

Li Shan collected himself and questioned Li Xuan carefully about where he had acted, how he had done it, and the details of how he had disposed of the bodies.

Only after hearing that he had used the terrain, ambushed them with his bow, and finally lured wolves in to deal with the remains did his tense expression ease a little. He nodded.

"This rain... came at just the right time. Remember, from now on, this stays buried in your belly until it rots! Your big brother, too-keep your mouth shut even in your dreams! You can't mention it to anyone, not even if your own mother or father asks! Understand?"

That last question was directed at Li Zhong, who was still dazed with shock.

Under his father's stern gaze, Li Zhong jolted and hurriedly nodded like a pestle pounding garlic.

"I-I understand! I... I don't know anything!"

"Come on, get down the mountain! Home!"

Li Shan said no more and motioned for Li Zhong to take most of the meat from Li Xuan's shoulder.

The three of them stopped talking, lowered their heads, and quickened their steps toward the faint light at the foot of the mountain.

When they got home, the cooking fire in the main room was still burning. Wang had stayed awake, waiting anxiously.

The sight of all three returning covered in mud and trailing cold air, with blood still unwashed on Li Xuan, gave her a fright.

"Why were you gone so long? Did something happen? Xuan, are you hurt?"

"I'm fine, Sister-in-law. The rain was heavy and the path was slippery. I took a fall and got some pig's blood on me."

Li Xuan spoke before the others could, forcing a weary smile.

"We found the meat, but it was too heavy, so we only brought back this much. Let's keep the wild boar to ourselves. Don't tell anyone outside the family-we don't want to draw unwanted attention."

Wang was doubtful, but Li Xuan really did not seem badly injured, and all three men looked exhausted and unwilling to talk.

She set her doubts aside and hurried to serve the ginger soup she had kept warm in the pot.

"Quick, all of you, drink some and drive out the chill! This blasted weather!"

The hot, pungent ginger soup went down, and a current of warmth flowed from his throat

straight into his stomach, then spread through every limb and bone. Only then did Li Xuan feel some of the chill ease from the crevices of his rain-soaked bones.

He privately counted himself lucky. If his Physique had not improved so much, tonight's exertion and drenching might well have made him sick.

After changing into dry old clothes, the family sat around the stove, which still held a little warmth.

Li Shan sent Wang off to bed with Xiu'er, who was already so sleepy she could barely keep her eyes open.

Only when the three men were alone did Li Shan motion for Li Xuan to recount what had happened on the mountain in detail.

Li Xuan left out the panel and the traits. He only described how he had tracked them, discovered them dividing the spoils, used the terrain and his archery to dispatch the three in turn, and finally lured in wolves to erase the evidence.