Tan Lin struggled through the forest. He was badly wounded, and every step sent tearing pain through his entire body, but he did not dare stop.
Only after pushing several hundred meters through the forest did he dare pause. He reached into his robes for his healing medicine, but all he pulled out were a few bottle fragments and medicinal dregs.
The bandit guardian had smashed his healing medicine.
"Green Snake Bandits, fuck your ancestors!" he cursed furiously.
"Senior Brother Tan."
The sudden call gave Tan Lin a terrible fright. He instinctively looked toward the voice and saw someone vaguely familiar watching him with an inscrutable expression.
A spark of recognition flashed through his mind. This was one of the surviving outer disciples, though he had forgotten his name.
"Motherfucker, you scared the shit out of me! Get your ass over here and help me leave!" he snapped. In his eyes, outer courtyard disciples were nothing but slaves.
"Heh..." Lin Fan chuckled. "Tan Lin, you still think things are like before, that you can shout orders at me?"
Tan Lin was first incredulous, then filled with towering rage and killing intent. "What did you say? An outer courtyard piece of trash like you dares speak to me that way?"
"You really think you're something? Look at yourself. How are you any different from a beggar?" Lin Fan said contemptuously.
"Hehehe..." Tan Lin's laughter was low and hoarse. "You think I can't deal with a piece of trash like you just because I'm wounded? In a moment, I'll make you beg for life and find no escape in death." As he spoke, he advanced on Lin Fan, his expression growing increasingly vicious.
Lin Fan shook his head. "Tan Lin, remember not to be so arrogant in your next life." With that, he kicked toward Tan Lin from a distance.
Tan Lin was baffled. A piece of trash who isn't even a martial artist-is he putting on an acrobatics show?
But his pupils soon shrank to pinpoints, his eyes filled with disbelief.
"Gang Qi!"
He let out a scream filled with fear and horror. No matter how he tried, he could not understand how an outer courtyard piece of trash could have cultivated Gale Leg to the Intent Realm.
In the entire Mountain Suppression Martial Arts Hall, only two people could do that.
He hastily attacked with Gang-Breaking Fist, but his fist force collapsed the instant it met the Gang Qi, which slammed into his chest.
Crack, crack, crack...
The sound of snapping ribs rang out. Tan Lin flew backward, vomiting blood, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets.
"How... could you... possibly?"
He could not accept this reality. The piece of trash he had freely berated and ordered around had actually reached the Gang Qi Realm he had dreamed of.
He crashed heavily to the ground, drawing in more breath than he let out, his pupils beginning to lose focus.
"Tan Lin, nothing's impossible. You're just too useless." After that mocking remark, Lin Fan kicked out another blast of Gang Qi, shattering Tan Lin's head and leaving him thoroughly dead.
Lin Fan walked over to Tan Lin's corpse, picked up his bundle, and fished out the money pouch inside. He opened it, revealing eight glittering gold leaves.
"Tsk, tsk. Murder and arson earn you a golden belt. Rich in one haul." Brimming with delight, Lin Fan tucked the money pouch into his robes.
After finding nothing else of value, Lin Fan used Gang Qi to kick Tan Lin's corpse apart, then took out a firelighter and ignited the weeds.
After killing someone, he naturally had to burn the corpse and erase the evidence. He did not want to leave any loose ends.
Lin Fan hurried toward the bandit guardian. Another big fish awaited him there. Had the guardian been uninjured, he would not have dared set his sights on him, but now... naturally, he would kill him, seize his treasures, and get rich all over again.
He had had enough of being poor!
He moved quickly, and the guardian's cross-legged figure grew ever clearer. His heart stirred with excitement. The guardian had yet to expel the deadly poison. This was a heaven-sent opportunity.
He swiftly approached the guardian, who noticed him as well.
"Tan Lin, you actually dare come back? You really think I can't kill you?" the guardian roared furiously, rising straight to his feet, bristling with killing intent.
Lin Fan had now wrapped his face in black cloth, and the guardian instinctively assumed he was Tan Lin.
Lin Fan wasted no words. When he was about thirty meters from the guardian, he attacked. His legs kicked in rapid succession, trailing overlapping afterimages as blasts of Gang Qi hurtled toward the guardian.
The furious guardian felt as though a basin of ice water had been poured over him from head to toe.
"Intent Realm Gale Leg! You're Yue Shan?" he cried in terror, turning to flee.
Who in Qingshan County did not know Yue Shan's formidable reputation? He was at minor accomplishment in the seventh rank, but with two martial arts at the Intent Realm, he could contend with seventh-rank martial artists at major accomplishment. As someone merely at major accomplishment in the eighth rank, when else would he run if not now?
He mobilized all the Qi and blood in his body, raising a golden bell of blood Qi around himself. Yet he felt no safety whatsoever. How could a Golden Bell Shield at merely major accomplishment withstand a seventh-rank martial artist's Gang Qi?
Dong, dong, dong...
Sounds like a great bell being struck rang out one after another. The enormous impacts recoiled through the guardian's body, throwing his Qi and blood into disorder. The deadly poison within him spread rapidly, and large patches of his body turned black.
The guardian froze. The Gang Qi attacks were indeed powerful and had already wounded him, but they were far weaker than he had imagined.
If this were truly Yue Shan, a single blast of Gang Qi would have been enough to kill him.
A thunderbolt flashed through his mind. He looked back and fixed Lin Fan with a dark stare. "You're not Yue Shan! Who exactly are you?"
Naturally, Lin Fan did not answer. He simply kept attacking with Gale Leg.
He now had a clearer understanding of his own strength. He could fight someone at minor accomplishment in the eighth rank, but against someone at major accomplishment in the eighth rank, he fell short.
"You've only just entered the eighth rank, yet you've comprehended Gale Leg to the Intent Realm. The Mountain Suppression Martial Arts Hall has produced a monster. I can't let you live!" With a vicious expression, the guardian lunged at Lin Fan.
Lin Fan pushed off the ground and rapidly retreated, not forgetting to keep attacking the guardian with Gang Qi.
The guardian struck repeatedly with both palms. Serpentine streams of force crushed the air, colliding with the Gang Qi and annihilating it.
But to his frustration, he could not catch Lin Fan at all. Relying on his extraordinary speed, Lin Fan kept his distance and kited him.
Ordinarily, that would have been fine. With his abundant blood Qi, he was confident Lin Fan could not outlast him.
But now he was afflicted with deadly poison. If he attacked, he could not suppress the poison, yet if he suppressed the poison, he would become Lin Fan's target.
Most crucially, he could not escape even if he wanted to. He was slower than Lin Fan.
"Pfft..."
The guardian spat out a mouthful of black blood, his face turning deathly pale. The deadly poison had reached his heart. If this continued, he would surely die.
"Bastard! What kind of hero takes advantage of someone in distress?" he cursed.
"A bandit who commits every evil imaginable thinks he deserves to speak of heroes?" Lin Fan snapped contemptuously.
Knowing this could not continue, the guardian raised his Golden Bell Shield again and darted toward the hills, hoping to use the complicated terrain to escape.
But how could Lin Fan let him succeed? His feet kicked repeatedly, Gang Qi howling as it battered the Golden Bell Shield and knocked the guardian back.
"Bastard!"
The guardian roared. He could only turn and run toward the town. Lin Fan pursued, his Gang Qi pounding into the Golden Bell Shield like cannonballs.
Crack, crack, crack...
Cracking sounds came from the Golden Bell Shield. At last, it could hold out no longer.
The guardian spat several mouthfuls of black blood in succession, no longer able to maintain his Golden Bell Shield. Gang Qi struck his back, blood blossomed, and he pitched heavily to the ground, never moving again.