"Zhao Er, is it really you?"
Recognizing the person before him, Chen Ergou cried out in surprise, a look of joy washing over his face.
Zhao Xuan glanced at him. *Didn't you recognize me long ago?*
Wait.
Zhao Xuan quickly collected himself, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.
Chen Ergou hadn't recognized him, yet he had told the Hu family people that it was him. Wasn't this an intentional attempt to frame him?
What a fine brother he turned out to be.
Zhao Xuan took a breath and feigned astonishment: "Ergou, what are you doing here?"
Having been cursed and berated all the way, and struck by an arrow to boot, Chen Ergou was suddenly overwhelmed by grief and wept, "They forced me to come..."
According to his account, a group of people had come to Dishan Village that morning, claiming they wanted to go hunting for tigers in the mountains and needed someone familiar with the mountain paths to guide them.
Seeing that the visitors were either wealthy or noble, the village chief immediately recommended him, a fellow clansman, to serve as their guide.
As it turned out, they saw no tiger, and full of pent-up anger, they had encountered Zhao Xuan while chasing a rabbit, leading to the scene that just unfolded.
Chen Ergou wept tears of snot and sorrow: "It's so good to see you! I'm hurt, please save me."
Zhao Xuan didn't move an inch: "Is there anything else you want to say?"
Chen Ergou wore a blank expression: "Say what?"
Then he shouted: "We can talk about whatever later, save me first!"
Zhao Xuan still didn't move, looking at him with a calm expression.
Unnerved by the gaze, Chen Ergou grew flustered and angry, snapping, "Zhao Er, I'm the brother who grew up with you since we were kids! I only owe you half a rabbit—are you really going to stand by and watch me die?"
Zhao Xuan suddenly smiled: "How could that be? You are my dearest friend and brother, my own flesh and blood."
"Have a safe journey!"
A bamboo arrow pierced through Chen Ergou's abdomen straight to his heart.
Chen Ergou's face was filled with utter disbelief. He never imagined that Zhao Xuan would actually kill him.
He had thought that the little scheme he pulled, as long as he never spoke of it, would remain a secret forever.
...
Having disposed of Chen Ergou, Zhao Xuan looked with disgust at the youth, who had soiled himself with urine and feces and was wailing incessantly.
"Although it's a bit redundant, I still want to ask: why did you want to kill me?"
The youth was howling too self-absorbedly to spare a moment to answer Zhao Xuan's question.
Zhao Xuan had no choice but to pull the arrow out of the youth's right foot to help him snap back to his senses.
The youth let out a cry of pain and stared at Zhao Xuan with a face full of terror: "I'll answer you, can you not kill me?"
"I can have my family give you money! Is a hundred taels too little? How about five hundred taels?"
His answer was Zhao Xuan driving the exact same arrow right back in.
And then, Zhao Xuan obtained everything he wanted to know.
The youth had wanted to kill him simply because he felt Zhao Xuan had stolen his rabbit.
The Hu family was truly famous in Gucheng County, an unadulterated local powerhouse barely scraping into the top ten, ranking slightly above the Wang family to which Chen She belonged.
Not only did the Hu family boast hundreds of *qing* of fertile land, thousands of servants and tenant farmers, and dozens of shops, but they also enjoyed exceptionally close ties with the official authorities.
Martial experts like Guard Sun numbered no fewer than thirty or forty in their household.
For Young Master Hu Si of the Hu family to kill someone was no different from stepping on an ant; he would face no punishment whatsoever.
Anyone who reported the crime to the authorities would simply see their entire family ruined and killed.
The good news was that when Young Master Hu Si came to the countryside this time, he had told his family he would be staying out for seven or eight days.
Today was only the second day.
By the time the Hu family realized something was amiss and sent people to look for them, it would likely take more than half a month.
Zhao Xuan had plenty of time to destroy the corpses and erase all traces.
Moreover, Young Master Hu Si and his entourage had brought as many as twelve taels of silver with them, giving Zhao Xuan a rather sizable windfall.
On top of that, Zhao Xuan acquired a martial arts manual from Young Master Hu Si: Savage Bull Strength.
He had asked Young Master Hu Si about martial arts, but alas, the young master was a good-for-nothing who only knew that martial arts experts were impervious to swords and spears and possessed boundless strength, knowing nothing else.
After squeezing Young Master Hu Si dry of all his value, Zhao Xuan sent him off to the Western Paradise.
Destroying corpses and wiping out traces was hard physical labor.
Zhao Xuan first moved all the bodies to the edge of a cliff. Using the blades brought by the Hu family and the others, he altered all the arrow wounds to look like slash wounds, then tossed the bodies down the cliff.
In these desolate mountains and wildernesses, with no one to guide the way, finding the corpses would undoubtedly require a tremendous amount of effort.
Next, he cleaned up footprints, stray arrows, and any other traces related to himself.
Finally, he burned all the blood-stained clothing and shoes.
Aside from the manual Savage Bull Strength, all valuables—including silver, jade pendants, gold artifacts, and sabers—were buried by him in a secluded spot up in the mountains.
When the storm blew over someday, he would slowly dig them back up.
He even set a deadline for himself: if he couldn't figure out Savage Bull Strength within eight days, he would throw it into the stove and burn it.
He would rather find another path than take even the slightest risk.
By the time he finished all of this, it was already dark.
Returning home, Zhao Xuan lit an oil lamp, ate a hearty meal in the dim glow, and pulled up his stat panel.
"Basic Archery: 85/100."
The fierce battle had increased his archery proficiency by eight points.
He then eagerly flipped open the Savage Bull Strength manual he had only briefly glanced at earlier.
Savage Bull Strength was only nine pages long, each page featuring an illustration and a line of text.
The illustrations somewhat resembled the stance training Zhao Xuan had seen online in his past life, while the text provided annotations on how to practice the content depicted in the figures.
Zhao Xuan imitated the first posture, continually adjusting his form according to the text prompts.
Feeling that it looked decent and differed very little from the instructions, he flipped to the second page.
After struggling for a full half-hour, he managed to blindly run through all nine pages once.
To Zhao Xuan's pleasant surprise, the system prompt arrived immediately.
"Ding! You have earnestly practiced Savage Bull Strength once, gained insight into Savage Bull Strength, and achieved an improvement."
"Savage Bull Strength: 0/100."
Feature 1: Savage Strength. Each improvement increases physical strength; practicing it to perfection grants the strength of nine bulls.
Feature 2: Savage Hide. Each improvement increases defense; practicing it to perfection makes flesh and skin as hard as ox leather, capable of deflecting swords and spears.
Feature 3: Savage Force. Practicing to minor accomplishment generates Internal Force—commonly known as internal Qi—which can injure enemies externally and nurture life and longevity internally.
To be honest, Zhao Xuan had always been puzzled. Basic Archery could both boost arm strength and enhance perception, achieving a hundred hits out of a hundred static shots within a hundred meters; why was it merely considered Basic Archery?
Upon seeing the three features bundled with Savage Bull Strength, he understood instantly.
Any single feature of Savage Bull Strength left Basic Archery in the dust by more than ten streets.
A single bull had at least seven or eight hundred catties of force.
The strength of nine bulls totaled six to seven thousand catties.
With a single punch like that, any flesh-and-blood body would simply explode.
Young Master Hu Si was clearly a good-for-nothing who neglected his studies, but had he practiced Savage Bull Strength to a certain realm, the one lying dead today would have been Zhao Xuan himself.
When Young Master Hu Si claimed martial artists were impervious to swords and spears, Zhao Xuan had simply chalked it up to the boasts of an uneducated, spoiled heir.
Only upon seeing the Savage Bull Hide feature did he realize the fellow hadn't been lying.
At the same time, this meant the Hu family possessed someone who had trained Savage Bull Strength to the realm of invulnerability against swords and spears.
His mental evaluation of the Hu family instantly rose by three tiers.
Individual spoiled scions could never represent an entire clan.
What delighted Zhao Xuan the most was the life-nurturing and longevity-boosting effect accompanying Internal Force.
Longevity paired with his innate talent meant he would slaughter his way through the world sooner or later.
Thus, having just acquired Savage Bull Strength like some supreme treasure, he had no heart to sleep.
Right there in the room, he practiced it over and over again.
When thirsty, he drank water; when hungry, he ate meat; when tired, he snatched a nap.
Until he was utterly exhausted, he simply washed up and fell into a deep sleep.