Fang Shuwen gently rolled his shoulder, then suddenly pointed.
A sharp glint of light flickered at his fingertip. The people before him were baffled. One man, trusting in the weapon in his hand, swung down violently.
A muffled BOOM resounded!
A powerful explosion swept out in all directions, followed instantly by countless screams of agony.
Fang Shuwen followed up by using both hands, sending specks of starlight flying.
This technique, the Four Seas Shocking Emperor Finger, was formed from pure Inner Strength, and executing it required an immense amount.
Anyone else, even if they knew this Martial Arts technique, would lack the Inner Strength to use it.
But Fang Shuwen’s Inner Strength was unfathomably deep. And even in the unlikely event that his seemingly endless reserves of Inner Strength could be drained, he could simply draw more from others.
He was no different from a perpetual motion machine.
Carrying Long Qingzhi on his back, he carved a bloody path forward, leaving no survivors in his wake.
In the blink of an eye, Fang Shuwen had fought his way out of the alley.
But there were even more people waiting outside.
Fang Shuwen’s eyes narrowed. He suddenly clenched his right fist and threw it forward with a thunderous roar.
Sea-Shaking Divine Fist—Third Form, Four Shocks and Waves Splitting!
The Fist Force from this punch split into four streams, surging forward one after another like ocean waves, each more powerful than the last.
An intense BOOM erupted. Wherever the shockwave of the fist passed, countless people screamed in agony. The entire street looked as if it had been scoured by a tidal wave; for a full forty zhang, not a single person was left standing.
However, Fang Shuwen had yet to master this technique, so its full power was not unleashed.
As a result, while the Fist Force had exploded and injured them, it hadn’t killed them outright.
Fang Shuwen clicked his tongue, unsatisfied.
He had always believed that if you were going to strike someone, you should strike to kill. What was the point of this if they weren’t dead?
And so, he brought a single palm to his chest in a prayer-like gesture. With Fang Shuwen as the epicenter, an immense Palm Power descended from the sky in a ten-zhang radius.
He strode forward slowly, a look of compassion on his face. And yet, this technique was ironically named Mercy Does Not Cross!
Mercy does not ferry demons to salvation; there is only the release of death!
And in Fang Shuwen’s eyes, ’Anyone who wants to kill me is a demon!’
This terrified those who were still hiding in the shadows, who had intended to make a move but hadn’t yet had the chance.
All they could see was the young man on the long street, carrying a woman on his back. With one hand pressed to his chest, he strode forward slowly. An invisible force crushed down from above, and the sound of cracking bones filled the air. Blood poured from his victims’ every orifice. Wherever he stepped, no one was left alive.
In that moment, the long street was littered with corpses, and blood splattered high enough to dye the sky.
’Just where did this murderous demon come from?’
’How can his Martial Arts be so profound?’
’And such vicious methods!?’
And just like that, Fang Shuwen carried Long Qingzhi and left the town behind.
He continued onward, following their original plan.
The plan to buy or steal horses was scrapped. In her current state, Long Qingzhi couldn’t ride one anyway.
There were other Jianghu people still in town. They had also arrived with malicious intent, but having witnessed Fang Shuwen’s Martial Arts, they were too terrified to make a move.
Fang Shuwen didn’t bother hunting down and exterminating those who had held back.
The immediate priority was to find a suitable place for Long Qingzhi to recover. Otherwise, they would be seriously delayed.
The small town itself would have been a good place.
But the situation there was complicated, and the longer they lingered, the more enemies would arrive.
If Fang Shuwen had been alone, he would have been fearless. Given enough time, he could have likely killed them all.
But with Long Qingzhi to protect, he didn’t want to take any chances.
So after dispatching a few followers and confirming they weren’t being tailed, Fang Shuwen once again used the Electric Light Divine Movement Technique.
This time, he shielded Long Qingzhi even more carefully. In half a night, he covered five hundred li and finally found a small cabin in a forest.
The door was padlocked, but the lock looked like it had been there for years.
Clearly, no one had opened this door for a very long time.
Fang Shuwen casually crushed the lock, pushed open the door, and found the inside, as expected, covered in a thick layer of dust.
The room’s furnishings were simple: a kang bed, a cabinet, and a stove.
A Hunting Bow hung on the wall.
’This must be a mountain hunter’s cabin,’ Fang Shuwen surmised. ’The hunter even locked the door before leaving, intending to return.’
’But for some unknown reason, he never did.’
The bedding on the kang was coated in thick dust. Fang Shuwen lifted it away to find the straw mat underneath was still in relatively good condition.
Fang Shuwen placed Long Qingzhi on the kang bed and stuffed dry wood into its firebox. Getting it lit proved to be a bit tricky, but after a moment’s work, the firewood finally caught and began to burn.
The temperature in the room rose quickly, though it was filled with a musty smell that would need time to air out.
As he was leaving the inn earlier, Fang Shuwen had also made sure to grab the medicine he’d bought for Long Qingzhi.
He found some water and rinsed out an iron pot. It wasn’t as good for brewing medicine as a clay pot, but this was no time to be particular.
He brewed another dose of medicine for Long Qingzhi and carefully gave it to her.
Only then did Fang Shuwen let out a small sigh of relief. He sat down to one side and began to meditate.
Thus, the night passed. It wasn’t until nearly noon the next day that Long Qingzhi finally woke up.
She felt a lightness in her body; the heavy, sluggish feeling from the day before was gone. She sat up and looked around, finding herself in yet another unfamiliar place.
The room was filled with the strong smell of medicine.
But Fang Shuwen was gone.
"Fang... Hero Fang?"
Long Qingzhi couldn’t help but call out softly, her voice holding a tremor she herself hadn’t noticed.
She had suffered a great disaster, and everyone she had met on her journey had been a villain.
Fang Shuwen was the first person who had given her a sense of security. As a result, despite having known him for only a day, she had already grown deeply dependent on him.
Now that he was gone, an indescribable panic gripped her heart.
CREAK. The door was pushed open. Fang Shuwen walked in, holding a wild rabbit, his eyes meeting Long Qingzhi’s as she sat on the kang bed.
Long Qingzhi’s eyes reddened.
"Hero... Hero Fang, where... where did you go?"
"I went to find us something to eat."
Fang Shuwen smiled.
"This is a mountain hunter’s cabin. As I suspected, there’s plenty to eat around here. Oh, and I found this..."
He pulled two winter bamboo shoots from his belt and placed them by the stove.
"It’s strange. I was walking west and came across a bamboo grove. It was incredibly lush, but it was suffused with a purple aura."
"I have a feeling there’s something in there, but I figured you’d be waking up soon, so I didn’t go investigate."
"When you’re feeling better, I thought I’d go check it out."
"Okay. I’ll go with you then."
Fang Shuwen glanced at her but didn’t have the heart to dampen her enthusiasm.
"Alright."
Long Qingzhi suddenly chuckled.
Fang Shuwen paused, surprised.
"What’s so funny?"
"It’s nothing... I just feel that... Brother Fang, you’re a really good person."
Fang Shuwen blinked. ’Damn,’ he thought, ’did I just get friend-zoned?’