Chapter 7 Fall
"There he is."
The shout ripped through the Myriad Beast Forest.
Ye Chen stood perfectly still near the mouth of the shallow cave. He slowly turned his head toward the dense underbrush.
Five men stepped into the small clearing. They wore stained leather armor and carried heavy iron weapons.
The man in the center held a thick steel broadsword. His face was covered in jagged scars. He radiated the heavy aura of a strong cultivator.
"You are Ye Chen," the scarred man said. It was not a question.
Zhang Hu stared at the boy in front of him. He expected a terrified servant hiding in the woods.
Instead he saw a monster.
Ye Chen was entirely coated in dried black blood and thick river mud. The foul smelling sludge from his marrow cleansing pill clung to his skin. His eyes were cold and completely dead.
"I am Ye Chen," he replied. His voice was raw and grating.
"My name is Zhang Hu," the mercenary leader said. He rested his heavy sword on his shoulder. "Elder Wang placed a bounty of one hundred Spirit Stones on your head."
"The sect is generous with its wealth when it wants someone silenced," Ye Chen stated plainly.
"I do not care about sect politics," Zhang Hu said. His grip on his sword tightened. "I have a daughter in the mortal capital. She is dying of a severe lung rot."
Zhang Hu took a slow step forward.
"Those Spirit Stones will buy the alchemy pills she needs to breathe. I am sorry boy. Your life will buy my daughter a future."
Ye Chen looked at the mercenary leader. He saw no malice in the man's eyes. He only saw the desperate exhaustion of a father.
"I understand your pain," Ye Chen said softly. "The strong hoard the medicine while the weak die coughing in the dark. That is the reality of this world."
Ye Chen slowly raised his right hand and curled his fingers into a fist.
"But I have my own vengeance to claim. I refuse to die today to fund your tragedy."
"Then we will cut you down quickly," Zhang Hu commanded. "Do not let him suffer. Take his head."
The four lackeys surged forward simultaneously. They spread out to surround Ye Chen.
Two men charged directly at his front with raised spears. The other two circled behind him with rusted hatchets.
Ye Chen tapped into his thirty eight points of Agility.
He vanished from his spot.
The spear wielding mercenaries thrust their weapons into empty air. They blinked in sheer confusion.
Ye Chen appeared instantly beside the man on his left. He rotated his hips perfectly. He delivered a completely standard punch to the center of the man's chest.
It was the Chaos Bone Shattering Fist.
His knuckles connected softly with the hardened leather armor. There was no massive explosion of surface force. There was no spray of blood.
The mercenary froze completely. His eyes went wide with sudden absolute terror.
The kinetic force bypassed his skin entirely. It erupted violently inside his ribcage. The man's heart and lungs ruptured instantly from the concentrated shockwave.
He dropped dead into the mud without making a single sound.
"What did you do to him?" the second spearman screamed. He swung his weapon wildly at Ye Chen's neck.
Ye Chen ducked smoothly beneath the heavy wooden shaft. He stepped deeply inside the mercenary's guard.
He drove his palm upward into the bottom of the man's chin.
The internal shockwave traveled straight up the spinal column. The mercenary's brain shut down instantly. He collapsed like a puppet with cut strings.
The two hatchet wielders hesitated in complete horror. They had never seen a martial art that killed without leaving a single mark.
"Do not stop," Zhang Hu roared. "He is only a cripple. Overwhelm him."
The two remaining lackeys screamed to mask their fear. They swung their hatchets down in unison.
Ye Chen did not retreat. He channeled his Strength into his legs and lunged directly between them.
He extended both arms outward in a brutal double strike. His fists slammed into their ribs simultaneously.
The sickening crunch of shattering bones echoed loudly through the quiet clearing. Both men were thrown backward by the sheer internal pressure.
They hit the dirt and did not move again. Their internal organs were completely severed.
Ye Chen stood among the four dead men. He lowered his fists slowly. His breathing was perfectly even.
"It is just you now," Ye Chen said to the mercenary leader.
Zhang Hu stared in absolute disbelief. Four hardened killers were dismantled in less than ten breaths. The boy had not even broken a sweat.
"You are a demon," Zhang Hu whispered. He dropped his heavy broadsword and drew a wicked hunting dagger from his belt.
"I am exactly what the Azure Cloud Sect made me," Ye Chen replied coldly.
Zhang Hu charged. He channeled his entire cultivation into his legs. The ground cracked beneath his heavy boots.
He moved with terrifying speed. He closed the gap instantly and thrust the dagger directly at Ye Chen's heart.
Ye Chen could not dodge in time. The speed gap between his Stage 3 and Zhang Hu’s was simply too massive.
The steel blade struck Ye Chen squarely in the center of his chest.
A loud metallic screech rang out. Bright yellow sparks flew wildly into the air.
Zhang Hu felt a massive shock travel up his arm. His wrist nearly snapped from the sudden impact.
The dagger failed to pierce the skin. The Chaos Body Tempering Art had turned Ye Chen's flesh into an impenetrable wall of solid stone.
"Impossible," Zhang Hu gasped. His eyes locked onto the unbroken skin beneath Ye Chen's torn robes.
"You fight for someone else," Ye Chen said quietly. "I fight for myself. My foundation is simply stronger."
Ye Chen raised his right fist. He focused all his remaining Qi into his knuckles.
He drove the Chaos Bone Shattering Fist directly into Zhang Hu's chest.
The heavy leather armor caved inward. The destructive shockwave ripped through Zhang Hu's chest cavity. His ribs exploded outward from the inside.
Zhang Hu coughed up a massive mouthful of black blood. He stumbled backward and fell heavily onto his knees.
The dagger slipped from his trembling fingers. He looked up at Ye Chen with fading eyes.
"My daughter," Zhang Hu choked out. He collapsed face first into the mud and died.
Ye Chen stared down at the mercenary leader. He felt absolutely no joy in this victory. It was just another ugly necessity of survival.
"System," Ye Chen commanded heavily. "Extract."
A steady stream of pure energy flowed from the five bodies on the ground. It rushed directly into Ye Chen's Dantian.
[Experience gained. +50 points.]
[Experience requirement met. 500/500.]
[Breakthrough initiated.]
A massive wave of pure golden heat exploded outward from Ye Chen's core. The energy flooded his exhausted meridians completely.
[Congratulations. Host has advanced to Body Tempering Stage 4.]
[Reward issued. 50 System Points added to balance.]
The deep wound on his left shoulder began to knit together rapidly. The torn muscle fibers fused and healed in mere seconds. The lingering exhaustion vanished completely.
Ye Chen clenched his fists tightly. The raw power of the fourth stage coursed heavily through his veins.
He knelt beside Zhang Hu's body. He patted down the dead man's pockets to search for useful supplies.
His fingers brushed against stiff parchment inside a leather pouch. He pulled it out.
It was a heavy envelope sealed with bright red wax. The Azure Cloud Sect crest was stamped perfectly into the seal.
Ye Chen broke the wax and unfolded the thick parchment. It was a direct order written in Elder Wang's handwriting.
He read the elegant calligraphy in the dim forest light. His blood slowly turned to ice.
The letter detailed the exact bounty parameters. But it also contained a strict warning about the target's spiritual condition.
"The subject must suffer immensely before death," Ye Chen read aloud. His voice trembled with raw fury.
The letter explained everything perfectly. Su Rou had not spared his life out of twisted pity. She had kept him alive in the stables to farm his misery.
Every beating. Every starved night. Every single humiliation. It was all a calculated method to generate massive amounts of spiritual resentment within his soul.
Su Rou intended to harvest that condensed resentment upon his death. She needed the dark energy to permanently bind his stolen Spiritual Bone to the sect's sacred founding artifact.
He was not a discarded lover. He was livestock being fattened for a demonic ritual.
"She turned me into a battery," Ye Chen whispered. "She engineered my suffering for three years just to fuel her ascension."
The sheer absolute evil of the revelation made him nauseous. The righteous path was nothing but a beautiful lie painted over a rotting corpse.
"I will tear her down," Ye Chen screamed into the empty forest. "I will burn her pavilion to the ground and shatter her bones."
He radiated a terrifying aura of pure murderous intent. The kinetic energy from his intense breakthrough flared wildly around him.
The violent vibrations rippled aggressively down his legs and into the earth.
The ground beneath his boots suddenly groaned loudly.
The earth in this section of the forest had been heavily weakened by the mercenaries' explosive attacks. Ye Chen's surging Qi was the final breaking point.
A massive crack split the riverbank wide open. The stone ledge collapsed completely inward.
Ye Chen lost his footing instantly. The world tilted violently.
He fell backward into a massive underground abyss hidden directly beneath the forest floor.
Pitch black darkness swallowed him whole. A violent burst of highly toxic green Qi erupted from the depths of the abyss. The poisonous Qi washed over his falling body.
[Critical Warning. Lethal environmental hazard detected.]
[Toxic Spirit Vein rupture confirmed. Immediate fatal damage imminent.]
The mechanical alarm blared loudly in his mind as he plummeted straight down into the poisonous hole.
