Although Elder Feng was confident that with his experience in combat and killing, he would far surpass the novice in front of him, but this person was actually capable of displaying such speed even with five hundred pounds of heavy iron on his body. He dared not imagine what kind of frightening speeds this person would display after removing the heavy iron.

Elder Feng knew clearly that when it came down to it, the essence of Body Forging stage combat was speed and power. Although martial skills also played a large role, just like the Silent God Fist he had performed earlier. If the enemy was unprepared, it would be a one-hit kill move.

But there were no shortcuts in the Martial Way, nor were there any loopholes to exploit. Behind the staggering power of the Silent God Fist was the damage done to the body that was not at all minor. After all, by forcefully expelling blood and qi through nine meridians, the damage done to the meridians and blood vessels cannot be overlooked.

As the saying goes: To harm the enemy, one must first harm oneself.

Because he had been hiding his injuries, Elder Feng had already long lost the courage to fight. Seeing that Xu Yi had such gifted abilities, his will to fight was thoroughly depleted as well. But nonetheless, he did not miss any opportunity. With a fierce roar, he cried, “Silent God Fist!” as he sent a punch towards Xu Yi. Then, he put his strength in his legs, pushing them against a large tree, sending his body flying in the opposite direction instead.

Knowing that he was no match for Xu Yi, Elder Feng decided to escape.

With the situation as such, Elder Feng had no time to worry about Young Master Zhou. Now that he had failed to capture Xu Yi, nothing good will come to him if he were to return to the Zhou family. Knowing that, he decided that he might as well flee.

But little did he know that Xu Yi had long seen through his fake “Silent God Fist”. The bluff he pulled with his fake punch did nothing to confuse Xu Yi.

The moment Elder Feng moved, Xu Yi moved as well.

After shedding five hundred pounds of heavy iron, his body was as light as a feather, and he caught up even though he had moved after his opponent.

Before Elder Feng could plant his feet down properly, Xu Yi had already caught up. He threw a punch, which seemed at least 30% stronger than before. Even the air seemed to ripple from the force.

The blow seemed as though it would land, but Elder Feng was skilled. In mid-air, he somehow managed to coil his body like a spring, causing Xu Yi’s punch to hit air. But even so, the shockwave of the punch was so strong as it brushed past his toughened skin that it felt like a knife had run across his skin.

Although he had narrowly avoided the heavy blow, Elder Feng fully understood the severity of the problem before him. When it came to speed, he would be chased down no matter how he tried to flee.

With that thought, the courage and youth within Elder Feng’s bones were ignited. A soft metallic sound rang while he was still in mid-air. When he landed, there was an additional narrow, three-foot-long sword in his left hand, which he used to meet Xu Yi’s incoming fist.

Xu Yi did not even avoid the move. His eyes were sharp even at such high speeds. His fist brushed past the tip of the sword, and with a loud bang, struck Elder Feng on his left shoulder.

The strength of one and a half bulls was a frightening display of might. Elder Feng’s body flew, breaking down two thick trees before falling to the ground. He tried to get to his feet with a kip-up, but Xu Yi’s light body was right before him again. His foot came crashing down from above like a large ship right square onto Elder Feng’s face, stomping him back into the ground.

Landing a critical blow, Xu Yi showed no mercy, throwing punch after punch. His fists rained down, not giving Elder Feng even half a second to catch his breath.

Initially, Elder Feng could still gurgle his curses, but soon after, Elder Feng was like a broken sack, and he was unable to make any more sound. In the blink of an eye, Xu Yi’s two iron fists had smashed a crater into the ground.

Elder Feng had already reached the peak of Body Forging, with skin as tough as hide and bones as hard as steel. However, under such a maniacal flurry from Xu Yi, even a steel ball would be smashed flat.

Xu Yi rose to his feet. Elder Feng’s head was already buried deep inside the pit of mud. His blood was everywhere and there was not the slightest hint of life.

A veteran at the peak of Body Forging had been beaten to death by Xu Yi just like that, without the means to even fight back.

After clobbering Elder Feng to death, Xu Yi took the pouch at his waist. Inside, there were a dozen reddish-gold coins and nothing else.

Xu Yi took a coin in his hand and blew it. Then, he flipped his hand around and placed the coin by his ear. Immediately, a soft and lovely hum could be heard.

The steely expression that Xu Yi had on his face for so long finally showed signs of softening.

Pure gold coins. Xu Yi had long heard of their existence.

From what he knew, two kinds of currencies existed in the world. The first kind was the money used by ordinary folk throughout their everyday lives — the copper or silver coins he could earn while he was teaching.

The other kind was the kind that Martial Way practitioners used between themselves. It was the currency used by the ruling class. And what they used was this kind of pure gold coin, or ingots, or tokens made of pure gold.

Before, when Xu Yi was teaching for a living, he could only earn coppers or silvers that ordinary folk used.

Because he could not earn gold coins, Xu Yi could not obtain any of the precious herbs that could only be purchased with gold coins. The best he could do was to buy the lowest grade Wulong Grass that any ordinary mountain villager could pick in order to supplement his strength.

Today, with these dozen gold coins in his hand, the happiness that they brought him could not be described in words.

After toying with them for a while, Xu Yi finally placed them in the cloth pouch and tied it to his waist with a dead knot. He then picked up the narrow sword that had dropped by the side. With both hands, he used all his might to bend it. The sword curved in a perfect circular arc but did not break.

This was a quality sword. Xu Yi strapped it to his waist as well. He then turned and stepped out of the woods, speeding towards the site of the previous battle. As he approached, he saw that Young Master Zhou was already long gone. Looking around, he noticed that northwest of him, a lone rider was heading north, and the horse was galloping quickly.

Seeing Young Master Zhou’s fleeing figure, Xu Yi’s eyes turned bloodshot again. His eyes swept around the mountain forests. A dozen meters to the west, there was indeed movement. He dove into the forest, and in a flash, came back out with a crimson stallion.

Before this, Young Master Zhou had brought over a dozen horses. In the battle, only a few were hurt. Young Master Zhou rode off with one, and the others were nowhere in sight. Xu Yi correctly guessed that he had released them into the woods. After a quick search, he had indeed found one.

Xu Yi delayed no further. He flipped onto the horse, grabbed its reigns, and steered the horse around, galloping out of the valley.

As he gave chase, Xu Yi drew the narrow sword with his right hand and stabbed it into his horse’s neck at an area roughly three inches to the right and bottom of the carotid artery. No blood flowed out, but the horse behaved as though it were on steroids, its speed greatly increasing.

After reaching the peak of Body Forging, Xu Yi’s understanding of the human body’s flow of blood and qi, bones, tendons, and organs had reached an extremely high level.

The stallion was not a human, but in the process of galloping, the rush of blood and the movements of the bones were not something that was difficult for Xu Yi to understand. This stab of Xu Yi’s served to activate the stallion’s potential.

Although it was the first time he had done it, he was confident that he would succeed. And with that one stab, the results were amazing.

The wind howled and the sun beat down heavily on Young Master Zhou as he clasped tightly to the horse’s back with his legs. The leather whip beat down frantically without pause, causing the white horse underneath him to slowly turn blood red.

He was angry, crazed, and filled with hatred!

He was the great Young Master Zhou, noble-born and greatly respected. What was Xu Yi in comparison? Just a foolish ant. He was a little clown of the Xu family, left alive so that he could bring shame to the Xu family.

But little did he expect that this little ant of a rascal would actually dare to bare its claws at him and even rip off one of his wings. He swore that if he did not get his revenge, he would not call himself a man.