Chapter 9: A Price on His Head
Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio
After he captured that clown, he would make sure to use every method of torture that existed in the world on him, and he would make sure that that ant regretted ever crawling out of his mother’s womb.
Thinking of that got him riled up, and his face became flushed. He could not resist the urge and howled towards the skies.
Before his howl ended, the sound of hooves reached his ears. Young Master Zhou turned around to look and almost fell off the horse’s back.
He would have never thought that after fleeing like this, Xu Yi would manage to catch up to within half a mile of distance between them without him even noticing.
In that instance, all the rage and viciousness within his heart vanished. All that was left was terror, so much that he began to tremble uncontrollably. Even Elder Feng could not manage to hold that guy back!
With that thought, Young Master Zhou became even more terrified. Now, he not only cracked his whip, but also began to kick the horse with his heel. Feeling the pain, the white horse sped up even more.
The white horse had not sped up for long when a loud crash was heard. The horse that Xu Yi was riding on had fallen to the ground. Young Master Zhou Looked back, then threw back his head and laughed. He pointed at Xu Yi and word by word, he clearly stated, “Just wait, I will skin you alive, tear out your nerves, and break all your bones!”
But the moment he said that, he saw Xu Yi’s feet move like lightning. With just a few taps on the ground and a few leaps, he had already dashed thirty meters.
Young Master Zhou was scared stiff, even leaking a bit in his pants. Once more, he kicked his horse and cracked his whip, and once more, the horse sped up.
Xu Yi’s murderous intent was overwhelming. As long as the Zhou’s were not vanquished, his soul will not be at peace.
Man and horse. One chasing, one fleeing. In the blink of an eye, they had travelled a few miles. Young Master Zhou’s heart was like a fish on land, thrashing about with all its might.
He would have never thought that Xu Yi’s martial arts were advanced enough that he could overtake a speeding horse with his two feet. Even Elder Feng was not at that level.
Young Master Zhou would naturally not have been able to figure out that Xu Yi had been training with extreme weights from the moment he had started training in the Martial Way, something that not just anyone could manage.
At this moment, with the weights off, Xu Yi’s body was as light as a feather. Over the few miles that they had travelled, the distance between them had not grown but shrunk, leaving only the distance of an archer’s range.
Young Master Zhou was so scared that his voice disappeared. He continued to kick at his white horse, not caring for its well-being. It was already foaming at the mouth.
When Xu Yi was just about to catch up, they turned past a peach grove and ran into a group of men on horseback. These were a dozen strong men in servant’s attire, escorting seven to eight prisoners with tattered clothes and heavy shackles on their ankles.
Seeing this group of men, Young Master Zhou shed tears of joy. These men were from his family, and the seven to eight prisoners were manual labourers being sent to work at their family’s mine.
The group of family servants saw their Young Master Zhou riding towards them and were ready to bow and greet him when they heard him shout with all his might, “Don’t freeze there like bloody corpses! Stop that bastard behind me! I’ll reward a hundred silvers!”
Before finishing his words, he had already rushed past the group of them while beating his horse.
The group of men came to their senses and cheered as they charged towards Xu Yi!
A hundred silvers, even when divided amongst all of them, was at least a dozen silvers each. This was more than they could earn from a year of hard work.
Seeing Xu Yi’s face, one of them had already recognized him to be the weak and skinny kid who was teaching at the Xu family village. As he spread the word around, the cheers became even greater, and they charged even faster, none of them pausing to wonder why their Young Master was fleeing in such a hurry in the first place.
Xu Yi’s killing intent exploded outwards. He hated each and every member of the Zhou family to the bone. Seeing the group of men charge him, his speed did not slow at all. Employing “Crashing Heaven’s Gate,” he met them like a dragon crashing into the mortal realm.
Seven to eight men were immediately sent flying. The first two in front were sent into mid-air, bones broken and very much dead.
The rest of them flew backwards horizontally, suffering multiple fractures. Blood splattered around the air like mist. None of them could slow Xu Yi down in the slightest.
Xu Yi advanced maniacally, leaving behind a scene of carnage. The prisoners came to their senses and grinned viciously at the men rolling on the ground in pain. In the next moment, painful cries filled the air.
Although the men could not stop Xu Yi in the slightest, they did cause Xu Yi to perform a move while running. With the delay from that one move, Young Master Zhou had increased the distance by dozens of meters.
As the chase resumed, the Zhou family mansion began to come into view.
The Zhou family were rich, and under two generations of management, their home had been expanded multiple times. Now, their grounds covered and area over a hundred miles, and they were the biggest landowners.
Looking into the distance, houses and roofs could be seen everywhere. The area was dense with expensive-looking houses.
The horse’s hooves clip-clopped on the stone-tiled martial arts stage in front of the Zhou family’s main gate, sending dust into the air.
“Ha ha ha… you rascal, I dare you to come at me again!”
Young Master Zhou seemed as though he had crawled back to the mortal realm from the depths of hell as he threw his head back and laughed maniacally.
The moment he finished speaking, the stage, which was a few hundred square meters in area, was filled with a few hundred of the Zhou family’s vassals, all at the Body Forging stage. They had noticed the situation and sped over, shouting madly.
Those who were eager to curry favour had not gone to Young Master Zhou, but had instead rushed over to Xu Yi to block his way.
Even with over a hundred vassals in the Zhou Family, the only one at the peak of Body Forging was Elder Feng alone.
The reason behind this was simple: This Zhou family mansion was not Zhou Daogan’s home. This mansion was situated by the mountain wilderness, where they made money by running the mines. They had no need and no means to hire that many experts at the peak of Body Forging.
Even Elder Feng was only sent over by Zhou Daogan because of Young Master Zhou’s father, Old Master Zhou’s request.
In the years that Elder Feng was around, the number of times he was personally required to handle a situation could be counted with one hand. And when he actually did use his moves, it was just to teach the other vassals in the Zhou family some of his skills.
Thus, it can be said that neither Young Master Zhou nor any of his family’s vassals had the slightest clue how vast the difference between the peak of Body Forging and below the peak of Body Forging was.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three large men, burly as though they were made out of steel, sent their fist, sword, and spear at Xu Yi’s vitals. Just as they seemed like they were about to make contact, a blur flashed across their eyes and Xu Yi had vanished. Kicking in mid-air three times consecutively, three heads were crushed, sending a frightening amount of blood spraying into the air.
When being overwhelmed completely in both speed and power, there was only one result: obliteration!
Seeing the carnage, Young Master Zhou was terrified again and fled on his horse.
Hating Young Master Zhou to the core, Xu Yi ignored the crowd of nobodies in front of him. He stepped on top of the crowd and flew towards Young Master Zhou. With a twist and a swish of his arm in mid-air, the narrow sword at his waist stabbed straight at Young Master Zhou’s heart. The force of the stab was so strong that Young Master Zhou was sent crashing into the Zhou family mansion’s large copper-covered gates, smashing the gates open.
The narrow sword was tough, piercing through the gate without breaking. Just like that, Young Master Zhou was hung atop the gates of his own home. Blood flowed all over his body, and his eyes were open wide as he drew his last breath.
The moment the copper gates burst open, Old Master Zhou in his long robes and the whiskered housekeeper with his abacus and accounts books in his hand were scared stiff. The two of them had no time to catch their senses, and they stood frozen in the courtyard.
Xu Yi, with his body covered in blood, had somehow gotten his hands on a large guandao. Lifting off the doorsill, Xu Yi flew into the air. With a flash of his blade, two heads were sent flying into the air. With a backhand slash, he took off Young Master Zhou’s head as well. He reached out his hand and grabbed Old Master Zhou’s falling head. He then tied the hairs of the two heads together in a dead knot and secured them to his waist.