Chu Feng's killing intent was bone-piercing like a bitter frost, and it seized the minds of all who felt it. From the outside in, a chill sank deep into everyone's hearts. The people present trembled in fear, stumbling backward one after another. Some even had their legs go weak from this killing intent alone and collapsed to their knees.
"What's going on? This aura... it's terrifying..."
"Could this kid... not be human?"
Someone uttered those words with a quivering voice, and the statement resonated with everyone present, because they had all been thoroughly frightened by Chu Feng's killing intent—truly frightened, afraid from the very depths of their souls.
"What is there to fear? He's nothing but trash from a second-rate sect. Any one of us could crush him with a single finger." At that moment, Goat-Beard let out an angry shout.
And his words did indeed bolster the confidence of the lackeys behind him, because they had not yet realized that what enveloped them at this moment was Chu Feng's killing intent.
They only knew it wasn't a martial aura, so they couldn't determine Chu Feng's cultivation level. But in their subconscious, they assumed his cultivation couldn't be that high—at the very least, he hadn't stepped into the Yuan Martial Realm.
So the group steeled their nerves, suppressed their inner fear, and instead of retreating, once again advanced toward Chu Feng with malicious intent, wanting to eliminate this source of their unease.
"Brother, I know you can escape. Run! Don't worry about me, just run! As long as you're alive, the Chu Family still has hope. You absolutely cannot die." Seeing this, Chu Guyu forced himself to endure the pain wracking his body and screamed at Chu Feng.
For the better part of a year, the reason he had endured endless suffering here was because he didn't want his younger brother Chu Feng to come to any harm. But now, Chu Feng had walked right into the lion's den himself, and this sent him into a panic. For him, he could be humiliated, his cultivation could be crippled, but what he absolutely could not accept was anything happening to his brother.
"Run?" He won't get the chance!!" But in that very moment, Goat-Beard suddenly struck. A powerful, forceful punch layered with waves of Yuan Force came hurtling straight toward Chu Feng.
As that punch flew in, Chu Guyu's hope crumbled. He believed his brother was as good as dead. He believed the Chu Family was finished for good. But in the very next instant, he was utterly stunned.
All he saw was Chu Feng raise his palm slightly. With a crisp "crack," Chu Feng caught Goat-Beard's fist in his hand—and then crushed it to splinters. Right after that, Chu Feng swung his arm in a wide arc. With a "rip" sound, Goat-Beard's entire arm was torn clean off his body.
"Ahhhhh~~~~~~~~" Flesh and blood sprayed through the air, painting the space red. The grisly spectacle left everyone both shocked and terrified. But the most horrifying sight of all was Goat-Beard himself—suffering miserably, howling like a banshee, shrieking like a pig being slaughtered.
"You... you... you..."
In that moment, every person present had their expressions change drastically, their faces filled with shock. Goat-Beard might not have been particularly strong, but he was still a Yuan Martial Realm expert. How could his arm be torn off by a mere disciple of a second-rate sect?
But in the next moment, they finally witnessed Chu Feng's methods. It wasn't his overwhelming strength that shocked them—it was his ability to torture, which towered far above anything Goat-Beard could imagine. They witnessed what true cruelty looked like.
Chu Feng picked up the dagger that had fallen to the ground and began slicing away the flesh on Goat-Beard's body, one cut at a time, until every inch of him was carved down to gleaming white bone—and still it wasn't over.
Inside the tavern, heart-rending screams rose and fell without cease. Goat-Beard wailed in agony. Chu Feng's methods were far too devastating, far too terrifying—because the most horrific thing was not to kill a man, but to keep him fully conscious while he felt every ounce of his own pain. And that was exactly what Chu Feng did.
Looking at Goat-Beard—drenched head to toe in blood, his body hacked down to a skeleton from the neck down—the Lingyun Sect disciples in the tavern had long since turned green in the face. They had seen what a real devil looked like.
"Ahhhhh~~~~~"
Almost immediately, someone could no longer bear it and turned to flee. But escape from the tavern was impossible. The moment anyone dared set foot toward the tavern door, they would instantly burst into a puddle of blood that splattered across the threshold. By now, the entrance was a river of crimson.
"M-M-Master..."
"P-Please... please spare us. We were all forced into this. Just let us live!"
The people still inside the tavern dared not advance and dared not retreat. They were all on their knees, teetering on the edge of a complete breakdown. But Chu Feng paid them no mind whatsoever, continuing to inflict his brutal punishment on Goat-Beard.
Meanwhile, as Chu Guyu watched the enemy he feared more than anyone be reduced to a mangled wreck by his own brother, as he watched those who had bullied him time and again kneel before his brother and beg for mercy without end—his face was already filled with utter astonishment.
He finally understood why his brother had shown not the slightest hint of retreat earlier. His brother had grown to the point where he could effortlessly slaughter Yuan Martial Realm experts. He had grown strong enough to protect his own older brother.
In that moment, tears streamed down Chu Guyu's face. He was crying from sheer emotion—not from his pain, not from his grievances, but from the overwhelming rush of feeling. Because the Chu Family had finally seen hope, and he had lived long enough to witness it arrive.
"Brother, that's enough. Let them go."
Suddenly, Chu Guyu spoke up. Looking at his brother, who had carved their great enemy into this wretched state, his anger had long since dissipated and the hatred in his heart had faded away.
Kind-hearted as he was, he could no longer bear to watch Goat-Beard suffer further. Even though Goat-Beard was the one who had brought him to this state, he felt that what his brother had already done was punishment enough—punishment that Goat-Beard had received tenfold.
"Big Brother." Hearing Chu Guyu's call, the blood-red glint in Chu Feng's eyes finally flickered. Consumed by rage as he had been, he at last regained his reason.
Seeing that his brother was still bleeding, still in pain, Chu Feng couldn't be bothered with Goat-Beard any longer. He hurried over to his brother's side, produced a pill, and pressed it into Chu Guyu's mouth.
"Th-Thank you... thank you, Brother Guyu. Thank you, Brother Guyu."
Overjoyed at what they saw, the few people still kneeling in the tavern kowtowed furiously toward Chu Guyu. Then they scrambled to their feet and crawled over each other in a mad dash for the exit.
To them, this tiny tavern—the tavern they had smashed up countless times—had become an absolute slaughterhouse, so horrifying it had nearly killed them.
So when they burst through the door and out into the open, it was as though they had returned to the human world. The feeling was blissful, serene, like heaven itself.
"Bang bang bang bang bang!" But just as they thought they had escaped with their lives, Chu Feng sent a flicker of thought through the air—and one by one, like blood-red fireworks blooming in the night, their bodies exploded. They were reduced to nothing but splatters of blood.