Chapter 20 — The Blind King and The Price of the Heart
The Decision
Long Tan stood in the snow, the Heavy Iron Saber loose in his grip.
The Bear was charging.
In that split second, Long Tan made a choice.
'If I use the Sun Burst technique now, my hand will shatter. I need hands to mix soap. I need hands to sign the contract with the Yan Merchant.'
He exhaled, letting the boiling heat in his arm fade away.
'I don't need explosive power to kill a beast. I just need to take away its advantages.'
The Bear was a tank. It had iron skin and massive strength. But it had already lost its nose. It was in pain. It was angry.
'An angry beast makes mistakes,' Long Tan thought. 'And a blind beast... is just meat.'
The Second Eye
The Bear crashed forward, its claws tearing up the frozen earth. It wasn't a technique; it was just an avalanche of violence.
Long Tan didn't retreat. He stepped sideways.
He moved with the grace of a leaf in the wind. The Bear's paw smashed into the space where he had been a second ago.
BOOM.
Snow exploded. The ground shook.
[POV: Zhou Gou]
Zhou Gou was peeking out from behind a water trough. His face was covered in sweat and dirt.
'He's dead,' Zhou Gou thought, trembling. 'No one can dodge that close. He's going to be paste.'
He waited for the scream. He waited for the sound of bones breaking.
But instead, he saw a flash of silver.
Long Tan hadn't run away. He had stepped inside the Bear's guard.
The Bear tried to turn, but its ruined nose was filling with blood, choking it. It opened its remaining eye wide in panic.
That was the target.
Long Tan didn't swing wild. He thrust the tip of the Heavy Iron Saber forward with surgical precision.
PLURCH.
The blade sank deep into the Bear's left eye.
ROAAAAR!!!
The scream was deafening. It wasn't a roar of anger anymore. It was a scream of pure, terrified darkness.
Long Tan twisted the blade and yanked it out.
The Bear reared back on its hind legs, clawing at its face. It was completely blind now. Its world had turned black.
The Reaction of the Crowd
The village went silent.
[POV: The Village Elder]
The Elder was clutching his cane so hard his knuckles were white. He had seen many hunters. He had seen the Zhou Clan elites fight.
But he had never seen this.
'He didn't panic,' the Elder realized, his mouth dry. 'He didn't try to overpower it. He systematically took it apart.'
He looked at Long Tan's back. The young man looked calm. Too calm.
'We called him trash? We called him an Outcast?'
The Elder felt a cold shiver of fear. 'We have offended a tiger.'
[POV: The Villagers]
"It... it can't see," a woman whispered from the Ancestral Hall doorway.
"He took its eyes," a guard muttered, lowering his spear. "He made the monster helpless."
They looked at Long Tan with wide eyes. The fear they felt for the Bear was transferring to the man who crippled it.
The Silent Execution
The Bear was thrashing wildly. It swung its paws in huge, lethal arcs.
WHOOSH. WHOOSH.
It hit a wooden fence, shattering it. It hit a tree, snapping it in half.
But it couldn't hit Long Tan.
Long Tan was silent. He controlled his breathing. He stepped softly on the snow.
'It attacks sound,' Long Tan analyzed.
He picked up a heavy rock with his left hand and threw it to the right.
THUD.
The rock hit a wooden post.
The blind Bear roared and lunged toward the sound, exposing its neck completely.
"Goodbye," Long Tan whispered.
He stepped in.
He gripped the saber with both hands. He didn't use Sun Burst, but he used every ounce of his 465 Jin raw strength.
He swung upward.
The blade didn't hit the hard skull. It hit the soft throat, driving upward into the brain stem.
SHIIIING.
The blade buried itself to the hilt.
The Bear froze. Its massive body went rigid.
One second.
Two seconds.
Then, like a mountain collapsing, it fell.
CRASH.
The Iron-Hide Bear lay dead in the snow.
The Harvest
Long Tan didn't cheer. He didn't raise his fist in victory.
He put his foot on the Bear's chest and pulled his saber out.
SQUELCH.
Blood steamed in the cold air.
He looked at the villagers. They were staring at him like he was a god, or a demon. No one dared to approach.
Long Tan ignored them. He knelt down beside the massive corpse.
He used the tip of his saber to slice open the chest cavity. He had to be careful. The hide was tough, but the meat inside was tender.
He reached his hand inside the steaming chest.
He felt it.
Hot. Heavy. Pulsing with residual energy.
The Iron-Hide Heart.
He pulled it out. It was the size of a human head, dark red and radiating heat.
Su Lan ran out of the house, carrying a metal pot. She stopped when she saw the bloody organ in his hand. She gagged slightly.
"Tan..." she whispered, pale.
"It is messy," Long Tan said calmly. "But this is power."
He stood up and faced the crowd.
"Village Elder," Long Tan called out.
The Elder jumped. He hurriedly limped forward, bowing his head. "Yes, Master Long? Yes?"
"The meat belongs to the village," Long Tan said, his voice carrying over the wind. "Divide it. Salt it. Survive the winter."
The villagers gasped. They thought he would keep it all.
"But the Heart," Long Tan raised the bloody organ. "And the Gallbladder. These are mine."
"Of course! Of course!" The Elder nodded frantically. "You killed it. You are the hero. We... we apologize for the misunderstanding earlier. Zhou Gou lied to us!"
Long Tan looked at Zhou Gou, who was trembling in the mud.
"I don't care about your apologies," Long Tan said coldly. "Just don't disturb my cultivation."
He turned and walked back into his courtyard, carrying the heart.
Sun-Moon Refining
Long Tan sat under the Peach Tree in his courtyard.
The gate was closed. The noise of the villagers butchering the bear outside was muffled.
Su Lan and Baby Hao were inside the warm hut.
Long Tan held the warm heart.
'This beast was strong. Its heart is full of Essence Blood.'
He didn't cook it. Cooking would kill the Qi.
He took a bite.
CRUNCH.
It tasted metallic, hot, and wild. It was revolting to a normal human, but to a Cultivator, it tasted like pure energy.
He swallowed.
BOOM.
A heat wave exploded in his stomach. It was ten times stronger than the wolf meat. It felt like he had swallowed a burning coal.
"Sun-Moon Breathing."
Long Tan closed his eyes. He forced his breathing into a rhythm.
Inhale the cold Moon Qi.
Exhale the waste heat.
He used the technique to refine the violent energy of the bear heart. He guided the power into his blood, into his bones, into his muscles.
He could feel his fibers tearing and rebuilding. He could feel his skin becoming tougher.
He ate half the heart.
Sweat poured down his face. Steam rose from his head.
An hour passed.
Long Tan opened his eyes.
He squeezed his fist. The air popped.
He didn't need to test it on a rock. He knew.
Strength: 495 Jin.
He had gained 30 Jin of strength in one meal. He was just 5 Jin away from the 500 Jin barrier—the limit of a normal human body.
He looked at his hand. It wasn't broken. It was strong.
"I made the right choice," he whispered.
Outside the gate, the villagers were celebrating the meat, singing songs about the 'General of the Snow.'
Long Tan smiled faintly.
They were fed. They were safe. And now, they belonged to him.
[AUTHOR'S NOTE]
The King sits on his throne (the courtyard) while the peasants feast!
Long Tan has reached 495
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