From the moment the punch was thrown, the outcome was already sealed.

"Bang!"

In the end, the blonde-haired youth could not hold back. He delivered an uppercut from below, striking the dummy right in the carotid sinus region.

"Don't just use the strength of your arm. Your whole body needs to sway, and you need to feel the push from your feet."

Du Ruo instructed and corrected the blonde's flawed technique simultaneously.

"Bang!!"

The blonde threw another heavy punch. The sound of this strike was noticeably sharper and more forceful than the previous one, carrying a much heavier impact.

"There, right. See? Once you get that pushing motion from your feet, doesn't your body naturally want to leap? But you can't actually jump. You need to drive it from your waist, using the twist of your hips to channel that surging upward force into your arm."

Du Ruo gave further instructions, tapping the corresponding parts of the blonde's body as he spoke, seemingly to help him better comprehend how to exert force properly.

"Bang! Bang!! Bang!!"

Having recalled the humiliation he suffered from the white-haired youth earlier that day, the blonde's movements became increasingly exaggerated, and the force behind his punches grew stronger and stronger.

"I have to say, your comprehension is genuinely good. Few people can grasp how to exert force in a punch so quickly, let alone master the application of kinetic power this fast."

This was a heartfelt praise from Du Ruo.

Of course, this was also the very first time he had ever taught someone how to practice martial arts with such wholehearted dedication.

"Alright, that's enough for today. Since you've learned it, my mission is accomplished. However, I still must warn you: this is a fist meant for killing. You must exercise self-restraint and not use it casually. By the way, when are you going to pay the remaining twenty thousand?"

After coaching the blonde for about half an hour and seeing that he had vented most of his frustration—breathing heavily with sweat pouring down his face, clearly in no condition to practice any further—Du Ruo had no intention of lingering. After delivering his warning, he prepared to collect his money and leave.

"Boss, we're here! Working out today, Big Boss? Awesome, seriously! Let us join in too."

At that moment, a group of people walked through the doors, all dressed in suits and leather shoes, though they swayed and bobbed their heads as they walked. Seeing the sweat-soaked blonde apparently practicing some martial arts, the leader of the group immediately began showering him with flattery.

"Alright, you can scram. You said you'd teach for a whole day, but you've only taught for a little while. Thirty thousand is plenty."

Seeing the newcomers enter, the blonde immediately grabbed a bottle of water from the side and gulped it down. Once finished, his attitude toward Du Ruo completely shifted, lacking any of the deference he had shown earlier while seeking instruction. He waved his hand dismissively, intending to chase Du Ruo away.

"Hey, you originally agreed on fifty thousand. Isn't there still twenty thousand left?"

Du Ruo put on an indignant expression, looking as though he wanted to step forward and argue.

"Hey, hey, hey! What do you think you're doing? My boss told you to get lost, so get lost right now. Move too slowly and I'll break your legs."

Seeing this, the youth who had just entered stepped forward to block Du Ruo, exchanging a meaningful glance with the others before the group collectively forced Du Ruo toward the exit.

"Tch~ What era is it still, thinking that physical fighting is actually useful? And don't for a second think I didn't know why you taught me that trick. I only learned it to vent my emotions, you absolute idiot."

The blonde finished off the remaining water in the bottle in one go, looking at Du Ruo with utter disdain.

He might be a spoiled heir, and it was true that he bullied the weak, but he was no fool—especially not after Du Ruo had set the training dummy up in that specific manner; how could he not have figured it out? It was simply because what Du Ruo taught was genuinely useful. After practicing it for just a short while, he felt formidably powerful now, which was why he hadn't demanded the initial thirty thousand back.

Du Ruo appeared to have been caught in the act, being shoved and pushed all the way out of the villa's front gates.

"Drive him far away. Don't let him anywhere near this residential compound again."

The blonde's voice echoed from inside the villa.

"Move your ass, hurry up~!"

With that, Du Ruo was closely monitored and escorted all the way out of the neighborhood.

"Bah, calling yourself a rich man and yet so stingy you can't even spare twenty thousand."

Once outside the villa, Du Ruo muttered angrily as he continued walking. It wasn't until he had gone quite a distance and confirmed there were no security cameras or anyone watching that he returned to his normal composure.

"Such utter naivety, thinking that just knowing about it means you can control yourself from using it? Once you harbor a sharp weapon, the intent to kill arises naturally. If it were so easy to restrain oneself, why would the very first rule upon entering the martial world always emphasize cultivating virtue before martial arts?"

Du Ruo smiled disdainfully. He had effectively handed a "short blade" to the blonde. From the moment the blonde threw his first punch, that sharp weapon had been strapped to his body, impossible to detach ever again. This was precisely why Du Ruo had never taught Qiangzi.

Du Ruo mumbled to himself as he pulled out his phone to check the navigation. He had no intention of staying here any longer; after all, when he was physically adjusting the blonde's posture and striking points, he hadn't merely been teaching him how to channel kinetic force.

What if the fellow dropped dead suddenly in seven days and tried to pin it on him? Besides, looking at the blonde's pale, hollowed-out complexion due to excessive indulgence, it wasn't entirely out of the question that a surge of intense emotion combined with physical exertion could trigger a sudden, premature demise.

Rather than looking for a vehicle, Du Ruo decided to simply run all the way back up the mountains using his own two feet.

"Sigh, it's just a bit of a shame about that spa pass. I barely soaked for a few minutes before having to leave."

Du Ruo muttered under his breath as he ran with his phone in hand.

When he reached the outskirts of the town, Du Ruo unexpectedly spotted an orphanage nearby. After a moment of thought, Du Ruo decided to take a slight detour. He covertly slipped into the orphanage office and left the envelope containing the thirty thousand yuan in cash right on the modest office desk.

Only then did Du Ruo resume his journey with a satisfied stride, sprinting rapidly toward the Lesser Khingan forest region.

The only pity was that after searching for a long time near the sign reading "Bears in the Area," he failed to find any trace of a bear. Deciding not to linger any longer, Du Ruo locked onto his direction and ran toward Gangzi Village.

With no one else in the forest, Du Ruo moved through the trees at a blistering pace. Covering over two hundred kilometers actually took only about four or five hours; he might even make it back to Gangzi Village in time to whip up some dinner.

Du Ruo resolved to just keep running. If he happened to run into a bear, fantastic; if not, it didn't really matter.

Since he wasn't moving at absolute maximum speed, Du Ruo's movements through the forest remained relatively quiet. Whenever he occasionally spotted an interesting little animal, he would pause to tease or observe it for a moment.

This run lasted for over two hours. Today's sun was exceptionally blazing, causing the forest air to grow somewhat muggy and stifling.

Just as he reached the edge of a small stream, Du Ruo decided to wash his face and change out of his tattered clothes.

By the stream, Du Ruo stripped off his old shirt and trousers, put on the newly purchased ones from today, and used the small knife from his backpack—originally meant for slicing meat—to shave away the stubble on his face.

"Ah, much fresher now."

Crouching by the stream to splash water on himself, Du Ruo rubbed his chin. Afterward, he wrapped a few stones inside his old, tattered clothes, walked over to a deep pool of water, and tossed the bundle straight in.

Watching the stones drag the clothing down to the bottom of the pool, Du Ruo dusted off his hands and prepared to leave.

"Roar~!"

Just as he was about to set off, Du Ruo suddenly caught the faint sound of a roar echoing from a distance.

It was a sound Du Ruo had heard in the zoo before—unmistakably the roar of a bear.

"Well, now, talk about finding something effortlessly when you aren't even looking for it."

Hearing that sound, a smile blossomed on Du Ruo's face.

With his backpack securely on his back, he strode briskly in the direction from which the roar had come.

After walking about two hundred meters, Du Ruo stopped behind the trunk of a tree. He peered ahead to see a black bear crouching on the ground, devouring something. Due to obstructions in his line of sight, however, he couldn't see it very clearly.

"No wonder finding animals in the mountains is so hard. At such a close distance, if this bear hadn't let out a roar, I might have walked right past it. Let's go see what's on this black bear's menu."

Du Ruo thought silently to himself while maintaining a steady, silent pace, creeping stealthily toward the black bear.

Du Ruo felt that encountering both a bear and a tiger in quick succession over these past few days truly showed he had incredible luck. Of course, it also had a lot to do with his own heightened five senses, allowing him to hear sounds from far away; ordinary people without hunting hounds would genuinely find it impossible to locate them.

Perhaps it was because Du Ruo had just washed up and changed out of his soiled clothes, or perhaps because the black bear was completely engrossed in its feast, the rich scent of blood masking all other odors. By the time Du Ruo had walked right up behind the black bear, the beast still showed no sign of lifting its head.

"This is... a wild musk deer? A national first-class protected animal, and to think it's just being chewed up by this black bear like this... Hmm? Wait, this wound... something's not right."

Standing right beside the black bear and watching it feast on the animal on the ground, Du Ruo quickly recognized that the carcass belonged to a wild musk deer—an animal famous for the musk gland near its reproductive organs. While Du Ruo felt a twinge of regret, it was obvious that this black bear spirit didn't care about legal protection statuses.

Initially, Du Ruo had intended to wait until the black bear finished eating before having a little "chat" with it. However, when his gaze swept across the musk deer's neck, he unexpectedly noticed a finger-sized hole drilled clean through its head.

At this sight, Du Ruo instinctively swept his gaze across the surroundings. Perceiving no danger, he confirmed there were no other human onlookers nearby.

To verify his suspicion, Du Ruo instinctively grabbed the black bear's shoulder, shoving the buried-head-in-meat beast backward, and stepped forward to examine the wound on the musk deer's head up close.

"???"

Sitting flat on its haunches, its muzzle stained bright red with fresh deer blood and a chunk of meat still dangling from its jaws, the black bear stared up at Du Ruo with a face full of question marks, seemingly entirely bewildered by what had just transpired.

Du Ruo inspected the injury on the musk deer: a clean entry wound at the back of the head exiting through the chin. It looked as though the musk deer had been struck by a stray arrow while grazing, resulting in instant death. In an instant, Du Ruo knew who was responsible. Archery this lethal undoubtedly pointed to the culprit behind the murder case that Xing Anming and his team were investigating—the poacher.

"What are you staring at?"

Sensing a hostile glare, Du Ruo looked up and locked eyes with the black bear, whose gaze was rapidly turning ferocious, prompting him to blurt out a classic northern colloquialism.

"Roar~!"

Recovering from its stupor at last, the black bear assumed Du Ruo was trying to steal its meal. It bared its jaws, letting out an earth-shattering roar directly at Du Ruo, spraying saliva mixed with the musk deer's blood. At the same time, it pushed itself up from its sitting posture, clearly preparing to charge.