Breaking the Deadlock, Third Stage Pursuit

Breaking the Deadlock, Third Stage Pursuit

Breaking the Deadlock, Third Stage Pursuit

Was this situation right?

Obviously, it was completely wrong!

As Lin Mo took in the scene, not only did his eyelids twitch violently, but an even stronger sense of unease rose within him.

"These are all Third Stage Practitioners, yet they were still ambushed. Isn't this clearly an attempt to wipe out the Li family...?"

He looked at the black-robed man being ganged up on. Dressed like that, he seemed to be a retainer of the Sun family. As for the two attacking him, they appeared to be from the Zhao Family Grain Store!

"Well then, so neither the Qianjin Escort Agency nor the Zhao Family Grain Store is any good!"

Lin Mo's mind spun rapidly. He swept his gaze across the situation and had already formed a rough plan.

In no more than three or five breaths, the mad dog behind him came charging over. Lin Mo did not stop, merely grabbing several stones in his hand.

He had to help—at the very least, he had to find a way to break this deadlock. Otherwise, if the Li family suffered disaster, he would find it difficult to escape from the hands of several Third Stage Practitioners as well.

From Li Zhiming's situation, although he held a slight upper hand, anyone with eyes could see...

The damage to his armor clearly showed that he had been wounded in a sneak attack.

Yet the honest-looking burly man wielding a chained long-handled hammer was clearly inferior in both qi and blood and martial foundation. If he had not injured Li Zhiming in that ambush, how could he possibly have been Li Zhiming's match?

As luck would have it, Lin Mo happened to have something that could break the deadlock—the Withered Wood Meets Spring Pill.

"This thing I just got is already going to be given away?" Lin Mo's heart trembled. He had intended to save it as a safeguard in case he was injured, but there was clearly no room for further hesitation now. "Fine. You can't catch a wolf without sacrificing a child!"

However, Li Zhiming's battlefield allowed no room for Lin Mo to interfere. The explosive gusts stirred up by that chained long-handled hammer alone were enough to make him suffer.

"Throw this over? I should test it with stones first."

Taking advantage of the brief moment in which he had shaken off Zhao Qian's pursuit, Lin Mo stood forty or fifty meters away, grabbed the stones he had picked up earlier, and flicked them out with both hands.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The stones were not especially powerful, but thrown with Lin Mo's qi and blood fully roused, they carried an impressive force as they scattered toward the two men locked in battle.

Even Zhou Shi was briefly caught off guard and had to divert some attention to deal with them. Yet when the stones struck him with a crackling patter, he let out a long laugh, his tendons and bones popping in succession.

"You little Li family bastard really are..."

Before he could finish, a flash of blade light forced Zhou Shi back. A pale green pill shot in a straight line from forty or fifty meters away toward the two men.

Perhaps because Lin Mo possessed the [Bee Waist Ape Back] fate, his arms were long and suited to throwing. After casually tossing stones and getting a feel for the technique, he had only acted once he was confident enough in his aim.

"Good lad! My efforts in obtaining this pill weren't wasted on you!"

Li Zhiming's eyes lit up. In the instant he forced Zhou Shi back with his blade, he caught it in his palm and swallowed it without hesitation. A soft green glow spread across his back.

A numb, tingling, strangely refreshing sensation spread through him.

"No, what was that thing he just swallowed?"

Only then did Zhou Shi realize what had happened, after the pill had already gone down Li Zhiming's throat. What met him head-on, however, was an unending tide of blade attacks.

The chained long-handled hammer whirled with gale-like force, yet it could not stop the blade momentum rising layer upon layer. Zhou Shi's steps became increasingly difficult, and he gritted his teeth as he held on.

Seeing that the overall situation had been settled, Lin Mo wanted to lure Zhao Qian toward Li Zhiming and the others so they could conveniently finish him off.

However, though Zhao Qian was blinded by rage, he was no fool. From far away, he could sense the fluctuations of that qi and blood, so he merely followed Lin Mo's direction.

"Why do I still feel like something is wrong...?"

The unease in Lin Mo's heart remained intense. He looked back along the road he had come from, and in only a few breaths, the faintly visible Water Ghost horde at the edge of his vision had been swept aside.

That rampant qi and blood clearly belonged to a Third Stage Practitioner—and one who had come to kill him!

Run or fight?

There was no need to think about that at all!

After fighting and being pursued by the pockmarked-faced man and Zhao Qian, the effects of the first Five Elements Blood-Generating Pill had long since nearly run out. Lin Mo could only swallow the second one through gritted teeth.

Then he ran for his life. The moment he sprang forward, a dark object shot toward him from Li Zhiming's direction. It was not a hidden weapon, but something Li Zhiming had thrown to him.

He pushed off the ground and lunged forward, catching it in his hand. Seeing that it was a copper key, he immediately understood.

"This is the key to the Li family's backyard wine cellar. He wants me to find Second Master!"

When Zhao Qian saw Lin Mo running so quickly, he was overjoyed. He had naturally heard the commotion over there too, and chased even harder.

As long as he could lead a Third Stage Practitioner to this brat, why would he need to worry about dealing with him?

"Li Zhiming is here? Kill him!" The gray-clothed Third Stage Practitioner who had hurried over was delighted.

The people summoned earlier by Zhao Qian's Whistle Arrow had finally arrived. Two Third Stage entry-level practitioners had come, originally dispatched by the Qianjin Escort Agency to work at other docks. The moment they saw the Whistle Arrow, they had rushed here without stopping.

"Zhao Qian seems to have gone after a First Stage Practitioner. Isn't he our target?" one of them asked.

"Hmph. Isn't this Head Patrolman the Li family's pillar now? Killing him is the top priority. Besides, can Zhao Qian not even handle a First Stage Practitioner?"

The gray-clothed Third Stage Practitioner beside him snorted, then added, "Don't let that Sun family retainer over there go either. You go help there. I'll go support Zhou Shi."

The black-robed Sun family retainer had exceptionally sharp hearing. Hearing this, the expression beneath his hood darkened further. He too swallowed a pill, and as his qi and blood surged, he was already prepared to risk his life.

"Only Zhao Qian? No one else is chasing me?"

After leaving the fog, Lin Mo ran wildly through the streets for a long time, twisting and turning at every corner for fear that Zhao Qian would pin him down and the Third Stage Practitioner would immediately catch up.

"By all reason, if that Third Stage Practitioner were after me, I wouldn't even have made it out of the thick fog."

Lin Mo turned into a dark alley, deep in thought. A distance of over a hundred meters would have been enough for that Third Stage Practitioner to lock onto him seven or eight times over. How could he have run this far?

"Is he being held up by Head Patrolman Li? Since there's no one behind you, Zhao Qian, you still dare chase me?!"

As the thought surged through his mind, Lin Mo struck the instant Zhao Qian reached the corner. His long arm shot out, his five fingers clenched into an empty fist, and a White Ape Cannon Fist launched a fierce counterattack.

After being chased for so long, Lin Mo was not made of mud either. Now that he had the chance to kill Zhao Qian in one burst of momentum, how could he let it slip away?

Boom!

Zhao Qian had been tracking Lin Mo's trail, still wondering why the Third Stage Practitioners who had heard the Whistle Arrow had not arrived. Then a violent gust exploded beside his ear. Turning his head, he saw a fist shadow rapidly swell before his eyes.

He had no time to react, only managing to raise both arms in panic.

Crack!

His two arms were like stalks of straw. Under the full-force strike of Lin Mo's Cannon Fist, they shattered with the force of dead wood collapsing, his forearms twisting grotesquely out of shape.

Thrown rolling far away by that overwhelming force, Zhao Qian's forearm muscles twisted unnaturally, and white bone fragments pierced through his sleeves.

"A mad dog like you dared chase me? Die!"

With both hands crippled, the Poison Palm was no longer so intimidating. Lin Mo pressed his advantage without mercy, roaring as both fists smashed out like meteors.

His face, chest, groin...

Lin Mo drove his qi and blood to the fullest and struck every inch of Zhao Qian's body, smashing the bones throughout him to pieces.