Ambushed and Killed on the Road

Ambushed and Killed on the Road

Blood Qi Wolf Smoke!

Lin Le reined in the denser blood qi within him and couldn't help clenching his fist. His ability to protect himself had taken another step forward.

But he still wasn't strong enough!

Lin Le gazed eastward. His enemy was a Fox Demon that had entered the Qi Refining Realm; it was hard to say how many levels it had reached.

He had to become stronger still.

Lin Le turned to visualization. He had been busy altering his Bone Structure recently, and his soul-refining had fallen behind.

As the moon set and the sun rose, Lin Le, having thoroughly digested his gains, took the tiger demon's spine and hide that he had deliberately saved and prepared to depart.

No one saw him off, and no one stopped him.

Lin Le did not care about that. Yet as he passed a small courtyard, a boy with a little braid suddenly ran over and whispered, "Big brother, be careful. I heard Second Aunt He's son went to the county seat recently to report you to the authorities."

"I know. Go back," Lin Le said, lightly nudging the boy's forehead, his tone gentle.

The boy immediately ran back home.

Lin Le looked toward the house and saw the farmer he had happened to question a few days ago smiling awkwardly.

Lin Le merely smiled as well before turning and leaving.

As for the Second Aunt He the boy had mentioned, Lin Le did not need to think to know who she was. Who else could it be but the old woman whose head he had kicked apart three or four days ago?

Time gradually passed until noon. On a road, two swift horses raced toward Bai Ya Village.

Yet before they could enter the village, something unexpected happened: someone blocked the road.

"Who are you?" a man who looked to be in his twenties or thirties asked from atop one horse, addressing the person standing in the middle of the road.

Before that person could answer, a dark-skinned man on the other horse shouted, "It's him! It's him! He killed my mother for no reason at all!"

Lin Le raised the hastily made Tiger Bone Spear, glanced at the man, then looked at the black-clad constable sitting alone on the other horse.

"Lin Le?" The constable coldly sized Lin Le up and called him by name.

"That's me." Lin Le nodded. "Looks like my crime has come to light?"

"So it really is you." The constable dismounted and drew his blade. "You killed Zhao Lang?"

"I killed him." Lin Le answered, then asked, "Who are you to him?"

"I'm his elder brother, Li Xingzhi. You killed a fine dog of mine!" Li Xingzhi said coldly. "Hand over your cultivation secret, and I may kindly spare your life!"

As he spoke, intense greed shone in his eyes.

The moment Zhao Lang died, he received the news. Unfortunately, Lin Le had already left the city, and he could not catch up no matter how he pursued him.

A martial artist at the Blood Qi Gauze stage had stamina and running speed comparable to a horse. In the span of one night, no one knew where Lin Le might have gone.

Yet during a routine case, he unexpectedly obtained clues about Lin Le. Small stature, a long spear, the Blood Qi Gauze realm—it all matched.

Thus, Li Xingzhi had ridden after him the very next day, determined to capture Lin Le alive.

He was too curious about the secret on Lin Le's body. Lin Le clearly possessed only middling-to-low Bone Structure, and clearly had cultivated for only half a month, yet he had already reached Blood Qi Gauze and could even kill an intelligent tiger demon.

An intelligent fierce tiger gave even him a headache to deal with, let alone someone like Lin Le, who had only just entered Blood Qi Gauze.

Therefore, Lin Le had to possess some great secret. With that secret, Li Xingzhi might even become a cultivator before the great limit of thirty.

Martial cultivation was like rowing upstream: if one did not advance, one fell back. Before thirty, a person's blood qi was at its most vigorous and grew the fastest. If one failed to become a cultivator before thirty, it would only become more and more impossible afterward.

After hearing him out, Lin Le merely shook his head. "Idiot."

"Then it looks like you—" Before Li Xingzhi could finish, Lin Le lunged forward and closed in on him.

Then his spear shot forth like a dragon, thrusting straight at Li Xingzhi's head.

Clang!

Li Xingzhi reacted quickly as well. He swung his blade and knocked the spear aside.

"You're courting—"

Li Xingzhi was enraged, but Lin Le attacked again, once more driving straight at his vital points.

Li Xingzhi shut his mouth and had no choice but to focus on dealing with Lin Le's attacks.

But the longer they fought, the more shocked he became. Not only had Lin Le perfected his spear technique, but his grasp of timing was swift, precise, and ruthless. Before him, Li Xingzhi felt as slow as a turtle.

Seeing Li Xingzhi engaged in battle, the constable on the other horse immediately dismounted and moved to support him.

Whoosh!

Blade wind howled as the constable swung his saber straight down at Lin Le.

Lin Le gave him a glance and recognized the moves of the Five Tigers Severing Gate Saber, at the major accomplishment stage.

But major accomplishment before perfection could sometimes be no sturdier than paper, because it was simply too familiar.

With a sideways slide of his step, Lin Le dodged the blow outright. Then, like an eagle pouncing on prey, his left hand suddenly released the spear, his fingers forming eagle claws as a bloody aura swept toward the constable.

Before the constable could react, Lin Le had already seized his neck.

With a crack, the constable's head twisted to one side, and his body collapsed to the ground.

"Xiao Zhi!" Li Xingzhi cried out in grief. It seemed he had a good relationship with this constable.

But what did even the deepest brotherhood matter? Whoever needed killing still had to be killed!

Lin Le watched Li Xingzhi inadvertently expose an opening in his grief. A chill flashed through his eyes as his blood qi surged wildly, and he swung his spear at Li Xingzhi.

White Ape Cleaves the Sun!

I got him! Looking at the spear sweeping toward him, delight and viciousness surfaced in Li Xingzhi's eyes. He was merely a subordinate—what brotherly affection was there to speak of?

If it could help him become a cultivator, he could sell his own mother without hesitation.

But had Lin Le truly fallen for the trap?

Li Xingzhi raised his saber to block, intending to erupt with all his blood qi after receiving the strike, injure Lin Le, and sever his limbs.

Clang!

Spear and saber collided. Li Xingzhi's expression suddenly changed. This strength—how was it possible?!

The spear pressed down with irresistible force. A blood-red gleam left its edge and pierced into Li Xingzhi's forehead.

Li Xingzhi stared blankly at Lin Le in the distance. "A Limit-Breaking Technique?!"

With that, he fell to the ground.

Lin Le withdrew his spear and calmly watched Li Xingzhi die.

Li Xingzhi did not know that Lin Le had already broken through to Blood Qi Wolf Smoke. With the Five Forms Martial Bone, Lin Le's strength was no less than Li Xingzhi's, who had accumulated power at the second limit for a long time. Nor did he know that Lin Le's White Ape Spear had already reached grand perfection.

In the Body Refining Realm, blood qi could not actually leave the body. It could only empower weapons or one's physical form.

But there was one exception: when a martial technique reached grand perfection, producing beneath the pinnacle a move unique to oneself. Such a move could condense blood qi, multiply its killing power, and even send it through the body and outward.

Such moves were collectively called Limit-Breaking Techniques.

To break the limit meant to break through the limits of martial artists, granting possibilities such as one at the first limit defeating one at the second.

Thus, Li Xingzhi's defeat and death had been inevitable. In Lin Le's eyes, his trap had merely been a genuine opening.

After several swift strides, Lin Le blocked the dark-skinned man's path and looked at him expressionlessly. "Where are you going?"

"To relieve myself." The dark-skinned man forced out a smile uglier than crying.

"Whose idea was this?" Lin Le asked calmly.

When this man's mother died, he had not reported it to the authorities. He had waited several days before doing so; clearly, someone had secretly egged him on.

"Old Liu!" The man immediately sold out his accomplice. "He said that as long as you were captured, the village head's inheritance and the tiger meat would all be ours."

Lin Le nodded slightly. "Understood. He'll be going down to accompany you soon."

As soon as the words fell, in a flash of lightning and a spark from flint, Lin Le reached out and crushed the man's throat.

After collecting the bodies, Lin Le picked up a saber and headed toward Bai Ya Village.

Very soon, a panicked head fell directly into the fields.

Lin Le coldly looked at Old Liu's corpse. He thought hiding in the shadows would keep him safe? He was dreaming too beautifully.

Ignoring the panicked villagers around him, Lin Le continued eastward. This time, he was truly heading east.