Assassination

Li Shiming kept his breathing steady, exactly as it was when he slept.

Perhaps if others tried to imitate the breathing of someone asleep, there would still be flaws, but with the help of the IBMz15 Mainframe, his breathing was utterly identical to when he was sleeping.

Night Walker was experienced, yet even he did not see that Li Shiming was pretending to sleep.

Night Walker took two light steps and reached the bedside, the short dagger in his hand flashing with a cold gleam as it stabbed down toward Li Shiming's chest.

Li Shiming moved as well. A Low Grade Long Sword Magical Artifact suddenly appeared in his hand.

Because Spiritual Qi had been channeled into it, the Low Grade Long Sword Magical Artifact shone with a strange Spiritual Power radiance.

The Low Grade Long Sword Magical Artifact swung out from beneath the quilt, first slicing the quilt open. By the time Night Walker noticed, it was already too late.

For a Qi Refining Second Level cultivator to engage a martial arts expert in close combat was not wise, but who told Li Shiming, this Qi Refining Second Level cultivator, to be a mere showpiece?

Even the Low Grade Magical Artifact in his hand—he only knew how to pour Spiritual Power into it, and did not know how to truly bring out its power.

If he had not been catching the other party off guard while already on guard himself, he would have taken out a Talisman long ago.

However, he was not completely without confidence. When Night Walker stabbed down, he had already put on the Low-Grade Magic Robe. Even if he was hit, it would not be able to injure him.

At such close range, moves and techniques were unimportant. Li Shiming's Qi Refining Second Level physical quality could be brought into play even more.

He wielded the Low Grade Long Sword without any moves to speak of. There was only one word: fast.

So fast that when Night Walker sensed the danger, a Sword Light had already swept across Night Walker's arms, severing both of them.

"Ah!" Night Walker let out a shrill scream. That scream immediately startled those outside.

Li Shiming did not stop moving. The Low Grade Long Sword Magical Artifact in his hand swung out a second time, and this time it swept across Night Walker's legs.

With Spiritual Power enhancing it, the sharpness of a Low Grade Magical Artifact was beyond doubt.

He barely felt any resistance from the Low Grade Long Sword Magical Artifact cutting through a human body before he had sliced Night Walker into a human stick.

Facing a martial arts expert directly, he used the safest method, making Night Walker completely lose the ability to resist.

The reason he did not kill him was because he wanted to ask Night Walker who had ordered this.

Since Li Shiming had locked the bedroom from the inside, Si Qin, who had heard the sound, anxiously knocked on the door.

It was instead the four guards who acted: two jumped in through the open window, while the other two pulled Si Qin aside and directly smashed through the door.

"Young Master, are you all right?" The two guards who entered first saw Night Walker fallen on the floor and hurriedly asked in concern.

The bedroom door was broken open, and the other two guards entered.

Seeing Li Shiming climb down from the bed unharmed, they could not help letting the huge weight in their hearts drop.

If something really had happened to Young Master, they would not have known how to explain themselves.

"Young Master, this was our dereliction of duty!" the leader of the four guards said with a bow.

Because they had only just entered the Old Residence, they had planned to begin rotating shifts tomorrow. Who could have known something would happen that very night?

"Treat his wounds and take him to the Rear Cover Room. Wait for me to come over and interrogate him!" Li Shiming ordered in a deep voice.

He did not blame the four guards. This man was an expert; even if the four guards had been on night duty, they would still have found it very difficult to discover him.

"Yes, Young Master!" A guard stepped forward and applied Golden Sore Medicine to Night Walker. With this kind of injury, as long as the bleeding was stopped, he would not die in the short term.

Mo Yan, Steward Zhang, and the rest of the servants had all come. Li Shiming even saw kitchen knives and clubs in the servants' hands.

"Steward Zhang, keep the bedroom as it is and arrange another place for Si Qin to stay!" Li Shiming instructed Steward Zhang, then gently patted the frightened Si Qin on the head and comforted her. "Si Qin, it's all right!"

This was Central Capital, not Southern Mausoleum. When something like this happened, the best way to handle it was to report it to the authorities.

Since he had decided to report it to the authorities, the crime scene had to be preserved.

"Young Master, I'll stay with you!" Tears kept streaming from Si Qin's eyes, but she still insisted.

"Go rest. There are some things you can't watch!" Li Shiming said with a smile.

He walked out of the main house. As he headed through the darkness toward the Rear Cover Room, there was no trace of emotion left in his eyes.

If he were still an ordinary person, he would probably have been doomed to die this time.

He needed to know who was trying to harm him from behind the scenes. In his memory, the Original Body's memories of Central Capital were extremely vague; the Original Body had still been too young when he was in Central Capital.

In the Rear Cover Room, Night Walker was tied to a wooden chair.

Night Walker's face covering had been pulled off, revealing a face in his fifties with a beard covering it.

"You all go out first!" Li Shiming commanded in a deep voice.

"Young Master!" The lead guard still wanted to say something, but when he saw Li Shiming's eyes, utterly devoid of emotion, a chill could not help running through his heart. He quickly bowed and led the other three guards out of the room.

The guards were extremely shaken by what had happened today. It was clear that Young Master was not as simple as a powerless scholar.

Just from how Young Master had been able to sever Night Walker's arms and legs without the slightest change in expression, one could see Young Master's decisiveness and ruthlessness.

Though Big Beard had lost both hands and both feet, even with such severe injuries, he was still able to remain conscious.

At this moment, his eyes were wide open, trying to see Li Shiming in front of him clearly.

He could not forget everything that had just happened—the dazzling Sword Light, that single strike that had made him feel there was no way to dodge.

Feeling the pain coming from where his arms and legs had been, he only wanted to die immediately, rather than live on as a Crippled Person.

"Kill me!" Big Beard begged for death of his own accord.

"Dying won't be that easy," Li Shiming said flatly.

At that moment, his consciousness was searching through the database of the IBMz15 Mainframe. If Big Beard had known what he was looking up, his desire to die would have become even more urgent.

He skimmed article after article, reading through every method of torture and interrogation from ancient times to the modern day.

Because of the limited time, many torture methods were unusable.

He took out several needles and pierced them into a few of the most intensely painful nerves in Big Beard's body.

As the needles went in, Big Beard's whole body began trembling uncontrollably. The pain surpassed even the agony in his hands and feet.

The wounds on his hands and feet had Golden Sore Medicine on them, which had dulled the pain considerably.

But the most intensely painful nerves selected from modern medicine in his previous life produced pain that could exceed the limit of what a human could endure.

"Ah! Ah! I'm begging you, kill me! Let me die!" Big Beard once again let out a shrill, miserable scream.

Outside, the four guards could not help exchanging glances. What kind of pain could make someone scream like that?

"This is only the beginning. Tell me your name. Who sent you here?" Li Shiming asked calmly.

He had not chosen any especially cruel punishments, mainly because even he could not bear that kind of bloody scene.

Big Beard ignored Li Shiming. He just kept screaming at the top of his lungs, trying to vent the torment brought by the pain through his cries.