Hunter

"Wang Daoyi's teammates?"

"At the end of the day, they wanted to use this pretext to extort our Five Elements Sect. A pack of hyenas, trying to suck blood from the Five Elements Sect—it won't be that easy."

As Zhao Yuan spoke, he immediately added, "Wang Daoyi mainly died at your hands. To prevent these people from taking desperate measures against you, don't stay in Canglong City for the time being. Give us a month—one month at most. Our Five Elements Sect will pull some strings and settle this matter."

He added, "The martial world isn't all about fighting and killing. It's not as though whoever is stronger can do whatever they please."

"I understand."

Li Pin answered.

"Be careful. If it really comes to it, lie low for a while."

After saying that, Zhao Yuan was about to hang up.

Li Pin quickly asked, "Who are his teammates? How strong are they? At the very least, I need to know what I'm dealing with."

"Alright, I'll send you their information in a moment."

As Zhao Yuan spoke, he seemed to think of something and added, "Don't act rashly. You're still young. Once you grow stronger in the future, these people will be nothing."

"I know."

Li Pin replied.

Zhao Yuan gave him a few more reminders before hanging up.

"What's going on? Wang Daoyi's teammates came looking for trouble!?"

Fang Lingjue asked with a grave expression.

Li Pin nodded.

"In this world, there are several kinds of martial artists who hunt ferocious beasts and Demonic Beasts in groups. One does it to accumulate combat experience. Another tempers their will between life and death in pursuit of a higher realm. Those two are relatively harmless. What's frightening are the latter two kinds... private forces belonging to powerful figures, who kill ferocious beasts and Demonic Beasts for extra cash when they have spare time, and... bounty hunters who constantly take on bounties for money."

Fang Lingjue said, "The former can easily provoke enormous trouble if they aren't careful. As for the latter..."

He gave a cold laugh. "Bounty hunters sound impressive, but if they weren't unable to get by for one reason or another, what Dan Jin experts would carry their heads in their hands just to earn money? Wouldn't opening a martial hall, taking up a local post, teaching disciples, and building up seniority be easy enough? More than half of bounty hunters are practically hyenas roaming the gray areas for money. Once they get their teeth into a target, they will never let go easily."

"Wang Daoyi was a bounty hunter?"

Li Pin asked.

"Yes."

Fang Lingjue nodded. "That's also why the Five Elements Sect said they came to extort them. Avenging Wang Daoyi is merely a pretext. If Cao Tianyou could still fight, this would never have happened."

The bounty hunter community was largely made up of Dan Jin and Gang Jin martial artists.

Above that level, so long as they had not committed some grave offense or had serious problems of their own, they could generally find connections to smooth things over.

If Cao Tianyou had still been in his prime, then with the strength of a Gang Refining Grandmaster and disciples rallying around him, no bounty hunter squad would have dared provoke him.

But now...

He was old.

With Wang Daoyi serving as a pretext, these hyena-like bounty hunters had been drawn in.

Meanwhile, Ye Shu had brought in a bank manager for Li Pin and completed the loan procedures.

The total price was twenty-six million. He paid twelve million up front and borrowed fourteen million.

For a loan of that size, his identity as a martial artist had provided considerable convenience.

Otherwise, given how difficult villa loans were to secure, getting ten million would already have been pretty good.

After the procedures were completed, his phone chimed as a dossier was sent over.

Li Pin glanced through it and quickly gained a clear picture of the bounty hunters extorting the Five Elements Sect.

A bounty hunter squad could range from two to eleven people.

Wang Daoyi's squad had consisted of seven people.

After losing Wang Daoyi, six remained.

Just as Fang Lingjue had said, unless they could no longer get by for one reason or another, few people would choose to become bounty hunters.

Of the six, the strongest was their captain. His real name was Xiang Yi, and his codename was Peregrine Falcon.

He had once made all five organs resonate and unleashed Gang Jin.

There were also two Embrace Dan experts and three Dan Jin experts in the team.

There was another six-person team as well.

However, those six mainly gathered intelligence and provided support. They were not frontline combatants.

This lineup was undeniably formidable.

If they had not been strong, they would not have dared extort the Five Elements Sect.

"Gang Jin."

Looking at the information Zhao Yuan had sent, Li Pin's gaze grew heated.

Gang Jin!

He had seen two living Gang Refining experts: Cao Tianyou and Jiang Qingyue.

But both were advanced in years, venerable figures of great prestige, which was why they held such lofty positions.

If they truly fought...

The moment they unleashed Gang Jin, they would have one foot in the coffin.

It was not easy for him to ask the two about the advantages of Gang Jin.

But this Xiang Yi before him...

A moment later, his gaze fell upon the other five again.

If he dueled Xiang Yi's Gang Jin head-on, and the two Embrace Dan experts and three Dan Jin experts swarmed him afterward...

He could not stop them.

"Let's see how the Five Elements Sect negotiates. Ideally, there'll be a fair one-on-one duel. A gauntlet battle would work too—I can step in."

Li Pin thought.

"Should I help you contact a renovation company, or will you design a style you like yourself?"

Fang Lingjue asked.

"You have someone in mind?"

Li Pin asked, then immediately thought of something. "Changfeng Martial Hall's Jiangzhou branch is undergoing renovations. I assume you've found a suitable partner."

"Yes, that renovation company is quite good."

"Then I'll trouble you with it."

Li Pin said.

"I'll have them get in touch with you right away. I need to make frequent trips to Jiangzhou anyway for the renovation of Changfeng Martial Hall's branch. If you don't have time, I can keep an eye on it for you."

Fang Lingjue said.

Li Pin was clearly about to prosper. Fang Lingjue did not mind offering him a favor in such small matters.

"Thank you."

As the two chatted, Ye Shu had already handed over all the invoices and contracts. Wanting to express her gratitude, she hoped to treat them both to a meal.

But Li Pin was not accustomed to dining with strangers, so he directly declined.

They left Jiangshan Yipin shortly afterward.

Yet he still could not escape the fate of being invited to a meal.

When Zhao Mu, the renovation company manager, learned about the Jiangshan Yipin renovation project, he made a special trip over.

This man was more or less related to the Fang family by marriage or blood, so Fang Lingjue found it difficult to refuse. He brought him to Jiangzhou's landmark building—Starry Sky Tower.

The two arrived at the restaurant they had mentioned, but before entering, they were drawn to another restaurant on the fifth floor of the mall.

This equally lavishly decorated upscale restaurant, where the average bill could reach two or three hundred, was currently filled with more than a dozen vigorous, dragon-spirited and tiger-fierce men.

Of course, there were also a small number of women among them.

More than half of them wore the same attire.

Judging from the emblem on their clothes...

"They're disciples of the Lihuo Sect, one of Jiangzhou's major sects."

Fang Lingjue spoke with some surprise. "Lihuo Sect disciples having a dinner gathering?"

"The Lihuo Sect?"

Li Pin looked into the restaurant through the glass.

They were too far away, and decorative objects blocked part of his view, so he could not clearly sense their precise cultivation levels.

But the Lihuo Sect...

The name itself represented power.

At this moment, the atmosphere of the gathering seemed to have reached its climax. A man who appeared to be in his thirties, looking like a senior disciple, stood and raised his wineglass. Everyone else rose to their feet as well.

"Remember this, everyone. We have traveled thousands of miles from the royal capital to Jiangzhou for the martial arts tournament, and we have only one goal..."

In a sonorous, unquestionable voice, the man declared, "Dominate Jiangzhou!"

"Dominate Jiangzhou!"

The others responded in unison.

Every word they spoke brimmed with boundless confidence.

Fang Lingjue watched from afar, his gaze especially fixed upon that man.

After a long while, he finally sighed. "Jiang Zhenhai of Dragon Fist... this year's Jiangzhou Tournament will be difficult."