Faced with three long-established Councilor-Level powerhouses, Lin Yuan showed no hint of retreat. Instead, he stepped forward, his figure like a drawn sword, its edge pointed straight at the heavens.
This scene was, without a doubt, the greatest provocation in the eyes of Atkin and the others.
"You don't know when to quit!"
Atkin laughed in fury, his gloomy face full of scorn.
"Having some talent doesn't mean you can run rampant, especially in front of the world's top powerhouses!"
"You brought this on yourself. Don't blame anyone else!"
Before his voice had even faded, the Black God Suit on Atkin's body surged like flowing water, covering him from head to toe and leaving only a pair of murderous eyes exposed.
He stomped down, and the ground exploded with a roar. His whole body shot forward like a black cannonball, accompanied by a shrill whistle as he tore through the air.
He thrust out his right hand, wrapped in black fluid, and curled his fingers into a claw. With enough terrifying force to crush an alloy, he reached straight for Lin Yuan's throat.
He held nothing back in this attack. He meant to capture this insolent brat alive, then slowly question him about the wonders of Mist Island's treasures.
Ten meters, five meters, one meter!
At point-blank range!
Atkin could even make out the unnervingly calm, icy pool in Lin Yuan's eyes.
"Kneel!" Atkin roared, his claws snapping down.
However,
at that very moment, he felt his hand grasp nothing but air.
No, it wasn't just that.
A strange sensation of weightlessness came from his right arm. Then he felt warm liquid spray across his face.
Atkin froze for a moment, then instinctively glanced to the side.
The instant he saw it, his pupils shrank to pinpoints!
His right hand had been severed at the wrist. The cut was smooth as a mirror, and blood gushed out like a fountain, staining the thick fog in front of him red!
"My hand?!"
Only now did the pain travel through his nerve endings and reach his brain.
"Ah!!!"
A shrill scream rang through the area!
"!!!"
Not far away, Yan Hai and Nehru had been preparing to enjoy the show. Now their eyes were bulging, as if they were about to fall out.
What had happened?
They hadn't even seen when Lin Yuan had struck!
Their retinas had caught only a fleeting streak of dark blade light, countless times faster than lightning.
The blade light had been so fast, so sharp, that the Black God Suit's defense mechanisms hadn't even had time to react before it severed the connection between flesh and battle suit!
The next second, Atkin looked up in terror and met Lin Yuan's gaze.
There wasn't the slightest fluctuation in those eyes. No joy at victory, no frenzy at taking a life—only the cruelty and indifference of someone looking at a corpse.
That gaze made Atkin, the Fifth Speaker, feel a fear from the depths of his soul for the first time.
"Quick! Kill him!!"
Clutching his severed wrist, Atkin retreated, his voice turning shrill and distorted with terror. "This guy's a lunatic! A monster! Attack together! Kill him!!"
He didn't need to tell them. The other two had already realized how serious the situation was.
"Die!"
Nehru of India reacted the fastest.
As an experienced Spiritual Force user, he knew the importance of striking first.
Boom!
A surging torrent of Spiritual Force erupted from his mind sea, driving the six SS-Grade Flying Daggers at his waist straight toward Lin Yuan!
"You want to play with Spiritual Force?"
Lin Yuan shook his head.
He stood perfectly still, without even raising his eyelids.
Just as the six daggers came within three meters of him—
Hum!
The air seemed to freeze in an instant.
A terrifying Spiritual Force, ten or even a hundred times stronger than Nehru's and as vast as a sea of stars, suddenly descended, centered on Lin Yuan!
The six daggers, which had been charging forward with unstoppable force, seemed to have struck an invisible wall!
"Shatter."
Lin Yuan softly uttered a single word.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
To Nehru's utter horror, the six SS-Grade Flying Daggers, forged from top-grade alloy, were forcibly squeezed and twisted in midair by that invisible force!
Then they shattered into a cloud of metallic dust!
"Pfft—"
His Spiritual Force was connected to the daggers. With them destroyed, and after he had tried to attack someone whose Spiritual Force was ten thousand times stronger than his own, Nehru suffered a devastating backlash.
He screamed as blood poured from all seven of his orifices. His body fell backward like a kite with its strings cut, his mind a muddle and pain nearly driving him unconscious.
In a single exchange,
the Fifth Speaker lost a hand, and a powerhouse from the European Union was gravely wounded!
That scene completely shattered Yan Hai's composure.
"H-how is this possible?"
Yan Hai's face turned deathly pale, and his legs trembled.
Run!
Yan Hai retreated step by step, his eyes darting about as he prepared to betray this fragile alliance and escape on his own.
But since Lin Yuan had already attacked, how could he leave any survivors?
"Trying to leave?"
Lin Yuan's mind stirred.
Rumble!
The ground beneath Yan Hai suddenly burst open. A thick vine, dark red all over and seemingly covered in countless points of starlight, shot from underground like a venomous serpent from hell!
It was the Star Vine!
It was too fast!
Yan Hai had only just tried to leap into the air when the vine coiled tightly around his ankle.
"No!!"
Yan Hai cried out in terror and swung his blade at it.
But the vine was impossibly tough. His War Blade only managed to throw off a spray of sparks.
The next instant, an overwhelming force struck.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Yan Hai, a dignified Councilor-Level powerhouse, was tossed through the air like a rag doll as the Star Vine slammed him again and again into rocks and trees.
The earth cracked.
After only a few blows, Yan Hai's bones were broken, his tendons snapped, and blood sprayed from his mouth. Even the Black God Suit couldn't protect him from the force of the vibrations penetrating his body.
In front of Lin Yuan, so-called Planetary Level strength was no more than a toy he could knead at will!
At the sight, Lin Yuan remained as calm as an ancient well.
He had already taken a step forward and arrived in front of Atkin in an instant. One hand clamped around the Fifth Speaker's neck like an iron vice and lifted him into the air.
The strength of an ancient behemoth left Atkin helpless, no matter how hard he struggled. His face turned purplish red as he choked.
Not far away, Nehru, his face covered in blood, staggered to his feet. Seeing this, he shouted with bluster that barely concealed his fear:
"I'm an important member of India's Nehru family! I'm a councilor! If you kill me...
my family—and all of India—will never let you go! You'll face endless retribution!"
A threat?
Lin Yuan didn't even turn his head.
The instant Nehru finished speaking,
whoosh!
A golden streak of light flew from Lin Yuan's waist. It was his psychic weapon, the Arc Wheel.
The golden light traced an elegant arc. One of its blades, thin as a cicada's wing, carried an edge that could cut through anything as it swept across Nehru's neck.
With the support of Planetary Level Spiritual Force, the blade's cutting power reached its peak. It sliced through the weak neck defense of Nehru's Black God Suit and swept across his throat.
A wet, slicing sound.
His voice cut off.
Nehru clutched his throat, disbelief in his eyes. His body crumpled to the ground, twitched twice, then fell still.
Dead.
Now Atkin, still caught in Lin Yuan's grip, was completely panicked.
He looked at Lin Yuan as though he were a monster crawling out of the abyss!
"Cough... Lin... Inspector Lin..."
Atkin trembled, struggling to force the words from his throat as he made one last desperate attempt. "I'm... the Fifth Speaker... a pillar of humanity's warriors...
even Hong can't just kill me!"
Hearing this, Lin Yuan smiled.
It was a cold smile.
He wasn't buying that sort of rhetoric.
"Too bad. I'm not Hong!"
Looking at Atkin's face, twisted with fear, Lin Yuan said calmly:
"Here on Mist Island, everyone fights on behalf of their own factions, and everyone has to rely on their own abilities to get the treasures. Even if someone is killed, who can pass judgment? Who would dare?"
"Even if someone dares, I'll answer with the blade in my hand!"
Lin Yuan's voice suddenly turned cold, and killing intent surged in his eyes. "Besides, you're a lowlife like Atkin."
He remembered clearly that in the future timeline of the original story, when the Devouring Beast disaster struck and Hong and Thunder God fell into a deep sleep...
Atkin and Yan Hai had not only failed to shoulder humanity's burden; they had taken advantage of the crisis, targeting the heroes' descendants and even trying to seize Luo Feng's wife and property.
Just how vile and evil must someone like that have been in ordinary times?
"Blame your bad luck for running into me—and for trying to rob me, or even kill me."
As he finished speaking, Lin Yuan stopped holding back.
Bang!
He kicked Atkin hard in the chest. The terrifying force sent him flying hundreds of meters before he slammed into a distant rock wall, leaving a deep crater.
Then Lin Yuan swept his right hand.
The Shadow Devourer in his hand turned into a black bolt of lightning as he threw it like a dart!
Thud!
The War Blade struck Atkin squarely between the eyebrows, pinning him firmly to the rock wall!
Atkin, the Fifth Speaker, died on the spot!
Lin Yuan stretched out his hand and drew the Shadow Devourer back with his Spiritual Force. The blade pulled itself free and flew into his hand, without a drop of blood on it.
Then he turned to Yan Hai, who had been battered by the Star Vine and was now barely alive, a limp heap on the ground.
"You can go too."
A flash of blade light.
Yan Hai's head rolled away.
After finishing all this, Lin Yuan remained calm, as though he had merely swatted a few flies.
He quickly took the backpacks and scattered Muya Crystals from the three men. Then, with a flash of his figure, he disappeared into the thick fog, heading for the next treasure site.
About half an hour later,
a hurried rush of footsteps approached.
Councilor Fal of the HR Alliance arrived at the ravaged battlefield with several War Gods, having stumbled upon it by chance.
When they saw the scene before them, everyone froze as if under a spell. A chill shot from the soles of their feet straight to their scalps.
Bloodstains and human-shaped craters still marked the rock wall.
Three mutilated corpses lay on the ground.
They were... Atkin, the Fifth Speaker! Nehru, a powerhouse from the European Union! And Councilor Yan Hai!
They were all dead???
The news reached all the various factions in an instant!
They wondered who could have done it.
Hong or Thunder God?
Could... the lure and value of Mist Island's treasures really be so great?!
This did not dampen their greed; instead, it made them even more eager to investigate!
People never gave up their greed until the very last moment.
Before you continue