"Everything needs a reason. That's the rule."
Lin Sheng couldn't remember who had said those words, but he deeply agreed with them.
The more memories he absorbed, the more he encountered other people's interactions and conversations in them. So he couldn't remember who the words had come from.
But it didn't matter. If they were useful, he would adopt them.
So just now, he had found himself a reason.
He'd come to ask for directions, only to be bullied by the other party, so he'd fought back and crippled them. Even if the police were called, there were still three witnesses nearby.
As for why he hadn't said anything at first—
He'd simply been a little slow to speak and hadn't had time to open his mouth. Plenty of people nearby could confirm he'd come to ask for directions.
Before striking, Lin Sheng had already thought it all through.
He'd asked several people nearby for directions earlier precisely to prepare for this moment.
The distance from the breakfast stand to the Lin Family Shop was nearly a hundred meters.
The crowd was thick, and Lin Zhounian went into the shop after unloading the goods. He didn't notice that among the streams of people a hundred meters away, someone was quietly making a move.
Lin Sheng stepped forward. Without drawing his sword, he thrust the hilt ahead, striking the dagger in the first man's hand with pinpoint accuracy.
Clang! The dagger was knocked aside.
The others growled and charged from several directions at once, each gripping a short dagger.
Lin Sheng took a step back and abruptly swung the hilt outward.
A ring of silver light suddenly flared around him, like a ribbon.
Shhk!!
Amid a string of scalp-prickling, ripping sounds, all four screamed at once. Wailing, they clutched their hands and fell to the ground.
Blood poured rapidly from their hands and spread across the ground.
A burly man who'd been left alone behind Lin Sheng quietly drew a black pistol from his waistband. His face twisted with malice as he aimed at Lin Sheng.
Shhk!!
A flash of silver swept past. His right arm, hand and gun all dropped to the ground.
"Ahhh!!! My hand!!!"
Clutching his severed arm, the burly man howled in agony and fell. After a few moments, his eyes rolled back and his body went limp as he passed out.
"Tsk, tsk. They even brought out a gun. Good thing I struck fast, or I'd be the one lying on the ground now. I guessed right—you really did want to kill me."
Lin Sheng praised himself a few times.
Compared with these ordinary men, he far surpassed them in both combat experience and fighting technique.
If it had been one-on-one, it might not have been over so quickly. But by attacking together, they'd given him room to use their momentum against them.
Only then did the surrounding crowd react. With cries of alarm and screams, people scattered, leaving a circular clearing around the scene.
Lin Sheng glanced at the men on the ground, turned, and quickly left, disappearing into the crowd.
He'd severed their arteries. If the bleeding wasn't stopped in time, they'd bleed to death before long.
Of course, before that, he'd already arranged for Xiayin and the others to have someone call the police and request an ambulance.
They wouldn't die. At worst, they'd lose a lot of blood and grow weak. And since he'd also severed the tendons in their hands as he struck, they'd be frail and often sick from then on, with clumsy hands. That would be perfectly normal.
Lin Sheng moved quickly. Just as the onlookers were about to get out of his way, he plunged straight into their midst.
The people behind him didn't know who he was and didn't get out of his way. He blended into the crowd in no time and vanished from sight.
Hearing the commotion from inside the shop, Lin Zhounian finally came out. He looked toward the noise in confusion, unsure what had happened.
Before long, police cars with flashing lights arrived one after another.
Ambulances with white stretchers followed close behind.
The men on the ground were carried onto the stretchers one by one. Their uninjured hands were cuffed, and an officer accompanied each of them into an ambulance.
In an alley not far away,
Xiayin, Russell, and Madilan stared blankly as Lin Sheng cut through a crowd of burly men with unstoppable ease.
One of them had even tried to fight back with a gun, but Lin Sheng had swung his sword backward as if he had eyes in the back of his head and severed the man's hand.
The brutal bloodshed and delicate precision of his swordplay formed a jarring contrast in their minds.
Even after Lin Sheng walked up to them, the three still hadn't come to their senses.
"This is real combat." Lin Sheng stood at the alley entrance and looked at the three of them.
"Real combat means you have to be determined to leave your opponent completely unable to fight back. Give it your all. Don't hold back!"
"Will they... die?" Xiayin asked, her voice trembling.
"No. I know exactly how much force to use. I'd never let it turn fatal."
Lin Sheng shook his head. With so many fragments of other people's memories combined, he knew exactly what kind of injuries his strikes could cause.
"But... just now, we couldn't even be sure. What if you got it wrong?" Madilan asked hesitantly, his face pale.
"If I got it wrong, it'd still be self-defense. Didn't you see that they attacked first?" Lin Sheng retorted.
"But this should make the person behind it feel the pain," Xiayin said quietly. "Teacher, I traced it back to where those thugs came from."
"Where?" Lin Sheng's expression darkened.
"The White Card Gang," Xiayin said through gritted teeth.
"Is that trouble?" Lin Sheng asked, surprised.
"Yes. A lot of trouble." Xiayin nodded firmly. "They're the biggest gang in Huaisha City. They also have people in the authorities covering for them."
"How did the White Card Gang get involved?" Russell cried, clutching his hair. "It's just an amateur swordsmanship league. Was one of the competitors in the White Card Gang?"
"Let's head back first. Things should be fine here for now. Someone will probably come looking for us soon." Lin Sheng remained calm.
He'd already done it. There was no point worrying about it now.
The urgent thing was to consider how to handle what came next.
"Don't worry, Teacher. We caused this trouble, so we'll sort it out for you!" Xiayin said earnestly.
Lin Sheng didn't answer.
He suddenly felt irritated.
Unlike in his dreams, in reality, he couldn't just kill people. Even if someone provoked him, he had to hold back and couldn't kill them.
Otherwise, he'd get into trouble with the authorities.
If this had happened in a dream, there'd be none of this hassle. He could've settled it with a single sword stroke.
At close range, even guns weren't a match for him.
Lin Sheng was confident of that now. The gunman wouldn't have time to fire.
But he wasn't invincible, either.
By his estimate, anyone holding a gun from more than five meters away could pose a deadly threat to him.
Different worlds have different rules. What I should do is live better within the rules.
Lin Sheng's thoughts grew calmer.
Having fused so many people's memories, he could see the situation clearly at a glance.
If he had a force more powerful than the White Card Gang, something like this would never have happened.
If he had that kind of backing, he could kill those men and be done with it. Would the White Card Gang really dare come after him?
Nearby, Xiayin, Madilan, and Russell were all making phone calls.
Mobile phones were still very expensive at the time, and all three of them had one. Their families were clearly well-off.
Even so, they were quite wary of the White Card Gang.
Suddenly, Russell let out a cheer.
"There's hope! My grandfather is stepping in! He'll handle things through the authorities. It'll definitely be fine!"
The other two relaxed at his words.
Thank you all for your continued support. Here's the list of friends who tipped at least ten thousand points last week.
Lao Gun will keep working hard, improving himself and writing the best stories.
The list is as follows:
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Ten Thousand Ink
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Ah, I'll Kill My Sister to Prove the Dao
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Snow White Dragon
Spirit of Dark Twin Souls
Nangong Mowan
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Jingxie King of the Eight Tribes
Wanyan
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Yiqi
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