Crisis Approaches

"Li Zitian."

Lu Lin's gaze narrowed slightly.

After months away, that man had returned in the end?

But things were different now. His strength had risen greatly, and even if the other party traced things back to him, he had ways to deal with it.

Still, to guard against the unexpected, his strength needed to improve further.

That night, moonlight fell like white silk, spilling over Thousand Mile Demon Mountain.

Lu Lin left the common bunkroom without a sound and once again arrived at that familiar field of jumbled stones. Then he took out the Spirit Cat Art and, by the cold moonlight, focused his mind and began to read.

Before long, above the Martial Dao Melting Furnace, a new line of information appeared:

Martial arts technique: Spirit Cat Art (not yet initiated)

"Those two hundred Blood Qi Pills can finally come in handy." Lu Lin's eyes flashed. He grabbed a handful of Blood Qi Pills and swallowed them, then guided his cultivation time and began pouring it into the Spirit Cat Art.

[You were already a sixth-layer Body Tempering martial artist, with broadened horizons and a solid foundation. Re-cultivating other martial arts yielded twice the result with half the effort. After one month of bitter training, you mastered all of the first twenty-four forms of the Spirit Cat Art and successfully stepped into the first layer.]

[After reaching the sixth layer of Body Tempering, your speed in refining Blood Qi Pills greatly increased. You could refine one every three days. With ample Blood Qi Pills assisting you, the Spirit Cat Art's progress remained swift. Another month later, the Spirit Cat Art entered the second layer.]

[After another three months of bitter training, the Spirit Cat Art entered the third layer.]

[After one more year of bitter training, the Spirit Cat Art successfully entered the fourth layer!]

[Remaining cultivation time: three years and four months.]

At this point, Lu Lin temporarily halted the infusion.

After cultivating the Spirit Cat Art to the fourth layer, if he wanted to continue improving quickly, he would need Tendon Refining Pills to assist him.

After all, for different techniques, the positions where tendons and muscles were severed, and the effects, were all different. Some focused on the tendons and muscles of the arms, some on the legs, some on the waist...

Having tempered the tendons and muscles through one technique did not mean other techniques could be achieved in one leap. He still needed to proceed step by step and train the muscles corresponding to that technique.

The bones after the seventh layer were the same.

Without pills, the remaining few years were nowhere near enough for the Spirit Cat Art to make another major breakthrough.

Breaking through four layers of the Spirit Cat Art in succession once again brought Lu Lin's strength an astonishing increase, adding a full eighteen hundred-plus jin of tremendous force. At this moment, his total strength had climbed to a terrifying six thousand three hundred-plus jin!

Such strength was in no way inferior to a seventh-layer Body Tempering martial artist who specialized in the Demonic Ape Blood Qi Art—it even surpassed them!

"Blood Wolf Gang..." Lu Lin casually threw out a punch, and a millstone-sized boulder beside him shattered into four or five pieces at the sound.

A confident light flickered in his eyes, without the slightest trace of fear remaining.

The next day, when Lu Lin headed to the mine, he indeed saw a group of Blood Wolf Gang members swaggering tyrannically outside the pit, stopping and questioning menial workers everywhere.

As for the overseers who usually threw their weight around, they were nowhere to be seen at this moment.

"You! Come here!"

Several big men from the Blood Wolf Gang noticed Lu Lin, this "unfamiliar face," and shouted sharply.

Lu Lin walked over with a calm expression and asked, "Big brothers, what guidance do you have for me?"

"Guidance? Pah!" A burly man with a face full of bulging flesh questioned him coldly. "I'm asking you, over two months ago, did Li Zitong come looking for you?"

"No." Lu Lin shook his head.

"Then do you know who else Li Zitong went looking for? Explain honestly! If you dare lie, you'll regret it!" The big man's volume abruptly rose as he tried to overwhelm him with force of presence.

"I don't know." Lu Lin shook his head again.

"You don't know?" The big man's eyes suddenly turned vicious. The muscles all over his body swelled, blood qi surged, and he gave off the oppressive aura of the fourth layer of Body Tempering, like a ferocious beast choosing someone to devour. "Kid, are you hiding something?!"

Such an aura was enough to frighten an ordinary menial worker, but Lu Lin's heart remained utterly undisturbed. On the surface, however, he timely revealed a trace of "terror" and stammered, "B-big brother, I-I really don't know... How would I dare hide anything?"

"Kid, refusing a toast only to drink a forfeit..." The big man's eyes turned sinister, and he made as if to strike.

"Enough. Let him go."

An icy voice came over.

A young man around twenty years old, his face sinister, walked over and waved his hand.

This person was precisely Li Zitian.

They had caused too much of a ruckus yesterday and had already received a covert warning from the overseers.

They could investigate, but they were not allowed to use excessive force, and absolutely could not affect the mining progress.

If they injured people, who would work?

"Kid, count yourself lucky. Scram!" The big man waved his hand resentfully.

Lu Lin immediately turned around and quickly slipped into a mine tunnel.

"That kid just now... seemed a little unfamiliar." Li Zitian looked in the direction where Lu Lin had disappeared, his brows slightly furrowing as a trace of doubt flashed through him.

"Brother Tian, that kid only broke through to the first layer of Body Tempering about three months ago," the big man beside him added.

"He only just broke through to the first layer of Body Tempering three months ago?" Li Zitian was slightly stunned, then a frightening cold light suddenly burst from his eyes. "Wrong! He was lying! My big brother would never let any newly advanced fat sheep go. He definitely would have gone to collect 'protection fees' from him! But he actually said he'd never seen my big brother..."

He snapped back to himself and shouted sharply, "Something's wrong! After him! Catch that brat for me and pry his mouth open. Find out why he lied!"

Li Zitian moved at once, taking the lead with a dozen-odd Blood Wolf Gang experts as they rushed into the mine tunnel, chasing in the direction Lu Lin had left.

Deep in the mine, Lu Lin, who had been hurrying along, suddenly stopped.

"Not right! I said just now that I'd never seen Li Zitong—that's a huge flaw! If Li Zitian is meticulous and checks even a little, he'll find out..." His thoughts flashed like lightning as he rapidly considered countermeasures.

With his current strength, he naturally had no fear of them. Even if a conflict broke out, wiping them all out would not be difficult. But this was the Blood Baleful Demon Sect!

If he secretly got rid of a few people and made it look like a mining disaster and cave-in, the Demon Sect's higher-ups might be too lazy to investigate deeply.

But if he killed people in public under broad daylight, that would absolutely be a grave violation of sect rules.

No matter how lowly menial martial artists were, they were still the Demon Sect's "property," the Demon Sect's consumables, and no one else was allowed to dispose of them at will.

That was also the fundamental reason Brother Leopard's group had ultimately been rooted out.

What was more, the moment he made a move, his true cultivation would inevitably be exposed.

"I originally planned to act after a while... Looks like I can only carry out the plan ahead of time." A cold light flashed in Lu Lin's eyes. He hesitated no longer, and his figure abruptly sped up. The Spirit Cat Art circulated silently; his steps were as light as a cat's, yet his speed was astonishingly fast. With a few flickers through the crisscrossing mine tunnels, he quickly vanished from the area.

His target was clear: the Black Tiger Gang's territory!

The Black Tiger Gang was another major gang in the Black Iron Ore district, equal in strength to the Blood Wolf Gang. The two sides were old enemies with long-standing grudges and often fought over rich ore areas.

In a section of mine tunnel that had been deliberately dug extremely wide, like an underground hall.

Inside, rough wooden tables and stone chairs had been set out. On the table, a large iron pot was bubbling away, and the rich aroma of meat filled the entire space.

Eight higher-ups of the Black Tiger Gang sat around the table, eating meat in great chunks and drinking wine from large bowls, their mouths glossy with grease, thoroughly enjoying themselves.

This was the life of the gang's higher-ups. Ordinary menials had to risk their lives mining just to barely stay alive, while they could sit back and enjoy the fruits without needing to labor.

"Gang Leader, I heard that brat Li Zitian is back, and he's running around like a mad dog investigating his elder brother's disappearance," a lean young man said as he tore into a chunk of meat.

"Pah! That brat was called away by an Immortal Master to carry out a mission, yet he actually didn't die out there. What a pity!" another man spat.

"Isn't that the truth! That brat's talent is frightening. If he's allowed to train that Demonic Ape Palm to greater mastery, I'm afraid even you, Gang Leader, might not be able to suppress him!" The people beside him echoed one after another, their tones carrying wariness.

"Relax!" At the head seat, a burly man with a face full of bristling beard and the back of a tiger and waist of a bear spoke in a muffled voice. He picked up a large chunk of meat, stuffed it into his mouth, and said while chewing, "My Demonic Ape Palm isn't far from greater mastery either. When the time comes, why would I fear a junior like Li Zitian?"

This man was the Black Tiger Gang's leader, Liu Heihu.

And the Demonic Ape Palm he spoke of was precisely the first killing move obtained after cultivating the Demonic Ape Blood Qi Art to the fourth level of Body Tempering!

"What is so difficult about getting rid of Li Zitian?"

Suddenly, a calm voice came from one of the mine passages, echoing clearly through the cave.

"Who?!"

Liu Heihu and the others' faces changed abruptly. Their gazes swept in unison toward the source of the voice, and the qi and blood around their bodies instantly surged.

A slender figure stepped out from the shadows. His face was covered with a black scarf, making his exact appearance impossible to see. Only a pair of eyes, under the dim light, flickered with a calm gleam.