Counter-kill

Li Zitong and the other two blocked Lu Lin's path of retreat, their eyes glinting coldly, like three hungry wolves staring at him.

"Blood Qi Pill?" Lu Lin's face was calm as still water as he said indifferently, "Li Zitong, haven't you remembered the date wrong? There are still a full eight days until the thirty-day agreement."

"Bullshit!" Li Zitong's face darkened as he snapped, "You almost fooled me. Counting the days, you should have collected the third Blood Qi Pill two days ago. Two of them are ours. Hand them over!"

Seeing Lu Lin remain silent, Li Zitong's gaze grew colder and colder. He took a step forward, faint blood qi stirring around him. "You... don't tell me you were bold enough to swallow them yourself?!"

The two second-level Body Tempering accomplices behind him also stirred their blood qi at the same time, and the air inside the mine instantly grew stagnant and heavy with pressure.

"How could I?" A brilliant smile suddenly bloomed on Lu Lin's face. As he spoke, he pretended to reach into his robes. "How would I dare disobey the orders of you elder brothers? I've been keeping the Blood Qi Pills safe the whole time. If you hadn't come, I was planning to deliver them to you in a couple of days..."

"Hmph, figured you wouldn't have the guts to play tricks..." Seeing his respectful attitude, Li Zitong and the others let the blood qi surging around them settle slightly, and their vigilance slackened by a few degrees.

In that split second, quick as lightning...

The hand Lu Lin had slipped into his robes suddenly yanked out. What he held was no pill, but a sharp-edged, heavy piece of Black Iron Ore that weighed at least two catties. The ore carried a vicious gust as it smashed toward Li Zitong's temple with the speed of thunder, leaving no time to cover one's ears!

Li Zitong never would have dreamed that this mere "first-level Body Tempering" menial would actually dare to erupt into violence. In his fixed understanding, the gap in strength between them was vast; if Lu Lin made a move, it would be no different from seeking his own death.

"You?!" The cry of shock had only just left his mouth when the heavy ore came crashing down!

Bang!

A muffled impact rang out! The strength of the third level of Body Tempering—thousand-jin force—erupted without the slightest reservation. Li Zitong had no time to block at all. A dent visibly caved into his forehead, and he staggered backward, stars bursting before his eyes, his ears buzzing as he sank instantly into a daze.

With the first strike landing, Lu Lin did not pause in the slightest. Following through with the momentum, he grabbed the iron pickaxe leaning against the mine wall. The muscles in both arms knotted, blood astral energy surged, and the pickaxe tip tore through the dimness, thrusting fiercely toward Li Zitong's already injured head!

Pchht!

A tooth-aching crack of bone rang out!

The sharp pickaxe tip stabbed through Li Zitong's left temple without the slightest obstruction and emerged from his right. Red and white matter dripped down along the pickaxe point.

The remaining two Blood Wolf Gang disciples were completely stunned, their eyeballs nearly bulging from their sockets as they stared in disbelief at the bloody scene before them.

Utter terror seized them in an instant. With strange cries, the two turned and fled for their lives in different directions!

Lu Lin's eyes were icy. He wrenched the iron pickaxe out, dragging out more filth. Fixing on one person's back, he poured all the strength in his body into his arm and hurled the iron pickaxe out.

The iron pickaxe whistled as it spun, catching up to its target with precision. With a muffled pff, it stabbed straight into the man's back, through the heart. The tremendous force carried him forward as he toppled, and the pickaxe pinned him firmly to the ground. After twitching twice, he went still.

At the same time, Lu Lin's figure shot out like a leopard, pouncing straight at the last man!

"I don't want them anymore! I don't want the Blood Qi Pills anymore! Spare me! I'm begging you..." Hearing the wind closing in behind him, the man was so frightened his soul nearly flew apart, and he screamed for mercy with a sob in his voice.

Lu Lin's face was hard and cold, without the slightest ripple. Catching up to him, he somehow had another piece of Black Iron Ore in his hand, and he smashed it mercilessly at the back of the man's head!

Bang!

Blood splattered everywhere!

Without making a sound, the man pitched forward onto the ground, his body twitching unconsciously.

Lu Lin did not hesitate at all. He stepped forward, raised the ore, and smashed it down at the man's head five or six more times in succession. Only when the other party had completely stopped moving and his skull was shattered did he stop, panting heavily.

Huff... huff...

Lu Lin braced his hands on his knees and gulped for breath, the thick stench of blood filling his nostrils.

After all, it was his first time killing someone. Even though his will was firm, waves of physical discomfort still surged up.

"I can't rest! I have to clean this up!" A powerful sense of crisis scattered the discomfort.

He immediately got up, put the bloodstained Black Iron Ore into his inner space, pulled back the iron pickaxe, and began digging on the spot.

The strength of the third level of Body Tempering was fully displayed at this moment. The iron pickaxe flew, and the hard ground was quickly gouged open. Before long, he had dug a pit one and a half meters deep.

"Let's see if they have anything..." He quickly searched the three bodies. Sure enough, from Li Zitong's robes, he found a crude wooden box. Opening it, he saw three crimson Blood Qi Pills lying inside!

"Hmph, ill-gotten wealth." Lu Lin gave a cold snort and put the wooden box into his inner space without hesitation. Then he dragged the three corpses into the pit and swiftly buried and tamped them down.

This still was not enough.

He continued swinging the iron pickaxe, digging up all the rock and soil layers around him that had been splashed with blood. Together with the blood on the iron pickaxe, he buried it all deep, then finally scattered loose soil and ore slag over the area, restoring it as close to its original state as possible.

"It shouldn't be easy to discover now." Lu Lin looked around, and his heart eased slightly.

The Black Iron mining area was vast and complicated. Thousands of miners left countless digging marks every day, and the mine tunnels crisscrossed like a maze. Burying a few people here—without precise clues, finding them would be no different from searching for a needle in the ocean.

No matter how great the Blood Wolf Gang's power was, it was impossible for them to mobilize everyone to search inch by inch.

But it was not foolproof.

His brows locked tight. "How did Li Zitong and the others find me so precisely?"

He guessed that someone must have revealed his rough location to Li Zitong.

If the Blood Wolf Gang followed the vine to the melon and found out that the last person Li Zitong had gone to see before disappearing was him, Lu Lin... even if on the surface he only had a "first-level Body Tempering" cultivation and seemed the least suspicious, with the demonic sect's style of preferring to kill the wrong person rather than let one slip through...

His original plan had been to break through to the third level of Body Tempering, then secretly tail them, find a secluded place to strike, kill Li Zitong and the other two, and bury them on the spot. He had not expected the other side to come looking for him first, forcing him to counter-kill them right then and there.

If he had not acted just now, unable to hand over the Blood Qi Pills, he would be the one dead at this moment.

Hoisting the bamboo basket onto his back, he quickly left this place of trouble.

The next day was calm and uneventful.

But on the morning of the third day, when Lu Lin headed to the mine, the atmosphere was clearly different.

A dozen or so members of the Blood Wolf Gang, their eyes vicious and their faces full of hostility, were patrolling back and forth around the entrance to the mine, stopping miners coming and going to question them.

Two Blood Wolf Gang disciples stopped Lu Lin, their gazes scrutinizing him. "You! Have you seen Li Zitong, Xu Tong, and Wang Cheng?"

"No." Lu Lin shook his head with a blank look.

"If you have any leads, report them to the Blood Wolf Gang at once! If you dare hide anything..." A fierce light flashed in that disciple's eyes, and he lowered his voice. "You know the consequences!"

"Yes, yes, yes. I wouldn't dare hide anything." Lu Lin nodded repeatedly, lowering his posture to the extreme.

"Get lost!"

Lu Lin lowered his head and walked into the mine, low murmurs from quite a few miners drifting into his ears.

"Did you hear? Li Zitong seems to have been missing for two days!"

"Really? Could he have been done in and buried in some godforsaken corner?"

"Good riddance! That bastard should've died long ago!"

"Shh! Keep your voice down! You got a death wish? I heard his younger brother Li Zitian is a ruthless character, a martial arts prodigy. He's already at the sixth layer of Body Tempering at such a young age, and he's one of the Blood Wolf Gang's deputy leaders. If he finds out his brother's gone, he'll definitely go mad."

"I also heard those two brothers depended on each other for survival and were extremely close. A while ago, Li Zitian was chosen by some immortal master to carry out a mission. When he comes back... someone's probably going to be in deep trouble!"

The voices of discussion gradually faded.

Lu Lin's expression darkened slightly.

This news was truly not good.

What he was most worried about now was that the person who had revealed his whereabouts to Li Zitong would be found by the Blood Wolf Gang.

Over the next few days, the Blood Wolf Gang's investigation continued, but strangely enough, it never reached Lu Lin. Could it be that the informant had not revealed his information to the Blood Wolf Gang?

Thunk!

Another large chunk of rock was chipped open, and a milky-white Inferior Spirit Stone rolled into Lu Lin's hand.

The twelfth.

Over the past few days, he had dug up another twelve spirit stones.

He had just been about to convert the spirit stone into cultivation time when his ear suddenly twitched, keenly catching the sound of footsteps approaching from afar. His thoughts raced, and he instantly put the Inferior Spirit Stone into his inner space.

The next moment, a burly figure carrying an iron pickaxe appeared at the bend in the mine tunnel, blocking the light.

"Qin Hu?" Lu Lin's gaze sharpened. He recognized this man. He was a miner from the neighboring large communal bunk, with cultivation at the second layer of Body Tempering.

"Lu Lin, finally found you." Qin Hu grinned, but there was something meaningful in that smile.

"You were looking for me?" Lu Lin's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Of course," Qin Hu said leisurely. "I did know roughly which area you were mining in, kid, but this mine is like a maze. Finding you really took some effort."

"What is it?" Lu Lin's voice was calm.

"Of course there's something." Qin Hu put away his smile, took a step closer, and lowered his voice. "Before Li Zitong and the others disappeared, the last person they went to find... was you, wasn't it?"

Lu Lin's heart stirred, but his expression did not change. "So, the person who told Li Zitong my location was you."

"It was me." Qin Hu admitted it frankly, with a trace of smugness.

"So you think the three of them, Li Zitong included, were killed by me?" Lu Lin asked in return.

Qin Hu gave a mocking laugh and shook his head. "Of course it couldn't have been you. Li Zitong was at the third layer of Body Tempering, while you're only at the first layer. How could you possibly have killed the three of them? But..."

His tone shifted, carrying an obvious threat. "If the people of the Blood Wolf Gang were to find out that Li Zitong and the others disappeared after coming to look for you... do you think they'd just let it go? Whether you killed them or not, to give Li Zitian an explanation, they absolutely won't let you off."

"So?" No joy or anger could be heard in Lu Lin's voice.

"So," the greed on Qin Hu's face was laid bare, "you'd better thank me properly. I was the one who helped you keep this news under wraps. Otherwise... you'd already be a dead man by now!"

"According to you, I really should thank you 'properly.'" The corners of Lu Lin's mouth curved in an almost imperceptible arc. "Go on. How do you want me to 'thank' you?"

"Every month, give me two Blood Qi Pills." Qin Hu held up two fingers, then added, "In addition, dig sixty jin of Black Iron Ore for me every month."

His appetite was twice as big as the Blood Wolf Gang's!

After saying this, he unconsciously tightened his grip on the iron pickaxe. His blood qi faintly surged around him as he watched Lu Lin warily. Although he had concluded that Lu Lin was only at the first layer of Body Tempering, he still had to guard against the other man jumping the wall like a cornered dog.

"You've got a little cleverness," Lu Lin's voice abruptly turned cold, "but unfortunately... not much!"

"What do you mean?!" Qin Hu's expression changed, sensing that something was wrong.

Yet before he finished speaking, Lu Lin had already moved, his figure like an arrow leaving the bowstring, shooting forward with explosive speed!

"A mere first layer Body Tempering dares to..." Shock and fury filled Qin Hu. By instinct, he was about to swing his iron pickaxe in counterattack, but the shock and fury in his eyes were instantly replaced by boundless terror.

Lu Lin was too fast!

So fast that he had no time to make any effective reaction at all.

All he saw was a black shadow flash, and the icy pickaxe tip had already enlarged without limit in his pupils.

Pffft!

The pickaxe drove into his face with vicious precision.

Qin Hu's head burst open like an overripe watermelon, red and white spraying everywhere. His eyes bulged round, filled to the very end with utter shock and disbelief.

Only before his consciousness sank completely into eternal darkness did he finally understand a terrifying truth...

Li Zitong and the other two really had died at Lu Lin's hands!

P.S. For a new book, follow-up reading is very, very important. Brothers and sisters reading this, honored readers, please keep up with it every day. Lao Mu is deeply grateful.