Hard to Cross the Mountains (Part 2)

With Xia Mi joining the fight and crushing the Lionheart Society's line from the flank in one stroke, the Student Union's morale soared. Within minutes, they had seized control of the entire classroom.

A petite, cute Swedish girl came over, her face full of admiration.

"Minister Xia Mi, you really are..."

Before she could finish, Xia Mi abruptly drew the UMP45 strapped at her waist, pressed it to the girl's forehead, and pulled the trigger hard.

A short burst followed, sweeping across the room and dropping the surrounding Student Union members in the blink of an eye.

Xia Mi's goal was to become the final victor of Day of Freedom, so whether they were from the Student Union or the Lionheart Society, they were all her enemies.

After collecting the weapons, Xia Mi returned to the desk where she and Li Lin had originally been hiding. The moment she saw Li Lin stand up, he gave her a thumbs-down.

"Hm?" The female bandit who had just swept through the classroom raised an eyebrow, unable to understand what she had done wrong to deserve Li Lin's condemnation.

Could this guy have suddenly awakened some sense of collective responsibility and disapproved of her backstabbing her Student Union comrades?

Thinking that, Xia Mi's attitude softened considerably. She was just about to explain the guiding principles behind Day of Freedom when this bastard opened his mouth and completely shattered her defenses.

"There's a toothpaste stain on your safety shorts. Of course, that's not actually what I wanted to say, but I think you get what I mean."

"Damn it, you dare act like a pervert toward this heroine? I'll beat you to death right now!"

Xia Mi had only just raised her fist when she lowered it again, because Li Lin's AR-15 had already taken advantage of the instant her attention slipped and aimed at her forehead.

"Little Li, you're seriously unbelievable. You saw under a beautiful girl's skirt and didn't react at all?"

"To be honest, I was stunned for a moment. But I figured saying it outright might make you reveal an opening."

"Fine. Put the gun down now, and I won't hold it against you for peeking under my skirt."

Li Lin pretended not to hear her. He slowly backed away, always keeping a distance that Xia Mi could not close in an instant, his gun barrel fixed on her head.

"Hey, put the gun down already! Your martial artist's soul is crying!"

"What nonsense are you talking about? This is the West Coast Five Thunder Technique I just learned."

Hearing Li Lin use her own words against her made Xia Mi grit her teeth in anger.

Li Lin was still retreating. He needed to make sure he reached a position where Xia Mi could not disarm him the instant he formed the intention to pull the trigger.

But Xia Mi slowly shifted her feet, inching closer and closer to him.

"Don't move. Xia, just stand there and take a Frigg Bullet like a good girl. Once Master Li wins, I'll go to the infirmary and brag to you."

"In your dreams. Don't think you can make me go out that pathetically."

Li Lin retreated up the steps toward the podium while Xia Mi pressed forward step by step. Finally, the moment Li Lin's heel touched a "corpse"—

Xia Mi vanished from before his eyes.

Just as Li Lin knew how to use topics that embarrassed Xia Mi to create openings, Xia Mi also knew that Li Lin had never handled firearms before. Faced with a sudden situation, he would inevitably hesitate for an instant because of the unfamiliar weapon in his hand.

This was Xia Mi's only chance.

So fast—

Li Lin immediately lowered the muzzle, aimed at the crouching Xia Mi rushing toward him, and pulled the trigger.

It was already too late.

The girl's flowing hair scattered before him like a mass of dandelion seeds, blocking Li Lin's vision.

The instant Li Lin started considering how to counterattack with the rifle, Xia Mi had already acted. The AR-15 in Li Lin's hand managed to fire only one bullet before Xia Mi knocked it away.

But Li Lin was well aware that he was not skilled with guns, so he had long prepared himself to abandon it.

As Xia Mi used Eight Trigrams Palm to deflect Li Lin's weapon, Li Lin had already raised his elbow and brought it smashing down on the back of her head.

The explosive physical improvements brought by awakening his bloodline had already been fully adapted to by Li Lin during this time. His lightning-fast strike landed squarely on Xia Mi, and the heroine let out a "Meow!" as she collapsed to the floor.

Li Lin was about to seize the AR-15 from Xia Mi's arms and finish her off with a Frigg Bullet's anesthetic effect.

But the moment he reached out, he realized the little girl was faking unconsciousness. She kicked him in the chest instead, knocking him back as she drew the gun and aimed it at him.

Now that Xia Mi had a gun, Li Lin did not hesitate. Borrowing the force of her kick, he leaped sideways, smashed through the window, and escaped into the corridor.

Only then, standing alone in the empty classroom, did Xia Mi finally breathe a sigh of relief.

An ordinary Mixed-Blood would have been knocked unconscious on the spot after taking Li Lin's elbow to the back of the head.

Fortunately, Xia Mi was not ordinary. Nor was she human, so she had endured that heavy blow head-on.

Li Lin was improving far too quickly. Xia Mi herself was not sure whether she could defeat him while staying within the bounds of what a Mixed-Blood was normally capable of.

She did not want to expose too much of her true strength early over something as trivial as Day of Freedom. Separating from Li Lin on a battlefield full of unknown variables was exactly what she wanted most.

Meanwhile, after leaving the lecture hall, Li Lin weaved through the teaching building, where fierce close-quarters fighting had broken out.

Using the gunfire as cover, Li Lin slipped behind a Lionheart Society officer, slapped him unconscious, snatched his MP5A5, then charged into the crowd and went on a rampage.

After sparring with Xia Mi for ten years, combined with the experiences of his previous life, Li Lin's experience, instincts, and technique all utterly surpassed these students.

Not to mention, he was the only S-Rank student in the entire school. The world of Mixed-Bloods had strict hierarchies, and Mixed-Bloods with superior bloodlines utterly overwhelmed others in every respect.

Having just fought Xia Mi and then immediately facing ordinary Mixed-Bloods, the cliff-like drop in difficulty made Li Lin feel a little lost for a moment.

It felt like none of the upperclassmen he encountered could fight at all.

Usually, a single move was enough to subdue them upon meeting. Occasionally, he ran into supposedly elite students armed to the teeth, and then Li Lin did need to use the environment to maneuver, probe, and circle around them repeatedly before winning through several close-range exchanges.

But overall... there was no challenge at all.

A large number of Lionheart Society members lost contact in a short period of time, and the society headquarters immediately sent out a call for reinforcements.

Li Lin had only just found a bulletproof shield and an unclaimed light machine gun, preparing to charge toward the Lionheart Society headquarters.

Just as he was about to leave, a storm of Frigg Bullets forced him back. In the distance, he could see an autocannon aimed at the entrance.

Li Lin quickly threw away the battered shield and retreated into the teaching building, but at the same time, a decapitation squad entering through the side door had already cut off his retreat.

In the dim library, dark because the power had been shut off, a young man in deep crimson combat gear cautiously reached for the light switch.

But a sudden chill made him stop.

"This crappy school is covered in guns and artillery right now. Why is someone still carrying a Japanese sword?"

Li Lin could not help complaining.

The student standing behind him, who looked two years older, remained unmoved. "Though you have only been enrolled for a short time, I have already heard many rumors about you, Li Lin. All the upperclassmen say you are a monster in close combat."

"You came specifically to challenge me one-on-one?"

"Chu Zihang, first-year student in Alchemical Machinery. Please teach me."

"Fine, I get it. Then have the sniper on the second floor move her crosshairs off my head first."

At those words, Chu Zihang immediately complied. He pressed a hand to his skeletal headset.

"Su Qian, give me ten minutes."

"Ten minutes? Bro, Lionheart Society reinforcements are fighting the Student Union around the teaching building. Isn't our mission to decapitate the target and withdraw immediately?"

Chu Zihang ignored Su Qian. He tossed aside the headset and charged toward Li Lin in the darkness.

That earnest, stubborn image of a martial arts fanatic earned Li Lin's favor.

His failure to turn on the lights instead created a tactical advantage for Li Lin. He had long grown used to locating enemies without relying on his sight. He was better at sensing earth elements, then using vibrations through the floor to judge an enemy's condition.

So he kicked over a desk, using it to block Chu Zihang's face-to-face downward robe-cut, then smashed through the tabletop with a straight punch that dropped toward Chu Zihang's chest.

Though Chu Zihang had never seen anyone break through a palm-thick solid wood tabletop with bare hands before, now he had. He reacted immediately, hurriedly drawing his blade across to block.

Li Lin remained wary of the sniper above. Though he recognized her as Xia Mi's roommate, they were enemies right now, so he did not dare use wide, forceful moves and tried to stay in motion at all times.

His fist struck the blade directly, and the overwhelming force sent Chu Zihang staggering backward until he crashed through a bookshelf and barely managed to steady himself.

"Not bad combat instincts." Li Lin had finally found a freshman who could react to his attacks in a direct encounter.

Feeling the stabbing pain from the web of his hand gripping the sword, Chu Zihang immediately cast aside all hesitation born from using a real blade. Without hesitation, he rushed forward again with his sword. This time, he aimed for Li Lin's unguarded waist, intending to use a reverse robe-cut to slice upward from Li Lin's abdomen to his right shoulder!

His sword was too fast! From the second floor, Su Qian saw Chu Zihang's astonishingly brilliant killing strike. In the darkness, the young man swung so quickly that she could only make out the outline of the blade, while a terrifying whistle of tearing air swept toward Li Lin ahead!

Even with a sniper rifle in her arms, Su Qian could not help breaking into a cold sweat for Li Lin. If he failed to take that move, he would be lying in the school hospital for at least half a month.

But Su Qian had overlooked the most important thing. Chu Zihang had no intention of killing a fellow student. The reason he dared to unleash such a violent attack was precisely because he had realized that even armed with a weapon, his odds against Li Lin were still slim.

A real blade was far less threatening to Li Lin than Xia Mi's fists.

Almost the instant Chu Zihang's blade brushed Li Lin's clothes, Li Lin had already counterattacked. As if he had completely read the path of Chu Zihang's attack, he sidestepped and drove an upward punch toward Chu Zihang's temple!

In the darkness, Chu Zihang gritted his teeth and ducked at the last possible moment, avoiding the fatal temple strike and using his cheekbone to take Li Lin's blow head-on.

But Li Lin's next move came in an instant, his palm stabbing out toward Chu Zihang's wrist.

He was clearly fighting barehanded, yet every punch and palm was as swift and sharp as a blade. His attacks came so fast that only the crackling sound of fabric slapping against flesh could be heard!

Chu Zihang barely recognized it as Xingyi Boxing, but it was mixed with the forms of Wudang swordsmanship. It was as though the six harmonies had become one and his intent scattered across heaven and earth. Could such martial mysteries, this kind of effortless fusion only recorded in books, truly be wielded by a preparatory-class Mixed-Blood? Were they all monsters?

He desperately twisted his blade to force back Li Lin's stabbing palm. If that strike landed cleanly, his wrist would certainly break.

Taking advantage of the opening created when Li Lin withdrew, Chu Zihang rapidly backed away. He felt a burning pain on his face, yet forced his eyes open to watch for Li Lin's next move.

Li Lin stood in the pitch-black aisle, his shadow overlapping the outline of his body before blending into some massive shape. Chu Zihang felt as though he saw a silent range of mountains in the distance. Like the poets and scholars of ancient times who tried to climb lofty peaks and compose verses, reverence and longing rose in his heart, followed by the desire to tread those mountains beneath his feet.

Until Li Lin stepped forward.

Then the mountain collapsed! Torrents of shattered rock rapidly filled his vision. The person standing at the foot of the mountain could offer no resistance at all, and the entire library floor seemed to tremble from the impact!

Bookshelf after bookshelf was knocked over. Even Su Qian upstairs was knocked unconscious when Li Lin took advantage of the chaos to throw several Chinese dictionaries at her like hidden weapons.

Chu Zihang set the current record for longest combat duration among Lionheart Society members. Though he had not lasted even a minute with the help of terrain and weapons, his beast-like combat instincts still made Li Lin acknowledge his talent.

After all, Chu Zihang had only recently enrolled and had received almost no professional training. Being able to fight like this on instinct and intuition alone was already quite impressive.

Li Lin searched the two of them for guns and ammunition. By then, the fighting between the Lionheart Society and the Student Union outside was nearing its end. He pulled the trigger, taking down Lionheart Society members about to enter close combat, then casually finished off several Student Union comrades hiding behind cover.

After receiving intelligence through the radio that the leaders of both groups were confronting each other in the gymnasium, Li Lin hurried there.

But the explosion that greeted him the moment he reached the gymnasium made his entire body jolt.

Powdered brick and shards of glass littered the ground. Xia Mi stood outside the doors and tossed aside an empty rocket launcher. The alchemical warhead filled with anesthetic gas had already brought down the last hopes of both the Lionheart Society and the Student Union.

Yet she was still not satisfied. She climbed into the vehicle-mounted autocannon she had seized and began spraying the gymnasium with fire.

The radio channel had long since fallen silent. The Lionheart Society and Student Union had practically blasted each other's brains out across the school, while Xia Mi went around "breaking up fights," sweeping up everyone wherever there was a firefight.

The last small group had also been finished off by Li Lin in the teaching building.

No one remained who could stop this female demon unleashing a relentless barrage.

Watching this super bandit, who seemed likely to top Cassel College's kill rankings for this year's Day of Freedom, Li Lin began considering how to persuade her to put down her guns and grenades.

Xia Mi also noticed Li Lin emerging from the tree-lined path behind her. The roar of gunfire abruptly stopped, and she slowly turned the autocannon around, its twelve thick barrels pointing at her childhood friend below.

Li Lin quickly threw away the weapons in his hands and raised both hands in a French military salute.

But after thinking for a moment, Xia Mi actually jumped down from the vehicle on her own. She even tossed away the M4 rifle strapped to her back and the string of grenades hanging from her waist.

She cupped her fists toward Li Lin in salute.

The female bandit transformed back into a wandering martial heroine.

"Now it's just us. Let's fight."

The outcome of this battle would determine three months of dating privileges. To avoid being personally appointed Xia Mi's "official manservant" and reduced to washing her clothes in Norton Hall every day, even changing her foot-washing water, Li Lin had every reason not to lose.