Skill and Strength Overwhelming Technique

"Senior, carry out your mission as soon as possible. Leave it to me now."

Li Lin stared intently at the enemy embedded in the wall, whose body showed obvious draconic traits. He had a feeling the other man was playing dead.

Aki Shigede nodded forcefully. She understood that time was tight; thanks and questions could wait until after the mission. She immediately activated "Ghost Illumination" and left the operating room, heading for other parts of the underground clinic in search of the Molotov Cocktail Jon had yet to retrieve.

Inside the operating room, Li Lin steadily approached the mixed-blood named Leonardo, who happened to share a name with "Little Li."

In fact, not long after entering the hospital, he had discovered a beast rampaging beneath the ground.

With his Word Spirit active, Li Lin's perception of the surrounding earth elements had been enhanced. He could sense the enemy's movements and physical condition from the vibrations in the ground alone.

If the target was within the domain's range, this ability to gather information would be amplified even further. The information Li Lin collected could bypass the limits of physical laws and be transmitted directly to his mind.

Combined with the martial arts mastery he had cultivated over the past ten years, "reading ahead" of an enemy's moves and intentions was effortless.

Leonardo, who had been embedded in the wall, vanished into thin air.

So he really had been playing dead.

Facing the Mixed-Blood who had reactivated "Word Spirit: Time Zero," Li Lin showed no fear. Imitating Xia Mi's usual pretentious manner, he simply clasped his hands behind his back and slid his right foot forward along the floor—

A trapezoidal earthen wall nearly two meters thick surged up from the ground and smacked Leonardo, who was moving at high speed, like a spinning engine propeller.

After a series of dull cracks from breaking bones, Leonardo smashed through every operating table in succession before Li Lin intercepted him for the second time.

This time, Li Lin did not even need to test the waters. He had completely deciphered Leonardo's crude, savage fighting instincts.

A beast's behavior was the easiest to predict.

What was more, Li Lin had seriously studied Word Spiritology and knew perfectly well the greatest weakness of Time Zero, the Word Spirit famed for its "godlike speed."

The domain of this Word Spirit only affected the body. Such extreme speed often left its user unable to react to changes in the outside world in time.

Therefore, actions at godlike speed were usually planned out completely before they began. Once initiated, they could not be stopped or adjusted midway.

When a swordsman using Time Zero charged at an opponent at godlike speed and brought down his blade, even if a spear pierced his chest halfway through, his body would still complete that fierce and swift sword dance according to his original intent.

Modern Word Spiritology had found that Time Zero put a considerable burden on its user's body. Torn muscles and broken bones were common accidents.

Li Lin had similar troubles. His ability to sense and control elements far surpassed that of normal Mixed-Bloods, but his bloodline did not allow him to command the elements within his domain as freely as a dragon.

If only there were some divine martial arts manual that could refine the concentration of Dragon Blood...

Watching Leonardo vanish from his sight once again, Li Lin could not help sighing inwardly.

He could also control rocks weighing several tons to attack, provided he rapidly drained his mental and physical strength, but that simply did not suit his fighting habits.

He had always preferred to respond to countless changes with constancy, using his perception through the ground to discern openings in an enemy's attacks before counterattacking for victory. Maintaining a good combat condition had long become instinctive to him.

The pool of blood beside Li Lin suddenly exploded into a red mist. Leonardo's figure flickered within it as he rushed behind Li Lin, intending to dig out his spine with his sharp claws.

But the human he was so desperate to kill had already formed a sword seal with his right hand behind his back.

A pointed concrete pillar, still bearing tiles on its surface, had already grown into place and stabbed straight into Leonardo's body as he charged into it.

Scalding blood instantly splattered across the floor.

Finally, I've caught this guy.

Li Lin turned and drove a straight punch into Leonardo's forehead. Feeling a hardness and thickness like metal, his expression immediately changed. He followed up with a barrage of inch punches aimed at the massive puncture wound in Leonardo's abdomen.

Rocks suddenly flowed like water, following Li Lin's every movement and clinging around his body. More than two hundred kilograms of stone were granted the same speed as Li Lin's fists within the domain.

Though he was technically empty-handed, the force of every punch was no weaker than a motorcycle crashing head-on at full speed.

After that string of attacks, even Leonardo's eyes became clear.

More than just his eyes—Li Lin had nearly beaten the Golden Eyes out of him.

No wonder the ancients said that martial arts emphasized winning people over with virtue. Li Lin felt that he was trying to awaken the humanity sleeping within Leonardo's body through his abundant martial virtue.

Leonardo seemed not to know why he was here, or why he was fighting a monster whose every gesture could unleash a sonic boom. His face was full of terror.

Seeing this, Li Lin stopped moving as well.

"You're awake?"

He asked Leonardo pleasantly, considering how to coax and deceive him into being taken alive to the Executive Department's stronghold.

After all, Leonardo's Word Spirit was Time Zero, and his physical strength was among the greatest Li Lin had ever seen. Li Lin could not restrain him and take him outside without drawing public attention.

Thinking it over, all he had left was talking him down.

But Li Lin had clearly underestimated how terrifying he looked in Leonardo's eyes.

Leonardo had already regained his senses from the Dragon Blood Reaction. In his hazy memories, one moment he had been in the clinic preparing to steal the medicine hidden by the doctor, and the next he had been beaten off the ground by an unfamiliar Asian boy whose fists moved too fast to see.

The excruciating pain of countless bones throughout his body on the verge of breaking left him unable even to scream.

Thus, the instant Li Lin stopped, Leonardo, whose body was covered in blue scales, vanished before him. His survival instinct drove him to use Time Zero desperately. Blood poured from his wounds, and the exploding blood mist dragged out a dark-red trail so long that its end could not be seen.

Aki Shigede and the camera on her collar happened to witness the whole scene from the corridor.

"Holy shit, a single line across ten thousand feet!" an Executive Department officer well-read in webnovels exclaimed over the command channel.

Li Lin saw Leonardo flee into the sewers. He opened the communications channel while preparing to pursue him, but Professor Schneider's voice stopped him through his earpiece.

"Li Lin, your mission has ended early. Evacuate with Aki Shigede immediately!"

"Professor, he can't get far."

"Leave the cleanup to Executive Team Three. You and Aki Shigede are to return to Executive Team One immediately!"

Sensing the worry and firmness in Professor Schneider's words, Li Lin had no choice but to obey.

Thinking back to the draconic traits all over Leonardo's body, he had already guessed that the Molotov Cocktail's true target users were probably Mixed-Bloods.

Even the Japan Branch's territory could produce such a miraculous alchemical drug.

Could it be that the Secret Party had mastered the technology to refine bloodlines long ago?

At that thought, several ideas in Li Lin's mind suddenly came alive.