The Mastermind Appears, Yu Xiaogang's Mad Obsession (1)

Thirty miles south of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect lies a dense mountain forest.

Ling Yun carried a small medicine basket on his back and walked at the front as if nothing had happened. He dressed very discreetly today, and he did not summon his signature Water-Cooling Sword, nor did his elusive Greninja follow him.

Furthermore, to give those cowardly fellows in the shadows an opportunity, Sword Douluo Chen Xin even took the initiative early this morning before setting off, adding an extremely sophisticated short-term seal to Ling Yun's First Martial Soul.

Now, if you use your Soul Power to sense Ling Yun, the aura he exudes is so weak it's like that of a newly initiated Soul Grandmaster. His acting skills and his overall demeanor are practically screaming, "I'm a noob, come and beat me up!"

Dugu Yan walked to Ling Yun's left with her arms crossed. Xiao Wu followed obediently behind Ling Yun, always keeping a distance of less than three meters.

The group strolled along at a leisurely pace. Aside from birdsong and Bug Buzz, nothing unusual happened. The silence was almost eerily quiet.

Xiao Wu was a little nervous. She lowered her voice and leaned close to Ling Yun's back to ask, "Brother Yun, we've gone so far. What if they notice something amiss and decide not to come today?"

Holding a tree branch, Ling Yun brushed aside the weeds in front of him, saying confidently without turning his head, "Don't worry, I'll definitely come."

What makes you so sure?

"To put it bluntly, people die for wealth, birds die for food," Ling Yun sneered. "Last night, they risked being crushed by three Titled Douluos to sneak up to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect School's walls Blood Lure. What does that mean? It means what they want is extremely important to them, even a matter of life and death. Since it's so important, even if it's a dragon's den or a tiger's lair, they have to grit their teeth and try again today."

As soon as he finished speaking,

"Whoosh,"

A chilling whistling sound suddenly pierced the air from the depths of the dense forest on the right. A steel arrow, gleaming with Youyou blue light, hurtled straight towards Xiao Wu's back.

"Xiao Wu, get out of the way," Ling Yun said in a low voice without even turning around.

Xiao Wu reacted with lightning speed, showcasing the incredible flexibility of the Soft Bone Rabbit. Her body instantly tilted to the side at an unbelievable angle. The poisoned arrow grazed her shoulder and embedded itself firmly in a large tree in front of her, instantly Corrosion a large patch of bark and leaving it charred black.

Immediately afterwards,

"Whoosh,"

From all directions, a hail of arrows, like locusts, rained down upon the three of them from the bushes.

"How dare you! You're courting death!" Dugu Yan's eyes narrowed, and she instantly entered battle mode. The terrifying poisonous gas of the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor soared into the sky, and the vegetation within a ten-meter radius withered instantly.

"Yanzi, don't expand the poison mist too much. If you poison people, we won't be able to question them," Ling Yun calmly reminded him, standing amidst the rain of arrows. "Uncle Ning said to leave them alive."

Dugu Yan clicked her tongue in annoyance. "What a hassle. I have to be so hesitant even when I'm fighting."

Even so, she changed her strategy, suddenly flicking her sleeve. The originally raging green poisonous mist was instantly compressed into dozens of extremely fine poisonous threads, as if they had eyes, precisely wrapping around the arrows shot from mid-air. As soon as the arrowheads touched the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor's poisonous threads, they were immediately Corrosion into a harmless pool of black water, just like ice cubes thrown into lava.

At the same time, several masked, black-clad Soul Masters leaped down from the trees and charged forward, brandishing short swords.

Xiao Wu snorted coldly, bent her legs, and Splash into the air. She activated her signature "Waist Bow" skill, unleashing a burst of waist power, and delivered a clean and crisp Rolling Kick in mid-air, slamming it into the chest of a black-clad man charging from the side.

"Bang,"

The man in black let out a muffled groan, flying backward like a cannonball and slamming heavily into a tree trunk, causing leaves to fall in a cacophony. He was probably reeling from the kick, but after landing, he didn't utter a single harsh word, nor did he pick up his weapon from the ground. He immediately scrambled to his feet and retreated.

Ling Yun stood there, his brows furrowed tightly.

Something's wrong. Something's very wrong.

To put it bluntly, this group's attack, while seemingly lively, was actually far too disorganized. Their archery was a mess, and their charges were individualistic. They appeared to be attacking with their lives on the line, but Ling Yun's sharp eyes Detect —these people didn't actually have any real killing intent.

The strangest thing is that Xiao Wu was clearly their most conspicuous and important target, marked with Blood Lure. But just now, there were two or three times when the enemy had a real chance to concentrate their firepower and corner Xiao Wu, but they actually gave up the opportunity and only harassed her with arrows at the edge.

"They're stalling for time and trying to distract us," Ling Yun suddenly shouted, a flash of inspiration striking him.

Dugu Yan instantly realized what was happening, her hair standing on end. "This is bad, the real killing move hasn't been made yet, someone is still hiding in the shadows!"

"Buzz--"

At that very moment, Ling Yun did not activate his signature Aura, because the Greninja was still sealed. But unexpectedly, he closed his eyes.

The wind howled through the valley and through the forest. The leaves rustled, the remaining arrows whistled in the air, and the cracking sound of black-clad men snapping branches as they fled in the distance mingled together with other noises.

But amidst the chaotic noise, Ling Yun managed to catch it.

It was an extremely faint sound.

Extremely thin and weak.

Almost completely drowned out by all other sounds--

"Laugh."

It was a very strange sound of the launcher mechanism clicking.

Ling Yun suddenly opened his eyes, his right hand instantly flipping over, and the crystal-clear Water-Cooling Sword appeared out of thin air in his palm. Without even turning his head or searching for his target, he relied solely on his terrifying intuition and muscle memory, gripping the sword in a reverse grip, and with unparalleled precision, thrust it upwards into the void behind Xiao Wu.

"Clang,"

A crisp, metallic clang rang out, followed by a burst of blinding sparks exploding in mid-air.

In the shadows of a large tree, a dark figure visibly stiffened. He clearly hadn't expected that Ling Yun, even with his aura sealed, would seem to have eyes in the back of his head, able to precisely intercept this fatal blow.

Ling Yun slowly turned around, a cruel smile curving his lips, "Little mouse, I've finally caught you."

Seeing the situation was dire, the dark figure reacted swiftly, turning and running for its life.

"Trying to run? Third Soul Skill - Wave Treading," Ling Yun instinctively wanted to activate his Soul Skill to Pursuit.

As soon as he activated his Soul Power, a sharp pain shot through his chest where Sword Douluo had placed a seal, and his Soul Power was instantly interrupted.

"Hiss--" Ling Yun gasped, his face instantly turning as black as the bottom of a pot. Damn it, he'd forgotten about that; his strength was still sealed by Sword Grandfather. His attempt to show off had failed, and now he was in an awkward situation.

Ling Yun, exasperated, looked up and yelled at the distant cliff, "Teacher, have you had enough of watching the show? Time to get to work!"

On a towering cliff in the distance, Chen Xin, who was about to drink, nearly dropped the wine jug. His face darkened, and he cursed, "You brat, you're quite good at ordering me around."

Before the words were even finished, a dazzling silver Sword Qi, like lightning traversing space, instantly covered a distance of a hundred feet and descended from the sky.

The Sword Qi was extremely terrifying, but it didn't harm the man in black in the slightest. It merely grazed the ground in front of the desperately running black-clad Soul Master's toes with utmost nonchalance.

"Boom,"

With a deafening roar, the Sword Qi energy cleaved the solid rock surface, creating a terrifying crack over ten meters long and seemingly bottomless.

The man in black had already stepped out, but stopped abruptly at the edge of the crevice. He looked down at the bottomless black hole below, his legs went weak, his face turned green, and his crotch even felt slightly damp.

Behind him, Ling Yun strolled over leisurely, still carrying the Water-Cooling Sword, and said with a smile, "Running away, why aren't you running anymore?"

The man in black swallowed hard, trembling all over. "..."

"Keep running." Ling Yun gestured for him to continue. "I also want to broaden my horizons and see if a nobody like you, who's at most Soul King, can outrun Peak Titled Douluo of level 96. If you can, I'll kneel down and call you Grandfather today."

The man in black knew he was completely doomed. A resolute glint flashed in his eyes, and without hesitation, he bit down hard on his back teeth.

Ling Yun's expression changed drastically, and he shouted, "Oh no! This bastard has poisonous fangs; he's going to commit suicide!"

However, a green light reacted even faster than Ling Yun.

"Smack,"

A crisp, resounding slap echoed through the forest. The Old Poison Dugu Bo, appeared out of nowhere, hanging upside down from a tree. His slap was swift, precise, and ruthless, landing squarely on the black-clad man's face with a "crack," dislocating his jaw with a clean, decisive motion.

Before the man in black could even bite through the venom sac in his mouth, his jaw drooped, and saliva mixed with blood kept dripping down.

Dugu Bo landed steadily, clapped his hands, and looked at the man in black writhing on the ground in pain with disdain. "Trying to commit suicide by poison in front of me, the ancestor of poison enthusiasts? You little bastard, aren't you looking down on us professionals?"

Ling Yun breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the person was safe.

Dugu Bo stepped forward, not minding the dirt, and reached into the black-clad man's sleeve, pulling out an extremely small and exquisitely crafted metal device. This was the mechanism that had launched the Black Needle earlier, and now, the Black Needle that Ling Yun had flicked away was also drawn back by Dugu Bo's Soul Power.

Dugu Bo brought the device and Black Needle close to his eyes. After just one glance, his previously relaxed and teasing expression vanished instantly, replaced by an extremely solemn look.

"Everyone back off, don't touch this thing," Dugu Bo said in a deep voice.

Ling Yun stopped and asked warily, "What's wrong, Old Poison? Is there Toxic on this needle?"

Dugu Bo used his profound Soul Power to hold the Black Needle in mid-air, carefully observing it. "The poison is secondary. Look closely at the structure of this needle; it's hollow."

Xiao Wu leaned closer, her face full of doubt. "A hollow needle? What's it for?"

"This isn't an ordinary Hidden Weapon needle." Dugu Bo pointed to the end of the Black Needle, where a tiny, extremely hard, transparent crystal reservoir, no bigger than an adult's little finger, was connected. "This thing is an extremely vicious blood-drawing device. As soon as the needle tip pierces a person's body, even if it only slightly grazes the skin, the mechanism at its end will instantly unleash a powerful suction force, automatically drawing the target's most vital blood to fill this reservoir within a fraction of a second."

Everyone fell silent upon hearing this.

Ling Yun turned his head, gave Xiao Wu a deep look, then turned back to stare coldly at the man in black on the ground whose jaw had been dislocated.

The playful and relaxed expression that had been on his face had completely vanished, as if it had been covered by a layer of ancient ice.

"So..." Ling Yun slowly squatted down, looking directly at the man in black. His voice was soft and gentle, but to the ears, it was more terrifying than a death warrant from hell.

"So, all this fuss and this terrible show you put on today wasn't about killing her at all."

The man in black's pupils suddenly contracted to the size of pinpoints, and his body trembled like a leaf.

Ling Yun extended two fingers, pinched the extremely vicious blood-drawing needle, and waved it in front of the man in black.

"You bunch of scum, you're here to collect blood, aren't you?"

The man in black kept his mouth tightly shut (though his dislocated jaw prevented him from closing it properly), refusing to answer even under pressure.

But in that brief moment, the undisguised fear and panic in his eyes said it all.

Ling Yun stood up, took a deep breath, and coldly gave the order, "Capture this bastard, and all those who ran away earlier, without exception. Take them back to the sect's dungeon. I want to interrogate them myself."