If your heart stirs, make your move

In the woods on Mount Longhu.

A group of young people stood there, with Lu Linglong beside Lu Jin.

Zhi Jinhua spoke. "Elder Lu, Xi is still competing. Everyone else is here."

"Including Liu Guanyi, whom you specifically asked for."

Lu Linglong's eyes swept over everyone before stopping on Wang Zhuo. "Great-Grandpa, is this Liu Guanyi? The one who used the Wang family's Wang Bing as nunchucks?"

"What nunchucks? Don't talk nonsense." Lu Jin laughingly scolded his precious great-granddaughter.

"You're Liu Guanyi? Come here. Let me take a look at you."

"Sure thing, sir. Look all you like."

Wang Zhuo walked forward with a smile, only for Lu Jin to strike without warning, his right hand clawing fiercely toward Wang Zhuo's throat. Yet it stopped a few centimeters away.

"Phew..." Several young Outsiders let out long breaths once they recovered. They had nearly been scared half to death.

They had thought Elder Lu was going to kill him.

Seeing this, Lu Linglong hurried to intervene. "Great-Grandpa! What are you doing? Bullying someone younger for no reason!"

"Haha, nothing. I just wanted to test this boy's temperament." Lu Jin gave a wry chuckle and withdrew his hand.

There really is something very wrong with this boy. That move of mine carried no killing intent whatsoever, yet at such close range, I couldn't advance another inch.

Such an outrageous means of self-preservation. How strange, how strange.

Lu Jin slipped that hand back into his pocket. He had used no True Qi in that strike, relying purely on physical strength.

Wang Zhuo did not mind at all. "Hehe, you're certainly spry, sir, still having fun with us youngsters. As long as you enjoy it."

"Didn't scare you, did I, boy?"

"Well, you see, Zhao Zilong was courage personified. I'm Zhao Zilong personified!"

"Pfft!" Lu Linglong laughed at his antics.

"With a handsome face like that, how can you say something like that?"

Wang Zhuo lifted one corner of his blindfold, revealing his azure right eye, and winked at Lu Linglong.

"Well, it made you happy, didn't it?"

"Bang!"

At the sight of half his face, Lu Linglong turned completely red, like a steam engine.

Her little hands fidgeted awkwardly, unsure whether to rise or fall.

"Handsome... uh, no... um... I... oh!"

"If your heart stirs, make your move." Wang Zhuo's teasing left Lu Linglong completely at a loss.

The other young people were dying of curiosity. He had actually lifted his blindfold!

And the Lu family's young lady was making that face. Just how damn handsome was he?

Hidden Dragon collapsed to his knees in despair and cried, "No!!!!! Linglong!!!!!"

A song about drifting snowflakes and howling cold winds echoed in everyone's ears.

The more they thought about it, the more curious they grew. They crowded over to see his true appearance, but Wang Zhuo had already put his blindfold back on.

Lu Jin nodded. "Mm. A fine, handsome young man."

"Enough clowning around. Let's get to the point."

Bai Shixue nodded repeatedly, reined in her curiosity, and began recounting what had happened during the match.

After hearing her out, everyone fell silent.

Lu Jin's voice was low. "Is that so... Little Bai, are you sure you're not mistaken?"

"I'm not!" Bai Shixue answered earnestly.

"I noticed it as soon as I ate Hu Jie's qi. There's no way I wouldn't recognize that disgusting taste!"

"I'd recognize him even if he were reduced to ashes!"

"Root of Calamity, Shen Chong!"

"You've all heard about the three people who died a few days before the tournament, right...?"

Wang Zhuo shook his head. "Really? I hadn't heard anything."

Li Yanzi said, "It's already on record, but it's a dispute between Outsiders. As long as it doesn't threaten the safety of ordinary citizens, there's no need to intervene."

Bai Shixue explained, "Yes. A few days ago, several people died on their way to Mount Longhu, but since they were all Outsiders, the authorities didn't investigate."

"And Hu Jie happened to have several types of qi that weren't his. I noticed them when I absorbed his qi."

"That's how Shen Chong's Usurious Loan works. A lends his technique to B. After B kills C, B plunders C's qi, but the loan shark, A, takes seventy or eighty percent of the profit."

"That makes B grow more and more frenzied with each kill, until he's completely out of control. After all, with a loan shark pressuring him, even wanting not to kill isn't difficult."

Wang Zhuo nodded thoughtfully. "So are we capturing him now, or killing him outright?"

"We can't kill him. He's worth more alive than dead. We'll definitely be able to follow the trail and catch members of Quanxing."

"Quanxin, so they've been disrupting public order and corrupting society all this time?"

Hearing Wang Zhuo's awkwardly phrased question, Bai Shixue explained, "Pretty much. Scum like them."

"Murderers, perverts, and desperate criminals gather there. Plenty of ordinary people have suffered at their hands, too. Even when they don't act personally, they've driven plenty of people to ruin, destroying their families and tearing their wives and children away..."

"Buzz!"

After those words were spoken, the air noticeably grew heavier. The hairs on the backs of several people's necks stood on end.

Wang Zhuo scratched his head. "I see. That was stupid of me. I've only just entered the Outsider world, so I don't know a thing about this information you all have."

Only then did the stiff atmosphere ease. The others merely thought they had been imagining things.

Li Yanzi typed on her keyboard, recording it. "Begin mobilizing Skynet Big Data for a search. If ordinary people have been harmed by Outsiders, the severity of the issue can be raised to C-Rank."

"Act after the Luotian Grand Ceremony ends. Preferably take them alive."

"Hold Nadutong accountable afterward."

Wang Zhuo's Limitless Sorcerer perfectly screened off those few instructions from Li Yanzi, preventing the group from hearing them.

Bai Shixue said, "Our problem now is figuring out how to deal with Hu Jie and stop him from killing again."

"Understood." Wang Zhuo rubbed his chin.

"Ah, sorry, something's come up on my end. I'll be off. Take your time, everyone. Elder Lu, I'll trouble you again when I have something to discuss."

Bai Shixue frowned slightly. "This guy... We're discussing serious business here!"

Lu Jin waved a hand. "Let him go. I was the one who insisted on dragging him here in the first place. It's only natural if he doesn't want to get involved."

Lu Linglong turned to watch his departing figure, hesitating over whether to ask for his WeChat.

But with the atmosphere as it was, this did not seem like a good time to ask.

Outside the competition grounds.

Feng Baobao squatted in front of a street stall. "Oh, oh, monk, you've brought your business all the way here!"

The fake monk invoked the Buddha's name. "Amitabha! Young lady! Back on the front mountain, this old monk could already see your extraordinary bone structure. You were surely no ordinary mortal."

"To think you're an Outsider taking part in the tournament, too. Truly remarkable. I knew I hadn't misjudged you back then. That Fire Qilin Crystal Necklace you're wearing is invisibly blessing your True Qi."

As he spoke, he pulled a thumb ring from his pocket. "Here, here, take a good look. My master won this Ink-Bone Spirit Ring after battling that Ten-Thousand-Year Fox Demon for ten bitter years."

"This old monk would never keep such an extraordinary opportunity to himself. Miss it, and you'll regret it for the rest of your life."

Feng Baobao abruptly remarked, "Old monk, your master really liked picking fights with animals..."

"Enough nonsense! Anyway, it's a supreme treasure! Good stuff. Just tell me whether you want it!"