Bad Luck Never Abandons You

"Hello, sir."

The young mercenary shuddered and quickly lowered his head. He naturally recognized Li Lin; as a hired mercenary, it was impossible for him to forget his employer. Moreover, the young mercenary had a very deep impression of this strange young employer. Although he didn't appear often, stories about him and those beautiful ladies circulated among the mercenaries. It was certainly a topic and fodder for conversation that was hard to forget. However, he seemed to have a stronger intuition that it was best to stay away from this young man; he was far from being as harmless as he appeared.

And now, his intuition seems to have come true "once again".

"What can I do for you?"

"That's my problem."

Li Lin waved his hand.

"I should be the one asking you, what exactly is your purpose in infiltrating our caravan?"

"..."

Upon hearing this, the young mercenary's heart tightened.

"Sir, I don't know what you're talking about, we are all..."

Honesty is a virtue.

Li Lin interrupted the young mercenary, placing his hand on the mercenary's shoulder and giving him an extremely friendly smile, like an elder advising his student.

"You're not stupid. You know, with so many mercenaries around, now that I've confirmed it's you, I have my ways. How long are you planning to play dumb? Imposter? If you can't give me a decent answer, I doubt the mercenaries would mind me executing someone who killed their comrade with the Book and then infiltrated using their comrade's identity."

"I... I... I didn't kill him!"

Sensing the seriousness in Li Lin's words, the young mercenary immediately shook his head in panic. Good heavens, he was still young; he didn't want to die in this cursed forest!

"So, what did you do to him?"

Li Lin didn't let go, still pressing on his shoulder and gently tapping it. This was also a reminder—a reminder to the mercenary that Li Lin still possessed the advantage of being able to kill him instantly, and that any lie could be his ticket to Hell.

"I... I just treated him to a few extra drinks..."

The young mercenary stammered, clearly not expecting to be discovered so quickly. Although he was just a low-level thief, he was quite proud of his skills in disguise. Therefore, he never anticipated being recognized.

"Then... he just fell asleep, and I took the opportunity to steal his pass and money pouch..."

"Very good, but that's not the point."

Li Lin nodded in satisfaction, but quickly continued. Under his implied threat, the poor young mercenary confessed everything in no time. He was just a petty thief wandering in Blackwater City, and his skills weren't particularly refined. His only source of pride was his decent disguise. Unfortunately, despite this talent, the thief's intelligence was clearly disproportionate to his skills, resulting in several unsuccessful attempts at theft. Stealing valuable items was a trial given to him by the Thieves' Guild, but after several attempts, the poor fellow finally succeeded once.

However, this one act that made the petty thief proud became the beginning of his misfortune—the diamond he stole was specially bought from the West by Lord Aosi, the sheriff of Blackwater City, to propose to his twenty-eighth girlfriend. Therefore, the poor, single sheriff, whose proposal was rejected, flew into a rage, and it was rumored that he even swore before the statue of the God of Justice that he would dedicate his life to fighting evil and crime—of course, first and foremost, to catch that damned, audacious thief.

Naturally, this unprecedented situation terrified the petty thief. He never imagined that stealing a diamond on a whim to prove he had mastered his craft would bring him such a terrible disaster. But now, he had no way to leave the city. The furious sheriff had already obtained his information and practically memorized his image in every soldier's mind, promising that whoever could catch this despicable thief would be promoted to his deputy.

The poor thief learned this from a soldier after disguising himself as a bar hostess. After that, he lived in constant fear. The Thieves' Guild, however, paid him no heed; they even heartlessly accepted the diamond and tossed him a badge as a "graduation." Of course, afterwards, the Thieves' Guild members warned the poor fellow on other occasions that if he dared to reveal the diamond's whereabouts, he'd better watch out for his head.

This is terrible.

Finally, after much deliberation, the unfortunate thief decided he had to leave the city immediately. After all, the world was vast, and he could go anywhere. Once he left Blackwater City, everything would be easier. So, when he saw the Hundred Thousand Thunders Caravan, this powerful caravan, laden with valuable goods and guarded by dozens of mercenaries, immediately caught his attention. Therefore, he deliberately disguised himself, got one of the mercenaries drunk, and then impersonated him to infiltrate the caravan.

In fact, everything went smoothly. With the caravan providing cover, the thief easily left Blackwater City. However, to his dismay, he hadn't expected the City of a Thousand Towers Mercenary Corps to be so disciplined, always maintaining a consistent number of members. This made his original plan to leave impossible. He had intended to slip away when the group disbanded after reaching the next town, but little did he know that his bad luck wasn't over yet.

"It seems you are telling the truth."

Li Lin finally released his hand from the young mercenary's shoulder. A flash of magical light appeared on the back of his hand, but the young mercenary, who was rejoicing at his narrow escape, didn't notice it at all.

"But regardless, you've already taken your payment."

Li Lin withdrew his hand, put it back behind his back, and stared at the young mercenary in front of him.

"I think you know what to do. Since you've taken the money, you should do a good job... If I find out you're trying to run away..."

At this point, Li Lin revealed that chilling smile that sent shivers down the spines of the pitiful mercenaries.

"You can give it a try; maybe I won't be able to find you."

After confirming the identity of the person who had infiltrated his caravan, Li Lin felt relieved and returned to the carriage. Of course, he also told the others about the uninvited visitor. The two sisters chuckled softly after hearing this, while Nia remained silent, only Angela frowned in displeasure.

"Master, you should really kill him."

She seemed quite certain that this was the right thing to do.

"This kind of person is no lucky charm. We might even get dragged down with him and suffer the same fate."

"No way, Miss Angela..."

Fina could hardly believe it.

"With your and your master's strength, what else could you possibly encounter...?"

"You're still too young, kid."

Angela squinted. Although she clearly looked more like a naive little girl, her words seemed to have been tempered by countless years of experience.

"Only when you reach the level of someone like me or my master will you realize that some people bring things that have nothing to do with strength, but rather indiscriminately implicate everyone... That's why I despise those lowly, hateful vermin the most."

Angela is right.

Li Lin accepted the invitation and agreed. He then glanced at Nia nodded with a wry smile. After all, among the Seven Ring Spirit Envoys, there was indeed such a figure.

"However, killing him now is not a good idea. Let him live. His disguise skills are indeed quite high. I have never seen anyone who can change their appearance so realistically without the aid of magic."

Li Lin eventually offered an explanation.

"Let's see what skills he has; maybe we can use him in some way."

Although it was unclear whether Li Lin's idea was correct, Angela's viewpoint was quickly proven correct.

"Ugh... it's all over now."

Watching the fat businessman clutching his head and sighing deeply, Li Lin sensed that he seemed to be facing the despair of the end of the world.

"There are over a dozen caravans waiting at the port, but the last cargo ship left yesterday! We'll have to wait at least half a month for another ship... Half a month, my esteemed guest..."

Looking at the fat businessman who seemed on the verge of suicide, Li Lin didn't say much. Time is money, time is life, and this is especially important for a businessman.

"So it seems we have no choice but to take that 'Black Road'."