Chapter 231: Soul Scattered!
CRACK! CRACK!
From within the dust and smoke, two crisp sounds resonated. It was as if something had shattered.
Fang Jian stood up, a calm smile on his face. However, in the next second, that smile froze. As the dust cleared, the three combatants stood facing each other.
They watched as the bodies of Zheng Shi and Zheng Bao trembled violently. A moment later, piercing screams erupted from their mouths.
Their arms were broken!
Bones protruded from their shoulder blades, and the piercing pain was so intense that even with their great strength, they couldn’t bear it.
Lin Mu, having shattered both their arms simultaneously, was already lifting his foot. His leg shot out like lightning, striking them squarely in the chest.
PFFT!
With mournful wails, the two men were hurled through the air.
Zheng Shi and Zheng Bao smashed into the ground, spurting out mouthfuls of blood as their faces turned deathly pale. Fang Jian and the others stared blankly, unable to process what had just happened.
Zheng Shi and Zheng Bao looked at Lin Mu in sheer terror. They had never anticipated that he would be so formidable. With just a single punch and a kick, he had severely injured them.
"You... who in the world are you?" Zheng Shi asked, his voice trembling.
Lin Mu glanced at them. Their severe injuries were only because he had held back. If he had intended to kill, they would already be corpses. Although they were two Inner Strength Martial Artists who had joined forces, there was a world of difference between their power and his.
The reason was simple. He was a Cultivator, with power that far surpassed a Martial Arts Grandmaster.
Lin Mu approached the two with an indifferent expression.
"You... what are you doing?" Terrified, Zheng Shi scrambled backward.
"What am I doing?" Lin Mu said coolly. "Since you wanted to kill me, you should be prepared to be killed by me."
He advanced swiftly, his figure blurring into an afterimage.
"No...!" the two men cried out in dread.
However, Lin Mu remained unmoved, his speed only increasing.
"Boy, that’s enough!"
Just then, Zheng Long, who had been watching from the sidelines, suddenly bellowed. He stomped on the ground and soared out like an Azure Hawk, his hands curved like hooks, aiming for the top of Lin Mu’s head.
"Azure Dragon Claw!" His five fingers stretched taut, resembling a dragon’s claw.
At the same instant, Zheng Hu made his move, his kick toward Lin Mu’s neck as fast as lightning.
"Fierce Tiger Step!" It was a powerful and heavy blow, as swift as a pouncing tiger.
Both of them unleashed killing blows, aiming to end Lin Mu in a single strike.
"Hmph!" Lin Mu snorted contemptuously. "You overestimate yourselves."
With a wave of his hand, a terrifying power erupted.
"Demonslaying Claw!"
It was a technique from the Twelve Forms of Slaying Gods and Demons and Punishing Immortals. Sharp Spiritual Energy coiled around his fingers as he struck.
CRACK!
His hands instantly clamped down on Zheng Long’s wrist and Zheng Hu’s ankle. Taking a step forward, his shoulder slammed into Zheng Long’s chest.
"Pfft!"
Zheng Long spat out a mouthful of blood and was flung backward like a kite with its string cut.
Without pausing, Lin Mu’s arm shot up. Channeling Spiritual Energy, he swung the nearly two-hundred-pound Zheng Hu into the air.
THUD!
He smashed Zheng Hu onto the ground. The man gagged, vomiting a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of his internal organs.
One move. Zheng Long and Zheng Hu were dead.
At this, Zheng Shi and Zheng Bao were finally consumed by fear.
Zheng Shi began to kowtow frantically. "Master, I was wrong! Please, don’t kill me!"
Lin Mu killed his eldest two brothers in a single move. His strength is definitely above the Inner Strength realm. And above Inner Strength is the Grandmaster realm! We actually provoked a Martial Arts Grandmaster! This... this is insane.
"Spare you?" Lin Mu twisted his neck slightly. "Save it for the underworld."
His foot flicked up, kicking a machete lying on the ground. The blade whistled through the air at terrifying speed, piercing straight through Zheng Shi’s chest. Its momentum barely slowed as it continued on, embedding itself in Zheng Bao’s chest.
"Uh..." Zheng Bao looked down at the hilt protruding from his chest with a desolate expression, then collapsed to the ground.
Within minutes, the so-called Four Braves of the Zheng Family were all dead.
At that moment, Fang Jian collapsed, his face ashen, his eyes filled with despair.
Lin Mu slowly sat down in the chair Fang Jian had just vacated, gazing indifferently at the two who remained: Wang Hu and Fang Jian. As for the corpses and blood strewn across the floor, it was as if he didn’t even see them.
"Master Lin, spare me!" Wang Hu fell to his knees with a thud, shouting for mercy. "It was all Fang Jian! He was the one who coveted your company, so he kidnapped your girlfriend to threaten you. I was just misled by him, Master Lin! Please, let me go!"
He grew more agitated as he spoke, and Fang Jian immediately panicked. Wang Hu had sold him out completely. He remembered how Wang Hu had sworn to help him see the plan through.
Lin Mu killed so many people, he definitely won’t let me go.
But instead of begging for mercy, he adopted a cold, threatening tone. "Lin Mu, is it? I’ll remember you. The green mountains don’t change, and the rivers flow forever. Our paths will cross again!"
"One day," he snarled, "I will make you kneel and beg me!"
With that, Fang Jian turned to leave.
"Did I say you could leave?" Lin Mu’s voice stopped him in his tracks.
"What, you dare to touch me?" Fang Jian spun around, his expression grim. "Lin Mu, if you lay a finger on me, my Fang Family will never let you go. So, I advise you to know your place!"
The status of the Fang Family in Jiangling was beyond the imagination of ordinary people. A mere Lin Mu couldn’t possibly do anything to him.
"You dared to seek a partnership without even investigating who I am. I must say, you’re quite bold," Lin Mu said, a playful look on his face. "And you still dare to speak to me in that tone. Are you looking to die?"
Are you looking to die?
The words made Fang Jian’s eyes narrow. He, Fang Jian, was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Who had ever dared to speak to him in such a tone? In all of Jiangling, everyone bowed their heads in reverence when they heard he was from the Fang Family. But here, in this tiny River City, he was actually being threatened?
What an absolute humiliation!
"Fine, fine, fine! Lin Mu, I’ll remember you!" Fang Jian said viciously. "Sooner or later, I will see to it you die without a burial place!"
"Is that so?" Lin Mu replied, noncommittal. "If your Fang Family gives me trouble, I won’t mind erasing them from Jiangling. But for now, you can die."
As he spoke, Lin Mu raised a finger. A streak of purple Thunderbolt swirled at its tip.
"You dare to kill me? You actually dare to kill me?" Fang Jian roared, his face a mask of rage and fear.
Lin Mu waved his arm, and the Thunderbolt shot out, smashing toward the horrified Fang Jian.
"No...!"
Fang Jian screamed, trying to dodge, but the Thunderbolt was too fast. It struck his body in an instant.
BANG!
The moment the lightning made contact, Fang Jian’s body convulsed. With a deafening crackle, he disintegrated into ash.
The Thunderbolt was the power of the nine heavens, capable of annihilating a Divine Soul. And just like that, this scion of the wealthy Fang Family from Jiangling had his very soul obliterated.