"Li Zitian."
Lu Lin's gaze froze for a moment.
After being away for months, had that man finally returned?
But now he had grown far stronger than before. Even if the other party traced it back to him, he had his own ways to handle it.
But in case of the worst, he needed to improve his strength further.
That night, moonlight like a swathe of silk cascaded over the thousand-mile Demonic Mountain.
Silent as a ghost, Lu Lin left the sleeping quarters and came to that familiar patch of rocky mess. He retrieved the "Nimble Cat Technique" and, by the cold moonlight, read through it with due focus.
Before long, a new line of information surfaced above the Martial Dao Furnace:
Martial Art: Nimble Cat Technique (Uninitiated)
"Those two hundred Qi-Blood Pills are finally going to be of use." As a glint flashed in Lu Lin's eyes, he removed a handful of the pills and swallowed them, then began willing the Training Time to channel into the "Nimble Cat Technique".
[You're already a Body Tempering Sixth Level martial arts practitioner, with a broad horizon and a solid base, which saves you half of the efforts and doubles the progress as you train in other martial arts. After a month's arduous training, you have mastered all twenty-four moves of the Nimble Cat Technique, reaching the First Level.]
[After reaching the Tempering Body Sixth Level, your speed of absorbing Qi-Blood Pills has greatly increased. Now you can absorb one pill every three days. With an ample supply of Qi-Blood Pills, your progress in the Nimble Cat Technique remains swift. Another month later, you have achieved the Second Level in the Nimble Cat Technique.]
[After three more months' training, you have attained the Third Level in the Nimble Cat Technique.]
[After another year's training, you have stepped into the Nimble Cat Technique!]
[Remaining Training Time: 3 years 4 months.]
At this point, Lu Lin stopped channeling Training Time.
After entering the Fourth Level in the Nimble Cat Technique, if he wanted continued rapid growth, he would need Tendon-Tempering Pills.
After all, different training methods focused on tempering different body parts' tendons and flesh, and their results also varied. Some gave priority to the arm muscles, some the legs, some the torso...
Just because you had trained in one martial art and tempered some muscles didn't mean you could vault over multiple Levels in other martial arts. It still required exercising step by step the specific muscles this martial art corresponded to.
The same was true with the 'Bone Forging' stage.
Without the aid of pills, the remaining few years' Training Time would be insufficient for him to make any more significant breakthroughs in Nimble Cat Technique.
His four breakthroughs in a row in "Nimble Cat Technique" had brought another astonishing increase to his strength, growing by a full eighteen hundred jin and reaching a terrifying six thousand three hundred jin!
Such strength was already on par with, if not exceeding, that of a Body Tempering Seventh Level martial artist specializing in the "Demonic Ape Blood Qi Art".
"Blood Wolf Gang..." Lu Lin threw a casual punch, shattering a millstone-sized boulder beside him into pieces.
Confidence gleamed in his eyes, betraying not a single trace of fear.
...
The next day, as Lu Lin headed to the mine, as expected, he saw a group of Blood Wolf Gang outside the mine, in a threatening way, blocking other warriors' ways and asking questions.
Those lordly superintendents were nowhere to be seen.
"You! Come here!"
Several burly Blood Wolf Gang members noticed Lu Lin, a "new face", and barked an order.
Lu Lin walked over with a calm look. "Big Brothers, how can I help you?"
"Help? Poh!" A brawny man with a face full of meaty lines questioned coldly. "Tell us, did Li Zitong come looking for you over two months ago?"
"No," Lu Lin shook his head.
"Then do you know who else Li Zitong might have looked for? Out with it! Don't you dare lie to us!" The man's voice suddenly rose, trying to intimidate him.
"I don't know," Lu Lin shook his head again.
"You don't know?" As his eyes abruptly turned vicious, the muscles all over his body tensed, and his Qi and Blood churned, giving off the oppressive aura of a Body Tempering Fourth Level, he looked like a beast ready to pounce. "Kid, are you hiding something?!"
Such an aura was enough to scare an ordinary warrior out of their wits, but not Lu Lin, who stayed perfectly calm. Outwardly, he showed just the tinge of "fear", stammering, "Big Brother, I r-really don't know... how would I dare hide anything?"
"Kid, you're asking for a sound beating..." With a vicious look in his eyes, the man made as if to strike.
"Enough. Let him go."
A cold voice interjected.
A young man of around twenty, his face gloomy, walked over and waved his hand.
This was none other than Li Zitian.
They went too far yesterday and received a covert warning from a superintendent.
They could investigate, but were not to go overboard with violence and drag down the mining.
If they injured people, who would do the work?
"Kid, you're lucky. Get lost!" the burly man waved his hand grudgingly.
Lu Lin immediately turned and entered a tunnel with quick steps.
"That kid... he seemed unfamiliar," Li Zitian frowned slightly, a hint of doubt flashing in his gaze as he watched Lu Lin disappear.
"Brother Tian, that kid broke through the Body Tempering First Level only about three months ago," the brawny man beside him added.
"Just three months ago?" Li Zitian was slightly taken aback, then a sudden, terrifying cold light burst from his eyes. "Something wrong! He's lying! My elder brother would never let a 'sitting duck' with a fresh breakthrough slip by; he would definitely go to him and collect 'protection money'! But he said he had never met my brother..."
Instantly wising up, he shouted sharply, "Something's wrong! After him! Catch up to that kid, pry his mouth open! Find out why he lied!"
Li Zitian bolted off, leading a dozen Blood Wolves Gang capable hands into the mine tunnel and swiftly pursuing in the direction Lu Lin had left.
Deep in the tunnel, Lu Lin, who had been hurrying along, abruptly halted.
"Something's amiss! I said I hadn't seen Li Zitong. That's a huge flaw! If Li Zitian is meticulous, a little verification would expose it..." His thoughts raced to devise a countermeasure.
With his current strength, he naturally had no fear of them. Even if a conflict broke out, wiping them all out wouldn't be difficult. But this was the Xuesha Demonic Sect!
Secretly doing away with them, making it look like a cave-in, the higher-ups inside the Demonic Sect might not bother investigating thoroughly.
But killing them in broad daylight was an absolute major violation of the Sect rules, crossing the line.
No matter how lowly, warriors were still part of the Demonic Sect's "property", their consumables, not to be disposed of by others.
This was precisely the fundamental reason Brother Bao and his men had eventually been rooted out.
Moreover, once he launched an attack, his true Realm would inevitably be exposed.
"I originally planned to act later... yet it seems I have to put it into practice now." A cold glint passed in Lu Lin's gaze. Without hesitation anymore, his figure gathered an abrupt momentum. Having activated the Nimble Cat Technique, his footsteps were as light as a cat's, yet astonishingly fast. In these crisscrossing tunnels, his form flashed a few times before vanishing off.
A clear target in his mind----the territory of the Black Tiger Gang!
The Black Tiger Gang was another gang in the Xuan-iron mine, on par with the Blood Wolf Gang. The two were long-standing bitter rivals that had had frequent fights over rich mining areas.
In a tunnel that had been deliberately excavated to be extremely spacious, resembling an underground hall, there was a rough wooden table and stone stools. A large iron pot was bubbling on the table, from which the rich aroma of meat permeated the air.
Eight high-ranking members of the Black Tiger Gang sat around the table, eating large chunks of meat, drinking from big bowls, grease smeared around their mouths, thoroughly enjoying themselves.
This was the life of a gang's brass. Ordinary warriors had to work their asses off mining just to barely survive, while they could sit back and reap the benefits without labor.
"Boss, I heard Li Zitian is back, running around like a mad dog investigating his brother's disappearance," a lean young man said while tearing into a piece of meat.
"Poh! That kid was called away by an Immortal Master for a task. Too bad he didn't die out there!" another spat.
"You said it! That kid's talent is frightening. If he manages to reach Proficiency in 'Demonic Ape Palm', I'm afraid even you, Boss, might not be able to suppress him!" several others chimed in, their tones laced with apprehension.
"Don't worry!" A strapping man with a full beard sitting at the head spoke in a booming voice, picking up a large piece of meat into his mouth. " I am not far from the Proficiency in Demonic Ape Palm, either. When the time comes, why would I fear a junior like Li Zitian?"
This man was the Black Tiger Gang Leader, Liu Heihu.
The "Demonic Ape Palm" he spoke of was precisely the first combat skill that came along as one had achieved the Body Tempering Fourth Level in Demonic Ape Blood Qi Art!
"Wanting to eliminate Li Zitian? Is there any difficulty doing that?"
From one of the tunnels came a sudden, calm voice, echoing within the cavern.
"Who's there?!"
Liu Heihu and the others' expressions changed drastically. Their eyes swung towards the source of the voice, their Qi and Blood instantly churning around them.
From the shadows stepped a tall, slender figure, wearing a black cloth mask that exposed only his eyes, glinting with calmness under the dim light.