Chapter 286 285: Worse Than a Dog

"How could you kill him! You're so heartless!"

Mu Lin blinked. "What the hell? You didn't say a thing when he was trying to kill me, did you?"

"Weren't you two trying to kill me, too? Let me ask you—since you wanted to kill me, does that make you heartless?"

The two men's expressions changed. Mu Lin's killing intent was real.

They exchanged a quick glance and scattered, hoping at least one of them could escape.

But Mu Lin merely took two steps forward and struck out with a casual palm.

They were both dead.

In their panic, they had used all their Gang Qi to speed their escape.

Their heads might as well have been made of paper.

The attendants Vajra Zhenren had brought were trembling with fear.

Yang Qitian was even worse off; he looked as if he wanted nothing more than to drop to his knees and start shaking.

Patriarch Yang's face was deathly pale, utterly drained of color.

Without Vajra Zhenren's protection, the Yang Family was completely finished.

Utterly and completely finished, with no hope of recovery.

Mu Lin glanced at Patriarch Yang. "Patriarch Yang, where's your bathroom?"

Patriarch Yang said hastily, "I'll take you there."

He even instructed a servant to fetch some clothes and bring them to the bathroom door.

When Mu Lin opened the bathroom door, he paused, stunned.

'I didn't expect Patriarch Yang to be so thorough.'

"These are Qitian's clothes. You and he are of a similar build, so they should fit you well."

Well… Mu Lin didn't stand on ceremony. He simply grabbed the clothes and put them on.

'These guys are shameless. Beat them hard enough, and they'll immediately start groveling.'

"Everyone in the Yang Family is waiting for you in the main hall," Patriarch Yang said meekly, his gaze lowered.

Mu Lin laughed. "There's no need for all this. You're being too polite! Much too polite!"

As he spoke, he strode into the main hall.

Mu Lin plopped himself down on the main seat.

No one from the Yang or Li families dared to even breathe.

With a collective thud, the entire Yang Family knelt. "Mr. Mu, this is all my fault," Patriarch Yang cried. "I deserve to die! I deserve to die!"

"But my grandson and the others are innocent! I beg you to spare them!"

Mu Lin tilted his head. "When you all went to raise hell at the Li Group, you didn't think you were in the wrong then, did you? So many security guards and bodyguards were incapacitated. It'll take them a year to recover."

"So tell me, what reason do I have to let you go? If I killed you, countless people in Anhua would set off firecrackers to celebrate!"

Patriarch Yang said hurriedly:

"Name it! Whatever you want, I'll give it to you!"

"So, what does the Yang Family own? Companies? Conglomerates? Mines? Lay it all out for me."

Patriarch Yang let out a long sigh and listed all of their assets.

Mu Lin's eyes went wide as he listened. As expected of one of the three great families of Anhua, their foundation was truly substantial.

Mu Lin called Zhou Qianfan. "Uncle Zhou."

At that moment, Zhou Qianfan was so worried about Mu Lin that he couldn't sit still and was constantly pacing back and forth in his office.

"Mu Lin! How are you? Hasn't Vajra Zhenren come for you yet?"

"Uncle Zhou, listen to you. Vajra Zhenren is dead. He died by my hand."

There was a long silence on the other end of the line. Zhou Qianfan covered his mouth and clenched his fist, trying to contain his overwhelming excitement.

He was ecstatic!

He knew that without Vajra Zhenren, the Yang Family had lost its pillar of support. This even paved the way for the Zhou Family's rise.

After a moment, he finally spoke, "Oh, is that so? Mu Lin, you're truly incredible. I'm beyond impressed!"

Mu Lin chuckled. "It was nothing. Uncle Zhou, please send someone to take over the Yang Family's assets. It's two or three hundred billion, you know. Quite a sum."

This…

Zhou Qianfan was momentarily speechless. Then he said:

"Okay, I'll send someone over immediately. Don't worry, I'll make sure it's handled perfectly!"

Mu Lin laughed. "With you handling it, Uncle Zhou, I'm not worried at all!"

Mu Lin hung up the phone and turned to the few people from the Di Yang Li Family. "And you? What about you?"

"This…" The two of them looked utterly hopeless. Mu Lin was too strong; the rise of the Anhua Li Family was now practically inevitable.

"Please spare us! Spare our lives!"

Mu Lin said, "Who said I was going to kill you? Go back. Tell the head of your Li Family to think things over carefully. After all, you're all named Li. I don't want to upset the old man."

The two Li Family members were dumbfounded. 'Could such… gentle words really come from Mu Lin's mouth?'

Mu Lin turned and left.

Fang Longzhi sat on a sofa, tapping two of his fingers together, waiting anxiously.

Someone rushed in hurriedly. Fang Longzhi said to him, "Well? Mu Lin is dead, right?"

"No! Vajra Zhenren and his two junior martial brothers are all dead!"

Fang Longzhi was utterly astonished.

"How could this be?"

'Vajra Zhenren couldn't even beat some kid in his early twenties? What a joke! People would laugh their heads off if word got out!'

"It's the truth. I saw Vajra Zhenren's body myself. It was mangled. He clearly went through an extremely brutal fight, but he still lost."

A grim expression settled on Fang Longzhi's face. The Fang Family had bet on the wrong horse.

What was worse, he had already severed all ties with the Zhou Family. The Fang Family wouldn't be able to get a single benefit from Mu Lin's side…

What utter despair.

Lin Shishi also received the news. She was taken aback. 'So he wasn't just bluffing.'

She immediately dialed her father.

"Dad… Mu Lin actually won!"

Lin Jin was silent for a good while, then suddenly said, "Shishi, what do you think of Mu Lin? Is he worthy of you?"

Lin Shishi's face suddenly turned bright red. "I'm not sure I'm worthy of him…"

She abruptly hung up. Lin Jin shook his head. 'Of course, I know that,' he thought. 'Mu Lin is the man of the hour. What right does the Lin Family have to covet him?'

There was no telling how many people had their eyes on such a prize catch.

Lin Jin turned to Lin Tian. "Dad, Mu Lin won!"

Lin Tian blinked. "Really? He won? You're saying he won…"

"For real?"

"It's absolutely true!"

Lin Tian slammed his hand on the table, exclaiming excitedly, "We must maintain a good relationship with Mu Lin! Do not offend him! With him around, the Lin Family has no one to fear in Nanjiang!"

「In Di Yang City, at the Ning Family estate.」

After hearing the report, Elder Ning straightened up, his face twisted in a snarl.

"Useless! You're all useless! Get out!"

He grabbed a valuable porcelain antique and smashed it violently on the ground. At least twenty million just went up in smoke.

"He actually lost? And so miserably?"

"What in the world is that kid Mu Lin's background?" Elder Ning recalled a rumor circulating about Mu Lin: that he was sent out by a major power to temper himself in the mortal world, and that he would leave once his training was complete…

If that rumor was true, then he had just made a terribly bad move.

Right now, Mu Lin's fame was spreading like wildfire. In an instant, countless people learned of this incredibly formidable young man.

His fame was fast approaching that of the Sword God, Dong Wu.

Mu Lin, however, couldn't care less about any of this. He searched Vajra Zhenren's body and found quite a few good things.

He didn't go straight back to the Li Group, nor did he go home. Instead, he found a secluded place to take stock of Vajra Zhenren's belongings.

The very first item made him extremely excited.

The cultivation Dharma Gate for the Vajra Shield.

Mu Lin was incredibly excited. This was the whole reason he'd looted the corpse.

He hadn't gotten his hopes up, but there it was!

'Shouldn't such an important Dharma Gate be kept safe within the sect? Carrying it on his person like this… it's just unbelievable.'

While he was out and about, he always felt that his lack of defense was a huge problem, but he didn't have a single body-refining technique.

The reason was simple: the old man wouldn't give him one.

The old man believed that now was the time to build his foundation, and that he absolutely couldn't take any shortcuts, so he hadn't taught him any at all.

'I guess it's up to me to figure something out.'

He eagerly began to read, devouring the text like a man starved. But after just a short while, it ended.

This Dharma Gate was only the first half; it only recorded the method up to the Celestial Realm.

In other words, the reason Vajra Zhenren had only cultivated to this level was because he could *only* cultivate to this level.

'Thank goodness.'

'If he'd been any stronger, I'm not sure I could have won.'

'But now that I want to cultivate it, this is a headache. This is going to be frustrating.'

With his own foundation, his speed of cultivating to the Celestial Realm would be far faster than an ordinary person's.

That meant the usefulness of this Dharma Gate would be even more short-lived for him, making it almost pointless.

'Sigh... Why does it have to be this way?'

Even so, the goal at hand felt particularly thrilling.

'Ah, whatever. I'll just practice it and see what happens.'

Mu Lin began to try condensing Gang Qi according to the method described.

In less than two hours, he had succeeded.