Chapter 327 326: Contributed Nothing

Mu Lin said, "Isn't that obvious? Your friend is so well-informed and knows all about me. Didn't he tell you?"

"Weren't you hiding in the villa? Didn't you hear our conversation just now?"

The Grandmaster's face turned ugly. He indeed hadn't heard everything clearly.

"A half-assed amateur, as expected. Everything you do is just shy of competent. Let her go, and I'll let you live."

But the Grandmaster glanced at Shen Xilu, and a savage look flashed across his face.

Mu Lin's gaze hardened. "So you want to take her down with you? Let me tell you something—she won't die, but you won't live!"

Mu Lin's spiritual sense erupted, a powerful shockwave blasting into the Grandmaster's mind.

The Grandmaster's vision went black. Not only that, but all his senses vanished.

He stood frozen, like a puppet.

With a flick of Mu Lin's hand, the top of the man's head went flying.

His face was split in two, a particularly gruesome sight.

Even as an experienced first-level agent of the Military Suppression Bureau, Shen Xilu was startled.

'This is too horrifying. A face just... split apart like that.'

The blood didn't even gush out until after a brief pause.

This showed just how razor-sharp the blade formed from Mu Lin's aura was.

Shen Xilu lunged toward Mu Lin, but he turned, sidestepped her, and positioned himself behind her.

A bloody mist filled the air, but it was completely blocked by a protective barrier of Qi that Mu Lin erected, not a single drop landing on her.

Shen Xilu's expression shifted repeatedly. 'This...'

'He didn't catch me because he was blocking the blood mist, I know, but...' Her emotions were still in turmoil.

Shen Xilu herself didn't know why she felt a strange sense of disappointment.

Who knows?

Mu Lin turned back to Shen Xilu. "Miss Shen, things got a little messy. I accidentally split his face... I was originally aiming for the neck..."

"I'm not sure if this face can be pieced back together."

Shen Xilu pursed her lips. "It can, it probably can! But he's not on any wanted lists, so there's probably not much of a reward."

Mu Lin chuckled. "If there isn't, there isn't. As long as you're all right."

Shen Xilu's face flushed red with a mix of shame and vexation. She, a dignified first-level agent, hadn't been able to contribute at all during the arrest.

How laughable and pathetic.

Mu Lin was also reflecting on his own performance. 'That wasn't good enough.'

'My power level was clearly sufficient, but because I haven't cultivated any advanced spiritual attack techniques, I couldn't kill this Grandmaster with Spiritual Power alone.'

'My current methods are a bit sloppy. It's easy to be a step too slow.'

After all, this was a life-or-death battlefield. It was worth making countless efforts to improve one's precision even by the smallest margin.

Such efficiency was paramount.

'I still need to work harder.'

After this bit of self-reflection, Mu Lin continued, "Miss Shen, help me drag Niu Daoist in here!"

Shen Xilu quickly complied. She was in the middle of her own self-recrimination for having done nothing, so upon hearing Mu Lin's request, she scrambled out and dragged Niu Daoist back in.

"Mr. Mu, please!"

Shen Xilu's attitude was excellent. Mu Lin nodded. "Thank you, Miss Shen!"

"You're welcome!" Shen Xilu straightened her clothes, discreetly tugging her agent's uniform down.

Mu Lin studied Niu Daoist. The man's face was ashen, and he truly looked dead. But checking for a breath, Mu Lin found the man was still alive and kicking.

Ugh, who knew.

Mu Lin raised his hand and pressed down, using Qi Force to stimulate Niu Daoist's Qi and Blood. A moment later, Niu Daoist woke up.

The moment he woke up, he started kowtowing frantically. "My lord, spare me! I have an eighty-year-old mother at home and a young child waiting to be fed..."

Mu Lin pretended not to hear and looked at Shen Xilu. "Miss Shen, check the body of the one whose head was split in two and see if he has anything on him."

Niu Daoist saw that his esteemed client, his temporary partner no less, was dead. It was a terrifying sight.

He instantly regretted cooperating with this person.

'To work with this idiot, I passed up several chances for a one-hit kill. Now the original objective can't even be completed.'

'If I had acted alone, Mu Lin would've been a lonely ghost by now.'

'But there are no "if onlys." Now I'm just a poor bug, like a fish on the chopping block.'

It was truly tragic.

'What am I going to do?'

"I never expected you to know the Tracing Technique. If I'd known, I would've left overnight and not stayed in Anhua for a second longer."

Mu Lin said, "Don't be in such a hurry to talk. First, tell me who hired you."

'I'm in a desperate situation,' Niu Daoist thought. 'I have no choice but to betray my employer. I'm all alone, and my master kicked the bucket long ago, so I don't have to worry about my family being harmed. If I can trade my client's secret for my life, that's a reliable path.'

"Chu Chaoxiong! It was Chu Chaoxiong who hired me!" Niu Daoist shouted. "He said he wanted to target the Li Group and Liangyu Investment! I thought it wouldn't be too difficult, and the pay was generous, so I agreed!"

He was being remarkably frank.

Mu Lin said, "Oh, I see."

After he spoke, the aura around his body intensified, flickering again and again.

Niu Daoist suddenly panicked. Mu Lin was going to kill the donkey now that the grinding was done—he was going to kill him now that he had the name.

"Hey, hey, hey, you can't kill me! You'll regret it if you kill me!"

Mu Lin chuckled. "Regret? Why would I? Who do you think is left to protect you?"

Niu Daoist said earnestly, "I am a disciple of the Daoist Sect!"

Mu Lin raised his eyebrows. "A disciple of the Daoist Sect ended up this pathetic? I don't believe you."

Niu Daoist gritted his teeth and added, "Although I betrayed my sect long ago, I still have many connections within it. If you kill me, my friends from the sect will find out, and they definitely won't let it go!"

Mu Lin said, "Then let them come. But let me make this clear: if I kill you, it won't be me who killed you, it'll be the Military Suppression Bureau. Let your friends go looking for the Military Suppression Bureau and walk right into a trap. Sounds good to me."

Niu Daoist's face went pale when he heard this. He really couldn't understand how things had turned out this way.

Mu Lin wasn't scared at all. 'Doesn't that mean I'm a dead man?'

While his expression was shifting between despair and hope, Mu Lin spoke again, slowly. "I was just thinking... why would you bring up the Daoist Sect now? It's obvious you betrayed them a long time ago. A normal person wouldn't bring up their past; they'd try to rely on connections they made later on."

"But, for some reason, you chose the people of the Daoist Sect as your backing."

"What exactly are you plotting?"

As Mu Lin spoke, Niu Daoist's face gradually grew tense.

Mu Lin guessed he had really hit a nerve.

He smiled. "Well, well. I didn't expect there to be a real story here."

He was just bluffing—casting a net to see if he could catch a fish, regardless of whether there was one.

He hadn't expected to hook a big one so easily.

Mu Lin suddenly struck, slapping Niu Daoist on the body.

Niu Daoist suddenly felt an unbearable itch starting from the point of contact. The sensation quickly spread throughout his entire body.

Pain. Utter pain.

God only knew what this feeling was like.

"God, have mercy! Mercy!" Niu Daoist rolled around madly on the floor. He was in genuine agony.

Mu Lin said, "Mercy? Then tell me the secret. And don't even think about lying. I have ways to tell if you're telling the truth. As a former disciple of the Daoist Sect, I expect you understand these things, right?"

Niu Daoist was overwhelmed with despair. He clawed and scratched at his body with both hands, nearly tearing his skin off.

"Please, I beg you, stop! I really don't have any secrets!"

Mu Lin slapped him again. This time the intensity was even greater. Niu Daoist almost thought his body had been set on fire and was being consumed by flames.

The sensation was truly terrifying. 'What is happening?'

What does it mean to feel worse than death?

Niu Daoist believed that no one who hadn't experienced this kind of agony could possibly know.

"Do me a favor, do me a favor and just kill me!" he screamed in despair.

Niu Daoist desperately slammed his head against the floor, thinking that if he could just knock himself out, it would be better.

But somehow, Mu Lin prevented it. Even with his head covered in blood, he couldn't pass out.

Mu Lin crouched down, looked at Niu Daoist, and said succinctly, "Then tell me. Why do the people of the Daoist Sect care so much about you? Tell me, and I'll send you on your way."

Watching from the side, Shen Xilu couldn't help but sigh. Mu Lin's methods were so vicious; he didn't give Niu Daoist even the slightest chance to alleviate his suffering.