Chapter 84: I'll Make a Move

Mu Lin had a pretty good impression of Elder Zhou. He was a reasonable old man.

His heart softened considerably.

"Are those them?" Mu Lin asked, pointing at the dark figures in the distance.

The security guard replied, "That's right! It's them. They're masters of unknown origin—unbelievably strong. Our security team is made up of elites, but we couldn't last five rounds against them!"

Mu Lin said, "You take Elder Zhou inside. I'll deal with them."

'Is he crazy?' the guard thought. His plan had been to use the door as a choke point for their defense.

He figured with his own strength, he could hold out until reinforcements arrived.

"Can you even handle this?!"

"I beat your captain just this afternoon. What do you think?" Mu Lin said.

The guard suddenly remembered and trembled. "It's you!"

He recalled Chen Jingyun's assessment. This man was a master; Chen Jingyun had even considered inviting him to help with the defense.

Mu Lin glanced back. Several men in black had already arrived.

They were about to climb over the fence. Once they did, a predictable bloodbath would ensue.

"Yes, it's me. Now hurry inside. Don't hold things up."

At Mu Lin's urging, the guard quickly ushered Elder Zhou into a room and pulled the door shut.

He could watch what was happening outside through the window.

'Mu Lin had better be able to run them off,' he thought. 'Otherwise, everyone in the villa is done for.'

The men in black vaulted the fence. Seeing Mu Lin standing in the yard, one of them sneered, "Get lost!"

If possible, he preferred not to kill indiscriminately.

If Mu Lin stepped aside, he would spare his life.

If Mu Lin refused, he didn't mind adding one more to the body count.

But he never expected Mu Lin to charge straight at him.

Wha—

"You have a death wish! Don't blame me for what happens next!"

The lead man in black gave a hand signal. The assassins formed pairs and closed in on Mu Lin.

One aimed for his head, the other for his heart.

An inexperienced opponent would have been fooled by their coordination.

But unfortunately for them, they were up against Mu Lin.

In a flash, two of them went flying like rag dolls.

Their bodies were twisted into grotesque shapes, as if they were boneless.

The security guard hiding inside was dumbfounded when he saw this.

He couldn't comprehend it. 'How could there be such a powerful master in the world? With a single flick of his wrist, a man was completely broken.'

After finishing off the first two, Mu Lin charged the next pair.

He sent them flying one by one like bowling pins.

It was a scene that defied repetition, even for actual rag dolls.

The men crashed into the fence, and the structure, which looked to have been repeatedly reinforced, shattered like fragile paper in the blink of an eye.

Mu Lin winced, his heart aching at the sight. 'How am I going to explain this to Elder Li?'

Luckily, he'd been very thorough when he'd moved the plants, bringing all the precious and portable ones inside.

For now, it was just some damaged turf. That could be reseeded later.

Elder Zhou was also watching through the glass. Seeing the scene unfold, his hands trembled slightly.

"Elder Zhou, are you all right? Are you feeling unwell?" the guard asked with concern, taking his hand.

Elder Zhou waved his other hand. "I'm fine. It's just excitement. I never thought I'd live to see a master of this caliber."

The guard was speechless. The strength of this group of assassins was beyond his imagination; he and his men had nearly given their lives just to escort Elder Zhou to this place.

And yet, against Mu Lin, these same assassins turned into complete pushovers, collapsing at the slightest touch.

What did that mean?

Seeing that most of their men were down, the last three or four assassins realized the mission was a failure and decided to make a swift retreat.

At the very least, one of them had to survive to report back and help prepare for the next attack.

'Thinking of running?'

Mu Lin gave chase. Seeing this wasn't going well, the assassins pulled two smoke bombs from their clothes and slammed them on the ground.

BANG!

The bombs released an incredibly thick smoke that enveloped Mu Lin.

It was acrid and searingly hot.

Mu Lin's eyes and nose began to stream, and he couldn't stop himself from letting out a series of sneezes.

'I can't take this, I really can't.'

By the time he burst out of the smoke, they had already gotten a good distance away.

"Where do you think you're going!" Suddenly, a sharp shout rang out. Mu Lin looked toward the sound and saw Chen Jingyun running over. He was covered in wounds, but they were all superficial; he was still in decent shape.

The assassins had no desire to fight him; escaping was their only priority.

But they had used all their smoke bombs on Mu Lin, so now they could only rely on their own two feet to flee for their lives.

Chen Jingyun charged forward and clashed with the four assassins, immediately taking down two of them.

The remaining two didn't dare to linger a moment longer and fled at top speed.

If Mu Lin caught up and joined forces with Chen Jingyun, God only knew if they would survive.

Chen Jingyun threw a dagger, piercing one of the men in the lower back and stopping his escape.

Then he leisurely jogged over and tied the man up with rope. He also stuffed a rag in the man's mouth to prevent him from biting his tongue to commit suicide.

"Haha, a live one!" Chen Jingyun was ecstatic. In all the previous attacks, they had never managed to capture a single one alive.

They either escaped or died on the spot. The ones who were too injured to run would even take cyanide to finish the job themselves.

Mu Lin used a tissue he had on him to blow his nose. After wiping himself clean, he walked forward.

He found Chen Jingyun furiously pointing at the surviving assassin, unleashing a tirade of anger.

The string of curses was endless; listening to it, Mu Lin almost felt sorry for the assassin.

Chen Jingyun saw Mu Lin, then his eyes fell on the bodies littering the ground around him.

'Did Mu Lin take care of all of them? They're beaten beyond human recognition! A single punch from him must have shattered every bone in their bodies, right?'

He snapped out of it, realizing it was rude to stare, and quickly gave Mu Lin an enthusiastic fist-and-palm salute. "I never expected you'd step in to right this wrong, Mr. Mu Lin, and deal with these killers."

Mu Lin's expression was grim. "Your people were running toward my home. If I hadn't stepped in, my family would have been in danger!"

Chen Jingyun said, "That was truly a coincidence, but I believe that even if they had intruded on someone else's property, you would have still chosen to help."

Mu Lin said, "You're right, you're right."

In reality, he was just placating him. 'Yeah, right,' he thought. 'Whoever wants to be a hero can go right ahead. What, was I supposed to help just for the fun of it?'

Turning around, Mu Lin saw the security guard helping Elder Zhou walk over slowly.

Chen Jingyun rushed forward and bowed deeply to Elder Zhou. "Elder Zhou, this subordinate arrived too late! My crime deserves ten thousand deaths!"

Elder Zhou waved his hand. "You can't be blamed. The assassins this time were too strong. It is not your fault."

But the more he said that, the more guilt-ridden Chen Jingyun felt.

'We lost too many guards this time,' he thought. 'If another wave of attackers comes right after this, we're done for.'

Elder Zhou looked at Mu Lin. "May I ask your name, sir?"

Mu Lin pursed his lips and replied, "Mu Lin."

Elder Zhou nodded slowly and took Mu Lin's hand. "Mu Lin, my young friend, it is all thanks to your righteous intervention. Otherwise, this old man would likely be dead by now."

Hearing this, Chen Jingyun was astonished.

He knew Elder Zhou well, and this was a clear sign that he held someone in high esteem. Otherwise, with Elder Zhou's proud and aloof nature, he would have never spoken to Mu Lin like that.

Mu Lin replied, "You are a man of great fortune, Elder Zhou. I'm sure you would have turned peril into safety even without my help."

"Let's dispense with the pleasantries," Elder Zhou said, turning with a chuckle. "It's getting late. This old man is going back to bed."

With that, Elder Zhou hunched his back and began to walk slowly in the direction of Area One.

"Elder Zhou, let me call a car for you! It's much easier than walking!" Chen Jingyun offered.

But Elder Zhou said, "No, I must walk more. Otherwise, I won't be able to walk at all."

Chen Jingyun could only excuse himself to Mu Lin and escort Elder Zhou toward Area One.

Mu Lin turned and looked at the utter mess on the ground. A sense of dread washed over him.

'When Elder Li wakes up tomorrow and sees his meticulously tended yard looking like this, I wonder how angry he'll be?'

Mu Lin quickly started cleaning up. After about ten minutes of work, the heavens opened up and it began to pour.

'Well, that's that...'

He could only leave it be.

Mu Lin went upstairs and, noticing the light was still on in Li Xue's room, couldn't help but peek inside.

Li Xue, not at all expecting Mu Lin to stick his head in, let out a shriek. "Ah! What are you doing?"

"I saw your light on. It's late, aren't you usually asleep by now?"

"The wind was so strong, all the banging woke me up. It sounded really noisy outside just now. What happened?"

Mu Lin considered for a moment. 'Li Xue's window faces south, and the yard is to the north. The entire fight happened on the other side of the house.'

That meant Li Xue hadn't discovered anything yet.

"Just the wind," he said. "Nothing happened."