Chapter Eighty-Nine: Ten Seconds for You

A counterfeit Dou Dou looked at Lin Yi in confusion and said, "I put a colorless, odorless paralytic drug into the lotus seed soup you just drank. Within ten seconds, even a maddened bull would collapse instantly. I watched you drink it with my own eyes, so how can you be fine?"

She truly could not understand it. Relying on the drug's invisible and tasteless nature, she had caught many experts off guard.

Even masters at the highest level of innate cultivation had fallen prey to her before, yet now she had run into an accident with Lin Yi.

Lin Yi nodded. "I see. Too bad for you, that kind of drug does nothing to me."

"Hmph. Even if the drug is useless, you still won't get away." The counterfeit Dou Dou gave a cold snort and lashed out with a leg, striking down toward Lin Yi like a sharp blade.

Without the slightest change in expression, Lin Yi reached out and firmly caught her ankle.

The woman's pupils contracted slightly. She had not expected her fierce strike to be so easily blocked.

Her fingers curved again into claws, inner energy clinging to them as she savagely raked at Lin Yi.

If those claws landed cleanly, even a sheet of iron would likely be torn with several deep gashes.

Lin Yi tilted his neck aside slightly. Taking the chance, the counterfeit Dou Dou drew back her right leg, then pushed off with her toe and swiftly retreated several yards.

"Who sent you?" Lin Yi asked in a calm voice.

"No one sent me." The counterfeit Dou Dou stared at him sharply, her body taut and ready to react to the slightest movement.

"Such a bother."

Lin Yi shook his head and stepped forward, vanishing and reappearing in an instant before her.

The counterfeit Dou Dou reacted quickly, snapping out a hand in a clawing strike.

Lin Yi seized her wrist and flung it aside. With a bang, she crashed straight into the wall.

Fortunately, Lin Yi had controlled his strength; otherwise, not only would this counterfeit Dou Dou have been finished, the wall itself might have collapsed.

She fell to the floor, only to feel a violent twisting pain in her internal organs.

"The intelligence was wrong. So this so-called likely innate master is the real thing. I’m afraid I, the Thousand-Faced Demon, am going to fall here today."

The Thousand-Faced Demon was unwilling to accept it. This had originally been nothing more than a routine assignment, almost like a trip, yet it had turned into this.

Watching Lin Yi approach step by step, each pace seemed to press down on her heart.

"Did you notice me from the start?" The Thousand-Faced Demon tried to stall for time, her eyes darting around rapidly in search of an opening.

Lin Yi stopped and said, "Your disguise technique isn't refined enough. You only have the outer appearance, not the inner essence. At best, it's only a minor accomplishment.

"Also, Dou Dou would never call me 'brother.' And one more thing: your lotus seed soup tastes better than hers."

That much was true. The lotus seed soup made by the Thousand-Faced Demon was far more delicious than Dou Dou's.

The Thousand-Faced Demon was somewhat irritated. She had joined the Blood Oath Alliance for less than half a year and had already become a silver assassin.

What she relied on was precisely this wondrous disguise technique, yet in Lin Yi's mouth it had been reduced to something so shabby.

But one must bow one's head beneath another's roof. Gritting her teeth, she said, "Don't kill me. I'll give you ten million."

Lin Yi smiled faintly. "You have less backbone than the assassin from last time. Tell me, were you sent by the Blood Oath Alliance?"

At this point, the Thousand-Faced Demon no longer intended to hide it. She nodded and gave a soft mm before saying, "The last assassin failed, so the employer raised the reward to ten million."

Lin Yi was somewhat speechless. He had not expected that, even in death, Sun Wenlong could still leave him a bit of trouble.

"I've said everything I should. I'll give you another ten million. Please don't kill me," the Thousand-Faced Demon pleaded again.

"All right. I'll give you ten seconds to run. If you can get away, then I suppose your life wasn't meant to end here." Lin Yi gave a light laugh.

The Thousand-Faced Demon felt a surge of joy and hurriedly asked, "Really?"

"Really. From the moment you leave this room, I'll begin counting down ten seconds. I hope you can run farther." Lin Yi smiled faintly.

The Thousand-Faced Demon would never believe Lin Yi would keep any promise. Only a fool would casually trust another person's words.

But she was confident that if she had three seconds, she could vanish without a trace by relying on her disguise technique.

She hastily swallowed a healing pill and quickly left the room.

As she fled, her figure kept shrinking, until in the end she had become a little girl of seven or eight years old.

The Thousand-Faced Demon still had some confidence in her disguise technique.

Mixed into the crowd, she no longer hurried. She skipped and hopped along, looking exactly like a little girl just out of school.

Taking the chance, she glanced at the time. "Ten seconds. Let's see how you find me."

The instant that thought arose, a lethal crisis enveloped her.

"How can this be?"

She looked around in panic, only to see a streak of golden light flash past and pierce straight through her chest.

Lin Yi sat in the room and gently shook his head. The only reason he had not killed the Thousand-Faced Demon outright was simply that he did not want her to stain his home with blood.

...

Three days passed in a flash.

Life had once again settled into peace, but today that peace was broken.

Early that morning, Lin Yi came downstairs and found the towering Snake King there.

Beside the Snake King, a few young girls were asking for photos with him.

Yet the Snake King ignored them completely, standing there with his eyes closed like a stone statue.

The moment Lin Yi noticed him, the Snake King also sensed it. His eyes snapped open, and a faint white light seemed to flash within them.

"You didn't forget the challenge from before, did you?" the Snake King said, looking down at Lin Yi.

"No," Lin Yi replied.

"Good. Then let's go. I've already prepared the car." With that, the Snake King left the residential compound first.

Lin Yi followed right behind him.

The Snake King drove a black Audi Q2. Though not expensive, it was roomy and suited him well.

After Lin Yi got in, the Snake King started the car.

Before long, the two of them arrived at Dragon-Tiger Cliff.

A large crowd of martial artists had already gathered there, most of them from the Martial Arts Association, with some others having come only after hearing rumors.

"They're here, they're here! Look, that's the Snake King's car."

"I heard the Snake King broke through to grandmaster level several days ago. With those iron fists of his, even a stone four meters high can be smashed to pieces with one punch."

"No way. That's too terrifying."

At the same time, there were also a few pretty girls in the crowd who had come for sightseeing.

If Lin Yi were to see them, he would definitely recognize two familiar faces among them: Xia Mo and Zhao Huan, whom he had once met at a Chanel boutique.

These two were mortal enemies of Lin Dou Dou, but ever since they had been taught a lesson by Lin Yi, they had not dared to trouble Dou Dou again.

"Xia Mo, did you hear that just now? It sounds like they're talking about Lin Yi," Zhao Huan said, tugging at Xia Mo's sleeve.

"I heard it." Xia Mo's eyes were filled with a trace of hatred.

At the thought of how Lin Yi had slapped her several times back then, she wished she could flay him alive.

But Lin Yi had ties to the Wang family, and that left her with no recourse.

What was more, the Wang family's rise had been far too swift lately, so she could only keep her head down even more.

"Come on, let's go take a look." Zhao Huan pulled at Xia Mo's arm.

Very quickly, the two of them squeezed to the front and saw Lin Yi at the foot of the mountain.

"It really is him!" Xia Mo's hatred deepened even more.

Zhao Huan asked a middle-aged man nearby, "What happened here?"

The man narrowed his eyes, his gaze lingering with obvious lechery over Zhao Huan's figure.

Zhao Huan clutched her chest and took a step back, feeling disgusted to the point of nausea. She truly wanted to raise a foot and give him a vicious kick where it would hurt most.

The middle-aged man gave a sleazy smile and withdrew his gaze. "Nothing much. See those two over there? There'll be a life-and-death duel in a bit."

Zhao Huan clearly did not believe him. Life-and-death duel? That was nothing but the sort of headline people invented just to attract attention.

"What are they competing in?" she asked curiously.

The middle-aged man looked Zhao Huan up and down again. "You're not martial artists, are you?"

Zhao Huan shook her head. She had not even heard of such a thing before.

The man's expression suddenly turned serious. In a low voice, he said, "Little girls, this place isn't open to the public today. Go back."

"Why should we? Where we stand should be none of your business," Xia Mo said with a curl of her lip. From the moment before, she had already disliked this man.

"Heh. Up to you." The man gave a cold laugh.

At that moment, two men in black suits walked over.

"Two ladies, Dragon-Tiger Cliff is closed today. Please leave," one of them said in a grave tone.

An icy air radiated from them, making both Zhao Huan and Xia Mo unconsciously shrink their necks.

Xia Mo pointed at the martial artists around them and forced the words out stubbornly. "If it's closed, then why aren't you driving them away?"

"They're not the same as you. Hurry up and go," one of the suited men said impatiently.

"What do you mean, not the same?" Xia Mo pouted, visibly displeased.

Dragon-Tiger Cliff was originally a free tourist attraction. Why was everyone else allowed to stay, while the two of them were singled out and driven away?

Just because they were women, did that mean they deserved to be bullied?

The two suited men exchanged a glance, then each seized one of them and carried them out of Dragon-Tiger Cliff.

Thud.

The two landed on their backsides, and Xia Mo's eyes stung so badly with pain that tears nearly fell.

"What kind of people are they?" Xia Mo complained.

Zhao Huan was furious as well. Normally, wherever they went, people flocked around them and admired them. Yet now they had been thrown out like trash.

"Are we still going in?" Zhao Huan asked, rubbing her sore backside gloomily.

"Of course we are," Xia Mo said firmly. She was not willing to let this matter end here.

Zhao Huan said helplessly, "But how are we supposed to get in?"

The mountain path leading up to Dragon-Tiger Cliff was already blocked by several suited men, and beside it stood a sheer rock face. It would be hard to climb up.

After thinking for a moment, Xia Mo's eyes lit up. "I remember there’s a very hidden path on Dragon-Tiger Cliff. Let's search around."

"Okay."

The two carefully avoided the suited men and circled around Dragon-Tiger Cliff for more than half a turn.

Then Zhao Huan suddenly exclaimed, "Xia Mo, look. Isn't that a path over there?"

Following the direction of Zhao Huan's finger, Xia Mo saw a narrow trail, barely wide enough for one person, and the path was rather steep.

Because Dragon-Tiger Cliff was open to the public for free, hardly anyone ever came to such a hidden path, so it was extremely quiet here.

"That's the one." Xia Mo nodded and was about to head up along the path.

But Zhao Huan stopped her. "Maybe we should just forget it. This path is so steep. If we fall, this won't be a joke."

Xia Mo said dismissively, "Don't worry. Nothing will happen. I've been up this path once before. If you're scared, I'll go up by myself."

Zhao Huan hastily said, "Who said I'm scared? I just mean... concerned."

"That's the same thing," Xia Mo said, pouting.

"Fine. Then I'll go with you this once."