At that moment, Lin Zhou—the Lin family's Third Master—came running from within the estate, followed by several stewards, faces drained pale with dread. When they saw the dark mass assembled before the gate, any color vanished from their cheeks. How were they to fight this?
But Lin Yi stood at the gate as if rooted to the earth—calm, immovable as a mountain.
After a few measured breaths, Jiang Yunzhou and his retinue halted some dozen paces from the Lin gate.
Lin Yi spoke first, voice level: "County Lord, you bring so many of your men here in the dead of night—what is it you intend?"
Jiang Yunzhou's face was as frosted iron. "The Lin family has slaughtered innocents across Qingshan and thrown the county into chaos. I came tonight to end the Lin family—to rid the people of this menace."
Lin Yi laughed—a light, incredulous sound. "Truly, County Lord, you have a way of making personal vengeance sound so noble. I'm even touched."
"Bold-faced hypocrisy," Jiang Yunzhou snapped, enraged. "Yes—this is personal revenge. And what of it? What can your Lin family do? Who in Qingshan would dare object?"
He dropped the mask entirely.
Lin Yi clapped once, slow and deliberate, a smile cutting his face. "County Lord Jiang, your righteousness really is something to behold."
"Impudent!" someone hissed—Jiang Luo's voice, sharp as a broken blade. She pointed at Lin Yi and spat, "You wretched cripple, imminent death still hasn't taught you humility. Aren't you eager to die?"
Before the words had fully left her throat, Lin Yi vanished from where everyone could see—faster than eye or thought.
A voice, cold as winter iron, whispered in her ear: "You have no right to speak here."
The next instant, Lin Yi stood before Jiang Luo, five fingers closing like a vise on the crown of her head. With a practiced squeeze—
Crack.
Her skull gave way. Bone and blood spattered; the slight woman folded like a broken porcelain doll and went still.
A silence like the calm after a storm fell over the crowd. No one had seen the motion—no one had tracked the movement—and yet the county lord's daughter lay dead.
Jiang Yunzhou's expression hardened into something colder than marble. He, the strongest among them, had not managed to catch Lin Yi's silhouette. What kind of trick was this?
Lin Yi produced a clean handkerchief from his sleeve and wiped his blood-splattered fingers, face as impassive as stone.
"Since we've already shed blood," he said quietly, "let me send you all off together."
"Madman!" Jiang Yunzhou roared. "We'll see how you kill us all today!"
"Watch closely." Lin Yi's tone was calm—almost bored.
From the darkness, a white streak arced.
Pfft!
A Chen family Bone Forging strongman's head exploded in a crimson bloom—flesh and bone raining down.
[You have slain a Chen family Bone Forging expert. Violence Points +400]
A flash of white light stitched through the night.
One after another, streaks of brilliance slashed the air — and two more Bone Forging experts' skulls burst like fireworks. In the span of a few breaths, nearly a dozen Bone Forging masters had their heads torn from their shoulders as if some merciless scythe had swept the ranks.
Panic unfurled through the crowd. None of them could lock onto Lin Yi's silhouette; none could say how the strikes came, only that men they trusted fell in red showers. How could they even fight like this?
Chen Hong of the Chen family, Shen Yuan of the Shen family, Deputy Magistrate Yuan Mo — their faces went ashen, sweat breaking cold across their brows. If this kept up, every one of them would be dead before midnight.
"Coward!" Jiang Yunzhou roared, voice cracking. "If you have the courage, fight me openly! Hiding like this—what is it?" He felt useless, like a spear with no thrust, muscles without a target.
Before his words had finished, that same white streak flashed at his side — Lin Yi's form, sudden and impossible. In the next heartbeat, Lin Yi's fist, bearing the force of a crashing river, slammed square into the county lord's belly.
"An honest fight? Do you honestly think you deserve one?" Lin Yi said, as if answering a dull question.
Thud.
The sound was a dull drum; then, in a single horrifying instant, Jiang Yunzhou's belly exploded inward. A great wound gaped through his torso; blood and organs burst outward.
"This… how can this be?" he whispered, eyes glazing as disbelief consumed him. The county lord of Qingshan — the greatest cultivator in the county, a man of seventh-stage Bone Forging — had been felled with a single, brutal blow by a dark-robed youth.
He barely tried to speak and then was gone; his knees folded, and he fell like a struck banner.
Silence pressed down, absolute and stunned. The strongest man in Qingshan County lay dead at their feet; the idea of what they had come to do — to exterminate the Lin family — crumpled into ash.
Chen Hong, Shen Yuan, Yuan Mo: all of them paled as if icy hands had closed around their hearts. They had come relying on Jiang Yunzhou's might — and found that their greatest bulwark vanished in an instant. How could this boy be so outrageously, impossibly powerful?
At the gate, Lin Zhou and the stewards were rooted, mouths slack. Their doom had seemed certain only moments before; now it lay strangely dissolved. The great crisis that had so terrified them was, it seemed, being dealt with in a single, terrible hand.
High in the teahouse across the way, Gu Xi's teacup hit the floor with a dull clatter. She stared, eyes wide, at the dark-robed youth who had become the focus of every frozen gaze. A small, disbelieving sound slipped from her lips. "He's that strong…"
Understanding dawned like a fierce light. No wonder he had lounged in the sun today, untroubled and humming; no wonder he'd said the enemies weren't worth bothering over. Now she smiled slightly—part fear, part something softer.
At the blood-soaked gate, Lin Yi stood like a black obelisk. His hair whipped in the nightwind; a lock fell over his brow, and he pushed it aside with a careless hand. He looked out at Yuan Mo and the rest, voice cool and clear:
"Gentlemen — to your deaths."