Chapter 101 An Interesting Game
Li Mu’s eyes reflected a trace of surprise.
That voice seemed to have come from all directions and resounded clearly around their ears.
“Uh-Oh! Never knew there is an interesting ant in Taibai County. You are Li Mu? Haha, interesting! How come your corporeal body is so strong!”
The voice sounded again. But the source of the voice was moving swiftly, rendering it impossible to locate the whereabouts of the speaker.
Everyone suddenly felt the sky was getting darker.
It turned out that wisps of black mist had quietly crept in. Like dark clouds, they gathered over the county government and overshadowed the sun.
“Humph.”
Li Mu snorted, who was still very calm.
“There you are, another fool trying to be spooky.” Li Mu mocked inwardly, certainly not scared at all.
“Take them to the back room first.” He told the doctor and those prison guards.
The doctor looked quite nervous, and Zhen Meng’s brother-in-law and the other prison guards also started to panic. They all sensed the formidable aura of the new-comer who was lurking in the dark like a ghost. Upon hearing Li Mu’s order, they wasted no time to gingerly put Qing Feng in a bed and carry the four injured men towards the back room.
“Well, want to get out now? It’s still too early. I say you should all stay here.”
That eerie and ghostly voice rang once again.
Whoos.h.!.+
All of a sudden, one of the wisps of the slowly flowing black mist sprang to life. It reshaped as a sharp sword and lunged towards a prison guard who was supporting a corner of a sick bed.
“You’re courting death!”
Li Mu snapped as he flicked his fingers.
A shot of transparent energy bolted out from one of his fingertips. It caught up with that sword-shaped wisp of black mist at amazing pace and directly smashed into it, causing the latter to dissipate and disappear.
Li Mu had learned the first level of Heart Heavenly Shoot method by heart. Although for now, he could not turn any random object into an arrow with a simple touch as Guo Yuqing did, he had formed a unique comprehension and development of that method owing to his knack for archery. Unlike Guo Yuqing, who had to rely on substantial objects to execute that method, Li Mu could produce a shot of energy as powerful as a shooting arrow with just a flick of his fingers.
“Uh?”
That ghostly voice sounded a little surprised.
“It’s getting more and more interesting. Okay, I’ll wait and see how many times you can throw off my attacks.”
The instant the voice faded, the black mist that had been looming over the whole place suddenly materialized as a slew of sharp black swords and darted at those prison guards like flashes of lightning.
“A stupid mystifying trick!”
Li Mu snorted. He quickly flexed the five fingers of his right hand and curved the thumb into a bow before flicking the other four fingers against it in a row.
A series of the sound of the shaking bowstring broke the silence.
At the same time, jets of transparent energy that were sharp as arrows fired. They overtook the black swords transformed by the mist and shattered them again.
Upon seeing the black mist dispersed, a trace of fierceness flitted across Li Mu’s eyes.
In a flash, he disappeared and then reappeared at a place ten meters away from his original spot before launching a Blade Punch.
It was the Lightning Chopping.
The pure energy cut through the air like an intangible blade.
The black mist, which stretched over dozens of meters, instantly split up like b.u.t.ter being cut by a hot blade.
“You are… really interesting.” An exclaim came from that black mist in a hurry.
Then, the black mist swiftly a.s.sembled from all the directions. As if using ink to do a wash painting in the air, the black mist gradually condensed into a human figure.
Li Mu moved again. He teleported before that figure within a blink of an eye and gave him another Blade Punch.
That figure flashed and dodged the blade energy.
After narrowly missing its target, the blade energy kept zooming forward until it hit an old tree that was so thick that one could not get his arms around. With a loud crack, the tree split in two from the middle. As if it was cut by a real axe, the vertical section of the trunk was smooth as a mirror.
Li Mu then returned to his spot in a second.
By that time, Feng Yuanxing and the other injured had already been carried to the back room.
A ball of sparkling black fire shaped like a human figure also landed by the Heartless Scholar Zheng Cunjian, which looked rather sinister. Soon, the ghostly voice fluttered out from that ball of fire. “Well, interesting, very interesting. Li Mu, I’m starting to feel a bit of anger because of you.”
The man who spoke was an enmignatic whiz of martial arts.
The others found it hard to catch a clear view of his appearance because he was wrapped in the black fire as if he was simply the embodiment of the fire.
He was eerie.
Ghastly.
Frightening.
At the sight of that figure, the Heartless Scholar got all worked up and hastily scrambled to his feet, joy written on his face.
“Supervisor Xu, you finally made it here, thank G.o.d! This Li Mu breached laws, killed his colleagues, and bullied the common folks. He is guilty of such offenses that even death cannot atone for.” Zheng Cunjian, whose eyes were exuding wrath and resentment, yelled, “When dealing with such a ferocious rogue, there is no need of showing him mercy. Just kill him, please.”
Chu Shufeng, who was also glaring at Li Mu with blatant enmity, sneered and taunted, “You little scourge, now that Supervisor Xu from the Supervisory Department, your hour of doom also comes. I’ll see how much longer you can maintain your domineering manners.”
After he said that, he turned and put on another face— humble and obedient— before helping Zheng Cunjian stand up in spite of his broken knees.
“What are still you kneeling there for? Pick yourselves up now!”
Zheng Cunjian snarled at those black-armored soldiers who were still on their knees.
Today’s suffering was truly the most shameful experience he had ever had in his life. Thus, he was incandescent with rage and determined to get his foe killed.
At that point, the shackled Ning Zhongshan also stopped faking his death and opened his eyes. Supported by a black-armored soldier, he got to his feet and began to adjust the circulation of his internal qi. When the scattered internal qi rea.s.sembled inside him, the new Dians.h.i.+ janitor recovered a portion of his strength.
He showed a cold smile, his eyes gleaming with sly. Then, he barked, “Today is your doomsday.”
Even Li Bing, who had almost been frightened to death by Li Mu, stood up with the help of several black-armored soldiers. After he figured out what was going on, this pampered Young Master started quaking with excitement. He was practically in tears out of joy. There was only one thought on his mind now: he was saved, finally saved…
The dismal thougthts he had when he was drowned by fear suddenly disappeared. Covering the injury on his legs, he, like Ning Zhongshan and Chu Shufeng, also fixed a pair of spiteful eyes upon Li Mu, hoping he could flay the latter alive and drink his blood.
With clinkings of armors, all the soldiers that had been kneeling down before Li Mu got up as well.
In particular, the three deputy generals seemed as berserk as the scholar and his lot.
They knew the Supervisory Department had never made a futile strike yet.
And that was a widely known fact across the Western Qin Empire and even the entire continent.
Although over the years the Supervisory Department had reduced the frequency of its intervention due to a lot of reasons, once they did, there was almost nothing they could not sort out. Whenever a supervisor from that department took over a case, that meant the problem would soon be ended no matter how tricky it was.
Therefore, with the arrival of the Supervisor Xu, the three deputy generals already began to consider how to torture Li Mu once he was landed in jail.
The depressing atmosphere in the front yard of the county government immediately changed.
A handful of prison guards who were left on the scene all turned pale and backed to the outskirts.
Standing on the steps of the meeting chamber, Li Mu looked quite serene, as if the unexpectedly reversed tide had nothing to do with him.
He swiftly checked the cut on his wrist.
It had completely healed, leaving merely an inconspicuous scar on his skin.
“You guys go outside and tell the guards of the county government to get ready to clean up the place after this battle.” Li Mu stated to those prison guards.
Those pallid-faced prison guards hesitated for a second at Li Mu’s words but then headed for the gate.
“Stop right there!” Chu Shufeng, who now looked fearless, growled, “No one shall leave this place. Today, you’ll all die here. The county government will be drenched in blood!”
“I agree. The humiliation we suffered today must be washed off with the blood of those degrading b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!” Bellowed Ning Zhongshan, whose face was screwed up with spleen.
“Now that those prison guards follow Li Mu’s orders, they should be dead, too!” He thought relentlessly.
“You surely have forgotten your lesson.”
Li Mu said flatly as he started to warm up.
“Frankly speaking, if it hadn’t been the idea of allowing you to breathe until Qing Feng and the other victims can seek their own revenge, with your strength, well, you would have been smashed by me already.”
Li Mu’s voice suddenly rang in the ears of Ning Zhongshan and Chu Shufeng.
It sounded like Li Mu was just beside them and whispering into their ears. They even both felt someone was breathing down their necks. However, the next second, the two were dazzled by a flash. And before they could react, a huge force lifted them up and yanked them forward.
The cries of astonishment broke out.
The two felt the view around them whirled past in a blur.
The black-armored soldier and the deputy generals only caught sight of a s.h.i.+mmering shadow hurtling past at an incredible speed and failed to react.
But that was not their fault, because even Supervisor Xu himself had no time to take any measures to stop it.
When Ning Zhongshan and Chu Shufeng recovered their vision, it took them by consternation that they had been scooped out of the crowd and dragged all the way to the steps in front of the meeting chamber like they were a flock of chickens.
“Be a lamb and kneel down.”
Li Mu patted on their shoulders as if he was just a father teaching a lesson to his sons.
The pat was fairly gentle.
But it made the two trembling with extreme trepidation.
They just could not imagine how Li Mu managed to capture them so easily in the presence of Supervisor Xu. To them, the palms Li Mu now placed on their shoulder were like the sword of Damocles, making their hearts shoot to their throat. They felt their knees were also shaking uncontrollably. Eventually, their knees gave way and they flopped onto the ground.
“This is getting more and more interesting. Li Mu, how dare you kidnap my men while I’m here?”
The black flames swirled and the gloomy voice sounded.
One step at a time, Li Mu walked down to that figure as he spat, “You are just a nut.”
He always found those pretentious the most hateful.
“It’s really interesting, isn’t it? You are couriting death now. I am a Supervisor of the Supervisory Department. You a.s.saulted other officials in front of me and then insulted me with that vulgar language. Do you have any idea that…” That black fire flickered frenetically and a grim laugh came out.
However, the enigmatic figure did not have the chance to finish his words.
Because a fist had penetrated through the black fire and routed the mysterious flame.
That punch also cut off the growl of that figure.
“What a dumb clown you are! You hide the head but show the tail! Well, being pretentious is an art. It’s not any random guy can master. Can you villains have some brains and play something new? I’m so disappointed. Given your poor combat ability, I wonder how on earth you have such confidence… I actually thought the savior Zheng Cunjian was waiting for must be something. It turned out that he is a moron who merely has a dabbler’s internal qi and magical power.”
Li Mu teased with despise.
After that, he flexed his ten fingers and made a lightning-like gesture.
Very soon, thunder started rumbling from afar and the rumbles were approaching like tides of flood.
Light purple sparks of thunderbolts appeared between his fingers. In an instant, the sparks connected with one another and formed a net, which grew larger and larger, spreading through the place. At last, a large net covered the whole mansion and enveloped every wisp of the black mist.
…