Chapter 067 Lin Le? Master Mu?

Lin Le was naturally unaware of Yao Kun’s arrangements after his departure. After leaving the Hou family, he drove toward Longyuan Lake.

Tonight, Lin Le had truly broken his vow; since stepping down from the Jiuzhou Bureau, he hadn’t lost himself to such madness in a long time. Yet, whether it was Zuo Tianlang or Wu Sanxing, each was a villain with dozens of lives on their hands—death was the least they deserved. With the mind of the Supreme Sovereign Lingxiao, Lin Le was hardly troubled by their fates.

However, in order to deal with these people, he had been forced to repeatedly employ his inner true energy tonight, even using the extremely draining technique of externalizing that energy several times. Even Lin Le, at this moment, felt quite spent.

“My physical body is still too weak. Otherwise, a few uses of external true energy wouldn’t leave me so drained.”

At present, Lin Le’s martial prowess was only a step away from the state of transformation—a level that would make nearly any martial artist in China look up in awe. Yet, Lin Le was fundamentally a cultivator who had entered the Dao; his formidable martial skills were possible only because of the extraordinary physical foundation he had built after stepping onto the path of cultivation.

One could say his martial achievements were more a reflection of his Daoist cultivation. As long as his Daoist cultivation advanced further, his body would edge closer to perfection.

Martial cultivation, in essence, was the tempering of the flesh. If the body was strong enough, strength and speed would far surpass others, and no matter how powerful an opponent, they would be no match. Unfortunately, Lin Le’s current level was only the foundation stage, and his body was still incomplete. If he could reach the greater completion of foundation, and break through to perfection, he would forge a flawless body, attain the Golden Body of the Dao, or even reach the innate state!

By then, simple techniques like externalizing true energy, or even the more taxing Lingxiao Eight Absolutes, would be nothing to him.

“For now, I can only wait until the Four Symbols Array is completed. I hope the spiritual rainbow that has accumulated on Dragon’s Breath Mountain for so many years will bring me something different.”

With this thought, Lin Le felt much lighter at heart.

At this moment, inside Tang Manor.

After the battle that had raged that night, the Tang family’s living room was almost completely destroyed. The place was a shambles, stained with fresh blood and strewn with horrifying remains.

The entire hall was sealed off; inside and out, policemen stood guard.

Fortunately, the fierce fighting was confined to the living room of the manor’s main building; the wings remained untouched.

Now, Tang Nianchen lay exhausted on a bed of white, soft linens, her long legs casually stretched out, drawing a graceful, alluring silhouette.

What had happened tonight had shaken her deeply. All her life she had dwelled in peace and plenty, the Tang family sheltering her in a greenhouse existence, making her believe that no wickedness or darkness could ever reach her. Proud and aloof, she thought she need fear no one.

But tonight, faced with that endless swarm of insects, she had truly been frightened.

Tang Nianchen gave a bitter laugh. So she, too, could be afraid.

At that thought, the voice of that man surfaced in her mind.

“So you know fear, too…” When she had been beset by the insects, believing death was near, that was what he had said to her.

She didn’t know if it was her imagination, but his voice seemed oddly familiar, as if she had heard it somewhere before. His tone, his attitude toward her…

Even now, recalling how close she’d been when he carried her, his face seemed strangely familiar…

Yet, reviewing everyone she’d ever met, she could think of no one who fit.

After all, with Tang Nianchen’s status and standing, there was no one who would dare treat her that way.

Wait—maybe there was one…

A name, long forgotten in some corner, suddenly surfaced in her mind.

Lin Le? Could it be that infuriating fellow?

She asked herself in silence.

But at once, she gave a soft snort, dismissing the idea.

In her eyes, Lin Le had always been a good-for-nothing playboy—chasing women, brawling, idling his days away. How could he possibly be compared to the mysterious Master Mu, the peerless physician and martial artist?

Even if he had been a soldier for three years, he couldn’t have changed so much.

“It’s not as if he was a celestial soldier…” Tang Nianchen muttered to the ceiling.

Wait—

Her sharp mind suddenly caught onto something important. She hurriedly grabbed her phone and saw, once more, several missed calls—all from that damnable Lin Le.

She remembered clearly—the calls had come just before the assassin arrived.

And why would Lin Le, out of the blue, call her at that time?

A startling thought flashed through her mind. Could it be…?

To test her theory, after much deliberation, Tang Nianchen dialed his number.

At that moment, Lin Le was speeding along the empty road under the night sky when his phone suddenly rang.

He glanced at the caller, raising an eyebrow in surprise. Well, wasn’t that rare—it was Tang Nianchen herself.

But for her to call at this hour…

Lin Le immediately guessed the reason. His actions at the Tang family tonight must have drawn her suspicion.

Thinking this, he quickly pulled over, then adopted the tone of someone rudely roused from a sweet dream, and lazily answered, “Who the hell is this? It’s the middle of the night—can’t a man get some sleep?”

“You… you’re sleeping?” Tang Nianchen asked.

“What else would I be doing? I’m all alone—what else is there to do in the middle of the night but sleep?” Lin Le replied with a quip.

“Why did you call me today?” Tang Nianchen’s tone already carried annoyance.

“Call you? Wait—oh, it’s Miss Tang. I thought it was someone else…”

Tang Nianchen fumed. He didn’t even know who he was talking to, yet had been chatting away all this time.

“I called simply to ask if you’d considered giving me half of the Tang family’s assets… Hello? Hello?”

Before Lin Le could finish, the call was already disconnected.

Staring at the ended call, Lin Le couldn’t help but smile wryly. “That woman—her chest may not be much, but her temper certainly is…”

As the words left his lips, an image from earlier flashed unbidden to his mind—that breathtaking vision he’d glimpsed in the bathroom, enough to set his blood racing.

That fair, jade-like body, pure as frost, her beauty otherworldly amidst the swirling steam, like a fairy descending to earth…

“She is rather pretty,” Lin Le muttered, feigning reluctance.

But then, recalling the old enmity between the Lin and Tang families, the heat in his heart was quickly doused.

“So what if she’s beautiful? Nothing but a pretty face!”

Shaking off these thoughts, Lin Le started the car, floored the accelerator, and once again sped off into the night.

Back in her room, Tang Nianchen hurled her phone away in fury.

As expected, it wasn’t that bastard! How could I be so foolish as to even compare him to Master Mu!

She felt a wave of disgust.

Their attitudes toward her were similar—arrogant, dismissive—but Master Mu had the skill to back his pride. His miraculous abilities were his justification.

But what did that wretched Lin Le have? Nothing. His arrogance was born of stupidity; how could he compare to Master Mu?

Thinking thus, Tang Nianchen became even more convinced that Lin Le, so utterly useless, could not possibly be the man who had saved her family.

Yet, her careful mind couldn’t help but notice something else.

Somehow, perhaps unconsciously, she had already placed Master Mu on quite a pedestal in her heart.

Realizing this, she was momentarily stunned.

What was this? True, Master Mu was skilled and had saved her family, but he was also insufferably arrogant, had extorted two hundred million from the Tang family, and…

Recalling how he had seen her entire body that night, Tang Nianchen’s cheeks suddenly flushed crimson, the heat spreading to her ears.

She had always been a stickler for cleanliness, never close to any man, let alone treated in such a manner. Yet tonight, she had been utterly taken advantage of.

Ordinarily, she would have been consumed by humiliation and revulsion, unable to eat or sleep. But this time, she was strangely calm, even blushing with a maiden’s shyness…

At this realization, her ears burned even hotter, her fair earlobes tinged with red.

“Ah, so annoying!” she cried, yanking the covers over her head to block out all these tangled thoughts.

Lin Le, Master Mu—none of them were any good!