(Note: Shuangmu means double "木", namely the surname of Lin Xun, "林")

The man who was called Old Dao pondered for a while and then said decisively, "Go after him!"

The next moment, the two of them ran into the alley.

This neighborhood had been a civilian area for so long, its winding lanes crisscrossed like a dark and damp spider web maze.

Before long, the two of them realized that they had suddenly lost all traces of their target.

"Old Dog, can you still catch his scent now?" asked Old Dao with frowned eyebrows.

"Not far from here." Old Dog answered quickly.

Old Dao responded "Ok" and kept going, but there was some uneasiness in his heart. This alley was extremely narrow, less than 3.3 meters wide, and not a single person could be seen. Even in the daytime, it was still extremely dark and damp.

"Old Dog, we should be more careful. We do all these risky and dangerous things for money, but if we die, money is nothing." Old Dao couldn't help but whisper the reminder, still feeling something was wrong.

"Well, he's merely a lad from a remote village, not to mention that we are only tailing after, not against, him." Old Dog retorted disapprovingly.

"All in all, it's better to be careful." Old Dao said with eyebrows knitting together.

"Of course." Old Dog replied carelessly, but then he yelled out, "How could this be, the scent just disappeared here..."

Old Dao was shocked for a while and his heart seemingly stopped beating for he knew something really bad was befalling them.

Boom!

At that very moment, a black shadow suddenly fell as fast as a ghost from the sky.

In a blink of an eye, Old Dao saw Old Dog violently shaken, as if hit by a lightning and then pushed down abruptly, making a slamming sound.

"You are courting death!"

Old Dao reacted very quickly, and after shouting this out, he drew his sword and brandished it forward.

The black shadow was Lin Xun. Before Old Dao came near, Lin Xun jumped forward like a cannonball, dashing right against Old Dao, grasping his wrist swiftly and giving it a violent shake.

Bang!

A terrifying power hit Old Dao like a tidal wave. All the bones in his limbs seemed broken, his power disappeared, and his mouth and nose were full of blood.

Then, he was slammed on the ground. Suffering from dizziness and severe pain, he could no longer stand up.

The fight happened suddenly and ended in an instant, unimaginably fast, straightforward and ruthless.

It wasn't until this time that Old Dao finally saw their attacker – the target of their tracking task.

However, Old Dao never expected a 13- or 14-year-old boy to be so good at fighting, and so resolute and cruel.

Lin Xun walked forward, pointed to Old Dog, who lay comatose in the distance, and said with a smile, "Tell me what I want to know. If you don't, I can always ask him. But if you do as I say, I will let you suffer less before you die."

These words made Old Dao realize that the young man in front of him was by no means a fledgling lad!

But Old Dao didn't want to give in and threatened with teeth grinding, "Do you know who we are?"

A cracking sound was heard!

Lin Xun smiled and without saying anything, he crushed Old Dao's palm with the tip of his toe, breaking its bones and causing blood to spurt. However, just as Old Dao wanted to scream out in extreme pain, a stone was stuffed into his mouth.

Watching the face of Old Dao twisting with pain, Lin Xun, still gentle and calm, said softly, "Believe me, since I was a kid I have learned thousands of ways to torture people. If you want to give them a try, just keep your mouth shut."

His facial expression changing and body trembling due to severe pain, Old Dao, internally wavering and unsure, just stared at the young man in front of him, so pop-eyed that his eyes seemed ready to shed blood.

There came another cracking sound.

Lin Xun was still smiling, but his actions were the opposite. He broke Old Dao's other hand with the tip of his toes. Old Dao cried out and made hissing sounds, his face distorted and ferocious.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The young man seemed delicate, gentle and harmless, but the way he used those ruthless torturing skills was so experienced that even the best executioner could not surpass him.

He was not a young man but a devil!

Seeing Lin Xun squat down to show he wanted to continue torturing him with a cyan dagger, Old Dao collapsed out of extreme fear and nodded madly.

Lin Xun licked his lips and said with slight regret, "I thought you might be a hard nut. However, you are so easy to crack, you left me no chance to try out more torturing methods."

Hearing this, Old Dao shook violently and thought, "What? Breaking two hands is not torture?"

Lin Xun stopped smiling, looked at Old Dao calmly and said, "In this case, I will torture you no more. I ask and you answer. I hope you don't deceive me. I will ask your partner the same questions. And, if you two give different answers, you know what the consequences are."

Old Dao gave up struggling completely and just nodded.

…

When Lin Xun came out from the other side of the alley, two dead bodies were left behind in the shadows, perhaps to be torn apart and eaten by some wild dogs passing by.

For this, Lin Xun did not care.

He headed home at a leisurely pace with sweetmeats, spiritual fruits, roast meat and many kinds of snacks bought from the shopping street.

The warm sunshine squeezed in from above the alley's high walls, dispelling the darkness and giving the thin figure of the young man a warm halo.

No one could imagine that such a delicate and warm young man could end the lives of two people using such cold-blooded methods.

This was Lin Xun.

The dark experiences he went through since he was a kid made him destined to be different from his peers.

"Lian Fei…Clan of Wu…"

Lin Xun kept sorting out his thoughts all the way home.

Old Dao and Old Dog revealed everything, which confirmed what Lin Xun already suspected from the first day of entering the Donglin Town… he was being watched by the Clan of Wu.

This made Lin Xun quite surprised. The Clan of Wu was the family of Wu Henshui, and also the power supporting Wu Business in Green-sun Tribe.

Lin Xun had thought that with Keystone Business involved, even if the Clan of Wu hated him so much, they dared not to pick fights with him. But now it was clear, they obviously didn't give up.

According to Old Dao, on the first day that Lin Xun entered Donglin Town, the Clan of Wu contacted Lian Fei and plotted with him. The topic? How to deal with him!

The deal was that the Clan of Wu would hand this over totally to Lian Fei and wouldn't have to do it personally. However, they would stand behind Lian Fei, providing him with all the needed financial and resource support.

That was what surprised Lin Xun the most. Lian Fei was the son of Lian Rufeng. It had never occurred to him that the Clan of Wu would find Lian Fei to rub him out.

But with a little thought, Lin Xun understood why Lian Fei would agree to do this – his father, Lian Rufeng, was killed by him. How could Lian Fei ever forget this and stop seeking revenge?

"The Clan of Wu wanted to get rid of me through the hand of Lian Fei? Nice try!" Lin Xun sneered. Lin Xun could see the Clan of Wu obviously still feared Keystone Business, so they dared not to do away with him openly and had to do it through Lian Fei's hands.

This time, Lian Fei hired scouts – Old Dao and Old Dog – to tail after him in order to get detailed information for future plots.

Besides, according to Old Dao, with the financial support of the Clan of Wu, Lian Fei had recruited lots of extremely vicious and desperate people, for whom money trumped over everything, including their lives. Once able to seize the opportunity, they would give him a deadly strike.

If this was the case, although Lin Xun was not afraid of Lian Fei and his gang, he was still bothered by the fact that Lian Fei was plotting to kill him and might act at any time. No one could maintain vigilance 24/7 like thieves do when wanting to steal from others.

But Lin Xun learned that Lian Fei, 15 years old and at the fifth level of Martial Realm, was a student of The Donglin School.

According to Old Dao, Lian Fei was devoted to the County Test which took place a month later, and that was why Lian Fei still hadn't acted to kill him.

Accordingly, Lin Xun speculated that if Lian Fei really wanted to murder him, perhaps he would act after the County Test.

But these were only assumptions made by Lin Xun. If Lian Fei found out he had already uncovered his conspiracy, he might also act in advance.

"It seems I should act quickly to collect information about the Clan of Wu and Lian Fei…."

Inside, Lin Xun was pissed off and wanted to kill them all. What he hated the most was to be set up and framed. Since the Clan of Wu still didn't want to give up, there was no way that Lin Xun could sit around waiting for it.

However, the current situation was that the foe knew and was watching every move of his, but he knew little of them, like the details of the Clan of Wu. So, the top priority was to collect more information and then ponder on how to strike back.

Lin Xun kept thinking and even arrived home without realizing it. He then immediately dispelled all those distracting thoughts, opened the door and walked in.

Gee!

In an instant, Lin Xun saw there were two people, one slim and one fat, standing in the yard. His eyes became sharp and he decided to kill them if anything happened.

Almost at the same time, the two people turned around and smiled obsequiously at the sight of Lin Xun.

But when they saw the sharp and cold gaze of Lin Xun, they froze and couldn't help but start shaking.

"What are you two doing here?"

Lin Xun recognized them – Fatty Diao and The Bones - setting his mind at ease and hiding the bloodiness and sharpness in his eyes.

Meantime, Fatty Diao and The Bones also felt relaxed. They made a bow and shouted, "Your majesty of Shuangmu Gang!"

Shuangmu…Gang?

When hearing this name, Lin Xun was in a bit of a daze and thought, "Don't they feel this name is too foolish?"

Glancing at them and the tightly closed door, Lin Xun suddenly thought of something and went straight into the room.

After entering the room, as expected, he saw Shia Zhi sitting at his desk, reading a book quietly.

"What's going on outside?" Lin Xun asked.

How could he have not seen it? With Shia Zhi here, Fatty Diao and his partner, with their limited martial arts, stood no chance of breaking into his house unless Shia Zhi let them in.

"They are your subordinates."

Shia Zhi put the book down, thought for a while and said, "At first, I wanted to be their leader, but after some time I felt it was kinda bothersome, so I give this position to you."

Looking at the earnestness on her white and tranquil little face, Lin Xun looked really sullen.

The dark and dirty side of the world was the last thing he wanted Shia Zhi to get in touch with. But somehow, she got to those dark things by herself!

Being in contact with those local ruffians, hooligans, scoundrels, villains and all others connected with the underworld, how could he shield her from those bad examples?