Chapter Ninety-Four: Arrest

Fan Bei, Lin Zhongshi, and the others all looked up at the sky.

A gleaming figure in golden armor, with a pair of wings, radiant and dazzling beyond measure, like a celestial maiden descended to earth, a divine lady come into the mortal realm.

For Fan Bei, it was nothing too surprising; after all, he had already seen that flamboyant getup through The Father of the System.

But the others were utterly stunned.

Flight, on the surface, seemed simple, yet in truth it was astonishing beyond compare. It had been humanity’s dream for countless years; so many had taken up hang gliders, airplanes, and parachutes, risking their lives for the sake of the supreme joy that flight could bring.

And today, someone had so casually broken through that threshold and truly flown by her own power.

Lin Zhongshi felt bitter inside. From this single sight, he knew just how far his sister had left him behind.

Because of a forbidden technique, his cultivation had fallen sharply. With the aid of the item his sister had returned, he had only just recovered more than half of it. Yet not only was she completely unharmed, she had even learned the art of flight in one stroke, which meant she had obtained another peerless secret method.

Could it be that relying on oneself to cultivate was truly impossible?

But bitter as he felt, he still refused to concede aloud. “What are you doing here? Have you come to see me flee in panic like a pig and a dog? Then you should be satisfied.”

“Hmph,” Lin Zhongqing said from above, “I am not so bored. I only came because I see you still have some ability. Since you are even willing to side with those Silver Merchants Alliance trash, I happen to need people on my end as well. I can give you a place to stand. At the very least, I won’t watch you fall into another pit.”

Lin Zhongshi fell silent for a moment. He naturally did not want to beg her, yet his own pride could be set aside for a while. He had to consider the others. The Silver Merchants Alliance was absolutely no place of kindness. If he led his men there, they might not meet a good end in the future.

Xie Bo’s death was proof enough. He too had been an old retainer who had labored for years, yet because of one secret operation, he had died under inexplicable circumstances. The key point was that none of the others involved in the operation had died, which meant the mission itself had not been dangerous.

More importantly, he had always done his best to avoid entanglement with those unknown beings, because that would never end well. Xie Bo had only proved that once again.

At that moment, Fan Bei stepped forward to smooth things over. “Brother Lin, since your elder sister has such good intentions, and since you are family after all, blood is thicker than water. Why not accept your sister’s kindness? Why insist on serving outsiders?”

Lin Zhongshi remained silent.

Lin Zhongqing said nothing either. She only felt deeply satisfied at this moment; if not for concern over her image, she would already have burst out laughing to the heavens.

In truth, she knew very well that this younger brother of hers possessed extraordinary willpower and advanced with fierce determination, placing immense pressure on her.

She had never truly been confident that she could keep him beneath her forever, and so she had never seriously entertained the thought of conquering him. She had even deliberately avoided direct competition with him.

Others only thought her magnanimous, never guessing at the thoughts beneath the surface.

But now things were different. She had a husband dropped from the heavens. In just two short months, she had broken through to the Golden rank and cultivated an unparalleled secret art without the slightest hidden danger.

As for hatred or the like, there was naturally no such thing. It was simply that between siblings of the same blood, neither would willingly admit defeat.

Still, she did have a little resentment. This fellow had actually been incited by outsiders into attacking her. Though there were hidden reasons behind it, that did not mean he could be let off; he would have to be properly taught a lesson.

These thoughts were impossible for the young Valley Master Fan to know, and since he was helping her, she would naturally not interrupt to spoil things.

Thinking of this, she said inwardly, “Brother Dongfang, help me think of a way. How should I deal with this Stone fellow in the future?”

“Uh, what that person said is not wrong. Blood is thicker than water. Do you really want to do this? You should know that when he challenged you before, he actually meant well. He wanted to make you understand that one can still reach fruition by cultivating through one’s own strength, rather than continuing to rely on those unknown evil beings and ultimately falling into the abyss,” Dongfang Yitong advised earnestly.

“......” Lin Zhongqing said nothing.

In truth, how could she not have thought of this in recent days? She knew Stone’s nature very well. Even back then, when he suffered such discriminatory treatment from the family, he had not turned twisted or fallen into darkness. He had simply gone out alone to struggle and make something of himself.

“Damn him. He beat me up, and I still have to appreciate him for it; the way he says it, he sounds less like my younger brother and more like my father.”

After a while, she said indignantly, “If I want to deal with him, so be it. But first help him resolve those three enemies. That way I’ll have repaid his favor, and then, as his elder sister, I can naturally teach him not to act without considering the consequences.”

“All right, Brother Dongfang is right,” Lin Zhongqing immediately agreed.

Her beloved’s stance satisfied her greatly. If he merely indulged her desire to discipline her own family, she might feel comfortable for now, but afterward there would certainly be some lingering unease. Distance should not sow discord among kin; that was precisely what this meant.

As expected, the system she had obtained from the heavens was the one truly worthy of trust, with upright human nature and something she could rely on. Unlike that previous big boss, who seemed principled on the surface but was in fact unfathomable and impossible to read. Every time they finished communicating, a chill always rose in one’s heart.

It was like leaning against a tamed tiger: seemingly intimate, yet always fearing that it might suddenly turn on you and bite you to death. There was no help for it; the beastly nature could not be controlled.

She naturally did not know that the system Fan Bei had created leaned toward righteousness by design, and therefore had to possess a baseline of humanity. Under no circumstances would it ever violate that principle.

So Lin Zhongqing finally spoke, breaking the awkward atmosphere.

“Forget it. Aren’t they just three worthless trash? I’ll find them at once, and you needn’t move around anymore. As for you, Stone, your work is still too careless. If you knew there was a hidden danger on your own body, you should not have dragged others into it.”

Lin Zhongshi had nothing to say. He had indeed been careless in this matter, but no one was a sage; how could anyone possibly account for everything perfectly?

One could only say that he had underestimated that being’s shamelessness and bottom line.

Then Lin Zhongqing swiftly took flight into the air, streaking away like a brilliant rainbow, so fast she rivaled a jet plane.

From this alone, he knew she had not been boasting. Searching from the air was far faster than searching on the ground.

Moreover, she undoubtedly had her own methods of search. At this rate, in less than half a day, those three villains who had delved deep into this place would likely be dead.

In truth, he still vastly underestimated Lin Zhongqing’s present power.

“Brother Dongfang, do you have any secret art for finding people quickly?”

“According to your previous investigation, those three are heinous criminals with known names, and they have also become entangled with the local people. There are many such methods. Ten thousand points is enough to exchange for one,” Dongfang Yitong said very simply.

“Exchange it.”

For a rich person, anything that could be solved with money was no problem at all.

“The Tracking and Pursuit Art. Once you learn it, you will be able to sense the world of spiritual matter and communicate the positions of those three in reality,” Dongfang Yitong reminded her.

Thus, after only an hour and a half, Lin Zhongshi stared in dumbfounded shock as three men were thrown down in front of him.