Inside the chairman's office.
"Dad, you were looking for me?" Li Xue strode inside.
Li Yinhe's expression was grim. "I found out who came after you yesterday."
Li Xue froze, her own expression immediately turning serious.
Li Yinhe said, "They're Pang Dahai's men."
"Master Pang's men..." Li Xue's face fell. "Why?"
"Behind Pang Dahai is the Yuelong Group."
Li Xue took a deep breath.
"Is it because of the big Dingli Group project?"
"Wu Long of the Yuelong Group didn't have clean hands before he went into business, and Pang Dahai was one of his top lieutenants back then."
Li Yinhe's expression darkened. "I should have known. He's also got his eyes on this tasty morsel from the Dingli Group."
Li Xue was afraid. Those people were ruthless. When they made a move, it was always vicious, especially Wu Long. He would do anything to achieve his goals. It wouldn't be simple intimidation for much longer.
On the surface, the Yuelong Group was slightly weaker than the Li Group. But you couldn't discount their gangster origins. Now that they were involved, trying to secure the Dingli Group project would be next to impossible.
What's more, in all of Nanjiang Province, the number of corporations capable of handling the Dingli Group project was in the double digits.
However, the Li Group's development had hit a bottleneck. This project from the Dingli Group could help them achieve a quantum leap.
If they gave up, and the Yuelong Group secured the project, then what awaited them was inevitable: being acquired and swallowed up by the Yuelong Group.
"Dad, what do we do?" Li Xue felt a surge of indignation. Their entire group had been working overtime on this project for over a month.
"It's not time to give up yet. I heard that legendary figure from the Lin Family has come to Anhua City. Your grandfather happens to know him. If the Lin Family is willing to help, the Dingli Group project will be ours for the taking."
Li Xue looked at Li Yinhe in shock. "Dad, are you sure it's *the* Lin Family?"
Li Yinhe nodded with certainty. "Yes."
But Li Xue's heart sank. 'It's all so hopeless.'
Countless corporations must be asking the Lin Family for help. 'How strong of a connection would we need for them to choose our Li Family?'
...
Mu Lin left the Li Mansion. Suddenly, he felt a pair of eyes from the shadows fixed on him.
Mu Lin, who had planned to take a taxi to the Holy Medicine Hall, instead chose to walk into a dark alley to the side.
Sure enough, two men in black blocked the exit at the corner.
Mu Lin turned around and raised an eyebrow. "Well, well. Aren't you from the same group as yesterday?"
Without a word, the two men in black charged forward.
Mu Lin wasted no words either, striking with clean precision.
SHIING!
One of them suddenly pulled a hidden dagger from his waist, its gleaming edge slashing past Mu Lin's throat. Mu Lin was annoyed. "A fight's a fight. What's the point of using cheat codes?"
'These guys were from the underworld, the kind who live by licking blood off a blade. I can't let them leave here alive.'
Just as he had that thought, Mu Lin tapped his toes, leaped, and landed directly behind the two of them.
Then, he pushed off his feet, closed the distance in an instant, and struck the back of one man's head with two punches.
SPIT!
The man spat out a mouthful of blood, and the sound of his skull cracking was horrifically clear in the deep alley.
The mortally wounded man's eyes were filled with uncontrollable terror. He didn't even have a chance to flee.
Seeing that things had gone south, the other man turned and fled without hesitation.
Mu Lin paused for a moment before giving chase. As for the one on the ground, he couldn't be any more dead.
'These two were clearly out to kill me. I can't just let a tiger return to the mountains. But more importantly, I need to find the person behind this. Otherwise, I won't be able to sleep at night.'
"The old geezer was right. The city is a treacherous mix of good and evil, with danger lurking everywhere."
Mu Lin followed the fleeing man in black. The man, focused solely on escaping with his life, was completely unaware that Mu Lin was tailing him.
Mu Lin followed him to a five-star hotel.
Mu Lin glanced up: Huangshanghuang Hotel. Then he went inside.
...
Inside the presidential suite on the top floor of the hotel.
A middle-aged man in his forties with a potbelly was spinning a thumb ring with one hand and holding a phone with the other, looking at the person in the photo.
The person was none other than Mu Lin.
"Heh, and here I was wondering what kind of bodyguard Li Yinhe found for his precious daughter. Turns out it's just some poor kid from the countryside."
The middle-aged man rubbed his potbelly, his eyes filled with contempt, and deleted the photo as usual.
This was Pang Dahai, a man who straddled the line between the legitimate world and the criminal underworld of Anhua City, and the top dog in its gray areas.
And behind him, naturally, stood the renowned Yuelong Group of Anhua City.
Standing beside him were the burly men who had attacked Li Xue and Mu Lin yesterday—specifically, Number One and Number Two.
As for Number Three and Number Four, they had, of course, gone to assassinate Mu Lin.
"In that case, it seems this skinny monkey wasn't the one who took down the four of us brothers yesterday."
The man called Number One breathed a sigh of relief.
This "skinny monkey" was obviously Mu Lin, though Mu Lin's figure was clearly well-proportioned.
Pang Dahai snorted coldly. "That old fox Li Yinhe is famously cunning, and he's cautious enough. What you're saying isn't entirely impossible."
"Master Pang, President Wu just called. He said another failure will not be tolerated," said a man with gold-rimmed glasses, sitting seriously in a wooden wicker chair nearby.
Pang Dahai nodded. "We will succeed this time. If I fail, I, Pang Dahai, will personally go before President Wu and kowtow in apology."
Just then, a series of rhythmic knocks sounded at the door.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
"It's one of us," the man with glasses said as he went to open the door.
The man who had just attacked Mu Lin burst in, his face a mask of panic and terror. He immediately dropped to his knees before Pang Dahai.
"Number Four! Why are you alone? Where's Number Three?" Number One was shocked, afraid to guess the answer.
Pang Dahai's brow furrowed as well. These four brothers had never failed a single mission since they started working for him. He knew their skills very well.
"Grandmaster Pang! Boss! That kid is no simpleton! Number Three... he... he was killed by that kid!"
Pang Dahai's expression turned ugly. He said in a low voice, "Are you talking about that country boy, Mu Lin?"
Number Four couldn't believe that Number Three had been killed with just two punches. Fear spread through him.
The leader of the four-man group looked at the surviving Number Four and felt a strange sense of unease.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!
Just then, there was another knock at the door!
"Hello, is this the room that ordered service?"
In the living room, everyone's expression was grim. The man with glasses went to open the door again.
As soon as the door opened, a hand reached out from outside and pressed against its edge.
Number Four turned, and immediately collapsed to the floor.
'Him! How did he follow me here!'
Mu Lin forcefully pushed the door open, ignored the man with glasses, and walked straight up to Pang Dahai.
'Looks like this is the boss.'
"Who are you? We have no history and no grudges, so why did you send people to kill me?"
Pang Dahai narrowed his eyes, unhappily sizing up the country bumpkin before him. 'The intelligence was wrong!'
Pang Dahai didn't answer Mu Lin. Instead, he ordered the leader of the four-man group, "You take care of him."
WHOOSH!
Leaving an afterimage, the man Pang Dahai had called "leader" shot out like a hawk, moving at extreme speed. But Mu Lin just calmly lifted his leg and swept it out.
BANG!
The man went flying, crashing into a large vase in the corner and shattering it on the floor.
Pang Dahai's eyes widened, and he stared at Mu Lin with a vicious glare.
The man who had been kicked away spat out a large mouthful of blood. He looked up at Mu Lin in terror, a single thought running through his mind: 'I'm going to die at the hands of this country bumpkin.'
Mu Lin considered for a moment before speaking. "You must be after the Li Family. I'm certain I've never offended you people."
Pang Dahai's expression relaxed. He began to clap, saying "Good" three times. "Good, good, good! Young man, you've got some impressive skills. My name is Pang Dahai, and I have the Yuelong Group behind me. How much did Li Yinhe pay you? I'll give you five times—no, ten times that amount. How about you come work for me?"