Chapter 496: Ruthless and Heartless

Lin Dong casually ordered a few dishes. Once the waiter left, he fell deep into thought. Unfortunately, by the time the food was served, he still hadn’t come up with any solution.
“Sir, please enjoy your meal!” The waiter’s smile was no longer polite as before but carried a sinister tone, as if mocking something.
Lin Dong looked down and saw a tiny, unidentified insect floating among the egg florets in the meat and egg soup, seemingly at ease, like a living creature. In the soup base, among the meat strands, there were grains of sand waiting to be picked up along with the meat, only to make a grating noise in the eater’s mouth.
Looking further, in the braised carp, flies were mixed with garlic and mud in the bright red soy sauce, making it impossible to tell apart. Next, in the meat and eggplant dish, half a small centipede and a small stone, matching the color of the soup, stuck to a piece of eggplant, ready to cause a shocking surprise.
All four dishes and the soup contained various unusual ingredients. Without Lin Dong’s keen eye, it was hard to identify them at first glance. But once bitten, one could definitely sense the difference, and upon closer inspection, it would surely bring horror.
Under the waiter’s curious and strange gaze, Lin Dong didn’t reach for the chopsticks in the bamboo tube. Instead, he looked up and said, “Could I meet the owner?”
“Meet the owner?” The waiter clearly felt threatened. From just those words, he realized Lin Dong’s intentions were not ordinary, and a murderous intent appeared in his eyes.
“Yes, I’d like to meet your owner,” Lin Dong nodded, smiling, but his eyes were icy cold. Since coming to this Lin’s Inn personally hadn’t yielded any solution, he could only cause a little trouble to see if it would inspire him.
“Sure! Since you want to meet our owner, follow me!”
The waiter’s smile turned cold. The other waiters also sneered upon hearing this. They had been instructed about this situation and were actually looking forward to it.
Working as servants, bowing and scraping—why not just beat someone half to death or decapitate them for a quicker fix?
What amused them even more was that Lin Dong wanted to go to the back yard on his own, rather than causing a scene in the main hall, so they didn’t even need to trick him there.
Except for two waiters who stayed to welcome more victims, the rest followed behind Lin Dong with sinister smiles.
Unaware of this, Lin Dong followed the waiter to the back yard.

This newly opened inn looks exactly the same in the front as Lin Ji Inn, but the back is a world of difference. Not only is there no larger backyard, but even the courtyard is slightly smaller than that of Lin Ji Inn’s front yard. The biggest difference is that there are many spiritual beasts and materials piled up here, with several burly men chopping them into pieces with their knives. The smell of blood is so strong it’s nauseating, yet these men are extremely excited, as if they’re doing something that excites them greatly.

“Owner, someone has arrived,” the clerk shouted loudly.

In a room in the backyard, the door was suddenly pushed open, and the burly man at the fifth level of the Mental State phase stepped out boldly. The temporary butchers all raised their big knives and slung them over their shoulders, their bloodthirsty smiles growing wider. They had been waiting for days, and the only chance to see blood was by killing the spiritual beasts beneath their feet—or if warriors came by.

“Just you?” The burly man at the fifth level of the Mental State phase glanced at Lin Dong, puzzled. He believed that anyone who came to cause trouble must be related to Lin Ji Inn next door. The warrior he encountered last time when tearing down the house wasn’t here.

“Just me!” Lin Dong nodded.

Although the burly man didn’t believe that an inn could find a warrior stronger than him, Lin Dong’s calmness made him unable to help but project his mental energy. To his shock, he found he couldn’t break through the other man’s energy barrier. This undoubtedly meant that the other man’s realm was at least three levels higher than his own.

“I can’t believe an inn could hire someone like you,” the burly man sneered.

“If a restaurant can hire people like you, it’s only natural that an inn can hire me,” Lin Dong thought to himself in surprise. The burly man’s outward projection of his mental energy and his fleeting surprise didn’t escape his notice. But his ability to return to normal so quickly was quite remarkable.

Either there were stronger people behind him who hadn’t shown up yet, or he was indeed the fearless bandit that Ma Chun had guessed. Lin Dong preferred the first possibility, but he knew the second was more likely.

“If you want to fight or kill, don’t be coy—draw a line. Don’t trick me or scare me; I’ve seen this kind of thing many times.”

The burly man impatiently tore off his brocade robe like a piece of paper, revealing a big knife in his hand. His muscular frame was covered in dense scars, like winding centipedes, which were terrifying and added to his ferocious appearance.

Lin Dong shook his head and said indifferently, “I just want to know who hired you.”
“Catch a few alive and cut off their hands and feet to see—surely that’ll work much better,” the burly man sneered.
The others began twisting their necks or licking their blades; not one of them stepped back at the burly man’s words.
Lin Dong remained silent. If these people weren’t bandits, he wouldn’t believe it even if beaten to death.
Being ruthless toward oneself is true ruthlessness—these people were exactly that kind of ruthless. With so many such people gathered, aside from fanatics, they could only be bandits.
“Old man, it seems you’re quite strong. How about we see who loses an arm or a leg first?” A strong man, seeing Lin Dong silent, started shouting.
Lin Dong was stunned for a moment before realizing why the other party called him old man. He glanced up at the strong man and raised his right hand.
The next second, the strong man’s body inexplicably floated upward uncontrollably, flying toward Lin Dong’s hand.
“Break him!” The leader suddenly waved his hand, only to find a transparent wall of iron blocking his way, preventing him from taking a single step forward.
The same was true for the others—they swung their knives fiercely, with the whistling sound of the blades incessant, seemingly moving unimpeded, yet their feet couldn’t move forward even a bit.
The strong man stared wide-eyed as he flew in front of Lin Dong, who then grabbed his neck.
Lin Dong’s right hand was like iron tongs; the strong man’s face turned red as he could only emit groans.
Lifting the strong man up, Lin Dong pressed his left hand gently on his chest and asked calmly, “Who are you?”
After saying that, he loosened his grip on the strong man’s right hand slightly.
The strong man sneered and spat out a thick mouthful of phlegm.
Lin Dong turned his head to avoid it, restoring full pressure to his right hand, while his left hand sent spiritual energy into the strong man’s body. It then swept through his meridians with unstoppable force. Wherever it passed, the meridians couldn’t withstand such intense energy, bursting apart one after another.
“Who are you?” The spiritual energy stopped halfway. Lin Dong stared quietly at the strong man, who was trembling violently, sweating profusely, his face twisted in agony. He couldn’t be ruthless toward himself, but compared to bandits, he was even worse—still, in the eyes of the world, he was a truly ruthless man.
As Lin Dong loosened his grip slightly, the strong man took several deep breaths. Glaring at Lin Dong’s calm face, he gritted his teeth suddenly, and a faint popping sound was heard.
Lin Dong was shocked. Immediately, he threw the strong man away.
He had bitten his tongue and committed suicide!
He simply couldn’t figure out which restaurant owner could afford to hire such ruthless people.

Ninety-nine percent of bandits are desperate men who fear death not at all—nine out of ten can be found like that. But few of them would bite their own tongues to end their lives right away, especially when facing just a lowly thug.

Moreover, with all of them at the second level or above of the Mental Energy stage, the stronghold behind these ruthless men must be quite famous even in the Great Han Kingdom. Such bandits cannot be bribed with silver. If some wealthy man brought hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, it would be a minor matter if his remains were completely devoured; they might even be taken as hostages, sneaked into the capital, and his mansion looted clean.

To become the leader of such a stronghold, concepts like loyalty and gratitude have long been buried—there’s no way such things exist. Otherwise, it would be he who gets buried, with loyalty and gratitude being what buries him.

“Consider it as if I never came!”

Lin Dong turned to glance at the group of ruthless men. Though his head throbbed, he still managed to maintain the mystery and indifference of a master.

As that invisible wall of defense weakened, the fearless bandits, regardless of the gap in strength between them, rushed forward, only to be stopped by the burly man at the front.

“Go back and tell the people at Lin’s Inn that two of my brothers are already dead,” the burly man said coldly.

“If you can tell me which stronghold you belong to, I guarantee not a single one of your brothers will survive,” Lin Dong said disdainfully.

“I’ve said it—don’t try to deceive me. I remember this grudge. We’ll meet again someday,” the burly man stared at Lin Dong darkly, his gaze like that of a venomous snake.

Lin Dong remained silent. In a flash, he disappeared from the courtyard at a speed too fast for anyone, including the burly man, to follow.

“Dig a pit and bury them,” the burly man waved his hand and gave the order before turning back to his room.

The bandits immediately dug a pit on the spot. After burying their comrade, they acted as if nothing had happened, going back to their usual tasks—some continuing as servants, others as butchers.

On the roof, Lin Dong looked disappointed. He had hoped to overhear some useful information. But these bandits seemed highly disciplined; given the order not to talk about their stronghold, they refused to discuss it at all.

With a leap, Lin Dong returned to his own backyard.

This trip not only failed to yield a solution but also made things more difficult. The only thing certain was that these people were undoubtedly bandits, and among the most ruthless. There was almost no chance of forcing them to reveal their identities.

With such bandits who couldn’t be dealt with all at once, not to mention launching a counterattack, even coming up with a response required careful consideration to avoid provoking them into using even more brutal tactics.

Speaking of which, Lin Dong even has to thank the mastermind behind the scenes for trying to minimize the impact of the situation and avoid being investigated. Otherwise, if more drastic measures had been taken from the start, he wouldn’t have had even a moment to investigate the other party’s identity.