Heroes Return

"Are you sure you don't know?" Lin Jie said, and then swung a spiked club down on Lin Shuntian's head.

"Hmph, a mere trick." Seeing that Lin Jie simply swung his staff at him, Lin Shuntian couldn't help but snort coldly. In his opinion, the staff was full of flaws.

As Lin Shuntian spoke, he brandished his soft sword, and a dozen or so flashes of cold light instantly illuminated the entire room. The walls, furniture, and other items in the room were sliced ​​into small pieces in an instant by those sword flashes. The cut surfaces were as smooth as mirrors, clearly demonstrating the speed of the swordsman's technique, the sharpness of his sword energy, and the depth of his cultivation.

"Junior, don't be disrespectful in front of your elders." Lin Shuntian prepared to sheathe his sword after the first strike. As a master swordsman, he was confident that he could subdue Lin Jie with that single strike.

Then Lin Jie's spiked club came down, and Lin Shuntian was slammed down by it. After passing through layers of floorboards, he finally pierced through the ground floor and landed underground.

"Third Brother!" Lin Shundi shouted angrily, "You brat!"

As Lin Shun spoke, a pair of hook claws appeared in his hands, and with a swift movement, more than a dozen afterimages appeared in the dilapidated room. At the same time, he attacked Lin Jie.

Then Lin Jie raised his hand and hit him with a stick as well.

After the afterimage disappeared, Lin Shundi went to keep his third brother company.

When Lin Shuntian opened his eyes again, he found himself in an underground parking garage. He instinctively tried to move, but after a few attempts, he was shocked to find he couldn't move. Looking around carefully, he realized he was buried in the concrete floor of the garage, as if nailed in. His fourth brother, Lin Shundi, was also embedded in the concrete floor, just like him. However, unlike Lin Shuntian, Lin Shundi was unconscious.

"Fourth brother! Wake up, fourth brother!" Lin Shuntian called out to Lin Shundi twice, but received no response at all.

At this moment, Lin Shuntian couldn't help but recall the blow Lin Jie had just dealt him. This puzzled him completely. He was certain that his sword technique should have been enough to subdue Lin Jie, yet Lin Jie had then unharmed and dealt him a blow with a spiked club. Not only that, Lin Shuntian's protective qi was among the best in the entire family. In fact, even if he were hit by advanced mortars or missiles, Lin Shuntian could ensure his safety.

However, Lin Shuntian was surprised to find that Lin Jie's blow had directly shattered his protective qi. Ever since he regained consciousness, Lin Shuntian had been trying to free himself from his protective qi. But he was shocked to discover that he was completely unable to gather the qi within his body.

There's only one reason why this could happen: Lin Jie's strike just now directly dispersed the protective energy within him.

After carefully examining his body, Lin Shuntian spat out a mouthful of black blood: "It seems it will take several months for him to recover."

After examining his internal injuries, Lin Shuntian began to consider his current predicament. It seemed they had undoubtedly underestimated Lin Jie. Had they known Lin Jie possessed such strength, they would never have accepted this mission. In Lin Shuntian's view, Lin Jie's strength was undoubtedly at the same level as theirs, having entered the Innate Realm. Moreover, Lin Jie's cultivation had clearly surpassed that of ordinary Innate Realm cultivators; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to defeat the two brothers so decisively.

"Could it be that he has already reached the supreme realm like the clan's ancestor?" Lin Shuntian suddenly thought of an answer that terrified him, but he immediately shook his head and denied it.

If the two beings in the Innate Realm are equivalent to SS-level humans, then those in the Supreme Realm are beings that surpass SS-level, which is equivalent to having one foot in the realm of gods.

"Impossible, he's so young." Lin Shuntian immediately dismissed his own conclusion. Now, Lin Shuntian needed to figure out how to deal with the situation at hand. However, he was certain of one thing: Lin Jie had no intention of killing him.

Just as he was thinking, he heard footsteps and then saw Lin Jie walk out of the elevator not far away and walk towards him.

"Nephew, why did you suddenly attack us?" Lin Shuntian's tone was no longer as cold and hard as when he said he wanted to teach Lin Jie a lesson. "Nephew! Your habit of resorting to violence at the slightest disagreement is not good! You must know that there are always people stronger than you. Although you are highly skilled in martial arts, you cannot underestimate anyone. What if you anger some senior master one day?"

"You perverted freak, you still have time to say all this?" Lin Jie said with dissatisfaction, "You two are such lolicon!"

"What are you talking about? What does 'lolicon' mean?" Lin Shuntian asked, puzzled.

"Tell me why you harassed my Mumu yesterday!" Lin Jie said. "Do you know what? I killed so many monsters, and this is the only little girl I got! If you don't give me a reasonable explanation today, you're in trouble."

"You mean that little girl from your family?" Lin Shuntian finally realized that this was the reason Lin Jie had attacked him. He quickly said, "You've misunderstood me. We are both respected elders in our families. How could we possibly harass a little girl for no reason?"

"Hehe." Lin Jie said, raising his spiked club: "I heard there's a sewer down below this place."

"Don't make a move, everything I said is true!" Lin Shuntian said, "We've heard a bit about that girl's background, and we have no intention of harassing her."

"So what are you planning to do?" Lin Jie asked.

“That girl has exceptional talent, no less than your brother Lin Yingnan,” Lin Shuntian said. “We decided to examine her talent and see what martial arts techniques suit her because of her unique physique. We actually planned to take her under the wing of the Lin family to learn martial arts.”

In truth, Lin Shuntian didn't explicitly say it, but their initial plan was to adopt Lin Mumu as their daughter. After a decade or so, they would have a powerful card to play against their elder brother and Lin Yingnan. However, with Lin Jie holding a spiked club to his head, Lin Shuntian would never dare say such a thing unless he was completely out of his mind.

"Mu Mu's affairs are none of your business. She is my sister," Lin Jie said to Lin Shuntian.

“Nephew, you’re right. We just thought this girl had the potential to learn martial arts quickly, so we decided to check her physical fitness. Since you’re against this, we won’t bring it up again.”

"You really make harassing a little girl sound like it's justified," Lin Jie said. "Alright, let's leave this at that for now. I have another question for you. This time, you should probably tell the truth. Why exactly was our family kicked out of the Lin family?"

"this..."

"If you don't tell me, do you believe I'll give you a skin-peeling treatment?" Lin Jie said. "Wait here, I'll go buy mercury right now."

"Sigh! Since you insist on asking, then I will tell you." Lin Shuntian sighed and said, "I did indeed cripple your father Shunshan's martial arts, but it was not my intention."

"What do you mean?" Lin Jie asked.

"I had no choice but to cripple your father's martial arts," Lin Shunshan said. "That year, you and Ying Nan were both due for their talents to be examined, but no one expected that the examination would reveal that Ying Nan possessed a rare talent that was only seen once in a thousand years. At the time, this matter even alarmed the family's patriarch."

Your parents are proud of you, but every cloud has a silver lining. This is not good news for the eldest brother, Lin Shunren.

The eldest brother is determined to become the current patriarch of the family, but Lin Yingnan's emergence has made your father a figure of great interest within the family. Furthermore, given Yingnan's talent, he will eventually surpass the eldest brother's strength, making it difficult to guarantee the eldest brother's continued position as patriarch. Therefore, the eldest brother, Lin Shunren, is the one who least wants Yingnan to grow stronger. However, Lin Yingnan's talent is simply too extraordinary, to the point that even the patriarch takes special care of him, leaving the eldest brother unable to act against Yingnan for the time being.

However, the eldest brother wasn't the type to watch a genius grow step by step, so he proposed that Ying Nan be adopted by him. His reason was that Lin Shunshan's cultivation level was too low to be suitable for educating Ying Nan.

Your father, Lin Shunshan, was naturally unwilling, and a dispute ensued. However, your eldest brother held considerable power within the family, and at that time, he planned to kill your entire family and then adopt Lin Yingnan into his own household.

"Wait a minute, didn't that ancestor do anything when my uncle did this kind of thing?" Lin Jie asked, puzzled.

"Mind? The patriarch only cares about those who are useful to the family; he doesn't care about the lives of others," Lin Shuntian said. "Not only did the patriarch not care, but he also sent me to persuade Shunshan to voluntarily give Yingnan to my elder brother. Shunshan refused no matter what, and at that time, my elder brother already had his eye on his life. So, in order to protect your whole family's lives, I had no choice but to cripple Shunshan's martial arts and expel him from the Lin family. Otherwise, you probably wouldn't be alive now."

"Hehe." Lin Jie couldn't help but say, "According to you, you saved our family? But isn't it just a matter of who's in charge at home? Is it really necessary to make such a fuss? Your older brother is such a boring person. In our family, my sister is the one who calls the shots, so I don't have to worry about household chores."

"What do you know!" Lin Shuntian said, "You have no idea what the position of family head really represents!"

Chapter VII

"What do you know?" Lin Shuntian said with dissatisfaction, "You have no idea what the identity of an ancient clan patriarch really represents! That means someone who possesses the clan's supreme cultivation techniques and rules over a powerful family!"

"And then what? Cultivating secret techniques? Ruling over powerful families? What's the point?" Lin Jie said, puzzled. "I really don't know what's so good about power. Everyone makes themselves look pathetic for it."

“Young man! Someone like you, who speaks without ambition, will eventually be devoured by others.” Lin Shuntian said, “That’s how it is in the clan. If you return to the clan in the future, if you don’t want to be devoured by others, you have to devour others first.”

“What you’re doing is called mutual harm,” Lin Jie said. “I don’t understand your talk about family power at all, and frankly, I don’t want to understand it either. It’s better to just not care about anything and be happy.”

Lin Jie then reached his hand into the ground and pulled Lin Shuntian out of the cement.

"Nephew, what is your cultivation level? Even your third uncle couldn't withstand a single blow from your staff." Lin Shuntian breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Lin Jie had no intention of harming him further. It seemed that his provocative words had worked in the end. He couldn't help but inquire about Lin Jie's cultivation level.

"I don't know, I've never tested it," Lin Jie said. "I don't even know how to judge a martial artist's cultivation level."

“Is that so? Why don’t we wait until we return to our family and have someone from our family test you?” Lin Shuntian said.

“I have no interest,” Lin Jie said. “The only thing I want to do right now is see my brother. I wonder how he is doing. When are we leaving to see him?”

"Well, actually we've been waiting for a master these past few days. Once the master arrives, we can set off," Lin Shuntian said, sitting cross-legged on the ground.

"master?"

“He is one of the four great monks of the famous Guanggun Temple,” Lin Shuntian said.

"The Bachelor Temple?" Lin Jie said in surprise, "You really can see them everywhere!"

At this moment, Lin Jie couldn't help but think of that incompetent master who only knew how to run away and that speechless master who never stopped talking.

“Nephew, do you know about the Guanggun Temple? That’s perfect, the one who will be traveling with us this time is none other than the unscrupulous master from Guanggun Temple,” Lin Shuntian said.

"An unscrupulous master?" Lin Jie muttered. "As expected, the Dharma names of the Bachelor Temple are all more unreliable than the last."

"Alright then, in that case, I'll wait for you for a few days," Lin Jie said, preparing to leave.

"By the way, I wonder if we could bring that little girl along too?" Lin Shuntian said at this moment. "With her talent, it would be a real pity if she didn't learn martial arts. Besides, once we return to the clan, I will treat you all with the best hospitality."

"I'll think about it," Lin Jie said before leaving.

After Lin Jie left, Lin Shuntian finally breathed a sigh of relief. He then took out a small bottle from his pocket; thankfully, the bottle wasn't broken. With trembling hands, he poured the pills from the bottle into his mouth and then closed his eyes to regulate his breathing.

Not long after, Lin Shuntian struggled to his feet and then grabbed his younger brother Lin Shundi and lifted him up.

Lin Shundi was pulled out by Lin Shuntian like a radish.

After Lin Shundi was seated on the table, Lin Shuntian slapped him hard on the back.

"Ugh!" A mouthful of blood gushed from Lin Shundi's mouth, and then he slowly opened his eyes: "Third Brother, that kid..."

"Don't worry, he's already gone," Lin Shuntian said. "I didn't expect him to have such great power. It seems he must have had some kind of extraordinary encounter."

"Third Brother, can you sense what level that kid's cultivation is at?" Lin Shun asked.

"I can't sense it, but one thing I'm sure of is that the kid's cultivation level is definitely no lower than my brother's," Lin Shuntian said.

"Looks like we've brought ourselves a lot of trouble!" Lin Shun said. "If this continues, that kid will probably affect our plans!"

"Not necessarily," Lin Shuntian said. "I told him about what happened to my older brother back then."

You mean?

“Bringing this kid back might not be a bad thing for us!” Lin Shuntian said. “On the contrary, it might be a good thing. You should know that our plan is now in urgent need of attention, and after this kid goes to the ancestral land, the first one affected will undoubtedly be our eldest brother.”

"You mean he'll go against my older brother?" Lin Shundi asked.

"He beat us up because of what happened to his father back then. Do you think he'll let go of the older brother who caused their separation?" Lin Shuntian smiled. "That kid's kung fu is probably only something the patriarch in the family can suppress. What do you think he'll do then?"

"What do you mean, brother?"

"We not only need to bring him back, but we also need to give him all the conveniences and the best treatment," Lin Shuntian said. "That way, at least this kid can keep our eldest brother on edge, which will allow us to carry out our own plan. Once our plan succeeds, we can then eliminate him and his younger brother together!"

"Third Brother, this is a trick of using one tiger to devour another," Lin Shundi said with a smile.

"Haha, I never expected that we would have such a harvest in such a small city as H." Lin Shuntian said with a smile, "Luckily, I didn't listen to what you said and just took those two divine weapons from that kid, otherwise we would be dead in this small city of H right now."

“Third Brother, you’re right. I didn’t think things through,” Lin Shundi said.

"Who would have thought this kid would be so powerful?" Lin Shuntian said. "At the time, I only planned to bring him back to sow discord between Lin Yingnan and my elder brother. But this is even better. Let them have a good fight then."

"Then we can sit back and reap the benefits! Haha..." Lin Shun chuckled dryly twice, then coughed up blood several more times.

"When you see this kid again, tone down your attitude," Lin Shuntian reminded him. "I've only just changed his opinion of us."

"I understand, brother."

After two days of calm, Lin Jie was completely absorbed in Xiao Zhan's newly developed holographic game, "Looking Up at Buttocks," and essentially cut off from the outside world. He only stopped playing when Lin Wan angrily unplugged the game and notified his two uncles to come and join them.

When Lin Shuntian and Lin Shundi met again, the two had completely changed. When they spoke to Lin Wan, they called her "my dear niece" repeatedly, which gave Lin Wan goosebumps.

"Why have those two suddenly become so disgusting?" Zhu Xian'er asked the Lin brothers, "Can I just chop those two things up?"

"Our lovely little niece came along this time too?" Lin Shuntian smiled at Lin Mumu. "What snacks would you like? I'll buy them for you."

Lin Shuntian's expression immediately frightened Lin Mumu, who hid behind Lin Jie: "Brother, let's kill those two weird uncles. I don't like them."

"Stop fooling around, Mu Mu. I'll teach you how to use a big sword later, then you can chop them down yourself," Lin Jie said to Lin Mu Mu.

Just as the two were talking, this scene suddenly unfolded around everyone.

At this moment, the two girls were hugging a man.

"Damn, this is a battleground!" Lin Jie looked over with great interest.

A stunningly beautiful woman, whose temperament and looks completely surpassed the other's, gently tapped the man's chest with her finger and said, "Look at me, am I beautiful?"