Chapter 114: The Assassin Who Refused to Be Bought

Inner-school experts were a different breed from outer-school experts; they cultivated inner force, such as striking acupuncture points from a distance, warding and directing objects with their breath, and running across eaves and walls like ghosts.
Even the Golden Armor artifact he had obtained could let him practice the inner art called Golden Bell Defense and achieve a similar effect.
And even when this inner discipline had reached perfection, it could make one impervious to blades and spears—though it offered no defense against poison.

At that moment, the assassin’s eyes widened in astonishment.
He was astonished that Lin Fan had somehow sensed his aura, and puzzled by why Lin Fan seemed entirely unafraid.
A single gesture from him and a dart of poison could kill Lin Fan in an instant.
Yet Lin Fan remained calm as a cloudless sky, and even offered him a friendly proposition.
Could he have an uncanny intuition, able to foresee the assassin’s arrival?
Did that mean Lin Fan’s inner power was already above his own?

Seeing Lin Fan unmoved, the assassin seemed to guess at something and gave a light laugh.
“you must be very young, right? No real experience in this sort of work, maybe you haven’t even killed anyone yet. Is this your first side job as an assassin?”

The assassin blanched again, eyes bulging like polished bronze bells.
When he saw that reaction, Lin Fan knew he had guessed right.
Luckily, after consulting the bodyguard he had been talking to lately and reading a good amount of psychology, Lin Fan could keep an expressionless face even before a man with a weapon.
His composure was unnervingly strong.

“Tell me who sent you, and how much he paid you. I can give you double… no, three times as much.”

Lin Fan extended the same invitation again.
If money could settle it, he would not risk stepping into danger. After all, he was not yet an outer-school master; even with Golden Armor protection, he did not know whether it could withstand an outer-school master’s assault.

The assassin froze for a few seconds, clearly tempted.
He saw Lin Fan had plenty of money and was offering three times the fee, enough to make him pliable.
And he had also heard Lin Fan was no minor fighter; if Lin Fan’s strength surpassed his, his fate would be clear.

“There is no need to become someone’s pawn for a little money. You’re intelligent—you should know how to choose,” Lin Fan said, smiling and sitting back on the sofa, looking at him pleasantly.

It was that smile which made the assassin believe Lin Fan’s realm far exceeded his own.

Then the assassin spoke. “My employer gave me two million. Can you really give me three times that?”

Seeing him take the bait, Lin Fan grew even more confident and composed.
“Give me your account number. I’ll transfer six million at once.”

Lin Fan quickly picked up his phone.
Without hesitation the assassin rattled off a string of digits, and almost at once Lin Fan transferred six million.
Half a minute later the assassin pulled out his own phone and saw the bank transfer confirmation.
He looked at Lin Fan in astonishment once more—he had not expected Lin Fan to be so faithful to his word.

Seeing that expression, Lin Fan smiled again.
“Did your employer pay you only half up front, with the rest after the job was done?”

The assassin stayed silent. Fear flickered in him now, but he still forced himself to appear calm.
“Fine,” Lin Fan continued, “you can tell me now—who sent you to kill me?”

“Shanglin. Zhong Xingnan’s mother.”

“Zhong Xingnan?”
Upon hearing the name, Lin Fan frowned slightly.
He had expected Bai Jiahao or Su Qianlong, not Zhong Xingnan’s mother.

After a moment of silence, he raised his head. “Give me her number.”

The assassin came straight to his side, and Lin Fan immediately called Shanglin.
“Hello… who is this?”

The line connected and the woman greeted first.
“Hello, who is speaking?”

Lin Fan’s voice turned icy. “You have some nerve to send an assassin after me. Did Young Master Wang not warn you not to seek revenge? It seems words mean nothing to you.”

“Weren’t you the one who maimed my son! You wretched cur! I’ll tear you apart, slash you to pieces and leave your body in fragments!”

The woman on the other end screamed with vicious rage.
Lin Fan moved his phone away in time, or he would have gone deaf from her shouting.

When she finished cursing, he said, “The assassin you sent was bought off by me. You gave him two million, and I paid him six million. By the way, it looks like you gave him only one million.”

“If you won’t listen to reason,” the woman shouted back, “then don’t blame my men for being merciless. By tomorrow, I will bring the Zhong family to ruin!”

She had already gone half-crazy. “You don’t even know how powerful the Zhong family is, you little runt…”

Before she could finish, Lin Fan hung up.
“Two million more,” he said, looking at the assassin with complete calm. “Go cut off this woman’s tongue and bring it to me. A little warning to the Zhong house.”

“Done.”

The assassin nodded at once.
Such open-handed generosity from a patron was something he had never seen.

Without a word, Lin Fan transferred another two million into the assassin’s account.

Then he suddenly asked, “How good are you in the assassin world?”

The assassin looked puzzled, then answered honestly.
“I’ve learned Eastern-style ninjutsu. I know all kinds of hidden weapons and assassination techniques. My light-footed movement is excellent. My experience is limited, but I can confidently say my level is in the top five among assassins.”

“Top five?” Lin Fan raised an eyebrow, surprised to have met a real talent.

“Leave your contact information. Maybe I’ll need you sometime. As for payment, name your own price.”

Lin Fan watched him with a sly, cold smile. After half a minute the assassin accepted the offer decisively.
Then he took a pen from the table, wrote his name and number on a card, and handed it over.

In the instant Lin Fan looked away, the man vanished from sight with a blur of movement.
“That was quick—Li Yang?” Lin Fan read the name aloud and saved the number in his contacts.

Then he sent a few messages to Wang Silai, explaining what had happened in his house and saying he intended to bring the Zhong family down.
Wang Silai replied, telling him to pay attention to the news the next day.

The next morning, in Su City, news broke that Zhongyi Group was under investigation and that authorities had taken members of the Zhong family in for questioning.
The two events shook the upper society of the Jiangnan region to its core.

Everyone was talking about how the Zhong household could collapse so completely in a single night; for such a great clan to be reduced to this, there must be some power behind it.
Soon rumors began circulating: this was connected to Wang Silai.

Bai Jiahao and Su Qianlong were stunned as well.

At Blue Sky Building, after reading the reports, Bai Jiahao went at once to Su Qianlong’s villa to discuss a response.
It had been because he had told Shanglin that Lin Fan was formidable, and so she had hired one of the very top assassins to eliminate him.
Yet before a day had passed, news of the Zhong family under investigation arrived and frightened Bai Jiahao badly.

And after he learned that Wang Silai had reported the matter to the authorities, he grew especially afraid they might trace it back to him.