Chapter 87 — The Killing Trap

Lin Jiang looked at Kong Youlin and waited quietly for him to reveal the answer to the riddle.

Kong Youlin gave a soft laugh. "I hear that besides your constant efforts to revive the Southern Cross Legion's mechanism arts, Brother Lin, you've also taken a great interest in merging martial souls with mechanism arts. I have something here that is bound to interest you."

Lin Jiang smiled. "Brother Kong, don't keep me in suspense."

Kong Youlin produced a black bead. "This ancient soul bead came into my hands by chance. Inside is a powerful fragment of an ancient soul general. It isn't a complete ancient soul general, but a soul bead this formidable is a rare thing indeed. I hear you've been searching for such a bead all along, Brother Lin. I wonder whether this might be of some help to you."

Lin Jiang's eyes blazed with sudden heat, fixed intently on the soul bead in Kong Youlin's hand.

Though he did not examine it closely, even from that distance he could clearly sense the utterly terrifying ferocity radiating from the ancient soul general fragment within.

What a savage aura!

Lin Jiang's heart burned. Kong Youlin was right; he had long been searching for a ferocious soul general. He had studied the fusion of martial souls and mechanisms for many years, and only recently made a breakthrough, but success would require a ferocious soul general. He had never expected Kong Youlin to be so well-informed as to know even this. Even as Lin Jiang inwardly tensed at Kong Youlin's methods, he could not stop himself from reaching for the bead.

Suddenly a bronze tiger's claw darted out from somewhere, and before anyone could react, snatched the soul bead away.

Kong Youlin blinked, then his interest flared. "Could it be that your mechanism arts have already made such a tremendous breakthrough, Brother Lin? This mechanism tiger is remarkably lifelike!"

Mechanism beasts were everywhere in the Lin compound—wolf-shaped, tiger-shaped, spider-shaped, and more. Kong Youlin had never imagined anyone would snatch it away; he simply assumed Lin Jiang had built an extraordinarily formidable mechanism beast, and so he spoke as he did.

Lin Jiang was stunned as well.

The bronze tiger before him looked somewhat familiar, yet somewhat strange. Lin Jiang was obsessed with mechanism beasts and had made every kind imaginable. Seeing this bronze tiger, both familiar and unfamiliar, he froze for a moment.

He was not certain whether he had ever made a mechanism tiger like this one.

In style, though, it was indeed the Southern Cross Legion style he favored...

The bronze tiger's next move left everyone frozen where they stood.

It tossed the soul bead from its claw straight into its mouth, then turned and melted back into the ranks of the mechanism beasts.

Everyone watched wide-eyed, too slow to react.

Kong Youlin managed a smile. "A mechanism beast this nimble—I've truly never seen the like."

Lin Jiang snapped back to his senses, his face contorting. "After it! Someone is disguised as one!"

"But Father, that was clearly a mechanism beast..." Lin Wei was puzzled.

Kong Youlin's face stiffened, then suddenly changed dramatically. He shot into the air and lunged after the mechanism tiger.

Wuuu! Wuuu!

Every mechanism beast roaming the courtyard lit up with eerie green eyes, all fixed on Kong Youlin in the sky! They had never treated Kong Youlin as an enemy before because he was with Lin Jiang, but the moment he leaped into the air and displayed aggressive intent, a chain reaction was instantly triggered.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

Several mechanism wolves drove off their hind legs and sprang at Kong Youlin in the air. Swish, swish, swish! Bronze arrows from the backs of the archer spiders streaked skyward like rain. The wolves that leaped into midair unfolded fine metal nets and cast them over Kong Youlin. And the mechanism tigers gaped their jaws wide—boom, boom, boom—as thick pillars of light blasted toward him.

Kong Youlin had never imagined he would come under such a terrifying assault.

His face went deathly pale, but as a Seventh-Rank expert he would not sit and wait to die. With a shrill, drawn-out cry, the true force throughout his body surged to its peak, and a snow-white armor manifestation materialized over his skin.

Cygnus Bronze-Rank Armor Manifestation, [Song of the Swan]!

Snow-white feathers cascaded down like snowflakes. The exquisite, elegant white armor was like a work of art. Winged shoulder guards swept upward; the helmet resembled two swans pressing their necks together; the feather armor bore delicate openwork patterns, layer upon layer. The cape was white as feathers, its tail ends burning like white flames—every spark that drifted down turned into a snow-white feather.

Kong Youlin's aura in the sky instantly climbed to its peak. He was like a prince stepped out of myth, elegant and composed.

"Break!"

Kong Youlin spat the true word, and the [Song of the Swan] on his body suddenly blazed with dazzling white light. The snow-white cape on his back exploded with a roar!

Countless feathers swept outward like a hurricane!

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The metal nets and bronze arrows slammed into the feather hurricane and were instantly shredded to dust!

When the feather hurricane met the light pillars spewing from the mechanism tigers' mouths, searing flames shot skyward. The Lin family's mechanism tigers were famous for their deadliest move, [Tiger's Roar], which converted the true force within starstones into blazing flame.

Wuuu! Wuuu!

Waves of mechanism beast roars rose from every corner of the Lin compound, and lithe beast shadows converged here like a tide.

Lin Jiang woke as if from a dream and was about to cancel the mechanism beasts' attack when his body suddenly went rigid.

A moment later, he stared blankly at the tiger claw protruding from his own chest.

"South... Legion... saber-toothed tiger..."

Tang Tang felt not the slightest reluctance. Without hesitation he withdrew and vanished once more among the mechanism beasts. He had heard every word of the conversation between Kong Youlin and Lin Jiang, and his loathing for Lin Jiang ran deep. Hearing that Lin Jiang had been secretly investigating him and scheming for the bronze mechanical ostrich, he struck without the least mercy.

Lin Wei watched blankly as Lin Jiang collapsed into a pool of blood. He was shaking like a leaf in the wind—if he himself had been the target of that strike...

Kong Youlin burst wretchedly out of the huge fireball. Hearing the ceaseless roars of the mechanism beasts, he knew at once he had kicked a hornet's nest, and his face went white.

Damn it!

He already understood his mistake. This was the Lin compound; he should not have been the first to strike. Their enemy had used a mechanism beast to conceal his identity and blended in among them, while his own rash attack had instantly provoked the mechanism beasts.

There was only one way to stop this!

Lin Jiang!

"Brother Lin! Call off the attack!"

Kong Youlin's palm was wreathed in soft white radiance, and a blur of hand shadows filled the sky. Seventh-Rank martial art, [Radiant Loose Hand]—his fingers were incomparably nimble: flicking, stabbing, sweeping, slapping. Streaks of white hand seals skimmed through the air like feathers, seemingly weightless, yet the moment those hard bronze arrows touched them, they shattered utterly.

Hm? What was Lin Jiang doing?

Kong Youlin grew anxious. When the corner of his eye caught Lin Jiang lying in the pool of blood below, his pupils dilated violently!

Damn it!

Kong Youlin's face went white again and again. He knew he was in trouble now. The enemy's cunning far exceeded his expectations—only the most vicious and desperate of men could be so ruthless, decisive, and devious as to bring this off so cleverly.

When had he ever provoked such a person?

Or was this a formidable enemy the Lin family had drawn, and he had merely been in the wrong place at the wrong time?