247: Chapter 248 Undercurrents! Li Qingcang's Last Trump Card!

The news spread even faster than Lin Qi had anticipated.

Less than two hours after the incident at the abandoned port, the black market's underground forums were flooded with posts. A bounty hunter who had escaped the scene posted a thread with a simple and blunt title: "Don't Go."

The body of the post contained only three lines:

"I went. Eight of us besieged him. He split an A-Rank pillar of fire in half in a single breath."

"The Scavenger, Han Tie, also went. He left after exchanging just one move."

"Whoever wants this bounty can take it. I'm changing careers."

The replies below exceeded ten thousand within half an hour.

Some questioned it. Some mocked it. Some posted blurry images taken from a distance—the pictures showed only a hazy figure standing in the center of the port, surrounded by people lying on the ground. The image quality was terrible, but it was enough to prove the point.

The most weight-bearing reply came from an anonymous account. It was just one sentence:

"Han Tie left, which means the target's Physical Body strength is at least at the quasi-S Rank or higher. Re-evaluate the risk level. Suggest adjusting from 'High Risk' to 'Forbidden'."

This reply was pinned to the top.

In just one night, the black market's enthusiasm dropped to the freezing point.

It wasn't that everyone was afraid to die—the black market had no shortage of desperate outlaws. But even outlaws are human, and humans calculate the input-output ratio. When a target's strength is enough to make the old monsters in the top twenty of the bounty list voluntarily give up, the vast majority of rational hunters will choose to return to a wait-and-see state.

But that was only the vast majority.

Not all.

...

Kyoto. The Li Family.

Late at night.

Li Qingcang sat in his study, with a table full of intelligence documents spread out before him.

He already knew the news from the port. Not only did he know the result, but someone had even compiled every detail of the battle into a complete report and handed it to him—he had planted his own eyes and ears near the port.

He flipped through the report page by page, very slowly.

"Catching a crossbow bolt with two fingers... killing someone from two hundred meters with the flick of a finger... splitting an A-Rank fire Spell in one breath... catching Han Tie's full-force impact with bare hands... physical attacks are ineffective against his skin..."

With every page he turned, his fingers grew a shade paler.

By the time he reached the last page, his hands were trembling.

It wasn't entirely fear. Fear was certainly there, but more than that was a sort of anxiety bordering on collapse.

He had issued a bounty of six hundred billion.

This money didn't fall from the sky—he had mortgaged one-third of the Li Family's core industries. This was a massive gamble, betting that the outlaws and hidden experts of the entire Federation could use numbers and methods to compensate for the gap in individual strength, wearing Lin Qi down with human waves and conspiracies.

Did he lose the bet?

Then it wouldn't just be a matter of the Li Family's Origin Qi being severely damaged. It would be direct bankruptcy.

"Useless."

He slammed the report onto the desk.

"A bunch of useless trash."

There was a knock on the study door.

"Come in."

A middle-aged man entered, wearing a sophisticated black suit and gold-rimmed glasses, his hairstyle meticulous. He looked like a high-level lawyer or a banker.

"Family Head." The middle-aged man bowed slightly.

"Have you seen the situation?"

"I have."

Li Qingcang stared straight at him.

"Do you still have a way?"

Chen Shu pushed up his glasses and sat in the only guest seat in the study.

His name was Chen Shu.

The Li Family's Shadow—this title held a special meaning within Kyoto's power circles. He wasn't a butler, not a strategist, and certainly not a common Family vassal. He was the true behind-the-scenes operator for the Li Family for three generations, responsible for handling all the dirty business beneath the surface.

"Conventional methods are no longer useful," Chen Shu said at a measured pace. "The incident at the port proved one thing: on the level of pure power, there is currently no one within the Federation who can defeat him head-on."

"Then don't fight him head-on."

"Assassination is equally unfeasible. His perception range is extremely wide. During the port incident, there were six teams lying in ambush, and he walked in calmly, indicating he had locked onto everyone's positions before even entering the field. Surprising him is unrealistic."

"Then did you come to me just to tell me there's no way?" Li Qingcang's voice was cold to the bone.

Chen Shu was not intimidated. Having followed three generations of the Li Family, he had seen every kind of rage.

"I am here to tell you about a new option."

He took a palm-sized data chip from his inner suit pocket and placed it on the desk.

"What is this?"

"Three days ago, someone contacted us through the black market's highest-level anonymous channel. The other party saw the Blood Pursuit Order and proactively proposed a collaboration."

"Who?"

"Unknown. The other party used multi-layered springboard encryption; even the black market's own intelligence network can't trace the source. But he gave something as a meeting gift."

Chen Shu pushed the chip toward Li Qingcang.

"Stored in this chip is a complete behavioral analysis of Lin Qi's combat from the Prodigy Championship to the Dragon Tomb phase. This includes his force-exertion patterns for every strike, his upper and lower limits of reaction speed, and a breakdown of the techniques in his Ancient Martial Arts System."

Li Qingcang picked up the chip.

"Any data analyst could make something like this."

"I thought so too," Chen Shu said, "until I saw the contents inside."

"Family Head, this analysis report proposes a viewpoint." His tone finally changed slightly. "Lin Qi's combat System has a structural weakness. Not a weakness in power, not a weakness in speed—but a weakness in Law."

Li Qingcang put down the chip.

"Explain clearly."

"All of Lin Qi's abilities are built on a 'physical' foundation. His Physical Body can resist Spells, and he can even use Protective Aura to block elements. But essentially, he is a 'Blank Slate' unrecognized by the System. He is not protected by the System's Laws, but at the same time—he cannot receive the blessings of the System's Laws."

"This creates a blind spot."

"He can resist conventional magical attacks because the medium for those Spells is materialized elements—fireballs, ice spikes, shadows. These things have mass, temperature, and physical properties. His Physical Body strength and Protective Aura can withstand them."

"But what if the medium of the attack isn't an element, but the 'Rules' themselves?"

Li Qingcang's eyes narrowed.

"Continue."

"The report mentions a possibility. The System is essentially a global network of Laws. This network assigns classes, issues skills, and manages Ranks. Lin Qi is a foreign object outside the network, so he is not under the network's control."

"But what if someone could mobilize the power of the network itself to perform... a Rejection Reaction against a 'foreign object outside the network'?"

"Just like a human immune System attacking an invading virus."

The room fell silent for several seconds.

Li Qingcang's expression shifted repeatedly.

He wasn't stupid. He understood.

This wasn't a discussion about sending a few assassins to kill Lin Qi. This was a discussion about a way to eliminate Lin Qi from a fundamental level, from the level of the 'System Laws'.

"Is this possible?" His voice was very low.

"I don't know," Chen Shu answered calmly, "but the person who provided this information claims he can do it."

"The conditions?"

"The conditions are simple. He wants Lin Qi's body."

"Alive."

Li Qingcang's fingers tapped lightly on the desk, the rhythm uneven. This was a small habit that appeared only when he was extremely tense.

"Do you think this person is trustworthy?"

"Not trustworthy," Chen Shu replied decisively. "An anonymous person who doesn't even dare to reveal their identity, proposing a plan that sounds inconceivable, with the target being a living person—it looks like a trap no matter how you view it."

"But Family Head, do we still have a choice?"

After those words fell, only the ticking of the wall clock remained in the study.

Li Qingcang closed his eyes.

He thought of many things. He thought of the Li Family's century-old foundation. He thought of the six hundred billion gamble. He thought of his son Li Qingxuan's face when he was sent flying by a single punch during the Prodigy Championship. He thought of the entire Federation's mockery of the Li Family.

The more he thought, the more chaotic his mind became. The more chaotic, the more desperate.

The silence lasted for a long time.

"Contact him."

Li Qingcang finally spoke.

"Tell him I can negotiate the conditions. But I want more details. The 'Rejection Reaction' he mentioned—the specific implementation method, the timing, the success rate—I want to grasp it all."

"If he cannot give me a satisfactory answer..."

Li Qingcang opened his eyes, the madness and paranoia in his gaze no longer hidden.

"...then I'll do it myself. Who doesn't know how to flip the table? At worst, the Li Family will go down with me, but I'll drag that little animal down to Hell too!"

Chen Shu stood up, took back the chip, and straightened his cuffs.

"I will arrange the reply tonight."

He walked to the door and paused.

"Family Head, there is one thing I must say in advance."

"Speak."

"If the 'System Rejection' the other party mentioned is real—the danger level of someone who can do such a thing is likely far beyond Lin Qi's. Collaborating with such a person is equivalent to inviting a tiger to drive away a wolf."

"Are you sure you want to open this door?"

Li Qingcang did not hesitate.

"A door?"

He gave a cold laugh.

"The moment Lin Qi stepped out of the Dragon Tomb, the door was already closed."

"What I want to do now isn't to open a door."

"It's to tear off the roof."