185: Chapter 184 The State Takes Action! Five Top Experts Descend, the Zhou Family is Annihilated!

Lin Feng lay on Xiao Jin's back, blood still seeping from the wound where the short blade had pierced his chest.

The purple patterns around the edges of the wound spread like living creatures; with every inch they expanded, the light element within his body was suppressed further.

The Source of Life was still functioning, but its recovery speed had slowed significantly—originally able to restore over a million health per second, it was now down to less than a hundred thousand.

"Cough, cough—"

He coughed up a mouthful of blood, the bloody foam splattering onto Xiao Jin's carapace and trickling down along its golden patterns.

Xiao Jin was frantic, its six legs scratching at the ground incessantly and its antennae waving wildly as it let out urgent "squeak, squeak" cries.

It wanted to help Lin Feng stop the bleeding, but it only knew how to gnaw on Spirit Stones and release Soul-Confusing Incense; it knew nothing of medical arts.

It turned its head and chirped twice at Xiao Guang, meaning—haven't you lived for tens of thousands of years? Think of something, fast!

Xiao Guang stood beside Lin Feng's chest, pressing two small golden hands against the wound, attempting to use a Formation to seal the spreading of that eerie purple light.

But as soon as it laid down a sealing Formation, the purple light devoured the Formation runes like a living thing.

"It's no use! This poison is too insidious! It specifically targets the light element and counters my Formation attributes!"

Xiao Guang gritted its teeth.

That handsome little golden face turned flush with anger and anxiety—no, it became an even deeper gold.

"If only there were Wood-attribute or Water-attribute healing skills. Since the light element is countered, we can only rely on other attributes to neutralize it!"

"I... I have Water Element Affinity..."

Lin Feng's voice was weak, every word feeling like he had a throat full of sand.

"But my mana is suppressed within my body; I can't mobilize it..."

The place where he had been pierced happened to be a core node for the circulation of light element. Combined with the poison on the blade that targeted the light element, it felt as if the light element in his body was frozen, making it difficult to mobilize other elements as well.

It was like the source of a river being blocked; the tributaries would naturally dry up.

Not far away, Zhou Tiannan stood in the center of the lava pool.

The purple flames burning on his body had dimmed considerably—he had been burning his Origin for too long, and his cultivation was continuously depleting, but he didn't care.

As long as he could kill Lin Feng, any price was worth paying.

"Hahaha! Lin Feng! Weren't you quite the fighter? Why don't you stand up then!"

Zhou Tiannan laughed toward the sky, his voice filled with triumph and madness.

He turned to look at the black-clad ninja.

"Sato-kun, that was a fine strike! Excellent! Rest assured, once Lin Feng is dead, I will settle your wanted status in Huaxia, and the debt regarding that trash Inoue will be wiped clean."

The black-clad ninja—Sato Ichiro—did not answer.

His eyes remained fixed on the wound on Lin Feng's chest, a trace of imperceptible confusion flashing in his blood-red pupils.

He had put ten-tenths of his power into that strike, and with the shadow poison added, it should have theoretically pierced the heart, poisoned the light element core, and caused instant death.

But this youth was actually still alive, and the wound was even healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Though it was healing slowly, it was indeed healing.

This indicated that his Physique was strong enough to resist the shadow poison.

"The recovery power of a Prodigy-grade Physique shouldn't be this exaggerated..."

Sato Ichiro said in a low voice, spinning the short blade at his fingertips.

"If one strike can't kill you, then I'll use another."

His figure turned into a black shadow once more, lunging toward Lin Feng.

His speed was so fast the air seemed to tear, and the black blade reflected an eerie purple light under the sun.

This time he aimed for Lin Feng's throat—if piercing the heart didn't kill you, surely cutting the throat would?

Xiao Guang spun around abruptly, hands forming a seal, and a golden light shield expanded in front of Lin Feng.

But before the light shield could fully form, it was shattered by the black short blade—most of Xiao Guang's mana was being used to maintain the triple Formation trapping Zhou Tiannan, so this hastily erected shield had less than thirty percent of its usual defensive power.

Formation runes scattered across the ground like broken glass.

"Lin Feng!"

Xiao Guang screamed and blocked the way in front of Lin Feng, spreading its arms and using its thirty-centimeter-tall golden body as the final line of defense.

It knew it couldn't block this strike, but it did not retreat.

Sato Ichiro's short blade lunged straight forward, the tip less than half a meter from Xiao Guang.

Xiao Jin pounced from the side, opening its mouth to bite at Sato Ichiro's wrist.

But its speed was still half a beat too slow.

Just as the blade tip was about to strike Xiao Guang—

A hand reached out from the void.

The hand was very ordinary, with slender fingers, neatly trimmed nails, and slightly loose skin where faint liver spots could be seen on the back.

There was no glow on the hand, no energy fluctuations; it looked just like the hand of an ordinary man in his fifties.

Yet such a hand, using only two fingers, gently pinched Sato Ichiro's blade.

"Ding—"

A crisp sound rang out, like a steel needle dropping onto glass.

Sato Ichiro's pupils contracted violently.

He had put all his strength into this strike; its speed was enough to pierce the sound barrier, and its power was enough to penetrate steel.

But once pinched by those two fingers, the blade was like it had been embedded in a block of iron, completely immovable.

He tried to pull the blade back and retreat, but the blade was held dead fast by those two fingers; no matter how much force he used, he couldn't pull it out.

"Who are you?!"

Sato Ichiro was shocked and enraged; his left hand formed a seal, and a dark purple poisonous mist shot from his fingertips, heading straight for the owner of that hand.

The owner of the hand did not dodge, nor did he raise his hand to parry.

He simply stepped completely out of the void.

It was a middle-aged man in his fifties.

He had a square face, thick eyebrows, hair combed meticulously, and a few streaks of white at his temples.

He wore a dark gray Zhongshan suit, the collar buttoned tightly, and on his chest was a badge Lin Feng had never seen before.

The badge was circular, depicting a hand holding three crossed swords, surrounded by a ring of fine golden text.

He stood there with his back perfectly straight, like an old pine tree rooted to a cliff.

There were no elemental fluctuations around him—no fire, no frost, no lightning; even the wind did not seem to linger for him.

Yet for such a plain-looking middle-aged man, the dark purple poisonous mist shot by Sato Ichiro hit an invisible wall half a meter in front of him and dissipated automatically.

It wasn't shaken apart or evaporated; it dissipated obediently, quietly, and as a matter of course.

Like a drop of water falling onto a red-hot iron plate, it was gone in an instant.

After Sato Ichiro saw that badge clearly, his blood-red pupils shrank to the size of needle tips.

For the first time, his voice trembled.

"Ministry of State Security... Adjudication Division?!"

The middle-aged man did not answer him.

He simply gave a light twist with his two fingers, and Sato Ichiro's Shadow Blade—forged from Shadow Meteoric Iron by the best blacksmiths in Baga Country—snapped into two pieces like fragile glass.

The blade tip fell to the ground with a clang, bounced twice, rolled into the lava pool, and instantly turned into a wisp of green smoke.

Sato Ichiro wanted to run.

His figure turned into a black shadow as he retreated rapidly, his speed so fast the naked eye of an ordinary person couldn't capture it at all.

He didn't need to outrun this middle-aged man; he only needed to reach the void fissure—his spatial Talent allowed him to briefly hide in the Void Interlayer, and once inside the interlayer, no one could catch him.

But he had retreated less than twenty meters when his back hit an invisible wall.

Unknown to him, his retreat path had also been sealed off.

Immediately after, he saw the void behind the middle-aged man ripple like the surface of water.

A hand pulled back the space, and another person walked out.

This time it was a woman.

In her early fifties, with short graying hair, a round face, and wearing a pair of silver-framed reading glasses, she looked like a neighborhood committee auntie or a retired teacher.

She wore a navy blue Zhongshan suit, with a fountain pen tucked into her jacket pocket and a folder in her hand.

As she stepped out of the void, she was still looking down at the documents in her hand, frowning and muttering as she read, her expression like she was checking this month's ledger.

"Sato Ichiro, Level 68, S-grade Shadow Talent, code name 'Ghost Thorn' of the Baga Country 'Shadow Kill' organization. In the past twelve years, committed seventeen assassinations within Huaxia territory, including three military officers of colonel rank and two provincial officials."

She turned a page and continued reading.

"Last entry record was three months ago, using a forged business visa, with the reason for entry being the inspection of the Donghai City tea market."

She closed the folder and pushed up her reading glasses, the lenses flashing white under the sun.

"A ninja inspecting the tea market; your Baga Country's level of disguise is becoming increasingly perfunctory."

Sato Ichiro's face changed completely.

It wasn't because his identity had been exposed—his identity had long been registered in the intelligence Systems of various countries, so it wasn't surprising to be found out.

What was strange was how this woman knew all his details, even having a detailed list of the seventeen assassinations, some of which he thought he had executed flawlessly.

Even more terrifying was that these two people had stepped out of the void in the same way he did—but while he needed to rely on his spatial Talent to barely manage Void Walk, these two did it as casually as opening the door to their own living room.

"Level 80-something..."

Sato Ichiro gripped the short blade that only had half its length left, the hilt creaking under his grip.

Even the woman who looked most like a neighborhood committee auntie was at this level—this meant he had no possibility of escape today.

But the ripples in the void continued.

A third person in a Zhongshan suit walked out.

Bald, in his early sixties, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, the Zhongshan suit was stretched tight by his frame. There was an old scar on his neck extending from behind his ear to his collarbone, though it was unclear what weapon had left it.

He was carrying a person in his hand—the white-browed elder, the Zhou Family Guest Elder who had been sent flying by Lin Feng earlier.

The white-browed elder was like a chicken being held by the neck in his hand, his two legs kicking wildly in mid-air, his horsetail whisk long since lost.

The bald man tossed him aside casually, and the white-browed elder fell to the ground like a broken sack, sliding quite a distance and smashing through a patch of brick and stone before stopping.

He lay on the ground, coughed up some blood, and after looking up to see the other two in Zhongshan suits, the expression on his face turned from anger to ashen, and from ashen to complete despair.

A fourth person walked out.

Square-faced, with sword-like eyebrows, hair combed meticulously, the buttons of his Zhongshan suit fastened to the very top, and the leather shoes on his feet polished so brightly they could reflect light.

He was dragging a bald, burly man—the other Guest Elder who had been sent flying by Lin Feng.

The burly man's eyebrow-height iron staff had been broken into three pieces, which the man was carrying casually in his other hand.

He threw the burly man next to the white-browed elder, the iron staff fragments clattering as they scattered across the ground.

The burly man fell to the ground and struggled to get up, but was stepped on the chest by the square-faced man and forced back down.

That foot was like a mountain pressing down on him; no matter how much force he used, he couldn't move an inch.

When the final person walked out, even Zhou Tiannan's expression changed.

It was an old man.

His hair was completely white, combed neatly and draped over his shoulders. He had deep wrinkles on his face, but his eyes were very bright—not the cloudy brightness of an old person, but like two unsheathed blades, sharp and restrained.

He wore the same dark gray Zhongshan suit as the others, but his cuffs had an extra ring of silver piping.

He leaned on a black cane, the top of which was inlaid with a fist-sized obsidian stone; runes could be faintly seen circulating inside the obsidian.

He walked out of the void more slowly than the others, and his pace was slow too. With every step he took, a faint golden ring of light would appear beneath his feet, which would quietly dissipate after spreading out.

When the short-haired woman saw him, she turned slightly and pulled the folder closer to her chest.

The bald man restrained the ferocity on his face and stepped half a pace to the side.

The square-faced man withdrew his foot from the burly man's chest and turned to nod slightly toward him.

Even the middle-aged man who had been the first to act lowered the blade fragment in his hand and acknowledged him with his eyes.

The old man walked into the middle of the group and looked up at Zhou Tiannan, who was standing not far away in the center of the lava pool.

The purple flames in the lava pool were still surging, but the height of the flames was already half of what it had been.

"Zhou Tiannan."