Special Forces Medic

His charging momentum was like the wind, swift as lightning; from intercepting to striking, it was done in almost the blink of an eye, dazzling to the point of blurring the eyes.

Liu Yi was experienced and tried his best to evade, but the hand-knife was already upon him. Pff~~ the fingertips scraped tightly across skin and flesh, cutting from his right shoulder all the way to his left ribs! Blood spurted out with it.

Such a reversal startled Xiao Lin as well. Had Liu Yi’s stamina dropped? Otherwise how could he have succeeded so easily? Or was there some other trick hidden within?

This kind of wound didn’t really count as an injury to Liu Yi. His face was still expressionless; he didn’t even furrow his brows. Yet at the instant he landed, Xiao Lin’s right leg suddenly lashed out. A frontal move wasn’t frightening; what was frightening was that his swinging right leg was as swift as the wind and also... utterly silent, the angle vicious!

Liu Yi was intent on dodging, and when the tip of the foot neared him he did sense it, only he badly underestimated the opponent’s speed and power. By the time he felt something was wrong, the tip of the foot was already upon him.

Crack! The tip of the foot slammed heavily into Liu Yi’s knee. A crisp bone-splitting sound rang out, and his entire right leg instantly folded backward into a V-shape. Thick blood spurted, a jagged shard of bone pierced through flesh and jutted out; the bloody scene was enough to make one want to scream.

Liu Yi stared somewhat blankly at his snapped right leg, his mind blank, the whole world dead-silent in that instant; he didn’t even feel pain. After that brief stupor, searing pain and unspeakable terror surged over his entire body like a tidal wave.

Aaah~~~ a shrill, miserable scream suddenly tore the air, like a wounded wild beast howling helplessly in endless wilderness! Liu Yi’s eyes were fixed rigidly on his knee where blood was gushing like a faucet, thick terror in his gaze as his once-straight body shook violently on the ground.

Despair and fear far surpassed the pain itself.

Xiao Lin felt not the slightest trace of pity. He had seen too many lives and deaths on battlefields of life and death; here, it was either you die or I live. Any sympathy could only be digging his own grave.

He stepped forward, appearing in front of Liu Yi. His right leg swung out and slammed into Liu Yi’s chest. The huge penetrating force blasted him straight into the air, hurling him out in a high arc off the platform and down toward the woods behind.

Xiao Lin suddenly laughed, sprang up, and in midair his hands shot forward, clamping onto Liu Yi’s throat and thigh. Before he could resist, Xiao Lin’s big hands clenched down hard, immense strength crushing and twisting his throat in an instant. His right knee then drove up with full force, just like Liu Yi had done to him before, ramming into his lower abdomen. Crack—his waist snapped; the half-dead man was completely finished.

"You’re not Liu Yi!"

Crack~~ a clear sound of bone breaking echoed to the heavens as Xiao Lin casually snapped his throat bone.

Liu Yi was defeated, and defeated miserably. But for him, this was only a beginning! Who was Liu Yi, who was the Liu Yi he was looking for? This man was like a true Ghost, appearing out of nowhere and vanishing just as suddenly, impossible to pin down. Yet the one he had just met, he was certain he wasn’t wrong about him—so when had the switch happened again?

How could a living, breathing man be swapped out right under his eyes like that? Xiao Lin didn’t know. He stared silently at the corpse on the ground, because on this platform there was still a presence besides his own. Faint, but not nonexistent—thankfully it was night, and the wind had preserved this trace of aura that was hard to detect.

Thus, Xiao Lin followed that faint aura and walked toward the depths of the woods. Walking out of the trees, a different world opened up. No one would have noticed that behind this patch of woods there was such a building, and that familiar aura came precisely from a person standing at the edge of the mountaintop.

Was he Liu Yi? Xiao Lin kept asking himself. Was the person who took off his mask and shocked him Liu Yi?

Hearing the sound behind him, the man standing with his back to him, overlooking the foot of the mountain, suddenly turned around. This time Xiao Lin wasn’t so surprised. He examined this face carefully. It seemed familiar, yet there were many differences. The feeling was strange, but he was sure of one thing—he definitely didn’t know him.

"The fact that you made it here means the one outside is already dead. How many people from our Assassin Group have died by your hand now?"

"The fourth."

"Do you know how long it takes the Assassin Group to train one man? Just that face alone—how much time and effort it costs? And you just casually took their lives like that. No, I should say you took away the Founder’s painstaking effort in creating the Assassin Group."

"Are you Liu Yi, or one of them?" The question was actually rather absurd, even a bit unreasonable, but Xiao Lin asked it very seriously.

"Liu Yi? Sit." Liu Yi only smiled, then pointed at the stone bench and stone table beside him, where a teapot and porcelain cups of freshly brewed tea sat.

"Clear tea can calm the mind, and it can also clear the head. Are you still clear-headed now?" Without answering Xiao Lin’s question, Liu Yi flicked his finger. A cup on the tray landed lightly in front of Xiao Lin, and a stream of fragrant tea was poured into it.

"Who I am isn’t important. What’s important is who you are."

"I don’t like beating around the bush. Since you’re appearing under the name Liu Yi, why let the others... uh..." For a moment he actually couldn’t find a suitable sentence to describe what he wanted to say.

"Hahaha! How can you be sure that the person just now wasn’t Liu Yi?"

Xiao Lin froze for a moment. True enough—the Assassin Group was an organization that existed like a riddle. Ever since the Dan Clan came into being, this organization had already existed. If you really wanted to trace it back, you honestly wouldn’t know from which era to begin. But he looked at the man before him. "Whether that was Liu Yi or you are Liu Yi, what does it have to do with the Xiao Family..."

"Haha, Young Master Xiao, perhaps I’m not that Liu Yi either."

"There are twelve in the Assassin Group. Kill them down to the last one and perhaps that one will be Liu Yi." Xiao Lin raised his eyes. He intensely disliked this man’s gaze, but he also discovered a common point—his eyes. Not exactly the same, but if you didn’t look closely, they were like one and the same. "Eight left."

"If Young Master Xiao wants them dead, you’ll certainly get the chance. It’s just that the Assassin Group is ranked by levels. Up to now, don’t you think the time you spent killing the fourth one is already a bit long, and your injuries have piled up a bit? If you have that confidence to stay here, it’s not impossible. Unless the Assassin Group is wiped out, they’ll hunt you to the end."

"That’s exactly what I intend. But this has nothing to do with Yelü Shou. Hand him over in exchange."

"Young Master Xiao’s loyalty to his brothers—turns out that rumor isn’t false. But this deep sentiment and righteousness is a sharp blade in other people’s eyes. Moreover, Yelü Shou’s identity is so special; the number of people who want his life is beyond counting. Don’t you think this outcome is quite good? To make Young Master Xiao uphold this promise of his, otherwise just leave Yelü Shou here. Besides the Lord, there really isn’t anyone who can wake him—unless you have ’Night Ban’."

"The Lord? Heh, looks like until I reach the last one, I really won’t know who Liu Yi is. Which number are you?"

"When the time comes, you’ll naturally find out. I hope there’ll be a day we can meet again." (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)