This fellow resembled a strapping, two-faced person who was also the spoiled son of a wealthy n.o.bleman. In reality, he was merely an average university student who was still studying now. His only distinguis.h.i.+ng feature was that his appearance seemed more mature…

"Uncle, your gla.s.ses are really cool. Where did you buy them?" A twenty-something-year-old youth moved closer and asked him this question on the public bus.

Lincoln's face remained expressionless. Standing beside him, Garen covered his mouth and laughed wildly.

"I bought it online…" He glanced at Garen and answered the youth quietly and helplessly in a deep voice.

At this moment, an old woman stuffed herself into the bus. She seemed to have some physical disabilities. An eighty-something-year-old elder man who was standing beside Lincoln glanced at him.

"Bro, you should give your seat to the old lady. We can stand here together."

Bro!!!!

An old man who was more than eighty years old had just called him 'bro'!!!

These words were like a sudden bolt of thunder in the sky, striking Lincoln violently burning him into crisps.

He stood up and gave his seat to the old woman with a stupefied expression. As the other party thanked him, he walked over and stood with Garen. The seat that he had previously taken was actually reserved for those with special needs.

"Do you now know why I don't like taking the public bus?" Lincoln exhaled deeply while speaking softly.

"Got it…" Garen smiled while nodding. "Frankly, when you were pursuing my sister before this, I a.s.sumed that you were a successful, wealthy, middle-aged man who was planning to take care of her."

"Sigh… It hurts when you mention that." Lincoln let out a long, drawn-out sigh. "You can endure your sister on your own… I don't think that anyone can stand her other than you."

Garen shook his head silently and was about to speak.

Screech!!!

The entire bus lurched forward suddenly as it braked violently. The vehicle rushed a few meters further because of the inertia.

"Are you trying to kill himself! Lunatic!! Find other ways to die instead of running to the middle of the road to hitchhike!!" The driver cursed brazenly and was somewhat clearly fl.u.s.tered by the incident. His forehead was drenched in sweat as he was shocked.

The sudden forward lurch and brake movement caused the bus pa.s.sengers to grumble.

The incident made Garen lost interest in the things that he was about to say. Instead, he lowered his head and looked forward through the gap between the people.

He saw a person standing at the front of the vehicle. It was a man with a crew cut and a long scar on his face. He was also very tall and muscular. When Garen was about to look at him closely, the person left the front of the bus quickly and walked into a side alley before disappearing completely.

Snapping out of it, Garen noticed that Lincoln's expression seemed slightly abnormal. Lincoln's head was lowered and he was looking at his right hand. No one knew what he was thinking about.

"Hey." Garen reached his hand out and waved it in front of Lincoln's eyes.

Both of them had already decided to play pool together today but for some reason, Lincoln looked like he was breaking out in cold sweat now.

"What's up?" Lincoln responded finally.

"You seemed distracted earlier," said Garen suspiciously.

"Did I?" Lincoln laughed. "Nothing's wrong. I merely thought of something suddenly just now. I need to return slightly earlier so I might not be able to play pool with you."

"Your main matters are more important. We can play pool any other day," said Garen casually as he noticed that Lincoln had worries on his mind.

"Alright, I'll be getting off first to go back and handle some matters. You can play with the boss there instead." It was obvious that Lincoln was somewhat preoccupied now. 

"Okay, go then."

Lincoln got off at the next stop. Garen watched as he hailed a cab and rushed back.

"Looks like he has some urgent matters," Garen looked on pensively while sensing Lincoln's anxiety. Unfortunately, it was impossible for him to see the external appearances of the Four Great Cornerstones because they were similarly protected by Soul Energy as well. Moreover, he could not detect the Soul Energy Auras of the four individuals after possessing this new body.

"Could it be that the general trends have started?" An a.s.sumption flashed across Garen's mind.

He got off the bus quickly as well before calling a cab and rus.h.i.+ng back.

*********************

A row of abandoned factory buildings in the outskirts

Outside a grey building, a little black sedan drove over quickly from afar.

Stopping at the factory building's doorway, the car door opened.

A muscular and imposing man in sungla.s.ses got down from the car before turning around to drag a woman out.

"Get out." The man's voice was extremely cold and he was clearly somewhat impatient.

Fortunately, the young woman listened obediently and did not have any intentions of resisting when she got down from the car.

It was Kong Xinxue who was initially supposed to go to the airport to get on a plane to partic.i.p.ate in a compet.i.tion. She was dressed in a long, white dress, black silk stockings, and high-heeled shoes. It seemed like she was dragged off when she was getting ready to perform.

"Who were you calling on the phone earlier?" asked Kong Xinxue calmly. "They didn't sound like my family members."

The man ignored her and pulled her towards a narrow staircase instead. The car behind him drove away quickly, leaving a long, tire tread mark in the dirt ground.

After entering the little building, the man spread open a few pieces of newspaper that he had brought before sitting down with his legs crossed.

"Why did you kidnap me? I don't think you look like a pervert or someone who needs money." Kong Xinxue looked out the window. There seemed to be no other accomplices and only him instead.

"That car was going really fast. Wouldn't the driver worried about being fined with a traffic ticket?"

"…"

"How far is this place from the city? How are we going to get lunch?" It did not seem like Kong Xinxue had been kidnapped at all.

"…"

She glanced at the bored man who was closing his eyes and resting.

"Do you know the five ways of writing the box-shaped Chinese character 'hui' which means 'to return'?"

"…" The man widened his eyes and glared at her grudgingly. "Keep yapping and I'll kill you!" he said furiously.

It seemed as if these words had frightened Kong Xinxue.

She could actually feel this man's murderous intent. It was bare and completely unconcealed which made her s.h.i.+vered slightly. Despite her crazy tendencies, she was merely a young woman who had yet to even turn twenty-one years old in the end. After being captured by this man and taken here because she was unable to fight back, she then realized that something was amiss. Now that she could clearly sense the other party's murderous intentions, large patches of gooseb.u.mps rose throughout Kong Xinxue's entire body suddenly.

She bit down on her lips and swallowed her spit before sitting on the newspapers quietly.

The small building became quiet for a while again.

"You're a good person." Kong Xinxue opened her mouth yet again.

"?" The man was somewhat confused. He never expected that his victim would actually regard him as a good person.

"After kidnapping such a beautiful girl like myself, most people would definitely force themselves on me even if it wasn't their first thought. But you're different." Kong Xinxue combed through her long red hair vainly.

"…"

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"They're dead."

"What about your parents?"

"Dead."

"Other relatives?"

"All dead…" The man turned silent and lowered his head before taking a multi-purpose army knife out and drawing random lines on the ground with it.

Kong Xinxue sighed dejectedly.

"Actually… I had a younger brother too but he died… My father died as well…"

She met the man's gaze directly and noticed a sympathetic response in his eyes.

"That was a joke," she added.

Screech.

The knife that the man was dragging across the ground stopped suddenly when he drew a deep scratch violently.

"…stop babbling!" He glared at Kong Xinxue furiously. He felt like she was constantly testing and challenging his patience.

The sound of an arriving car could be heard outside suddenly.

"Someone's here," said Kong Xinxue softly. "Should we hide?" She looked at the man.

"…"

The man vaguely felt as if the roles had been reversed.

He stood up and took out a sharp, black three-edged army knife from his thigh. He strode out and went down the stairs.

A little while later, a few painful screams could be heard from below. There were no more noises after that. The man strode back up the stairs quickly again. He took a cell phone out and made a phone call. 

Beep…

The phone call was connected.

"Hey?" It was a man's voice. Kong Xinxue recognized it as Lincoln's voice at the very first instance!

"I'll only wait for half an hour. If you don't come after that, you will only see your girlfriend's corpse," said the man coldly. "Remember, my name is Silver Chain."

"Where's Big Sister Xue?! What are you planning to do exactly?!" Before Lincoln could finish his sentence, the other man disconnected the phone call.

"Actually…" said Kong Xinxue softly in a voice that was somewhat timid. "You might have kidnapped the wrong person… Him and I don't have the relations.h.i.+p that you're thinking of…"

Bang.

The man named Silver Chain dodged behind her precisely and knocked Kong Xinxue on the neck with a karate chop.

Kong Xinxue's eyes rolled to the back of her head and pa.s.sed out. The man held her and placed her down gently on the newspapers beside him. Once Silver Chain had completed everything, he returned to his original spot, using his little knife to scratch lines across the ground quietly.

The entire little building returned to a state of complete calmness.

*******************

In the evening, the setting sun ducked even lower beyond the horizon.

Lincoln's car finally appeared on the lane in front of the little building. There was a screeching noise as the car braked frantically before he jumped out from the vehicle in his white sportswear.

"F*ck… What happened exactly?!" He could not help but curse.

He was living his normal daily life initially before he heard someone speaking to him suddenly while he was inside the bus. The noise was clearly right beside his ear but no one around him including Xiaofei could hear it.

The occurrence of a single spine-chilling incident like this would have been enough. He had never expected that the voice would also tell him that Kong Xinxue was kidnapped! He could only come to this place to save her on his own. He had to do it alone without informing anyone else.

If they noticed that other people had arrived to help or the police had come, Kong Xinxue's survival would not be certain.

After verifying that Big Sister Xue had really been kidnapped, he rushed over in burning anxiety.

Bang!

Lincoln's expression relaxed after he slammed the door close. He observed his surroundings carefully before the various lessons that were taught to him by his father who had disappeared when he was younger now floated back up in his mind.

He strode forward towards the little building in the abandoned factory area.

*******************

"Challenge?"

Garen stood inside the Saber Art Dojo's interior cla.s.sroom and looked at the muscular young woman before him who was carrying a wooden stick that was used in martial arts on her shoulder. The flesh on her body weighed at least 100 kilograms. He could tell with one look that she was the strong type. 

"Yes, I felt that there was no need for your Saber Art Dojo to continue anymore. Since there aren't any activities planned throughout the days, I thought that you should merge with my Staff Art Society instead." This girl had introduced herself to him before but Garen had forgotten her name. Instead, he only remembered her by her nickname 'Wild Boar'.

"You're… Wild Boar, right?" said Garen helplessly. "You called me out for a combat challenge during one of my rare off-duty weekends? Have you fought against the other members of my Saber Art Dojo?"

Wild Boar nodded before saying, "You're the only one left."

"…"Kong Xinxue is referring to a question in 'Kong Yiji', a novel by the Chinese author Lu Xun; links: http://guoxue.ifeng.com/a/20161210/50395689_0.shtml, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kong_Yiji1 jin = ~½ kilogram. Therefore, 200 jin = ~100kg; link: https://eng.ichacha.net/m/斤.htmlRefers to the j.a.panese staff technique martial art called "Bojutsu"; link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C5%8Djutsu