Chapter 163: Trouble Knocks on the Door

Outside the Hunter Association, a crowd had gathered near the entrance, staring at a piece of white paper posted on the right side of the main doors.

The ponytail-wearing young woman stood outside the throng of people, watching the surging crowd with the corners of her lips slightly curved upward.

"Hmph, Lin Huang, this young lady had to flip through the roster for quite a while just to find your name. Daring to reject my cooperation invitation means you're going to pay the price!"

The large piece of white paper on the right side of the Hunter Association doors bore a lengthy text written in delicate handwriting:

The weeds mentioned in this Hunter Examination are actually a high-grade narcotic known as ZC. Information regarding ZC can be partially queried on the Emperor Heart Net. The narcotics sold on the market are entirely in powder form; only the faction that produces this narcotic possesses the complete black crystal-shaped weeds.

The faction that produces this narcotic is called Heisenberg, a powerful organization backed by three Transcendent figures. This faction has a branch located in Northern Mystic City. Situated deep within the southern forest of Northern Mystic City, this branch is housed in an ancient castle-like structure. Anyone can search for its precise location by opening a map.

However, this branch of Heisenberg has already been successfully infiltrated by an examinee named Lin Huang, who stole the entirety of the narcotics. He has declared that everyone wishing to pass this examination must pay one thousand life crystals to purchase a single weed crystal...

Following the lengthy text, the very bottom featured a photo of Lin Huang taken during his registration, enlarged to match the width of the white paper.

"One thousand life crystals? How dare he ask for that much! With a total of five thousand weed crystals, isn't he going to make five million?!"

"An exorbitant demand, he's totally trying to rob people!"

"If it were cheaper, we could consider buying one. But at this price, it's blatantly clear he's trying to scam us!"

Upon seeing this news, quite a few people began cursing out loud.

Others lowered their heads to open the Emperor Heart Net and verify whether the information left on the white paper was true. They quickly found complete pictures of the ZC crystals, which were indeed identical to the crystals the chief examiner had shown them earlier. They also found partial information regarding the Heisenberg organization, confirming that it was indeed the producer of the ZC narcotic.

Since the preceding information was entirely factual, many people began to firmly believe the subsequent claim that Lin Huang had stolen the narcotics.

Suddenly, the examinees were filled with righteous indignation, shouting slogans to crusade against Lin Huang.

Seeing that the white paper also revealed Lin Huang's current location to still be in the southern forest, many people hesitated not a moment longer. They hailed beast-drawn carriages and headed straight for the southern forest of Northern Mystic City, intending to corner Lin Huang and force him to hand over the weed crystals.

"Lin Huang? Could it be that punk from before who wasn't even at the Black Iron tier? If it really is him, I'm definitely going to teach him a lesson this time!" Bai Yan, dressed in a red windbreaker, furrowed his brow after reading the information at the entrance. He still remembered that youth from a few months ago, a fellow Imperial Controller who didn't get along with him at all. Because of that boy, he had even been cursed out by many people on the Emperor Heart Net for fleeing the battle.

After a brief bout of muttering to himself, Bai Yan made a beckoning gesture, and a massive Crimson Blood Vulture materialized out of thin air. He mounted it, and amid countless envious gazes, soared into the sky, speeding toward the southern forest.

The ponytail-wearing young girl who had been watching the commotion nearby vanished into thin air at some unknown moment.

Deep within the southern forest of Northern Mystic City, Lin Huang remained completely oblivious to the events unfolding outside the Hunter Association doors.

It was roughly noon, and he was sitting leisurely on a tree branch, eating field rations purchased online while patiently awaiting the arrival of nightfall.

Suddenly, hearing the sound of avian wings flapping not far above his head, Lin Huang activated his Limitless Vision and looked up into the sky.

"A Crimson Blood Vulture?!" Lin Huang recognized it at a glance as the same Crimson Blood Vulture Bai Yan had used last time, though this one had now advanced to the Silver tier. "Has Bai Yan tracked me down here?"

Lin Huang felt a slight pang of surprise; he hadn't expected Bai Yan to move so quickly when he himself had arrived here less than half an hour ago. Logically speaking, it should have taken Bai Yan some time to confirm that the weed technology was unrelated to the examination.

"Lin Huang, get your ass out here!" Bai Yan's voice suddenly exploded across the sky above.

Fortunately, this spot was already some distance away from the ancient castle. Fearing that the ponytail-wearing girl might come pestering him, Lin Huang had deliberately retreated two to three kilometers deep into the forest. Otherwise, Bai Yan's bellow would truly have alerted the people inside the castle.

"Looking for me?" Lin Huang frowned, surprised that Bai Yan's target wasn't the castle, but rather him.

"Bai Yan, are you out of your mind?!" Lin Huang stood up from the tree branch, his gaze cold and distant as he looked up at Bai Yan in mid-air.

Bai Yan patted the Crimson Blood Vulture, and the giant beast slowly descended to the ground.

Recalling the Crimson Blood Vulture, Bai Yan looked up at Lin Huang perched on the branch. "Lin Huang, I didn't expect it to really be you. Last time, because of you, I was cursed at by countless people on the Emperor Heart Net, who called me a deserter and a coward. Today, I'm going to teach you a proper lesson, and then record a video so everyone can see who the real coward is!"

"I said you were out of your mind, and you really are severely sick." Lin Huang looked down at Bai Yan with utter disdain, peering at him from his elevated position. "You were exposed by others for fleeing the battlefield, yet you come to pick a bone with me? Did I ever accept media interviews from start to finish? Did I ever say a single bad word about you to the media?"

"This..." Bai Yan was left momentarily stunned by Lin Huang's series of questions, only then remembering that the online abuse he had suffered wasn't exposed by Lin Huang, but by two other people. Lin Huang truly had never accepted media interviews, nor had he spoken ill of him. For a moment, he didn't know how to retort.

"To be honest, though, I think those people online were quite right to curse you. Because you are nothing more than a coward!" Seeing that his opponent had no counter-argument, Lin Huang began his unsparing verbal assault.

"You're courting death!" What Bai Yan loathed most was being called a coward.

"Can't win the argument with logic, so you want to resort to violence?" Lin Huang smiled. "Think carefully: why did you choose to flee the battlefield that day? Wasn't it simply because you were afraid to die? Is anyone wrong for calling you a coward?"

Veins throbbed on Bai Yan's forehead, yet he was utterly powerless to refute it.

"Furthermore, it's not just this single instance of desertion that proves you're spineless." The corners of Lin Huang's lips curved upward.

"What do you mean?! Lin Huang, if you don't make things clear today, I'll kill you. Even if I'm permanently blacklisted by the Hunter Association, I'll kill you!" Bai Yan trembled with rage.

"Very well, since you want to hear it, I'll spell it out for you," Lin Huang said calmly, taking his time.

"Half a year ago, you clearly obtained special admission qualifications; there was zero necessity for you to join us in the Reserve Hunter Examination. Yet you chose to participate. Why did you join? Was it really, as you claimed, just to test your true standards through the examination? Absolutely not! You only did it to prove that you were stronger than all of us."

"And now, you've entered this formal Hunter Examination as well—once again, purely to prove that you're stronger than us."

"Even if everything you're saying is right, so what?! I am stronger than you lot, what right do you have to call me spineless?" Bai Yan still didn't understand what Lin Huang was driving at.

"Haven't you noticed? You've constantly been comparing yourself to the weak. You enjoy displaying your strength in front of the weak to satisfy your own inner vanity. That's why you keep entering examinations you have no business participating in."

"If it were me, I would spend the time spent on these examinations on my own cultivation, continuously growing stronger, rather than wasting it on such completely pointless trials."

"True powerhouses are those who dare to step forward in times of crisis, those who dare to challenge even greater existences, those who challenge and surpass themselves time and time again... rather than someone like you, who forever places himself in a relatively safe environment and basks in a sense of superiority before the weak."

"You are terrified of challenging those stronger than you, which is why you repeatedly take part in these meaningless trials instead of competing with people of your own caliber, or even stronger ones who have already attained Bronze Hunter credentials. Because you're afraid of losing to them, you need to find a sense of superiority among the weak."

"Tell me, if running away from true challenges isn't being spineless, what is?!" Lin Huang's final question left Bai Yan completely speechless.

In truth, even Bai Yan himself had never consciously recognized his own flaws; he merely relished the feeling of crushing the weak, without ever probing into the deeper reasons behind it. Hearing Lin Huang lay it out like this, he realized it was precisely the truth—he was indeed evading genuine challenges. This left him utterly devoid of any rebuttal to Lin Huang's words.

Bai Yan's expression turned ashen. Though he knew full well that Lin Huang was right, his pride forced him to stubbornly refuse to admit that Lin Huang's words were facts.

A bronze ring on his finger suddenly transformed into a long spear. Gripping the shaft in one hand, he pointed the tip directly at Lin Huang on the tree branch. "Lin Huang, after this battle, our grievances are settled. From here on out, I won't bother you anymore. To keep you from losing too miserably, I won't use my summoned beast. Do as you please... try your best to last a few more moves. Don't lose too quickly—if your actual strength falls too far short of your glib tongue, I'll be deeply disappointed."

Upon hearing this, Lin Huang curved his lips, and a bronze ring on his own finger transformed into a battle saber.

With a tap of his toes against the branch, he lunged forward like a goshawk diving for a hare, hurtling straight toward Bai Yan.

A flash of crimson fire erupted along the blade, cutting through the void like a shooting star in the night sky. Lin Huang's strike was unimaginably fast, and a flicker of horror crossed Bai Yan's pupils. Almost the very next instant after seeing Lin Huang lunge, the two of them had already crossed paths.

"Such a fast blade..." Bai Yan snapped back to his senses, unable to suppress an exclamation of shock.

The bronze-armed long spear in his hand had actually been sliced clean in half at the waist by that single slash, and the edge qi had even carved a shallow bloody line across his neck.

Feeling the faint stinging sensation on his neck, he reached up and touched it, seeing the bloodstain on his fingertips, and only then realized he had been wounded. Total blankness washed over him for a moment. "How could this be? How could he be this strong?"

Bai Yan knew that Lin Huang's strike just now possessed ample power to kill him outright; all Lin Huang needed to do was cut another centimeter deeper, and his carotid artery would have been severed.

"This is the fruit of my cultivation over the past half year. While you were wasting your time on trivial matters, I've been continuously growing stronger," Lin Huang provided his explanation.

"You were the one who said our grievances would be settled after this. Now, this battle is over. I hope you'll honor your word in the future and stop pestering me." With those words, Lin Huang turned and prepared to leave.

"Wait!" Bai Yan finally snapped back to his senses and hastily called out to stop him.

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[Ugh, I forgot to write the chapter title for the previous chapter and clicked publish directly. I only noticed the issue after publishing, but the chapter title can't be changed anymore...]