Chapter Ninety: What Do You Take Yourself For?

That one move from Qin Mu sent the Scorpion coughing up blood again and again.

If the Scorpion had not spent years training his body, forging sinew and bone far beyond the ordinary, he would have suspected that Qin Mu’s throw alone had been enough to take his life.

"You, what kind of monster are you?"

Clutching his chest and spitting blood several times, the Scorpion finally made out Qin Mu’s figure through the black mist.

Qin Mu’s eyes were cold as ice, his expression unchanged, as though the poisonous haze had not touched him at all.

"Impossible!" the Scorpion thought in terror.

This poisonous fog had been his life’s work. Only he possessed the antidote that could grant immunity.

Years ago, it had already been enough to easily bring down a heavily trained bodyguard of extraordinary toughness.

Much less now, after countless refinements over the years, when even a gas mask could not grant immunity.

So why did Qin Mu breathe as freely as ever, utterly unaffected?

"Who took part in that incident twenty years ago, among the Black Net?" Qin Mu asked, ignoring the Scorpion’s question.

"That’s none of your damn business!" the Scorpion spat.

From the look of him, Qin Mu was only in his early twenties at most. Twenty years ago, he either had not yet been born or was still an infant in swaddling clothes.

But strangely enough, even if he had begun training in the womb, by Qin Mu’s age, no matter how strong he was, being able to fight a dozen ordinary people would already be the limit.

How could he be so terrifying that a single throw nearly shattered every bone in his body?

"It doesn’t matter if you won’t say. After I kill you, I’ll go to the Black Net myself and ask them properly."

Qin Mu’s voice was empty and distant, devoid of all feeling.

"You think you can kill me? You’re underestimating the assassins of the Black Net!" the Scorpion said, and from his pocket he drew a venom pouch, crushing it hard in his hand.

A torrent of black mist burst forth, like an inkfish spraying out its darkness in defiance of an enemy. It was even more abundant than before, and the night lamp could not pierce it with even a sliver of light. It was so thick it seemed ready to drip.

Enduring the agony throughout his body, the Scorpion hastily fled.

If one strike failed, he would retreat at once.

That was the first lesson of an assassin.

Before this, the Scorpion had believed that with his own abilities, there would never be a need to run.

But he had not expected to encounter such a prodigy as Qin Mu.

This was not something thirty million could solve.

Even at three hundred million, there might not be anyone willing to take the job.

Inwardly, the Scorpion cursed Xiong Shan and Han Ziyu ten thousand times over. Without slowing, he changed direction again and again through streets and alleys, fleeing madly, hoping to circle around Qin Mu.

He did not dare relax. For hours, he kept weaving and doubling back until he had run through most of the city center.

Only after confirming that Qin Mu had not followed did he dare catch his breath and return to the underground world of the Black Net.

After verifying his identity, he pushed open the Black Net door and collapsed heavily to the ground.

"Isn’t that the Scorpion?"

"Who did he run into? Why is he injured so badly?!"

Several assassins stationed inside the Black Net saw him and immediately stood, gathering around.

The Scorpion, once so imposing and one of the ten great assassins revered by the Black Net, was now covered in blood. Every bone in his body seemed on the verge of breaking apart. Lying on the ground, he did not even have the strength to get up.

"Damn it, call Xiong Shan out here!" the Scorpion shouted urgently.

Soon, Xiong Shan emerged from the VIP room. He had been receiving a new client, but hearing someone call out, he came out to see what had happened.

"What’s going on here?"

At one glance at the injuries, Xiong Shan’s brow furrowed.

"Damn you, what kind of business did you take? If I hadn’t had enough cards up my sleeve, I would have died on the spot!" the Scorpion said bitterly.

"That can’t be. I observed his bodyguard up close. From the strength that man showed, he might not even have been able to break through your poison mist, let alone beat you like this."

"What? You only saw his bodyguard?" The Scorpion gritted his teeth in fury.

Though people often said the wealthy prized their lives and always hired bodyguards for protection, Qin Mu looked more like someone who merely ran errands and handled menial tasks.

Someone like him still needed a bodyguard?

"Xiong Shan, let me tell you this: from the way he looked, he not only wanted to kill me, he wanted to come knocking at the Black Net’s door in person. You’d better be on guard!" the Scorpion warned.

"Come knocking at my Black Net? Does he really think that just because he once sent people to slip in while we were unprepared, he’s something special?"

Xiong Shan said with disdain before making several phone calls.

From the tone of the conversation, the Scorpion seemed to hear that Xiong Shan intended to summon the rest of the top ten assassins back as well, to deal with this Qin fellow and eliminate any future trouble.

Quite a few others also overheard the exchange, and their hearts could not help but tremble.

The top ten assassins of the entire Black Net gathering together, several of them returning at once, all for the sake of one man. How long had it been since such a thing happened?

That one time twenty years ago?

The Scorpion did not sit idle either. He placed a call to the sworn brother he had in the top three of the Black Net’s ten great assassins, informing him and asking him to come back to help.

And sure enough.

Until evening, everyone stared fixedly at the entrance, constantly on guard, but the man surnamed Qin never appeared.

"Listen, everyone. Isn’t he just a young pup? Since he knows of our Black Net, he must have guessed that we’d summon the ten great assassins back to hold the fort."

"As for him saying he’d come to our door, he was probably just trying to show off. Pure nonsense."

Some people, growing tired, began chatting idly.

Xiong Shan and the Scorpion sat to the side, and after hearing this, they felt it was not without reason.

It was not until nearly eleven at night.

Some had begun drinking again, carrying on with all their usual revelry and paying Qin Mu’s words no mind.

The Scorpion had also bandaged his wounds and numbed the pain with alcohol, though he was still thinking about how to kill that Qin fellow.

At that very moment, a faint sound of fighting came from outside the Black Net.

There were no cries of pain and no report. It ended as abruptly as it had begun.

Yet many still noticed the disturbance. They sprang to their feet in haste, the ease in their hearts vanishing in an instant as they stared fixedly at the entrance.

Then, before everyone’s eyes, a young man pushed open the door. His clothes fluttered in the bitter wind outside, giving him a somewhat travel-worn appearance.