Mu Lin drove to the four idiots’ place and checked on each of them, not missing a single one. He started working and sighed heavily about his unfortunate fate. Then he began restoring their memories. This soul-searching method was like wiping data off a computer hard drive and then trying to recover it—requiring far more effort than simply erasing the memories. After finishing the restoration, he added a few extra touches, awakened them, and left quietly.
Back at school, Mu Lin scanned the area with his spiritual awareness and found no one watching. He parked the car carefully, not wanting to be spotted by Gibbs family spies. Fortunately, many students owned cars, making it easier to blend in. Returning to his apartment, he changed clothes, meditated briefly to restore his spiritual energy, and soon after, day broke.
That night, Mu Lin had worked harder than ever before, depleting his spiritual power more than any time since he began his journey. Spiritual awareness could only be projected externally after forming a core spiritual foundation, something Mu Lin had only partially achieved—he had reached the middle stage of core formation. If he had senior mentors in the cultivation world, they would have insisted he retreat into the mountains to focus solely on refining his core until reaching the golden core stage before allowing him to reemerge.
But Mu Lin had no guidance. He had traveled across China without encountering a single cultivator, let alone a true cultivator—truly a land without tigers, ruled by monkeys. So he had pushed forward recklessly. Yet tonight, after using his Mu-style puppet technique dozens of times and exhausting a great deal of spiritual energy, he realized his own shortcomings. He decided to finish dealing with the Gibbs matter first and then focus on strengthening his spiritual power, aiming to reach the golden core stage. Only then would he be safe from worldly threats and able to protect those around him, finally dedicating himself fully to cultivation.
Daylight came, and Mu Lin changed clothes and began his usual morning cultivation. Aware of his current limitations, he knew he couldn’t let the Gibbs family detect any abnormalities.
After breakfast, Mu Lin walked toward the library. Today, the Douglas family’s surveillance had been withdrawn, and the Gibbs had only one person watching him. Seeing Mu Lin heading to the library as usual, the watcher relaxed and sat in a nearby café on the route between the library and Mu Lin’s apartment, waiting for him to return, as he had done for over ten days. Seeing the watcher enter the café, Mu Lin seized the moment, turned into a classroom building, and changed his appearance in an empty room.
Tonight, he planned to deal with the Gibbs family, but first, he needed to investigate their routines and the site during the day—what the underworld called “scouting the spot.” Though he had already extracted basic information from the Douglas family members’ minds, he wasn’t fully confident relying solely on secondhand intelligence. He needed to verify it himself. Just like the previous investigation report—if he had acted solely based on that, he wouldn’t have known how he died. Could a new family that had competed with the established Douglas family for decades really be that easy to handle?
Based on the information he had gathered, Mu Lin first entered a café one kilometer from the target villa, ordered a coffee and dessert, and like most people, pulled out a file from his briefcase to study. Disguised as a white-collar office worker, no one would recognize him as anything but a regular employee reviewing documents.
His spiritual awareness gradually extended into the villa. There! He located an old man—according to the information, this should be Gibbs. But something was off. This man was just sitting there watching TV, showing no sign of leadership or commanding presence.
Moreover, the guards inside the villa didn’t seem particularly strong either. What was going on? Mu Lin withdrew his spiritual awareness and began thinking carefully. According to logic, the Gibbs family controlled one-third of Boston’s underworld and should have had much tighter security. Their guards were clearly inferior to the Douglas family’s. Though there were some light and heavy weapons inside, they were only enough for defense, not offensive action. Was this old fox Gibbs just putting on an act?
Considering this, he expanded his spiritual awareness like a searchlight from the villa outward. What he found shocked him. Hidden in nearby buildings, more guards were stationed, armed with heavy weapons, all facing the villa. He was lucky he had double-checked. If he had attacked at night without realizing this, he would have been ambushed, caught completely off guard. Though he could escape, he would be severely weakened and injured, making it difficult to evade pursuit. Indeed, no long-standing criminal family could be underestimated.
“Fine, since you won’t play fair, don’t blame me for being ruthless.” He left the café and entered one of the rooms, where six men were inside. Seeing him walk by alone, the guards didn’t pay much attention. Outside, Mu Lin used his spiritual energy to incapacitate the six men before entering. Using his Mu-style puppet technique, he learned that this morning, Gibbs had received word from a spy embedded in the Douglas family that the Douglas family had lowered their guard. But the cunning old Gibbs suspected this was a prelude to an attack by the Douglas and David families.
Afraid of falling into a trap and lacking sufficient strength for a direct assault, Gibbs arranged a decoy at the family’s headquarters, set up traps around it, and created the illusion of relaxed defenses while secretly relocating all key family members to two hidden locations—one for women and children, the other for the main leadership.
Mu Lin took one of the men down to the basement, changed his appearance to match the man’s original look, and altered the man’s appearance to match his own. He added some false memories to their minds, then sat down to meditate and restore his spiritual energy. After a long while, feeling fully recovered, he awakened the other five men.
Now, the situation appeared as if they had captured a spy. After greeting the four men warmly, Mu Lin had one of them drive a car carrying the man disguised as him toward Gibbs’ hideout.
After extracting intelligence from the six men, Mu Lin decided to infiltrate the enemy’s stronghold directly. With all the key Gibbs figures gathered together, this was a rare opportunity—too good to miss. If he didn’t seize it, even heaven wouldn’t forgive him. Thinking this, he couldn’t help but marvel at his own luck. Last night, the Douglas family had gathered to celebrate a minor success, making them easy targets for him. Now today, the Gibbs family had also gathered together, preparing for a possible attack from the Douglas family. Wasn’t this heaven’s gift to him? He decided to strike straight at the heart, not even considering whether he could truly handle the Gibbs family.
Entering the courtyard of the villa where Gibbs was staying, everything was under the control of a man called Jack, who was highly respected among the guards. After receiving orders to bring the captives inside, Mu Lin and Jack entered the living room. As soon as he stepped in, Mu Lin saw all the main Gibbs family members gathered there. He extended his spiritual energy and instantly sealed the voice and movement points of all eleven people. They could see but neither move nor speak.
Mu Lin said to Jack, “Hey buddy, I’ve got this covered. Go shut the gate and wait outside. The boss is going to interrogate the prisoner here. No one comes in without my orders.”
Jack obeyed and left, closing the door behind him. As soon as Jack shut the door, Mu Lin began preparing his Mu-style puppet technique. First, he removed his disguise.
“Hey, why are you staring like that? You must be Gibbs, right? Hehe, didn’t expect this, did you?” Mu Lin looked like a young rooster crowing proudly for the first time. He kindly explained,
“Oh right, I’m the Asian-Chinese guy who bought the Douglas law firm. I really had no choice—after all, you were the ones who started it.”
Seeing the terror in Gibbs’ eyes, Mu Lin comforted him, “Don’t worry, I never kill people, so you and your family will be safe. Oh, but why am I even explaining this to you? It’s time for you to take a nap.”
Under the terrified gazes of everyone present, he sealed their consciousness points one by one. After finishing, he didn’t awaken them immediately. Instead, he first searched the room for valuables. His reasoning was simple: valuable items should be secured before anything else. If he waited until they woke up, even though everything rightfully belonged to him, they might get the wrong idea and think he was being unfair. But if he took them now while no one was watching, no one would know. In the end, the Gibbs family also became Mu Lin’s loyal servants. He ordered their upper and middle management to cease hostilities between the two sides and strictly conceal his identity. Thus, another rich reward was added to Mu Lin’s collection.
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