Book 1: Never Giving Up – Chapter 100: Interrogation
When Lin Yemao awoke, he found himself tied up, left in the corner of a cave.
Su Chen sat across from him, watching him with a strange expression.
“Su Chen, you dare to ensnare me!” Lin Yemao pounced towards Su Chen as soon as he sat up.
Iron Cliff’s large body suddenly appeared. He casually pushed out, shoving Lin Yemao back into place.
Although the force behind this push was not great, Lin Yemao had no way of resisting. He discovered at that moment that he had no way of controlling his Origin Energy.
“What’s going on? Why can’t I use Origin Energy?” Lin Yemao yelled loudly.
Su Chen sighed. “Please, next time you make a move, can you look at your surroundings? Don’t you think that, under these circumstances, not being able to use Origin Energy is normal, while being able to use Origin Energy would be abnormal?”
Lin Yemao was dazed. He opened his mouth wide, unable to speak for some time.
He only recovered after a period of time, whereupon he angrily said, “Su Chen, if you’re a man fight me fairly. What kind of man are you if you fight via sneak attacks and ambushes?”
Bang!
A loud slap landed on Lin Yemao’s face, sending him spinning in a circle.
Su Chen retrieved his hand and indifferently said, “I think this slap should be enough to allow you to understand your current situation.”
This slap truly did stun Lin Yemao.
He came from a large clan and had lived a spoiled, extravagant life. Not to mention cursing and beating, even a retort was rare. Because of this, he had developed a domineering, infallible personality.
After going to the Gu Clan, he obtained the Soaring Serpent’s bloodline and his strength had increased. His arrogance had further increased. One could say that, under the Heavens, he didn’t place many things in his eyes.
He had not expected that during his attempts to make trouble for Su Chen, he had first been thoroughly routed in a war of words, and then he had been captured alive by Su Chen. Now, he had also been smacked by Su Chen.
How could he? How dare he do this?
Su Chen continued to look at him with a gaze that said “if you don’t behave, I’ll continue to beat you”.
The two of them gazed at each other in this way.
Perhaps Lin Yemao was still suffering and struggling with himself in his heart.
Su Chen, however, did not intend on giving him much of an opportunity to fight internally.
Upon watching Lin Yemao stare at himself fixatedly, Su Chen glanced towards Iron Cliff. “It seems like he doesn’t understand the situation he’s in. Help him out a bit.”
“Okay, Master.” Iron Cliff grabbed Lin Yemao, slamming him into the ground.
“Ah!” A tragic cry sounded out in the cave.
A moment later, Iron Cliff released him.
Su Chen’s foot stepped on Lin Yemao’s face. “Do you understand now?”
“I…… I understand.” Lin Yemao whimpered in response.
“That’s good. I ask, you answer,” Su Chen said efficiently. “How many Origin Skills do you know?”
“What?” Lin Yemao hadn’t expected Su Chen to ask him that.
“Wrong answer.” Su Chen gestured towards Iron Cliff.
Bang!
Iron Cliff forcefully punched Lin Yemao’s midsection.
“I…… didn’t say that I wouldn’t respond.” Lin Yemao was in so much pain that his forehead was drenched with sweat.
“Then don’t waste my time.”
“I’ll talk, I’ll talk, I’ve learned two Origin Skills: Profound Ice Barrier and Soaring Cloud Sword.”
“Lies.”
Iron Cliff punched him again.
Lin Yemao painfully cried out, “I didn’t lie!”
“Then what about the Snaking Mist Steps? You’re telling me you don’t know it?”
Lin Yemao trembled and said, “That is a bloodline Origin Skill, I thought you were talking about regular Origin Skills.”
“How many bloodline Origin Skills do you know?”
“Two, Snaking Mist Steps and Flying Flower Hands.”
“You learned two out of three of the Gu Clan’s Absolute Techniques. That’s pretty good.”
Su Chen was not surprised by this at all.
Under normal circumstances, wanting to break into the Blood Boiling Realm from the Qi Drawing Realm would take around ten years.
The Hidden Dragon Institute’s recruitment period would begin in half a year.
As long as the Lin Clan members weren’t idiots, they would definitely make the Lin Clan’s four seedlings cultivate their Origin Skills and raise their combat prowess.
He tossed a pen and some paper in front of Lin Yemao and said, “Write out all the Origin Skills for me.”
“What?” Lin Yemao was shocked. “Don’t think for a moment that you can cheat me of my techniques.”
“Wrong answer!”
Bang!
Another forceful blow landed on Lin Yemao’s midsection.
Su Chen’s tone was cold. “Also, this isn’t cheating. It’s a forceful seizure!”
Lin Yemao blankly stared at Su Chen.
Having experienced this string of beatings, his egotistical brain finally began to come to its senses and recognize the situation that he was in.
Lin Yemao did not continue to resist. He picked up the pen and began to copy down the Origin Skills that he had learned.
Upon writing the four Origin Skills down, Su Chen glanced at them, then picked up a piece of paper and said, “Write them down again. If there’s anything that’s out of place at all, I’ll cut off one of your fingers.”
Lin Yemao was scared out of his wits. He loudly yelled, “No, no, I know I was wrong. I’ll write them all for you!”
When writing the Origin Skills, Lin Yemao truly had introduced many falsehoods, but he had not expected that Su Chen would expose his true colors by making him rewrite them.
When copying them over the second time, Lin Yemao was much more attentive.
After Lin Yemao finished writing the skills, Su Chen didn’t even look at them. He said to Lin Yemao, “I’ll ask you one last time. Did you change anything? If you did, you still have a chance to change it. You know that if there’s something wrong with them, I’ll discover them sooner or later…… at that time, I won’t give you another chance.”
Lin Yemao shivered. He changed a few more things, then obediently handed them to Su Chen. “This time there’s really nothing else.”
Su Chen retrieved them, then began to look over the portion related to the Snaking Mist Steps.
Su Chen also knew the Snaking Mist Steps. He could determine the veracity simply by comparing what he knew with what Lin Yemao had written.
After scanning over it and discovering that there was nothing wrong, Su Chen stowed the Origin Skills away, satisfied.
He wanted Lin Yemao to write down the Origin Skills not just because he coveted them, but more importantly because of Gu Qingluo. She had taught him them illegally, and if word were to spread it would not be good for her. Now that he had Lin Yemao, Su Chen could just say that he had blackmailed it from Lin Yemao.
The best part was that even Lin Yemao himself would reckon that it was him who had leaked the Snaking Mist Steps. He could not possibly expect that Su Chen had learned it much earlier.
“Tell me about the relations between the Lin and Gu Clans, why Gu Qingluo is in Northface, and why your relationship with the Gu Clan is so good? Good enough that they would give you bloodline medicines and teach you their techniques.”
As if following a recipe, Su Chen continued to ask questions that he already knew the answer to. In this way, he could protect Gu Qingluo, and he could continue to apply pressure to Lin Yemao. If Lin Yemao were to lie at all, Su Chen would instantly know and could punish him heavily.
After the few beatings he had received, Lin Yemao’s mental defensive barriers had completely shattered, and he did not dare to continue lying to Su Chen.
As Lin Yemao explained the situation, Su Chen also began to understand the current situation of the Lin Clan.
As expected, Lin Yemao was only a good-for-nothing who had depended on his father to rise, but the other three were not weak at all. In truth, Lin Yemao’s strength was not weak either, but he was restricted by his simple brain. In an all-out battle, Su Chen could possibly use his wealth of experience and calm head to kill his opponents, but purely in terms of strength Lin Yemao, who only controlled four Origin Skills, was not below Su Chen, who controlled seven.
This was even more true for Lin Shuyue and Bai Li. They were people who had also used the Gu Clan’s Soaring Serpent Bloodline Medicine and also possessed the corresponding bloodline, and their strength was not weak at all.
However, according to what Lin Yemao had said, even though they shared the same bloodlines, they had all been awakened to different conditions.
For instance, after Lin Yemao’s Soaring Serpent Bloodline had awakened, it was enough to increase the strength of the bloodline Origin Skills that he already possessed.
This was the most common situation, and even Gu Qingluo fell under this category. However, her bloodline was inherited, and as her bloodline continued to awaken it would also increase in strength. However, mixed bloodlines did not have this benefit, and once the bloodline’s strength appeared, it was fixed.
As for Lin Shuyue and Bai Li, things were different. Lin Yemao was not clear about their exact situation, but from hearsay the two of them had all obtained other Origin Skills from their bloodline awakening. The Gu Clan was full of praise for them, saying that two genius-level talents had appeared in the Lin Clan, transferring the Gu Clan’s third technique, Mercury Chill, to them.
This was also to say that the two of them had at least six Origin Skills, and four of them were bloodline Origin Skills.
Having understood the situation, Su Chen was also shocked.
He had no confidence that he would definitely win against Lin Yemao, not to mention two who were stronger than him.
However, the stronger his opponents were, the more Su Chen’s fighting spirit was awoken.
When he had first entered the Scarlet Mountain Range, he was still in the Body Tempering Realm, and now he controlled seven Origin Skills as well as a net worth of hundreds of thousands of Origin Stones.
There was still half a year before the Hidden Dragon battle. Who knew if he could advance another step?
The stronger his opponents were, the more interesting his battles would be.
For opponents like Su Qian and Lin Yemao, Su Chen felt that it was no fun fighting them. It was difficult for him to forget opponents like Ulrich or Li, against whom he was forced to put it all on the line to defeat.
After asking Lin Yemao all of these things, Su Chen once again fell into silence.
It was as if he was making some important decision. His eyebrows were tightly knit, caught in a moment of indecision.
Lin Yemao thought that he was going to kill him. He was so afraid that his voice shook violently. “Don’t kill me, please, I told you everything that I know already.”
Su Chen glanced at him. His disdain only increased upon seeing Lin Yemao’s cowardly appearance.
He had been thinking about something that was extremely dangerous. He originally was hesitant about it, unsure of whether he should take the risk.
But now, after looking at Lin Yemao’s appearance, a sense of disgust arose in his heart.
Finally, he said to himself, “A manly man should stride forward without fear. What kind of future prospects can possibly come from such a cowardly person?”
Upon thinking to this point, his pride increased, and he finally made his decision.
He slapped his thigh, then stood up and said, “Iron Cliff!”
He pointed at Lin Yemao and said, “Take off his clothes.”