"Do you want to try? I’ll let you express your opinion..." Lin Feng said with a faint smile. He took out a Silver Needle for acupuncture and asked Li Sansi nonchalantly.
Li Sansi, looking miserable and shivering, looked at the Silver Needle in Lin Feng’s hand and said with a whimper, "Can I say no?"
"Hmm... I’ve heard your opinion..." Lin Feng shook his head. "Unfortunately, your opinion doesn’t quite align with the actual situation, so I’ve chosen to ignore it."
Zhou Yang, standing aside, watched Lin Feng with a strange expression. He silently chuckled. Isn’t the Boss just toying with Li Sansi? Giving someone hope only to mercilessly crush it—he’s quite the scoundrel!
"I knew it..." Li Sansi muttered to himself. He huddled in the corner, terrified that Lin Feng would drag him over for acupuncture and leave him riddled with holes.
However, Lin Feng was not so brutish. He held the Silver Needle in his left hand, his right index finger and thumb gently pinching it about half a centimeter from its tip, and lightly broke it.
The usually flexible medical Silver Needle was silently snapped in two by Lin Feng.
Then, Lin Feng slowly approached Li Sansi and lightly patted his shoulder.
Li Sansi only felt a slight, sharp pain in his shoulder, followed by a numb sensation. He clearly felt a cold foreign object suddenly moving from his shoulder, down through his body, finally stopping as it seemed to pierce into his heart area.
"HUFF... HUFF..." The moment the foreign object seemed to pierce his heart, Li Sansi felt his heart abruptly stop for a few seconds. His mouth fell open, and he gasped heavily, unable to draw in any air.
The agonizing pain brought Li Sansi to the brink of fainting, yet he somehow remained conscious.
Then, Lin Feng’s voice, seemingly drifting from the heavens, reached Li Sansi’s ears.
"This needle is called the Penetrating Needle. I used my Inner Strength to lodge it near the edge of your heart. You should have felt it just now. I’m giving you three days. If you can’t complete the task I’ve assigned within three days, this needle will pierce directly into your heart, causing your breathing to stop abruptly, and you will die." Lin Feng’s voice was cold as he continued, "Don’t even think about going to the hospital. The needle tip is so small that even an X-ray won’t detect it. And forget about surgery to remove it; you wouldn’t last that long."
"So, if you want to live, quickly complete the two tasks I assigned," Lin Feng concluded, his tone icy.
Only after gasping heavily for more than ten seconds did Li Sansi open his eyes, as if granted a new lease on life. He looked at Lin Feng in extreme terror and asked in a deep voice, "What if I can’t find you after three days? How will I find you then?"
"I’ll come to find you," Lin Feng said casually, then led Zhou Yang out of the VIP room. "You can choose not to believe me, but I’d really like to see if, three days from now, anyone in this world besides me can save you."
Li Sansi was left completely stunned, slumping to the floor for a long while. Eventually, he struggled to get up, shrieking in terror, "No, I have to survive! I must survive! Dad, hurry, save me!"
...
Outside the Fugui Club, in Lin Feng’s Passat, Zhou Yang, sitting in the passenger seat, casually smoked and asked with a laugh, "Isn’t the Penetrating Needle one of Xue Qingyi’s signature hidden weapon techniques? I’ve never heard of it having this kind of life-and-death controlling effect. Were you just trying to scare him?"
Lin Feng glanced at Zhou Yang. Sure enough, this kid knows me best, he sighed to himself. Lin Feng held out his hand to Zhou Yang; the broken needle tip was still in his palm. The sharp pain Li Sansi felt was just the result of my Inner Strength penetrating his body. If a real needle tip had pierced him like that, puncturing so many internal organs, Li Sansi would probably be near death by now.
"I knew it," Zhou Yang said with a grin, taking the needle tip from Lin Feng’s hand and examining it while chuckling. "I’ve never heard of you knowing such unorthodox Martial Arts before."
Lin Feng did not respond. In fact, Zhou Yang’s guess wasn’t entirely accurate. While the needle tip was indeed a bluff, and the projection of Inner Strength was merely a way to frighten Li Sansi, it didn’t mean Lin Feng hadn’t employed other measures.
When he touched Li Sansi’s shoulder, Lin Feng had simultaneously implanted a strand of Two Elements Transforming Pulse-Severing Energy into his body. The effects would manifest in one month. In other words, if Li Sansi didn’t diligently carry out Lin Feng’s tasks, he would inexplicably become a vegetable a month later.
Meaning, even if Li Sansi underwent a full-body examination and found no steel needle, he would ultimately become a comatose vegetable due to the Two Elements Transforming Pulse-Severing Energy.
One truth and one lie, one overt and one covert—Lin Feng had employed two stratagems. He had given Li Sansi a chance, but he didn’t want his own excessive compassion to result in Li Sansi acting unscrupulously.
I just really need a license; you’d better not disappoint me, Lin Feng thought.
Having sorted out the matter with Li Sansi, Lin Feng took Zhou Yang straight back to the Fenghuo Bar. By then, Xie Nan and Lu Pengju had already drunk their sobering soup and fully recovered.
"Miss Xue and the two ladies are in that room." Seeing Lin Feng return, Lu Pengju pointed to a private room’s door with a strange expression, saying with a wry smile, "I don’t know what they’re doing in there, but when I tried to go in and see, Miss Su Zi kicked me out. Master, it looks like things might be a bit tense! Shouldn’t you go take a look?"
Lin Feng followed Lu Pengju’s gesture, peeking into the room through the frosted glass of its door. He saw Xue Qingyi, Su Zi, and Ning Aoxue sitting on opposite ends of a large sofa, talking face-to-face. Although the atmosphere wasn’t particularly lively, it didn’t seem as dire as Lu Pengju had suggested.
"Ahem... Women’s affairs are best left for women to resolve." Lin Feng recoiled slightly, an awkward smile on his face. "I won’t go in and add to the commotion."
In Lin Feng’s mind, although Xue Qingyi was in a one-versus-two situation in the room, her Martial Arts were superb, so there was no need to worry. As for Ning Aoxue and Su Zi, Xue Qingyi probably wouldn’t go so far as to use her Linglong Poison Needle on two defenseless women, right?
Perhaps it’s best to let them interact more for now. Lin Feng bypassed the private room where the three women were and walked into another one, where he found Xie Nan, who had just been beaten up by Cheng Dalong and his men.
"Oh, Brother Nan... not quite up to par tonight, were you? To get beaten up like this?" Seeing Xie Nan’s bruised and swollen face, Lin Feng found it rather amusing. He lit a cigarette and chuckled as he asked.
Regarding Lin Feng’s gloating expression, Xie Nan felt no resentment. On the contrary, he felt deeply ashamed. "Brother Feng, it’s my fault. I’ve embarrassed you."