"Do you actually want to kill me?"
"Too brutal! It's just too brutal, you are utterly lawless!"
Time reversed, and as Lin Xing watched the villagers surround him again, a murderous intent also ignited in his eyes.
Whoever wanted to kill him was a murderer, so he could only defend himself rightfully.
He turned and instantly grabbed the pitchfork that was thrust at him.
Then Lin Xing stepped forward, accompanied by a chorus of popping joints, and with one punch, he distorted an old woman's head.
"Beast!" Scarface roared in anger, pulling out the dagger from his waist and pounced toward Lin Xing.
Lin Xing snorted coldly and kicked up a cloud of dust, meeting him head-on.
First blinded by the dust, Scarface then felt overwhelmed, as if facing a whirlwind. Lin Xing's fists came down like a fierce storm.
He was shocked, finding it unbelievable.
Before, when he had fought Lin Xing, the latter's punch skills were poor and inferior to his.
But now, Lin Xing's boxing skills completely surpassed his own, like a seasoned wanderer of the martial world, leaving him with no ability to retaliate.
Bang, feeling a sharp pain in his chest, his ribs seemed to have been broken by Lin Xing's punch, and Scarface fell backward to the ground.
However, the villagers around had already swarmed him, attacking Lin Xing with pitchforks, hoes, and firewood knives.
With a roar, Lin Xing, like a beast threatened with death, dashed wildly through the crowd left and right.
But facing Lin Xing's counterattack, the previously timid villagers, in front of the army rogues, now each displayed courage and resilience as if they were rampaging wild animals who had their territories invaded.
They had faces full of anger, eyes filled with bitterness, or an air of righteous indignation, unleashing wave after wave of killing intent at Lin Xing.
The number of attackers was simply too many, all Lin Xing could see was various farming tools glinting with cold light.
Though he had mastered Taiqing Long Fist to the second level and considered himself to have reached the latter stages of a strong man's capabilities, he viewed most of the villagers as old level in strength. But their sheer numbers overwhelmed him, as he, outmanned, was quickly stabbed to death by the chaotic spears.
After repeatedly reversing time and continually being surrounded and killed by the villagers, Lin Xing had to admit… compared to the two soldiers armed with guns he faced before, these scores of murderous villagers were far more dangerous.
And his Taiqing Long Fist, after reaching the second level, could no longer continue to advance without understanding the heritage first.
Having been stabbed to death again, Lin Xing returned to a few minutes before the villagers had surrounded him.
Suppressing the mental exhaustion, this time he chose to break out before the villagers could gather around.
"When facing criminals you cannot defeat, the priority should be to preserve life and strength, to flee," he thought to himself, "Those murderers in this village, I'll come back to handle you later."
But Lin Xing was not familiar with the village's terrain or the distribution of the villagers' numbers, so after briefly escaping, he was entangled by someone and then quickly surrounded by more villagers.
Through repeated deaths, Lin Xing felt the difference between dueling solo before and now breaking through surrounded by a multitude.
He began memorizing the terrain and the distribution of the numbers of people.
He started breaking out where the numbers were thinner.
He deeply understood that in such a siege, he absolutely must not get entangled.
He gradually learned that if a strike didn't hit its mark, he should retreat, mastering the use of terrain and distance to control the number of enemies faced in a short time…
With each death, Lin Xing's experience in facing these sieges grew richer.
Finally, after another time reversal, he had gained enough assurance to survive.
Lin Xing ran with a cat plush toy, encountering Scarface and several villagers following him once again.
Scarface opened his mouth to scold, "Who asked you to meddle..."
But before he could finish, Lin Xing punched him violently.
Scarface only had time to reach out to block, feeling as if he had hit a bull, then a pain in his chest flew him backward.
Leaving Scarface, his face full of shock and continuously spitting blood, Lin Xing had already bypassed two villagers and continued to break out.
After losing three lives, the villagers finally lost track of Lin Xing.
Supported by the crowd, Scarface reached the last place Lin Xing was seen, his face in turmoil.
One nearby villager said, "Brother Wu, what do we do? If Commander Zhang finds out his soldiers died in our village, we're done for."
Seeing the surrounding panic-stricken villagers, Scarface reassured, "Keep searching. I'll go see the village chief. If all else fails... we may have to beg the Mountain God."
Upon hearing "Mountain God," fear seemed to burst uncontrollably in everyone's eyes, and they watched Scarface's departing silhouette with faces full of worry.
In the empty earthen house, Lin Xing leaned against the wall sitting on the ground.
The location where he now sat was the courtyard where he first arrived in the Mirror World and where he had seen the little girl being carried away after killing Old Man Chai Dao.
After breaking through the encirclement of the villagers, he had circled back to this deserted courtyard.
The cat plush toy voiced a concern, "Why didn't you just escape the village altogether? What if they find you here?"
Lin Xing replied, "I had asked you before if the door must be present for it to open, and you told me it did."
"I answered your question?" the cat plush toy looked puzzled, scratching its head saying, "Was it before you manipulated time?"
Lin Xing nodded, then continued, "I'm not familiar with the terrain outside the village. Once I enter the woods or the mountains, I fear I might not make it out. Getting trapped and dying of hunger in there would be troublesome."
"Rather, the village has houses to shelter from the wind and everywhere there are doors. I can temporarily hide and wait for a door to open again."
Having encountered consecutive door openings before, Lin Xing decided to hide and wait to see if another door would open.
He then sat back leaning against the earthen wall, closing his eyes to rest. After a period of silence, the cat plush toy suddenly asked, "Can you really reverse time?"
"Yes."
"Lin Xing, do you want to learn more skills? What if I take you as my disciple?"
Lin Xing responded, "Sure."
Bai Yiyi continued, "A day as a teacher, a lifetime as a father, you must not disappoint your teacher's cultivation of you..."
"And when you go back, remember to cooperate with the doctor, talk more about your situation, they are only trying to help you..."
Perhaps it was the exhaustion from continuous combat or the relaxation under immense pressure, Lin Xing fell asleep unknowingly.
He did not know how much time had passed until a familiar sensation arose, startling him awake again.
His eyes snapped open, a flicker of joy on his face, "The door is about to open."
He looked toward the only door of the earthen house, that recognition of sensation originating from there.
Picking up the cat plush toy, he walked toward the wooden door. As he opened it and stepped through, with the dim light changing, he found himself once again back in the corridor of Building C, in front of the large metal door he had left at.
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