Surpassing the Celestial Master

Zhang Gonglian turned around, his scrutinizing gaze falling upon Lin Mo. The air in the office seemed to stagnate a bit.

"Lin Mo, I have never heard of this Wind Spirit Moon Shadow Sect, nor have I ever seen a person like you."

His tone was serious, not like a joke.

"So I have a question I want to ask."

Lin Mo raised an eyebrow. His previous easygoing demeanor faded, replaced by a hint of playfulness.

"Then ask away. After you're done, it'll be my turn to ask."

"Very fair."

Zhang Gonglian took a deep breath, as if he had made some kind of decision, and asked word by word, "Are you my master's illegitimate child on the outside?"

The moment his words fell.

The smile on Lin Mo's face completely vanished.

Boom!

With a loud crash, the wooden door of the Celestial Master's office shattered, as if it had been hit head-on by a battering ram!

Amidst the flying wood splinters, a figure flew backward faster than a cannonball.

Zhang Gonglian drew a miserable arc in the air before smashing heavily onto the smooth floor of the corridor, rolling away like a tumbling gourd.

Without bias, he rolled exactly to the feet of Han Lu, who was at the front of the group.

"Junior Brother Celestial Master!"

Daoist Gongyue turned pale with fright. He rushed forward in a single stride, frantically trying to help Zhang Gonglian up.

"I... I warned you long ago to speak cautiously. Why didn't you listen!"

Zhang Gonglian's head was still buzzing. He looked down and saw an incredibly clear size forty-three shoe print right over his heart on his Daoist robe.

The shoe print seemed to be silently mocking him.

Han Lu stood in place, her body slightly stiff. She merely turned her head slowly, glancing into the office from the corner of her eye.

The man named Lin Mo was still sitting securely in his original position, not even having changed his posture much.

Just one kick.

Sent the current Celestial Master flying straight from the office to the end of the corridor.

The terror of this man far exceeded all her estimations.

If he was already like this, then what about the Perfected Bei Xuan behind him? What kind of existence was that mysterious and unpredictable Wind Spirit Moon Shadow Sect?

Han Lu rejoiced in her heart. Fortunately, from the very beginning, she had never intended to provoke this god of death on behalf of those self-righteous fools.

"Phew..."

Zhang Gonglian exhaled a breath of turbid air, pushed away Daoist Gongyue's hand, and stood up unsteadily.

He stared fixedly at Lin Mo in the office. There was humiliation in his eyes, but even more so, indignation.

"Lin Mo, you really are formidable, much more formidable than I imagined!"

"But... I am still the Celestial Master after all!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, a fist appeared in his field of vision without warning and rapidly enlarged.

It was so fast that he didn't even have time to react.

"What? You're not convinced?"

A teasing voice drilled into his ears.

"Bang!"

Another muffled thud.

Zhang Gonglian flew vertically upwards, looking like he wasn't coming home for dinner.

Daoist Gongyue watched this scene, silently turned his head away, let out a long sigh, and shook his head.

A gentle breeze brushed by. Lin Mo had unknowingly appeared by his side, the harmless smile once again hanging on his face.

"Daoist, no need to worry. I didn't strike heavily. Just giving him a little lesson to help his memory."

Hearing this, not only was there no worry on Daoist Gongyue's face, but he actually revealed a hint of complex satisfaction.

He leaned in closer and lowered his voice, "It's fine, Layman Lin, beat him up as you please. Please make sure to beat him a few more times."

He paused, then added another sentence.

"If it weren't for the fact that the few of us combined still couldn't beat him..."

Daoist Gongyue didn't say the rest, but the meaning was self-evident.

Lin Mo already understood. He watched leisurely as Zhang Gonglian fell from the sky, not even having the intention to take to the air.

Zhang Gonglian forcibly steadied his figure in mid-air. His face was flushed red, whether from anger or holding his breath, it was unknown.

"Don't look down on me!"

An angry roar echoed throughout the Celestial Master Mansion.

Lin Mo casually commented, "This Celestial Master is a bit lacking in composure."

Zhang Gonglian fiercely raised his hands. His right hand formed a sword gesture, rapidly drawing a talisman over his left palm.

"Lightning and fire accompany, swift as the law commands!"

As the incantation finished, his palm shone brightly, and a burst of lightning-fire suddenly erupted.

It was not ordinary fire, but a massive lightning-fire ball over a meter in diameter, formed by the entanglement of pure lightning power and Daoist true fire.

Electric snakes danced wildly on the surface of the sphere, emitting crackling explosions. The scorching heat waves even distorted the air below.

Dragging a long flaming tail, the lightning-fire ball smashed straight towards Lin Mo's face with terrifying might.

However, standing beneath the fireball, Lin Mo didn't even bat an eyelid.

He just slowly raised his right hand.

The moment the lightning-fire ball was about to touch his face.

"Snap."

A crisp snap of the fingers.

With just this simple action, the violent lightning-fire ball seemed to have all its oxygen instantly drained.

All the lightning, all the fire, and all the explosions abruptly stopped in that split second.

The massive energy body silently disintegrated and dissipated in mid-air, not leaving even a wisp of smoke behind.

Silence.

Deathly silence.

Zhang Gonglian's pupils trembled violently. His full-power strike was just gone like that?

The next second, a teasing voice sounded behind his ear.

"Teaching one's own junior brother a lesson is something a senior brother should do. Don't you agree, Daoist Gongyue?"

Before his words finished, Lin Mo's figure appeared behind Zhang Gonglian like a ghost.

Zhang Gonglian's hairs stood on end. Just as he was about to turn around, he found that his body no longer obeyed his commands.

"Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack!"

Lin Mo's palms turned into afterimages, continuously striking the major acupoints on his back, shoulders, and limbs. The speed was so fast that only a series of muffled sounds could be heard.

With every palm strike, Zhang Gonglian felt a segment of his spiritual power being locked, as if cement had been poured into his meridians and rapidly solidified.

"Bang!"

At the exact moment Zhang Gonglian completely lost his ability to resist, Lin Mo turned his palm into a fist and simply smashed downwards.

Zhang Gonglian fell straight towards the ground like a meteorite. With a loud crash, he smashed a half-meter-deep human-shaped crater into the hard bluestone slabs.

Dust and smoke filled the air.

Lin Mo's figure slowly floated down from mid-air, his clothes not having a single wrinkle.

Daoist Gongyue on the side witnessed all this from start to finish. From his junior brother Celestial Master making a move to his defeat, it was merely the snap of a finger.

But there was no shock or anger on his face. Instead, he looked like he was watching a play whose ending he already knew.

He just glanced at his junior brother in the crater, confirmed the man was still breathing, and set his mind at ease.

Lin Mo landed and clapped his hands to dust off non-existent dirt.

"Alright, his spiritual power has been temporarily sealed by me. Right now, he's just an ordinary person with slightly tougher bones and muscles. He'll be fine after a few days of rest."

In the large crater, Zhang Gonglian was embedded inside, his face covered in dirt and ashes.

K.O.