Starting to Gain Experience from Push-Ups Chapter 1432 - 691:

"All right, Old Badger, I’ll follow your lead."

Blood Jackal straightened his body, twisting his thick neck with disinterest, the joints snapping like popping beans.

He turned around, his gaze crossing most of the living room, landing on another figure bound in front of a load-bearing pillar.

It was a man drenched in blood.

His waist was tightly locked to the pillar by two iron chains as thick as adult arms.

His arms hung at twisted angles, the shoulder joints obviously dislocated and completely immobile.

The kneecaps of both legs were smashed with a blunt instrument, hanging limply, with only a layer of skin and flesh connecting them.

Blood dripped from the tattered edges of his clothes onto the ground, pooling into a dark red stain.

"Li Jie, you’ve rested enough, time to wake up!"

Blood Jackal grinned, as if seeing a new toy, and walked over.

He extended his right foot, wearing hard-soled military boots, and stepped on the fractured shin bone of Li Jie, grinding it hard.

The broken bones rubbed against each other, a pain unbearable for ordinary people, causing Li Jie’s drooping head to snap up instantly.

All his muscles spasmed uncontrollably due to the extreme pain, with veins popping on his forehead as sweat the size of soybeans rolled down.

But Li Jie gritted his teeth, refusing to utter a sound of agony.

His bloodshot eyes stared fixedly at the person in front of him, revealing a fierce glare.

"Truly a piece of rock from a toilet, foul and tough."

After torturing him for a while, seeing that the other party refused to beg for mercy, Blood Jackal was somewhat deflated.

"Li Jie, as a former friend, let me give you some advice."

Old Badger now stepped forward too, holding a half-bottle of white liquor taken from the nearby table, speaking softly:

"Your two dear junior disciples have long fled, leaving you here to bleed and await death. At this point, what’s the use of holding on?"

As he spoke, he unscrewed the cap and poured the spicy liquor directly onto Li Jie’s exposed wounds on his hands and feet.

The high concentration alcohol stung the damaged nerves.

Li Jie’s body shuddered violently, and a suppressed groan seeped out from his throat, his lips bitten until they bled profusely.

Yet he still pressed his lips tightly together, as if the body didn’t belong to him.

"I really don’t understand."

Old Badger shook his head, casually tossing the empty bottle aside, the sound of glass breaking exceptionally jarring in the silent living room.

"For an unrecognized organization you’ve known for less than a few weeks, is it worth risking your life?"

"Tell me, what exactly is the Illuminati? What kind of ace is the Chairman hiding? As long as you speak up, I promise to give you a quick death, sparing you from further suffering."

"I... I..."

Li Jie gasped for breath, his cracked lips slightly parted.

"Speak quickly!"

Seeing this, Blood Jackal showed a pleased expression, thinking he was finally about to compromise, hastily leaning closer.

"Ptooey!"

A spittle mixed with blood was spat directly onto Blood Jackal’s face.

Li Jie grinned, revealing blood-stained teeth, his voice weak yet exceptionally firm:

"You... will all die. The Chairman... will tear your bones apart, piece by piece."

Blood Jackal wiped the spit from his face, his complexion instantly turning extremely grim.

His eyes twitched, right hand clenching tightly, the joints grinding with a "crack" sound.

"Ungrateful scum! Don’t think I don’t dare lay a hand on you..."

Blood Jackal raised his fist, just about to smash it down on Li Jie’s face.

"What are you doing?"

A voice suddenly came from the stairway leading to the second floor.

The voice was not loud, even somewhat soft.

But when Old Badger and Blood Jackal heard it, the two Silver Medal Killers, hands stained with blood, froze all over, forcibly halting all actions.

The two immediately retreated two steps, lowered their heads, their expressions filled with deep reverence:

"Boss."

The wooden boards of the staircase creaked softly.

A tall man, dressed in a high-collared black trench coat, slowly descended.

His skin bore an unhealthy pallor from years of not seeing sunlight,

slender eyes like some cold-blooded reptile, flickering with an eerie glow.

As he moved, the air was filled with an extremely peculiar scent, like some herb fermentation.

This man was the commander of this pursuit of the traitor, the head of the Black Shark base in Xia Country—Ghost Fox.

Ghost Fox walked to the center of the living room.

He ignored the family trembling in the corner, did not even look at the pitifully-shaped Li Jie on the ground, but lifted his pale right hand.

Along his wide sleeve cuff, a centipede as long as an adult’s palm, and entirely dark purple, slowly crawled out.

The centipede crawled along his hand, its numerous feet leaving fine red marks on the skin, finally stopping at the crook of his thumb, nuzzling affectionately against his knuckles.

"What’s the status outside?"

Ghost Fox stroked the hard shell of the poisonous creature, asking nonchalantly.

Old Badger immediately reported respectfully:

"We confirmed earlier, the nine brothers in the surrounding three residences and the sniper ’Wasp’ at the mountain top, are all in position, with no anomalies."

Ghost Fox nodded slightly, lifting his eyes, finally resting his gaze on Li Jie.

"No need to waste effort torturing him anymore."

Ghost Fox’s tone was calm, as if discussing an insignificant dead object:

"As a Gold Medal Killer, his Spiritual Will has been brainwashed and refined by the organization for over a decade. It’s not something your crude methods can break."

"Keep him alive for now, he still has use tonight, he can at least serve as bait to draw the enemy into the trap."

Ghost Fox turned around, walked to the window, gazing out at the night.

In a voice audible only to himself and his two confidants, Ghost Fox’s tone carried a trace of heaviness:

"What do you think of that organization called the Illuminati?"

Blood Jackal sneered, curling his lips in disdain:

"Boss, I see them as a bunch of country bumpkins with no regard for the heavens, not worth worrying about. As long as they dare to come, we’ll deal with them all together later."

"Foolish!"

Ghost Fox coldly spat out the word, casting a sidelong glance at Blood Jackal, the malice in his gaze instantly silencing the brawny man.

"A newly established organization, yet acting so domineeringly, with that unseen Chairman bold enough to reach into our Black Shark, poaching from us, clearly has ulterior motives."

"If he’s not a total madman, then he certainly has extensive backing or formidable strength."

"The boss is right."

Old Badger nodded in agreement on the side:

"There’s very little intelligence on them in the market, only heard they recently clashed with some minor organizations during an underground black market trade in East Capital, and that so-called Chairman easily wiped them out.

"But such low-level opponents prove nothing, send one of our Gold Medal Killers casually, and they can resolve it with ease, it’s not worth mentioning."

Ghost Fox’s eyes flickered, nodding slightly, calculating the current situation in his mind.

The secret scroll list of personnel deployments that Li Jie stole was a fatal threat to him.

Once the list fell into outsiders’ hands, or the organization’s top brass discovered it was his negligence that led to the leak, his position as protector would be at an end.

He might even face severe punishment, unable to guarantee his life.

This was why Ghost Fox acted so cautiously, utilizing his authority within the organization, forcibly amassing twelve elites from nearby branches.

Thus, he had intentionally asked Li Fei to deliver that arrogantly brazen message earlier today, threatening to annihilate the Illuminati.

On the surface, it was a reckless provocation, but in reality, it was a bait and test.

He needed them to bring what he wanted, willingly stepping into the chosen battlefield.

Ghost Fox lifted the curtain, his gaze penetrating through the window, casting towards the edge of the dark fields.

Gale winds carried the oppressive foreboding of an impending storm, swirling wildly over the wilderness.

In the distance, city lights flickered faintly in the night.

But the road in front of the farm remained empty, devoid of vehicles and people.