Early morning, bright sunshine.
In an office at Tianya Pavilion, the atmosphere was exceptionally heavy.
Li Feng’s face was livid as he stared at the casualty report that had just been submitted. Last night’s battles had been brutal. The Black Hawk team alone had lost five men, with ten seriously injured. Twelve Eagle Eye sharpshooters had died, while another sixteen Eagle Eye intelligence operatives and security personnel who had stayed behind at Tianya Pavilion had been killed, mostly under Wu De’s assault. The number of wounded was countless.
This was by far the heaviest loss he had suffered since arriving in this world. The deaths within the Black Hawk team, in particular, were something he could not accept the least. The team only had twenty-five members in total, and losing one-fifth in a single night was far too high a price.
Moreover, if the Ge siblings had not followed Tian Lang and the others when they left the training base last night, all three small Black Hawk squads would have been completely wiped out.
Even though he had personally slain Wei Kang, Wu De, and every single assailant, Li Feng still felt that this time he had suffered a crushing defeat.
“Tell me, why did something like this happen last night?” Li Feng’s gaze swept across Zhong Shuhui, Xu Jie, Tian Lang, and Mu Jiajia as he asked in a low voice.
“Young Master, this was Eagle Eye’s failure.” Zhong Shuhui spoke first. Although she had been shot and was badly hurt, she had removed the bullet herself and rushed back to Tianya Pavilion at once. As the commander of Eagle Eye, she bore inescapable responsibility for having no intelligence whatsoever about such a major incident.
“Eagle Eye has thoroughly disappointed me.” Li Feng’s voice was cold. Even if they could not uncover the enemy’s conspiracy, the fact that Eagle Eye had obtained zero information about the massive ambush laid along the route from Fengyuan Group to Tianya Pavilion could only be described as incompetence.
Zhong Shuhui lowered her head in shame. If, at the very start of the attack, she had taken Hu Yuanyuan straight back to Fengyuan Group, none of what followed might have happened. Yet she had believed she could handle the assailants, and had pressed on, only to find that when the later waves of black-clothed attackers appeared, it was already too late to retreat.
“I want Eagle Eye to immediately investigate every detail of last night and get to the bottom of it.” Li Feng’s tone was grave. After suffering such a huge loss, with his personality, he would naturally retaliate tenfold. Otherwise, if the enemy tried the same thing again, all the power he had painstakingly built in Tianhai City would be completely eradicated.
When he first saw Wu De last night, he had assumed the entire affair had been orchestrated by him. But after thinking about it all night, Li Feng no longer believed that was the case. If Wu De had truly been the mastermind, his men only needed to kill him at the Binhe Road crossroads. There would have been no need to set up an elaborate trap at Tianya Pavilion.
Even if Wu De had wanted to “besiege a point to strike the reinforcements”, there was no reason to attack a practically empty Tianya Pavilion while simultaneously ambushing Hu Yuanyuan’s group. That would be as pointless as taking off your trousers to fart.
Furthermore, the force that attacked Hu Yuanyuan on Binhe Road numbered more than a hundred people in total. Wu De had brought around thirty to Tianya Pavilion, and another forty or fifty had lain in wait for Tian Lang’s group in the suburbs. All told, over two hundred people had been mobilised. Among them, including Wei Kang, there had been four or five ancient martial artists above the Postnatal Fifth Layer.
Could all of these people really belong to Wu De?
Obviously not. Even direct descendants of top-tier clans like Qin Feng or Fu Yanxiong could not possibly command such a large force in Tianhai City. After all, this was Tianhai, not some ordinary city. The four great families would never tolerate such a massive armed presence.
The only reason Li Feng himself possessed such strength was his personal power. His subordinates were not particularly strong. The strongest two were merely the Blood and Killing Eagles, whom he had subdued using his divine control technique. The Ge siblings were friends, not subordinates. Although the Black Hawk team had decent combat ability, they were still weak when faced with true experts. Even so, the four great families opposed him at every turn. Had he not struck back decisively several times, he would probably have been killed by them long ago.
Yet Wu De, if he really commanded such overwhelming power in Tianhai City, why had the four great families shown no sign of moving against him? That simply did not add up.
Of course, there was one other possibility: the four great families of Tianhai City were cooperating with Wu De and had supported him in bringing this many people to encircle and kill Li Feng, which was why they had tolerated such a large force entering the city. But Li Feng felt that possibility was extremely remote, almost zero. The Wu family was a super-first-rate clan. Wu De was merely their eldest young master. Would the Wu family elders really agree to mobilise so many people just to settle his private grudge?
After turning it over in his mind, Li Feng concluded that the true mastermind behind the black-clothed attackers on Binhe Road was someone else entirely. Wu De had simply taken advantage of the situation for his own gain.
Or perhaps several factions, including Wu De, had joined forces against him and set up an elaborate trap. After all, apart from Wu De, everyone he had killed last night had been small fry.
The real puppet master still needed to be uncovered.
“Yes, Young Master.” Zhong Shuhui nodded heavily. Even if Li Feng had not ordered it, she would have investigated the matter to the end. Last night’s lesson had been far too costly.
“Tian Lang, go back immediately and comfort the Black Hawk team. Also, according to the team’s compensation standards, distribute the pensions to the families as quickly as possible. We cannot let our brothers die for nothing.” Li Feng turned to Tian Lang.
“Don’t worry, Young Master Feng. I’ll handle it properly.” Tian Lang nodded.
“Additionally, pull people from the reserve team as fast as possible to replenish the Black Hawk ranks.” Li Feng’s voice was solemn. The team had suffered severe losses this time and would not regain combat effectiveness for a while. There was no shortcut; strength could only be built up bit by bit. He did not possess the ability to force growth overnight.
At the same time, Li Feng had recognised a critical weakness in the Black Hawk team, not in their individual strength, but in their equipment.
Most Black Hawk members came from Tian Lang’s former mercenary group and were experts with firearms. Yet after forming the team, their weapons had become blades. This had clearly limited their true capability.
Li Feng decided it was time to obtain gun licences for the Black Hawk team. Firearms still posed a significant threat even to Postnatal realm martial artists. If they had been armed last night, the casualties would not have been so catastrophic.
Take Mu Jiajia, for example. Her personal strength was not exceptional, but because she mastered the art of guns and cannons, she had single-handedly inflicted considerable casualties on Wu De’s subordinates last night.
Previously, Li Feng had refused to equip the team with guns partly because China tightly controlled firearms, but mainly because he did not want them to grow reliant on weapons. In his view, a martial artist’s own strength was paramount. Moreover, once someone reached the Innate realm, ordinary guns (apart from sniper rifles) could be blocked by protective qi.
But now Li Feng had no choice but to change his mind. He only hoped that once they had guns, the Black Hawk members would not neglect their cultivation.
“Yes, sir.” Tian Lang acknowledged, stood up, and left.
“Xu Jie, the Inner Guard must be established as quickly as possible. The family members should arrive in the next few days. I hope you won’t let me down.” Li Feng’s gaze settled on Xu Jie.
“Young Master, I will need sufficient resources,” Xu Jie replied. Having witnessed Li Feng kill Wei Kang last night, she now fully accepted his power. Hearing him mention the Inner Guard, she immediately spoke up.
“Don’t worry, you’ll have all the resources you need.” Li Feng nodded. The stronger the Inner Guard, the safer Hu Yuanyuan and the others would be, so he would not be stingy with cultivation resources.
After finishing, Li Feng turned his eyes to Mu Jiajia. “What’s wrong, Mu Jiajia? You don’t look very happy.”
“Hmph.” Mu Jiajia gave an unhappy snort. If it weren’t for Li Feng, she would not now carry the stain of betraying her former master. She was extremely dissatisfied with him.
“You need to accept reality. Besides, in my opinion, following me is far better for you than following Fu Yanxiong. At the very least, I can let you display your talents to the fullest.” Li Feng smiled. The fact that she had acted last night told him she had already accepted, deep down, that she now belonged to Eagle Eye. She was simply unwilling to admit it aloud.
“That’s right, Jiajia. Following the Young Master is definitely better than following Fu Yanxiong. And after what happened last night became known, you no longer have a way back.” Zhong Shuhui chimed in at that moment.
Mu Jiajia’s face was filled with helplessness, but she knew Zhong Shuhui was right. Even if she regretted it now, it was too late.
“Zhong Shuhui, Xu Jie, you’re both injured. Go and rest.” Li Feng said to the two women.
“Yes, Young Master.” Zhong Shuhui gave Mu Jiajia a meaningful glance, then left with Xu Jie.
“Li Feng, what do you think you’re doing?” The moment the other two women left, Mu Jiajia noticed Li Feng’s gaze fixed upon her. His eyes felt especially piercing, as though they could see through her completely.
“What do you think?” Li Feng countered with a smile.
“Li Feng, don’t you dare mess around. I may have agreed to become your subordinate, but I will absolutely never become your woman.” Mu Jiajia said in a slight panic. His look reminded her of the first time they met, when his eyes had burned with intense possessiveness.
“Become my woman? Mu Jiajia, where exactly is your mind wandering? Why would I ever have that kind of idea?” Li Feng laughed out loud.
“Then what do you mean?” Mu Jiajia looked at him warily.
“I was only wondering whether I should give you a task.” Li Feng glanced at her and continued, “Mu Jiajia, don’t tell me you were secretly hoping to become my woman? If that’s the case, I might actually consider it.”
“Nonsense! How could I possibly think that?” Mu Jiajia hurriedly changed the subject. “What task do you want me to do?”
“I need you to watch someone for me.” Li Feng’s expression turned serious.
