“Overreaching yourself.” Li Feng sneered coldly. An ordinary person actually thought he could sneak attack him? Before the middle-aged man’s fist could land, Li Feng swung his hand and slapped him flying.
Bang!
The middle-aged man flew backwards, smashing a table to pieces.
“You… you…” The middle-aged man looked up at Li Feng, horror flashing in his eyes. He had not expected Li Feng to be so powerful. Even his sneak attack had not touched him.
“Zhong Shuhui, you handle the rest.” Li Feng turned back and said to Zhong Shuhui.
“Young Master, rest assured. I know what to do.” Zhong Shuhui stood up, gave the middle-aged man on the ground a cold glance, and waved her hand. “Take them all away.”
“Yes.” The group that had arrived earlier were none other than Eagle Eye’s elite. Upon hearing Zhong Shuhui’s words, they immediately stepped forward and took these people out of the food stall.
“Let us go.” Li Feng said to Zhong Shuhui, then left the food stall. Although they had damaged quite a few things there, he did not need to worry about it. Zhong Shuhui would naturally arrange for someone to handle it.
Zhong Shuhui called over a subordinate, gave some instructions, then followed Li Feng out of the food stall.
Sitting in the car, Zhong Shuhui drove while saying, “Young Master, that man earlier is probably just a minor figure in Yuxing Lake. If we want to clarify the situation there, relying on him alone may not be enough.”
“That will depend on your methods. This man is from Yuxing Lake. Even if he is only a small figure, he must know people there. You can completely follow the vine to get the melon and figure out the situation at Yuxing Lake.” Li Feng said.
“Doing so might alert the enemy.” Zhong Shuhui said.
“No need to worry. This time, if our target were Qin Feng and his group, alerting the enemy could very likely cause everything to fall short. But this time it is aimed at Blood Shadow, so there is no need to worry about alerting him. Moreover, I think alerting the enemy would have an even better effect.” Li Feng smiled and said.
Hearing this, Zhong Shuhui looked at Li Feng in confusion.
“Think about it. What is Blood Shadow’s purpose in targeting me? It is to kill me. This is Chen Junyi’s order, so its nature is completely different from Qin Feng and the others targeting me before. Therefore, there is no need to worry about alerting the enemy at all. Moreover, there is also Situ Qiang. The reason I am having you do this is precisely to show Situ Qiang.” Li Feng smiled and explained.
“Show Situ Qiang? Young Master, do you mean to tell Situ Qiang that even without the help of their Situ family, you can still deal with Blood Shadow?” Zhong Shuhui realised.
“Exactly. Situ Qiang is a man with too deep scheming. Unlike his father, one must guard against him. I do not want to be calculated by him.” Li Feng nodded.
Yuxing Lake is a Hongmen stronghold. If Situ Qiang truly wanted to cooperate with him sincerely, he would have long ago told him about the situation at Yuxing Lake. But Situ Qiang deliberately did not, which clearly showed that Situ Qiang still had reservations in helping him deal with Blood Shadow.
Therefore, by doing this now, Li Feng wanted to tell Situ Qiang that even if you do not help, I can solve it myself.
“Young Master, within Hongmen, the Situ family and the Chen family are like fire and water. Now that we are joining forces with the Situ family to plot against Blood Shadow, it is beneficial and harmless to the Situ family. What would Situ Qiang want to calculate against us for? What benefit would that bring to the Situ family?” Zhong Shuhui looked completely puzzled. In her view, Situ Qiang should now be secretly doing everything possible to help them plot against Blood Shadow, rather than plotting against them while helping.
“How would I know?” Li Feng also felt somewhat helpless. After all, Situ Qiang’s behaviour was too puzzling for him. He did not know what Situ Qiang was up to.
“However, for us, this is actually the best. If Situ Qiang were now doing everything possible to help us, the favour owed in the future would be very difficult to repay. But now it is different. The information Situ Qiang provided is limited, so in future cooperation with the Situ family, we will not be so passive.” Li Feng said.
Although Situ Qiang’s actions now added quite a bit of trouble to dealing with Blood Shadow, these troubles were not unsolvable. Moreover, compared to these troubles, owing a favour to the Situ family would be the most difficult to repay.
Zhong Shuhui nodded. For people like them, favours were the hardest to repay.
“Alright, the next matters with Yuxing Lake will depend on your skills. Now let us go to the Shadow Studio. I do not know where this Shadow Studio is located.” Li Feng said.
“When we arrive in a moment, I guarantee Young Master will be greatly surprised.” Zhong Shuhui said.
“Is that so? Then I am truly a bit expectant.” Li Feng’s expression stirred. He asked, “Zhong Shuhui, tell me about the Shadow Studio now. Last time you said this Shadow Studio is the world’s largest intelligence organisation. It must have existed for quite a long time, right?”
“Indeed, the Shadow Studio has existed for several thousand years.” Zhong Shuhui nodded and replied.
“Several thousand years?” Li Feng was stunned and asked somewhat incredulously, “Could it be that this Shadow Studio existed back in the Middle Ancient Era?”
“Middle Ancient Era?” Zhong Shuhui was taken aback and asked, “Young Master, what is the Middle Ancient Era?”
“You do not know? This is how martial artists divide the eras of world history.” Li Feng asked, somewhat surprised. He had always thought Zhong Shuhui knew.
“I have never heard of it.” Zhong Shuhui shook her head.
Thereupon, Li Feng explained the divisions of the several eras and the origins of the eight top families. Then he said, “The eight top families have now existed for more than two thousand years, established starting from the Near Ancient Era. So, if the Shadow Studio has existed for several thousand years, that means it already existed in the Middle Ancient Era.”
Zhong Shuhui was inwardly digesting Li Feng’s words. The era divisions were easy to understand, but the origins of the eight top families truly shocked her. She had never imagined their background was like this.
This was not surprising for Zhong Shuhui. All along, she had not understood much about martial artist history. She only knew that the current era was the End Dharma Era, with the authorities suppressing ancient martial arts. How could she know that ancient martial artists were precisely the martial artists Li Feng spoke of, and that they had such a glorious history?
“If divided according to this history, the Shadow Studio did indeed exist in the Middle Ancient Era.” Zhong Shuhui nodded and said.
“Then regarding the origins of the Shadow Studio, who knows about it now?” Li Feng did not ask Zhong Shuhui about its origins. Since the Shadow Studio was known as the world’s largest intelligence organisation, the number of people who knew its origins was probably very few.
As expected, upon hearing Li Feng’s words, Zhong Shuhui shook her head and said, “No one knows the origins of the Shadow Studio. From ancient times to now, it has made its living by selling intelligence, but no one has ever seen a person from the Shadow Studio.”
“No one has ever seen a person from the Shadow Studio?” Li Feng was stunned and asked puzzledly, “Could it be that buying intelligence from the Shadow Studio is not done face-to-face?”
“Of course not.” Zhong Shuhui shook her head and said, “It is said that long ago, an Innate Realm expert wanted to see what people from the Shadow Studio looked like. When buying intelligence, he attacked a person from the Shadow Studio, but in less than half a minute, he was dead.”
“Dead?” Li Feng’s expression changed slightly. Killing an Innate Realm expert in less than half a minute. Was this the strength of the Shadow Studio?
Although Innate Realm experts varied in strength, killing one was not easy. To kill one in half a minute, one could only achieve it by being several realms higher than that expert.
“Indeed, he died. In the information I obtained about the Shadow Studio, anyone who had ideas about it ended up dead without exception.” Zhong Shuhui nodded and said.
“Then the place we are going to now, is it a branch of the Shadow Studio?” Li Feng thought of the Ancient Martial Artists Association. He felt this Shadow Studio was as mysterious as the Ancient Martial Artists Association.
“Yes, the Shadow Studio has a branch in every major city. The one we are going to is its branch in Tianhai City.” Zhong Shuhui nodded.
“What about abroad? Are there Shadow Studio branches abroad?” Li Feng had once asked Ge Ying about the Ancient Martial Artists Association and knew it only existed in China. Was the Shadow Studio the same?
“Yes, there are Shadow Studio branches in every major city of every country in the world.” Zhong Shuhui replied.
Li Feng was stunned, then smiled. Ancient martial artists only existed in China, so if the Ancient Martial Artists Association built branches abroad, there probably would not be much business. But the Shadow Studio was different. It was an intelligence organisation that made its living selling information, so building branches abroad was perfectly normal.
Then, Li Feng thought of something and asked, “Zhong Shuhui, where is the Shadow Studio headquarters?”
“No one knows where the Shadow Studio headquarters is.” Zhong Shuhui shook her head.
“No one knows?” Li Feng was taken aback.
“Yes, no one knows where its headquarters is. It seems that current transactions with the Shadow Studio only happen at its branches. No one has ever heard about the headquarters, so some people say the Shadow Studio simply has no headquarters.” Zhong Shuhui said.
“No headquarters. That is absolutely impossible.” Li Feng said without hesitation. In his view, the Shadow Studio was an existence as mysterious as the Ancient Martial Artists Association. How could it possibly have no headquarters? Every organisation and force in the world had a headquarters. The Shadow Studio could not be without one.
“I think the same. Moreover, I believe this is only because the Shadow Studio has hidden its headquarters too well.” Zhong Shuhui said.
Li Feng nodded. Just like the Ancient Martial Artists Association. If Ge Ying had not told him, he would never have thought its headquarters was in Shennongjia. He believed the Shadow Studio’s headquarters was certainly in some unexpected place too.
An Ancient Martial Artists Association, a Shadow Studio. These mysterious forces emerging made Li Feng increasingly feel that this world was not simple. However, Li Feng was merely curious. For now, he had no interest in investigating the origins of these forces.
“Young Master, we have arrived.” Zhong Shuhui stopped the car and said to Li Feng, who was lost in thought.
