Xuanqing Guard

Chapter 289: Chapter 289: Nature

It’s been two days since that drinking party in Five Rams City. In these two days, Feilong stayed put in Five Rams City, but his boys were constantly feeding him info.

Feilong keeps his movements unpredictable. He might hang around Five Rams City today, hit Li City tomorrow, and be somewhere else the day after. Wherever he feels like going, he just up and goes—doesn’t bother giving anyone a heads-up. Especially now he’s flush and handed out Thousand-Mile Sounds to most of his key people, his routine’s even more reckless.

In Wang Jian’s words, Feilong’s being cautious, but Zhang Lie doesn’t mince words: he’s just scared of dying, that’s all.

Feilong never denies being scared of dying. Ain’t everyone? No shame in it.

Especially now, when things outside Fengri City are anything but stable, Feilong stays indoors whenever he can. Before, he forced himself out hustling for turf for over a month—looked all high and mighty, but his nerves were shot, worried someone dumb would target him as a springboard for fame and ruin his day.

So, the other two hub cities in Jingxi—Lianfeng City and Guangshun City—he’s let his people watch them for now.

Unlike Wang Jian and Zhang Lie’s teams, all Feilong’s guys are picked from the Black Market, purebred through and through—black as night from head to toe. They don’t know about the Xuanqing Guard, no clue about Wang Jian’s "Four Divisions," and sure as hell don’t realize their sneaky moves have turned them into other people’s eyes on the darkness.

That was Shen Hao’s plan from the get-go: if you’re black, you act black. Getting exposed as something in-between is worse—might as well slit your own throat and call it a day.

So Feilong is "black," Zhang Lie and the "Four Divisions" are "grey," and starting from Wang Jian, up to Shen Hao’s Black Banner Battalion, that’s "white."

Of course, those color codes are all decided by Shen Hao. Under his thumb, black is black—if he says something’s white, it sure ain’t anything else.

The guy who brought the Ma San news before was one of Feilong’s old men, who’d recently recruited a kid known as Scar.

Scar’s an old hand in the Guangshun City Black Market. Used to work the Hundred Beauty Disc trade for a while, but lost his stake gambling, so switched to being a middleman—not flashy, barely making ends meet. ƒгeewёbnovel.com

This Jingxi Action hit the Black Market like a hurricane: the taller, beefier, more famous you were, the easier you caught the wind and got blown away. But guys like Scar—the inconspicuous, streetwise types—nobody notices, so they survive by laying low. freewebnovel.cσ๓

Living is one thing, but with no business, isn’t starvation next?

After more than a month of paranoia and scraping by, with nothing left, Scar watched his family about to go hungry and started wondering if he should hustle up a manual gig.

But right then, Feilong’s crew—running the Black Market in Fengri City—came looking for him. One sentence: follow Brother Feilong, hand over your channels, act as one from now on. You get an "entrance fee" right away, but if you don’t, we’ll rip out your tongue so you’ll never broker again.

Ripping out the tongue’s a trick for the Black Market’s middlemen, mostly used in turf wars. You can fight back, sure, but if you lose, a tongue ain’t all that’s going—it’s your head next.

Scar freaked out, didn’t even hesitate and pledged loyalty, pocketing the "entrance fee," a whopping one hundred taels!

And it was thanks to this one hundred taels of silver that Scar’s family got through their crisis. Now he calls himself "one of Brother Feilong’s men," gets his monthly cut; not much, but enough to put food on the table. Just gotta wait for the Black Market to heat up again, then the cash will flow.

But just a few days back, someone Scar barely met before came hunting for him, asking if he could source goods—wanted a large amount, and was flexible on price.

The guy’s surname was Ma. Scar heard about him in the Black Market from a local bigwig: dude’s got a huge appetite, always does bulk deals, settles accounts quick—never jerks anybody around, all business.

Scar figured this was a high-roller and wanted to use it to prove himself now he was in the crew, so hurried to tip off his handler.

But all he got back was: "Things are tight. Push it aside."

Scar couldn’t do a damn thing, and he knew that lately things in Jingxi were tense—everyone jumpy, and that Ma guy’s tastes weren’t small, so risk was sky-high. He could only pass on the handler’s reply and shut Ma San’s request down.

Scar didn’t expect, just one day later, the guy came back, asked if Scar could help check for goods again, and shoved a full two hundred taels into his hands as a sweetener.

If there’s money and you don’t take it, you’re an asshole—so Scar took the bribe and passed word about Ma’s bulk request up the chain again. This time, his handler showed up in person, with a stone-faced stranger in tow.

Scar’s brain went blank when he saw who his handler brought—he recognized him: Brother Feilong’s top enforcer, Iron Washer Zhang Lie.

"Where is he?"

"He’s, um, still waiting at the inn for news."

"Go call him over. Tell him I’m here, waiting for an explanation." Zhang Lie said, sat down in a chair, and shut up.

Scar glanced at his handler, who kept signaling frantically. Scar snapped to and rushed out. At the doorway, he saw a dozen ferocious cultivators in the alley—clearly Zhang Lie’s muscle.

Coming for vengeance? Scar cursed Ma San’s whole damn family in his head, realizing he’d been royally screwed this time.

Worse, when Scar found Ma San at the inn—looking deathly ill—the guy wasn’t scared at all. When told Zhang Lie was here demanding "an explanation," Ma San just burst out laughing, like he’d been relieved.

"Scar, my boy, don’t stress. Ma Mou owes you huge this time. Here’s a thank-you gift—keep it safe."

Scar stared at the new one hundred tael silver note Ma San handed over. He wondered if Ma San was so scared he’d gone stupid.

On the way, Scar worried Ma San might bolt, but the guy strolled along, cool as a cucumber.

Back at the door, Scar hadn’t even started to report when Ma San piped up, chuckling: "Long time no see, Brother Zhang!"

"Long time no see? You bastards forced me to flee the Ten Thousand Miles Bamboo Sea, got me badly wounded—almost eaten alive by a Fierce Beast. If Dragon hadn’t generously handed me a Great Pill to heal up, half my cultivation would’ve been ruined. If you don’t give me an explanation today, you don’t walk out that door!"

Zhang Lie’s words were icy, killing intent heavy enough to make Scar, who was already itching to slip out, tremble all over.

"Brother Zhang, you nearly got devoured by a beast, but all my people are dead and gone. Take a look at me now—if I hadn’t escaped with the Blood Escape Talisman, I’d have been tortured until death by now. So last time, it really wasn’t me setting you up."

"So you’re not taking responsibility, huh?"