Chapter 13: Phecda

Weren't they after the Huo Clan? Why were they in Huarong City? Who were they here for?

Xie Yun was browsing the pawnshop's paltry selection of weapons, although it was disappointingly devoid of anything worth buying. There were mostly clothes, household necessities, a handful of cheap trinkets and jewels, and the few weapons they had were nice to look at but useless – probably mere accessories pawned off by a nobleman who had fallen on hard times. After a highly unsatisfactory perusal of the goods on offer, he made a last-ditch attempt, saying to the storeowner while gesturing: "Do you have any sabres here that are roughly this long, with a very narrow back, and are extremely sharp?"

"Sabres?" The storeowner gave Xie Yun a furtive once-over, then said: "You'll have to find a blacksmith for that. We don't have anything like that here, only swords, which are more common…pardon me for asking, but what are you buying sabres for, sir?"

Xie Yun said very honestly: "To give a girl."

The storeowner: "…"

This young man was probably doomed to eternal bachelorhood.

Just then, a group of soldiers dashed past the door of the pawnshop. This pawnshop was situated right smack in the city centre, flanked by many stalls and shops, and a few children were playing by the roadside. These soldiers were riding their horses full throttle through the busy city centre, and even bellowing at anyone that dared to block their path. Chaos immediately descended, the shouts of enraged adults and the cries of children filling the air. At the commotion, the storeowner promptly excused himself, and started directing his employees to check if anyone out there had been injured. He muttered: "These wicked, wicked men."

Xie Yun's brow furrowed, and an uneasy feeling began to rise up within him. Hastily putting down the weapons in his hand, he ran out of the pawnshop, back towards the inn.

All of a sudden, he heard the shrill screech of a bird of prey. Xie Yun sharply sucked in a breath, and looked upwards – sure enough, several falcons were circling fiercely overhead.

'Phecda' of the Big Dipper, Chou Tianji, liked falcons and would bring them with him wherever he went.

Weren't they after the Huo Clan? Why were they in Huarong City? Who were they here for?

Before Xie Yun could ponder this further, the Big Dipper's black-clad men had already arrived. Like an ominous flock of crows, this dark and gloomy mass of black swarmed towards a particular spot in the distance.

Just then, someone cried: "Fire! Fire!"

Xie Yun turned to see a thick cloud of smoke in the distance, accompanied by cries of panic and desperation. He froze for an instant, before the realization hit him – their inn was in that direction!

Xie Yun started running towards it. The streets were filled with people running helter skelter from the fire, and it was only with great difficulty that he managed to inch his way forward against the crush of people.

The inn was already ablaze, and tightly surrounded by row upon row of the Big Dipper's black-clad men. Each of them held a small crossbow in their hands, strung not with arrows, but with wooden tubes.

A horse charged frantically out from the inn's backyard. In an instant, six or seven wooden tubes were aimed at it, and snake-like jets of poisonous black water simultaneously shot forth. The water hissed where it hit the ground, burning holes in the ground. The horse suffered the same fate, letting out a plaintive whinny as bloody lacerations decorated its coat. It only managed to take three shaky steps forward before it collapsed to the ground, spasmed, and then stopped moving!

Xie Yun continued to strain forward, pressed in on all sides by people who were frantically pushing and shoving each other as they jostled to get away from the fire. Several falcons circled downwards, as a man in a dark cloak landed in a corner of the street. He stretched out a hand for one of his beloved pets to land on, and gently stroked its head. The man had a hooked nose, like a hawk's beak, and the kind of harshly featured face that struck fear in its beholders. His cold gaze swept over the frantic crowd, and he said softly: "Mere chattel, get out of the way."

With a sweep of his palm, a large force came bearing down upon the crowd, pushing it to the other side of the street. A number of people collided with the wall behind them, their heads bleeding from the impact, their fates uncertain.

Xie Yun was the only one in the crowd who had been running full tilt towards the inn rather than away from it, and there was nowhere to hide – the force of Phecda's palm strike hit him square in the chest. Xie Yun saw stars, and then nothing at all.

At that moment, Zhou Fei was at the doctor's with Miss Wu. The doctor's clinic was quite out of the way, and they had only found it with much difficulty. The sole doctor within was a doddering old man who spoke so slowly it took him a whole five minutes just to get through one sentence. He had stammered and stuttered through the diagnosis, and was so deathly embarrassed when writing the prescription that he nearly buried his head right into the paper.

Zhou Fei had been waiting at the side till her legs were numb, and seeing that the doctor was done at long last, heaved a huge sigh of relief and said: "I'll get the…"

Before she could say 'medicine', her ears twitched at the sound of a hawk's piercing screech. Zhou Fei glanced out the window that had been left ajar, and asked curiously: "Sir, are there usually large eagles around here?"

The old doctor said falteringly: "No, never."

Zhou Fei neatly folded up the prescription and tucked it up her sleeve. She pushed open the window completely and leaned out. The sounds of people shouting could be heard in the distance, and then she smelt a faint whiff of kerosene. She said sharply: "I'm going to take a look."

Wu Chuchu was already a bundle of nerves, and didn't dare to stay put alone. She hurried after Zhou Fei. The two girls had made it past two side streets when suddenly, Zhou Fei grabbed Wu Chuchu's wrist and dragged her into a nearby alley.

Wu Chuchu: "What are you…"

Zhou Fei put a finger to her lips, signalling to her to keep quiet. The grim expression on Zhou Fei's face made all the hairs on her back stand, and she immediately shrank behind Zhou Fei, holding her breath. A moment later, two men walked slowly towards the alley. One of them was a sickly-looking middle-aged man whose hair was streaked with white, his face waxen yellow. He kept stopping to cough, patting a hand on his chest each time.

It was Shen Tianshu – of the Big Dipper!

He was followed by a man whose back was almost obscenely bent in an obsequious bow, an unctuous smile fixed on his face. Half-fearful and half-ingratiating, he was in the midst of saying something to Shen Tianshu. If looks could kill, Zhou Fei's gaze would have pinned that man to the ground right there and then – this slight middle-aged man was the very same person in charge of the 48 Zhai's secret post here, who she had seen visit the inn that morning!

As the man had specially paid his respect to Madam Wu and her family, Wu Chuchu recognised him instantly. Her hands, which were already cold, felt like they had been plunged into freezing water, and she began to tremble violently.

Zhou Fei was even more shocked than Wu Chuchu, but she forced herself to appear calm for the sake of the poor girl beside her.

The man seemed to have sensed their presence, peering around him cautiously. Zhou Fei clamped her hand tightly over Wu Chuchu's mouth, and pulled her a few steps further into the alley.

When three of the 48 Zhai's sect leaders had staged a mutiny all those years ago, Zhou Fei had still been very young. Other than that image of her uncle's bloodied back that would be forever etched in her memory, she didn't have a clear recollection of anything else that had happened. But now, these sudden developments stirred a blind panic that had been buried in the deepest recesses of her subsconscious. That uneasy feeling surged up within her, wedging itself in her throat, and she could barely breathe.

After the two men had left, Wu Chuchu clung helplessly to Zhou Fei's hand, whimpering: "Miss Zhou.."

Her hand was cold as ice, the sensation of her touch like a bucket of cold water on the roiling panic in Zhou Fei's mind. Using every ounce of her strength to collect herself, she said lowly: "Don't worry, don't be afraid. Just follow me. Chen…Chenfei shixiong has always been…and they have Xie Yun…"

Knowing that she was on the verge of descending into a babbling mess, Zhou Fei quickly clamped her mouth shut, and bit down hard on her tongue. Pulling Wu Chuchu along, she ran headlong into the network of backstreets and alleyways veering off the main street.

Didn't Xie Yun say that those who survived catastrophes were bound to have good fortune? Hadn't he said that just one run-in with a reviled monster like Mu Xiaoqiao was enough to guarantee one three years of good luck?

It had barely been three days!

The two girls had taken nearly half an hour to find the clinic from the inn, but the return journey seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. Zhou Fei practically flew, dragging Wu Chuchu behind her.

One look at the billowing clouds of smoke rising from the inn was enough for Zhou Fei's heart to sink to the deepest of depths.

And no matter how much she might try to convince herself otherwise, the sea of flames rendered it impossible to utter the words 'don't worry' anymore.

Wu Chuchu's ragged shriek of despair was immediately muffled by Zhou Fei's trembling hand. Wu Chuchu was near her breaking point, while in her shock Zhou Fei couldn't control the force of her hand – and the girl fainted. The girl's cold body slumped against Zhou Fei's shoulder, the weight pressing Zhou Fei's bony shoulder blades against the moss-covered wall behind her. From the little corner where they were hiding, she stared blankly at the screeching falcons circling overhead, and wherever her gaze landed, it was a sea of red, red, red, the heat surging onto her face in a suffocating wave….

The fire had been burning for quite some time. The erstwhile bustling streets were eerily empty, and only a mess of soot and blood remained.

A man with a falcon perched on his arm gave a small nod. The black-clad men swiftly split themselves into two teams, one team remaining outside with their poisonous bows raised, and the other charging into the ruined inn with weapons in hand. Not long after, one corpse after another was carried out of the inn, and laid in neat rows on the street. Some were still fully intact, while others had been decapitated – the people in the inn must have tried to fight back from the sudden attack, some of them getting killed in the scuffle, and when they found it impossible to escape, had retreated inside the inn and sealed the doors…

Wu Chuchu had come to her senses at some point, and her tears now drenched Zhou Fei's sleeve.

The man lifted his hand, sending the falcon flying into the air. His dark cloak ruffled gently in the breeze. With his hands behind his back, he intoned: "Listen carefully, good and gentle folk. This area has been plagued by bandits and thieves in recent times. This group of crooks entered this city by disguising themselves as merchants, and were up to no good. Fortunately, some watchful citizens saw through their pretences and reported them to the authorities, and now, these criminals have been eradicated! To guard against anyone who might have escaped, please shut your doors tightly at night, and do not receive strangers into your house…"

Zhou Fei was sure that given her temperament, she would have dashed out instantly to fight to the death with those men. Even if she perished in the process, she would at least feel satisfied.

But she did not.

She was also sure that she would have collapsed to the ground in tears. After all, since young no one had ever apprised her of the need to keep her emotions in check – she had always cried freely and laughed heartily whenever she wanted.

But she didn't, either.

In those few moments, she seemed to have matured on many fronts.

Just then, one of the black-clad men, having finished counting the corpses on the ground, approached the man in the dark cloak and said something to him.

The man chuckled coldly and said: "Ah, what I said was true after all – some of them really managed to escape?"

Zhou Fei immediately tugged at Wu Chuchu, whispering fiercely: "We need to go now!"

Wu Chuchu had cried so much that she barely had the strength to stand. Zhou Fei grabbed the girl's waistband and forcefully pulled her up. Pressing her mouth close to Wu Chuchu's ear, she whispered: "Do you want to avenge your mother and brother?"

Wu Chuchu covered her mouth with her hands, trying her best to suppress her uncontrollable sobs, till her face grew red.

"Then stop crying." Zhou Fei said coldly, "The dead cannot avenge anyone."

Wu Chuchu shut her eyes as she clenched her fists tightly, digging her nails into her palms. She was shaking like a leaf. That all-consuming desire for revenge was like a ball of fire within her, blazing a trail throughout her limbs and organs and to her very core, awakening a fighting spirit that she didn't know she had. Wu Chuchu's sobs petered out after only a few moments, and even her breathing calmed down significantly.

Zhou Fei thought calmly: Given something as major as this, the city gates were probably shut by now. They didn't have any horses or carriages, and even if they managed to sneak out of the city, they would be too conspicuous at this point, and would likely be ambushed by more black-clad men lying in wait outside the city.

The entire city was on edge, everyone's doors firmly shut to any outsiders, making it difficult for them to hide in someone's home. Moreover, once bitten, twice shy – Zhou Fei had just been bitten by that traitorous snake of a man, and was now loathe to place her trust in just any random person.

She thought for a while, then firmly grasped Wu Chuchu's wrist, saying: "Follow me."

At the dark-cloaked man's command, his men had begun to search the entire city. An experienced martial arts expert might have been able to avoid detection, but Zhou Fei was fully aware that she wasn't capable of doing so. If she were to dash haphazardly across the city in an attempt to escape the black-clad men, the likelihood of her running straight into them was probably higher. So she simply slipped into a narrow alleyway, and finding a large rattan basket sitting in front of someone's house, lifted its lid and crept inside together with Wu Chuchu.

Perhaps its owner wasn't very well to do, as the basket was quite empty. There was more than enough room in it for two young girls. They sat down inside it, and Zhou Fei pulled the lid over their heads. She latched two fingers onto the inside of the lid and closed her eyes, silently counting her breaths. She then carefully ran her entire plan over in her mind, and when she was absolutely certain that she had covered all bases, she whispered to Wu Chuchu: "No matter what happens later, you must not panic."

Wu Chuchu nodded her head vigorously.

Taking a deep breath, Zhou Fei said: "Even if it's just me, you will be safely delivered to the 48 Zhai. Trust me."

She had said this to reassure Wu Chuchu, but it was even more so for herself. By uttering this promise, she could find a source of strength somehow – someone still needed her, relied on her, someone's entire life depended upon her. Therefore with everything that she had in her, she was forced to make plans that she had never envisioned herself making, and do things that she would typically be incapable of doing. And she had no spare capacity left to feel any kind of pain or anger.

Wu Chuchu was about to say something, but Zhou Fei suddenly put up her hand and gestured at her to stay silent. She immediately held her breath. After a full minute, Wu Chuchu finally heard the softest of footsteps, and through the weave of the basket she saw a black-clad man turn the corner and head in the direction of their alleyway.

This alley was a dead end and could be easily scanned in a single glance. There was no real need for him to enter. But to their great misfortune, the black-clad man paused at the entrance of the alley before dutifully walking inside, looking carefully around him. The rattan basket was certainly not impenetrable, and if one lifted the lid, its actual contents would be as clear as day. In fact, if one were to only look closely at the basket, the game would be up.

Seeing the black-clad man approach the basket, Wu Chuchu felt like her heart was in her throat. She instinctively glanced over at Zhou Fei, but Zhou Fei was looking down, her eyes obscured by those long lashes of hers, as if they were closed. The expression on her face was almost serene.

Wu Chuchu wondered: Was she planning to just leave things to fate?

Her heart was racing a mile a minute, and she sent up silent prayers to every single deity she knew. She bit down anxiously on her lip, so hard that she tasted blood.

Unfortunately, last-minute prayers didn't seem to work. Those footsteps slowed ominously, then stopped.

Wu Chuchu's violently thudding heart skipped a beat. She heard the man chuckle softly, then start walking towards their hiding place.

Wu Chuchu's entire body had tensed to breaking point, and she closed her eyes in despair. She screamed silently: He's got us now, he's got us!

The black-clad man took ahold of that flimsy basket lid and tried to lift it, but found that it wouldn't budge. Something inside seemed to be stuck.

"Still trying to hide, are you?" The black-clad man laughed mockingly, as he forcefully pulled the lid upwards. But the force that had been jamming the lid shut just now suddenly vanished, the person inside pushing the lid up instead. The combined force from him and the person inside caused the lid to hurtle upwards, straight at his face.

Caught by surprise, the man instinctively reached out his hand to push the lid away –

In that split second, a slender hand reached up, almost phantomlike, to hold his neck in a vice-like grip. It then clenched around his neck viciously, without hesitation. Before the black-clad man could utter a sound, his neck made a sharp cracking sound, and he collapsed to the ground unconscious. Zhou Fei lifted a leg to catch the basket lid that was just about to land on the floor, then grasped the man's head wih both hands and twisted it sharply at a highly unnatural angle. The man's head lolled forward, never to be raised again.

Wu Chuchu had stiffened with fear, and shivers ran down her spine.

Zhou Fei stared emotionlessly at her hands as she wiped them on her clothes, knowing that her guess had been spot on – even if the Big Dipper's men learned the exact number of people in their party from that traitorous secret post, there was no way they could have determined who had escaped just from counting the number of bodies, as they hadn't been the only ones staying at the bustling inn and many other innocent folk had also been burnt alive in the fire.

That left only two possibilities – they were either looking for a particular object, and that object was currently with Wu Chuchu; or they were looking specifically for Wu Chuchu as she possessed some kind of big secret.

When she had settled them both in the basket, she had deliberately let Wu Chuchu sit further outwards. As she was on a 48 Zhai mission, Zhou Fei should have been dressed in simple attire that facilitated movement. But Zhang Chenfei doted on her and had found a set of long girl's robes for both her and the young Miss Wu to wear…he had probably wanted her to have a more comfortable journey home in the horse-drawn carriage, where she could sit on the pretext of accompanying Madam Wu and her daughter. The two girls sported similar attire, and with Miss Wu seated outwards and her inwards, it would have been difficult for anyone outside to spot her.

The feeble-looking Wu Chuchu really had a knack for causing others to let their guard down. Regardless of whether those black-clad men were looking for her or an object on her, they would also be seized with overwhelming glee when they stumbled upon her. This had given Zhou Fei the opportunity to take the man down in one blow.

Zhou Fei asked: "Are you carrying anything special on you?"

Wu Chuchu stared at her blankly.

Zhou Fei heaved an internal sigh – both of them were probably equally ignorant. Zhang Chenfei had not explained to her their real reason for escorting Madam Wu and her children, and Madam Wu probably hadn't revealed a few key secrets to her young daughter either.

"Forget it." Zhou Fei quickly stripped the black-clad man of his outer clothes and changed into them. While she was slender, she wasn't really half Xie Yun's height as he had teased, such that after tucking and tying the clothes as tightly as she could around her, they managed to kind of fit. She then rummaged through his belongings, finding a sabre, a small dagger, an identification badge and various odds and ends. The sabre's weight and size suited her nicely – while it was a little broader than what she was used to, it still felt good in her hand. The identification badge was inscribed with a chart of the Big Dipper on one side, and with the words 'Phecda Three' on the other.

"Phecda."

Zhou Fei repeated those two syllables over and over to herself until they were branded into her brain, then shoved the corpse into a dark corner of the alley and covered it with several loose bricks and stones. She turned to Wu Chuchu and said: "Do you trust me?"

Wu Chuchu really didn't have a choice in the matter. She nodded her head vigorously.

Zhou Fei continued: "Then stay here and count from one to a hundred…or perhaps two hundred, and wait for me to return."

Anxiety immediately flitted across Wu Chuchu's face – which was understandable, as she was indeed completely defenseless, even to a stray dog. She was surrounded by cold-blooded killers who were all out to get her, and who might find her any minute now. And she was camped out in a dark and damp little alley, with only a still-warm corpse for company.

Zhou Fei thought about it for a while, and realising that this really was a tall order for Wu Chuchu, decided to say something else. But before she could do so, Wu Chuchu actually nodded grimly, and said in a shaky but determined voice: "Okay, go."

Zhou Fei looked hard at her, and concluded that this young gentlewoman really was quite something. If she was being completely honest with herself, if she were in the same situation and stripped of all her ten years' worth of martial arts training, she probably wouldn't dare to do the same.

Zhou Fei passed the black-clad man's dagger to Wu Chuchu. Then picking up a handful of yellow soil, she rubbed it in her hands to form a paste that she spread evenly on the exposed skin of her hands, face, and neck. She said to Wu Chuchu: "Don't worry. I told you that I'd send you back safely, so I will definitely do that. Even if I die out there, my spirit will float back here to find you."

Zhou Fei darted out of the little alley.

Wu Chuchu curled herself up in a fetal position within the basket, which was much more spacious now. Mimicking Zhou Fei, she latched two fingers onto the underside of the basket lid covering her. Her stomach had started to throb painfully again, causing her to spasm involuntarily from time to time, and she buried her face into her knees.

This was the longest count of two hundred in her entire life.

Wu Chuchu had started counting from one. As she counted and counted, she started thinking about how her entire family had now left this earth, leaving her all alone with no home, no roots, and no one to depend on, and she couldn't help but feel a deep sense of despair. But she didn't dare to cry out, only letting her tears flow silently down. And when they had finished falling, she continued counting…picking up right where she had left off.

"One hundred and ninety-three, one hundred and ninety-four…"

Suddenly, she heard a very light pattering of footsteps.

Who was that?

Wu Chuchu's senses were not as finely attuned as those who practiced martial arts, so when she heard those footsteps, the person making them was already close by. Her breath caught in her throat, and her fingers on the basket lid were so tense that they had grown numb. She tightened her other hand around the dagger that Zhou Fei had left for her.

"It's me." The person whispered.

Only then did Wu Chuchu relax. A brief smile touched her lips, but her tears started to flow uncontrollably.

Zhou Fei lifted the basket lid, and passed her a crumpled set of black clothes, saying: "I got these from a dead man, you'll just have to make do with it for now. Once you've got them on, we're moving somewhere else."

Wu Chuchu asked: "Where to?"

Zhou Fei said: "Right into their base."

"I…I'm afraid I can't pretend to be one of them." Wu Chuchu tugged at the black clothes, while covering her chest self-consciously.

True beauty was constituted firstly of one's inner grace, and only secondarily of one's bone structure, then of one's features, and lastly of one's attire. Wu Chuchu was one of those girls whom one could tell at a glance was extremely well-bred, with gentleness and virtuousness branded into her very bones. Even if she were to roll around in the mud till she was as dishevelled as a roadside beggar, she would still be a beautiful and gently-bred beggar.

"It's fine even if you don't look much like them." Zhou Fei was tossing yet another identification badge up and down in her hand, which Wu Chuchu noticed was inscribed with the words 'Dubhe One'. Zhou Fei continued: "Smear your face with some of this yellow soil, at least enough to not look so conspicuous."

Wu Chuchu smeared her hands and face with the soil as Zhou Fei had done. She still didn't feel good about what Zhou Fei was planning to do, as she didn't know what exactly her plan was, and asked: "How will we blend in? They will definitely see through us if they look closely."

"We're not going to blend in." Holding the girl's waist, Zhou Fei lifted her up from behind. Wu Chuchu found herself in midair all of a sudden, but she had gotten sufficiently used to being carried by Zhou Fei like this on the journey here, that she managed to swallow her shriek of surprise in time. She heard Zhou Fei whisper: "We're killing our way in."

The sky was dark enough by now such that from afar, the two girls in black looked pretty much like the other black-clad men roaming the city. But Wu Chuchu couldn't help but feel nervous. She turned her head to look at Zhou Fei's serene face, and thought with incredulity that this girl had courage enough to move mountains.

While the two girls slinked soundlessly around the narrow sidestreets and alleyways, it wasn't too long before they ran into one of their 'comrades'. Wu Chuchu held her breath.

The black-clad man had seen them from afar, and turned right around to leave as he assumed that they had already searched this alley. But after taking two steps forward, he suddenly sensed that something was amiss, and snapped his head back to check. In that instant, a steel sabre slashed silently across his neck, from his throat all the way to just below his ear, and blood spurted forth. The man opened his mouth in surprise, but no sound emerged. He was dead in a matter of seconds.

Stepping around the blood that had spattered on the ground, Zhou Fei dragged the man into the dark alley by his hair.

Wu Chuchu, who had been watching helplessly by the side at first, suddenly stepped forward and began covering the bloodstains on the floor with the surrounding soil as best as she could.

These girls had come a long way – one of them had up until recently still been wary of hurting others when exchanging blows, while the other was so painfully shy that she stammered when talking to unfamiliar men. Now, one of them had managed to teach herself how to silently take a man's life with a single blow, while the other had learnt how to conceal the bloody evidence on her own.

After that, Zhou Fei repeated the same tactics to take out a series of black-clad men, always targeting those who were alone. When she had killed her sixth man, they heard the screech of a falcon in the distance.

The sky had darkened completely by now, and it was becoming difficult to make out the surrounding houses and streets. Everything looked different and unfamiliar at night, and Zhou Fei couldn't quite tell where she was going. She asked Wu Chuchu: "Look at those falcons up there, which direction are they flying towards?"

Wu Chuchu thought for a bit, then said: "They seem to be heading towards our first hiding place. Maybe they've discovered the corpse there? This isn't good. Wouldn't they realise that something's up, since we stripped the man of his clothes and things?"

For the first time that day, Zhou Fei's tightly pursed lips finally took on a slight semblance of a smile. She said: "You're absolutely right. How far are we from the local government office? Are we heading in the correct direction?"

Wu Chuchu nodded: "We're not far, it's just on the next street."

Zhou Fei said: "Let's get rid of this dirty disguise."

Wu Chuchu obediently took off the black outerwear, passing it to Zhou Fei, who swiftly cut up their black clothes into tiny pieces and dumped them into a compost heap in the backyard of a nearby house. Then moving in the direction that Wu Chuchu had pointed out, they headed straight for the local government office.

Across the city, 'Phecda' Chou Tianji was in that narrow alley, looking at the corpse on the ground with a grim expression on his face. He poked at the man's broken neck with his toe, and said forbiddingly: "So there's actually someone protecting…and they've got some balls on them."

The falcon landed on his shoulder. The man and the bird looked eerily alike, as if birthed from the same egg.

"It isn't so easy to pull a fast one on me," Chou Tianji said coldly. "Listen up, everyone! Form teams of six, within the next fifteen minutes. The team leader must check each member's badge. Kill any lone men on sight."

Someone by his side murmured: "My lord, Lord Dubhe's men are here as well, do you think…"

Chou Tianji gave him a cold, expressionless stare. The man quickly lowered his head and stepped back, not daring to utter another word.

And at that very moment, Zhou Fei and Wu Chuchu were patiently pressed against a wall in the street next to the local government office. The black-clad men circling the residence seemed to have received an instruction of some kind, and suddenly started to gather in teams instead of patrolling the area individually. It was as if a large and amorphously omnipresent net had now split itself into tight and orderly groups. This was precisely the outcome that Zhou Fei had been after. Seizing this golden opportunity, she lifted Wu Chuchu up, and nimbly avoiding the scattered groups of black-clad men, vaulted over a wall of the local government office.

She headed straight for the inner courtyards…which were the private dwellings of the local governor.