Hong Ming stopped and stared at Feng Lei, who had suddenly appeared ahead of him, a trace of Inner Force gathering at his fingertips.
He had long sensed someone watching from the shadows. He had assumed it was a Huang Family martial artist, never expecting it to be Feng Lei.
"Commander Hong, are you all right?" Feng Lei asked as he approached after dealing with the leading man.
Hong Ming shook his head slightly. "I'm fine."
"Since you're fine, then sorry for the trouble, Commander Hong, but please hurry back to the River Bureau and have Vice Thousand-Commander Huang come deal with the aftermath."
Feng Lei did not treat himself as an outsider in the slightest as he began giving Hong Ming orders.
Hong Ming did not agree. Instead, he asked, "Commander Feng, do you know these bandits?"
"Hm? Commander Hong, shouldn't I be asking you that? Do you not know who these bandits are? Then why did they try to kill you?"
Feng Lei looked at Hong Ming, feigning surprise.
After staring deeply at Feng Lei for a moment, Hong Ming shook his head. "Hong does not know either."
With that, he turned and headed back toward the River Bureau. His steps were slow, and the saber in his hand remained unsheathed.
Even as he went farther and farther away, he still detected nothing unusual from Feng Lei. Using the flat of his saber as a mirror, he caught sight of Feng Lei's increasingly blurred figure.
"Could I have guessed wrong?" Hong Ming's eyes flickered with thought.
His suspicion of Feng Lei had not arisen without reason. It began with the man's ill-intentioned tailing.
Ever since leaving the Military Town, he had noticed someone following him.
He had originally planned to deal with these men before handling Feng Lei.