Night fell, and the city lights began to glow.
Tianfeng City shed the clamor of daytime, yet it did not sink into silence. Instead, it revealed another kind of prosperity.
Lanterns of every color hung high overhead, illuminating the broad streets as brightly as day.
From the taverns came an unending melody of strings and pipes. Cultivators raised their cups, trading drinks and lofty talk.
The roadside vendors were still shouting their lungs out, peddling all manner of novel trinkets.
Chen Chen changed into a clean set of black clothes, donned a conical hat, and moved through the bustling crowd.
His battle with the Mighty Demonic Ape had drained him greatly, but it had also brought him considerable gains.
Not only had he thoroughly stabilized his Second Level of Qi Condensation cultivation, but he had also gained a clear understanding of his own strength.
Now, he had absolute confidence that within the Qi Condensation Realm, few could stand against him.
He did not hurry to Immortal's Abode.
Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will emerge unscathed from a hundred battles.
Before going to the gambling house, he needed more detailed intelligence.
Intelligence on Liang Feng.
Although Sky Listening Pavilion's information was swift, most of it remained superficial.
He needed to know everything about Liang Feng—his personality, habits, weaknesses, and even the strength of the guards around him.
Only by grasping all of that could he devise a foolproof plan.
Chen Chen twisted and turned through several streets before finally arriving at a dark, secluded alley.
At the end of the alley stood an utterly inconspicuous teahouse.
The teahouse had no signboard. Only a battered lantern painted with a black shadow hung at its entrance.
This was the Tianfeng City outpost of another intelligence organization, one even more mysterious and far more expensive—the Shadow Tower.
Unlike Sky Listening Pavilion, the Shadow Tower never investigated secrets that were already out in the open.
Their business was the kind that truly could not see the light of day.
Hiring murderers, probing private affairs, and selling all kinds of forbidden intelligence.
So long as one could afford the price, they could even find out what color undergarments the City Lord's wife was wearing that day.
Naturally, their prices were terrifyingly high as well.
Chen Chen pushed open the teahouse door and entered.
The teahouse was dimly lit. There were only a few patrons, all of them lowering their heads and silently drinking tea without exchanging a word.
The air was thick with an oppressive and dangerous aura.
Chen Chen's arrival attracted no one's attention.
He walked to the counter, where a wrinkled old man with a sleepy face was sprawled across it, dozing.
"I want to buy intelligence," Chen Chen said in a lowered voice.
The old man did not even lift his eyelids. In a weak, listless tone, he said, "Name, target, requirements."
"Liang Feng, the young master of the Liang Family in Tianfeng City. I need all of his movements over the past month, his habits, his personal connections, and... detailed information on every guard by his side."
The old man's dozing motion paused slightly.
He slowly raised his head, his murky old eyes sweeping over Chen Chen.
"The Liang Family's young master? Heh heh, that is quite a large order."
"One thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones. No bargaining."
One thousand!
That price was a full two times higher than Sky Listening Pavilion's!
Chen Chen did not even furrow his brow.
"Fine."
He directly tossed over a storage bag.
A trace of surprise flashed through the old man's cloudy eyes.
He had not expected this unremarkable figure in a conical hat to be so decisive.
He accepted the storage bag, sent his Spiritual Sense inside, and nodded after confirming its contents.
"Wait."
He turned and walked into the darkness behind the counter.
Chen Chen found a seat in the corner and waited quietly.
He knew the Shadow Tower's rules.
Payment and goods exchanged on the spot, with neither side owing the other anything.
About the time it took an incense stick to burn later.
The old man emerged from the darkness and placed a black jade slip on the table before Chen Chen.
"Everything you want is in there."
"One more word of advice. The Liang Family is not easy to provoke. Although Lin Feng is a useless good-for-nothing, his father, Liang Hu, is no pushover."
"Thank you for the warning."
Chen Chen picked up the jade slip, rose, and prepared to leave.
"Wait." The old man suddenly called out to him again.
"Is there something else?"
"Recently, quite a few unfamiliar faces have come to the city. They seem to be looking for a young man wearing a conical hat." The old man's voice carried a meaningful undertone.
"People from the Blood Fiend Tower have come as well."
Chen Chen's steps halted abruptly!
Blood Fiend Tower!
Those three words stabbed into his heart like a needle.
He turned back, and the gaze beneath his conical hat sharpened like a blade.
"How did you know?"
"Heh heh, we are the Shadow Tower." The old man bared a mouthful of yellow teeth. "In Tianfeng City, there is nothing we do not know."
"Consider this information a gift. After all, you are a major client."
Chen Chen was silent for a moment, then nodded.
"Thank you."
He turned and swiftly left the teahouse.
Upon returning to the inn, he immediately set down restrictions and pressed the black jade slip against his forehead.
His Spiritual Sense entered it.
A vast torrent of information instantly flooded into his mind.
The Shadow Tower's intelligence truly lived up to its reputation!
The jade slip not only recorded Liang Feng's drinking, gambling, and debauchery over the past month in detail, it even clearly noted how many times he had visited brothels and which girls he had sought each time.
Just as Sky Listening Pavilion had said, this man was a gambler and lecher through and through—a complete dandy.
The intelligence on the guards around him was equally detailed.
Liang Feng was constantly accompanied by two personal guards. Both were servants born into the Liang Family, fiercely loyal, and each had reached the Third Level of Qi Condensation.
In addition, the Liang Family secretly dispatched a guest elder at the Qi Condensation Fifth Layer to protect him.
One at the Qi Condensation Fifth Layer and two at the Third Level of Qi Condensation.
That lineup was enough to deal with the vast majority of dangers.
"Looks like making a move against him truly will not be easy."
Chen Chen frowned slightly.
He continued reading.
Very soon, one piece of information caught his attention.
"Wang Teng, an Inner Sect Disciple of the Azure Cloud Sect and a member of the Wang Family, has long associated with Lin Feng and shares a close relationship with him. According to reliable information, Wang Teng recently accepted a sect mission and will leave the sect. In three days, he will pass through Tianfeng City to meet with Lin Feng and discuss important matters."
Wang Teng!
He was actually coming to Tianfeng City!
And in three days!
Chen Chen's breathing instantly grew rapid.
This truly was... after wearing out iron shoes in a fruitless search, he found it without the slightest effort!
He had thought he would need to find a way to infiltrate the Azure Cloud Sect before he could find Wang Teng.
Who would have thought that Wang Teng would deliver himself right to his doorstep!
A bold plan began brewing wildly within Chen Chen's heart.
However, at that very moment.
A cold Spiritual Sense filled with intense killing intent suddenly swept in from outside the inn without warning!
That Spiritual Sense was sinister, evil, and reeked of blood.
It was exactly the same as the aura of the Blood Fiend Envoy outside Qingyang City back then!
Not good!
He had been discovered!
Chen Chen's expression changed drastically. Without a second thought, he immediately concealed his entire aura and pushed the Breath Concealment Art to its limit!
At the same time, his Nine Nether Soul Refining Art, now at the Minor Accomplishment stage, erupted with a boom, forming an invisible soul barrier that firmly protected him!
That evil Spiritual Sense lingered outside his room for more than a dozen breaths.
It seemed puzzled as to why it had clearly sensed a familiar trace of aura just now, only for it to suddenly vanish.
Only after a while did that Spiritual Sense retreat unwillingly.
Chen Chen leaned against the wall, his back already soaked in cold sweat.
That had been close!
If he had not just broken through to the Second Level of Qi Condensation and greatly increased his Spiritual Power, he would likely have been exposed in that instant!
He walked to the window, quietly pushed open a narrow crack, and looked outside.
At the street corner, a pale-faced young man in a blood-red robe was slowly withdrawing his gaze. Doubt and unwillingness flickered in his eyes before he melted into the crowd.
It was not the Blood Fiend Envoy from before.
But those clothes, that aura—he was undoubtedly a member of the Blood Fiend Tower!
They had truly tracked him all the way to Tianfeng City!
And from the looks of it, they seemed to possess some special method of tracing his aura.
Trouble.
Chen Chen's heart sank.
Wang Teng lay ahead, while the Blood Fiend Tower was behind him.
He had now fallen into a dilemma.
Before Wang Teng arrived, he had to deal with the Blood Fiend Tower assassin hidden in the shadows!
Otherwise, once he made a move against Wang Teng, that person would certainly seize the chance to launch a sneak attack. Then he would be attacked from both front and rear, and death would be inevitable!
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