Being Followed

After leaving the city gate for some distance, Lin Fan sensed his surroundings. To his surprise, he discovered that several people were following them from behind.

After all, when their group entered the city, they had pushed carts piled high with goods. Though they were only mountain beasts, their total value was still considerable. Moreover, he had several baskets full of medicinal herbs. Even concealed beneath wild grass, the herbs' fresh fragrance could not be hidden.

It was inevitable that they would catch the attention of certain people.

He did not know who those people behind them were—whether they were gang members from the city or ordinary bandits. This made it inconvenient for him to return to Small Mountain Village ahead of the others.

The good news, however, was that he had just obtained a weapon that suited him. With Middle Muscle Refinement Realm cultivation and a long spear in hand, Lin Fan was confident that unless a Bone Tempering Realm expert appeared, ordinary people would not be able to keep him behind.

There were only a few Bone Tempering Realm experts in the small town, with each martial faction having at most one or two. Lin Fan did not believe someone of that status would personally come down to intercept and kill him over a few medicinal herbs.

As for the Su Family, would they send a Lineage Bone Tempering Realm expert to intercept him for more than six hundred taels of silver? Logically, that seemed unlikely as well. And since he had been able to notice them, their cultivation most likely did not exceed his own.

Lin Fan did not tell Uncle Wang and the others that someone was following them. First, there was no use telling them. Second, Lin Fan had decided to quietly deal with all these lingering troubles himself. A martial artist's senses and hearing were far sharper than those of ordinary people, allowing them to detect even the slightest movement. Uncle Wang and the others were ordinary people, so they had not yet noticed the unusual sounds behind them.

Lin Fan had originally planned to leave with his bundle after getting some distance from the city gate and return to Small Mountain Village ahead of them. Now, he could only pretend not to know and wait until he had followed Uncle Wang and the others far enough away from town before making his move and dealing with those behind them.

That way, even if something went wrong, he could prevent them from sending a signal when they realized the situation was bad and alerting others in the town. Even if their companions in town noticed something was amiss afterward and began investigating, several days would have passed by then.

Uncle Wang and the others were still chatting enthusiastically, recounting strange tales and extraordinary happenings from different places, along with the latest bits of gossip.

"Hey, have you heard? I heard some places have suffered disasters again."

"I heard, I heard. Several prefectures in our Zhao Kingdom have suffered severe crop failures."

"The common folk in those places are really going to suffer now."

A lean village hunter beside Lin Fan spoke with a trace of sympathy and sorrow on his face.

"Isn't that the truth? This time, it's because there hasn't been rain from the sky for months. The ground has dried up, the rivers have run dry, and all the crops have withered to death."

"Yeah, but is there really no solution? Doesn't our Zhao Kingdom have many martial arts experts? Can't they do anything?"

"You've got the wrong idea. Those martial arts experts aren't immortals. They can't control rainfall, can they? Who can manage matters in the heavens?"

As they lamented the hardships of disaster victims elsewhere, the previously cheerful mood among the villagers of the hunting party faded considerably.

Listening to Uncle Wang and the others chat, Lin Fan had no particular thoughts. His own strength was still barely enough to look after himself, so naturally he could not concern himself with matters across the land. Besides, there were still several tails behind their group that needed to be dealt with.

The group traveled on for a while longer. After passing a towering mountain and turning around a bend, the outline of the town was no longer visible.

Lin Fan suddenly turned around. Before Uncle Wang and the others from the hunting party could react, he was already holding his spear and had forced the several people hiding and following them hundreds of meters behind out into the open.

There were four of them in total. A sheep's head was embroidered on their clothes. They were unmistakably members of the White Ram Gang in the city.

Lin Fan's speed gave them a fright as well. This youth is a martial artist! And his realm isn't low either. Watching Lin Fan move with the speed of a fired crossbow bolt, that thought abruptly rose in their minds.

After forcing them out of the roadside grass, Lin Fan gripped his spear and pointed it vaguely at them. "You've been skulking around and following us. What do you want? I advise you to be honest and tell the truth. Otherwise..."

Lin Fan aimed his spear at a large boulder on the nearby cliffside, roughly a meter across, and thrust with all his strength. The boulder instantly split into four pieces and exploded with a bang. Some fragments rolled rumbling down the mountain, while others rolled to the feet of the men.

Apparently not expecting someone as young as Lin Fan to possess such formidable martial cultivation, the people he had forced out all stared at him in utter shock.

Lin Fan examined them for a few moments and found that aside from the leader, who was at the Early Skin Tempering Realm, the others had no martial cultivation at all. Their status within the White Ram Gang could not have been very high. He did not know whether they had followed on a temporary whim or had been sent by the gang to gather information.

Seeing Lin Fan's overwhelming strength, they were instantly terrified. The sky was already darkening, and strange cries from some unknown large bird sounded in the distance. The air of terror grew even thicker. The cold mountain wind at dusk swept over them, making them tremble even more visibly.

"Spare us, great hero! We're only helping Fang Steward with errands for the gang. Today, Fang Steward heard someone say that the goods your group was transporting were worth a great deal, so he sent us to follow you out of the city and find out where you were headed."

The leader immediately dropped to his knees and spilled everything like beans pouring from a bamboo tube.

Lin Fan felt a slight headache coming on. The thing he had not wanted to encounter had still happened. A gang in the city had set its sights on him. He did not know how much interest they had in him—whether they had merely casually sent a few people to take a look, or whether they were preparing to take action against his group.

"Fang Steward—what is his cultivation, and what exactly did he tell you to do? Tell me everything you know, and I can spare you."

"Yes, yes, great hero. This lowly one will tell you everything. That Fang Steward is at the Late Skin Tempering Realm. He told us to investigate how much silver you received from selling your goods."

But what Lin Fan did not know was that Fang Steward had given them another instruction: "Act when the opportunity arises." Naturally, the people currently under Lin Fan's control did not dare reveal those words no matter what.

Only when a martial artist actively released his aura could others easily sense his cultivation. Ordinarily, when one concealed his aura, unless the other person was a martial artist with sharp perception and similar cultivation, it was difficult to tell whether he possessed martial cultivation at all.

The situation was obvious now. The White Ram Gang in the city had set its sights on the silver their group received from selling their goods. How should he deal with these people? Lin Fan could not help but ponder.

Killing them directly was not impossible. After all, he was at the Middle Muscle Refinement Realm, far stronger than the Fang Steward they had mentioned. Once he stepped into the Late Muscle Refinement Realm, or even the Bone Tempering Realm, he would have no fear of the entire White Ram Gang.

"You few, explain this. What martial arts experts does your White Ram Gang have?" Lin Fan held his spear upright and casually kicked a fragment of stone at his feet off the cliff. Carrying a whining rush of wind, the stone plunged down into the ravine below.

The few people kneeling on the ground exchanged glances.