Exposed!

Tang Fei shoved Phoenix away as if he were afraid she would get pregnant if he held her too long.

Phoenix's chest hurt again, this time because Tang Fei had pushed her.

His hand had landed in the wrong place.

Tang Fei jumped down from the rattan chair, ran to the courtyard gate, and peered outside through the narrow crack between the two door panels.

Sure enough, the crowd was surging, and large numbers of gray-robed men were gathering in their direction.

"Have we been exposed?"

Tang Fei looked at Old Man, who shook his head.

"If we haven't been exposed, why did so many people suddenly show up?" Tang Fei asked.

"My shaking my head didn't mean we haven't been exposed. It meant I don't know what's going on either."

"Next time, make yourself clearer. Don't make people misunderstand." Tang Fei spoke irritably.

Little Fatty had woken up as well. Rubbing his eyes, he walked out and asked, "Did something happen? Why is it so noisy outside?"

Tang Fei made a shushing gesture and said to Little Fatty and Phoenix, "Get ready. Be prepared to run at any time."

"What about you?" Phoenix blurted out.

Tang Fei glanced at her and said, "Someone has to stay behind and hold them off. Otherwise, you won't get far."

"If we leave, we leave together." Phoenix's voice was resolute. "This started because of me. How can I leave you behind alone? I'm in the Qi Control Realm too. I can fight by your side."

She looked at Little Fatty and Old Man. "You two leave first. Tang Fei and I will break through their encirclement and meet up with you afterward."

She had not seen Old Man crush Shan He to death with one hand, but since he had been able to kill Shan He, his strength could not have been weak.

Therefore, Phoenix felt that having him take Little Fatty, who knew nothing about cultivation, and escape first was not a bad choice.

Old Man chuckled. "Loyal and righteous. Not quite like those people from New Star. The more I look at you, little girl, the more pleasing you seem."

"Thank you," Phoenix said.

It would be even better if you didn't pair compliments with such a strange laugh and that meaningful look in your eyes.

Old Man looked at Tang Fei and said, "The gray robes from the Flame Shrine have already surrounded the outside so tightly that not even water could get through. It won't be easy to leave. We should first find out what exactly is happening. If they really are here for us..."

Old Man's gaze turned fierce as he said coldly, "Then we'll kill them all. The Flame Shrine doesn't have any good people anyway."

"Mm." Tang Fei nodded. "I'll find out what's going on first."

He watched from the gate for a while and spotted Wang Tianlong, the good big brother who had eaten barbecue at their home yesterday.

Tang Fei immediately opened the courtyard gate and warmly greeted Wang Tianlong. "Brother Long."

When Wang Tianlong saw Tang Fei, he waved his hand. "Get back inside. Go in and close the door. Don't come out."

"Brother Long, what happened?" Tang Fei asked.

"We don't know yet." Wang Tianlong said, "We received orders to seal off this village. Why are you worrying about this? Get back inside. You have our Flame Talisman posted on your door. As long as you don't come out on your own, you'll be fine."

"Alright, alright. Thank you, Brother Long." Tang Fei looked deeply grateful. "Brother Long, are you looking for someone? Do you need my help?"

Wang Tianlong waved him off. "No, no. You've got old people and children in your household. What help could you possibly give?"

He lowered his voice and whispered to Tang Fei, "This time, we're arresting a Master in the Qi Control Realm. I heard they even transferred quite a few Masters over from Lingyang to catch him. Even the Flame Army has come."

"The Flame Army?" Tang Fei asked.

He had never dealt with the Flame Army and had no idea how strong they were. Of course, the Flame Army ordinarily would not come to an outlying human settlement like Hate Mountain.

If the dead man this time had not been a black robe, and if that black robe had not happened to be Bian Feng's son, the boss of the Lingyang District, why would the Flame Army have come to a place like this?

"Haven't seen them before, have you? Heh, this is my first time dealing with them too. They used to operate around the Lingyang District. Their weapons and equipment are all top-notch, and they have plenty of guns. They're far more impressive than gray robes like us." Wang Tianlong said with a chuckle.

"Forget it, forget it. Why am I telling you all this? Get back inside. It would be bad if one of our Flame Society brothers accidentally hurt you."

"Thank you for your concern, Brother Long. Take care of yourself too. Once you're done over there, come to my place for barbecue." Tang Fei invited him warmly. "I'll head into the mountains later and see if I can hunt a wild boar for you. Grilled wild boar tastes incredible."

Wang Tianlong nodded. "Don't go into the mountains. The whole village has been sealed off so tightly that you couldn't get out even if you wanted to. How about this? Once I'm done here, I'll have someone get some wild boar meat. You just handle the grilling."

The Flame Shrine and the Predators organization had plenty in common. We did not hunt, but we could become transporters of food.

The Flame Shrine merely did it a little more discreetly and less often. The Predators organization made a living from it—they robbed whatever they saw.

"Fine, I'll follow Brother Long's arrangements." Tang Fei agreed obediently.

Wang Tianlong waved at Tang Fei, then went off to continue his work.

Tang Fei shut the courtyard gate. Old Man and Little Fatty gathered around him, while Phoenix emerged from the room where she had been hiding.

"What's going on?" Old Man asked.

"They must have discovered a suspicious target. Otherwise, they wouldn't have sealed off the whole village," Tang Fei said.

From his brief exchange with Wang Tianlong, he had roughly figured out the situation.

"But they haven't narrowed it down to specific households yet. In other words, they don't know we were behind it. Otherwise, Wang Tianlong wouldn't have been so polite to us."

"Could it be that Wang Tianlong knows very little himself?" Phoenix asked.

"That possibility can't be ruled out," Tang Fei said. "But this is dangerous. They haven't just deployed all the gray robes in the Hate Mountain District. I heard they also brought in a large number of Masters and the Flame Army from the Lingyang District. I don't know what realm those Masters are in, but if the Flame Army is as Wang Tianlong described, with all of them equipped with fine firearms, they pose a major threat to us."

"When soldiers come, generals stop them. When water comes, earth blocks it." Old Man stretched lazily. "Prepare for the worst, then wait and see."

Tang Fei nodded. "I'm going to sharpen a knife."

Tang Fei's Dogleg Knife had blocked a bullet for him and shattered into fragments.

He needed to forge and sharpen a new Dogleg Knife. After all, he was already used to that kind of blade.

Surrounded by countless gray robes and Flame Army soldiers, Bian Feng rode on horseback to the center of the village. To his left was Chen Hu, the former adjutant of the Hate Mountain District. To his right was Blood Hand, president of the Blood Hand Society within the Predators organization.

Bian Feng swept his gaze around and asked, "Has it all been surrounded?"

"It has." Chen Hu hurriedly reported. He was primarily responsible for this operation. "We began with a large perimeter, then narrowed it down step by step from the outside inward. Not even a fly will get out."

Bian Feng glanced at Chen Hu. "Do well, and this will be a great merit. Do poorly, and you can go raise divine beasts in the Lingyang District."

"Yes." Chen Hu bowed in acknowledgment.

He turned around and said to a gray-robed captain, "Cheng Gang, bring him over."

Very quickly, the gray robes brought over a thin, gaunt young man whose steps were unsteady.

Bian Feng's gaze settled on the young man's face. After studying him for a while, he asked, "You said you saw others looking for a Cultivator?"

"Yes, sir." The young man did not dare meet Bian Feng's eyes. Bowing and scraping, he said, "Yesterday afternoon, while I was working at home, two outsiders came in and asked whether I had seen an injured woman."

"Outsiders? An injured woman?" Looking down at the young man's dry, yellow, straw-like hair, Bian Feng knew he was gradually closing in on the truth.

The locals of the Hate Mountain District would not dare casually provoke the Flame Shrine. But if they had come from New Star, that was another matter.

"Then did you see that woman?"

"I did. A lot of us did," the young man said.

"Where is that woman?" Bian Feng asked.

"At Tang Fei's house," the young man answered. "A few days ago, we saw Tang Fei carry a woman home with our own eyes."

"Tang Fei? Who is he?"

"He's a hunter," the young man said.

After a pause, he added, "He's a very skilled hunter. Every time he goes into the mountains, he brings something back. So whenever he came down from the mountains, everyone would secretly watch to see what he had brought back this time. We never expected him to bring back a person that day."

The blond-haired man thought for a moment and said, "That woman was obviously an outsider. Her skin was pale and tender, and her clothes were different from ours. She wore that kind of strange clothing."

"Tang Fei." Bian Feng rolled the name around in his mouth, then said to Chen Hu, "Bring Tang Fei here."

"Yes, sir," Chen Hu said.