Xiao Ning'er turned her head to glance at him without slowing her steps, her tone a little more even than before. "You noticed it on your side too?" She paused, then continued, "Our family's caravans did too. I went on a short trip with the shop's caravan over the past two days and noticed unfamiliar faces hanging around the freight depots along the way. They watched us the whole way, but they didn't make a move or come close. They just watched from a distance, then left once the caravan did. I had people tail them for two days. We lost them once, but they appeared again later-a different group, though their methods were much the same. They stood off to the side and watched, without speaking to anyone, approaching, or following along."
After listening, Shen Fei nodded.
What she described was almost identical to what he had heard from the Second Elder.
"It might be the new faction Nie Li mentioned," he said. "They haven't made a move, but they could be probing for information." He recalled the last thing Nie Li had said in the room in the City Lord's Mansion's back courtyard the previous night: "But the Dark Guild isn't the only faction in the place where they're hiding." Nie Li had not elaborated at the time, and Shen Fei had not pressed him.
Now it seemed those unfamiliar faces were most likely people sent by the "other factions" Nie Li had mentioned.
They appeared near key points along the trade routes, watched the freight depots, and neither contacted anyone nor made a move. They were clearly testing the waters. What they were trying to uncover and why remained unclear, but it certainly had something to do with Glory City.
After hearing him out, Xiao Ning'er fell