Three traitors

Tang Wen suddenly felt as though something had torn open the space between his brows.

A beam of light burst through the acupoint between his brows, and his head rang.

In that instant, he saw through the space between his brows that a wisp of popularity rose from everyone's head.

Could this be the legendary third eye?

Tang Wen jumped in fright. If he really grew a third eye like Erlang Shen, he would scare everyone else half to death.

He hurried to a mirror and looked. Fortunately, he had not grown another eye.

There was only a pattern between his eyebrows.

It was no thicker than a strand of hair and looked a little like a dragon motif. Without a magnifying glass, no one would ever notice it.

The wisps of popularity varied in size. The smallest were as thin as a hair, while Qiao Xiao's was actually as thick as a drinking straw.

Tang Wen also noticed something strange.

Of these six hundred-odd people, the popularity above most of their heads pointed toward him, but a very small number had wisps that kept extending and retracting.

He looked up at Gu Hanyan and found her popularity standing neutrally upright, pointing straight into the sky, as though she disdained to spare him a glance.

Ge Ziyun's and Qiao Xiao's popularity leaned slightly toward him compared with Gu Hanyan's.

Zhan Dongwen's popularity leaned farther toward him, at a greater angle than Qiao Xiao's and the others'.

As for Zhan Junru, Li Quan, and Zhang Kui, the popularity above their heads leaned entirely toward him, as though bowing before him in worship.

Most of the newly recruited group had popularity that extended and retracted uncertainly, leaning slightly toward him, as though they had a favorable impression of him.

Tang Wen curiously examined them one by one. At last, he suddenly froze.

Damn it!

Three fellows actually had popularity pointing in the opposite direction. What did that mean?

Their popularity is running counter to me. Could these three be harboring divided loyalties, planning to betray me?

Why else would their popularity point away from me? The space did warn me earlier.

"Li Quan, quietly look into those three men's backgrounds and report back to me. Be quick," Tang Wen instructed after summoning him.

Li Quan nodded and went out. But just as Tang Wen prepared to examine those wisps of popularity again,

a sudden pain struck between his brows. It was as though a screen had gone black, and he could no longer see their popularity.

An hour later, Tang Wen regulated his breath and circulated his energy.

He tried directing his internal energy toward the space between his brows, and immediately he could see popularity again.

It seemed the Popularity Eye was tied to his cultivation.

To see popularity, he had to activate his cultivation and circulate his energy. He could see it while consuming internal energy.

But internal energy was bound up with physical strength. Constant exertion would naturally tire him out.

So he could not keep the Popularity Eye open all day. Using it occasionally was fine, but keeping it open every day would exhaust him to death.

During his second observation, Tang Wen discovered another curious feature: things appeared exceptionally clear when he deliberately viewed them with the Popularity Eye.

He could even make out a fly forty or fifty meters away.

What a treasure!

Just then, Li Quan and Zhan Dongwen ducked inside.

"Those three are Li Yu, Liu Dang, and Zhang Sheng. They were all disaster refugees who had already fled to the island.

"They've been on the island for a year and were hired during the second round of recruitment.

"All three are well into their thirties. They couldn't even afford wives, much less have children," Li Quan said.

"They're now in the estate guard, all tenth-grade martial artists under Zhao Du. They're assigned to guard the rear gate tonight," Zhan Dongwen said.

"This is bad. Have all three summoned separately to the tent at the back, immediately. Li Quan, tell Zhao Du and Qiao Xiao to come at once," Tang Wen said.

"What's happened, Master?" Zhan Dongwen looked utterly bewildered.

"Don't ask. Hurry." Tang Wen waved his hand. Zhan Dongwen nodded and went to arrange it.

Before long, Qiao Xiao and Zhao Du both ducked into the tent at the back.

Then the men Zhan Dongwen had assigned summoned Liu Dang and the other two inside separately.

Zhang Sheng was the last to enter. When he saw Li Yu and Liu Dang already inside, the popularity above his head actually trembled.

The three exchanged glances. Their popularity stretched and contracted, swaying unsteadily and trembling constantly, as though they were terrified.

"Let's go inside!" Tang Wen rose and walked toward the shipping containers.

Several large shipping containers stood in this warehouse, each assembled from four containers, with iron posts welded onto the outside for reinforcement.

Each had seventy or eighty square meters of interior space. He had originally used them to transport excavators back through the crossing.

After all, excavators were rather large.

If he dismantled them to bring them back, he would not know how to reassemble them. He could only put each entire machine inside and bring it straight back through the crossing.

"Shut the door!" With a bang, Zhao Du closed the heavy iron door. Even if someone screamed inside, those outside probably would not hear much.

"Take their sabers," Tang Wen said.

"Master Tang, don't you want us guarding the gate anymore?" Zhang Sheng asked.

"Why all the nonsense? Hand over your sabers." Zhao Du went over and forcibly disarmed them.

"Tell me. How much silver did they give you?" Tang Wen asked.

"Other than the half-tael monthly allowance you give each of us, Master, no one has given us any silver," Liu Dang replied.

"So you won't talk?" Tang Wen's face hardened.

"We really don't know what you mean, Master!" Liu Dang protested. This fellow appeared to be the leader of the three, and he had some wits about him.

But despite his outward composure, his popularity had long since quivered into a tangled mass.

"Aaah!"

Tang Wen suddenly struck, seizing Liu Dang's hand and pressing it onto the table. His sharp scalpel pierced straight through the hand and pinned it to the tea table.

Blood immediately poured out.

Zhao Du and the others beside him did not understand what was happening, but Tang Wen's ruthlessness startled them.

Their popularity actually leaned a little farther toward Tang Wen. It seemed he sometimes needed to show a ruthless streak, or others would not take him seriously.

Zhang Sheng and Li Yu dropped to their knees in terror and cried, "Spare us, Master! We'll never do it again!"

"Speak. How much silver did you take? Who are they? What do they want to do?" Tang Wen asked.

"W-we don't know who they are either. But he said that if we lured the others away at midnight tonight and opened the rear gate, we'd each get a thousand taels," Li Yu said, trembling.

"You believed their lies? Are you pigs?" Zhao Du kicked them in fury.

"They... they gave each of us three hundred taels up front and said they'd pay the rest once it was done.

"Then we could take the silver, leave this place, and enjoy ourselves elsewhere.

"If we ran far enough, Master Tang wouldn't be able to catch us," Zhang Sheng said.

"Animals! You're nothing but animals! The master feeds you, clothes you, and gives you silver to spend, yet you do this? Repaying kindness with betrayal-you're worse than beasts!" Zhan Dongwen cursed.

"We had no choice. They caught us. They said they'd kill us if we refused the silver. We were scared, and there was so much silver-enough to last us a lifetime," Li Yu sobbed in terror.

"Kill you? With the master here, what did you have to fear? If you'd reported this to him then, he would certainly have rewarded you too. Pig grease has smothered your hearts!" Zhao Du cursed.

"I'll give you a chance to redeem yourselves through service," Tang Wen said.

"Yes, yes, yes! Whatever you tell us to do, Master, we'll do it!" Li Yu said.

"Go guard the rear gate tonight as though nothing happened. If they come, lead them inside. We'll catch the turtles in the jar! Our people will be watching you from the shadows. If you dare try anything, you'll be the first to die," Tang Wen said.

"Yes, yes, yes! We'll guard it," Zhang Sheng said, nodding hastily.

"Zhao Du, Dongwen, immediately station men in ambush beside the tents at the rear gate.

"Bring the crossbows. The moment they're lured inside, shoot the bastards. Once you've fired, move in for the kill.

"Assign more men to prepare torches. Wear black, and issue everyone taking part a bulletproof vest to put on.

"As soon as they enter, light every torch. Zhang Kui and Li Quan, take a few men to protect my mother...

"And Zhan Zhao and Qiao Xiao, concentrate on dealing with their experts..." Tang Wen issued his orders decisively.

Everything proceeded in silence. Liu Dang's popularity, however, continued pointing away from Tang Wen, showing that he still refused to cooperate.

Fearing he would ruin things, they simply bound him, gagged him, and tied him up inside the shipping container.

At one in the morning, everyone was sound asleep.

A group of dark figures quietly approached the camp's rear gate. On spotting Li Yu and Zhang Sheng, one shadow slipped over to make contact.

Next, Li Yu and Zhang Sheng knocked two patrolling guards unconscious with clubs and quietly opened the wire-mesh gate.

A band of men in black rushed inside, perhaps sixty or seventy in all.

Just then, over a hundred torches suddenly flared to life around them, making the area as bright as day.

The intruders froze. Before they could react, crossbows sounded. Whoosh, whoosh! Bolts rained down, felling more than half of them in an instant.