The dark night sky was covered with clouds and the moonlight was dim and cold.
It was quiet all around a certain small courtyard, but if you look carefully, you can easily find hundreds of black shadows slowly sneaking in the same direction.
These people were all dressed in night clothes, with their faces covered, and even the weapons in their hands had no refraction at all. They should have been coated with black ink.
Only the evil tigers embroidered on their clothes swayed slightly in the moonlight.
It is obvious that these more than a hundred people are from the same sect, and their strength is not weak.
As for what they are going to do... Judging from this posture, they are probably going to take the lives of the people in this courtyard.
"Do it!"
Following a low shout from the leader, hundreds of black shadows suddenly accelerated their speed and silently surrounded the small courtyard.
Almost in the blink of an eye, dozens of people from the four directions, southeast, northwest, climbed over the courtyard wall and rushed into the wooden house lit by candlelight with long knives in hand.
However, after a moment of table and chairs overturning, someone quickly ran out of the room.
He ran all the way to the leading masked man, leaned into the latter's ear and whispered:
"Brother, there is no one."
"..."
With a frown, the leading masked man was silent for a while, then coldly snorted:
"Hmph, keep looking! He won't be able to escape far!"
"yes!"
"..."
Like a flock of scattered crows, in just a few breaths, more than a hundred men in black flew in all directions and soon disappeared into the night.
At the same time, on a forest path not far from here, a man and a woman were walking hurriedly in the moonlight.
They are exactly what these men in black are looking for, and they are also two people Wei Changtian is very familiar with——
Chu An and Qin He.
"Mr. Xianggong, what's going on? Tell me..."
With a hint of crying in his voice, Qin He firmly pulled Chu An's clothes and asked this question for the tenth time tonight.
Chu An glanced at her with a serious face. After some hesitation, he still did not tell the truth, but said softly:
"Don't ask, just remember what I told you."
"We will separate temporarily after we leave Pingyun County. No matter who asks you later, you must say you don't know me."
"Remember?"
"I......"
Qin He bit his lip tightly, feeling increasingly uneasy.
She cried and was about to ask something more, but Chu An's eyes changed at this moment, and he suddenly reached out and hit Qin He on the back of the head. He immediately picked up the unconscious latter and fled deeper into the woods at a faster speed.
.
"Swish, swish, swish!"
More than ten breaths later, several masked men stopped where he was standing.
Someone squatted down to check the footprints on the ground, and then pointed in the direction Chu An escaped.
"Escape over there."
"Chase!"
"..."
...
"Captain Tang, are we disturbing your rest?"
Dajue, Beijing.
Dozens of guards in golden armor were standing inside and outside a certain house. The old eunuch at the head squinted at Tang Chen, who had a blank look on his face, and explained with a smile:
"It's just that His Majesty summons you to come to the palace immediately to meet the Holy Spirit. There's nothing we can do about it."
"I hope Lieutenant Tang will quickly clean up and come to the palace with our family."
"...Eunuch Zhang, why did your Majesty call me into the palace?"
As if he had just come back to his senses, Tang Chen asked the old eunuch in a low voice: "I wonder if my father-in-law can reveal something to me first, so that I can be prepared in advance."
"Our family doesn't know this."
The old eunuch shook his head: "Don't you know that Captain Tang is here?"
"Okay... okay, let me go back to the house and change clothes first."
"Well, let's go help Colonel Tang adjust his sleeves... Captain Tang shouldn't mind, right?"
"...How could it be possible? Then I'll have to thank you."
"Captain Tang, you're welcome..."
Turning around and winking at the imperial guards, the old eunuch immediately followed Tang Chen into the back room.
Obviously, he should be very confident in his own strength and believe that there is absolutely no way Tang Chen can escape from his hands.
What's more, it seems that Tang Chen hasn't heard the news outside and has no intention of running away at this moment.
"..."
Standing at the door of the house, looking coldly at Tang Chen who was putting on his outer robe in front of the mirror not far away, a greedy smile appeared on the corner of the old eunuch's mouth.
But the next moment, when Tang Chen suddenly turned sideways and his eyes met the old eunuch's through the reflection of the bronze mirror, the latter's body suddenly stiffened, and his eyes became extremely empty for a moment.
.....
"you......"
After a few breaths, the old eunuch opened the door with a slightly sluggish movement, and calmly ordered to the guards outside the house:
"Go back to the palace first."
"Father-in-law, this..."
Everyone in the Imperial Guard was stunned when they heard this. After looking at each other for a few times, someone was about to speak, but was interrupted coldly by the old eunuch:
"This is the order just sent from His Majesty!"
"Ah! Yes! I will return to the palace right away!"
No one dared to question him, and soon a group of imperial guards left Tang Chen's residence and returned to the palace.
And not long after they left, a pale Tang Chen also walked out of the house.
He walked up to the motionless old eunuch, reached out from the latter's arms and took out a golden token with the highest "peer authority", and then quickly walked out of the courtyard without hesitation.
After almost a hundred breaths passed, the old eunuch, who was standing alone like a puppet, slowly raised his right hand, and then suddenly slapped his chest...
"..."
...
"boom!!"
"Bang bang bang!!"
Xinfeng, Fengyuan City.
The sound of fierce fighting came from an alley, and the painful shouts spread far away, causing the surrounding residents to panic and close their doors and windows.
"Ah!! Killing!!!"
The watchman who happened to be walking here just glanced into the alley, then ran away yelling, looking in the direction of going to the Yamen to report the crime.
Frightened cries pierced the night sky, but they failed to stop the fighting in the alley.
It wasn't until nearly a stick of incense was burned that the last desperate wail fell, and the surrounding area became calm again, with only the strong smell of blood lingering in the air.
"Da da da......"
Slight footsteps came closer and closer, then stopped at the entrance of the alley.
Looking around, Shen Ran, who was covered in blood, had a gloomy face and extremely cold eyes.
He paused for a moment at the entrance of the alley, then disappeared in a flash.
Behind him, in the narrow alley, there were more than ten corpses lying in a pool of blood...
...
Chu An, Tang Chen, Shen Ran.
Da Hui, Da Jue, Xin Feng.
Just as they had agreed, the above three people were chased, plotted, or surrounded at almost the same moment.
Obviously, those who intended to take away their luck were not the same group of people, nor were they under the instructions of the same person.
So, this can only mean that there are three different forces that have decided to "strike first to gain the upper hand."
These forces not only found their location in a very short period of time, but also organized a very threatening "hunting operation."
Of course, judging from the current results, all three of them have escaped disaster for the time being.
But this does not mean that they can sit back and relax from now on.
Because this is not the end, not even the beginning, perhaps it can only be regarded as a "warm-up".
After all, as time goes by, it is foreseeable that the actions against them will only increase in number and become more watertight and overwhelming.
It's not just Tang Chen and the three of them.
The same goes for the other seven people who are still alive.
These sons of heaven will live in a crisis-ridden situation for a long time to come.
More importantly, this danger not only comes from the "outside", but may also come from any relative or friend they once trusted...
"Son..."
Daqian, Xiling Prefecture.
It was still the same inn. It was dark inside and outside at the moment, except for a candlelight in a room in the back room.
Beside the dim flames, Zhang San gently placed the two envelopes in front of Wei Changtian and whispered: