Chapter Thirteen: Resolution

Old Wang’s hiding place was right in the tree across from Chu Feng, and at this moment, he was clutching a pistol. The grove wasn’t very large; as the five men advanced, Chu Feng had already begun to slowly slide down from his perch.

Chu Feng moved with painstaking caution, making no sound as he descended. By the time he’d reached halfway down, he could already see the five armed men ahead of him. Old Wang, seeing Chu Feng slide down, wanted to follow suit, but Chu Feng stopped him with a glare. If Old Wang made the slightest noise on his way down, Chu Feng’s own position would become perilous—each of those five men was carrying an automatic rifle.

Chu Feng continued his careful descent, and once he reached the ground, he quietly moved forward, always keeping a tree between himself and the enemy as cover. If those men spotted him, he knew he couldn’t possibly dodge the hail of bullets from five automatic rifles, so he exercised the utmost caution.

After about three minutes, Chu Feng had drawn much closer to the five men. As he crouched behind a large tree for cover, two scalpels appeared in his hands as if by magic—no one could say where he’d hidden them, but with a flick of his wrist, the blades were ready.

He picked his moment, and with a swift motion, flung both scalpels. At this point, he was barely more than two meters away from his targets. With a muffled thud, the scalpels struck home, embedding themselves with deadly precision in the heads of the two men on the far left.

Both bodies collapsed to the ground at once. The remaining three immediately snapped into combat stances, guns sweeping the surroundings as they searched for the attacker, but Chu Feng had already melted into the cover of the trees, invisible to their frantic eyes.

Suddenly, a gunshot rang out behind Chu Feng, startling him—there was only Old Wang behind him. Had Old Wang fired?

“They're behind us! After them!” shouted one of the remaining men. At the sound of the shot, the three survivors abandoned their fallen comrades and charged toward the source of the sound, weapons at the ready.

Chu Feng silently circled a third of the way around the big tree, three scalpels now appearing in his hands. He was determined to finish off the remaining three in one go.

As the men dashed past his hiding place, Chu Feng sprang, flinging the three blades. Two hit their marks, slicing into the throats of two men, while the third sank into another’s belly. Considering the chaos and the fact that all three were running, two perfect hits and one near miss was already an impressive feat.

Seeing the two men drop, Chu Feng rushed forward to finish off the last one, who was still writhing on the ground, and then collected their lifespans.

After gathering the lifespans from all five, the number on his watch jumped from 78 to 200. These five had given him a total of 122 years. Seeing the numbers, Chu Feng couldn’t help but feel a surge of satisfaction.

He hadn’t expected five people to come and, in effect, offer their lives to him—an instant windfall of 122 years. This would make treating Elder Chen’s illness much easier later on.

“Chu Feng, are you all right?” Old Wang ran over at that moment, pistol still in hand.

“I’m fine. That shot just now was you, wasn’t it? You nearly got me killed,” Chu Feng said, still a little shaken. He hadn’t expected Old Wang to fire from behind.

“I was trying to draw them away so you could get them from behind, but you’re something else—you took down three of them in a flash.” Though this wasn’t the first time Old Wang had seen Chu Feng in action, the way Chu Feng had single-handedly dispatched five armed men left him deeply impressed.

“No big deal, just business as usual,” Chu Feng replied, trying to downplay it, though the smile on his face betrayed his true feelings.

“Let’s go. We’d better head to Dragon Scale Headquarters right away.” Old Wang didn’t bother checking the bodies; he knew there was nothing valuable to be found on them.

“We must have been tailed coming out of the hospital. Otherwise, they couldn’t have tracked us so precisely,” Chu Feng mused, having suspected as much ever since they entered the woods.

“I’ll have my people look into it when I get back. If I find the mole, I’ll deal with him myself.” After so many attacks, Old Wang’s anger was barely contained.

When Chu Feng and Old Wang reached the edge of the woods, they saw their jeep still parked safely where they’d left it. The two climbed in and continued on to Dragon Scale Headquarters.

Dragon Scale was a special operations unit established by the highest authorities in Huaxia, tasked with preventing foreign spies from stealing intelligence and carrying out certain unsavory missions. Over the past two years, however, Dragon Scale had become a haven for the pampered sons of powerful families, while those truly capable had been squeezed out.

Every member of Dragon Scale carried a license to kill. If someone threatened national security, a Dragon Scale agent could execute them on the spot, without reporting up the chain. Even government officials in Huaxia shuddered at the mention of Dragon Scale, for it targeted not just foreign spies or operatives, but also corrupt officials and the most depraved elements of society.

Dragon Scale was a small organization—just over two hundred members, with more than thirty stationed at headquarters. The unit was led by Long Feihu, and only answered to the number one leader of the country; without this leader’s direct orders, no one could command Dragon Scale.

A little over ten minutes later, Old Wang and Chu Feng arrived at Dragon Scale Headquarters. After getting out of the car, Old Wang took Chu Feng straight to Long Feihu’s office. He’d already notified Long Feihu in advance; this meeting was to introduce Chu Feng and retrieve his credentials.

“Old Long, this is Chu Feng, the one I told you about. What do you think?” Old Wang spoke to Long Feihu with the ease of long acquaintance.

Contrary to his powerful name, Long Feihu wasn’t particularly burly—in fact, he was rather thin, though he stood well over 1.85 meters tall.

“Welcome to Dragon Scale. Here are your credentials. When there’s a mission for you, I’ll let you know.”