Chapter 1351: Chapter 1351: Clash of the Real and Fake Peng Birds
"We’ve been exposed?" Ye Fan raised an eyebrow, then relaxed again, saying with mild surprise, "Looks like we still underestimated the enemy’s intel network. They found our hideout this fast—gotta admit they’ve got some skills."
Even with their hideout exposed, Ye Fan, Zhang Lu and the others weren’t worried at all.
That’s what happens when your skills are sharp and your guts are big: even if the enemy launches an attack, they can carve a bloody path and fight their way out.
Yang Shu explained, "At first I was a bit suspicious, didn’t dare believe my own judgment. Us getting exposed this fast was pretty damn bizarre. But then, as more and more people quietly slipped into positions all around us, gradually forming a ring of encirclement, I finally confirmed it—we really are exposed, and we’ve already been surrounded by the enemy."
"The way things are developing is beyond what we expected, something feels off." Zhang Lu frowned. "Our hideout is this remote, and we layered on so many covers to prevent exposure. There’s no way the enemy should’ve found us this fast."
"There is something fishy." Ye Fan said flatly, "The Poison Dragon Mercenary Corps’ intel system here is very limited. Tracking us down should’ve been a real hassle and time-consuming. For them to locate us this fast, it can only be General Hawan. Looks like General Hawan still hasn’t given up and wants to fight us to the bitter end. He’s really asking for death, daring to ignore our killing power."
"Isn’t this exactly what you wanted to see?" Shen Tingting said with a smile. "Instructor, weren’t you hoping General Hawan would keep treating us as enemies, so we could maneuver between several factions, borrow their strength, pit them against each other? If we use it right, we can get General Hawan and the Poison Dragon Mercenary Corps to tear each other apart."
"That really is the outcome we’d like to see." Zhang Lu also laughed. "Since General Hawan is so blind to the situation and still wants to compete with us, then we can make good use of him. With his personality, he’ll definitely hide himself away, make sure his own safety is guaranteed first, then, once he has our location, he’ll use the heavy weapons in his hands to attack us. That’s the iron rule. Sending his troops in person isn’t realistic or even possible—Hawan won’t waste effort on a pointless assault."
"Would General Hawan really take the risk and attack us at a time like this?" Shen Tingting said anxiously, "If his artillery locks onto us, we’re in serious trouble. Once a barrage blankets this place, we won’t even have a place to be buried."
"Should we pull out now?" Yang Shu said. "If General Hawan goes completely insane and really blankets us with artillery fire, we’re dead for sure."
Zhang Lu said rapidly, "We’re in a hotel right now. If General Hawan makes a move, he’ll definitely hurt innocents. With how cold-blooded he is, he won’t care about other people’s lives. To wipe us out, he’ll show no mercy."
"That’s exactly what I find strange." Ye Fan said calmly, "If it really were Hawan’s men who found us, then we’d actually be in danger. Faced with the killing power of artillery, our lives and deaths wouldn’t be up to us. But the current situation is a bit unusual. It’s clearly not Hawan’s men surrounding us—there’s likely someone else involved."
"You make some sense. What else are you thinking? Spit it all out." Zhang Lu urged.
"We know that after General Hawan entered the camp, a fully armed artillery unit was already primed for an attack. If he knew our hideout, what would be waiting for us would be an artillery barrage, not manpower encircling us." Ye Fan began to analyze. "So I’m boldly guessing that the people outside aren’t Hawan’s men."
"I agree with you." Zhang Lu looked at Ye Fan and said firmly, "Hawan knows how strong we are. He wouldn’t do something as stupid as sending people to surround us. His biggest reliance is the heavy weapons in his hands."
"So if they’re not Hawan’s men, then who are the people outside?" Yang Shu asked, puzzled. "I don’t buy that the Poison Dragon Mercenary Corps is that capable, locking onto us this fast."
She went on, "Those people outside don’t have that vicious aura the Poison Dragon Mercenary Corps carries. They’re more like a rabble."
Through her observations, Yang Shu naturally picked up on those subtleties and simply didn’t believe the people outside were from the Poison Dragon Mercenary Corps.
"In D Country, the man who controls the largest forces across all walks of life is Boss Zuo. Boss Zuo and General Hawan—one’s a thief, one’s an official—they already had bad blood from way back. They shouldn’t be colluding. If Hawan wants to dig up our whereabouts, he has other channels, but it wouldn’t be this fast." Ye Fan said, still puzzled, "Boss Zuo and the Poison Dragon Mercenary Corps also have grudges between them. The odds of them joining hands are slim too."
All this intel was common knowledge when they took on this mission.
Ye Fan was puzzled as well. Since Boss Zuo had grudges with both the Poison Dragon Mercenary Corps and General Hawan, then the only one with the reach to locate their hideout this fast, apart from Boss Zuo’s vast network, was pretty much no one.
If that intel was accurate, there was no need to doubt it. They could only think through what came next based on what they already knew.
"The intel we’ve engraved in our minds is trustworthy and beyond doubt." Zhang Lu said decisively. "So, looking at it this way, the ones who found us aren’t the Poison Dragon Mercenary Corps and not General Hawan either, but that Boss Zuo who commands the entire underground of D Country. Only he could pull this off."
"But we’ve got no grudges with this Boss Zuo. He definitely wouldn’t become our enemy for the sake of the Poison Dragon Mercenary Corps or General Hawan. He’d be thrilled just watching them suffer, let alone anything else. Why would he be eyeing us like prey?" Yang Shu’s confusion was exactly what the others couldn’t figure out either.
All seven of them had questions they couldn’t untangle. They had no feud with Boss Zuo, so his targeting them was something that had to be examined. As for the real reason, they couldn’t figure out the key for the moment.
What Ye Fan didn’t know was that of the people surrounding them outside, only part of them belonged to Boss Zuo, while the rest were men of the real Peng Bird.
There was no way they could’ve imagined that the owner of the identity they’d been impersonating had come knocking on their door.
Peng Bird operated in a highly secretive manner; as an assassin, the more mysterious, the better.
So Ye Fan and the others knew very little about Peng Bird’s true identity, and the other forces didn’t know much either. It was precisely because of this that the impersonation had been so effective.
