Chapter 678: Schemers
Ten days later.
Late at night.
Han Fei was on a night reconnaissance mission with You Lingyun and the others. They were floating above the sea a hundred kilometers from the coast.
Han Fei looked around and didn’t see anything special. “Let’s go and take another circle.”
Wu Xiaoxiao asked prudently, “Captain, are you leaving?”
Han Fei was in a daze, “Why do you ask?
Wu Xiaoxiao heaved a sigh. “You are a three-star refiner who can seal souls, and seven-star experts come to you all the time. Isn’t it a sign that you’re leaving?”
You Lingyun was as calm as before. “Scouting is not a lifelong job anyway. Everybody will leave sooner or later. It’s only natural that our captain is.”
Leng Hui added, “Although our captain hasn’t stayed for long, we’ve already made fast progress in training.”
Gu Daliang grinned and smiled. “That’s right. I’ve become an intermediate Hanging Fisher.”
Han Fei chuckled. “Are you reluctant to let me go? I’m still here! You need to train yourself harder. What if I got stranded here for a long time?”
Suddenly, Han Fei sensed something and said to them, “You Lingyun, you keep scouting with the team. I’ll get us some food from the sea.”
You Lingyun: “???”
Before they asked anything, Han Fei had jumped off from the boat and crashed into the sea from an altitude of hundreds of meters.
Cutting apart several Big Sword Water Fleas easily, Han Fei stomped and created a stealth array as well as a concealment array.
Then, Han Fei waved his fishing pole and cast out the hook.
A shadow hopped out of the mud in the sea and was about to flee, when Han Fei already slashed his knife out with its aura extending eight hundred meters far.
Han Fei sneered. “Who are you? You’ve been following me for more than one day, haven’t you?”
The shadow darted out two daggers that exploded abruptly. It then turned into a massive cloud of smoke and reemerged four thousand meters away.
“A woman? Flash Stones?”
Judging from the shadow’s shape, Han Fei could easily tell that she was a woman.
Han Fei quickly swam to where she reappeared and cast out his hook again, this time attaching a tremendous amount of spiritual energy to it.
BAM!
Four thousand meters away, the woman reacted fast enough by cutting off a piece of her flesh when the hook bit her. She then flashed away again.
This time, she used more than five Flash Stones in a row and moved out of Han Fei’s range of perception.
Han Fei frowned. “She’s a human being. She’s so agile and fast. Is she a hunter?”
Han Fei didn’t remember pissing off any hunters! Over these days, he had sensed that he was being followed more than once, but he mostly got rid of the stalkers with arrays.
He had thought that the woman was sent by the Scattered Stars Prison, but on second thought, she couldn’t have been found so easily if she were from the Scattered Stars Prison. Was she not from there?
This time, the woman had finally appeared in the sea.
Han Fei had intended to catch her alive, but she turned out to be quite swift.
Seeing that she had fled away, Han Fei stopped pursuing her. He had nothing to fear because whoever was behind her didn’t come in person.
When it was over, Han Fei set up an array and sat cross-legged, as it was time for a breakthrough.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t be enjoyable to be followed and watched every day.
Little did Han Fei know that thirty kilometers away from him, there was a horrified girl in black. “How was it possible? I was more than three thousand meters from him, and I was in stealth mode. How did he find me?”
The girl’s eyes were cold. She threw a random healing pill into her mouth and cursed, “Han Fei, you and Xia Xiaochan will be taken down by me sooner or later.”
Half an hour later…
Han Fei opened his eyes and slightly frowned. “Spiritual energy upper limit: 11,101 points. Huh. An increase of 1,100 points? But my body hardness…”
Han Fei warmed himself up and sensed himself in silence, only to frown harder. “My body hardness grew by a little bit when my spiritual energy upper limit increased, but it’s just natural growth… This improvement isn’t satisfactory. It seems that further breakthroughs will be a challenging task!”
Han Fei immediately swallowed several spiritual fruits. He then took out dozens of Soul Crystals and absorbed them.
A moment later, information popped up in Han Fei’s eyes:
Han Fei
44 (Intermediate Hanging Fisher)
146,655 (11,101)
1,782/1,799
17,999 Meters
Level-Five, High-Quality
Twin Yin-Yang Spirit Swallowing Fish (level-38)
Void Breaking Technique, Volume Four of Void Fishing (Demon-Level, Divine-Quality)
…
He remembered forty pieces of the God Scaring Painting and his spiritual power hit the bottle neck again. His perception range was expanded by 3,500 meters.
Han Fei couldn’t help but feel amazed, as the God Scaring Painting had a thousand pieces! His perception range was already wide enough even though he only remembered four percent of it. When he remembered all of it, wouldn’t his perception be able to reach a thousand kilometers away?
…
Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.
The Skeleton Shore seemed to have become safe, as nothing major had happened for three months.
Rumor had it that the sea demons had abandoned the Skeleton Shore.
Han Fei, as the commander of the Skeleton Shore, was having a hotpot on the lawn in the Scattered Stars First Unit with Tang Ge next to him.
They had been alone at first, until Ye Xiangxiang simply sat down, took down a pair of chopsticks, and enjoyed the food, completely ignoring Han Fei’s eyes.
Han Fei was lost for words. “Wait, are we really so close?”
Ye Xiangxiang giggled. “Comrades should help one another. Right, your role will be a spirit gatherer in the mission. Do not reveal that you are a soul warrior unless there’s a critical moment.”
Han Fei was confused. “Why not?”
Tang Ge replied, “It’s meant to hide our true strength from the enemy. It’s not just you. Another person has been invited to the operation too. You know her.”
Han Fei was puzzled again. “I do?”
As they talked, Han Fei saw a group of people including a familiar person in the woods. He asked in surprise, “Gong Yuehan?”
Liang Tian said, “Stop eating and introduce yourselves to each other. All seven of you will be on the same team during the mission. Han Fei, I know you are a great disguiser. You’ll disguise yourself during the operation.”
Han Fei winked. “Do I need to disguise myself when we’re fighting sea demons?”
Liang Tian nodded. “Your performance in the Heavenly Talent battle was too astonishing. They won’t let you in if you don’t disguise yourself. Even if they do, they’ll send more people after you. So, you’ll dress up as a regular spirit gatherer on a regular team, and Gong Yuehan will protect you, while actually, both of you are our trump cards. Don’t expose your strength until the last moment. You must keep pretending even if Gong Yuehan gets exposed.”
As he talked, Liang Tian gave Han Fei a fish skin on which there was a portrait of a stranger.
Han Fei asked, “Who’s he?”
“A spirit gatherer from the Guild of Fishers named Duan Jiang. He was reasonably famous and strong, and quite talented in the Spirit Concentration Art. He died two days ago, but nobody knew that yet…”
“Wait a minute…”
Han Fei suddenly said, “Senior, why do I feel that the safety measure is meant to defend against internal traitors instead of external enemies? Do the sea demons have access to the personal information of the people on the Scattered Stars Island?”
Without giving a reply, Liang Tian simply narrowed his eyes and said, “Anything is possible. You can never be too prepared.”
Han Fei pointed at Gong Yuehan and said, “What about her? Isn’t she a proud girl from the Jade Fairy Palace? Do they not know her?”
“Should anything happen, Gong Yuehan will be your cover. The enemy will think that she’s the hidden expert on our side. Also, Gong Yuehan didn’t have any remarkable performances in the past half year… If the enemy notices her, they’ll only attack her, and if they don’t, both of you will be our last resort.”
Han Fei slightly gasped, as the mission didn’t sound very simple.
Gong Yuehan looked at Han Fei with curiosity and regret, but she seemed quite calm and didn’t complain.
Liang Tian said, “Meng Guiyi will be your captain. You will all listen to his command after entering the treasure trove. If necessary, anyone except the seven of you can be sacrificed.”
Han Fei’s pupils constricted when he heard that. The first thing that came to his mind was not that it was inappropriate to sacrifice other people, but that Liang Tian might have said similar things to Meng Guiyi, like he could sacrifice anyone except himself.
For a moment, Han Fei felt chilled. This wasn’t the exploration of a treasure trove at all, but more like a drama of betrayal.
Meng Guiyi continued, “We’ll summon people from thirteen organizations, including the Dark Hunter Legion, the Pioneers, the Law Enforcement, etc, for the exploration. None of them will be weak, but they won’t be too extraordinary either. We’ll have only two spirit gatherers. So, Han Fei, you and the other spirit gatherer will be protected by all of us. Do not take any action until I tell you to.”
Han Fei asked in confusion, “But none of us are manipulators…”
Meng Guiyi shrugged. “That can’t be helped. The excellent manipulators have been summoned to another special treasure trove that’s even more important than ours. If the best manipulators aren’t available, we might as well not take any with us.”
Han Fei was about to speak, when Meng Guiyi said, “Luo Xiaobai is also there, or I would’ve called her.”
Han Fei was stunned. “Xiaobai has joined the Scattered Stars First Unit too?”
Liang Tian said unhurriedly, “Earlier than you did.”
Han Fei: “…”
Han Fei was lost for words. “What about Xia Xiaochan, Zhang Xuanyu and Le Renkuang?”
“They were all candidates. But Zhang Xuanyu was relatively weak; Le Renkuang was strong enough, but it remained to be seen if he was capable of fighting… As for Xia Xiaochan, she’s too short-tempered and may cause trouble.”
Han Fei thought for a moment and realized that Xia Xiaochan was indeed not suitable for such a team of schemers. Nobody would be able to control her if she burst into a rage.
Meng Guiyi glanced at everybody and said, “Okay, it’s time to go…”