Nine-layer armor-breaking

Chapter 318 Hidden dangers
He was now very clear about the current situation. For the leader, the person in charge was someone who needed to be dealt with more cautiously than Jiang Xian and his group.

The reason he didn't touch Jiang Xian and Li Huwei was definitely not because he really thought Jiang Xian and Li Huwei could give him a good future or let him go.

He had never thought about these things, nor was he a gambler. He had only considered one point: if Jiang Xian and Li Huwei were both killed by the manager inside, he would be forced to go to his boss and the other teammates. Even if he refused, the other teammates would probably find their way to him.

If such a situation were to occur, he would truly be neither alive nor dead.

Therefore, even though this offer of aid is right in front of him, he absolutely cannot make a move.

In the current situation, although the leader is not clear about the future and is not optimistic about what is about to happen, he has a real opportunity to escape from the den of dragons and tigers and eliminate his biggest threat because of Jiang Xian and his two companions.

He didn't want to turn around and step into another abyss after finally escaping from the dragon's den.

Therefore, he naturally had to keep his eyes open and act carefully, trying his best to make every step he took solid and steady, leaving no chance for anyone to retaliate.

He understood that some things could be put on hold for the time being, but if he decided to do them, he had to be decisive and hit the mark.

Li, the bodyguard, is currently keeping a close eye on Jiang Xian and his surroundings, afraid of missing any potential danger lurking around Jiang Xian.

He dared not be careless at all; protecting Jiang Xian was now his top priority.

Therefore, each of the three people was focused on their own goal.

Especially Li Huwei and the backbone. Li Huwei focused all his attention on Jiang Xian, while the backbone kept his eyes fixed on Jiang Xian and Li Huwei, his gaze constantly shifting between the two, trying to find a lifeline between them.

The two men were each focused on their own targets. Li, the guard, was not stupid; he could naturally sense that someone was looking at him, and he naturally followed that intense gaze closely, seizing the gaze of its owner.

Finally, just when Li felt the time was right, he turned his head sharply and met the eyes of his leader.

The two looked at each other as if in tacit agreement, neither wanting the other to see their thoughts, and tried their best to suppress their gazes.

Li, the bodyguard, didn't care much about the leader. He didn't think the leader was a big threat. He just felt that the leader was indeed a cunning and calculating person.

Li, the bodyguard, knew that with Jiang Xian by his side, he naturally didn't need to worry about so much.

The atmosphere among the three was unusually quiet, but not awkward.

Jiang Xian was also observing the courtyard in front of her, but he did not give any orders, tell the two what to do, or give any instructions to Guard Li.

Li, the bodyguard, wouldn't care what Jiang Xian wanted to do. He had already decided that he would only care about Jiang Xian, and that everyone else should take a backseat or even be ignored.

Having thought all this through, Guard Li knew that he should simply wait here and there, without needing to ask any more questions.

But the core of the group is different. Jiang Xian remained silent for a long time, and he was actually a little flustered.

He didn't know what Jiang Xian was thinking at this moment. Even though he was familiar with this place, he still thought that this mysterious young master, who had not yet revealed his true face, was no ordinary person. Therefore, he naturally dared not underestimate Jiang Xian's power.

So the three of them stayed quietly in one place, each with their own thoughts.

After a long while, Jiang Xian seemed to have made a decision. Without turning her head, she grabbed the reins of Guard Li with one hand and pulled the horse closer to her.

……

"Yes," Guard Li replied softly.

The actions between the two were naturally not missed by the key figure who was watching Jiang Xian and Li Huwei.

He saw everything Jiang Xian and Guard Li were doing. He knew Jiang Xian was telling Guard Li something, but no matter how hard he strained his neck to listen, he couldn't hear anything related to Jiang Xian.

He didn't hear anything about Jiang Xian, and he couldn't get close to the two of them to eavesdrop openly. Since he couldn't hear the conversation, he naturally gave up and stopped trying to find out, pulling his neck back.

After a while, he heard Guard Li reply to Jiang Xian in a low voice, but he only uttered one word.

Therefore, their actions this time did not allow the leader to see anything effective that he could use, and naturally, he could not hide his disappointment.

Li, the bodyguard, spurred his horse, slightly adjusted its direction, and asked the leader, "What's the situation inside?"

The core of the group was pondering what Jiang Xian might have said to Guard Li when he was interrupted by Guard Li's sudden question. He was momentarily stunned, but quickly regained his composure.

The leader, with a somewhat "uncomfortable and difficult" expression, "tried" to calm himself down and spoke to Guard Li.

"There's a steward who's nearly fifty years old inside, and maybe a few others," the leader replied to Guard Li, looking quite weak.

Seeing the expression on his leader's face, Guard Li didn't think much of it.

Of the three, Jiang Xian knew exactly what the core leader was, and the core leader himself knew his own situation even better than the others. In the end, the core leader only managed to deceive one person: Guard Li.

Only Li, the bodyguard, felt that the leader was still in a very bad state.

That makes sense. The main character has endured a long and arduous journey, suffering unbearable pain and vomiting multiple times. The state he is in now is not something that can be recovered from in a short time.

However, even though Guard Li knew that the leader was in a bad state, and although he genuinely believed that the leader was not doing well, he did not feel any sympathy for him whatsoever.

He felt that the pain and suffering that the leader was experiencing at this moment was something the leader himself deserved.

The core leader has committed so many evil deeds, so this little bit of suffering is nothing to him.

If it were an ordinary person or a stranger, Li Huwei would probably feel more sympathy for them.

"The others?" Guard Li frowned slightly, asking the leader with an unfriendly tone. The leader understood Guard Li's meaning and, seeing the frown on his face, naturally dared not hide anything from him.

He never intended to frame Li Huwei and Jiang Xian here, so naturally he wouldn't try to trick them into falling into his trap.

So he told Guard Li the truth: "Oh, generally speaking, the manager is always there inside, and there are usually a few other people besides the manager."

"But you need not worry. With me accompanying you both, I believe the manager inside will not make things difficult for you. As for the others, they are even less of a threat."

After saying that, he carefully observed Li Huwei's expression, trying to figure out what Li Huwei was thinking.

He was slightly relieved when he saw that the expression on Guard Li's face had relaxed a bit.

The leader naturally has his own plans.

He would rather Jiang Xian and Li Huwei help him get rid of all the people inside.

For the leader, it would be a very good thing if the people inside could be dealt with cleanly.

Now, he had personally killed his boss, but two of his boss's closest confidants, whom he knew, had not yet been eliminated. One was Zhu Zi, who had been pinned to the ground with a dagger by Li Huwei.

The other was the steward, who was nearly fifty years old, in the courtyard in front of him.

Therefore, for the core leader, the pillar is not a threat in his current state. In fact, if his life can be saved and he is used properly, the pillar may even be of use to him.

However, the people inside were different. He felt that the steward inside might be more important to his boss than the pillar.

Therefore, compared to the pillar, the people inside are a greater hidden danger to the core leadership.

Despite having seen the manager inside so many times, the core leader still found it difficult to guess the manager's strength and martial arts level.

He was unlike the other Earth-rank martial artists he knew in the team, and he didn't seem to have the strength of a Heaven-rank martial artist. Yet, day after day, he guarded this courtyard for his boss and lived there.

One important reason he was unsure of the manager's strength was that he had never seen the man actually fight anyone. Therefore, he had no idea of ​​the manager's specific abilities, given that the man was nearly fifty years old.

But based on his repeated observations and speculations, the steward was definitely not an ordinary person; he was likely a hidden master.

The manager rarely took action against others. Not to mention the other members of the team, even he himself had only heard a few words about it from his boss, and had never seen it with his own eyes.

However, based on the main character's guess, in such a place, although there are not many people coming and going, there are definitely some, and it is impossible that no one noticed the courtyard he was looking at.

Since someone might discover the existence of this courtyard, yet for many years no one has been able to destroy it, and there has not even been any news of anyone approaching it.

When other teammates come with him, some of them will speak rudely to him; others will look down on him.

Even though those people went too far, they never attracted the attention of the person in charge.

Until today, the leader had never seen the steward displeased by this matter, and the steward had never actually lost his temper because of those people, nor had he shown any dissatisfaction.

The key figure couldn't tell if he genuinely didn't care or was simply too lazy to listen or care.

Of course, the core leader was still unwilling to communicate much with the person in charge. The core leader was also well aware that some of his teammates were still too bold.

Although the core member gradually rose in status within the team and was no longer as afraid of the manager as before, he was still wary of him and remained cautious.

The leader couldn't win over the steward, and the steward ignored the leader's attempts to curry favor, seemingly forgetting what had happened before the leader bumped into him.

Seeing that the steward didn't bring it up again, the leader stopped thinking about it. Naturally, since he couldn't win him over, he wouldn't waste any more effort on the steward.

They didn't spend much time together, and their residences weren't even next to each other, so naturally they rarely communicated.

Since neither of them mentioned it, the matter was quickly forgotten.

He never thought that the manager was anyone ordinary, and he was definitely not as ordinary as he appeared. He was likely one of his boss's trump cards.

The manager's expression was always the same whenever the core leader saw him—a look of utter indifference towards anyone or anything.

The steward never got close to anyone except his boss, nor did he get angry easily.

But what made the leader begin to have some suspicions about him was the scene that the leader saw when his boss asked him to look for him in this courtyard.

At that moment, he discovered that the steward, covered in blood, was in the courtyard in front of him, wiping himself with a rough-looking rag.

When the leader saw the steward, the steward's face was still covered in blood, which really startled the leader, who was not very familiar with the steward at the time.

He even felt that he might be in danger at any moment, and that he might even fall into the hands of the manager because he had stumbled upon the manager's affairs and seen what the manager shouldn't have seen.

But the reality was completely different from what he had imagined.

The steward was neither injured nor did he attempt to harm the leader, nor did he even threaten the leader to keep his secret.

When the leader saw the bloodied man in front of him, he never imagined that the blood on the manager was all from someone else, and that he himself didn't have a single wound.

According to the leader's guess, the manager must have been seriously injured or had multiple wounds.

However, reality was quite different from what the core of his mind had imagined.

(End of this chapter)