Chapter 3229 — The Ancient Black Horse Society

Even if Wei Zhao attended the old director's funeral, he could not possibly keep watch over Feng Tianqi and Feng Shihua at every moment. When the time came, all they had to do was find an opportunity to cut Feng Tianqi and Feng Shihua down! But whoever did the killing could not be a member of the Feng family—and certainly not one of Feng Tianhu's own men. He would have to find someone else to do it.

Apart from the Blood-Robed Yellow Springs Sect, that ancient-tier assassination organization, Feng Tianhu did in fact have another candidate in mind.

True, this time the target was not Wei Zhao but the old director, Feng Tianqi, and Feng Shihua—yet he had already offended the Blood-Robed Yellow Springs Sect, and he did not believe they would still do business with him. If they turned around and leaked word of it, he would be in a fine mess.

So this time Feng Tianhu steeled himself and contacted the most rotten organization among the ancient sects—the Black Horse Society! The Black Horse Society had begun life as a criminal gang; only, over the years, it had grown until it operated entirely from behind the scenes.

Naturally, in the mundane world this sect also carried out its share of murder and robbery, only more discreetly—mostly hiring itself out as guards for wealthy households. Yan Bo of Zou Ruoming's family, for instance, had been a member dispatched by the Black Horse Society!

Because the people the Black Horse Society sent out were all of low rank, generally Yellow-tier and Mystic-tier, they had not stirred up resentment among the other ancient sects. Of course, they occasionally took on revenge work as well—lending a hand to some ancient sect in a feud, helping teach someone a lesson, and the like.

All in all, this gray-market sect had managed not to incur anyone's hatred. It was, after all, an organization of the gangland type, much like the Blood-Robed Yellow Springs Sect: when there was a matter people could not handle openly, they could go to them; but in ordinary times, no one wanted to be associated with them.

The Black Horse Society was naturally the first thing Feng Tianhu thought of! The price was steep, though: if the Black Horse Society took the field, one not only had to pay a hefty fee but also agree to one condition—should the Black Horse Society ever call in the favor, the client had to consent!

Of course, that condition would not be anything especially unreasonable—only something within the client's power, yet perhaps rather awkward to do. It might be done or not done; but once the Black Horse Society asked, it had to be done.

Such a debt of favor was, in truth, the hardest of all to repay. So if a matter could be settled on one's own, one settled it on one's own; if not, one went to the Blood-Robed Yellow Springs Sect; and only when the Blood-Robed Yellow Springs Sect could not handle it did one call in the Black Horse Society!

By such relationships the Black Horse Society got along rather well at the ancient tier. Many owed it favors, and so no one publicly voiced displeasure with it. Thus, when the Black Horse Society sent its experts into the mundane world to serve as guards and rake in money, everyone turned a blind eye.

This time Feng Tianhu truly had no one else to turn to, so he could only go to the Black Horse Society! There was another advantage: the Black Horse Society would never betray a client, not even under torture, so Feng Tianhu need not worry about being sold out!

Of course, unless he failed to pay the fee or one day refused a request from the Black Horse Society, the affair would never be exposed by them! And since there were precedents, Feng Tianhu hesitated again and again before finally making up his mind!

"Hello, is this Brother Dian, Third Brother of the Black Horse Society?" Feng Tianhu had found a Black Horse Society business card—one he had received at the summit of the ancient sects and families.

"This is he. You must be Feng Tianhu of the ancient Feng family?" Brother Dian was the third-ranking elder of the Black Horse Society and the one in charge of external liaison. Every time he exchanged contact details with someone, he saved theirs carefully, so the moment Feng Tianhu's call came through, Brother Dian knew who he was.

"Yes, yes, it's me—Brother Dian still remembers me!" Feng Tianhu was surprised and delighted. He naturally knew nothing of Brother Dian's habits and assumed he must be quite a somebody: "Brother Dian, this time I have a matter on which I'd like the Black Horse Society's help!"

"You know the terms, I take it? Besides the fee, whether the job succeeds or fails, you must agree to one condition of ours!" Brother Dian said. "Of course, we'll assess the manpower we send and the fee according to the difficulty of the task you describe. We don't want the job to fail either—failure hurts our reputation too!"

"Good that you understand." Brother Dian went on: "Go on, then. What is it?"

"Help me kill some people—three in all," Feng Tianhu said.

"Who?" Brother Dian showed not the least surprise; after all, murder and robbery were his trade.

"One is the old director of the Songshan Orphanage. The other two are my second brother, Feng Tianqi, and my nephew, Feng Shihua," Feng Tianhu said.

"The old director of the orphanage? We don't move against ordinary people. The other two are fine!" Brother Dian said at once. "Striking at ordinary people brings too much trouble. It's not that we shrink from it, but Songshan City is a trouble-prone place, and it's very close to Donghai City. You should know about Wei Zhao—that's a man we don't want to provoke!"

The Black Horse Society had sharp ears as well. Donghai City and Songshan City were both Wei Zhao's home turf; to go running over there and strike at an ordinary man would be asking for trouble. So they did their best to stay out of such affairs.

"That old director of the orphanage is my second brother Feng Tianqi's lover, and a top-tier expert at the peak of the late Earth rank—not an ordinary person!" Feng Tianhu said. "That's exactly what I want to warn you about: avoid any clash with Wei Zhao if you can. After you kill the old director, hide yourselves and wait for my second brother and nephew to come deal with the aftermath—then strike at them! I'll be frank with you: if you insist on crossing Wei Zhao, don't blame it on me!"

"This job of yours carries too much risk!" Brother Dian did not know that the old director was Xu Shilan's mother, nor had he connected Xu Shilan with the old director. But Donghai City and Songshan City alone were enough to make him unwilling to take the job.

"This is a chain of tasks. If the old director doesn't die, Feng Tianqi and Feng Shihua will never leave our ancient Feng family, and you'll never be able to kill them!" Feng Tianhu said. "And once they're dead, I will be the heir to the headship of the ancient Feng family. Wouldn't a promise from me then carry far more weight? The promise of the head of an ancient family and the promise of an ordinary member are naturally not the same thing—nor can they accomplish the same things."

"There's sense in what you say." Brother Dian hesitated a moment, then nodded...