Martial Dao: Peace by Force

Chapter 161: Chapter 127: Exorcism! Coordinating from Within and Without

The convoy drove for an hour before making a temporary stop at a bend in a mountain hollow.

Under the night sky, the moonlight was a ghastly white, and the withered grass by the roadside drooped its head.

People began to get out of the first few vehicles, scattering in twos and threes along the roadside to relieve themselves and smoke. The faint smell of tobacco drifted through the air.

A guard leaned in the shadows of a truck, yawning.

Wan Ze and Zhai Jia intentionally lagged behind. While pretending to relieve themselves, they scanned the surrounding terrain out of the corners of their eyes. To their left was a grove of short trees, with a thick layer of dead leaves piled on the ground.

To their right was a dry riverbed, its bottom covered in jagged, jumbled rocks.

’If something happens, we can use both of these spots.’

Zhai Jia had just lit a cigarette when he caught sight of the van’s door being pushed open.

It was the administrator called Black Panther. He got out, his face cold.

He was holding a sheet of A4 paper. He walked straight to the truck, raised his hand, and knocked heavily twice on its metal siding. "Everyone, get out and assemble," he said coldly.

The guards glanced at one another, quickly stubbed out their cigarettes, and gathered in front of the truck, forming two lines.

Wan Ze and Zhai Jia stood in the back row, calmly pulling the brims of their caps lower.

Black Panther held up the paper. On it were two portraits sketched with charcoal.

They were profile sketches of Wan Ze and Zhai Jia from behind, wearing the work uniforms numbered 0741 and 0742.

The lines were simple, but the outlines of their figures were captured quite accurately.

"Has anyone seen these two?"

Silence fell over the group.

Zhai Jia’s hand discreetly moved toward the dagger at his waist.

The blade was custom-made, its edge tempered in black oil, so it didn’t reflect any light while sheathed.

Just then, a young guard in the front row suddenly raised his hand, his voice eager to claim credit. "Reporting! On the truck just now, the guy sitting next to me... I think it’s him!"

He was pointing right at Wan Ze.

WHOOSH!

All eyes instantly snapped toward him.

Zhai Jia’s breath caught, his knuckles pressing against the hilt of his dagger.

Wan Ze, however, slowly raised his head, revealing half of his face.

His cap was pulled down low, and the light happened to shine down from an angle above. His features looked completely different from the tense profile in the sketch.

The young guard stared for a few seconds, his certainty turning to doubt, then to sheepishness. "Uh... maybe not. Reporting, it was too dark on the truck, I couldn’t see clearly..."

A few quiet snickers rippled through the crowd.

Black Panther ignored the stir, his gaze fixed on Wan Ze’s face as he walked over, one step at a time.

Three meters.

Two meters.

One meter.

He stopped, his eyes scanning back and forth across Wan Ze’s face before comparing it to the portrait again. He shot a vicious glare at the young agent. ’Fucking blind, are you?!’

Zhai Jia’s breathing slowed by half a beat.

"Black Panther!"

A shout suddenly came from a distance.

The man with glasses leaned out from the van and waved at him. "Old Ke wants you back. They found them."

Black Panther froze, a look of surprise on his face. He then turned and stalked back, cursing under his breath. "Where are they? Fucking finally caught them!"

After a few steps, he seemed to remember something, turned his head, and waved at the guards. "Get back on the trucks. We’re moving out."

A collective sigh of relief went through the crowd as they dispersed with a rustle of footsteps.

Zhai Jia slowly released the hilt of his dagger and turned to look at Wan Ze.

But Wan Ze didn’t look at him. Instead, he turned around right in front of the others who hadn’t fully dispersed and punched the young guard who had just reported him in the face.

"What the fuck is your problem with me?"

The man staggered back against the truck’s side panel, clutching his face in a daze.

A few seconds later, realizing he had picked a fight with the wrong person, his voice softened.

"Bro, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry... I really made a mistake... I’ve got a big mouth, I was blind, I apologize!"

"Hmph."

Wan Ze pulled back his hand, his face showing the perfect amount of annoyance.

This reaction was actually the most normal. No one in the group would want to be falsely accused, and everyone had a temper.

A few of the surrounding Secret Palace agents exchanged glances. Some even cast looks of contempt at the young man who had been hit.

In a place like this, backstabbing was all too common.

If you want to step on others to climb the ladder, you’d better be prepared to take a beating.

Wan Ze said no more. He turned, walked to the back of the truck bed, and sat down in the shadows. He pulled his cap’s brim down, hiding most of his face in darkness.

Zhai Jia followed and sat down next to him. Seeing that no one was paying them any mind, he discreetly gave a thumbs-up.

They had switched their work uniform numbers beforehand. It had been the right move.

More importantly, after practicing the Dragon Eagle Secret Martial Arts, their muscle control was far beyond that of ordinary people. By slightly adjusting the tension in his jaw, he could significantly alter the lines of his face.

Unless someone who knew them well stared closely, it was impossible to recognize them.

As for Black Panther?

No matter how shrewd he was, he was just a manager with a hundred or so people under him. There was no way he could know the face of every single nobody.

...

「That night.」

The Secret Palace’s special stronghold was hidden deep in the mountains, inside an abandoned mine pit.

From the outside, all that was visible was a rusted derrick, surrounded by overgrown weeds. It looked no different from the surrounding barren mountains.

But when the evening headlights swept across it, a brand-new concrete ramp was revealed at the edge of the pit, leading straight underground.

The convoy came to a steady halt at the mouth of the pit.

An elevator slowly ascended, its iron gate opening to reveal a bottomless vertical shaft.

The guards pushed the cargo onto the platform. People and goods were loaded together, descending into the earth amidst the screeching of steel cables.

A hundred meters down.

The moment the elevator doors opened, Wan Ze was secretly astonished.

This was nothing like the mine tunnel he had imagined.

The interior space opened up dramatically. It was brightly lit, with an area comparable to two soccer fields. The arched ceiling was supported and painted with a white, moisture-proof coating.

The floor was self-leveling epoxy, with green lines clearly marking different zones and pathways. The air lacked the expected musty smell; instead, there was a faint scent of disinfectant.

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