A phantom-like figure suddenly appeared in the air next to Joyous Palace Saintess. A pair of hands in black gloves grabbed the Saintess’ shoulders and they both instantly vanished in a flash under their watchful eyes.

“Do not struggle if you don’t wanna die!” Tang An’s voice was passed into the Saintess’ ears once more.

The sudden change made the Saintess want to resist out of instinct. But a figure clad in a black robe appeared in her mind when the voice passed into her hears. It made her slightly change the trajectory of her palm when it was about to hit the person’s body and slightly changed the trajectory of the sudden blow.

“Aren’t you Tang Xiu’s subordinate?” blurted Joyous Palace Saintess, pressing her voice into a whisper.

Tang An moved extremely fast as she quickly withdrew from the scene. After explicitly replying to the Saintess, a few breaths were spent as they appeared a few kilometers away.

At a certain place in the distance, an angry look filled Tang Xiu’s eyes. Tang An unexpectedly didn’t withdraw when she should and instead, braved a great risk to rescue that Joyous Palace Saintess. Without any shred of hesitation, he quickly bolted in her direction as he heard the Joyous Palace’s Yin Buddha furiously roar and Ki Kitagawa madly hurl out curses.

However, he directly ignored them. He could clearly sense the powerful aura of many formidable experts rushing over to the scene extremely fast, some of which he felt wary of.

Tang An fled and bolted away extremely fast. A complicated feeling rose inside her when she found that Tang Xiu was pursuing her. It was her first time disobeying his command, but she firmly believed what she did was right. She didn’t mind accepting severe punishment from Tang Xiu after this incident.

She even had a feeling that her Master, Gu Yan’er, would also approve of her choice. Being deeply in love with Tang Xiu, her Master had been hoping that he could break through to the higher realm and become a much stronger person as he had been.

Toshima ward.

In the midst of a cluster of buildings occupied by hundreds of thousands of ordinary people, a low rise flat in the darker side of the high-rise building was a low-rise flat with a dilapidated courtyard. It was the base camp of tens of experts trained by Kuwako.

“Who are you?!”

The sharp voice came from a young man holding a katana, causing tens of experts, some of whom were at least at the late-stage of Foundation Establishment, to jump over from everywhere instantly. Each one of them drew their respective weapons at the same time.

“Draw back!”

Kuwako took off her black mask and shouted after restoring her original appearance.

The appearing experts immediately withdrew, leaving only the lean young man with a bleached red-hair who quickly came to Kuwako’s front. He glanced at Mo Awu and the rest behind her and then cupped his fists to greet her. “Pays respect to the Master!”

“Ryu Jin, activate the Tortoise Shell Net and monitor everything in a radius of 10 kilometers. Don’t alert any suspicious people who breach the net but report to me at once. Also, prepare some drinks and meals. We’re going to stay here for some time.” Kuwako ordered in a deep voice.

“Understood.”

Ryu Jin complied and brought the only female in this place. They then quickly left the courtyard after he spoke to her.

“Tortoise Shell Net? What’s that?” asked Mo Awu curiously.

“I have been reading lots of official and unofficial history records about the long history of China. I drew the essence from the readings and applied them when doing things. Some words I clearly remember said that a smart hare must have three burrows, be it for a getaway route or a safe house. This place is a secret safe house I built and I got 9 of them all over the capital and 20 of them in the whole of Japan. The Tortoise Shell Net is the name given to the intelligence system and once activated, it’s equal to mobilizing a large number of intel operatives to monitor the 10km radius with the safe house in the center. We can spot anyone suspicious in advance this way.”

Mo Awu gave a thumbs up in response and said with amazement, “You are more and more like Sect Master, Kuwako. But I’m very curious since you rarely spent time with him, though.”

“I may not follow him for a long time, but I learned toms of useful things from Sect Master, mind you,” Kuwako said with a faint smile.

Xue Sha raised his hand to interrupt their exchange and snorted. “Cut the chat and let’s get changed. Let’s eat and drink, shall we? The previous engagement kind of tired me.”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

A few figures suddenly appeared out of the blue and shortly after, Kuwako’s cell phone rang. After seeing that the person was Tang Xiu, she picked up the call, chatted for a short while, and then hung up.

“Sect Master, how come she…”

Kuwako and the rest looked confused and wondered after seeing Joyous Palace Saintess.

Looking gloomy and sullen, Tang Xiu coldly snorted. “Come and kneel here!”

Tang An seemed to have already known that Tang Xiu would give such an order. She knelt, but stubbornness could be seen clearly on her face.

Tang Xiu paid her no more attention and coldly observed the Saintess as he walked into the interior, heading to the staircase to the second floor. As he came by the window, he folded his arms while looking at the distance to the direction where they had just come. He couldn’t see what was happening there, but he could tell scenes of killing in the intense and bloody battle.

Meanwhile, he sensed the Joyous Palace Saintess following him to the second floor. She stood four-plus meters away from him.

A long while passed by and finally, Tang Xiu slowly said, “You should be dead now, logically speaking.”

The Saintess herself never spoke after coming over. She just used her clear, rippling eyes to watch Tang Xiu’s back. At this time, she slowly said, “I could have been able to escape even without the meddling of your subordinate. Don’t look down on the escaping technique of the Joyous Palace.”

Tang Xiu turned around and looked at her beautiful face through the veil. He sneered. “Heh, sure, sure. But if my guess is correct, the battle over there is not over yet. Those tens of experts that arrived later are not from the Joyous Palace.”

“Arrived later?” Joyous Palace Saintess furrowed her brows and asked, “What do you mean?”

“An took you away from the battlefield, so you can’t sense the aura of the new players. Do you really think Kitagawa is the top leader of Japan?”

Joyous Palace Saintess was not stupid. A look of dread appeared on her face after hearing Tang Xiu’s words. “You mean… General Fukuda?”

“The Joyous Palace has been secretly developing and expanding in Japan for so many years. It’s inevitable that you’ll give yourself away and be revealed in some aspects, to begin with. The people from a certain agency of Japan must have noticed already, even being wary and guarding against you. Even the person leading Japan’s genetic warriors and those experts and ability users see you as a thorn in his eyes. I can tell he has long been wishing to uproot you. You’ve literally dragged out and exposed many of them this time, so how could they possibly miss this golden opportunity?”

The lady’s lip squirmed but eventually didn’t make any sound.

Tang Xiu observed her and a faint smile appeared on his face as he asked thoughtfully, “But then again, are you now still a member of the Joyous Palace?”

“I…”

The Saintess’ heart was immediately in a mess after hearing this.

She could get where Tang Xiu was coming from. It seemed that Ki Kitagawa was not the only person who knew that she had been a woman furnace for the Joyous Palace Master. Did Tang know about it too?

“Don’t tell me you have the same intention as them?”

Suddenly, the Saintess realized something and stared at Tang Xiu as she asked all of a sudden. Wariness and vigilance were evident in her eyes.

Tang Xiu shook his head apathetically. “Don’t treat me the same as them. Using a woman’s body and cultivation to transform their own physique and improve their strength? That’s a foul and dirty means I can never do. Chinese cultivators may not be allies of justice or such, but we’re not that evil either.”

The saintess inwardly relaxed, but she still vigilantly replied, “But I still don’t get it. Why did you save me?”

“You don’t get it at all, huh?” Tang Xiu turned to look outside the window at Tang An, who was still kneeling in the courtyard.

The Saintess stared blankly for a moment and pondered about it for a while. Then, with a surprised look, she blurted out, “You just punished your subordinate who saved me because… you didn’t order her to rescue me?”

Tang Xiu took out a cigarette, lit it up and replied with indifference, “You’re not that stupid.”

She now finally relaxed greatly, and her wariness towards Tang Xiu was mostly gone. She turned around and went downstairs. As she came to the courtyard and stood before Tang An, she inquired. “May I know whether you were aware that you’d be punished before saving me?”

“Yes!”

While kneeling on the ground, indifference was all over Tang An’s face.

The Saintess slightly furrowed her brows and asked again, “The last question. Why did you save me?”

“Would you believe if I told you that I felt like meeting an old friend the first time I met you?” Tang An hummed coldly. Her figure vanished on the spot, but the ripple of energy in the spot she had been kneeling was evident and everyone in the surroundings knew that she was still there kneeling.

Upon seeing this, the Saintess sighed. “You refuse to tell me the truth, so I won’t ask you anymore. But I’ll remember this benevolence for saving my life. I’ll pay off this life-saving debt if you ever need Gong Wan’er’s assistance in the future. Farewell.”

“You can’t go!” Tang An’s figure appeared again and said coldly.

The Saintess’ expression changed and she asked, “You refuse to tell me the truth, so why I can’t leave now?”

Tang An was silent for a while and then asked, “I need to take you to my Master, or give you to those Buddhist Sect people as Grand Master said.”

“The Buddhist Sect in China?” Joyous Palace Saintess said in a deep voice, “The Joyous Palace Master has long issued an order to hide at once if we meet anyone from China’s Buddhist Sect, or kill them if we can’t avoid them. It’s simply impossible for me to meet them. Also, who exactly is your Master?”