Chapter 386: Thunderstorm!

The Red Sleeve incident drew to a close with Bai Xiaofei paying up and also gaining an acquaintance due to his generosity. The third prince of the Ancient Yue Kingdom might just come in handy one day.

With the motto of ‘being a good person till the end,’ Bai Xiaofei rescued another 20-plus girls and gave each of them 2,000 gold coins as capital to start a new life. As for how they would live their lives later, it no longer had anything to do with him.

However, the actions of Baogen and Baozhu were completely beyond Bai Xiaofei’s imagination. They refused his gold coins, saying that they could find a way to make a living by themselves and that they would definitely repay his kindness one day.

Unable to shake their determination, Bai Xiaofei could only let it be and then honestly followed Bai Ye to the Bright Road Merchant House. If they delayed any longer, Bai Ye would go crazy…

Nothing happened on the road this time, and when they arrived, Chu Yue was waiting for them at the door.

“You’re finally here. Any later and Big Sis Lingyan would start killing.”

“It can’t be that bad. Didn’t I say before I left that you guys could investigate the situation first and didn’t have to wait for us?” Bai Xiaofei gulped nervously.

“It is because we understood the situation better that we are anxious. This mission has turned out much more difficult than we imagined.” Chu Yue’s face was a little solemn. Not waiting for Bai Xiaofei to inquire, he said, “Let’s talk about it inside. Some things can’t be explained quickly.”

Following Chu Yue, Bai Xiaofei spotted many people with different mercenary group logos in addition to the staff of the Bright Road Merchant House along the way. The only thing in common was that everyone was in a hurry and their faces were serious. Seeing this, Bai Xiaofei’s doubt heightened.

Fortunately, the distance wasn’t far. Bai Xiaofei soon met up with Qin Lingyan and Zhao Tiantian, both of whom were frowning deeply.

“Take a look. This is the list of the key points we’ve just sorted out. This is all we have for now,” said Qin Lingyan as she turned the paper in front of her to Bai Xiaofei’s direction. On the paper, the information was written in an elegant font.

After a quick glance, Bai Xiaofei got a general understanding of the present situation. No wonder there wasn’t detailed information in Starnet, or else no one might have taken on this mission.

The Bright Road Merchant House somehow got their hands on a very precious item. As long as they successfully sold it, their business would climb at least one step higher and they might even have a chance to become a first-class merchant group.

However, the news of this somehow got leaked, leading to the merchant group being targeted. After the first transportation of the item, only one out of the original group of ten returned alive, only to die soon after due to serious injuries. The fortunate thing was that the item was safe.

After that, the Bright Road Merchant House organized several decoy transports without the real object. All were intercepted. People either died or were wounded, but it wasn’t without harvest. At least they figured out who was behind it – The Thunderstorm Bandits!

The Thunderstorm Bandits was a new thief band in recent years. Outsiders only had three general understandings of this emerging group: Strong, mysterious, and ruthless.

Strong: ever since its debut, this thief group had never failed once despite its heists being all big targets. The deed that raised them to infamy was their successful interception and robbery of a large number of goods from the Globe Merchant Group.

Mysterious: until now, they had acted at least dozens of times, yet the outside world still had nothing on them. No one knew about any of their members or what they looked like, let alone what abilities they had.

Ruthless: in all their robberies, the average mortality rate was above 90% and the probability of total annihilation was very high.

That was to say, the Bright Road Merchant House was in big trouble. If it weren’t for their headquarters being located in Nabu City, their whole business would have been taken over by them.

Meanwhile, aside from the opponent’s identity, the information that Bright Road Merchant House exchanged over a hundred lives for couldn’t be any more shabby. In Bai Xiaofei’s words, it was as good as nothing, having no use except for misleading them, so he simply ignored it.

Finally, the mission itself.

In order to struggle out of this dilemma, the Bright Road Merchant House set its sights on outsiders. The Mercenary Alliance, the Martial Alliance, the Puppet Master Alliance, and Starnet all received this mission at the same time, and the rewards were all alluringly high. This resulted in the bustling atmosphere in the Bright Road Merchant House at the moment. In other words, Bai Xiaofei’s group was just one of their many choices.

By now, the Bright Road Merchant House’s plan had become obvious, which was to let all teams set out from Nabu City at the same time and take different routes so as to complete the escort mission under many false covers. In this case, however, there would definitely be unlucky ones to clash with the Thunderstorm Bandits, and the results could be imagined…

That was why all the people Bai Xiaofei had seen along the way in were frowning. Everybody was considering whether they wanted to step into this troubled water. The trade-off between a high reward and life had always been the hardest to make.

Analyzing the situation in his mind, Bai Xiaofei folded the paper and inhaled deeply.

“Did they say when they planned to start transportation?” asked Bai Xiaofei with a serious face.

“No, they said they’d give everyone a day to think. Tomorrow, those who are willing to continue the mission will get their instructions and those who are unwilling can leave. They seemed to have suffered enough from information being leaked. Their safeguards are very strict now.” Qin Lingyan had considered this matter as well, only that their employer refused to disclose anything.

“I see, they are going to cheat under cover of a diversion, aren’t they. How naïve. I’m afraid that those who are leaving tomorrow will be their guinea pigs.” Bai Xiaofei sneered, his tone full of dissatisfaction towards the Bright Road Merchant House. “I’m going to see the Bright Road Merchant House president. You guys get prepared.” He said it as if this was something easy to do.

“Impossible, he is not going to see us. Even the vice president of the Puppet Master Alliance Branch here was denied a meeting. You think our face is bigger than his? Starnet’s name isn’t omnipotent.” Qin Lingyan rejected Bai Xiaofei’s idea right away, but she had forgotten about one thing.

“Starnet’s face is not enough, then what about the Thunder Emperor’s?” asked Bai Xiaofei as Blackie’s ability was activated, and he took the appearance of Lei Shan.

The rest was dumbfounded. How could they forget about this?!