Dadatis stared at Zhang Heng for a while and let the latter touch his face.
“Why?”
“You know that many in the organization disagree with me choosing you as my successor, right? However, I still insist on doing so.”
“Hmm.”
“But I am a bit confused now, whether or not this is the right or wrong thing to do. I realize that I don’t seem to know you quite well. Every time I meet you, you show me something I didn’t know about. Like right now, I have never seen this side of you before. I never knew that you had such an excellent political skillset. To be honest, I am a little afraid of you now.”
“What are you afraid of? Anyway, you are going to retire soon. Whatever happens after that has nothing to do with you anymore,” Zhang Heng replied casually.
“You are right,” Dadatis seemed to be relieved. After a while, his expression became solemn again, “However, if you wrong Balance Blade in the future, you better watch out for your life. No matter where I am and how old I will be, I will come back and find you. You’d better stay alert every time you eat and sleep because I will pierce your throat with my dagger when your guard is down.”
“Don’t be so angry, old man.” Zhang Heng was calm. “You know me. The reason I joined Balance Blade was that I wanted to read the books stored in the secret library.”
“…”
Dadatis was left speechless, “Your talent blinded me at the beginning. I knew that I should have gone for someone else as my successor. Forget it, how long will it take to deal with things on your side?”
“If you are asking about Iron Handcuff, we can solve this problem by tonight. If you are asking about the security situation here, it will take at least two months before Commodus notices the changes.”
Dadatis was shocked. “You can integrate all the big and small forces here in two months?”
“Not so fast. The situation here is very complicated. Even I have to spend some time to sort out the problems here. But after two months, we should be fit enough to handle the assessment,” Zhang Heng said.
The problems were rooted deeply in the heart of this place. It was not easy to get to sixty points from zero. However, it was definitely easier to get from zero to thirty points than sixty to ninety points.
They would still fail the assessment, but they could not deny that it was a great improvement. Zhang Heng hadn’t forgotten his purpose here, coming to prove that he could lighten the young emperor’s burden by joining his side. Of course, he would not break the promise he made to Aris and other patrol members. He would complete the integration of the big and small forces here, and other than preparing himself to receive a promotion, he also wanted to look for someone that he could rely on during critical moments.
He needed someone that was neither Balance Blade nor under the control of Commodus. And this was the perfect place for him to look for someone like that. Therefore, when Zhang Heng found out that Clint had purposely assigned him to his place, he was thrilled. The ten years spent in the Black Sail dungeon had provided him the experience needed to handle the chaotic situation here with ease. Besides, Zhang Heng had also accidentally discovered a cheating device when Sartonilos and others ambushed him.
It could help him skip the most troublesome part of this quest and speed up the whole process.
“I don’t care what you do next, but you’d better spare two weeks for me, and I only need to meet up with you during the evening. An old friend has asked me to help him with something. I guess I’ll be away for quite some time. Before I leave, I want to teach you everything that I know.”
Zhang Heng knew that the priestess had fulfilled the agreement she made with him. Hence, he nodded, “Okay, we can start with the meetup tomorrow evening.”
…..
At the same time, Iron Handcuff and his men realized that their ambush had failed after discovering the person sleeping on the bed wasn’t Zhang Heng. The person that they pressed on the ground was a trembling stranger. According to him, he was the only tenant in this building, and he did not know why he ended up here and got attacked by them. Iron Handcuffs and his men felt that something terrible was about to happen. It seemed that their plan was going to fail miserably. So Iron Handcuffs made a decisive decision and prepared to evacuate the location.
But at this moment, the men assigned to guard the entrances and exits sent them a signal. They saw that the heavily armed patrol was approaching the building, and they were led by Aris. The two men that Iron Handcuff sent to keep an eye on the patrol team had disappeared.
Iron Handcuff was not afraid of the patrol team. After all, he knew what they were capable of. Besides, they had an advantage in number as well. What really worried him was Zhang Heng. He had no idea where Zhang Heng was right now. When glanced at the patrol team, he saw that Zhang Heng was not among them. Immediately, he was hit by fear that surged from the bottom of his heart.
His worst nightmare was about to come true. When he walked out of the room with his men, he saw Zhang Heng at the end of the corridor. He held two Persian swords, waiting for Iron Handcuff and his men to walk past this corridor. Iron Handcuff had never seen Zhang Heng fighting before. Currently, he believed that eight of them was more than enough to deal with Zhang Heng. And if they could not win, he could simply run away. On the other hand, Black Mamba was trembling in fear.
Before he could warn Iron Handcuff about Zhang Heng, they saw the latter charging them with his swords. At a critical moment like this, Iron Handcuff had to show his courage to his men. He knew that Zhang Heng defeated Black Mamba and his seven men, and as gang boss, if he failed to lead by example, everyone would surrender without putting up a fight. Fortunately, his right-hand man, Broken Finger, would be fighting by his side.
Black Mamba’s status in the gang was slightly higher than that of Broken Finger. He was better at getting along with his subordinates and others. In terms of strength, Broken Finger claimed the first spot in their gang. Iron Handcuff had spent a lot of effort making Broken Finger succumb to him during the early days. Still, fortunately, Broken Finger had repeatedly proven that his efforts were not in vain on almost every critical moment.
Thus, Iron Handcuff firmly believed that this time, Broken Finger would prevail as well. The two attacked Zhang Heng simultaneously, one on the left and the other on the right. A second later, the two knelt in sync.
Zhang Heng had no intention to spare their lives because Iron Handcuff and Broken Finger had grievances with him. Even if he managed to make them succumb to him, Zhang Heng doubted that they would be of any use. It would be better to choose another person to take over the gang. No matter who Zhang Heng chose, he still had to eliminate Iron Handcuff and Broken Finger. Otherwise, the new boss might risk killing by them. Therefore, Zhang Heng showed them no mercy and slit their throats without hesitation.
Black Mamba and others were low in morale in the beginning. Their last ounce of courage to fight with Zhang Heng disappeared when they saw what happened to their boss. Immediately, they turned around and wanted to run away. They would rather jump off the building, risking broken legs, than face Zhang Heng. And Zhang Heng was not in a hurry to go after them. He first went downstairs to check the situation.
In terms of numbers, the patrol team was still at a disadvantage. And their combat skills might be weaker than their opponents as well. However, since Iron Handcuff’s plan failed miserably, his men had lost the will to fight. They did not even get to carry out their backup plan. The sudden appearance of the patrol team had caused panic within them. Iron Handcuff had brought all the elites to go upstairs to deal with Zhang Heng, while the dwarf was left downstairs to lead the battle. Unfortunately, fighting wasn’t his best suit.
When they saw Black Mamba and the rest of the gang members jumping down from the buildings, their last hope was crushed. They were almost frightened to death, and they shouted that Iron Handcuffs and Broken Figner were dead. This bad news had caused the rest of the gang members to put down their weapons and surrender.
And this marked the first victory of the patrol team.
