Chapter 28: Fighting

  "He's the thief! This good fellow caught him!"

  "...is..."

  For a moment three or four people took turns, and the catcher's eyebrows furrowed again, squeezing out a smile on his face, and he said:

  "It turned out that this brother was a hero who dared to act justly. Please, brother, hand over these two murderers to me and I will immediately take them to the yamen to be punished!"

  It was the duty of the constable to dispose of these thieves, and Gao Feng had nothing to worry about, so he handed them over directly. Seeing the thief being caught by the constable, the onlookers also lost interest and dispersed.

  Two catchers had gloomy faces, without any praise, looking around at the people who were dispersing, and the catcher who hadn't spoken all along leaned in and said in a low voice:

  "Mind your own business on this street!"

  Catching a thief became the wrong thing to do, even if he wasn't the Town Demon Constable, doing this shouldn't have been criticized. Gao Feng's expression immediately turned cold and stern as he glared at the other party. Those two catchers definitely had more unpleasant words to say, but before they could speak, they were glared at by this young man in ordinary clothes. In an instant, they felt a chill run down their spines, their faces feeling like they had been pricked by needles, and they unconsciously took a few steps back, their faces already pale. All the words were stuck in their throats.

  Gao Feng shook his head and walked away, brushing past the two bailiffs. When he did, they instinctively dodged to the side, Gao Feng didn't even bother to glance at them, not deigning to acknowledge their presence until he was far away. Only then did the two bailiffs exchange a look and mutter a few curses under their breath.

  The route walked is consistent with yesterday's, starting from the most prosperous intersection of Shimaji Street and entering the last street of workshops and factories, which is the quietest.

  The rest of the streets didn't seem to have any thieves, it seemed that all these thieves were causing trouble in the most prosperous area. When Gao Feng was about to enter the street with all the workshops, several people ran past him and entered that street.

  Gao Feng entered the street, but found that there was not a single person here. This was an industrial area with workshops and factories, where people were busy inside. The deserted streets were to be expected, but there should have been some people coming and going on business, or small vendors selling their wares. Yet now, there wasn't a single soul in sight. Perhaps it really was just a time when no one was around, Gao Feng thought to himself. After all, he had only come here twice before, and didn't know the local customs and rules.

  After walking a few steps, Gao Feng heard footsteps coming from both ends of the street. The footsteps were dense and chaotic, with no less than twenty people. Gao Feng's heart skipped a beat as he realized that this street was lined with high walls and closed gates, with only two entrances and exits. It would be an ideal place for an ambush.

  As I thought of this, I saw that there were already over a dozen people blocking the street ahead, and when I turned my head back, I also saw over a dozen people blocking the way behind.

  In front of him were two people, Gao Feng recognized them as the two thieves caught on the street earlier. Gao Feng was initially puzzled, weren't they handed over to the constables to be taken to the prefecture for punishment? But he quickly understood that the constables in Zhongjing Prefecture colluded with these thieves, and the thieves must have bribed the constables, who would then protect them, such as letting them go privately after being caught.

  "Meddling in other people's business, pretending to be a hero on this street, are you tired of living?"

  The little thief caught by him was holding an axe in his hand, and said viciously that the man on the side was his partner on the street. The man held a short knife in his hand, with a sneering expression, and sarcastically said:

  "When you're comfortable being a good fellow, wait till I cut off your hands and feet, cut out your tongue, and then let you be a good fellow again!"

  They all held knives, axes and clubs in their hands, and the people behind them were the same, staring at Gao Feng with contemptuous eyes. More than 20 pairs of eyes looked at this young man who was dressed normally as if he was already a dead man.

  People on both sides walked towards Gao Fang, with a pace that was neither fast nor slow. They all wanted to see the panic of this meddling young man, just like a cat playing with an old mouse.

  But these thieves did not see the expected scene, this young man was not flustered, nor was he excited, and surprisingly continued to move forward calmly.

  Gao Feng's calmness was taken as a provocation by these bandits, some of whom cursed under their breath, while others gripped their weapons tightly and quickened their pace. Although Gao Feng didn't turn his head, he clearly knew the movements of those behind him. The opponents were indeed numerous and powerful, but Gao Feng's mood and expression remained equally calm. He even had the spirit to notice other things, such as the large gate by the road which was ajar, with someone secretly peeking out from inside.

  Gao Feng glanced at the gap in the door, and his eyes met those of the person inside. The person was startled, hastily withdrew their head and closed the door, which shut with a loud "clang" that was quite jarring on the quiet street.

  Both sides approached each other, both calm and composed, without quickening their pace. The sound of the gate closing seemed to be a signal, and the little thief holding an axe shouted loudly as he charged towards Gao Feng. His accomplices beside him also shouted as they rushed over. Gao Feng glanced back and saw that there were people behind him too, quickly approaching with household items in hand.

  This group of thieves had already rushed close, but Gao Feng's pace remained unchanged. There were twenty-five people in total, all holding household items and shouting to kill, but Gao Feng didn't have a hint of tension in his heart, instead he was calm and composed. What could the crowd do with their superior numbers? They weren't even comparable to that lone black wolf from that night.

  Gao Feng's composure further enraged the thieves, and one of them rushed forward a few steps, grabbed the little thief on the street, cursed loudly, and swung his axe at Gao Feng.

  This time it was both accurate and ruthless, bringing up a whistling wind sound. The accomplice of the thief didn't move slowly either, with the short knife in his hand stabbing towards Gao Feng's ribs. These two people not only had tacit understanding when stealing, but also when fighting and killing, they actually had some coordination. If it were an ordinary person who was hit, this one strike would be fatal.

  They thought it was an extremely fast movement, but in Gao Fang's eyes, it seemed extremely slow. He pointed his palm and stabbed forward fiercely.

  His palm was like a knife, directly cutting off the hawthorn handle of that axe. The axe lost control and flew towards him with a whistling sound. Gao Feng dodged to the side, all of this happened in an instant. After dodging, he took a step forward, the short knife was still halfway through its trajectory, the thief holding the knife didn't even have time to react before seeing Gao Feng's hand already above his forehead, gently slapping downwards.

  "With a loud 'thud', the onlookers heard it as if a drumstick was hitting a drum, and the knife-wielding man had already fallen to the ground. At this moment, a miserable cry came from behind Gao Feng, without turning his head, he knew that the flying axe must have chopped someone."

  One person fell, one was injured, and the thief's axe handle swung in front of Gao Fang, but the axe head was short by a section, not even close to hurting anyone, and directly chopped empty air in front of Gao Fang.

  It was too fast, and it wasn't until then that he saw his companion beside him collapse, with only half of the stick left in his hand. He was shocked, as this jujube wood handle wouldn't even be cut off by an axe in one go. The opponent had used their fingertips to chop it off, and it was actually cut off directly!

  At such a close distance, wanting to run was impossible. This thief also had some viciousness, stretching out his hand to touch the waist, where there were still weapons. How could Gao Feng give him this opportunity? The man's hand hadn't even touched the waist when Gao Feng already grabbed his front lapel and directly lifted him up.