“Miss Bai, don’t refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit.”

The man in the Zhongshan suit brought his clasped hands to the front, his gaze sweeping over Shen Hao standing in front of Bai Mudan. Shen Hao could clearly sense the disdain in that look as the man said, “You won’t be waiting for reinforcements from Lou Wai Lou. Are you counting on the person in front of you to protect you?”

“Why don’t you try and find out?” Bai Mudan replied calmly.

Their exchange made Shen Hao extremely tense, his back taut.

“Don’t be nervous,” Bai Mudan said, patting Shen Hao on the back. “The more dangerous the situation, the more you must not panic. A tense mindset will only make you slip up. Only by staying calm can you escape a desperate situation.”

“Yes!” Shen Hao responded, then began taking long, deep breaths to adjust his state of mind.

After several deep breaths, although he was still tense, he was no longer as panicked as before.

The man in the Zhongshan suit glanced at Shen Hao in slight surprise, but didn’t think much of it. Seeing that words alone would not persuade Bai Mudan, he decided to use force.

“Attack!”

At his command, the eleven men who had been standing on the branches jumped down simultaneously and rushed toward Bai Mudan and Shen Hao.

“Don’t worry about me—just protect yourself,” Bai Mudan said quickly as the fight broke out, then pulled away from Shen Hao.

Before Shen Hao could even respond, three people had already surrounded him.

When it came to this, Shen Hao instead calmed down completely. His eyes locked onto the movements of the three opponents. One of them held a dagger in a reverse grip, while the other two were unarmed, attacking with fists and palms.

The man with the dagger kicked off the ground the moment he landed and lunged straight at Shen Hao, slashing casually as a flash of cold light streaked by. Shen Hao jerked his head back and narrowly avoided it. At the same time, enemies attacked from both sides, fists and palms striking in coordinated tandem.

With little real combat experience, Shen Hao fell slightly into a passive position as soon as the exchange began. Fortunately, he was agile and quick to react. After dodging their combined assault, he retreated several steps to create distance. Only then did he find an opening to counterattack.

His palms opened and closed—one hand raised, the other pressed down. Before the enemies could close in again, he charged forward on his own initiative, quickly becoming entangled with the three in a fierce exchange.

There were eleven enemies surrounding the two of them, not counting the young man in the Zhongshan suit.

At this moment, three of them were attacking Shen Hao, while the remaining eight all went after Bai Mudan.

Clearly, in the eyes of the man in the Zhongshan suit, even a Bai Mudan whose martial arts had been crippled was far more threatening than someone like Shen Hao.

And in truth, that assessment was correct.

Although Bai Mudan’s martial arts had been crippled and she could no longer use inner energy, her short bursts of qi still gave her some fighting ability, rather than leaving her completely defenseless.

Just as when Shen Hao first met her in this forest, Bai Mudan used a set of fist techniques—fierce and forceful. Even when surrounded by eight opponents, she could still launch counterattacks instead of being purely defensive.

However, she had ultimately lost her strength, and fist techniques were not her specialty—swordsmanship was. After several exchanges, her opponents quickly probed her weaknesses and attacked more aggressively. Before long, she was struck by fists and palms, spitting blood as her body weakened further.

“Miss Bai, why go to such trouble?” the man in the Zhongshan suit said, finally relaxing as he saw this.

Earlier, seeing Bai Mudan’s calm expression, as if she were not in a desperate situation at all, he had thought she might still have some hidden trump card. Now it seemed that her earlier composure had merely been a bluff.

A former genius had ultimately reached the twilight of her days. If she still didn’t have some value, Snake Bone Society wouldn’t have risked attracting the attention of Lou Wai Lou just to come for her.

The situation was now firmly in their grasp, but the man in the Zhongshan suit still worried that Lou Wai Lou might notice and make a move.

To avoid further complications, he decided to act personally.

As the leader of the eleven men, his martial prowess was naturally formidable. Without waiting for any opportunity, he appeared directly in front of Bai Mudan and struck her with a palm.

Bai Mudan’s reaction was astonishing, but her body couldn’t keep up with her mind. By the time she realized what was happening, it was already too late. A palm struck her right shoulder, and she spat out blood as she was sent flying.

After observing earlier, the man in the Zhongshan suit had already seen through Bai Mudan’s condition, so he held back somewhat and avoided any vital areas. After all, Snake Bone Society wanted her alive, not dead.

Having heavily injured Bai Mudan in a single move, he was about to step forward and seal her acupoints to capture her when a scream suddenly rang out. He spun around sharply and saw that one of the men attacking Shen Hao had somehow been struck by a palm. Staggering backward, the man finally collapsed to the ground.

Seeing this, the man in the Zhongshan suit frowned. He hadn’t expected that the young man standing beside Bai Mudan would have some real skill.

The members he had brought were all elites of Snake Bone Society, especially adept at coordinated encirclement tactics. He had thought that three against one would be more than enough, but now it seemed he had underestimated this young man.

Who was he?

Only now did the man in the Zhongshan suit realize Shen Hao’s unusual nature.

Thinking carefully, someone who could remain alone with Bai Mudan while she was under house arrest was clearly no ordinary person. Earlier, he had focused all his attention on Bai Mudan, guarding against any hidden cards she might have, and hadn’t paid much attention to Shen Hao. In hindsight, he realized he had been a bit careless.

These thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant. Although Shen Hao had already injured one of his men, the man in the Zhongshan suit did not move to help. Instead, he turned his attention back to Bai Mudan.

Today, his target was Bai Mudan. Everyone else was secondary.

Though Bai Mudan had taken a palm strike and spat blood, suffering internal injuries, she still struggled to her feet, leaning against a tree and looking at the man in the Zhongshan suit as he approached.

“Seize her!” he ordered. Someone closest immediately stepped forward, intending to seal Bai Mudan’s acupoints.

However, at that very moment, a figure suddenly rushed in from outside. Before anyone could react, a crisp sword cry rang out, as if a flash of cold light swept through the forest. A tree was cut down in a single stroke, then kicked by the newcomer and hurled toward the Snake Bone Society members surrounding Bai Mudan.

Four of them had their backs turned. Hearing the wind rush behind them, they turned just in time to see a dark horizontal blur smashing toward them. They raised their arms to block.

But they underestimated the newcomer’s strength. Even with four of them resisting together, they still spat blood and were sent flying along with the tree trunk.

Seeing the sudden turn of events, the man in the Zhongshan suit immediately stepped forward to intercept the flying trunk, clenching his fists and striking out with both hands.

Boom—!

A dull explosion rang out as the tree shattered into several pieces. Bark and splinters flew everywhere, pattering against the surrounding trees.

The man in the Zhongshan suit staggered back several steps before finally stopping. His face alternated between pale and flushed, clearly shaken by the residual force in the trunk.

“Retreat—” Realizing the newcomer was far too powerful for him to face, he immediately tried to order a withdrawal. But as soon as he opened his mouth, a mouthful of blood surged up his throat and spilled out, weakening his voice mid-word.

“Retreat!” He hurriedly suppressed his churning qi and shouted again, then fled into the forest himself.

At that moment, the sword cry rang out once more. Two Snake Bone Society members who had just turned to flee collapsed instantly, blood seeping from their backs and staining their clothes as they died on the spot.

The two men still entangled with Shen Hao, seeing this, no longer dared to linger. After jointly forcing Shen Hao back, they too turned and fled in panic.

In just a short while, everyone had vanished. The once-chaotic forest fell silent again.

Standing there, breathing heavily and still not fully recovered from combat, Shen Hao felt dazed. Looking around, if not for the traces of battle everywhere, he might have thought everything that had just happened was an illusion.

So this is the jianghu?

His gaze fell on the corpse not far away.

This man had essentially brought his own death upon himself. Originally, with the three working together, Shen Hao had been at a disadvantage. But for some reason—perhaps to steal credit, perhaps for another reason—this man suddenly attacked head-on, disrupting the rhythm of the other two. As a result, Shen Hao struck him squarely in the chest with a palm.

The Eight Yin Fan Palm appeared soft and gentle, but that was because the technique itself emphasized yin softness. At its highest level, one could strike with a single palm that felt like nothing more than a light breeze, yet the force would already have entered the body, shattering the heart and lungs.

Shen Hao naturally couldn’t achieve that level yet, but this Snake Bone Society member had been struck directly in the chest, allowing the yin force to shatter his heart meridian, killing him instantly.

This was someone he had killed.

He had killed a man.

These two sentences repeated back and forth in his mind.

Ordinary people would never experience killing someone, but now Shen Hao had. He felt his hands trembling slightly and couldn’t help clenching them, trying to stop the shaking.

Taking several deep breaths, he avoided looking at the corpse again. Instead, he turned around to look at the person who had saved him and Bai Mudan.

It was a very ordinary-looking man, dressed casually, appearing no different from an average young man on the street. He looked to be around thirty, perhaps a bit younger. The only difference was the sword in his hand—not a blunt, unsharpened replica bought online, but a razor-sharp blade that looked chillingly lethal.

“Long time no see,” Bai Mudan said, still leaning against the tree, blood at the corner of her mouth. She smiled at the man as if greeting an old friend.

“Long time no see,” the young man replied. With a clang, he sheathed his sword.