Whoosh!

A sharp sound pierced through the air, and a dagger zoomed straight toward Doudou’s forehead.

More importantly, the tip of the dagger was smeared with something black, clearly poison that even a layman would recognize.

This move was undoubtedly meant to take Doudou’s life.

However, the attack did not succeed in harming Doudou.

While the dagger was still mid-air, Liu Zixuan flicked a Silver Needle from his hand, striking the dagger down to the ground.

In the blink of an eye, Liu Zixuan was already at the front of the crowd, shielding Doudou behind him.

Seeing the panicked beautiful villagers around, Liu Zixuan shouted, "Everyone, stay calm. Ruyan, Third Sister, Qingning, you three move on the outer edge of the group and keep an eye on the surroundings. We form a circle and head down the mountain!"

This was all Liu Zixuan could do for the moment. Liu Ruyan, Third Sister An, and Ying Qingning had some martial arts skills that could handle emergencies if they arose.

The three beauties nodded in unison, guarding the group of beautiful village women and began moving down the mountain.

Whoosh!

While Liu Zixuan focused intently on his surroundings, more than a dozen arrows suddenly shot toward the crowd.

Liu Zixuan’s eyes sharpened, and he shouted for everyone to stop. He quickly leapt into the air, a small Defense Array formed instantly, providing a shield above everyone’s heads, knocking the arrows to the ground.

"Stay here and don’t move!"

"Be careful!" Liu Ruyan and the other beauties said worriedly.

As Liu Zixuan was about to step forward, he glanced at Xiaolan: "Can you locate those people?"

Though Xiaolan was a peculiar leopard, he was still a beast. A beast’s sense of smell is unmatched by ordinary humans, and its perception far exceeds that of regular people. It was most fitting to have Xiaolan find the enemy.

Xiaolan looked around with his large head and suddenly stopped his gaze at a patch of yellow shrubbery, then let out a roar.

"Stay here and protect everyone."

Leaving this line to Xiaolan, Liu Zixuan dashed toward where Xiaolan had roared.

When the first dagger appeared, Liu Zixuan didn’t immediately chase it. He feared it was a trick to lure the tiger from the mountain, and if he left, the villagers would be in more danger, so he decided to get them down the mountain.

But unexpectedly, they were ambushed again on the way down, clearly aiming to kill, without any ploys or tricks!

Leaving the three beauties and Xiaolan behind, with the array he set up, Liu Zixuan could safely go and find the enemy and ferret them out.

After a few flickers of movement, he had reached the direction where Xiaolan roared, and indeed, two men were fleeing in another direction!

Liu Zixuan shouted coldly, "Do you think you can escape, you cowardly scoundrels?"

Two specially-made Blood-Phosphorus Flood Dragon Bone Spikes shot from Liu Zixuan’s fingers, piercing through the air toward the two men.

These were Bone Spikes launched at the Half-Step Emperor Realm, which even an Imperial Realm Martial Artist couldn’t evade in a short time, let alone those two.

While fleeing, the spikes from behind suddenly penetrated their calves. With two heavy thuds, they fell to the ground.

By this time, Liu Zixuan had already reached them and picked them both up from the ground with one step.

His eyes radiated coldness, and his Half-Step Emperor Realm aura seeped out all over, staring at them like a demon, asking firmly, "Who sent you?"

The terrifying aura swept over them, and cold sweat dripped uncontrollably from the two martial artists’ foreheads.

Nonetheless, they didn’t seem too afraid of Liu Zixuan.

One of the martial artists sneered coldly, "Liu Zixuan, do you think it’s necessary to ask? Since we came, we never intended to go back alive."

"Playing tough?" A chill flashed in Liu Zixuan’s eyes, and three crisp sounds echoed from the man’s hand as Liu Zixuan broke three of his fingers.

"Ah!" The man wailed in pain, "Liu Zixuan, if you’re a man, give me a swift end, what’s this torture for a gentleman!"

"Who told you I was a gentleman?" As Liu Zixuan spoke, he broke all the fingers on the man’s left hand, then asked, "I’ll give you another chance to reveal who is behind you."

"What if... I don’t... say." Ten fingers connected to the heart, after having several fingers broken by Liu Zixuan, the man’s will to live almost vanished, but the pain was too overwhelming to even pass out, and his speech became halting.

"Crack!" Liu Zixuan suddenly raised his hand and struck hard on the man’s right shoulder, causing it to cave in.

"Since you know my name, you should also know I was once a doctor. Doctors have many ways to save lives and even more to torture people." Liu Zixuan’s voice was icy cold.

He was extremely angry at the moment. He had said before that Lingxiu Village was his last pure land, and he couldn’t tolerate anyone causing trouble there.

Those who stepped on his sore spots would have no good outcome!

That man grimaced in pain, wanting to live but unable, wanting to die but couldn’t. At this moment, he felt worse than being in the eighteenth layer of hell!

While he was gritting his teeth, the other man beside him couldn’t withstand the cruel torture and immediately spoke up, "I’ll talk, I’ll talk!"

"Yao Laosan, are you crazy? If you talk, we’ll end up dead!" shouted the man next to him.

The man called Yao Laosan shook his head in agony, "If speaking means death and not speaking still means death, I might as well speak and live a bit longer!"

Before the other man could speak again, Yao Laosan told Liu Zixuan directly, "It was the Wei Family that sent us."

"The Wei Family of the Four Great Clans?" The images of Wei Linming and Wei Zheng reemerged in Liu Zixuan’s mind.

"That’s right, they hired us because one of their young masters became disabled, and they currently can’t confront you head-on. So they hired us to come and, in their words, to ruin your festival time to give you an unpleasant holiday."

Listening to Yao Laosan, Liu Zixuan frowned, "Just the two of you?"

"Yes... just the two of us." A hint of fear flashed in Yao Laosan’s eyes as he forced a smile, "We thought you would be easy to handle, but I didn’t expect you to be so skilled. We admit defeat."

Upon hearing this, Liu Zixuan’s face showed a peculiar expression, "You might not know, but the last person who lied to me about this, the grass on their grave is a meter high now!"