"Who are you?" After the six people landed, they no longer seemed worried and displayed a confident attitude that they could handle everything. The one speaking was one of the women among them. These women all seemed quite mature. Although still beautiful, they were clearly beyond their youth.

Because of this, Hei Xue felt a small sense of pride in her heart—whether in youth or appearance, she completely outshone them all. Wasn't that right, Xiaoyao?

Whether Xiaoyao sensed Hei Xue's thoughts or didn't feel anything at all, he ignored her gaze and said to the woman: "We're just passing scholars. I'm Le Xiaoyao, and this is my elder sister, Le Xiaoxue."

"Scholars?" The woman looked at Xiaoyao, trying to discern something from him, but she really couldn't see anything. Xiaoyao's current appearance truly looked like a scholar, and both of them seemed like scholarly people.

But if they were just scholars, then these two were far too calm. No matter how you looked at it, the current scene wasn't small, yet the two showed no reaction at all—no shock or anything.

This was hardly the behavior of ordinary scholars. However, perhaps they weren't ordinary people at all. If they were accustomed to grand scenes, they naturally wouldn't mind such things.

"Sister Xiu, from our intelligence, these two people shouldn't belong to that group. Moreover, they discovered us long ago but didn't take any action. They should just be passersby, though their identities might not be simple," said a woman beside her.

That was true. Passersby weren't necessarily all ordinary people—they just weren't involved in this matter.

The person called Sister Xiu nodded, then said to Xiaoyao: "If you're just passersby, I hope you'll just stay quietly to the side. Don't have any improper intentions."

"Don't worry. You do your business, we're just here to appreciate the beautiful scenery. You can consider us part of the landscape," Xiaoyao said with a smile.

"That's best!" Sister Xiu nodded, then called out sternly toward the other side: "You people over there, show yourselves voluntarily. Our people are all here—let's see straightforwardly which side is stronger."

Just as Sister Xiu finished speaking, Li Yihun walked out, frowning and glancing at Xiaoyao and his companion with reproach, as if saying: Why didn't you tell us earlier?

Of course, he also knew that this Xiaoyao had no such obligation. They were just passersby who didn't want to be dragged into this. If it were him, he would have made the same choice.

"How did you prepare these things?" Li Yihun pointed at the Flying Wings. This wasn't something that could be prepared in a moment, and his thought was that they must have had these by coincidence—he was just unlucky.

But Sister Xiu's words immediately made Li Yihun's expression change. He didn't want to acknowledge what she said.

"We anticipated this move of yours long ago. From your escape route, this place was likely where you would wait for the Huangpu Family. But even so, you can't escape—this is actually good for us," Sister Xiu said with a smile.

"Impossible. How could you possibly anticipate my arrangements? This is impossible," Li Yihun shook his head. He absolutely refused to believe his plan had been seen through—he only believed this was just a coincidence.

"Although your arrangements were quite clever and made people think you would flee somewhere else, you still couldn't fool our strategist. There are people above people, young man," Sister Xiu said with a smile, teaching Li Yihun a lesson—that he shouldn't think he was the only clever person in the world. What he could think of, others could think of too.

Li Yihun was indeed talented, but others had such talent as well. At the same time, others were also more experienced. Li Yihun was still too green.

Wisdom consisted not only of intelligence but also experience, and experience was much more important than intelligence—unless your intelligence was heaven-defying. Clearly, Li Yihun hadn't reached that level.

"That's right, young man. There are people beyond people and heavens beyond heavens. Don't think you're heaven itself," Xiaoyao couldn't help but interject at this moment, needling Li Yihun. This was something he was quite happy to do—even as a passerby, one could be a very gossipy passerby.

"You..."

"You what? You chose a dead end yourself—who else can you blame? Just be straightforward about it. Use your sword to cut your throat—it'll be quick," Xiaoyao said with a smile, using a harmless expression to say words that made people break out in cold sweat.

"You..." Li Yihun was still stuck on "you," unable to speak. At the same time, he actually looked at the sword in his hand, and the thought of cutting his throat appeared in his mind.

Now that he'd been caught, he didn't know how the others would treat him. Being killed or dismembered didn't matter—what he feared most was being humiliated, which was something he couldn't accept.

So he really had had such thoughts, wanting to cut his throat early. Of course, this thought only flashed through his mind briefly.

Why didn't he think he needed to resist?

The answer was already quite obvious. They simply weren't a match for these people. Even though the opponents were only six in number, among these six, the weakest was at Peak Emperor Level, while the strongest, that Sister Xiu, actually had Late Saint Level strength. This simply wasn't something their power could contend with.

However, they also found this matter very strange. It was just suppressing a band of bandits—was there really a need to mobilize forces like this, with so many Saint Level experts involved?

"Don't worry, you don't need to die, and you'll leave here safely, as long as you're obedient," Sister Xiu said with a smile, appearing calm and composed.

"Don't try to deceive us. You've brought so many people to hunt us down this time, and we've killed your people. How could you possibly spare us?" Li Yihun shook his head. Do you think I'm a three-year-old child? I'm an intelligent person—how could I not understand this is your conspiracy?

"Killed our people? Oh, you mean those bandits. Those bandits weren't our people—we're thrilled that you killed them," Sister Xiu said with a laugh. This statement directly confused Li Yihun. What was going on? Had he been wrong? These people weren't here for revenge?

"If that's the case, then why are you hunting us?" Li Yihun asked directly.

"We are pursuing you, but we didn't plan to kill you. We just want something you have—something you took from those bandits," Sister Xiu said.

"Want something? What thing?" Li Yihun asked in surprise. He hadn't expected that these people had mobilized such forces just for one item.

He didn't know what this item was, but he understood it must be very important. What exactly was it? They had taken some things as spoils of war from those bandits, but he hadn't noticed anything special.

Could it be that wooden box? The contents of that wooden box seemed to be just an ordinary manual—at least it wasn't important to people like them. Could there be hidden compartments?

This thing is now in our hands. Should we give it to them? If it's really that important, it could also be a bargaining chip.

Seeing Li Yihun's changing expression, Sister Xiu smiled and said: "Don't think about how to negotiate. You have nothing to negotiate with. If you don't produce it, we'll have to kill you and then search for it. You don't even know what it is, so you couldn't possibly hide it."

Sister Xiu's smile was quite comfortable to look at, but her words sent chills down one's spine. She simply didn't value Li Yihun and his group's lives at all—kill them if necessary. Because currently Li Yihun couldn't threaten them at all, and since Li Yihun's group didn't know what the item was, they naturally had no way to make threats.

Li Yihun's expression changed. He only now realized this point—the bargaining chip he thought he had actually didn't exist. He did have a chip in his hands, but since he didn't know what it was, how could he use it as leverage?

The other party also had no intention of revealing what the item was, and in the current situation, even if they wanted to, they wouldn't say.

"Alright, our things are all in the inn. As long as you get what you want, you'll spare us, right?" Li Yihun said. This needed to be clarified, though agreeing or not agreeing didn't actually make much difference—if they wanted to kill, they would still kill; if they didn't want to kill, they wouldn't even without saying so.

This was just a comfort...

"Don't worry, we're not bloodthirsty people. But if you play any tricks, then I won't mind being bloodthirsty for once," Sister Xiu said. What she said was true—as long as she smoothly obtained the item, she would leave. She couldn't be bothered to kill Li Yihun and his people.

Li Yihun and his group had no idea what this matter was about. Even if they were captured, they couldn't reveal anything. Moreover, once the item was obtained, it wouldn't matter if word got out.

Of course, if necessary, she would definitely act to kill Li Yihun and his group, even Xiaoyao, this passerby. This item was simply too important.

But at this moment, Sister Xiu discovered something very unwelcome—the situation had developed in a way she didn't want to see. However, this change didn't come from Li Yihun and his group, nor from Xiaoyao, but from people coming from outside as well.

"Yang Xiu, your Yang family is quite fast, wanting to get there first. But your wishful thinking was wrong," said a person who appeared from the darkness at this moment—also a beauty, much younger than Yang Xiu. Though she couldn't compare with Hei Xue in youth, she was still presentable.

Yang family?

What surprised Xiaoyao wasn't this person's appearance, but rather this Yang family. There were many Yang families in the world, but only one was most famous—the Yang family of Song Kingdom. The Yang family was a military household that had produced many generals, with several famous military figures in history belonging to the Yang family.

(End of Chapter)