This is the perfect opportunity to let ’Sword Ghost’ make an appearance, to lure this group out...

At this point, Gentle returned to her room, and the two of them rested separately without further ado.

However, this sleep was anything but peaceful.

Just around midnight, Chu Qing, who was meditating, was startled awake by a noise on the roof.

The person coming was not skilled; their footsteps crunched loudly on the roof, as if deliberately making it known someone was up there.

Chu Qing frowned slightly. Back in Celestial Dance City, people would tread on his rooftop all the time, yet here they were again...

These Jianghu people, whose lightweight technique was not up to par, just couldn’t stop themselves from walking on rooftops?

All the going back and forth was quite the disturbance.

As he was pondering this, he noticed the person had already stopped, right on the adjacent rooftop.

Their breath concealment technique was quite shallow as well. Crouching on the roof, Chu Qing could hear them breathing heavily like thunder.

"What on earth are they trying to do?"

Chu Qing was a bit baffled. Judging by their posture, they seemed to be targeting that scholar. Could it be that the brute from earlier, spurred by the scholar’s boastful words, was planning to make a deadly move?

Thinking of this, he pushed open the window and saw that Gentle had also done the same.

It was evident that she too had heard... She was drowsily preparing to check out the situation.

The two of them swiftly leapt onto the rooftop, only to see a person in black garb creeping on the roof, carefully removing tiles, peering inside while grinning smugly...

From the laughter, it was apparent that this was a woman, seemingly unrelated to that group of fierce-looking thugs from earlier.

Yet this only left Chu Qing and Gentle more puzzled.

Was it possible she was smitten by the downtrodden scholar’s looks and planning a romantic escapade?

Chu Qing’s brow furrowed tightly. He had roamed the martial world for so long and never witnessed such a thing...

If she was an assassin, her methods were clearly lacking, with her lightweight technique and breath concealment only scratching the surface. With such little skill, how could she think of killing people?

If she was planning a romantic escapade... it was unusually clumsy.

Then he saw the woman take out something from her bosom, and with a circular motion, she lowered it through the gap where the tiles had been.

It was remarkably a silk thread.

Chu Qing suddenly understood, she intended to poison!

Lowering a silk thread from the rooftop to the target’s cup rim, poison would flow down the thread into the cup, killing the drinker instantly.

This is an extremely common assassination technique.

Yet, this woman must have some significant problem, as she continued to laugh smugly while lowering the thread.

Her laughter was so loud that even Chu Qing was beginning to worry for her.

Who laughs before accomplishing the murder?

Not worried that the target would hear?

What kind of idiocy was this?

And as she walked in a circle during her actions, she nearly ended up facing Chu Qing and Gentle directly, still failing to notice the two living beings standing there...

Is it dedication to her work?

Or just sheer obliviousness?

Watching her take out a bottle of poison from her bosom, carefully open the cap, and pour it down the thread.

The result of her carelessness was that a large spill of the poison not only touched the thread but splashed down outright... Chu Qing could even hear the ’splash’ sound as it hit the table.

At this point, Chu Qing truly couldn’t stand it anymore.

Being an assassin himself, her execution was an utter insult to the craft.

About to voice his protest, when suddenly a commotion rose from the street.

With Gentle, he immediately looked toward the sound. They saw a batch of bandits had somehow entered the town, swaggering about, threatening loudly, intending to kill and plunder.

"Who has such audacity? Truly daring to act so recklessly within Iron Blood Hall’s territory?"

In shock and confusion, they heard horses galloping up to the inn, several figures crashing through windows, landing onto horses.

Lo and behold, it was those thuggish-looking individuals... From their posture, they were indeed not merchants, but rather mountain bandits.

However, one of them was missing; listening to the footsteps, that person hadn’t flown out the window but pounded heavily to the scholar’s room, kicking the door open. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Suddenly, the woman on the roof cursed:

"Damn, ruining my plan!"

Chu Qing and Gentle were speechless. Did she think that without this disturbance, her assassination would succeed?

Now, since things had reached this point, Chu Qing couldn’t just stand by and let these bandits wreak havoc.

Just as he was about to step forward, he halted.

They heard a scream come from the scholar’s room, followed by a crash as someone was thrown through a window onto the street.

It wasn’t the scholar, but the bandit who had confronted him earlier in the day.

His chest and abdomen were caved in, face white as a sheet, spurting blood profusely; clearly, he wouldn’t survive!

"How could this be? Who are you!?"

The lead bandit’s face changed color, suddenly looking up.

A figure floated out from the window, surprisingly, it was the scholar.

With hands behind his back, his expression stern:

"I’ve said before, do not wreak havoc here!

"Otherwise, don’t blame me for being ruthless!"

"You... who exactly are you?"

The head bandit’s face shifted dramatically, still trying to say something when the scholar flickered and was already on his horse.

With a single foot on the horse’s head, he flew up and kicked the bandit leader, twisting his head several times on his neck before he died on the spot.

"Big brother!!"

The remaining bandits woke from their dream, crying out in sorrow.

The scholar, however, showed no mercy, moving swiftly across the horses. Wherever he reached, the mountain bandits were no match, leaving the street littered with bodies in just a few blinks of an eye.

The scholar glanced back at Chu Qing and Gentle, giving a slight nod.

When his gaze fell on the black-clad female assassin, a hint of helplessness surfaced in his eyes. Then he leapt away, heading towards the other bandits in Iron Ring Town.

"Stop, you’re not allowed to run!!"

The black-clad woman suddenly stood, swiftly following.

But her lightweight technique was mediocre, unable to catch up with the scholar.

After a few steps, she lost sight of the scholar, and stood on the rooftop, stomping her feet in frustration.

Chu Qing could only mourn the room’s inhabitants... He didn’t know what was going on between the scholar and the woman, but evidently, the people inside the room were caught in the crossfire.

Who could endure someone running around heavily on the roof?

And just then, the scholar returned.

Floating directly in front of the black-clad woman, not too far, not too close.

The black-clad woman saw this and her spirit lifted immediately:

"Don’t run!!"

The scholar then turned to run, with the woman hastening to chase after.

Chu Qing and Gentle, witnessing the whole scene, felt utterly bewildered... What on earth was this chaotic mess?

Although, this wasn’t the time to figure out the details. A lot of bandits had come to Iron Ring Town this time; although the scholar was highly skilled in martial arts, it would take time to kill them all on his own.

To prevent ordinary citizens from being massacred, Chu Qing and Gentle promptly took action.

These bandits were experts at dealing with normal people, but against a master like Chu Qing, they were mere eggs against a rock, utterly no match.

In just a moment, numerous were dead or wounded.

The remaining bandits, realizing there were masters in town, lost the will to fight and scattered.

The disaster dissipated in no time as if it never happened.

Chu Qing grabbed one of the still-living bandits, asking:

"Who gave you the courage to enter Iron Blood Hall’s territory, killing and plundering?"

The bandit, already terrified by Chu Qing, had watched in horror as Chu Qing killed more than a dozen of his brothers with one palm strike — he didn’t dare hide anything and replied tremblingly:

"The boss said... said that Blazing Hall launched a full-scale attack, Iron Blood Hall is now... now unable to fend for itself...

"Dingxing City is stretched too thin, can’t cover the surrounding towns, so we... we might not be able to have the big feast, but these scraps are enough to fill us..."

Chu Qing’s face darkened slightly, Blazing Hall launching a full-scale attack?

The two halls, three sects, five clans, and one manor had skirmishes over the years, but they mostly only engaged in minor disputes.

Both Blazing Hall and Iron Blood Hall were colossal; would they attack full-scale so easily?

Something significant must have changed.

Though Chu Qing wasn’t too concerned about other changes, he was particularly worried that Liu Yulai in Dingxing City might cause some trouble at this critical moment!