Shi Zhongyu came from a wealthy family and always dressed in an elegant and refined manner, exuding an air of righteousness. Even Su Si was stunned for a moment when he saw this Lady Shi who looked like she had just been fished out of the mud.

Fortunately, Su Si was already used to acting. He instantly transformed his murderous aura, making his knife-wielding movements appear hollow, the original chilling intent instantly turning into a facade of weakness. After a few moves from Shi Zhongyu, he surrendered with cries of "Ow, ow!"

Shi Jingzhi silently put on the Nuo mask, grabbed the medicine box and flag, and walked out of the pile of medicines while holding his waist.

Seeing this person's great enthusiasm for acting, Yin Ci had no choice but to cooperate and put on the Nuo mask.

The Sun family was a major medicine dealer, so the doctors associated with them couldn't be bad. As expected, the bandits didn't harm the master and disciple. They took the horses and people on the spot and returned fully loaded.

This group of bandits didn't go back to any stronghold, but went straight to a village near Shafu. The village was lit with torches everywhere, and there were stone stoves and large pots in the open space. Wine jars were scattered around the pots, and leftover lamb bones were strewn all over the ground, clearly a den of bandits.

The leader had someone take away the horses, and the five people from the Ku Mountain Sect were pushed to kneel in front of the stove.

"Come, report your names one by one. The doctors can be kept, but for the rest of you, if you're not worth money, I'll chop you up today for fun."

Shi Zhongyu stepped forward and stood in front of the five people: "Chop them up for fun? Ma Shili, you and I had agreed before to only take money, not lives. Why did you take action when the coachman ran away just now?"

Ma Shili showed his yellow teeth and smiled lecherously: "Little lady, I didn't kill anyone this afternoon. The Sun family is different from others. If we don't kill them, when Old Man Sun finds out about us, we won't be able to bear the consequences."

Shi Zhongyu's expression turned ugly. She had one hand behind her back, secretly signaling to Shi Jingzhi, indicating for them to stay calm for now.

Shi Jingzhi and Yin Ci exchanged glances—it seemed that this Taiheng female warrior had other plans here and was buying them time to make up a story.

Shi Zhongyu continued: "I've only been here for two days, and you've already broken your promise. With Taiheng Sect approaching, you..."

The smile on Ma Shili's face quickly disappeared: "Enough, stop nagging. Little lady, I listened to you the past two days out of consideration for your pretty face. You know the situation in this village, yet you're still pretending to be a saint here? Evil people are running rampant everywhere, why would Taiheng be specifically targeting us?"

Shi Zhongyu swallowed her anger, her expression becoming even more unsightly.

However, she had bought half an incense stick's worth of time, and Sect Leader Shi had already concocted a story. The fox-like man hunched his shoulders and bent his waist, saying to Shen Zhu with a bitter tone: "Miss, Miss! How can your life be so miserable? As long as you reached Shafu and got married, the master wouldn't pursue the matter..."

Seeing this emotionally charged performance, Shen Zhu casually pulled out a handkerchief to "wipe away tears," covering the eye-roll that had slipped out.

Shi Jingzhi sniffled and turned to the bandit leader Ma Shili: "This lord, my young miss is Old Master Sun's great-granddaughter. She's had a bitter life, drinking medicine since she was young. Now, she eloped with someone, and even had me, a doctor, come along."

Ma Shili felt that his pair of discerning eyes could see through people, and he was very pleased with himself: "Tsk, I knew they were a pair of eloping lovers. That girl looks pretty good, too bad she can't be touched. Alright, find someone to serve them and look for an opportunity to extort a sum from that Old Man Sun!"

Sun Huaijin had countless descendants, and even Yin Ci had to investigate in detail to find out. These bandits definitely couldn't tell if it was true or false.

"Which one is this woman's lover? Kill him first!"

"You can't!" Shi Jingzhi blocked Su Si. "The young miss loves this gentleman dearly. If you kill him, the young miss's body definitely won't be able to withstand the grief—"

Su Si was so shocked by this nonsense that he was left dumbfounded for a while before he could react. He stammered for a bit before remembering to play along: "Yes, yes. My family is a respectable local family in Shafu. If you kill me, the authorities will definitely investigate thoroughly."

Having lived in the Red Hook Sect for a long time, he naturally had no problem with the Shafu accent.

Ma Shili snorted a couple of times and glanced at Yan Qing with his narrow eyes—Yan Qing was blindfolded and carried a sword, dressed in the simple attire of a jianghu person. Since he wasn't a lover, he was a useless person. The bandit rubbed his beard, and a hint of murderous intent seeped out.

Su Si grabbed Yan Qing: "This is my good brother who grew up wearing the same pair of pants as me. On this trip, when I fled with... with Miss Sun, I relied on my brother to escort us along the way. If my sworn brother dies because of me, I won't have the face to live in this world either!"

With that, he specially squeezed out a few tears, looking even more pitiful than Shen Zhu.

Yan Qing: "..."

It was the first time Ma Shili encountered such a stimulating scene where killing one person would lead to a string of deaths.

He counted on his fingers—if he killed the lover, the young miss would die. If he killed the lover's brother, the lover would die and then the young miss would still die. It was said that beauties had ill-fated lives, but the beauty before him didn't just have a life as thin as paper, she was simply a walking dead person.

Unable to kill even one person, Ma Shili felt very frustrated. He turned to Shi Jingzhi again: "Take off the mask, it looks strange and ominous."

"My face was burned by fire and looks very unsightly. If my lord sees it, it will be even more ominous." Shi Jingzhi smiled and hid Yin Ci behind him. "My disciple is the same, we were burned together."

Ma Shili: "..."

Ma Shili: "Okay, okay, okay, there can never be too many doctors. All of you, scram. Little lady, take this string of hangers-on away, they're annoying to look at."

Sect Leader Shi's nonsensical talk had at least stabilized the bandits. Unfortunately, Shi Zhongyu had just arrived and was obviously not trusted by the bandits. She and the Ku Mountain Sect group were escorted together and sent to the largest courtyard in the village.

Although it was the largest courtyard, the walls were made of straw and mud. There were quite a few people walking and standing inside the courtyard, all with messy hair and dirty faces. The stench of urine and sweat mixed together, making people unable to stop retching. Inside the house, earthen brick beds were piled up and covered with some straw and rags, forming a large communal sleeping area.

Under the Nuo mask, Sect Leader Shi held his breath, his face gradually turning green.

"Miss Shi." Once the bandits left, he spoke with urgency. "Why did you keep us here?"

Although Shi Zhongyu couldn't see Shi Jingzhi's expression, this person's desire to "escape overnight" was already bursting forth. She wiped the dust from her face and sighed heavily: "You have many treasure maps in your hands, so you should hurry and find the Shi Rou. Why did you come here?"

Shi Jingzhi pondered for a moment and told the truth: "We do indeed have the 'key' to the Shi Rou set by Yan Budu. When Sect Master Qu discovers the Shi Rou, it won't be too late for us to go and negotiate."

Shi Zhongyu looked at him with a complex expression for a while: "It's said that the Ku Mountain Sect is ungrateful and greedy, but I think Sect Leader Shi is a frank person. I'll also be straightforward—has Sect Leader Shi heard that the Red Hook Sect wants to establish a new sect leader?"

Su Si, who was on the side, remained silent, only moving slightly.

Shi Jingzhi said, "I've heard a little about it."

"Rumor has it that the murdered young sect leader was an impostor. Someone wielding the ancient Sweeping Bone Sword came forward, and the great elder under Dark Blood Witch vouched for him. The Red Hook Sect has now recognized him. As the world's foremost demonic sect, when there's a change in leadership, there are accepted processes in the jianghu that must be followed - Taiheng and the Yueshui Bureau will be coming, I'm sure the sect leader knows about this as well."

Shi Zhongyu stroked her cheap sword, lowering her gaze.

"The new sect leader has already taken power, and the Red Hook Sect has completely changed its face. In the past, whenever any family unearthed an ancient treasure, the Red Hook Sect would offer to buy it at a price higher than ordinary shops. Now, not only do they not pay, they go door to door looting, killing and seizing treasures if anyone refuses to comply."

Shafu borders the ancient battlefields of the northwest. The locals there all dig around in the desert to some degree, trying their luck. Especially in villages like this, if a family doesn't have one or two antiques, it would be embarrassing to mention.

Previously, the Red Hook Sect only robbed large tombs and only assassinated the wealthy. They got along well with the common people. But now, their methods are extremely similar to the original Ling Sect.

Yan Qing couldn't help but say, "They kill people just like that? The authorities don't intervene?"

"Shafu is far from the emperor's reach. The authorities have enjoyed many benefits from the Red Hook Sect. Now they say all the antiques were circulated by the Red Hook Sect, so the authorities don't get involved either."

Shi Jingzhi suddenly realized, "So this village..."

"Yes, they are a large village that digs up tombs in the desert. Quite a few skilled Red Hook Sect members came from here. This time, targeted by the Red Hook Sect, they had no choice but to shelter the desert bandits, choosing the lesser of two evils."

No wonder Shi Zhongyu didn't move against the desert bandits. For this village, the loosely organized bandits who don't know the value of things can still be dealt with for now. If it was the behemoth Red Hook Sect, they could easily lose everything if they're not careful. It's not surprising that the Red Hook Sect, busy with carpet search and seizure, would skip these thorny villages on the first pass.

But this is just buying time after all. It's hard to say how long they can hold out.

"I'll tell you everything I can about the situation here," Shi Zhongyu said with cupped hands. "The Red Hook Sect lies ahead, Taiheng Sect and Yueshui Bureau behind. The security in Shafu has been very tight these past few days. Before ascertaining the situation, it's best for you all to hide out here."

"Very tight security?"

"I have informants in Taiheng Sect. Qu Duanyun himself is coming this time, accompanied by Xu Jingming, Prince Rong."

Shi Jingzhi clicked his tongue loudly and continued after a while, "Taiheng's horses are quite fast too. I thought they would have arrived already."

Shi Zhongyu shook his head, "They went to the vicinity of the northwestern's great forbidden formation first. It will take them another two or three days to reach Shafu."

"...I understand. Thank you, Miss Shi."

......

That night, Sect Leader Shi still couldn't stand the crowded room. He ran out of the room and sat against the wall in the courtyard, burying his head in Yin Ci's hair, trying to dispel the surrounding stench with his beloved's scent. Fortunately it was a warm spring, and the two of them huddling together at night didn't feel cold.

"For all her frankness, she never did say what she's doing here in the end," Shi Jingzhi muttered.

"Perhaps she's observing Taiheng's actions. In the face of such chaos, the Taiheng of the past would have surely intervened. As for the current one, hard to say. Shen Zhu is staying with her, maybe she can find out something."

Yin Ci stroked Shi Jingzhi's long hair and yawned.

"You're a doctor, right?" a voice interjected urgently. "Someone here is in bad shape, come take a look quickly!"

The injured was a woman in her forties. She had lost her right leg, the stump below the knee rotting and swollen, oozing foul-smelling pus. The woman's breath was weak, her whole body burning with fever. She indeed looked to be on the verge of death.

Shi Jingzhi was not as kind-hearted as Yan Qing, but he wasn't so evil as to deliberately stand by and watch. He immediately rolled up his sleeves and started taking her pulse.

The woman had a strong physique and solid martial arts. Even with a missing leg, she had not fallen to the point of being "forsaken by the Heavens". The medicine Sect Leader Shi carried was obtained from the Sun Manor and was supremely effective. Before long, the woman regained consciousness and furrowed her brows, "How..."

"Sister Hua, you're awake," the person beside her said urgently. "Ma Shili brought back a doctor to take a look at you."

"Today they hijacked several medicine transport carts. Sister, you're saved!"

The woman was over forty, with black hair streaked with white, and some wrinkles on her face. She wasn't beautiful, and there was a hint of harshness between her brows, but fortunately not much evil aura.

"Sister Hua" swept her gaze and stopped on the master and disciple. She struggled to prop herself up and bowed to Shi Jingzhi, "Hua Jingchun of the Red Hook Sect... oh, former Red Hook member, my apologies."

Though she verbally expressed thanks, there was still a domineering air in her tone that made it hard to respond.

Before Shi Jingzhi could reply, it was as if she realized something. She laughed self-deprecatingly, "It doesn't matter. The Red Hook Divine Sect, the Red Hook Divine Sect... it died long ago along with Dark Blood Witch."