Du Xiaoli did not know who the half-masked man was, but the moment he called out her name, all those black-clothed men saw her as being in the same party as him.

It seemed that she would not be able to avoid this matter anymore. Those people were not going to let her go even though she was just a passerby!

“They know each other. Kill them both!” The same person who mentioned killing Du Xiaoli earlier spoke up again.

Thereafter, the black-clothed men swiftly took action and surrounded Du Xiaoli as well.

“Awoo——” Silver howled and bared its sharp teeth at those men.

“How do you know my name?” Du Xiaoli asked when she arrived at the half-masked man’s side.

“Because I know you.” His deep and low yet alluring voice gave was distinctly inconsistent with the impression he gave off.

“But I don’t know you.” Du Xiaoli knew that when he called out her name a moment ago, he had not done it intentionally. It was because she could see the alarm in his eyes; his appearance expressed he had spoken her name inadvertently.

Du Xiaoli looked at the people surrounding them and felt they were not going to be easy to deal with. Moreover, she did not have a weapon. Dealing with them would be a strenuous task.

The half-masked man pulled out a dagger, which had been strapped to his leg, and handed it to Du Xiaoli. He did not say much, but this revealed he knew she was capable of martial arts!

There were not many people who knew that she was capable of martial arts, yet she still had no idea as to who this man was. However, she accepted the dagger anyway.

When the half-masked man saw Du Xiaoli take the dagger, he nonchalantly dropped a line: “It’s enough if you just protect yourself.”

“Who are they?” Du Xiaoli asked.

“I don’t know. I have too many enemies,” the half-masked man said.

‘Eh... Just how many enemies do you have?!’

“Did they poison you?” Du Xiaoli asked next.

The half-masked man glanced at Du Xiaoli. Why did she not seem even a little bit anxious under such perilous circumstances and instead kept asking him questions? Nevertheless, he still nodded.

If it were not because they poisoned him while they were fighting, how could they possibly have injured him? Despite that, he still managed to kill many of them, cutting them down from several tens of people to just over 10!

Du Xiaoli took out a very small bottle and passed it over to the half-masked man. This was an all-rounder antidote that she carried with her at all times. Although it could not detoxify, it could alleviate the symptoms of the poison or forcefully revitalize the person who was suffering from the effects of the poison.

The half-masked man looked at Du Xiaoli suspiciously with raised eyebrows: “What’s this?”

“Something useful. Just give it a sniff,” Du Xiaoli said and then didn’t bother looking at him anymore. Instead, she shifted her focus to sizing up the black-clothed men.

The men had yet to make a move. Perhaps it was because they felt apprehensive toward the half-masked men or because they did not know much about her.

Regardless, it was most likely because they were confident in their poison. They were probably thinking that if they waited for the poison in the half-masked man’s body to take full effect, they would be able to eliminate him even more easily. After all, they had lost so many comrades already; they needed to err on the side of caution.

As for this girl who had appeared midway, one could tell with one glance that she was a young lady from an official’s family. A weak and delicate young lady from an official’s family would not be able to affect the outcome much.

The half-masked man opened the bottle, placed it under his nose, and had a good sniff. He almost fainted upon smelling the stink scent from the bottle. However, his entire person seemed to come alive after that. The dazed person from before was gone.

Du Xiaoli saw his movements out of the corner of her eye and found that he made this simple action of sniffing the antidote look like such a graceful one. This contributed further to her inability to guess his identity.

“Attack!”

The black-clothed men noticed the half-masked man’s change in status. They had initially wanted to wait for the poison to take full effect in his body first, but they had unexpectedly waited for him to regain a clear mind instead.

“Awoo——”

“Awoo——”

When Gold and Silver sensed the killing intent, they charged toward those black-clothed men.

“Silver, Gold, come back!” Du Xiaoli got a fright when she saw Silver and Gold rush out on their own. Although they were rather ferocious, they were not much of a match for martial arts experts.

Despite that, Silver and Gold did not obey Du Xiaoli’s words. They knew she was in danger, so they wholeheartedly just wanted to bite those bad people to death.

Silver’s and Gold’s actions seemed to put the fight into motion. All of the black-clothed men charged toward Du Xiaoli’s party, while the half-masked man turned over the sword in his hand and lunged it toward the black-clothed men.

Du Xiaoli was worried about Silver and Gold, so she moved over to their side. With the dagger in hand, she instantly arrived in front of one of the black-clothed men. However, the moment she wanted to use the dagger to slash his throat, that person strangely managed to evade her attack!

‘It’s a really weird martial art!’

Du Xiaoli had this brief thought before thrusting her dagger toward another black-clothed man. Yet her attack was once again evaded in that same strange fashion. On the surface, it clearly looked like she had landed her hit, but what she ultimately hit was just air.

“A shadow?”

Du Xiaoli came to a stop; she was no longer in a hurry to attack. Instead, she observed the footwork of those men attacking her from all sides.

“Awoo——” Silver charged toward those people and bit one of their legs. Du Xiaoli seized this opportunity to slash the throat of the bitten man, finally making her first kill.

The men’s upper bodies were moving rapidly—much faster than the naked eye could see. So when she saw her strikes land on those people, what she hit was actually merely their shadows.

However, if she looked at their feet, she would be able to figure out the pattern of their movements. Thus, she began concentrating on the men’s feet and only looked at their upper bodies out of the corners of her eyes. She analyzed where the next position of their feet would be and then struck it precisely.

“Pu—— Thump!”

A second person fell, causing the people around Du Xiaoli to stop for a moment. Nevertheless, they immediately continued attacking right after.

When the half-masked man saw that Du Xiaoli managed to see through their opponents so quickly, he felt somewhat surprised by her keen senses.

“Awoo——”

MoonWhisperer, TWIP's Thoughts

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