Don't mess with that Miao boy, he's sickly and perverted.

Chai Xiaomi stopped in surprise, and the "giant human-shaped pendant" that she had been holding also stopped.

She subconsciously looked up at Wu Li, only to see his thin lips pressed tightly together, a subtle stiffness in his expression, and his other hand still holding that little sugar figurine. The candy was quite sturdy; it hadn't shown any signs of being damaged since they came out of the crowd.

It's strange, why has this person suddenly become so obedient ever since I hugged his arm?

Could it be that he has some kind of mute button hidden on his arm?

She took one step, and he moved one step behind her.

She stopped, and he stopped too.

He remained silent throughout, as docile as a leashed puppy.

Before she could investigate his unusual behavior, a harsh rebuke rang out from not far away, coming from the direction Song Yueyao was looking.

Under the eaves on the east side of the overpass, two burly men dressed in foreign attire were blocking a thin young man against the wall.

The two men were as burly as bears, with dark skin and long, thick, dirty braids that hung down their backs, as rough and withered as grass.

They were draped in animal skins, wore strings of wolf teeth around their necks, and had metal forehead ornaments with wolf heads carved on them, their blood-red mouths gaping open in a ferocious manner.

With a rugged face and deep-set eyes, he clearly doesn't look like someone from the Central Plains.

Their Central Plains dialect was also spoken extremely haltingly, with rough, hoarse voices mixed with strange intonations:

"You blind fool! Kneel down and kowtow to your grandfather to apologize!!"

Song Yueyao stared intently at them, her eyes blazing with fury, her hand silently resting on the hilt of the knife at her waist.

Jiang Zhiyu, who had been paying close attention to her expression, immediately noticed this subtle movement.

He quickly raised his hand, gently pressed the back of her hand, and slowly shook his head at her.

Jiang Zhiyu casually asked Liu Mama, who was leading the way, "How come there are barbarians here?"

The barbarian tribes came from the desert and invaded Liangya Prefecture more than ten years ago.

When Song Yueyao was eight years old, her maternal grandfather, Nie Yue, as the commander-in-chief, led the entire Nie family army to be wiped out by the barbarians, and the Nie family line declined from then on.

Although reinforcements from Lingyu Prefecture arrived later and ultimately helped Liangya Prefecture defeat the barbarian army, and the war had long since ended, she and these barbarians still harbored a deep-seated blood feud.

Because of this history, the people of Liangya Prefecture and the barbarians have always disliked each other, and for many years they have barely maintained a situation of not interfering with each other.

But how did they end up in Thousand Mist Town?

For business people, as long as the money is there, there is no reason to turn away customers.

Madam Liu tugged at the handkerchief in her hand, glanced casually over there, and when her gaze swept over the slender figure cornered by the barbarians, she frowned almost imperceptibly.

That blind man is such a worry!

She lazily came to her senses, her tone carrying a hint of indifference: "They're here for the Crescent Moon Arrow Technique, aren't they? This time, the Ouyang family has really gone all out with the prize—a rare magical artifact called the Ice Bow and Mystic Arrow."

"I've heard that it's a divine weapon used by the ancient gods during the reign of Emperor Yao to shoot down the nine suns. With it, any evil spirits and demons can be pierced with a single arrow."

"Ice Bow and Mystic Arrows!?"

The white cat perched on Jiang Zhiyu's shoulder suddenly let out a loud cry.

"Hmm?" Mother Liu suddenly turned her head, her suspicious gaze sweeping over everyone before finally settling on the cat. "Who was speaking just now?"

The voice was old and deep, clearly not something these two young men could produce.

"Oh, that's my husband," Chai Xiaomi said with a smile, trying to smooth things over. "He caught a cold, and his voice has been very hoarse these past few days."

As he spoke, he even patted Wu Li's back in a serious manner.

Wu Li glanced at her indifferently, but ultimately remained silent.

Knowing about the barbarian invasion of Liangya Prefecture in the original story, Chai Xiaomi asked, "Such a powerful magical artifact, if it falls into the hands of the barbarians, wouldn't it bring endless disaster to the people of Liangya Prefecture?"

"Who says otherwise?" Mother Liu raised her hand to tidy her hair, but didn't seem to care much. "This hunting competition is open to everyone, welcoming people from all directions, regardless of their origin or region. Since they've come, we can't just exclude them. It's a pity that such a good magical weapon will probably fall into the hands of foreign tribes. These barbarians are best at mounted archery."

As she spoke, Liu's mother's gaze casually swept over the longbow on Wu Li's back.

"Young lady, your husband is so handsome. I wonder how skilled he is at archery? If he can snatch this ice bow and black arrows from those barbarians, it will be a great service to the people of Liangya Prefecture."

At this point, anyone carrying a bow is assumed to be there for the hunting competition.

Chai Xiaomi didn't deny it, only raising her chin confidently and saying, "If my husband were to make a move, no one could defeat him!"

After saying that, he pulled Wu Li's arm even tighter into his embrace and shook it triumphantly.

Wu Li felt her heart suddenly race, and her ears burned all the way down to her neck.

His Adam's apple bobbed, and he was inexplicably choked by his own breath, coughing violently.

Seeing his appearance, Liu's mother thought to herself that he had indeed caught a cold.

His fair and handsome face was flushed with a faint blush, and his eyelashes drooped slightly, giving him a pitiful and sickly appearance.

She was about to offer a few words of comfort when the shouting and cursing from the other end of the corridor suddenly rose in volume, mixed with a humiliating sneer:

"Hahahaha! What kind of junk is this? You Central Plains people use this piece of worthless wood as a bow?"

The two barbarians snatched a half-worn piece of wood from the young man's arms; it looked like an unfinished bow.

The next moment, with a sharp twist of their thick wrists, the wooden pole snapped in two and was casually thrown to the ground, then crushed under their boots, trampled on with abandon.

"My bow..."

The thin young man hurriedly knelt down, his hands trembling as he groped around.

When he turned his face, it was covered with hideous burn scars, and his eyes seemed unable to see clearly, so he could only scratch the ground aimlessly.

Seeing this, the two laughed even more wildly and stepped hard on the back of his hand.

One of them raised his leg high, about to kick the young man in the head—

Two objects suddenly streaked across the sky.

One of the beams was a cold light, flying straight and spinning, striking the barbarian's boot sole with a sharp "clang."

She was immediately bounced back into the air, and Song Yueyao leaped up and caught the hilt of the crescent blade steadily in mid-air.

Another beam of red light slowly drew an arc in the air, and then with a "thud," it struck the young man's head squarely and inexplicably.

Glug glug.

A red date rolled down to his feet.

Chai Xiaomi: "..."

Oops, I accidentally hurt someone.

I don't really want to admit that she threw the date; I doubt anyone saw her throw it.

However, the boy beside her, who had been out of sorts, slowly lowered his eyes, leaned close to her ear, and whispered in a voice only the two of them could hear, a hint of barely suppressed laughter in his tone:

"So, you're a spy sent by the barbarians."

Feeling insulted, Chai Xiaomi glared at him and refused to speak.