Stone Fairy!

"Someone's coming."

Dao Zhen immediately suppressed his aura, and the moonlight that had been swirling around his body receded and quickly disappeared into his body.

In the blink of an eye, the layer of rosy clouds disappeared completely.

Three dark figures climbed down from the courtyard wall.

Their movements were clean and swift, and they made almost no sound when they rolled down.

All three were dressed in black and masked, with only their eyes showing. Their gazes were fierce and cold, clearly indicating that they were not ordinary people.

The moonlight shone on the longswords in their hands, making the blades shine brightly and the edges gleam with a cold light.

As soon as the three landed, they saw Daozhen sitting in the courtyard.

They clearly hadn't expected to meet Dao Zhen face to face, and their movements paused slightly. But it was only a pause; their eyes met for a fleeting moment in the air, and they reached a tacit understanding.

There were no superfluous words, not even any warnings or tests.

The three of them moved at the same time.

The man at the front flashed his blade, aiming straight for Daozhen's face with lightning speed and ruthlessness, creating a sharp whistling sound. Simultaneously, the man on the left circled around from the side, his blade slashing diagonally towards Daozhen's waist and abdomen. The man on the right lagged slightly behind, his longsword held horizontally in front of him, blocking any possible escape route for Daozhen.

Three knives, three directions, working in perfect harmony; clearly, this wasn't their first time doing something like this.

Daozhen frowned slightly as he watched the three sword lights hurtling towards him.

He extended his right hand, bringing his index and middle fingers together to form a sword gesture, the two fingers glowing faintly.

"clang!"

As the first blade came slashing down, Daozhen's two fingers struck the blade precisely. The gleaming longsword seemed to have struck an iron wall, producing a crisp, metallic clang. The blade trembled violently, and the man wielding it felt his hand go numb, nearly causing the longsword to fly out of his grasp.

Meanwhile, the second knife has arrived.

Daozhen's finger flicked off the first knife, drawing an arc in the air, and accurately met the blade of the second knife.

With another clang, the long sword was also knocked away. The force on the blade was completely neutralized by a single finger. The person holding the sword felt a strange power travel up the blade, and his entire arm became numb and sore.

After two strikes, Daozhen finally moved.

Daozhen's right-hand sword gesture remained unchanged. He took a step and arrived in the middle of the three people.

The three men were clearly caught off guard by the speed of their opponent's movements, and their pupils contracted sharply. However, being well-trained assassins, their reactions were quick, and a third blade slashed horizontally toward Daozhen's neck.

Dao Zhen neither dodged nor evaded; he pressed down with his right hand in a sword gesture, his two fingers precisely clamping the back of the longsword.

The knife seemed to be clamped in iron clamps, suspended in mid-air, completely motionless.

The man holding the knife used all his strength, veins bulging on his forehead, but the knife seemed to be rooted to the spot, and he couldn't pull it back no matter what he did.

Daozhen gently pushed his finger away.

The man felt a tremendous force coming from the blade, as if he had been hit head-on by a charging bull. He was sent flying backward, blade and all, and his back slammed heavily against the courtyard wall with a thud. Tiles on the wall fell down in a flurry.

The other two were horrified when they saw this, but it was too late to retreat.

Daozhen took a step forward, his figure appearing before the two like a ghost. He withdrew his right hand from the sword gesture, turned his fingers into a palm, and gently pushed forward.

That palm strike looked light and airy, like a casual slap, without any force.

But the two men felt as if they had been hit hard, and their bodies flew backward involuntarily.

Both of them felt a tightness in their chests and a sweet taste in their throats at the same time. With a "poof," they both spat out a mouthful of blood and fell heavily to the ground.

The long sword slipped from his hand and fell to the ground with a few crisp clanging sounds, which were particularly jarring in the night.

The three people lay on the ground, unable to move.

Their eyes were still open, filled with shock and disbelief, as they watched the white-robed Taoist slowly withdraw his hand, as if he had done something insignificant.

Hurried footsteps could be heard outside the courtyard.

The commotion here clearly alerted the guards patrolling outside.

Light streamed in from outside the courtyard gate, someone was shouting something, and then a jumble of footsteps rushed into the courtyard.

The leader was a middle-aged man in black armor. He led a group of soldiers in and rushed in. They expected to see a fierce battle, but instead they only saw three men in black lying on the ground, blood at the corners of their mouths, with long swords scattered all over the ground.

The white-robed Taoist was standing in the center of the courtyard, his robes perfectly straight.

The team leader paused for a moment, then reacted, waving his hand: "Take these three down!"

Several soldiers stepped forward, tied the three men in black up, and took them aside.

The leader walked up to Daozhen, clasped his hands in a respectful bow, and said, "Master, you've been frightened. I'll go and inform the young lady right away."

Daozhen nodded without saying a word.

The news spread very quickly.

Before long, hurried footsteps came from outside the courtyard gate. Xie Ning had arrived. She was still wearing that light blue dress, and her hair was tied up with a wooden hairpin.

Xie Ning walked quickly, almost jogging, into the courtyard, followed by a middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man was about forty years old, wearing a dark green robe, with a calm face, a short beard on his chin, and a pair of sharp, restrained eyes.

After entering the room, he did not rush to speak. Instead, he first glanced at the bloodstains on the ground and the three long swords, then looked at the three black-clad men who were bound hand and foot, and finally fixed his gaze on Daozhen.

The middle-aged man's gaze lingered on Daozhen for a moment, his eyes narrowing slightly as if he were examining something, but he said nothing.

Xie Ning walked up to Dao Zhen, looked him up and down to make sure he was unharmed, and then asked, "Are you alright?"

Daozhen shook his head: "It's nothing."

Daozhen glanced at the three men in black and added, "These three are temporarily incapacitated. You handle it."

Xie Ning followed his gaze and saw the three men in black forced to kneel on the ground, heads bowed, silent. She recognized one of them, her eyes flashing slightly coldly, but she quickly composed herself.

"Okay." Xie Ning nodded calmly.

Then she turned around and ordered the guards behind her, "Take these three away and interrogate them thoroughly."

"Yes!" Several guards responded and took the three men in black away.

Xie Ning stood there, watching the three people being led out of the courtyard, his expression complex and hard to decipher.

She was silent for a moment before turning to Daozhen and saying, "What happened tonight was my oversight. I will strengthen the security here."

Xie Ning paused, seemingly wanting to say something more, but in the end he simply nodded to Dao Zhen and hurriedly left with the middle-aged man.

The footsteps faded into the distance, and the courtyard gate closed again.

Before long, a new squad of guards was brought in and surrounded the courtyard completely.

The light from the torches shone through the courtyard wall, casting bamboo shadows onto the white wall, which swayed slightly with the firelight.

Daozhen stood in the courtyard, watching the swaying bamboo shadows with a calm gaze.

"It seems the Xie family is about to cause trouble."