In the middle of the night, An Moxue was preparing medicine in her space when she suddenly heard the cries of two little creatures.

She left the space, applied medicine to the door, put the two little ones into the space, hung a string of various medicine bags around her waist, dressed herself neatly, took out her Mo Dao (a type of long-handled sword) and hid it behind the door inside the house, then closed and locked the door.

'Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!' The sound of her feet stepping on the snow was faint, but An Moxue heard it clearly.

She listened carefully to the footsteps—

one person.

Two people.

Three people.

Four people.

Five people, a full five people.

Two people stopped by the window, and three people stopped by the door.

Only after the three people by the door pried open the door and entered the kitchen did An Moxue carefully move onto the kang (a heated brick bed). Once all three people who had entered the kitchen were inside the house, An Moxue suddenly thrust out the long-handled sword in her hand. A scream of "Ah!" shattered the quiet night, and even the neighbor's dog started barking.

The sudden action caught the enemy off guard. An Moxue did not hesitate for a moment and drew her Mo Dao.

Judging the other person's location, he shot again, this time with a muffled groan, straight out the window.

After inserting the blade, An Moxue didn't hesitate for a moment and immediately pulled it out. Neither of the two people outside the window expected that An Moxue would be able to make two cuts so quickly and accurately in such a short time, and that each cut would draw blood.

Several people were stunned by her behavior and paused for a moment.

Taking advantage of this moment, An Moxue opened the window, jumped out, and headed straight for the backyard.

No one expected her to jump out of the window and escape under these circumstances.

Several people quickly gave chase.

An Moxue didn't know where she had struck the two men, but judging from their footsteps, she knew they were all martial arts practitioners, and their skills were no less than those of the two men from last time.

She dared not be careless, avoided the traps under the courtyard wall, and when she was some distance away from the wall, she took a few running starts, leaped onto the wall, and jumped down.

The first people to arrive saw An Moxue jump onto the wall.

"Quick! Chase her! She jumped onto the wall!" The five people arrived at the backyard one after another.

Unaware of the trap beneath the courtyard wall, the group didn't take a running start like An Moxue. Two of the injured individuals, less agile, fell into the trap, while the other three narrowly escaped, leaping over the wall to give chase.

After entering the back mountain, An Moxue slowed down her escape. Only when she saw someone about to catch up did she speed up and continue running.

The two people who fell into the trap were impaled through the wall by the trap, and both of them had several wounds and were bleeding profusely. They were no longer able to give chase.

An Moxue's neighbor's dog kept barking, waking the neighbor up.

The neighbors heard the dog barking incessantly and realized something was wrong.

Having already experienced several unusual events at An Moxue's house, they didn't dare to go there to check. Instead, they followed Old Ma's instructions and went to the village chief and militia if anything seemed amiss.

Three people went out together to find the village chief and the militia.

The village chief was woken up in the middle of the night. Upon hearing that something was wrong at An Moxue's house, he didn't care about anything else and ran outside while getting dressed. He also told them to quickly find the militiamen on duty.

The group split into several groups and met at the intersection leading to An Moxue's house. When Village Chief Guo arrived at An Moxue's house with a team of militiamen, they found that the door had already been pried open.

The militiamen, carrying torches, saw that An Muxue's front door was open, the bedroom door was wide open, the bedroom window was broken, and there was bloodstains under the window. There was no one inside. They rushed out to check around and finally found two injured people under the courtyard wall in the backyard. The militiamen tied them up, leaving Village Chief Guo and two militiamen behind, while the other militiamen followed the footprints up the mountain.

Village Chief Guo called on the villagers to help him find Old Ma for questioning.

Old Ma arrived quickly, his eyes bloodshot, no longer the old hand he once was, his murderous aura impossible to suppress.

The village chief was unaware of the details, but upon seeing Old Ma's appearance, he knew that something was amiss.

When Old Ma arrived, he told two militiamen to fix the window first. He then went up to the two men and, without saying a word, severed all the tendons in their hands and feet. He then stabbed them seven or eight times. It was painful but didn't draw much blood. The two grown men screamed in pain, but Old Ma ignored them and continued to stab them.

Until one of them couldn't take it anymore and spoke up, saying, "Why don't you ask? Keep stabbing me, aren't you afraid of killing me?"

Old Ma slowly stopped what he was doing and said, "It's alright, you won't die. I know what I'm doing. I'll make sure it hurts, but you won't pass out. Don't worry, I've been using my interrogation skills on the battlefield for decades, so I'm still pretty good."

After saying that, she slowly inserted the dagger in her hand into his calf, and even slowly turned it around.

This slow torture was dozens of times more intense than the pain of a snap. The two men pleaded for mercy, but didn't reveal a single piece of information.

Old Ma guessed where the two men came from, but he wasn't in a hurry to interrogate them. He let them plead for mercy while his hands kept moving.

The dagger kept stabbing into the arms and legs of the two men. It was the first time Village Chief Guo had seen Old Ma like this. Fearing that someone might actually die, he called Old Ma into the house and asked, "Brother Ma, why don't you ask him why you keep torturing him? What if he dies?"

Old Ma smiled and said, "It's alright, I know what I'm doing, they won't die. These two are both martial artists. I severed their tendons to prevent them from retaliating. Ancient martial arts practitioners are not something militiamen can handle. It's better to be cautious. Besides, their vitality is stronger than that of ordinary people, they won't die so easily. Don't worry! These people won't confess until they've suffered enough."

"Brother Ma, do you think Mo Xue is alright?"

"He led people up the mountain, probably to prevent the villagers from getting hurt. Hopefully, everything will be alright!"

"Hmm, hopefully nothing's wrong. Why are they targeting her so relentlessly?"

"Alright, don't worry! I'll interrogate him a bit, and he should confess in a few more minutes. You go inside and stay there! It's best not to touch anything in the house."

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know which ones have been coated with medicine. When Mo Xue comes back, she'll have to treat you, which is troublesome. You should also tell them to try not to touch them."

"What?" Village Chief Guo was shocked. How could this have turned out so dramatically and frighteningly?

"What's the big deal? If you don't touch it, everything will be fine. Even if you do touch it, it'll just be a matter of taking an antidote."

"Brother Ma, this sounds unusual, how can you not be scared!"

"Alright, go sit on the kang and wait for my message."

Old Ma walked towards the two men, and soon they confessed. They had no choice but to confess; it was worse than death. How could there be such a terrifying person in this small mountain village?

Old Ma called over Village Chief Guo and said, "He confessed. Now gather some more people to chase after him up the mountain! Three people were chasing Mo Xue, and they are all ancient martial arts practitioners."

"What?!"