My disciple, you are now invincible. Go down the mountain and wreak havoc on the world!

At the same time, the monitor by the bedside beeped loudly, and the heart rate line on the screen jumped up and down wildly as if having a seizure.

Yao Chen's expression changed drastically. Just as he was about to gather his qi to expel the poison, his head suddenly spun, and his knees buckled, almost causing him to fall to the ground.

His three apprentices behind him fared even worse; they collapsed into a limp mess, their eyelids drooping so much they were almost stuck together, and they didn't even have the strength to lift their hands.

"Young Master, this bewitching smoke is mixed with Netherworld Bone-Softening Powder, which is the most insidious method of the Netherworld Pavilion..." Yao Chen bit his tongue to force himself to wake up.

Ye Xunhuan held the limp Su Qingyuan in his arms, his fingertips still holding the half-eaten strawberry lollipop.

Instead of panicking, he smacked his lips and looked disgusted.

"this one?"

"It doesn't even taste as good as the orange powder I buy for 50 cents a packet mixed with water!"

"The poison makers at Youge are as bad as the nearly expired snacks from the supermarket downstairs. They just cut corners and fool people."

He may be witty, but he's quick with his hands.

He gently tapped the acupoint on the back of Su Qingyuan's neck with his fingertip, then took out a dark pill from his pocket, pinched her chin, and deftly inserted it into her mouth with a smooth and effortless motion.

Yao Chen didn't even see where he pulled it out from.

"Don't worry, my antidote is much more reliable than their lousy cigarettes."

"After a good night's sleep, I can easily eat three pounds of braised pork knuckle, let alone walk."

Ye Xunhuan gently placed Su Qingyuan on the sofa, and casually pulled a blanket to wrap her up, patting the blanket like he was comforting a child.

"Sweetie, you take a nap first. I'll go outside and swat some flies, then I'll come back and get you some grilled sausages."

He turned and walked to the bedside, holding a silver needle between his fingertips, and quickly pricked Grandpa Su's wrist and chest a few times.

The monitor, which had been alarming wildly, immediately stopped, and the heart rate line steadily returned to the normal range.

After doing all this, he slowly straightened up, dangling a lollipop in his mouth, and swaggered to the window.

Dozens of assassins stood on the rooftop outside the window, all dressed in black trench coats and black masks. In the moonlight, they looked like a group of black and white ghosts attending a funeral.

The leader, carrying a short knife gleaming with a blue light, spoke in a sinister voice through the half-shattered glass.

"Listen up, you people inside! Hand over the 'Medicine King's Scripture,' and then cripple your own hands and feet. In return, you may be granted a complete corpse."

"Otherwise, once this hypnotic smoke dissipates, you'll all rot into a pus-filled mess!"

The assassins behind him laughed along, their voices full of contempt:

"Yao Chen, you old dog, you've been hiding for twenty years, did you really think we couldn't find you?"

"Haha, following the clues, we've caught a little rascal. Let's take them all out at once and save ourselves the trouble later!"

Yao Chen was so angry that he trembled all over. He leaned against the wall, wanting to rush up and fight, but the Soft Bone Powder made him unsteady on his feet, and his hands and feet were too weak to move.

"Remnants of the Netherworld Pavilion! Today, I will settle accounts with you all for the ambush you launched against my Medicine King Valley back then!"

"Cleanse? You old codger who's about to die?" The assassin leader sneered and threw out three poisoned darts.

With a loud crash, the glass shattered and hurtled straight at Yao Chen's face.

The poisoned darts carried a foul stench, clearly soaked in deadly poison; even a slight graze would be fatal.

Yao Chen's heart sank, and he closed his eyes, thinking to himself, "It's over."

Instead of the expected pain, I heard three crisp "ding ding ding" sounds.

He opened his eyes and saw that Ye Xunhuan had somehow appeared in front of him, holding three silver needles he had just picked up from the ground between his fingers. With a flick of his wrist, he sent all three poisoned darts flying.

The dart was deeply embedded in the opposite wall, its tail still buzzing and vibrating.

"So noisy."

Ye Xunhuan, with a candy in his mouth, mumbled a complaint.

With one hand in his pocket and the other resting on the windowsill, he leaned half his body out, looking down at the assassin on the rooftop.

"I was in a good mood and was planning to pick up girls, chat about everyday things, and maybe even treat that old man in bed."

"What's wrong with you guys? Staying up in the middle of the night, climbing up the chimney, burning firewood, making this place a complete mess of smoke. Anyone who didn't know better would think this was a barbecue stall!"

"Security, are there any security guards here? Someone's illegally grilling skewers, are you going to do anything about it?"

He bit into the candy ball in his mouth, making a crisp crunch that was particularly clear in the quiet night.

"I have a good temper and I generally don't like to resort to violence."

"But there's one problem: you can bully me, but you can't bully the people who are with me!"

"You guys made my wife faint from the smoke, scared this old man in bed, and even prevented me from eating my lollipop."

Ye Xunhuan waved the remaining half of the plastic candy stick in his hand, his tone light and casual, "How are we going to settle this score?"

The assassin leader paused for two seconds, then threw his head back and laughed wildly: "Kid, who the hell are you?"

"Has your brain been ruined by the sleeping powder? You, a mere brat, dare to challenge our Youge Pavilion?"

"Who am I?" Ye Xunhuan scoffed and flicked his finger.

The unassuming plastic candy stick flew out with a "whoosh," piercing the assassin leader's ear and embedding itself deeply into the cement wall.

"I'm your grandpa."

"Wait a minute, when I tell you to kneel down and kowtow, don't forget to kneel down and kowtow."

"You scum from Youge, whenever one of you comes, we kill one; when a pair comes, we kill two."

"Don't even mention you bit players, even if your secretive, masked, and charlatan leader came, I'd still tear off his mask and use it as a spittoon."

Ye Xunhuan's voice wasn't loud, but it carried a domineering aura that made it hard to breathe.

The laughter on the rooftop abruptly stopped, like a bomb with its fuse lit, causing an uproar.

"Arrogant and conceited!"

"You ignorant fool!"

"Brothers, let's go! Chop him up and feed him to the dogs!"

A dozen or so assassins simultaneously pulled out their weapons—throwing knives, poison needles, machetes, and all sorts of other weapons—and rushed into the ward through the rooftop pipes and the outer wall.

They were all agile and skilled, clearly martial arts masters who had lived on the edge of death.

Yao Chen's heart tightened: "Young Master, be careful! These people are elite assassins of the Nether Pavilion, and they have many lives on their hands!"

"this one?"

Ye Xunhuan yawned, took out a handful of silver needles from his pocket, held a dozen or so between his fingers, and shook them like he was playing cards.

"They're courting death. It's a good opportunity for them to practice their skills, so they don't get rusty from eating lollipops every day."

As soon as he finished speaking, he flipped his wrist.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh—"

More than a dozen streaks of silver light pierced the air, so fast that only a blur remained.

The assassin at the forefront didn't even have time to let out a scream before a red dot appeared between his eyebrows.

He fell straight down from mid-air, landing on the lawn below. He didn't even struggle before his head lolled to the side and he passed out.

Before the others could react, Ye Xunhuan had already used one hand to brace himself against the windowsill and leaped out.

He moved as fast as the wind, lightly touching the rooftop railing before disappearing into the crowd.

As his ghostly figure flashed past, screams erupted like firecrackers wherever he went.

The Youge assassins, like moths to a flame, attacked Ye Xunhuan in dense numbers, then fell from the rooftop like dumplings being dropped into a pot, crashing onto the lawn with a series of thuds.

In less than a minute.

The rooftop was littered with people lying haphazardly, and the lawn was covered in red and white grime—all of them were dead.

"hiss--!"

The old apothecary gasped, staring at Ye Xunhuan in disbelief.

"Young Master, what's going on?"

"...This is...the lost art of the Electric Fire Needle Technique, which has been gone for over a thousand years?"

"Oh dear, oh dear—?"

"The Valley Master?"

"Our Medicine King Valley is saved! It's saved!!"