Because of this, Xiaoyao wasn't very anxious about this either. Even if these villagers had no solution, he could still go down. Even if he had to climb up from the cliff bottom, that would be possible, let alone going down.

Xiaoyao planned to rest here for one night, then make some preparations tomorrow and go down the mountain. Although the road down the mountain was somewhat difficult to travel, it was at least better than being trapped here. Of course, if the road could be opened immediately, he would still stay and wait a few days. Staying here to see the unique scenery wouldn't be bad either.

It's just that he believed this was basically hard to achieve. Even if the situation here was resolved immediately, it would still take some time to rebuild the iron chain bridges, and the situation here seemed very difficult to resolve quickly.

"You mean this isn't just one person?" Xiaoyao asked the villager. He had only seen one person, but the villager's way of speaking indicated there was definitely more than one person.

"Of course it's not just one person. If it were just one person, we wouldn't let him do this—we have some defensive capabilities here too," the villager said. "They seem to have twenty or thirty people, apparently being pursued here, looking quite bedraggled. Strangely, they all seem to be young people, including several very beautiful girls."

"I see," Xiaoyao nodded. He didn't inquire about the specifics because such martial world pursuit incidents were too common in this world. He had no interest in managing whatever had happened to them.

"Thank you, big brother. I wonder if there's an inn here for lodging?" Xiaoyao asked with a smile.

"There is one, but it's currently occupied by those people. I don't know if you'll have problems going there," the villager frowned. If it were normal times, he would invite Xiaoyao and his companion to stay at his own home temporarily, but in the current situation, he didn't want to cause trouble and thus didn't want to take them in.

"I'll go take a look. If not, we siblings will just find a place to rest for the night and leave tomorrow," Xiaoyao nodded and said with a smile. Then he pulled Hei Xue along and left.

"Should I control them? That would be very simple," Hei Xue asked Xiaoyao at this time. The control she mentioned was naturally using demonic sound to control people. People below God Level found it very difficult to resist her demonic sound, and these people definitely wouldn't be at God Level. Having one at Saint Level would be remarkable.

"No need. Let's first see what's going on. If they don't provoke us, we shouldn't get involved either," Xiaoyao said.

"Mm," Hei Xue nodded. She also didn't want to get involved in other people's affairs, especially at this time, which could be said to be her and Xiaoyao's time for a romantic getaway.

Throughout the journey, she had been treating this as a sweet trip between the two of them. Regardless of whether Xiaoyao thought of it this way, she considered it as such. Therefore, she was even more annoyed than Xiaoyao when others came to bother them.

"It's you!"

When Xiaoyao and his companion arrived at the inn for lodging, someone inside actually exclaimed in surprise at him, because the other party recognized him. Moreover, this other party was actually one of the group that had cut down the iron chain bridges.

However, Xiaoyao still didn't know this person was one who had cut the iron chain bridges. He was also surprised to encounter this person in this place.

"Isn't this that... what's-his-name? Let me think..." Xiaoyao smiled. This was deliberate—he still remembered what this person was called, but was just teasing him. He quite disliked this person.

"... Don't pretend. You definitely remember me. Tell me, what's your name?" this person said with cold anger. He seemed to still not know what Xiaoyao was called, or didn't know Xiaoyao's real name.

"I'm called Lu Renjia. Didn't I already tell you?" Xiaoyao smiled.

Lu Renjia? Hei Xue was stunned for a moment. She was still wondering why Xiaoyao suddenly used this name, but quickly discovered the subtle meaning behind it. She couldn't help but laugh softly, without any concealment.

"Get lost! Do you think I'm an idiot? Who doesn't know you mean 'Passerby A'? This isn't your real name at all," that person said angrily.

"Ah, I've been discovered," Xiaoyao looked surprised, which made that person even angrier, while others couldn't help wanting to laugh. They just couldn't be as unrestrained as Hei Xue since they were all together with this person.

"Actually, what I'm called isn't important. If you really want to know my name, I'll tell you. I'm called Le Xiaoyao, and this is my sister, Le Xiaoxue. Please take care of us," Xiaoyao said with a smile.

"Hmph," Hei Xue just snorted coldly. Obviously she didn't want to get acquainted with this person. Her arrogance was much stronger than the other party's, especially with this person's attitude toward Xiaoyao—she was even more displeased.

"Le Xiaoyao? This name—are you making it up again?" that person frowned. This name sounded quite casual.

"I'm serious! Let's not talk about this. I want to ask you—how are you here? This isn't your country," Xiaoyao asked.

"That's none of your business. We still haven't settled accounts from last time."

"That was several years ago. How can you be so petty, still remembering those trivial matters?" Xiaoyao said unconcernedly.

"Trivial matters? You impersonated my identity and caused me trouble. My life when I started at the Huangpu Family was simply hellish. That woman called Heart Moon Fox..."

That's right, this person was Li Yihun, that "wise man" from the Huangpu Family recruitment. He had been toyed with by Xiaoyao, and then Xiaoyao had impersonated his name. When Heart Moon Fox was bored, even though she knew Xiaoyao was just impersonating him, she still messed with Li Yihun, making his life immediately tragic.

"You were targeted by Heart Moon Fox?" Xiaoyao looked at Li Yihun with great confusion. He still didn't know about this matter. He had originally thought this affair would at most involve Cuihua and the others taking action, causing some minor trouble at most. He hadn't expected Heart Moon Fox to personally intervene.

Thinking of Heart Moon Fox's personality, this wasn't impossible either. At the same time, if Heart Moon Fox had really intervened personally, then Xiaoyao only wanted to say one thing to Li Yihun:

"You poor thing!"

"You know too! I don't know... damn, why am I telling you this? You're the one who caused me to be like that. Now that you've fallen into my hands, heh heh..." Li Yihun reacted and looked at Xiaoyao with a somewhat sinister smile.

"Cough cough, actually it's been so long since that happened. Let's not bring it up anymore. Besides, what do you mean 'fallen into your hands'? I'm just here for lodging. I'm quite free," Xiaoyao said with a smile.

"This matter isn't over! I'm telling you, this place is now under our control. You being here now means you've fallen into my hands. Do you understand?" Li Yihun said.

"Under your control? So you're the ones who cut down those iron chain bridges. You people are really bastards. You cut down the iron chain bridges—how are we supposed to leave?" Xiaoyao immediately understood and directly cursed the other party.

"..." Everyone here was immediately speechless. Didn't this kid recognize the current situation? He actually dared to speak like this.

"If you want to leave, I can send you down the mountain. As long as you can fly, you'll be fine," Li Yihun said coldly. Moreover, this sentence didn't sound like a joke. It seemed that if Xiaoyao agreed, he would definitely do this.

"You think I'm like you? I can't fly," Xiaoyao said irritably.

"??" Li Yihun and the others were all confused. Why would he say Li Yihun could fly?

"Xiaoyao, why do you say he can fly? Does he have this ability?" Hei Xue was also puzzled and asked Xiaoyao.

"Bird-people naturally can fly," Xiaoyao shrugged in response.

"Pfft..."

"Haha..."

"You're asking for death!" Li Yihun was burning with rage and jumped out, wanting to kill Xiaoyao with one sword strike. However, his swordsmanship seemed unable to deal with Xiaoyao. Back then it already couldn't, and now it was even more impossible.

Xiaoyao casually drew his sword and thrust it into Li Yihun's opening, breaking through Li Yihun's defense like cutting through bamboo, with the sword point directly aimed at Li Yihun's throat.

"I didn't expect that after not seeing you for several years, your strength hasn't improved much, nor has your swordsmanship," Xiaoyao said indifferently. At this time, his strength was already on par with Li Yihun's. Li Yihun had previously been at Early Emperor Level, much higher than Xiaoyao, but now, although he had progressed, Xiaoyao had obviously progressed much faster.

At the same time, he was using the Supreme Sword Arts. In these few years, he still hadn't fully absorbed all the previous sword moves, let alone new ones. Xiaoyao had long since completely mastered the Supreme Sword Arts, except for that final sword.

Under such comparison, his defeat by Xiaoyao's single sword strike became quite normal. After all, when Xiaoyao was so much weaker back then, he could still resist his attacks.

"!?"

Not only did Li Yihun not believe this result, but others didn't believe it either. Although Li Yihun's strength wasn't the highest here, it wasn't weak either. To think he was defeated by an unknown kid, and so thoroughly at that.

"Impossible! How could you possibly beat me? This must be a coincidence," Li Yihun retreated several steps, shaking his head. He didn't believe Xiaoyao had beaten him like this. Even if he couldn't deal with the other party before, it was because of the other party's good movement techniques, definitely not like this one-sword instant kill.

These were completely different concepts. It couldn't have reversed like this. It had only been two or three years—he couldn't have caught up to himself. He was also progressing, so there was no reason to be surpassed by him.

"Want to go another round? I don't have the time for this," Xiaoyao shook his head. He knew what Li Yihun wanted to do next, but he didn't really want to—there was no benefit in it.

"This isn't up to you!" Li Yihun didn't care about Xiaoyao's thoughts. He attacked Xiaoyao with another sword strike, this one using his strength to the limit. Whether Xiaoyao could handle it was none of his business anymore—even if he died, it would be the same.

(End of Chapter)