A short sword was flying in the air, seemingly alive, continuously assaulting Ye Qing. Even though Ye Qing could always deflect the short sword, he was still entangled by it, making it impossible for him to escape.

Ye Qing had never encountered such a situation before. After being attacked by the short sword a few times, he suddenly dashed towards the woman. Since this short sword kept attacking him incessantly, it must have something to do with her, so Ye Qing decided to take her down first!

However, the short sword indeed seemed to have a mind of its own. Seeing Ye Qing attacking the woman, it immediately rushed forward, trying to block Ye Qing.

Ye Qing had been blocked by the short sword over a dozen times, and he was already feeling annoyed. Now, as the short sword attacked again, Ye Qing suddenly reached out and grabbed it, deciding not to deflect it anymore.

As soon as he grabbed the short sword, Ye Qing felt an immense force from it, pulling the sword backward. Even with Ye Qing's current strength, the short sword almost slipped out of his hands.

"Come back to me!" Ye Qing let out a low shout, forcefully pulling the short sword back. At this moment, he finally saw clearly that there were numerous nearly invisible strings attached to the hilt of the short sword, which were controlling its movement.

"So that's how it is!" Ye Qing realized, thinking he was seeing things. How could this short sword attack on its own? It turned out to be manipulated by these strings.

Seeing the short sword taken by Ye Qing, the woman was visibly surprised and shouted angrily, "Return my Dragon-Slaying Dagger!"

Having figured out the mechanism of the short sword, Ye Qing was no longer bewildered by it. He casually tried to pull the strings behind the short sword, only to find, to his astonishment, that the strings were incredibly tough and could not be torn off.

"It is indeed a famed instrument!" Ye Qing slightly smiled and said, "In that case, I'll take this Dragon-Slaying Dagger."

Ye Qing tightened his grip on the Dragon-Slaying Dagger and pulled hard, trying to take the strings as well. However, despite using all his strength, he couldn't move it an inch; the strings seemed to be fixed.

"What's going on?" Ye Qing was puzzled and prepared to exert more force. Just then, a commotion of footsteps suddenly came from outside the small building, signaling that the manor's guards had noticed the situation here.

"No more playing with you!" Ye Qing quickly threw the Dragon-Slaying Dagger away, intending to turn and leave. Unexpectedly, as soon as the Dragon-Slaying Dagger left his hand, it flew back to attack him at lightning speed, making it impossible to defend against.

Ye Qing's expression turned cold as he grabbed the Dragon-Slaying Dagger again and said in a deep voice, "I don't want to be your enemy, yet you seek to kill me. If that's the case, don't blame me for being ruthless!"

As Ye Qing spoke, he grabbed one of the strings and sprinted in its direction. Since the Dragon-Slaying Dagger was controlled by these strings, there must be someone at the other end. Ye Qing planned to deal with these people first.

However, when Ye Qing reached the end of the strings, he was surprised to find no one there. Instead, each string was wrapped around a flower pillar on the roof.

"What's going on?" Ye Qing was puzzled and followed down other strings, but discovered that none of them led to a person. They either wound around pillars or stone pedestals, without exception.

Seeing the situation at the end of the strings, Ye Qing was utterly dumbfounded. He had expected the ends to be controlled by someone, which explained why the short sword had attacked him so dexterously. But now, having seen the ends of the strings, he realized his assumption was entirely wrong. The short sword was controlled not by people but by these fixed strings? But then why did it attack him so agilely?

Standing at the end of one string, Ye Qing attempted to release the short sword. The sword seemed to regain its freedom, turning in mid-air and launching another attack at him.

Ye Qing quickly dodged, and the short sword pursued him again, as nimble as a living creature, making it impossible to defend against. At this point, Ye Qing finally saw it clearly. When the short sword turned, the string wrapped around the flower pillar suddenly tightened, while the others loosened, controlling the sword's direction. After the sword changed direction, that string loosened and others tightened, transmitting the force to the sword, causing it to charge at him with incredible speed. The entire motion resembled a finely crafted mechanical watch, each part driving another, and although it was all string power, it made the short sword extraordinarily agile.

"What on earth is this thing?" Ye Qing couldn't help but ask. Even with his strength, he found it quite challenging to escape this short sword's entanglement. If another top-level master were to fall into this trap, it would be uncertain if they could escape.

Seeing Ye Qing handling the short sword's assault with such composure surprised the woman. She asked in a deep voice, "Who on earth are you? My Dragon-Slaying Dagger is deadly even to top-level masters, yet... yet you managed to avoid it?"

Even top-level masters would undoubtedly die; the woman indeed had confidence. However, after witnessing the short sword's power, Ye Qing realized that her confidence was not unfounded. The short sword's might was indeed exceptional. While a top-level master might not be certain to die, escaping from it wouldn't be easy either.

Just then, the guards outside finally rushed in. Seeing the situation on the scene, the leader immediately shouted urgently, "Quick, protect the young miss!"

Dozens of guards rushed up simultaneously, blocking that woman behind them.

"Get out of my way!" The woman was furious and said sternly, "Do I need your protection?"

The guards quickly looked at the leader, who felt embarrassed and whispered, "Miss, it's dangerous here, I..."

"Dangerous?" The woman suddenly slapped the leader and said coldly, "Do you think my skills are inferior to his?"

The leader immediately shut his mouth, lowered his head, and dared not speak. However, at this moment, quite a few people rushed in from outside, and the scene was clearly getting chaotic.

Seeing this situation, Ye Qing was very aware that if this continued and more people from the South Ridge Sect arrived, he would not be able to escape. He quickly grabbed the Dragon-Slaying Dagger, controlled it first, then climbed to the top floor to escape its attack range and then threw the dagger back.

Just as Ye Qing expected, the position surrounded by the ends of several threads was the Dragon-Slaying Dagger's attack range. He walked out of this range and saw the Dragon-Slaying Dagger flying and dancing wildly in the previously occupied area, but it could not harm him at all.

"Where do you think you're going!" The woman scolded angrily, leaping toward Ye Qing.

Ye Qing certainly would not linger here at this moment; he jumped directly from the rooftop to a nearby big tree, then leaped to the ground and had already left the small building's range. All the guards were now gathered inside the small building. When they saw Ye Qing running out, they hurried out to chase him. However, given their speed, catching up with Ye Qing was already too late. Ye Qing fled along the road and soon ran to the edge of the courtyard wall, climbed over it, and got out. By the time those people arrived and chased to this side, Ye Qing had long vanished.

Meanwhile, the manor was in complete chaos, with a part of the guards chasing after Ye Qing and another part going to protect that woman.

When the woman ran outside the courtyard wall, Ye Qing was already out of sight, leaving her so angry that she stomped her feet.

"Miss, miss, you should... you should go back first!" A few leading guards approached cautiously and said, "That little thief has great martial skills, and he might have accomplices, you..."

"Shut up, do you think I would be afraid of him!" The woman shouted angrily.

"Miss's martial skills are unparalleled, of course... of course, you're not afraid of this little thief. But..." Several guards were sweating heavily, and one of them whispered, "For someone to dare infiltrate our South Ridge Sect and have such high skills, he might have some ulterior motives. I think it is still necessary to notify the sect leaders quickly so they can decide what to do!"

The woman's eyes widened in fury, and she said angrily, "Hmph, for such a trivial matter, we still need to notify my father!"

"Miss, if it were before, there was indeed no need to notify the Grand Sect Master about these matters. But the situation has been different these past few days." The guard looked around and lowered his voice, "Recently, even in Bei Wu City, there have been many issues. The sect leaders also said to be vigilant, to make sure nothing unexpected happens."

Upon hearing this, the woman's expression slightly softened. She fell silent for a moment and then said, "Alright, call my father, and arrange a group of people to search this area. If any trace of that person is found, inform me immediately, do you understand?"

"Yes!" They quickly responded and took their subordinates to arrange these tasks.

The woman stood outside the courtyard wall, angrily looking around, clearly feeling very unwilling. However, she finally could only return to the manor in fury. Outside the manor, fifty or sixty guards began searching around, looking for Ye Qing's traces.

Meanwhile, beside the courtyard wall inside the manor, Ye Qing was leisurely sitting behind an artificial hill. In fact, right after climbing over the courtyard wall, he immediately climbed back in from another position.

The guards saw him climbing out and never imagined Ye Qing would return; they all ran out to search for him, never knowing that Ye Qing was actually sitting inside the manor. Earlier, the conversation between the woman and several leaders outside the courtyard wall, though spoken softly, Ye Qing heard it all clearly.

"The situation over these past few days isn't normal; why would they say that? What could be different?" Ye Qing crouched beside the artificial hill, watching the woman just returning from outside, frowning slightly.

Although he didn't know what the South Ridge Sect was plotting, this time he was even more sure that the South Ridge Sect definitely had some issues!