When enemies crossed paths, hatred naturally blazed in their eyes. Liu Wuxie hadn't expected to encounter the woman from the lake here, yet she was now glaring at him as though she wanted to kill him on the spot.

When the woman passed by earlier, she found Liu Wuxie vaguely familiar but couldn't place him immediately. That was why she deliberately turned around for another look, only to recognize the shameless lecher who had peeped at her while she bathed in the lake.

A Profound Immortal aura instantly burst out from her and crashed down on the escort group from the Peace and Stability Merchant Association.

"Young Lady, please calm your anger!" Chen An cried out, dropping to his knees alongside the other guards.

The celestial realm maintained strict hierarchies. Although profound immortals didn't stand at the absolute peak, they were still unreachable existences for people from the Peace and Stability Merchant Association.

Only Liu Wuxie remained standing without kneeling.

Two maids stepped out from behind the woman and glared at Liu Wuxie, ready to strike at the slightest disagreement. "How dare you refuse to kneel before our Young Lady?!"

"She's neither my parent nor my elder. Why should I kneel?" Liu Wuxie asked calmly.

As for Chen An and the others, Liu Wuxie had no intention of interfering with their choices.

Every word Liu Wuxie spoke rang out clearly. Back at the lake, this woman had tried to kill him for absolutely no reason, and he had only survived because of Ghost Pupil. Without Ghost Pupil, he would've already died beneath her attack.

Chen An hurriedly tugged at Liu Wuxie's sleeve, signaling for him to kneel as well. Offending the City Lord Mansion's young lady would bring nothing but disaster. If this matter escalated, the Peace and Stability Merchant Association would never be able to conduct business with the City Lord Mansion again.

After all, more than half of the Peace and Stability Merchant Association's income came from the City Lord Mansion. Losing such a major customer would cripple the merchant association entirely.

"You're courting death!" The two maids attacked the instant they heard Liu Wuxie refuse to kneel.

One of the maids, a fifth-level High Immortal, raised her palm and slapped toward Liu Wuxie.

Liu Wuxie casually sidestepped, evading the attack with ease. He didn't want to cause trouble, mainly because he didn't want to implicate Chen An and the others. He knew perfectly well that if he retaliated, the City Lord Mansion would likely slaughter everyone from the Peace and Stability Merchant Association.

The celestial realm was far crueler than the mortal realm. Here, people were killed over the slightest offense.

"How dare you?!" The maid became angrier. If Liu Wuxie had obediently accepted the slap, they might've punished him lightly.

The moment Liu Wuxie dodged, the two maids attacked together and flanked him from both sides.

The woman standing nearby remained silent and allowed her maids to continue. She wanted to see exactly how long Liu Wuxie could continue dodging.

"Young Lady Ye, this is all my fault. I'll slap myself instead! Please don't lower yourself to his level!" Chen An immediately climbed to his feet and slapped himself twice across the face.

After all, Liu Wuxie had saved their lives earlier. If Liu Wuxie died inside the City Lord Mansion, Chen An would carry that guilt forever. A wise man knew when to bow his head, and Chen An willingly humbled himself in hopes of protecting Liu Wuxie.

Ye Linghan remained expressionless and merely glanced at Chen An coldly, forcing him to retreat a few steps.

"I don't hit women. Don't force me to act!" Liu Wuxie snapped coldly. He rarely attacked women, but that didn't mean he lacked the resolve to do so.

"You still dare to talk about fighting back? Then we have even more reason not to spare you!" The two maids didn't know of the feud between Liu Wuxie and their young lady, but they could clearly see that Ye Linghan despised him. Since that was the case, they naturally intended to vent her anger on her behalf.

Palm shadows filled the air as the two maids attacked simultaneously. Both possessed fifth-level High Immortal cultivation, and their combined assault carried impressive force.

Before long, Liu Wuxie found himself cornered beside a lotus pond. If he retreated any farther, he would fall directly into the water.

Seeing there was nowhere left to retreat, Liu Wuxie suddenly extended both hands. His movements carried no fixed trajectory as his palms appeared before the two maids instantly. He effortlessly neutralized their attacks before striking them across their shoulders.

Everything happened within a single breath. Even Ye Linghan's eyes widened slightly in surprise. She could clearly sense that Liu Wuxie only possessed eighth-level Heavenly Immortal cultivation, yet he had easily dissolved her maids' attacks and even counterattacked in return.

The maids and guards of the City Lord Mansion had all undergone strict training and possessed formidable combat ability. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The two maids flew backward immediately. Liu Wuxie hadn't tried to kill them and had merely taught them a small lesson. If he truly wanted to kill them, the two women would've already become corpses.

If Liu Wuxie had been alone, he wouldn't have cared at all. He could simply leave after killing them. But Chen An and the others were different. If he killed the maids and fled, the City Lord Mansion would definitely vent its anger on the Peace and Stability Merchant Association.

Ye Linghan suddenly moved. Her figure flashed through the air as she charged directly toward Liu Wuxie. Before she even arrived, an overwhelming chill exploded outward and instantly froze the lake's surface beneath a layer of ice.

Faced with the suppression of a profound immortal, Liu Wuxie had no chance of victory. Even if he unleashed every trump card he possessed, defeating a profound immortal was impossible. With his current combat strength, he could at best contend against a ninth-level High Immortal.

Confronted by Ye Linghan's attack, Liu Wuxie could only unleash the Divine Mystic Yin Needle in hopes of resisting her.

From beginning to end, Ye Linghan hadn't spoken a single word. Frost rapidly spread through the air and rushed toward Liu Wuxie's face. If the attack landed, Liu Wuxie would instantly become an ice sculpture.

Ye Linghan narrowed her eyes as the Divine Mystic Yin Needle shot forward and pierced through her attack. Even though she had only used thirty percent of her power, the fact that a mere heavenly immortal had managed to neutralize her attack still felt unbelievable.

However, the shockwave from her strike hadn't dissipated and continued surging toward Liu Wuxie.

"Young Lady, something terrible has happened! The city lord is injured!" Several guards rushed over from afar, led by a commander. They had already searched throughout the entire mansion for Ye Linghan.

The moment Ye Linghan learned of her father's injuries, she immediately pulled back her attack and rushed toward the commander.

"What happened to my father?!" she asked anxiously, unable to conceal the panic in her eyes.

"The City Lord entered the Dragon Burial Mountain Range today and was attacked by a mysterious creature. During the fight, a brief lapse in his concentration allowed the creature to bite him, and he now lies in critical condition inside the main hall."

Ye Guhai had reached the ninth-level Divine Immortal Realm. Anything capable of injuring him definitely wasn't ordinary.

Before the guard even finished speaking, Ye Linghan had already vanished from sight.

"Escort them to the side hall! No one is allowed to leave without my orders!" Ye Linghan's voice echoed from the distance, ordering the guards to detain Liu Wuxie's group.

This time, Liu Wuxie didn't resist. The guards weren't weak, especially the commander, who had already reached the True Immortal Realm.

Guards led the seven of them through several buildings before they finally reached a side hall.

At that moment, chaos had already erupted within the main hall. Faint sobbing echoed continuously through the area. Only a folding screen separated the side hall from the main hall. Although the people in the side hall couldn't see what was happening directly, every sound carried over clearly.

Using Ghost Pupil, Liu Wuxie saw everything inside the main hall with complete clarity. A middle-aged man lay upon a soft couch at the center of the room. His complexion looked pale, and a tiny wound rested on his right arm, resembling a bite mark left behind by some creature.

Although the bleeding had already stopped, Ye Guhai's condition showed no improvement whatsoever. His aura continued weakening steadily.

Ye Linghan remained beside her father and asked urgently, "When will Divine Physician Wei arrive?!"

"He'll arrive shortly!"

The guest elders and guards of the City Lord Mansion trembled nervously as they stood nearby.

The steward answered hurriedly. He had already dispatched people to invite Divine Physician Wei, the most famous physician in Fourfold City.

As a divine immortal, Ye Guhai should've recovered from ordinary injuries on his own. However, despite consuming several detoxification pills, his condition continued to worsen. He trembled constantly while his aura flickered weakly.

The members of the Peace and Stability Merchant Association secretly leaned against the edge of the folding screen and curiously observed the events unfolding in the main hall.

"We're finished! If the city lord dies, none of us will leave this mansion alive!" Several guards collapsed to the ground with pale faces.

Liu Wuxie walked toward the edge of the screen and activated Ghost Pupil once more. Everything in the hall came into view, and his expression changed slightly the moment he saw Ye Guhai's wound.

"Divine Physician Wei has arrived!"

A middle-aged man in his fifties entered the hall, wearing a white robe and carrying a medicine box.

Ye Linghan nearly dropped to her knees in desperation the moment she saw him. "Divine Physician Wei, please save my father!"

"Young Lady Ye, please rest assured. I will do everything within my power to save the city lord!" Divine Physician Wei replied solemnly.

Inside Fourfold City, only a handful of clans could rival the City Lord Mansion. For now, the City Lord Mansion remained the city's strongest force. The taxes collected throughout Fourfold City each year amounted to an astonishing fortune.

Everyone immediately stepped aside and cleared a path for Divine Physician Wei to examine Ye Guhai.

If Ye Guhai had merely suffered injuries from battle, immortal energy or pills would've been enough to heal him. But they had already tried every possible treatment, and his condition still hadn't improved.

Divine Physician Wei bent over and carefully examined the wound. Black blood continuously seeped out from it. The wound itself was triangular, resembling the bite of a venomous serpent.

The two guards who had accompanied Ye Guhai had already died, while Ye Guhai himself had fallen unconscious. Because of that, no one knew what creature had attacked him. If they wanted to cure him properly, they first had to identify the source of the poison.

If they administered medicine recklessly, they wouldn't heal Ye Guhai, but only kill him faster. Thus, Divine Physician Wei acted with extreme caution as he used bamboo tweezers to pry the wound open further.

The moment the wound opened wider, black blood began flowing out even faster. Two venomous barbs became visible along both sides of the wound.

"An Emerald Scaled Serpent has likely bitten the city lord. I'll prepare a prescription immediately," Divine Physician Wei announced after examining the wound for dozens of breaths.

When everyone heard the words Emerald Scaled Serpent, their expressions turned grave. The Emerald Scaled Serpent was infamous throughout the celestial realm as a nightmare creature. It could bypass the immortal energy defenses completely and burrow directly into a cultivator's body before biting them to death.

Only now did everyone understand how the city lord had fallen victim.

The Emerald Scaled Serpent was an exceptionally vicious immortal beast. It possessed incredible speed and a triangular mouth. Once it bit someone, the wound it left behind looked exactly like Ye Guhai's injury. Because of that, Divine Physician Wei's diagnosis sounded perfectly reasonable.

After speaking, Divine Physician Wei took out a brush and paper and quickly wrote down several medicinal ingredients.

"These are the two prescriptions. Grind one and apply it externally to the wound. Administer the other orally three times a day. After five days, the City Lord should recover," Divine Physician Wei said as he handed the prescriptions to Ye Linghan.

The medicinal ingredients listed truly were treatments for Emerald Scaled Serpent venom. Yet for some reason, Ye Linghan remained silent while staring at the prescriptions in her hands.

She had heard of the Emerald Scaled Serpent before, and victims bitten by it would indeed lose consciousness exactly like her father. However, she couldn't understand how such a creature could approach her father unnoticed, given his cultivation.

"Young Lady, I'll fetch the medicine immediately!" The City Lord Mansion maintained its own pharmacy, and the steward immediately accepted the prescriptions and prepared to retrieve the medicine.

A voice interrupted from behind the folding screen and echoed throughout the main hall. "If you treat him with those prescriptions, the city lord will die within two hours at most."

In an instant, more than fifty people turned simultaneously toward the side hall.