Xiao Shu's words hit the nail on the head; every bit of it was true. After hearing this, Li Bingyu's face flushed and paled in quick succession. She wanted to argue, but couldn't find any strong evidence to back her up. She finally dropped the pretense and laid her cards on the table.

"That’s right, we are here to apprehend you. If you come with us, perhaps you will see Ming Xiaoyu, perhaps you might even live. If you refuse, we will have no choice but to execute you on the spot. When your soul returns to the Sea of the Departed, we'll race with Li Xiaohao to fish you out. If we retrieve you, you’ll be the second Li Taiming, resurrected via a Life-and-Death Pact, and you won’t even have a chance at reincarnation until you’ve killed ninety-nine people." Having said this, Li Bingyu steeled her resolve, drew a gleaming scythe from behind her back, bent her knees, and sprang three feet into the air with a whoosh, swinging the weapon down at Xiao Shu’s head.

Xiao Shu certainly wasn't going to stand there and wait to be cleaved. Before the scythe was halfway down, he flashed to the side, simultaneously shoving Zhang Yuqiu far away, saying, "Go quickly! If their people get here, you won't be able to leave."

Zhang Yuqiu hesitated for a moment, then called out to Hou Dayong in a strained voice, "It’s up to you!" Hou Dayong turned and gave her a thumbs-up. With that, Zhang Yuqiu bolted like an arrow and quickly vanished from sight.

Li Bingyu’s first strike missed its mark. She landed steadily, shifting her assault to Xiao Shu’s lower body. She leaped up from a low stance, whirling the scythe toward Xiao Shu’s legs. Xiao Shu dodged left and weaved right, unable to keep up with the flurry. Hou Dayong, seizing the moment while she was focused intently on Xiao Shu, suddenly sprang from the ground and landed squarely on Li Bingyu's incessantly moving back, raking his sharp claws across her spine with vicious force.

A sharp scream tore from Li Bingyu as she straightened up, wildly sweeping the scythe backward in an attempt to strike Hou Dayong from behind. Hou Dayong, with his monkey physique, was extraordinarily agile. Seeing the blade drop suddenly from above, he scrambled up Li Bingyu’s arm and onto her left shoulder. Just as he prepared to evade again, Li Bingyu dropped the blade with a clatter (clang), grabbed the monkey’s head with her right hand, and wrenched and squeezed him off her shoulder.

Xiao Shu had just extricated himself from Li Bingyu’s low attacks. He took a sharp look and thought, This is bad! He had no choice but to pull out his switchblade. While she was grappling with Hou Dayong, he gripped the hilt and plunged it viciously toward her right shoulder. However, having suffered one setback, Li Bingyu was not about to be fooled twice. Even while fighting Hou Dayong, she had never lowered her guard against Xiao Shu. Seeing the deadly weapon approaching, she spun around instantly, swapping the orientation of her shoulders, effectively positioning Hou Dayong as a shield against Xiao Shu’s sharp blade.

Fortunately, Xiao Shu had held back, using only three-tenths of his usual speed and force compared to Li Bingyu’s ferocity. Seeing her use Hou Dayong as a human shield, he immediately retracted his hand, changed tactics, and delivered a sweeping leg kick to Li Bingyu’s torso. This maneuver was much faster than his previous movements. Li Bingyu only caught a fleeting glimpse—she hadn't even processed what was happening—before Xiao Shu’s sweep sent her tumbling backward. Xiao Shu expected her to crash onto her back. Unexpectedly, Li Bingyu did not fall. A person shot out from behind her and steadied her nearly collapsing body. Seeing reinforcements arrive, Hou Dayong jumped clear of Li Bingyu while the two newcomers hadn't established coordination, and bounced back toward Xiao Shu. Everyone focused on the new arrival: it was Fan Jia. And he wasn't alone; behind him trailed seven or eight Undying Beings, including the three who had fled earlier.

Xiao Shu thought to himself: Well, hot damn! This just got lively!