The young fighter lowered his head, and the others remained silent. That small humiliation was enough to remind everyone in the courtyard who had the right to speak freely and who still needed to learn when keeping quiet was wiser. Aunt Lan glared at the young man once before turning back to Rong Tian. “I told them from the beginning that people like those five did not come here looking for shelter. These children still had time to complain that everyone in the house was being too tense.” Uncle Wu gave a faint snort. “The moment one of those five lifted a cup, smelled the tea, and put it down without drinking a drop, the bravest mouths in this courtyard suddenly remembered how to close.” Several older fighters laughed briefly. The laughter was not friendly, but it made the young man’s ears redden even further. Aunt Lan tightened her grip on the cloth in her hand. “

The light-footed cultivator immediately leaped to the right. His white robe swept through the night before he landed on another section of the ridge, trying to open a new angle of attack. The man holding a talisman had already moved his thumb toward the paper seal. The calmness in his eyes was gone. “Protect your ears,” he warned. “Protect your mouth first,” Rong Tian replied. The man who had taken the sound strike lifted his head with a pale, furious face. “Demonic trash.” “And what does that make you?” Rong Tian stepped forward again. “Five men climbing onto someone else’s roof at night while pretending to speak about right and wrong. Have you forgotten what shame is?” At last, the central man moved. It was not a fast motion, yet the others immediately restrained themselves when his hand rose

The five white-robed cultivators adjusted their positions with greater care. The light-footed man moved slightly toward the right edge of the ridge, the talisman user stayed behind him, and the rigid cultivator shifted just far enough to protect the central leader’s blind side without appearing to hide behind him. The sharp-tongued swordsman remained on the left. Blood from his nose had slowed, but the stain across his face made the earlier humiliation impossible to forget. Rong Tian saw the resentment there and also saw that the man was finally capable of restraining it. That was more dangerous than anger. Their leader lowered his hand by a fraction. “One more time. We ask, and you answer.” Rong Tian stood with his weight balanced lightly over the roof tiles. “You climbed onto my house, insulted my family name, attacked first after your mouths failed, and

Rong Tian retreated only one step as the heavy sword came down. He blocked it head-on, and the impact deepened the numbness spreading through his right arm while a white talisman burst beneath his feet, throwing broken pieces of tile against his calves. The sharp-tongued swordsman immediately seized the opening and drove his blade toward Rong Tian’s waist. The point came dangerously close, but Rong Tian lowered his shoulder and allowed the edge to graze the skin beneath his arm, accepting the warm line of blood because the swordsman had already entered too deeply for his weapon to work at full strength. Rong Tian caught him by the collar, dragged him forward, and drove his forehead into the man’s face again. This time both his nose and lip split, spraying blood across the white cloth covering the lower half of his face and leaving the cultivator staggering with watering eyes like someone who had never expected to be beaten so cru