After Situ Yun stopped his attack, he took a few steps back.
Just now, the spiritual art he used was extremely powerful. He had never intended to spare the life of that young man. In Situ Yun's view, the little girl might still have a chance to repent, but from the look in that young man's eyes, all Situ Yun could see was killing intent.
For such a young man, Situ Yun had never planned to hold back from the moment he launched his attack.
If he hadn't heard that call at the last moment, the young man named Mo Bai would probably be a ghost under Situ Yun's hands by now.
"Who are you?"
After stabilizing his body, Situ Yun took two more steps towards Zhao Shuning, his tone full of suspicion.
"Do you know me?"
In this world, the only one who dared to address him like this was the bold and audacious Empress Ye Ling.
But Ye Ling had been dead for eight years, and there was no mistake about that.
Moreover, what kind of powerful backer did this little girl have? Even the heads of the four great families didn't dare to address him by his name so disrespectfully. But this little girl did.
Zhao Shuning looked around.
She had been a bit too hasty before and had called him that out of habit.
Everyone present now was not a good person. If she said something wrong, it wouldn't be long before Nan Tianyuan spread it to Wang Cheng of the Wang family.
And judging from the current situation, her current strength was not enough to confront any of the four great families head - on.
Admitting her identity now would be like seeking death.
"Of course I know you, sir. You are Lord Situ, the great protector of the Chu family in Changwu Fort, Zhoujiang."
Situ Yun frowned, and the sense of familiarity that he had felt earlier suddenly disappeared.
"Miss Zhao, you actually dare to address the siblings of the Chu family by their names and mock Lord Situ like this. It's fine if you don't put me, Nan, in your eyes, but Lord Situ has a certain status in the Eastern Ze Wilds. How dare you look down on him like this?"
As soon as Nan Tianyuan saw that Situ Yun looked displeased, he quickly added fuel to the fire.
He was afraid that if he missed this opportunity, Situ Yun wouldn't help him.
"Hey, Nan Tianyuan, did you get up too early today and forget to brush your teeth?"
Nan Tianyuan glared at her angrily and said, "What do you mean?"
"Otherwise, why does your mouth stink so much? You've been spouting nonsense non - stop."
After Zhao Shuning said this, she covered her nose with one hand and waved the other hand aside.
"Old thief Nan, I've told you in advance that this is a feud between me and your Nan family. If you don't have the ability, why drag others into it? You're just sitting on the sidelines, hoping to profit from the fight. But don't you think that our Lord Situ is so smart that he would let you use him as a tool?"
Zhao Shuning was actually right about this.
In her memory, Situ Yun was a straightforward person.
He was definitely an upright man, and because of this, he couldn't tolerate any evil in his eyes. So when Mo Bai launched a killing move from the start, Situ Yun thought that such a person couldn't be left to harm the Eastern Ze Wilds.
When Zhao Shuning said this, rather than blaming Nan Tianyuan, it was more like she was waking Situ Yun up.
Sure enough, Situ Yun said,
"Master Nan, after all, this is not a matter of my Chu family, so it's not appropriate for me to intervene. If I were to cause a death, it would surely have nothing to do with your Nan family. All the blame would fall on my Chu family. You know the personalities of my two family heads. If I really did this, I'm afraid they would get in touch with each other and come to Qingning to talk to Master Nan."
Oh, little Yunyun has grown up. His mouth has become so sharp.
It's no longer like before when she just teased him a little and he would be at a loss and blush.
After Situ Yun finished speaking, he sat back in his seat.
Then he continued, "However, little girl, you should be magnanimous when you can. The young man beside you has too much killing intent. He still can't be spared."
Mo Bai could basically understand what everyone was saying now.
After all, he had grown up among people when he was a child. It was just that he had an accident when he was a bit older and was trapped in a dark cave in the Piao Miao Mountain.
Although his childhood memories were blurry, it only took him some time to learn to understand what people were saying.
So, when he suddenly heard Situ Yun say this, his eyes became fierce again.
Zhao Shuning quickly covered Mo Bai's hand and gently shook her head.
The fierceness in Mo Bai's eyes quickly dissipated.
"Lord Situ, please rest assured. Mo Bai is my man. I will surely take good care of him and regulate his behavior. Just now, he only attacked because he received my order. If you have any anger, you can direct it at me."
Situ Yun smiled but didn't respond.
He was a man in his thirties. Why would he care about a child?
Now it seemed that this little girl was the only one who could control the young man's temper. As long as the young man didn't kill and commit crimes randomly while following her, it was a good thing.
Zhao Shuning lightly jumped and stood in front of Situ Yun.
Except for Situ Yun, all the other merchants around quickly flashed to the other side.
"Lord Situ, if you have a chance, please give my greetings to your master."
"Do you think my master is someone you can meet whenever you want? Arrogant brat."
Zhao Shuning burst into laughter. She put her little hands behind her back and then said loudly, "I can't meet your master now, but it doesn't mean I'll never be able to."
Seeing that the situation had deviated too much from his expectations, Nan Tianyuan quickly said, "Lord Situ, what about the clues you want?"
"What? Is Master Nan trying to threaten me, Situ Yun, with this?"
Nan Tianyuan's strength was far inferior to Situ Yun's, so he naturally didn't dare to resist him.
He quickly said, "I wouldn't dare. But if something happens to the Nan family, it might affect Lord Situ's plan."
Situ Yun looked displeased.
He said to Zhao Shuning, "Little girl, I don't know what deep hatred you have with Master Nan, but you can't take his life. If you do, I won't show you any mercy."
Zhao Shuning gave a charming smile and raised her left eyebrow slightly.
This action seemed very familiar to Situ Yun.
She was just like a mini - version of Ye Ling.
"Of course I won't. I've said before that I'm keeping Master Nan alive because he's still useful. It's just that Master Nan likes to distort the facts and wrongly accuse others. From beginning to end, have I ever said that I wanted to kill him?"
"Miss, then what about us—"
Only then did Zhao Shuning notice that those merchants had been huddled together quietly for a long time.
These merchants were basically profit - seeking. Greed was human nature, and they didn't deserve to die. Zhao Shuning wasn't that cruel, and she wouldn't implement the law of collective punishment.
"Do you want to leave?"
Those merchants nodded frantically.
"You can leave if each of you pays two hundred gold coins."
Two hundred gold coins was only a quarter of their family assets.
"This—"
"Mo Bai!"
"Miss, please calm your anger! We'll send someone to get the money from home right away. Please wait a moment!"