As Wu Chan's horse, closest to the door, reared up in fear, the group in the courtyard reacted with surprise, grabbing their weapons.
At that moment, the leaders of the Han and Lee families stepped into the courtyard, catching sight of the mounted group in front of them.
The leader of the Lee family shouted to the men entering behind him, "Don't let a single one of them leave this house alive! Kill them all!"
As chaos erupted with the sudden invasion of the house by the Han and Lee family leaders and their group of men, Wu Chan yelled toward his mounted men, "Quickly, follow me!"
Seeing the son of the town lord nimbly dodging the attacks of his men, the leader of the Han family shouted behind him, "Stop him! Don't let him escape!"
While the Han and Lee family leaders aggressively targeted the mounted men, the academy director and Lei To's men threw themselves into defending the riders, doing everything they could to protect them and give them a chance to escape.
After a brief but intense skirmish, Wu Chan, accompanied by a Martial Master sent by the academy director, managed to break away with about 15 men and their horses, heading toward the western door of the house.
As Wu Chan and his group were about to leave the courtyard, Lee from the Han and Lee families shouted, "Stop them! Don't let them get away! What are you waiting for?!"
Han supported Lee with a yell of his own, "Attack their horses!"
Though a few men from the Han and Lee families attempted to intercept the fleeing group upon hearing their masters' orders, they were aggressively blocked by Wu and Lei family members.
"Incompetents! If you can't do it, I will!" the Lee family leader muttered angrily, attempting to run toward the escaping group. However, his path was blocked by Lei To, one of the two leaders who had been observing the scene without taking much action since the Han and Lee families entered the house.
Blocking Lee's path with a wide grin, Lei To quipped, "We were just about to have tea—where are you going, Lee?"
Seeing that Wu Chan's mounted group had already left the courtyard and realizing he couldn't catch up, the Lee family leader turned his furious gaze to Lei To, his face twisted in rage. "It's time to settle this unfinished business!" he declared, pouncing toward Lei To like a tiger on the hunt.
The Han family leader, who also wanted to stop the escaping group, was likewise intercepted. Although he had quickly taken down a few mounted men upon entering the courtyard, he was unable to pursue the escapees as the academy director suddenly stepped in his path, blocking him.
Seeing Lee aggressively attack Lei To, Han, worried that Lee might make a mistake in his anger and get injured when the night had only just begun, called out to him calmly, "Brother Lee, there's nothing we can do. Look on the bright side, at least we've reduced their numbers."
Although Lei To appeared to be on the defensive against Lee's ferocious assault, he continued to provoke with a wide grin, "Let me guess—you plan to load the Purple Stone onto Earth-Horses and carry it away? But what happens if the horses die?"
Lee, seething with rage and wanting to tear Lei To apart, calmed himself slightly after hearing Han's voice. Turning to his men, he shouted, "No one else is to leave this courtyard! Do you hear me?!"
Lei To laughed coldly, his voice neither too loud nor too quiet but enough for everyone to hear. "For the first time, you've said something right, Lee. But there's one correction—you won't be leaving this courtyard alive, any of you."
Lee took a deep breath and, glaring into Lei To's eyes, growled, "We'll see about that!"
As Lee and Lei To clashed with clear intent to kill, Han and the academy director engaged each other in a much more composed exchange of attacks, outwardly focused on one another but inwardly calculating the situation.
The leader of the Han family thought, 'Now, our children are Martial Masters themselves, and they took two more Martial Masters with them. Since there are two Martial Masters in the group sent by the director and Lei, as long as they are careful, there's no reason they shouldn't be able to move the Purple-Stone westward from the town square.'
The leader of the Han family, while making his assessment without even considering the presence of the 15 men Wu Chan had brought with him, the academy director was, deep down, thinking anxiously.
'We have two Martial Masters, and since there's one Martial Master guard leader at the lord's manor, that gives us three Martial Masters. If we count those at the lord's manor as well, we have about 35 men in total.'
'Since Lee Zhong and Han Fei are Martial Masters, they might bring along one or, at most, two more Martial Masters, but the rest are here. If Wu Chan's group is careful as attackers, they should have no trouble killing the horses.'
Despite finding some reassurance in the balance of power between the two sides, the academy director couldn't shake a lingering unease. 'I hope they can reach the Purple Stone before it leaves the lord's manor. If I had known these maniacs were capable of something this insane, I'd have brought the entire academy here,' he thought grimly.
The academy director's thoughts were abruptly interrupted when Han launched a sudden, Earthly-Energy-infused strike toward his chest. Startled, he narrowly blocked the attack at the last moment.
Raising his head and looking at Han, who was three steps away with a serious expression, the academy director exhaled deeply through his nose and straightened his posture. Han, striking the ground with the tip of his metal staff, said with a little smirk, 'I was lost in thought and couldn't spare time for you, but I see you're distracted. Is something bothering you?'
The academy director silently stared into Han's eyes for a few moments before replying, "I was just thinking about something—the academy rules. If you thought I'd stand idle now like I did when this was just a family matter earlier tonight, you're mistaken."
Hearing the shift in the academy director's tone and observing his change in demeanor, the faint smirk on Han's face disappeared. "Then come at me!" he snarled coldly.
The reason for the academy director's completely changed stance in this battle, compared to the defensive posture he had taken in the previous one, was actually quite obvious—it stemmed from the academy's fundamental rules.
According to the academy's rules, anyone who interfered with the Purple-Stone without the approval of the city academy would face the academy's hostility, regardless of the reason. This meant that the academy director could now attack without worrying about the consequences.