As Duan Jiangwei stroked the purple katana at his waist and muttered to himself, a voice suddenly rang out in the otherwise empty room. "What kind of joke is heaven playing?"
Duan Jiangwei's heart abruptly skipped a beat. The voice had come from behind him, stiffening his entire body as if a blade of cold light were pressed against his back, filling him with danger!
He did not turn around immediately. Instead, he used the senses of an Eighth Order peak-level expert to feel out the space behind him. He was certain that neither before nor now could he sense anyone there!
Duan Jiangwei closed his eyes, concealing the helplessness in them.
The other party was far too powerful—powerful enough to come right up beside him without his noticing at all. Even speaking from such close proximity, the person's presence had not approached his senses in the slightest.
And this voice...
The last time Duan Jiangwei had heard it was a year ago, when he had first obtained this purple katana.
He turned around and looked at this uninvited mysterious visitor.
Standing before Duan Jiangwei was a woman, one few people had ever seen, yet who appeared and vanished like a phantom.
"Long time no see." Duan Jiangwei spoke, a certain wariness and fear hidden beneath his calm tone. "Miss Gao."
The visitor was none other than Gao Manqiu, one of the three direct descendants of the Mysterious Family's Gao Family.
Gao Manqiu still wore an exquisitely elegant and noble gown. Her serene smile seemed unchanged for a thousand years, and the aura around her carried an inviolable dignity.
She stood openly before Duan Jiangwei and met his gaze. "The Duan Family Base has developed quite impressively over the past year."
Duan Jiangwei lowered his head slightly. "Thanks to the