"Another hunt?" His voice turned cold.
Taichu nodded. "And not a small one."
"Even with her strength suppressed, Houtu is far beyond an ordinary Great Luo True Realm cultivator." Cangxuan's brow furrowed.
"For them to make her disappear, or even... kill her, they must have sent a formidable force."
"Damn it!" Hongchu slammed his fist into the ground, punching a deep crater into the hard stone.
"Those bastards are dead set on wiping us all out!"
First Zhou Ming, then Hongchu and Cangxuan, then Taichu. Now Houtu had joined the list.
They had all emerged from True Saint Yuan Chu's Inner World. As Returnees, they were like torches in the dark: wherever they hid, the flies drawn by the scent would find them.
"Something's wrong."
Zhou Ming's calm voice broke the silence.
All three turned to him.
"Ever since we left the Daofall Land, something about this has felt strange." Zhou Ming looked at each of them.
"Have you wondered how those people knew about us?"
Hongchu paused.
"How else? Our auras don't belong in this universe. Any Great Luo True Realm cultivator who looked closely could tell something was off."
"Noticing something is off and knowing exactly who we are are two different things." Zhou Ming shook his head.
"True Lord Tianhe, True Lord Chixiao, True Lord Hanchuan..."
"They and the people behind them could identify us as Returnees almost on sight."
"They knew we might carry True Saint Yuan Chu's legacy."
"They even knew the characteristics of each of our Great Daos."
Zhou Ming turned to Taichu.
"For instance, they knew you wield Primordial Qi."
Then he looked at Hongchu and Cangxuan. "And they knew one of you cultivates lightning, the other Zaohua."
"Most importantly..." Zhou Ming paused.
"They all knew the Primordial Universe Laws were suppressing our