The instant Qin He's boot soles touched the wet mud at the edge of the great marsh, his brow twitched sharply.
Three figures in silver armor streaked across the distant sky. The crisp clatter of their armor plates drifted along the wind, while the gilded characters "Divine Punishment" on their chests gleamed dazzlingly beneath the sun.
They did not fly particularly fast, yet they swept over the marsh in a triangular formation, their gazes skimming across every reed bed like hawks.
This was already the fifth patrol he had encountered within half an hour.
He lowered his conical hat and shrank deeper into the reeds.
Just as his fingertips touched the icy mudwater, a swath of golden light suddenly flared in the west. It came without warning, like the noonday sun crashing down all at once, instantly engulfing a radius of more than two hundred li.
The Sky-Seeking Mirror!
Qin He sank beneath the water almost on instinct. Muddy water smeared over his nose and mouth, leaving only a tiny gap through which to breathe.
Golden light flowed across the water's surface, illuminating the reed leaves until they became translucent. He could clearly feel that penetrating force sweep across the Demon Shell protecting his body, making his heart skip half a beat in fright.
Three breaths later, the golden glow faded.
When he surfaced, he realized that the Demonic Essence within him had nearly been stirred by that golden light. Had he been half a breath slower, he would already have been a turtle in a jar.
Fortunately, the Demon Shell Method restrained all the Demonic Essence leaking from his body and kept it from spilling out. Together with several methods of concealing the secrets of heaven, he had escaped detection. Had even one been missing, he could never have