At those words, their expressions all changed.
Ancient evils lurking underground were always the hardest to deal with. No one could say how many years they had slumbered, and their strength was utterly unpredictable.
With good luck, it might be nothing more than a skeletal puppet with lingering instincts; with bad luck, it could be a seasoned god of death, lying low to build its strength, with deadly moves concealed.
That sudden assault by vines across the mountain had been no strange change in the forest. It had plainly been a tentative probe by the creature.
Deathly silence spread through the dark woods once more.
No one spoke another word, and even their breathing unconsciously grew lighter. Secretly targeted by an unknown ancient being, they felt a chill like needles against their backs crawl up their spines to their napes. Anyone would have felt their heart tighten.
Zhao Yan planted his foot, and ocher patterns silently seeped into the black soil beneath him.
He did not deliberately activate a spell, merely using earth law to quietly alter the gravity beneath their feet. If there was the slightest disturbance in the surrounding soil, he would detect it immediately. Countless faint vibrations traveled through the earth from below, chaotic and ancient, wrapped in a heavy deathly aura.
Li Lie held his longsword half drawn, its silvery gleam restrained to the utmost.
The blade trembled faintly, and every scrap of dead leaf and fragment of stone drifting in the surrounding air froze in suspension. This was the instinctive resonance of metal law. An aura of sharpness spread out, severing every concealed strand of probing divine sense around them.
A haze of moisture surrounded Su Qinghan, and a thin film of water clung to the skin of all four men.
The film offered no