Things were far more complicated than you had imagined. Jing, already an Immortal Emperor, showed a pained expression whenever he spoke of the riot. Following his words, you saw his chest, stripped bare of its Mirror Image Divine Ability—dense, thorny brambles had actually grown straight from his flesh! It was a truly horrifying sight.
According to Jing, when the second Fate Gate opened, not only did countless vines coil toward the members of the Witch clan's party, but five green-robed beings had also silently laid traps all around them beforehand. Working with the incomparably tough vines, they attacked the group and used the traps to prevent them from breaking through the encirclement and escaping for quite some time.
Among the five green-robed figures, even the three weaker ones possessed strength no less than that of lower-ranking Ancestor Witches. The remaining two were even more extraordinary. One was nearly equal to Jing, while the other was even more troublesome, surpassing him by a measure.
At this point, Jing's expression became somewhat strange. He hemmed and hawed, seemingly hesitating over whether he should say something. Only after your urging did he finally speak, but what he said made even your expression change slightly. According to him, after being cleansed by his Mirror Image Divine Ability, one of the two beings whose strength was not weaker than his had an aura and appearance extremely similar to yours—nearly ninety-five percent alike!
Jing's words also made Houtu's body tremble. Even she had never learned this from Zhu Rong or Jing. Of course, she had not asked about it either; she had only cared about how the six Ancestor Witches had died.
Before you could explain that you had never left Qingming Hetong Heaven during that period, Jing's next words cleared you of suspicion. As he