Leaving Qiao Rui behind, the other four members of the White Phoenix Team advanced cautiously.
"There are people a kilometer ahead. I can't pin down the exact number, but there should be fewer than five," Bai Xiaowen said, narrowing his eyes beneath a tree so thick it would take three people to encircle it.
"Are they the experts who crossed the border from Southeast Asia?"
"Probably. Humans and fiends have distinctly different auras."
Bai Xiaowen activated Psychic Shielding and said over the Team Channel, "We'll sneak up on them. Shu Yi, make sure you pick the right target."
"Don't worry. I've been wanting another fight with that guy," Li Shuyi said.
After another few hundred meters, they could see the corner of a palace roof deep within the miasma-filled jungle.
"Huh? What's a palace-like building doing in a jungle like this?" Li Shuyi asked in surprise.
"Maybe it has something to do with the fragments from this Spirit Realm collapse."
Before Bai Xiaowen could finish, a warning prickled at his senses. He glanced at his left wrist. The face on the Doom Bracelet wore a grave expression.
"Ambush!"
Bai Xiaowen barked the warning and drew in his psychic power, switching from broad-range detection to a precise search of his immediate surroundings. An instant later, a faint, slightly hunched figure appeared in the four team members' sight.
The hunched figure looked shifty but moved fast. By the time Bai Xiaowen locked onto him with his psychic power, he had already closed in, thrusting a long sword and a short sword toward Bai Xiaowen's back.
Clang!
Two clashes of steel rang out as one. Li Shuyi appeared behind Bai Xiaowen and caught the surprise attack cleanly with her twin swords.
The hunched figure knew an assassin's trade. When his strike failed, he