"Rustle, rustle—"
A dense chorus of footsteps came from different directions in the forest all at once.
Several figures stepped into the clearing almost simultaneously.
Jiang Tian glanced to the side, looking through the gaps between the leaves.
It was Chu Feng and Dongfang Chonglou.
Each brought several people with him, entering the clearing from different directions. Three Azure Cloud Sect disciples followed behind Chu Feng, all of them steady in bearing, their eyes sharp as lightning.
Two fellow disciples from the Beast Taming Sect followed behind Dongfang Chonglou, the faint aura of demonic beasts coiling around them.
The first thing Chu Feng did after entering the central area was quickly scan the few White Lotus Sect disciples beside the altar, taking in their numbers, positions, and cultivation levels.
Then he turned his head toward the other side, where his gaze met Dongfang Chonglou's.
Their eyes met. They said nothing, yet seemed to reach a tacit understanding.
Then.
Chu Feng's gaze slowly, unobtrusively, shifted to the treetop of the large tree where Jiang Tian was hiding.
Relying on the almost instinctive acuity of his Induction Talisman, he precisely picked out the figure almost entirely blended into the trunk and foliage.
His eyebrows lifted slightly.
A flicker of doubt surfaced in his heart.
He had arrived late because he'd stopped to help a few fellow disciples who had been trapped along the way.
But he remembered this person...
Wasn't he that Foundation Establishment Early Stage cultivator from the Heavenly Fire Sect?
How had he arrived so early?
Could it be... that his earlier perception had been wrong?
Or did the man possess some kind of magical treasure that could mask his aura, even interfering with Chu Feng's Induction Talisman?
Chu Feng didn't dwell on the thought for long. He suppressed the