Before Broken Blade Hall.
Tao Tao stood beneath a great banyan tree before the gates, slender and graceful, like a fairy of Guye descending into the mortal world—beautiful beyond compare.
Even the Broken Blade disciples guarding the gate could not help but let their hearts run wild, losing focus again and again just to steal a glance at Tao Tao's bearing.
Yet Tao Tao stared fixedly at the two vermilion gates, her ears pricked as she carefully sensed the movements within the hall.
She feared missing Shen Yi's warning signal.
Suddenly.
She sensed a violent surge of true qi erupt behind the gates, carrying an incomparably sharp and unstoppable aura.
Even the air trembled from it.
Huh? Something happened?
Tao Tao's feet shifted slightly, and her figure drifted up like dust on the breeze. Instinctively, she was about to grease the soles of her feet and slip away.
After all, she was out in the world.
The elders' most repeated advice to her had been: if you can't beat them, can't you run? If something looks wrong, run first and talk later.
But in the next moment, she realized...
She seemed to have temporarily become Shen Yi's traveling companion. It seemed wrong to abandon her teammate so quickly.
Otherwise, wouldn't her Thousand Faces Divine Skill have been given away for nothing? Just as Tao Tao hesitated over whether to wait a few breaths...
Immediately after.
She faintly heard a low rumble of thunder.
Boom!
The two vermilion gates exploded into fragments.
A cyan figure shot out like a meteor crossing the sky, smashing into the woods with lightning speed. With a thunderous crash, it struck the forest, then with a dull bang, embedded itself in a towering tree.
Ji Congyun's calm, gentle voice slowly rang out:
"Today, the wanted criminal