Li Qingshan's steps suddenly faltered, and his heart jolted. That girl's instincts were incredibly sharp!
He had thought his disguise flawless. He had changed his aura, voice, and build, yet he hadn't expected her to recognize him anyway.
Perhaps it was the way he fought. Perhaps it was that Ice Sword. Or perhaps it was simply Zhou Taoyao's unfathomable intuition.
But he absolutely couldn't admit who he was—not now.
Suppressing the turmoil in his heart, he didn't even look back. In an even raspier, colder voice, he said, "Little girl, you've mistaken me for someone else."
Then, without another moment's hesitation, he blurred into a faint streak of blue and vanished into the depths of the forest, moving at astonishing speed.
Zhou Taoyao stared in the direction he had disappeared, her small mouth slightly agape. Confusion and a hint of stubbornness filled her eyes as she murmured, "Really... it wasn't him? But that feeling..."
Ye Lingshuang tugged at her and whispered, "Taoyao, don't say things like that. This senior's cultivation is profound. How could he be Li Qingshan? Li Qingshan disappeared more than twenty years ago. He's probably already reached the end of his lifespan and died out there! Let's tend to our injuries and return to the sect at once!"
She, too, had sensed a faint, elusive familiarity in that figure's back. But she trusted the gulf in their strength more. The senior had displayed power far beyond the Foundation Establishment Realm.
As for Li Qingshan, he had left the Spring Autumn Sect more than twenty years ago and never returned. Zhou Taoyao had asked about him and searched for him several times, but never found him.
Ye Lingshuang believed Li Qingshan must have reached the end of his lifespan and died.
After all, an Qi Refining cultivator over