Lu Changsheng's eyes snapped open, his gaze flashing like lightning as it instantly locked onto the water mirror.
The formation had not come under attack.
Instead, someone had touched the causal thread around its perimeter—with impeccable courtesy.
"Who is it? Who could possibly sense the causal thread I concealed in the void?"
Lu Changsheng's heart tightened.
He immediately formed a spell and widened the water mirror's view.
On the outskirts of Nameless Low Mountain, across the barren plain pocked with craters from the Great Witch's stomping,
two figures of otherworldly bearing had appeared at some point.
The one on the left wore a red robe and had a benevolent face. A peaceful aura radiated from him, as soothing as a spring breeze.
The one on the right wore a purple-gold crown and a feathered cloak, and held an ancient, yellowed scroll that radiated the boundless brilliance of the Dao of Earth. Though his hair was white, his face was youthful. Whenever his eyes opened or closed, mountains and rivers seemed to rise and fall within them.
Unlike the Great Witch, the two had not resorted to brute force. They stood quietly where they were, as though waiting for their host to respond.
Inside the cave dwelling,
when Lu Changsheng saw the face of the Red Robe Daoist on the left, he froze for a moment, then let out a long sigh of relief.
"Ancestor Hong Yun?"
"How did he find this place?"
Lu Changsheng's gaze dropped to the Five-Colored Jade Talisman in his storage bag, which had grown faintly warm.
This was the token Hong Yun had given him to repay his debt of gratitude, after Lu Changsheng had happened to save him on the Western Battlefield all those years ago.
"So he followed the causal thread tied to this