Before long, Chen Changming spotted a water lotus with white leaves amid a patch of lush green water lotuses.
This water lotus was rather small, hidden among the taller ones. It was inconspicuous and easy to overlook.
"White leaves?"
Chen Changming frowned. He had never seen a water lotus of this color before.
"Eh? You Vermilion Bird Guard have some skill—you're actually immune to a hundred poisons?" A man's sinister, surprised voice drifted from within the water lotuses.
"Someone?"
Chen Changming's heart jolted, and he instinctively tensed.
The enemy was hidden while he stood exposed. He had no idea of the other party's strength; if their cultivation far surpassed his own, he would be in grave danger.
"We are Yi Fire Third Squad of the Vermilion Bird Division, Azure Billow Royal City. We accidentally intruded upon your esteemed grounds and offer our apologies for any offense!"
Chen Changming clasped his fists toward the water lotuses, exceedingly polite.
Seeing that Chen Changming, a mere fifth-layer Spirit Transformation Realm cultivator, actually dared to use the Vermilion Bird Guard's name to pressure him, the black-robed man hidden within the formation sneered inwardly.
The Vermilion Bird Guard were precisely the people he killed.
Whoosh!
Beneath the water lotuses, the black-robed man put away the small formation and slowly floated up from the bottom.
The instant the black-robed man abruptly appeared, Chen Changming immediately assessed his cultivation.
When he discovered that the man was merely at the first layer of the Void Refinement Realm, he inwardly relaxed.
With such cultivation, the man could not withstand even a single finger of his.
Yet Chen Changming did not know the black-robed man's background, so he did not dare lower his guard too much. After all, back then, he had suffered a huge loss at Yue Li's hands.