At that moment, Patriarch Ye was speaking with Liu Xuanming. Both wore grave expressions.
But as their conversation reached its final exchange, Qin An sensed something strange.
He had been listening, yet for some reason, a wave of dizziness swept through his mind.
At the same time, Qin An felt an unseen force calling to him, urging him to look somewhere.
It was a vast expanse of sky. Golden sunlight covered it, and nothing about it appeared unusual.
Yet Qin An felt as though a pair of eyes were watching him from there.
He stopped listening to Patriarch Ye and Liu Xuanming and stared intently at the far end of the sky.
Through the golden Barrier, Qin An spotted something strange.
A faint wisp of poisonous qi was gathering at the edge of the sky.
It was so faint that he would never have sensed it without looking closely.
Qin An closed his eyes, and that unseen sensation grew stronger.
Then he heard a steady woman's voice.
The voice held a mature allure that made him feel at ease merely hearing it.
"I'll help you break this Barrier, but you must pay a price. You needn't answer aloud. Just give me your answer in your mind."
Qin An snapped alert. Coupled with the poisonous qi in the sky, the voice made him feel that something was wrong.
With that thought, Qin An asked silently,
Who are you?
The woman's voice came again. "We've met three times. Twice in dreams, and once in that Forbidden Land. You could say we're old acquaintances."
Three times? Twice in dreams?
The moment Qin An heard that, he knew who she was.
Wasn't she that terrifying Phantom Image I encountered at Myriad Poison Cloud Peak?
But why had the Phantom Image sought him out now?