Probing Hearts, Taking Thoughts

Cultivate the immortal arts, shed the mortal form, and ascend to immortality.

This was the yearning for immortal cultivation shared by cultivators and mortals alike. Even in a place like Zhou Rao Continent, where cultivators schemed against one another and had to rely on plunder and robbery to maintain their cultivation resources, they still harbored beautiful hopes for ascension.

Xiao Li and the others were no exception.

Yet now, before their very eyes, four cultivators of unimaginable power had ascended in broad daylight. Heavenly songs accompanied them, strange phenomena appeared one after another—a wondrous sight indeed.

There was only one thing entirely unlike what they had imagined—

The ascendants showed no joy. Though they gave off an ethereal air, there was also something absurd about it. More importantly, it seemed that ascension had not been their pursuit at all; they had been forcibly driven into it.

And the one who had forced them to ascend was walking toward them.

For a time, Xiao Li's heart was filled with tension and fear—tension for his own safety, fear of his unknown fate, and fear of the overwhelming power that man had displayed.

Crack!

As Qiu Yan drew near, the Sword-Light Protective Formation laid down by Feng Zhantian developed cracks. Like shattered glass, those fissures grew denser and denser until, after several breaths, they covered the entire barrier. With a sharp crack, it scattered across the ground.

The flying swords forming the formation lost their luster at once and fell to the ground with a clatter.

That brought Xiao Li and the others back to their senses. Terror appeared on every face, and their thoughts grew increasingly chaotic.

"Senior..." At that crucial moment, Xiao Li silently called out in his heart to the "senior" who had given him so much help, but received