Li Ling's move thoroughly caught Elder Fu and Zhuang Dongwang off guard. As for Ju Huang, whose throat he had seized and who had been forced to spit out the Dragon Heart Stone, she was utterly stunned.
She had never detected Li Ling's presence at all. Startled, she struggled violently, but she still could not stop the Dragon Heart Stone from falling into his hands.
In the flash of lightning and flint, their figures met and parted. Moving like smoke, Li Ling had already separated from Ju Huang.
Poisonous miasma filled the cavern, its green clouds bleak and dim. The lava below cast a fiery glow, leaving Li Ling's figure somewhat hazy as he stood over a hundred feet away.
For a moment, they could not make out his face. Nor did it occur to them that he had arrived through soul projection; they assumed he had used some secret art to hide there beforehand.
Yet when their spiritual consciousness pierced the poisonous miasma and sensed his aura, they involuntarily froze again.
This aura...
It was so indistinct!
At that moment, Li Ling had empowered himself with the Incense-Form Art. His form dispersed like smoke, like a wisp of drifting fragrance.
They could clearly see him right before their eyes, yet he seemed both illusory and real, leaving them astonished, even shaken.
If he had previously hidden nearby and slipped in while Ju Huang held their attention, escaping their notice, that would have been understandable. But now, even as they stared straight at him, they felt as though they might lose track of him at any moment. It was simply inconceivable.
"Who are you?" Zhuang Dongwang asked gravely.
In secret, he had already linked his mind to the Dragon-Claw Flying Knife, ready to strike at any moment.
Amid the standoff,