Jian Fenghao realized this, and his heart sank.
"Impossible. I am a true cultivator, my sword heart clear and luminous. There is no way I could mistake an aura. Yet this is unmistakably Zhu He's aura. What is going on?"
Sword Qi burst from Jian Fenghao's fingertips, its keen radiance slicing through everything around him like a blade.
"Zhu He" did not resist. A sound like tearing cloth came from his body as he split into pieces.
On closer inspection, it was clearly a wooden puppet carved into a human figure, roughly the size of a palm.
Jian Fenghao froze. "It was wood?"
It was indeed wood-elm wood, frequently used on the Incense Path to make the cores of incense sticks.
Incense Path cultivators generally carried this ordinary wood with them. Sometimes they ground it into powder to make odorless sawdust.
Li Ling had used the Human Incense Method to imitate Zhu He's aura and infuse it into the wood, turning it into an Incense Path Divine Ability of mimicry.
This method could almost pass the false off as real. Jian Fenghao had never encountered it before and had ultimately been deceived.
Just then, mirror light shone, and the void turned upside down. Holding the Water-Moon Mirror, Li Ling had enveloped the entire surrounding space with the Mirror Flower, Water Moon Art.
Caught unawares, Jian Fenghao and everyone beside him were swept inside.
"What are you doing, Fellow Daoist Li?" Jian Fenghao asked in bewilderment. "Did you pretend to negotiate with us when your real aim was to lure us inside and kill us?"
He looked around and soon realized that this was a minor cave heaven created by a high-grade Magic Treasure. His gaze shifted slightly.
Li Ling said, "Fellow Daoist Jian, things have come this far. Why keep