The missing person was none other than the male cultivator from the other pair of Foundation Establishment middle-stage cultivators.
Since the person who had disappeared was not a Purple Pole Sect cultivator, no one reacted unusually even after noticing his absence.
But when Lin Changheng looked at the female cultivator who had invited them, he caught a trace of misery and sorrow on her oval face and knew something had likely gone wrong.
The male cultivator might have met his end here.
Had he betrayed her, however, there would have been at least some resentment on her face. Though Lin Changheng had only glanced at her a few times, he had observed her closely and seen none.
The waters really do run deep...
Lin Changheng silently shook his head.
A saying widely circulated in the cultivation world still struck him as sound whenever he thought of it: never entrust your back to anyone, even a companion or a friend.
Lin Changheng truly lived by those words. Their influence had seeped into him so thoroughly that even Mo Zhaoli never saw his back fully exposed, and he saw nothing wrong with that. It was not distrust, but caution already carved into his bones.
Mo Zhaoli, on the other hand, dared to entrust her back to him. When Ye Qingwu had attacked last time, she had even shielded him behind her for a while. The thought tugged at his heartstrings every time.
"Fellow Daoist Lin."
Just then, a voice transmission tinged with seductive sweetness suddenly sounded in Lin Changheng's ears.
Naturally, Lin Changheng knew who had spoken. He turned his gaze toward the woman in colorful robes perched atop an old tree, a length of snowy-white leg swinging beneath her skirt.
His brows immediately furrowed slightly. Then, following the signal in her