Just as their gazes crossed, each harboring their own thoughts, they suddenly all looked outside the courtyard. Several unusual auras had appeared within the range of their Divine Thought.
"Native cultivators of this world?" Xuanji raised an eyebrow and glanced at the treasure light soaring from the courtyard. Understanding dawned instantly: they must have been drawn by the light and come to investigate.
Yet for some reason, all of them hid far away, watching cautiously without daring to come any closer.
"Just in time." Ming He smiled faintly. His Divine Thought surged out like a tide, silently enveloping the watchers.
"Why is my body flying on its own?"
"What's happening?"
Amid several terrified cries, a number of figures flew backward through the air, struggling. As though seized by invisible hands, they plunged straight toward the little courtyard, panic written across their faces.
Thud! Thud!
They slammed heavily into the ground. Before they could recover from the pain, four shadows fell across their faces.
"So this is the local cultivation system?" Ming He studied them with interest, offering his assessment through voice transmission. "Yin qi has accumulated within their bodies. They hardly look alive."
The natives wanted to flee, but their bodies could not move an inch. They could only remain frozen where they were.
One of them, a black-robed elder in the early Nether Gathering Realm, realized that the four standing before him were not ghosts or monsters, but cultivators with higher cultivation.
He forced an ugly smile onto his deathly pale face and said tremulously, "S-seniors, forgive me. I did not know this was your place of secluded cultivation. For my offense, I willingly accept punishment!"
Ming He did not even glance at him. His Divine Thought instantly invaded the elder's sea of consciousness. The elder shuddered, and the