"Smack!"
A crisp slap rang through the woods.
"Who gave you the nerve to act on your own?"
The man wearing a black hood sounded slightly hoarse, but it was easy to tell that he was deliberately lowering his voice.
A trickle of blood seeped from the slapped woman's mouth, and her face immediately swelled. Yet her expression remained wooden, without the slightest trace of fear.
The man pointed at the demonic cultivators beside her, whose identities had now been exposed. "And you went along with her nonsense?"
One of the demonic cultivators mumbled, seemingly wanting to say something, but the chill radiating from the man made him quietly shut his mouth instead.
The hooded man raised his head slightly, his lips curling into something halfway between a smile and a sneer. "Well, now you've done it. Your identities are exposed, and they've noticed you." He spoke through gritted teeth, wishing he could tear the useless fools before him to pieces.
"Someone's coming. Leave."
As soon as he spoke, black smoke rose from the two of them, and they vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye.
The hooded man snorted at Zuo Kexin, who remained standing there, then disappeared as well.
Had anyone been present, they would have noticed that despite being dressed entirely in black, the man showed no fluctuations of demonic qi whatsoever.
Zuo Kexin felt rather lost. She could no longer return to the Mystic Dharma Immortal Sect, because Hu Yucheng had clearly seen her face just before she left.
Still, Lin Jiaojiao should have been dead by now.
As though she had suddenly remembered something pleasant, Zuo Kexin's lips curled upward.
Xia Jue continued toward their destination with Su Jiu and Tong Qi, but barely an hour into their journey, he stopped.
His