Xiao Li stared fixedly at the youth who emerged from the woods, the leather whip in his hand having unconsciously drooped. He tried to find any trace of familiarity in the faint Dou Qi fluctuations and indistinct figure before him, but his efforts proved futile.
The face covered in greasepaint made recognition utterly impossible. His vigilance rose to its peak, and a powerful sense of danger gripped his heart.
"Who are you?!"
Xiao Li took half a step forward, shielding the subordinate still wailing on the ground behind him. The Dou Qi throughout his body began to circulate slowly as he assumed a standard defensive stance. He could sense that this strange fellow was definitely not a member of the Black Sand Alliance. His bearing was entirely different, far more elusive.
Up on the platform, Xiao Ding, who had been calmly observing the situation, now knitted his brows tightly. His perception was sharper than Xiao Li's, and he saw further. He could clearly sense that there were almost no Dou Qi fluctuations coming from the youth himself. They all came from that peculiar "weapon," flickering in and out, extremely faint. At most, their strength matched that of a One-Star Dou Zhe, and even that was unstable.
Yet the man he had just thrown out was at least a Three-Star Dou Zhe. Instantly defeating a Three-Star Dou Zhe so effortlessly with the strength of a One-Star Dou Zhe? That completely defied the iron laws of the Dou Qi Continent.
Xiao Ding's gaze swept back and forth between the black "fire poker" and the spinning bucket. He was almost certain that the youth's true threat came from those two bizarre implements he could not understand at all.
While the two Xiao brothers guarded themselves and speculated, Xiao Yi, who had emerged from