"All right! Since you refuse to come out, don't blame this young master for being ruthless!" Xiao Hua said coldly. "It was precisely because I saw that you hadn't taken the chance to launch a sneak attack while we were admiring the scenery that I spoke up and exposed you!" As he spoke, Xiao Hua waved his hand. From somewhere in the black-blue night sky at the horizon, vast masses of dark clouds came rolling in...
"What skill! You must be Xiao Hua of the Thunder Control Sect, known as the Terrifying Phoenix, yes?" A voice came from the mountain foothills several dozen zhang beneath them. A swordsman clad in dark crimson sword robes appeared bizarrely in midair, his face unable to conceal its shock.
Li Zongbao and the others were startled to see this swordsman approach soundlessly. When they saw that he actually possessed Illusion Sword Second Rank cultivation, they immediately understood.
"Have them all show themselves," Xiao Hua said coldly. "Since you've all come, why keep skulking about with your heads hidden and tails tucked? Do you think this is amusing?"
The swordsman stood in midair, his eyes gleaming brilliantly in the night like flickering sword radiance. His gaze was plainly contemplative, as though he were weighing whether Xiao Hua was merely bluffing.
But Xiao Hua had grown impatient. Pointing with his hand, he said, "You, you, you... There are only three of you. Did you think this young master wouldn't notice?"
Upon hearing this, the swordsman was utterly astonished—more astonished than when Xiao Hua had discovered him.
He waved his hand and said somewhat helplessly, "**, Cheng Jian, Cheng Ming, come out!"
At the spots Xiao Hua had just pointed to, several faint flashes of light flickered through the air. Three swordsmen of identical height, identical sword