Meanwhile, at a secret stronghold somewhere along the Southern Yue border.
At the bottom of a valley shrouded in dense, dark-purple miasma and formation patterns, space rippled faintly, revealing a blurred phantom with an inscrutable aura.
Before the phantom, a bronze mirror carved with a four-eyed Ghost Heads hovered in midair.
Its surface rippled like water, clearly reflecting the deathly pale Black Miasma True Lord, far away in the military camp outside Linyuan County in Qiong Prefecture.
On his left shoulder, a charred wound the size of a bowl's mouth looked hideous and terrifying. The flesh around its edges had withered and shriveled, while several strands of dark-red energy clung stubbornly to it, eating away at it and preventing any possibility of healing;
-this was precisely the vicious mark left by Qing Chen's strand of fully formed blood path rules.
It could not possibly be removed by ordinary means.
"Did you see clearly? Are you certain that bastard Qing Chen is still on the Qiong Prefecture front? Could this be another feint, a deliberate show for you and me?"
The voice coming from the bronze mirror carried Southern Yue's distinctive cloying chill. It belonged to True Lord Wuhun, an elder of the Soul-Devouring Department, one of the Nine Departments—an old monster at Nascent Soul Middle Stage Minor Achievement.
His tone was filled with wariness. This Qing Chen was full of schemes, far too cunning, and had a long record of such deeds. The bitter lessons of Purple Spider True Lord's tens of thousands of troops being lured to their deaths and Hundred Poisons True Lord dying in a surprise attack were still fresh before his eyes. He had no choice but to exercise the utmost caution.
Black Miasma True Lord in the mirror also heard the hint of distrust