"Where are you lot headed? Need me to give you a lift?"
Before the four figures could even pull out their flying artifacts to escape, a cold voice drifted down from above.
The voice was chilling to the bone, and all four masked figures blanched in alarm. Almost simultaneously, they activated their defensive techniques and scattered, only then daring to gaze upward.
High above, dozens of zhang in the air, Han Li stood with his robes billowing atop the Divine Wind Boat, staring down at them expressionlessly, his eyes glinting with frigid light.
All four hearts sank at once. The same thought crossed each of their minds: when did this man get back here? How did we not notice at all?
"Scatter!" the eldest brother among them barked without hesitation.
He was the first to shoot backward, and at the same time a disc-shaped artifact flew from inside his robes. He stepped onto it and soared into the sky.
The other three each picked a direction and fled apart.
Every one of them understood perfectly — with their meager strength, none of them stood a chance against a Foundation Establishment cultivator. They'd be better off fleeing immediately, giving themselves a slightly better shot at survival.
The young woman was the weakest among them in magical power, so even as she rode her artifact at full speed, she couldn't help glancing back at Han Li in the sky above.
What she saw stunned her. Han Li simply stood on his small boat, utterly motionless, making not the slightest move to pursue them. The woman was momentarily stunned, then inwardly elated — it seemed there was a real chance they might all get away unscathed.
But just then, a piercing, blood-curdling shriek suddenly erupted from right in front of her.
Startled, the woman whipped her head around. A blindingly bright, arrow-shaped streak of red light was hurtling through the air straight at her, its momentum fearsome.
In terror, she barely managed to raise her hand and fling the Ice Lance Talisman she had been clutching.
The crystalline ice lance met the red glow and burst into a cloud of white mist — but it failed to slow the red light in the slightest. The arrow-like radiance slammed straight into her water-attribute protective shield.
Red and blue light exploded across her field of vision.
Her body shuddered as she was violently knocked back several zhang, though mercifully her shield held without cracking. She let out a deep breath of relief.
Only then did she look forward in a mixture of rage and alarm, her heart still pounding. Could it be that the Foundation Establishment cultivator had companions lying in ambush all around?
When she finally made out what had attacked her, the masked woman's eyes went wide. Beneath her black veil, her face was a picture of utter disbelief.
Floating before her were two puppets dressed as soldiers, clad in iron armor and hovering in midair. One of them held a large bow, and an identical arrow-shaped streak of red light was being drawn back on the string. The other gripped a thick-backed long saber emanating a yellow glow and was drifting slowly toward her.
Though the woman was shocked that these two lifeless things could attack her as though they were living beings, she knew that if she didn't destroy both puppets immediately, there was no way she was getting away.
Steel teeth gritted, she fished a shimmering blue flying blade from her storage pouch.
This was a superior-grade magical artifact she had traded away every last bit of her savings to acquire. Ordinarily she would never dream of using it, but escape was paramount now — she couldn't afford to hold back.
"Go!" the woman hissed under her breath.
The flying blade transformed into a streak of blue light and shot toward the puppet closing in on her.
In the blink of an eye it reached the puppet and slashed ruthlessly at its head without a moment's hesitation.
But just as the masked woman expected to see it connect — "clink" — the puppet moved with terrifying speed, raising its saber and swatting her flying blade aside with a single strike. Then it continued drifting toward her, unhurried, methodical.
The woman's face drained of color. She pointed at the artifact now several zhang away, commanding the blade to loop around in a wide arc and plunge at the puppet from behind.
What she saw next left her jaw hanging open. The puppet swiveled as though it had eyes in the back of its head and deflected her artifact once more with another casual saber stroke.
The woman truly panicked now.
She was about to try something else when the piercing shriek sounded again — the bow-wielding puppet had released another arrow.