"Hiding your presence right next to a lit Yuanming Lamp. You're courting death!" The woman didn't go over to check, but instead murmured softly under her breath.
For her, as long as she knew the intruder was a cultivator from the Tian Nan region, that was enough.
Ever since she had lit the ancient lamp, five or six cultivators had already tried to make a move on it.
After all, once the giant bird had been summoned by the ancient lamp, all nine of the ancient lamps had burned ceaselessly — anyone with eyes could see something unusual was going on. Naturally, some cultivators who fancied their concealment techniques to be exceptional had come over to extinguish the lamp.
Without exception, every last one of them had been killed by the woman using the lamp's flames.
At this moment, Han Li was only a few hundred zhang away from the woman. Seeing the unknown cultivator ahead casually dispatched by her, a chill ran through his heart.
He had been slowly flying forward, but now he silently halted his movement.
The woman's murmuring had been practically inaudible. But with Han Li's extraordinary spiritual sense, he had caught most of it, seven or eight parts out of ten.
Han Li gazed at the ancient lamp not far away, stroked his chin, and fell into thought.
It seemed this ancient lamp really was no ordinary artifact — not only could it summon demonic birds, it apparently also possessed the ability to see through concealment.
This was going to be tricky.
Han Li's expression shifted between shadow and light for a good while. Then his brow twitched, and an idea suddenly came to him.
He reached into his storage pouch with one hand and pulled out several items. His gaze then fell on a spirit beast pouch at his waist, and a faint smile crept across his lips.
…
In the meantime, the woman surnamed Le had clearly grown much more vigilant.
She sat cross-legged before the ancient lamp, a lotus shadow flickering faintly around her body, her bright eyes fixed unwaveringly on the lamp. She had linked her spiritual sense with the ancient lamp, monitoring every disturbance within several dozen zhang.
Suddenly, from a hundred zhang away, a burst of white light blazed, and over a dozen tall giant apes materialized out of thin air.
Appearing so brazenly and openly, the woman surnamed Le took one look and a trace of surprise crossed her face.
The giant apes didn't come any closer after appearing. Instead, they formed a line, raised both hands, and—
Dozens of light beams of various colors shot forth.
"Control Technique!"
The woman surnamed Le paused for just a moment before recognizing the trick behind these giant apes. She furrowed her brow and cast a cautious glance all around her.
She couldn't find the person controlling these puppets.
As for the light beam attacks, the woman surnamed Le paid them little heed. She simply formed a casual hand seal, and the lotus shadow around her flickered repeatedly, easily blocking every single beam.
Then her body swayed, and she plucked another flame from one of the ancient lamps.
This time, she didn't immediately cast the flame. Instead, she held it in her palm, letting it float gently upward.
The woman surnamed Yue — eyes gleaming as she stared at the ancient lamp — prepared to meet whatever came with steadfast composure.
Only a brief moment later, her expression changed without hesitation. She parted her delicate lips and blew a breath of spiritual energy into the flame in her hand.
The flame flickered with green light, then vanished eerily from her palm.
Only then did the woman surnamed Le turn her head, locking her gaze on a spot several dozen zhang away.
With a soft "pfft," a human figure first appeared, and a ball of green light suddenly shrouded it.
The green flames ignited across the figure's body as the woman formed a hand seal.
A faint cold smile tugged at the corner of the woman's mouth.
"Hm?! Why hasn't it been refined yet?" Her smile suddenly froze. The figure hadn't turned to ash in an instant like the previous ones, nor did it show any sign of struggling whatsoever.
A jolt of alarm shot through her, and she hurriedly focused her eyes for a closer look.
"That person is… — no, it's a puppet!"
The figure within the green flames, at first glance, looked like Han Li. But its expression was blank and wooden, its movements stiff — it was clearly a fake. And it seemed completely unbothered by the green flames, showing no signs of being burned at all.
"Not good!" In that instant, the woman realized what was happening.
She frantically turned her head toward the ancient lamp, wanting to reattach her spiritual sense to it.
But that brief moment of distraction was all it cost.
Twenty-odd zhang away, at a different spot, a figure flickered into view amid green light. A muffled crackle of thunder rang out, and the figure vanished again within a flash of lightning.
The woman surnamed Le's heart surged with fury and alarm. Both hands formed seals simultaneously, then swept forward — several strands of magical power shot toward the ancient lamp in rapid succession.
But it was already too late.
Lightning crackled right beside the ancient lamp, and within it, a human figure vaguely emerged.
Then a massive black-red hand burst from the light, swelling to over a zhang in size with a single shake, and slammed down to seize one of the ancient lamps.
"How did he figure out which is the main lamp! Which one is the true body — only the caster can know. Even a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator couldn't see through the deception."
The woman surnamed Le's fury and alarm only intensified.
At such close range, the giant hand and the woman's seals reached the ancient lamp at virtually the same instant.
The ancient lamp flashed with green light, about to undergo some transformation, when the giant hand snatched it up. The lamp flame was forcibly extinguished by the black yin fire coursing across the hand.
At the same moment, the remaining eight bronze lamps trembled in response. Their spiritual light flickered, and their flames winked out one after another.