Captured Alive

“Where do you think you’re going,几位? How about I see you off?”

Just as the group was about to take out their flying artifacts and flee, a cold voice rang out from above.

The voice was bone-chillingly cold, instantly startling the four masked individuals. They almost simultaneously activated their defensive spells, scattered in four directions, and only then dared to look up.

High in the sky, dozens of zhang above them, stood Han Li on his Divine Wind Boat. His robes fluttered in the wind as he looked down at them with an expressionless face, his gaze icy cold.

The four hearts sank simultaneously. The same thought crossed their minds: When had this man returned here? How had none of them sensed him?

“Scatter!” the leader shouted without hesitation.

He was the first to shoot backward, a disk-shaped artifact flying out from his robes. He stepped onto it and soared into the sky.

The other three each chose a different direction and scattered.

They all understood clearly: with their meager strength, there was no way they could contend with a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Their best hope for survival was to flee immediately.

The younger woman among them, being the weakest in magical power, couldn’t help but glance back at Han Li in the sky even as she sped away on her artifact.

What she saw stunned her. Han Li stood motionless on his small boat, making no move whatsoever to pursue any of them. The woman was bewildered, but inwardly, she felt a surge of joy. She thought she might have a good chance of escaping unscathed.

But at that moment, a sharp, piercing screech suddenly came from in front of her.

Startled, the woman quickly turned her head. A blinding, arrow-shaped red light was streaking toward her through the air, its momentum fierce and direct.

Alarmed, the masked woman raised her hand and threw out an Ice Spear Talisman she had been holding.

The crystalline ice spear met the red light. A cloud of white mist exploded on contact, but it failed to stop the red light in the slightest. The arrow’s radiance continued straight ahead, striking her water-attribute protective shield.

Red and blue light exploded before her eyes.

Her body trembled, and she was forcefully knocked back several zhang. Fortunately, her shield didn’t break. The woman let out a huge sigh of relief.

Only then did she look forward, both angry and alarmed, her heart still pounding with unease. Could this Foundation Establishment cultivator have accomplices lying in ambush?

When she saw clearly what had attacked her, the masked woman’s eyes went wide, disbelief filling them beneath the black cloth.

In front of her were two soldier-shaped puppets, clad in iron armor, floating in mid-air. One held a large bow, its string slowly being drawn back, another arrow-shaped red light forming upon it. The other puppet wielded a thick-backed long blade that glowed with yellow light, slowly flying toward her.

Though shocked that inanimate objects could attack her like living beings, the woman knew that if she didn’t destroy these two puppets immediately, she wouldn’t be able to escape.

Biting her jade-like teeth, she took a blue, shimmering flying dagger out of her storage pouch.

This was an upper-grade magical tool she had acquired from someone else with all her savings. She normally couldn’t bear to use it, but now, escaping was the priority. She couldn’t afford to be frugal.

“Go!”

The woman shouted softly, and the flying dagger transformed into a blue light, shooting toward the puppet that was approaching her.

The blue dagger reached the puppet in an instant and unhesitatingly slashed at its head.

But to the masked woman’s expectation, with a soft clang, the puppet raised its long blade with astonishing speed and knocked the blue flying dagger away. Then it continued its steady advance toward her.

The masked woman’s face changed color. With a wave of her hand, she pointed at the artifact that had been sent flying several zhang away. The dagger made a wide loop and came slashing back from behind the puppet.

What happened next left her dumbfounded. The puppet, as if it had eyes in the back of its head, casually swung its blade and knocked her artifact away again.

Now the woman was truly panicking.

Just as she was about to try another method, the piercing screech sounded again. The bow-wielding puppet had fired another arrow.

With no choice, the masked woman quickly dodged to the side, hoping to avoid the arrow.

But the red light seemed to be controlled by someone. It followed her movement, tracking her as she shifted. Caught off guard, she was forced to endure another hit, and her body was knocked back several more steps.

Meanwhile, the long-blade-wielding puppet had finally reached her. Without any courtesy, it raised its blade and smashed it heavily against her protective shield.

The masked woman didn’t dare let it land a blow. She hurriedly dodged backward.

Thus, caught in a pincer attack from the two puppets—one fighting at range, the other at close quarters—the masked woman, despite her considerable cultivation, was forced into a constant retreat. There was no chance of escape.

As she directed her flying dagger to barely fend off the puppets’ attacks, sweat dripping from her brow, the melee puppet suddenly leaped backward, leaving her side. The bow-wielding puppet also lowered its large bow and stopped attacking.

The woman was momentarily dumbfounded.

Then, behind her, a sighing voice spoke:

“Aiya! Fifth Sister, you were forced back too!”

Hearing this, the masked woman froze. Then she slowly turned around.

Behind her stood the other three masked men, all with their heads hung low and their spirits crushed. Behind each of them stood three or four puppets identical to the ones she had been facing. But among them, in addition to the soldier puppets, there were also several beast-shaped ones, resembling tigers and leopards.

Despair filled the woman’s eyes as she swept her gaze around her surroundings.

Indeed, without realizing it, she had been forced back to her original position.

Her three elder brothers all had vacant, lifeless eyes, as if they had already been placed under some restriction.

The masked woman looked up at Han Li in the sky. With a heavy heart, she tossed her flying dagger artifact to the ground and offered no further resistance.

Seeing this, Han Li, without any hesitation, raised his hand. Several streaks of green light shot into the masked woman’s body. She felt a foreign object enter her as the mana in her body seized up, no longer able to circulate freely.

Having done this, Han Li did not immediately begin questioning the four. Instead, he beckoned with his hand, pulling them all up from the ground and into his Divine Wind Boat.

This was no place to linger. If he stayed any longer and a strong opponent arrived, things could become troublesome.

Choosing a direction far from Yue Capital, Han Li carried the four aboard his boat, transformed into a streak of white light, and truly left the area.

Not long after Han Li had departed, two more people appeared on the small hill. They wore the same style of clothing as the four Han Li had taken, but their robes were a deep, blood-red color, an unsettling sight.

The two looked around for a moment, then stopped in front of the large crater Han Li had created.

They stood in silence for a while. Then one of them sighed and spoke:

“It seems the Meng Clan’s Five Friends have failed!”

The speaker’s voice was somewhat elderly, suggesting he was quite advanced in years.

“Hmph, worthless trash! Not only did they fail, they were probably captured alive! There’s no trace of blood here. It looks like whoever did it subdued the four of them quite easily.” The other person spoke with a look of contempt in his eyes. This one sounded younger, perhaps only around twenty years of age.

“This is a bit troublesome. The Meng Clan’s Five Friends aren’t completely useless. Otherwise, we would have just used them for a blood sacrifice from the start. We wouldn’t have spared their lives for nothing. I suspect they either ran into too many Qi Condensation cultivators and were overwhelmed, or a Foundation Establishment cultivator interfered.” The first speaker disagreed slightly, a note of worry creeping into his voice.

“What, are you afraid those guys might spill secrets? They are all newly recruited peripheral cultivators of our sect. They haven’t been exposed to any of our actual secrets. Besides, before I sent them on this task, I already planted a hidden failsafe on them. They have at most half a day left to live.” The younger man chuckled dismissively, unconcerned.

“Oh! That’s good then. With only half a day, they shouldn’t be able to reveal anything. After all, they still have the Blood Curse Restriction to worry about. By the time they realize something’s wrong, they won’t be able to say a word.” The old man relaxed and spoke slowly.

But then his tone turned icy as he continued:

“But what exactly happened? Weren’t we all agreed? Why did you let Old Taoist Wu act as your puppet master so you could gradually make a name for yourself in the cultivation world? This way, our sect could execute the ‘Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell’ plan, giving our core disciples public identities in the cultivation world. But you suddenly barged into the old Taoist’s room and drained his blood essence dry. You shouldn’t have needed the little bit of magical power from him for your nourishment!”

Hearing this, the younger masked man let out a few bitter laughs and said helplessly:

“You think I wanted to do this? I was forced into it!”