"What, could it be?" The older one was startled, exclaiming in a low voice.
"Indeed! I suffered a backlash from my cultivation technique. I urgently need the essence blood of a cultivator to suppress the true qi within me. Besides you, the only other cultivator nearby is the old Taoist Wu. I couldn't exactly come to you, could I? The situation back then was truly dangerous—the backlash came two days earlier than expected, and I almost couldn't suppress it," the younger one said with a bitter smile, clearly still fearful from the memory.
"I see. In that case, I can't exactly blame you. But you'll still need to explain this properly to the higher-ups. However, I suspect it was because you've been pushing too hard in your practice of the Black Fiend Asura Technique lately, which caused the backlash to strike early. For now, stop going to the Blood Prison to train. It would be better to honestly consolidate your foundation first," the older one said slowly after some thought.
"Don't worry! After absorbing the old Taoist's essence blood, my backlash completely receded. As long as I'm more careful in the future, such accidents won't happen again. I've also been feeling that my cultivation progress has been too fast lately and was planning to stop going there anyway," the younger one said calmly.
"Good, as long as you understand. However, even though this old Taoist is eliminated, the person who placed a spiritual mark on him is still a major trouble! We can't just leave this person unattended—we must find a way to eliminate any future threats!"
"Mm, that's true enough! But I originally thought the friends Old Taoist Wu associated with would definitely be low-level independent cultivators. So after setting up the trap, I only called the Five Friends of Mount Meng to lie in ambush and strike. Who would have thought we'd hook a big fish? Do you think it was a group of low-level cultivators, or did a Foundation Establishment cultivator do it?" the younger one couldn't help but ask the older one.
"Heh heh! Based on my speculation, it was most likely a Foundation Establishment cultivator! After all, no matter how many Qi Refining cultivators there are, if the four of them were determined to flee, capturing all of them together wouldn't be so easy," the older masked man said without hesitation.
"In that case, should we lie low for now? Wait until the Sect Master emerges from seclusion before continuing with other plans. After all, Foundation Establishment cultivators aren't to be trifled with!" the younger one said hesitantly after the other confirmed the identity of whoever had captured the Five Friends of Mount Meng.
"Lie low? Why would we lie low? You haven't heard yet, have you! There's just been word from the Sect Master. For cultivation purposes, he now needs some Foundation Establishment cultivators for a blood sacrifice. Since this person has stumbled right into our lap, we certainly can't let him go easily. Qi Refining cultivators can be caught anywhere, but a solitary Foundation Establishment cultivator is truly rare to encounter!" the older one said with a cold laugh, a murderous glint in his eyes.
The younger masked man was slightly taken aback by this, but still said with difficulty:
"But right now in the capital, with the Sect Master presiding, apart from the four Blood Attendants by his side, our sect doesn't have any Foundation Establishment experts here. They're all overseeing branch temples in various regions. We can't exactly summon them back to the capital specifically for this, can we?"
"There's no need for such trouble! The Sect Master urgently needs Foundation Establishment cultivators for his practice. As long as I report this upward, the Sect Master will likely assign one or two Blood Attendants to our command. With us assisting from the side as well, dealing with a single Foundation Establishment cultivator should be a piece of cake. This way, the two of us will have made a great contribution. Perhaps we could even have the same opportunity to enter Foundation Establishment as the four Blood Attendants!" The older masked man's eyes revealed a greedy look...
Upon hearing this, the younger one's spirits lifted, seemingly thoroughly tempted by the older man's words.
"Alright, I'll go back and make preparations! I'll definitely capture this person alive," he said viciously.
Then the two continued to whisper in low voices for quite a while before silently departing the hillside, vanishing to an unknown destination.
Strangely, the two never once mentioned the topic of how to accurately locate Han Li within the vast capital. As if it were simply not a problem for them at all.
...
Meanwhile, on a barren stretch of land over a hundred miles from the hillside, Han Li landed the Divine Wind Vessel and let the four alight from the flying artifact.
Although these four knew that nothing good awaited them next, they couldn't muster any will to resist and had to obediently walk out of the small vessel as commanded.
Han Li stood before the silent group with his hands clasped behind his back, coldly appraising them. After a long moment, he finally spoke:
"Remove your face masks. There's no point in hiding your faces anymore," Han Li's voice was devoid of any emotion, causing the four to shudder and exchange glances.
"Take them off," the eldest brother sighed helplessly.
Seeing this, the other three dejectedly removed their black face masks one by one, revealing their true faces.
After examining each of their faces in turn, Han Li's expression remained unchanged, but he sighed inwardly. It truly was the Five Friends of Mount Meng.
When he had been eavesdropping on their conversation from above, he had already felt their voices sounded somewhat familiar. Combined with their cultivation levels and techniques, he had naturally linked them to the cultivators he had met just two months ago—the Five Friends of Mount Meng and their companions. Apart from the woman around forty who hadn't come, everyone else was here.
However, although these people's identities matched his guess, Han Li felt an immense headache.
Now he didn't need to think to realize that the young prince of Xin Prince's Manor and Steward Wang must be members of the black hand responsible for the successive disappearances of cultivators. Now that they knew he had been spying on their secrets, they would likely pursue him relentlessly!
His original intention had been to avoid such trouble as much as possible, but he hadn't expected this great trouble to come to him automatically. Had he known this beforehand, he never would have sent the old Taoist to monitor the two of them—this had nothing to do with demonic cultivators at all; it was purely his own excessive caution.
But then again, he never could have imagined that Old Taoist Wu would be so useless—monitoring for only a single night before being discovered, with his life most likely forfeit as a result!
This made Han Li even more frustrated and speechless!
If Old Taoist Wu knew from the afterlife that Han Li was complaining about him like this, he would likely feel even more wronged! He hadn't even begun to monitor the young prince and the others when they burst into his room and drained his essence blood without reason—he died truly unjustly!
Although Han Li had somewhat misjudged the cause of Old Taoist Wu's death, and didn't know that the young prince and Steward Wang were completely unaware of the old Taoist's imminent surveillance, nor that their identities had been exposed to Han Li ahead of time—
This didn't prevent both sides from simultaneously sounding the alarm and entering a state of outright enmity!
Han Li's thoughts were heavy.
After all, among the cultivators who had disappeared recently, several had already reached Foundation Establishment. The opponents he had provoked were truly terrifying—one slip-up and he might end up following the fate of the other missing cultivators.
Normally, according to Han Li's usual thinking, since this place was so dangerous, the sensible thing would be to flee far away. A wise man doesn't stand under a crumbling wall! There was no need to fight to the death with this group—the farther he could go, the better.
But what troubled him was that he still bore the mission of protecting the Qin family.
If the Qin family members met with misfortune during his absence, he would have no way to explain himself to Li Huayuan!
He couldn't very well say that he suddenly found the capital extremely dangerous and decided to flee on his own!
As Han Li pondered this, his expression shifted between light and shadow, greatly unsettling the four prisoners before him.
They had assumed that once brought to this deserted location, this person would subject them to severe interrogation. Yet unexpectedly, this young Foundation Establishment cultivator, after looking at their faces, had fallen into deep contemplation, his expression gradually becoming peculiar. Was he perhaps devising some cruel interrogation methods?
With such wild imaginings, the four felt a chill run down their spines, becoming increasingly restless.
"What exactly do you intend to do with us?" The young woman in her twenties suddenly burst out, unable to contain herself any longer.
Hearing this, Han Li snapped out of his thoughts, glanced at the woman, and said coldly:
"Deal with you? Do I even need to do that personally? I simply need to hand you over to the families of those missing cultivators and tell them you're part of the black hand behind their loved ones' disappearances. I'm sure they'll give you a proper reception."
When Han Li said this, his face was expressionless, making the four absolutely believe he would do exactly that. Their faces drained of color, revealing undisguised terror.
"We never kidnapped any of those cultivators, not once! We only did a few..."
"Shut up, Fifth Sister! He's trying to get you to talk!"
The black-faced old man suddenly shouted harshly, cutting off the woman's words mid-sentence. This startled the Fifth Sister, who glared fiercely at Han Li.
"Get you to talk? You think too highly of yourselves!" Han Li said with a faint smile, a touch of mockery at the corner of his lips.