Chapter 297: Captured Alive

"Where are you few planning to go? Would you like me to give you a lift?"

Before these few people could even pull out their flying magic tools to leave, a cold voice suddenly came from above.

This voice was icy and bone-chilling, causing all four masked individuals to turn pale with fright. Almost simultaneously, they cast protective spells and scattered in different directions before daring to look up.

They saw Han Li standing on his Spirit Wind Boat, drifting dozens of feet high in the air. He looked down at them expressionlessly, his gaze filled with a bone-chilling coldness.

The hearts of all four sank at the same time. They all thought in unison: When did this person return here? How did we not notice at all?

"Scatter!" the leader shouted without the slightest hesitation.

He was the first to shoot backward, and at the same time, a disc-like magic tool flew out from his robes. He stepped onto it and flew away into the sky.

The other three also chose their own directions and scattered.

These few knew very well in their hearts that with their meager abilities, it was impossible to contend with a Foundation Establishment cultivator. It would be better to fly away immediately; their chances of survival would be higher.

The young woman among them had the weakest magic power, so even while fleeing on her magic tool, she couldn't help but look back at Han Li in the sky.

As a result, a scene that astonished her appeared before her eyes: Han Li stood on the small boat without moving a muscle, showing no intention of chasing after the four of them. This left the woman stunned, yet secretly overjoyed, feeling that there was a great chance they would escape unscathed this time.

But just at this moment, an extremely shrill whistle suddenly came from in front of her.

The woman was startled and hurriedly turned her head, only to see an extremely dazzling, arrow-shaped red light piercing through the air from the opposite direction, rushing straight toward her with fierce momentum.

In her panic, the masked woman raised a hand, only having enough time to throw out an Ice Spear Talisman she had been holding.

The moment the crystalline ice spear made contact with the red light, a burst of white mist erupted, yet it failed to stop the red glow in the slightest. The arrow-like light still struck her water-attribute protective barrier.

Instantly, red and blue lights scattered before her eyes.

Her body shook, and she was forced back by several feet. However, the barrier did not shatter, which made the woman heave a long sigh of relief.

Only then did she look forward in shock and anger, while her heart pounded—could it be that the Foundation Establishment cultivator had companions lying in ambush nearby?

When she saw clearly the "person" who had launched the attack, the masked woman's eyes went blank, and beneath her black cloth, her face was filled with disbelief.

In front of her were actually two soldier-like puppets, clad in iron armor and floating in mid-air. One of them held a large bow, and a red, arrow-shaped light was being slowly drawn upon it. The other held a thick-backed long saber emitting a yellow glow, slowly flying toward her.

Although the woman was shocked that two inanimate objects could attack her like real people, she knew that if she didn't destroy these two puppets immediately, she wouldn't be able to escape smoothly.

Thinking of this, she gritted her teeth and pulled a shimmering blue flying knife from her storage pouch.

This item was a top-tier magic tool she had exchanged for with all her savings; she usually couldn't bear to use it, but now that escape was paramount, she couldn't care about that anymore.

"Go!"

The woman whispered, and the flying knife turned into a blue streak of light, shooting toward the puppet approaching her.

The blue flying knife reached the puppet in the blink of an eye and slashed fiercely at its head without hesitation.

Yet, to the masked woman's expectation, with a crisp "clang," the puppet moved with astonishing speed, raising its long saber to knock the blue flying knife away with a single strike, then continued to drift toward the woman in an orderly fashion.

The masked woman's expression changed drastically. She pointed a finger at the magic tool that had flown several feet away, causing the flying knife to make a large circle and slash back at the puppet from behind.

But something that left her dumbfounded happened: the puppet, as if it had eyes in the back of its head, used the same move to knock away her magic tool again.

Now the woman was truly panicked!

Just as she wanted to think of another way, the shrill whistling sounded again, and the arrow from the bow-wielding puppet shot over.

With no other choice, the masked woman hurriedly flew to one side, trying to dodge the arrow.

Yet this red light seemed to be controlled by someone, following her movement and tracking her. Caught off guard, she had to take the hit again, and as a result, her figure was forced back several steps once more.

At this moment, the puppet holding the long saber finally flew in front of her, raising its saber without hesitation to smash against her barrier.

How could the masked woman dare to let it succeed? She hurriedly dodged backward.

Just like that, under the pincer attack of the two puppets—one near and one far—the masked woman, despite having decent cultivation, was forced to retreat repeatedly, let alone escaping.

When the woman was directing her flying knife, barely fending off the puppets' attacks, and was drenched in cold sweat from the fighting, the melee puppet suddenly leaped backward, leaving her side. At the same time, the one with the bow lowered its weapon and stopped attacking.

Seeing this scene, the woman couldn't help but go blank. Then, a sigh suddenly came from behind her:

"Sigh! Fifth Sister, you've been forced back too!"

Upon hearing this, the masked woman stiffened, then slowly turned around.

She saw that behind her, the other three masked men were standing there dejectedly, each with three or four puppets like the ones before her standing behind them. Except for the soldier-like ones, there were even several tiger and leopard-like beast puppets.

The woman scanned her surroundings with a look of despair in her eyes. Sure enough, without realizing it, she had been forced back to her original position.

And her three older brothers all had vacant eyes, as if they had already been placed under a restriction.

The masked woman looked up at Han Li in the sky, then dejectedly threw her flying knife magic tool onto the ground, offering no further resistance.

Seeing this, Han Li didn't stand on ceremony and flicked his hand. Instantly, several green lights shot into the masked woman's body. As she felt a foreign object enter her, her true essence became sluggish, and she could no longer circulate it freely.

After finishing all this, Han Li didn't rush to ask the four of them any questions. Instead, he beckoned with his hand, pulling all of them from the ground into his Spirit Wind Boat.

This was not a place to stay for long. If he didn't leave now, it would be a huge problem if the other side's experts arrived.

Choosing a direction far away from Yuejing City, Han Li carried the four of them, turned into a white streak of light, and truly flew away from this place.

Not long after Han Li had left, two people dressed exactly like the four Han Li had taken away appeared on the small hill. Only, their clothes were a deep, blood-like red, which made people feel very uncomfortable to look at.

The two looked around and stood before the large pit Han Li had blasted out.

After standing in silence for a while, one of them suddenly sighed and said:

"It seems the Meng Mountain Five Friends have failed!"

This person's voice was somewhat aged; he sounded quite old.

"Hmph, useless trash! Not only did they fail, but they were likely captured alive by someone! There isn't even a trace of blood left here; it seems that person subdued the four of them quite easily." The other person showed a look of contempt. This person didn't seem old, appearing to be only about twenty years of age.

"This is a bit troublesome! The Meng Mountain Five Friends aren't truly useless; otherwise, I would have blood-sacrificed them long ago instead of sparing their lives. I suspect they either encountered too many Qi Condensation cultivators and were overwhelmed by numbers, or a Foundation Establishment cultivator intervened." The first person disagreed, a hint of worry appearing in his voice.

"Why, are you afraid those fellows will leak secrets? They are just peripheral cultivators newly recruited by our sect; they haven't touched any of our sect's secrets at all. Besides, before ordering them to do things, I had already placed hidden hands on them. They have at most half a day left to live." The young man chuckled and said indifferently.

"Oh! That's good. I believe if it's only half a day, they shouldn't be able to leak anything. After all, they still have to worry about the Blood Curse restriction on them. By the time they realize something is wrong, I believe they won't be able to say anything anymore." The old man breathed a sigh of relief and said slowly.

However, the old man changed the subject, his voice turning somewhat cold:

"But, what exactly happened? Wasn't it all discussed? Let that Old Daoist Wu be your puppet master, and then let you slowly appear in the cultivation world so our sect can implement the 'Golden Cicada Sheds its Shell' plan, allowing our core disciples to have other public identities in the cultivation world. But why did you suddenly break into the old Daoist's room and suck dry his essence blood? You shouldn't be so desperate for his bit of magic power!"

Hearing the old man's words, the younger masked man gave a bitter laugh and said helplessly:

"Do you think I wanted to do that? I was forced to!"

(Web) ===== CHAPTER 298 =====