Chapter 2850: Seeing Through the Bait

Lin Qingao immediately notified everyone to raise their vigilance, guessing that someone had slaughtered many ferocious beasts in the secret realm, suspecting it was those martial cultivators who had fled in earlier.

"No wonder he's Li Daoyuan's military advisor; this guy is really cautious! It seems if they don't make a move, I'll hardly find a chance to strike!"

Ye Liuyun and his clone stared at this group of people, having Lei Ming and the Purple Qilin temporarily use treasures to conceal their cultivation levels, disguising themselves as the ferocious beast cubs here, to see whether they would act after discovering them.

Compared to the ferocious beasts here, Lei Ming and the Purple Qilin are only at the cub level in size, so they can only disguise themselves as young beasts.

Their positions were also in the direction that Lin Xinran's group was advancing; relying on those experts' divine sense, it would be hard not to notice them.

Sure enough, they soon discovered the Purple Qilin and Lei Ming. Li Xinran immediately wanted to have the guards surround them.

Lin Qingao, however, called out to the guards and said to Li Xinran: "Miss, did you notice that those ferocious beasts are all carrying treasures?"

He observed very carefully. To conceal their cultivation levels, Lei Ming and the Purple Qilin both carried treasures that masked their aura; given their size, one wouldn't notice without close inspection. Even Ye Liuyun hadn't paid attention to this detail, but Lin Qingao spotted it.

Li Xinran didn't know these two ferocious beasts were bait set up by Ye Liuyun; she immediately stopped as well, examined them closely, and indeed discovered the treasures on them.

"Are these ferocious beasts owned?" Li Xinran immediately asked Lin Qingao.

"Definitely, otherwise how would the ferocious beasts here be carrying treasures? Moreover, they're right on the essential path of martial cultivators, with no other ferocious beasts around; I estimate they're both bait."

"What they're wearing should be treasures that conceal cultivation levels; their own strength is certainly not weak, and they're not the ferocious beasts of this place. Their size is wrong. The ferocious beasts here have never before shown such rare breeds as the Purple Qilin and Thunder Dragon Beast!"

Lin Qingao said a lot; in short, he had completely seen through the bait set up by Ye Liuyun.

"This guy is too crafty; he's actually this hard to deceive!"

Ye Liuyun also felt utterly helpless in his heart, and immediately ordered Lei Ming to retreat toward the Purple Qilin's direction.

"Who would set up bait here? To lure and kill exploring martial cultivators?" Li Xinran, lacking experience in this, could only ask Lin Qingao.

"That's hard to say; anyone could pull off something like this! Still, we must be extra careful, lest we be ambushed by those martial cultivators who fled in earlier!" Lin Qingao reminded not only Li Xinran but also the other martial cultivators.

Li Xinran nodded, also worrying in her heart, feeling that Lin Qingao was too crafty, and worried that Ye Liuyun couldn't handle him.

She thought that since it was bait, and Ye Liuyun hadn't told her, it must have been set up by those earlier martial cultivators. If she could let the martial cultivators brought by Lin Qingao clash with those people, it wouldn't be bad—it could relieve some pressure on Ye Liuyun.

So she said to Lin Qingao: "Now that we know it's bait, should we just let those ferocious beasts go?"

Lin Qingao scanned the surroundings again, seeing no one nearby. After thinking, he felt it would be alright to send a few people to try killing those ferocious beasts, to see what the other side really intended.

If it were solely relying on these two ferocious beasts to lure and kill martial cultivators, then as Return Unity Realm experts, even if they couldn't win, retreating wouldn't pose any danger.

If it weren't a trap set by those martial cultivators who fled in earlier, they might actually end up capturing these two precious ferocious beasts.

Having thought of this, he told Li Xinran his idea and then dispatched four Return Unity Realm martial cultivators to give it a try.

Those four martial cultivators also approached from the four sides, surrounding the Purple Qilin and Lei Ming, cutting off their retreat.

"An opportunity!"

Ye Liuyun saw them make a move and also knew the opportunity had arrived.

"The Purple Qilin will act first, letting out a roar, using a spiritual soul attack to scare them a bit, then employing time power to take down one martial cultivator; the rest I'll leave to you. After you break an opening, take Lei Ming and pretend to flee. Lei Ming will use his physical body to block their pursuit." He also made arrangements for the Purple Qilin and Lei Ming.

Then, after those martial cultivators approached the Purple Qilin and Lei Ming, the Purple Qilin also let out an angry roar at one martial cultivator, immediately activating time power, and then charged at that martial cultivator.

Ye Liuyun's soul is now powerful; just as the Purple Qilin used time power, his soul could already free itself from time power's influence, so he immediately, together with his clone, released his soul, rushed into the seas of consciousness of two martial cultivators, and implanted slave seals in them.

"When did your soul become this strong?" the Purple Qilin also wondered aloud, and began chatting with Ye Liuyun.

"Let's talk later; first deal with the enemies—don't be careless!"

Ye Liuyun said, then rushed into another martial cultivator's sea of consciousness, also implanted a slave seal, before returning to his own physical body. The clone then pulled out the soul of the martial cultivator the Purple Qilin was dealing with, gave one to the Purple Qilin, and devoured the other himself.

As for the martial cultivator the Purple Qilin was dealing with, he was actually very careful. When the Purple Qilin let out a roar at him, he immediately borrowed the power of the Space World to protect himself.

So the Purple Qilin went forward and struck him twice, feeling that breaking through his defense would still require effort, and thus didn't want to waste energy, since the clone had already devoured his soul.

Thus he withdrew to his original position, withdrew time power, and together with Lei Ming broke out from the area guarded by that martial cultivator.

Lei Ming, meanwhile, conveniently took that martial cultivator's corpse and stored it in his storage ring.

At that moment, the three martial cultivators controlled by Ye Liuyun, after a brief stunned pause, followed his orders and pretended to pursue them, even launching full-force bombardments as if they were really fighting.

"Boom—"

One martial cultivator's bombardment was directly blocked by Lei Ming's physical body. Yet Lei Ming's speed didn't drop; he continued to flee.

"Don't chase!"

Lin Qingao then immediately had those three martial cultivators retreat back.

"These two ferocious beasts are too strange. One roared and instantly killed a person—its soul power must be strong. The other can block your full-force strike with a remarkably sturdy physical body. Working together, if we keep pursuing, we might still get someone hurt!"

Lin Qingao explained to everyone.

"What should we do? Did we just die for nothing?" Li Xinran felt happy inside, but had to put on an unwilling expression on her face.

"Let's keep moving forward and see how things go. They set a trap for us, but we can also set an ambush for them. Moreover, we might possibly encounter the owner of these ferocious beasts."

Lin Qingao, on the other hand, remained calm; upon realizing the situation was unfavorable, he immediately called off the operation and stopped sending people to take risks.

Li Xinran also had no recourse; she lacked the authority to command those martial cultivators, so she could only temporarily give up this opportunity to wear them down and continue forward.

(End of chapter)