Chapter 1769: Alternative Confrontation (I)

Although the Ming sisters addressed him as Senior, they remained exceptionally alert. At the same time, they were constantly judging and confirming the opponent’s cultivation level. They were more confused than anything. Was this grey-robed elder who suddenly appeared a friend or a foe? They could not judge the opponent’s temperament. Like Yan Qingchen before, it was not impossible for someone to speak gently one moment and suddenly strike the next.

While they were speaking, the two women took out pills and swallowed them in front of the grey-robed elder. They did not hide the true situation of their injuries. This person had clearly been hiding in the shadows for a long time, so he must have already had a general judgment of the extent of their injuries. They were doing this intentionally to see how the other party would react.

If the grey-robed elder had evil intentions, he would most likely strike immediately to stop them from recovering, so as not to cause trouble for himself. But until the two of them swallowed the pills, the grey-robed elder still stood where he was without moving at all. This made the two women feel a little more at ease. However, after observing for a while, they still couldn’t see if this grey-robed elder was using his original appearance or if it was a transformation. They could not sense any traces of techniques on his face. Instead, the facial muscles and bones seemed particularly natural.

“To appear here at this time, you should be from Huangqi Valley. What are two members of a demonic beast race who joined Huangqi Valley doing here?” Li Yan looked at the two people opposite him and frowned while asking. How could he let the opponent lead him by the nose? The opponent actually wanted to pull this move without leaving any traces.

“Junior is indeed from Huangqi Valley. I am very grateful for Senior’s help just now.”

Ming Qi was very clever and directly placed Li Yan on the side of a benefactor. This was an attempt to directly dissolve any hostile emotions.

“I don’t want to make things hard for you. Since you are unwilling to say where you came from, then leave this place quickly!” Li Yan seemed to turn a deaf ear to this, but instead spoke impatiently.

After hearing Li Yan’s words, which were already driving them away, Ming Yu still couldn’t help but say something.

“Senior, could it be that this place is your territory?”

Upon hearing this, Li Yan immediately glanced at Ming Yu, and his expression turned cold in an instant.

“Leave this place!”

This time, he only said three words, but his voice was already filled with an unquestionable tone. Right at this moment, Ming Qi suddenly said something.

“Senior, you… you are the one from the Undead Nether Phoenix race, right?”

After she finished this sentence, before Li Yan had any reaction, Ming Yu’s expression stiffened slightly, and she suddenly became a little excited.

‘Sister, he… he is… the one we are looking for…’

But before she could finish her transmission, Ming Qi’s denying voice came through.

‘No. Although his cultivation level is higher than ours, he should not be, but there might be a connection!’

Ming Yu also woke up at this time. She had been too excited. The opponent’s attitude was a bit ambiguous, but the situation that appeared before them was very different from the news inferred by the clan. But if this grey-robed elder was also an Undead Nether Phoenix, where did he come from? Why did her sister say that? Ming Yu still felt confused.

“Oh?”

This time, Li Yan only let out a neutral sound. His gaze was still calm and without waves, just quietly looking at Ming Qi.

“When Senior struck just now, that second punch’s power was extremely grand, but it had silver light flashing…” Ming Qi stopped talking after saying this.

There were countless attacks in this world that could flash with silver light, but pointing this out at this time meant she was certain she hadn’t sensed it wrong. At the same time, the grey-robed elder’s attitude toward them was completely different from Yan Qingchen’s. They also didn’t know the grey-robed elder. But why would the other party do this and even let them leave?

After they left, this place would be exposed. If the grey-robed elder was truly a person in this secret realm, how could he continue to hide in the future? This could only mean that the grey-robed elder did not want to kill her and her sister in his heart, which aligned with her guess that there might be some connection.

But even Ming Qi’s calculation was top-tier among her generation, compared to Li Yan, she was still quite lacking. Once Li Yan grasped her origin and she could not identify Li Yan at all, she had already suffered a loss invisibly. How could she be Li Yan’s match? After being led into his rhythm by Li Yan, Ming Qi still hadn’t noticed. When Li Yan heard this, his eyebrows rose slightly. This slight change was noticed by the two women.

But at this moment, Li Yan thought in his heart.

‘She really has a reaction to the silver light. Is this an admission?’

His expression only changed slightly, and then he let out a laugh, but it was the kind of laughter that didn’t reach his eyes, making it impossible to see through.

“Hehehe… I hid it very quickly, yet you could still sense it! But… I am not from the Undead Nether Phoenix race, but rather, a human!” Li Yan’s elderly face suddenly wore a weird smile. His voice was a bit airy, as if he were talking to himself. Even in his voice, there was a bit of self-mockery, making the meaning hard to discern.

“Junior understands. Then why does Senior still want us to leave? After driving away that person, leaving the two of us behind would be a good opportunity!” Ming Qi’s face did not show surprise. Instead, she said such a sentence without a beginning or an end.

But this one sentence of hers immediately made all three understand the meaning behind it. After understanding the meaning, Ming Yu’s aura suddenly contracted. With a step back, the magic power circulation in her body accelerated in an instant. But the auras of Ming Qi and the grey-robed elder didn’t change at all, and even their expressions remained as before.

In Ming Yu’s mind, the grey-robed elder and her sister had only exchanged a few words. Although her sister didn’t admit that they had any relationship with the Undead Nether Phoenix, she also hadn’t admitted they didn’t. And the grey-robed elder saying he was a human, the meaning was already very obvious. He was a human cultivator who had refined the essence blood of the Undead Nether Phoenix.

And the sentence Ming Qi said indicated that the grey-robed elder’s act of saving them was not out of any kindness. He wanted to completely obtain the two of them after driving away Yan Qingchen. That Yan Qingchen didn’t know their true identity yet, so he only felt it was incomprehensible that other people appeared here. It had interfered with his purpose, so he had killing intent. And this grey-robed elder wanted to capture them and refine their essence blood again.

Verbally letting them leave might just be a trap, to let them lower their guard so he could strike in secret. This person’s sneak attack method was very high-level. They really wouldn’t be able to stay alert all the time later; there would always be times to relax. Or maybe the opponent was also making a trial. Because this person had been hiding before, he should have noticed the purpose of their arrival. He knew they already knew there was something strange at the bottom of the river. So, this was an attempt to further confirm this matter and see what the two of them actually knew.

‘This person’s mind is too sinister!’ Ming Yu thought in her heart.

“Leave you behind? Whether you believe it or not, I only had a lucky chance in the past. I wouldn’t actively provoke powerful races like Dragons and Phoenixes. That would be like finding my life too long. But… if I wanted to leave you behind, it wouldn’t be a hard matter…”

The grey-robed elder Li Yan had turned into suddenly disappeared from his original spot as he said this.

The two women had already been guarding against Li Yan. Halfway through Li Yan’s words, they sensed something was wrong from his speech. But clearly, the grey-robed elder was still standing in the void ahead, yet the expression of the Ming sisters changed drastically.

The two of them kicked back almost at the same time. This backward kick was a full-power strike they had been accumulating for a long time. Although they had not fully recovered after swallowing the pills, they were alchemy masters themselves, so the pills in their hands were extraordinary. In just this short time, the injuries to their meridians and internal organs had recovered a lot.

As they kicked back, their legs were like straight, cloud-piercing spears. Their heels brought out a long yellow light arc. Where their long legs passed, several black cracks also appeared in the surrounding space. These were the space cracks after breaking the void. But at such a fast speed, there was no piercing explosive sound. Only a thud-like sound of overlap was emitted.

That was because their attacking speed was truly too fast, already exceeding the speed of sound, compressing everything into an extremely short explosive sound. However, as they kicked back, the expression of the two changed again. Their jade-like faces were pale! Because they knew they had made a mistake in their judgment. The two felt a gust of wind suddenly blow past them, and they immediately felt dizzy.

At this time, it was too late to hold their breath. The power in their bodies suddenly became slow and was no longer under their control. They knew they had been attacked by the opponent. But they wanted to react, yet it was already too late.

‘Too strong!’ A thought flashed through Ming Qi’s mind.

Just as her heart was filled with sadness, she suddenly felt her dizziness disappear, and the power in her body instantly recovered.

“Thud!”

A loud crash was heard from behind them. That was the backward kick of the two of them, which directly broke the void but kicked at empty space. The two women quickly retracted their long legs. When they looked up again, they found that the grey-robed elder was still standing in the original place, still in his previous appearance, quietly looking at them. It was as if he had just finished saying his previous words and had never moved.