“Then why?” The elderly person exclaimed in a low voice, feeling shocked.

“My magic power backlashed, and I desperately needed a cultivator’s blood essence to suppress the true essence in my body. Apart from you, the only nearby cultivator was old Daoist Wu. I can’t use you, can I? Just then, the backlash was truly too vicious; it happened two days earlier than I anticipated, and I was almost unable to suppress it,” the young person said with a bitter laugh; evidently, he was still quite afraid!

“So it’s like that. While it’s not your fault, you will still need to properly explain this matter to the higher ups. But based on my estimation, this may have arisen because you were too hasty in cultivating your Black Fiend Asura Technique. You shouldn’t go to the blood prison to cultivate for now. Instead, take some time to consolidate your foundation before pressing onward!” The elder slowly said this after thinking for a moment.

“Rest assured! After I absorbed that old Daoist’s blood essence, my backlash completely withdrew. So long as I am more careful in the future, no such accidents will again occur. Recently, I have also felt that my cultivation speed has been too rapid, so I myself have been considering not going there again!” the young person indifferently said.

“Good, as long as you know about it. However, although this old Daoist has been exterminated, the person who planted a Spiritual Qi seal in this person is still quite troublesome! You must not ignore him. After all, it’s best to think of a way to not leave any traces behind!

“En, your words sound pretty reasonable! However, I originally believed that anyone who would become friends with old Daoist Wu would also have extremely low cultivation bases. After preparing the trap, I asked those five friends from Meng to set an ambush, but who knew that a big fish would actually appear? Do you think that it was a group of low-layer cultivators or a single Foundation Establishment cultivator who took action?” The young person couldn’t resist asking the elderly figure behind him.

“Hehe! Based on my estimation, it was likely a single Foundation Establishment cultivator! After all, even if there were more Qi Condensation cultivators, once those four were set on fleeing, capturing them all at once is not that easily done,” the elderly man with a veiled face said without further thought.

“Since it’s like this, shouldn’t we temporarily avoid taking risks? When Sect Master comes out from closed-door cultivation, we can continue with some other plan; after all, Foundation Establishment cultivators are not to be lightly provoked!” the young man said with some hesitation upon hearing the other person so casually tossing out the identities of the five friends from Meng Mountain.

“Temporarily avoid? What is there to temporarily avoid? You don’t know yet? Sect Master just sent out a notice that he currently requires a few Foundation Establishment cultivators to serve as blood sacrifices. Since this person took the initiative to appear, we shouldn’t let this opportunity slip past us so lightly! After all, Qi Condensation cultivators are numerous and easy to capture, but isolated Foundation Establishment cultivators are extremely rarely seen!” the elderly person said with a cold laugh, his eyes revealing a killing intent.

The young person with a veiled face, upon hearing this, was slightly startled, but afterward, he still spoke somewhat awkwardly:

“But now, apart from the Sect Master’s four great blood servants, our sect doesn’t have any Foundation Establishment level experts here in the capital. They are all in different locations, taking care of various matters; we can’t call them back to the capital just for this, can we?”

“It doesn’t need to be so complicated! Right now, Sect Master desperately needs a Foundation Establishment cultivator; perhaps you could obtain an opportunity to enter Foundation Establishment just like his four great blood servants?” A greedy expression flashed across the eyes of the veiled elderly person.

When the young man heard this, his spirit was shaken, as if he had been completely swayed by the elder’s words.

“Okay, I will go back and prepare! We definitely must capture this person,” he viciously said.

Then, the two of them discussed something in low tones for quite some time before inconspicuously leaving the hills, heading for some unknown location.

Strangely, however, these two people never brought up how they would precisely find Han Li’s location in such a large capital. It was as if this was not even an issue to them.

……

Meanwhile, in a completely deserted area hundreds of kilometers away from the hills, Han Li descended in the Divine Wind Boat, then forced the four people off the magic tool.

Although these four individuals knew that what happened next would not be something good, they simply couldn’t stir up any rebellious intent and could only listen obediently to his orders, walking off the small boat.

Han Li, with his hands clasped behind his back, stood in front of the few silent people, coldly sizing them up. After a long while, he opened his mouth and said:

“Take off your veils! At this point, covering your faces is no longer of any use.” Han Li’s voice was completely void of emotion, causing the four people’s figures to tremble briefly before involuntarily glancing at each other.

“Take them off,” the Eldest Brother said helplessly.

Seeing this, the other three people could only take off their black veils one by one in a dejected manner, revealing their true, unconcealed appearances.

After Han Li glanced at their appearances individually, his outward expression did not change, but in his heart, he let out a sigh; as expected, it was those five friends from Meng Mountain.

As he was hovering in midair, listening to these people discussing things, he already felt that their voices were somewhat familiar. Adding on their cultivation method and layers, he naturally connected them to the five friends from Meng Mountain that he had seen just two months ago. All of them were here apart from that forty year-old or so female.

Although these people’s identities were exactly the same as he had guessed, Han Li’s head still began to hurt incomparably.

Without even thinking, he knew that the young prince in Prince Xin’s residence and Steward Wang should be the criminals behind the mass disappearance of cultivators.

He originally intended to do as much as he could to avoid this trouble, but he never expected that this problem would voluntarily come to him. If he had known that it would be this way, he definitely would not have allowed that old Daoist to spy on those two. This was something that had nothing to do with the people from the Devil Dao; rather, he had simply been too careful.

Anyhow, he never expected that old Daoist Wu would actually be that useless; he had only spied on them for a day before being discovered. He had not even been able to protect his life.

This caused Han Li to feel even more depressed and speechless!

If old Daoist Wu’s spirit was in the afterlife and he knew that Han Li was complaining about him like this, perhaps he would feel even more wronged! He hadn’t even begun to spy on the young prince before the young prince charged into his room and sucked out his blood essence for no reason; his death was truly treated unjustly!

Although Han Li was somewhat wrong about old Daoist Wu’s death, he didn’t know that the young prince and Steward Wang did not know about Old Daoist Wu’s plans to spy on them; even more, they did not know at all that their identities had been revealed to Han Li.

But this didn’t affect the fact that both sides had sounded an alarm and were aware of enemies within their midst!

Han Li’s thoughts were very heavy at this moment.

After all, of the cultivators who had recently disappeared, a few Foundation Establishment cultivators were also included in that mix. If the opponent that he provoked was extremely frightening, perhaps he would follow in the footsteps of the others who had disappeared if he wasn’t careful.

Normally, since this place was so dangerous, he would naturally flee far away; after all, a wise man foresees and mitigates risks! There really was no need for him to fight to the death with this group of people; the further he could get away from this place, the better.

But what posed him some difficulty was that he still had the mission of protecting the Qin Clan.

If, the people from the Qin Clan were to suffer some misfortune during his absence, he would have no way of accounting for it when he reported to Li Huayuan!

He could not say that he fled because he had felt that Yuejing had suddenly become extremely dangerous.

As Han Li thought this, his expression began to appear indecisive, causing the four hostages in front of him to feel extremely uneasy.

They originally thought that since they had been brought to this place with no one else around, the other person was definitely going to press them for information. However, they didn’t expect that this Foundation Establishment youth, after seeing their expressions, would fall into deep thought. His expression became somewhat strange as well. Could he be thinking of some vicious method to torture them?

After making these random guesses, these individuals felt cold sweat forming on their back, and their mental states became even more unsettled.

“How does your esteemed self plan on dealing with us?” the twenty-something year-old young woman suddenly asked, becoming impatient.

Hearing these words, Han Li recovered from his deep thinking; after glancing at the woman, he coldly said:

“Do I need to deal with you? If I were to hand you over to the families of the missing cultivators and say that you are some of the criminals behind the scenes, I trust that they would treat you very well.”

Han Li spoke these words expressionlessly, causing the four people to have no doubts that Han Li would have no qualms about doing this; they couldn’t help but reveal terrified expressions.

“We never kidnapped those cultivators, not even once! We only did a few......?”

“Stop speaking, Fifth Junior Sister! He is trying to trap you with his words!”

The dark-faced old man suddenly barked out severely, abruptly interrupting the woman’s next words. This caused Fifth Junior Sister’s heart to feel shocked, and she couldn’t help but viciously glare at Han Li.

“Set a trap for you with my words? You regard yourselves too highly!” Han Li indifferently chuckled with a mocking smile.