Tang Xi did not meditate for long. Only a few minutes after entering a meditative state, an inexplicable utled in her heart. At first, it was a failessness, a whisper in the most instinctive part of her mind, but it quickly began to grow.

  'Where is this feeling ing from? Why am I so uled?' she thought, opening her eyes and sing the surroundings with a sharp gaze.

  The forest remaihe same—leaves rustling in the wind, small animals moving among the brahe steady and anic rhythm of nature. A, something was wrong. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise slightly, a clear sign of immi danger.

  'It's getting stronger.'

  Even without identifying the source of the threat, her experieold her that she o be in the best possible dition to react. Without hesitation, Tang Xi retrieved three ripe fruits from the Inferior Qi Tree from her spatial ring and quickly ed them. A warm and vibrant wave of energy surged through her body, replenishirength to the fullest.

  The moment she felt her Qi stabilized, she activated her cealment ability, making her presence vanish like a fme extinguished by the wind. However, she did not move. She was in a naturally hidden space, a location that gave her time and an advao react to any attack directed at her.

  She took a deep breath, expanding her senses in all dires, pig up even the smallest disturbahe uensified with each passing sed. Then, a sharp ripple in her perception made her eyes widen.

  'They're here.'

  Two cultivators entered her dete range, moving stealthily betweerees. The moment she sehem, she instinctively khey were the source of her ay. And as if they could feel her awareness of them, they reacted immediately.

  The burly man, with sharp features and a predataze, made a quick haure and pointed in her dire. Her heart raced.

  'This is bad!'

  Before she could react, he threw a talisman directly at her. The part ignited and shattered in the air, transf into multiple bdes of light ed ialliergy, slig through space toward her.

  Tang Xi deactivated her cealment instantly, being visible as she leaped downward, using the trunk of a tree to evade. The metallic bdes whizzed past her, tearing through the branches where she had been just a moment before.

  But there was no time to rest.

  The middle-aged female cultivator, her hair tied in a tight bun and her gaze as cold as steel, advanced with impressive speed. From her sheath, she drew a curved sword that danced in her hand like a serpent ready to strike. Her movements were dired effit, each strike carrying a lethal i.

  Tang Xi activated the Phoenix Wiep teique, enveloping herself in a fming aura and glidiweerees with agile and precise movements, dodging the curved bdes that sought to cut her down. However, the woman was relentless, her sword whistling dangerously close each time. Xi could feel the metallic chill of the bde passing mere millimeters from her skin.

  Then, the burly man rejoihe fight, lunging at her with a fist ed ihen energy. Each punch he threw made the air vibrate around him, demonstrating his overwhelming strength.

  — "Why are you attag me?" — Tang Xi asked as she dodged, searg for an opening to terattack.

  The two did not respond, but the malicious gleam in their eyes said everything. Greed. They were after something.

  Finally, she found her opening. With a swift spin, she twirled the Lunar Umbrel, infusing its bde with a stelr fme aura. When the woman's curved sword sshed toward her, it met the reinforced guard of the umbrel, log their bdes upon impact.

  — "Amplify Weight."

  The Lunar Umbrel's weight doubled instantly.

  The middle-aged cultivator, unprepared for the sudden increase in force, felt the impact reverberate through her arms. Her fiingled as she lost grip, and the sheer force of the strike sent her crashing against a tree with a loud thud.

  The man seized the opportunity and unched a direct punch at her exposed fnk. But Tang Xi had anticipated it.

  At the st moment, she activated [Phoenix Wings].

  A burst of fmes erupted around her, catg the man off guard. He instinctively tried to pull back, but it was too te. Xi shifted her position at the precise instant and tered his punch, trating her fme aura into her fist.

  — Crack!

  A sharp sound echoed through the air as the impact struck his arm, making him stagger back with a numbed limb. His clothes were scorched in the process, and a pained expression spread across his sweaty face.

  'Damn… I uimated her.'

  Tang Xi didn't give him the ce to recover. With the Lunar Umbrel in hand, she unched a rapid aless sequence of attacks. Her fming bde struck with precise cuts, f the man to retreat awkwardly.

  'She's too fast!'

  Just as she found an opening and aimed a decisive strike toward his chest—

  — a ripple in the aura around her erupted from behind.

  Tang Xi leaped to the side at the st sed, barely avoiding being impaled by earthen spears that shot up from the ground.

  The middle-aged cultivator, now disheveled and her fierce gre making her scar look even more menag, had recovered and activated aalisman. The burly man, equally enraged, pulled out yet aalisman and hurled it toward her.

  Tang Xi barely dodged in time, but now she was ered. The woman lunged forward, the bde of her swleaming with lethal i. But Xi responded in kind.

  She pulled out a first-level talisman and threw it at the man while simultaneously g against the woman's sword with a ter infused with earthen aura.

  The man saw the sudden attad roared:

  — "Damn brat!"

  But he had no time to react. The instant, fming Qi bdes rained down on the ground where he had stood just moments before, f him to throw himself aside to avoid being shredded. The impact made the earth explode in fmes, leaving charred marks in its wake.

  He ched his teeth, quickly pulling out a small vial and gulping down a healing pill.

  The battle was far from over.

  Tang Xi felt sweat trickle dowemple. Her enemies were persistent, and even wouhey still had enough strength to keep going. But she wouldn't let them overwhelm her.

  'These two together are annoying to deal with. Every time I try to take one down, the other interrupts me.' — she thought irritably.

  The woman reparing to strike again. The man, now furious, pulled out multiple first-level talismans.

  Tang Xi narrowed her eyes.

  Her body tensed, ready to react to their move.

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