“Hmph, if there’s an expert, our Tianqi Prefecture absolutely cannot let them slip by. Anyone able to survive here must be at least at the Xiantian level, maybe even a top-tier Lian Gang master. I must recruit such a person and make them work for Tianqi Prefecture. If I can get the help of such an expert, I’d like to see what right my brothers and sisters have to show off in front of me.”

As she spoke, the young woman named Lily Carter was already following the traces detected by David Harris, quickly heading deeper into the forest.

“Miss Ye, you mustn’t!”

“Since the other party is hiding here, they clearly don’t want to be disturbed. We should leave quickly…”

David Harris tried to persuade her, but the red-clad girl paid him no heed at all.

“Coward. And you call yourself a legendary swordsman? Someone like you can defeat a Xiantian-level expert? If the Sanluo Sword Sect sends someone like you to protect me, it seems they really have no one left!”

Lily Carter curled her lips in disdain, darting swiftly through the forest, and soon plunged into its depths.

After passing through a patch of not-so-dense grass and foliage, a temporary wooden shelter built in the trees and suspended in midair suddenly appeared before her.

Chapter 6: Encounter

“Hmm?”

When someone entered within a hundred meters of the trees, Ethan Clark already sensed it.

In the month since he’d acquired this body, aside from the injury to his dantian not being fully healed, he had basically adapted completely to it.

Relying on the foundation built by the body’s original owner, he had now fully recovered to the peak of his ancient self.

Moreover, this body’s spirit was strong, and its sensitivity to airflow, wind direction, and scent was extremely keen. Occasionally, he could even sense fortune and misfortune; within a hundred meters, not the slightest movement escaped his notice…

What’s more, the red-clad girl running over made no attempt to conceal her presence. He didn’t even need to sense her—he could spot her with his eyes.

“Miss Ye, please be careful.”

When the red-clad girl Lily Carter arrived beneath the wooden shelter, David Harris and the others quickly caught up, carefully protecting her safety.

Ethan Clark glanced at Lily Carter, leapt lightly, and landed steadily on the ground.

“This person… doesn’t seem to have any true qi cultivation… His strength shouldn’t be high.”

Hearing the sound Ethan Clark made when he landed, Julia Baker’s tense expression eased a little.

“No! This person is definitely an expert! Although he made some noise dropping from the treehouse, if you look closely, you’ll see that his body didn’t sway at all during the whole process—steady as a mountain. Even his feet didn’t tremble in the slightest. This shows his control over his body has reached an extremely high level!”

David Harris’s expression was grave. Having defeated even Xiantian-level experts, his perception far surpassed that of Julia Baker, who was merely a seventh-level Qi Refiner.

“This…”

While the two of them were secretly sizing up Ethan Clark, Lily Carter had already stepped forward, looking at him in surprise: “I didn’t expect you to be so young?”

Ethan Clark glanced at Lily Carter, studied her for a moment, and seemed to realize something. He asked tentatively, “Yanhuang Star Domain?”

Lily Carter was slightly taken aback, then immediately showed a look of surprise: “You’re also a play… no, you’re also from the Yanhuang Star Domain?”

Ethan Clark nodded.

To encounter a player from the virtual world here was quite unexpected for him.

After all, the Zhenxuan World was simply too vast. Even with hundreds of millions from the Yanhuang Star Domain entering it, they were but a drop in the ocean. Unless he deliberately sought out organizations formed by virtual world residents, it was nearly impossible to run into such players by chance.

“Miss Ye, do you know each other?”

Hearing the somewhat confusing conversation between the two, Julia Baker asked.

Lily Carter glanced at Julia Baker and waved her hand: “You all step back.”

“Miss Ye, what about your safety…”

“Hmph, with you lot, do you really think you can protect me?”

Julia Baker and David Harris exchanged a glance and said, “Miss Ye, please be careful.” Then, helplessly, they retreated to the side.

Ethan Clark looked at the group but said nothing.

According to the Zhenxuan World’s virtual laws, residents of the virtual world were forbidden from discussing anything about the real world with the original inhabitants of Zhenxuan World.

“Those two, are they your bodyguards?”

“More or less.”

“Not bad—one’s at the ninth level of Qi Refining, the other at the seventh. Looks like you’re doing pretty well in the Zhenxuan World.”