The array patterns on the stone walls of the secret chamber still flickered with a faint cyan-gold glow. Lin Zhaoyue had just withdrawn the tip of her sword from a star-streaked sword scar when she noticed Ye Fan suddenly close his eyes and lower his head. His eyelashes cast delicate, fragmented shadows across his lower eyelids, and his fingertips unconsciously rubbed the Jiuxiao Huanpei at his waist—a sign that his Inner World was activating.
"Zhaoyue, close the window," Ye Fan's voice was as low as an underground stream in a mountain ravine. "Wang Ba has even more men than the mountain patrol reported."
As Lin Zhaoyue turned, the sword tassel at her sleeve brushed across the stone table. She noticed Ye Fan's Adam's apple bob and cold sweat bead on his temples. In his past life as an Inquiry Realm powerhouse, he had never found it this taxing to use his Unity of Heaven and Man innate talent, but with his cultivation not yet fully restored, every strand of connection to the Heavenly Dao was consuming his energy like drawing silk from a cocoon.
Chapter 172