Moonlight shattered into silver flakes among the branches of the old locust tree. Ye Fan's fingertips had just brushed against the spatial barrier before he jerked his hand back abruptly. He could clearly feel the jade tablet and the Jiuxiao Huanpei trembling within his Inner World, like two startled hearts.
The scorch mark left behind when that palm force had pierced the spatial barrier was still burning in his Sea of Consciousness. He closed his eyes—when he was ambushed and cornered in his past life, the Grand Elder of the Xuanxiao Sect had wielded that exact same nether-glow, resembling the forked tongue of a venomous snake.
"Whoosh—" The mountain wind swept wild grass across his insteps, and only then did Ye Fan realize his back was drenched in cold sweat. He swept his gaze rapidly around: the area beneath the old locust tree was completely deserted. The ground that Zhao Wuji had cracked open just moments before still bore spiderweb-like fissures, yet not even a scrap of clothing could be found.
Chapter 52