"Could it be that Fifth Sister tipped them off, so they fled ahead of time, or perhaps there's some kind of trap?" The middle-aged woman said, a worried look crossing her face.
"No. If they had really set a trap, they would have sprung it the moment we entered, when we had absolutely no guard up." Han Li shook his head, dismissing the notion.
The others felt a measure of relief upon hearing Han Li's reasoning, though they still couldn't help glancing around their surroundings for a while. Sure enough, nothing out of the ordinary was happening.
"Senior, what do we do next? Should we pull back for now and try again another day?" The second brother asked hesitantly.
"Let's go after that Steward Wang first. If he's gone too, we'll cancel today's operation and withdraw immediately," Han Li said coldly.
Upon hearing Han Li's words, the Four Friends of Meng Mountain exchanged glances and silently nodded in agreement.
Han Li released several spell seals to dismiss the barrier, then took the lead in slipping toward the other side of the prince's estate. The others followed close behind without a single step of distance between them.
Steward Wang's residence, though not a towered pavilion like the little prince's, was still a small three-sided courtyard occupied by a single person.
When Han Li and the others drew near, they found that one of the rooms was faintly lit — it seemed the man had not yet gone to sleep.
Han Li's brow arched slightly. It looked like this time they wouldn't come up empty.
With that thought, Han Li gestured to the others to conceal themselves and stay alert, then immediately activated the newly learned nameless qi-concealment technique. The spiritual energy across his entire body dissipated without a trace in an instant, making him seem no different from an ordinary mortal.
Next, Han Li's figure flickered several times, and he suddenly materialized at the base of the wall beside the lit room, pressing his ear tightly against it.
Because that Steward Wang had given Han Li an extremely eerie impression before, he refrained from arrogantly sending out his spiritual sense to probe inside, for fear of being detected.
Yet after only listening for a brief moment, Han Li's expression changed abruptly. He flew backward and immediately concealed himself behind a massive tree.
This scene greatly surprised the Four Friends of Meng Mountain, who had been watching from nearby. But the next instant, Han Li's voice rang in their ears: "Be careful — the little prince is inside that room too. Everyone, play it by ear!"
These words instantly sent a chill through all of them. Without exception, they held their breath and fixed their gaze on the door, not daring to make the slightest sound.
With a creak, the door opened. A young man in a pale green brocade robe stepped out — none other than the little prince of the Xin Prince's estate.
He turned back and whispered a few words to the person inside the room, then walked a few paces into the courtyard. The door behind him closed on its own.
Shortly after, the light behind the paper window flickered several times before going out entirely. It appeared the person inside was settling in for the night.
Han Li watched the young man's every movement with a blank expression. What puzzled him was that he still couldn't detect any trace of Magical Power on the other's body. Yet the faint sense of danger that had accompanied the young man's appearance was unmistakable — he had to be a disciple of the Black Fiend Sect.
Perhaps because he was still within his own estate, the little prince showed no urgency to return to his quarters. Instead, like any ordinary person, he stretched, gazed up at the bright moon overhead, and suddenly let out a sigh.
Then he actually began pacing back and forth across the small courtyard, his face clouded with worry, as though some great burden weighed on his mind.
It seemed he wouldn't be leaving anytime soon, which left the Four Friends of Meng Mountain growing increasingly exasperated!
Launching an attack now was out of the question. With Steward Wang in the adjacent room, any scuffle would certainly wake him, and then things would become far more troublesome.
The best course of action, naturally, would be to wait until the little prince returned to his own quarters and deal with them one at a time.
Fortunately, they were all cultivators, and this much patience they could manage. Each of them remained thoroughly concealed, never exposing any flaw.
After roughly the time it took to finish a meal, the little prince finally stopped pacing and walked out of the courtyard.
The ambushers felt a surge of delight!
But what followed left them stunned — and then seething with rage in the next instant.
The moment the little prince stepped through the courtyard gate, he performed what looked like an illusion technique and, seemingly from nowhere, produced a set of clothing. In the blink of an eye he had changed into a crimson-clad, masked figure — precisely the one who had ordered them to ambush and kill Han Li.
Though the old man and the others burned with fury, they knew the stakes were too high. They forced themselves to hold back and keep their composure. It was only now that they truly believed Han Li's words — they had not, after all, targeted the wrong person.
Now clad in his new attire, the little prince's entire body radiated a faint baleful aura and a considerable surge of Magical Power — roughly at the eleventh level of the Qi Condensation stage. He did not return to his own quarters. Instead, he tossed a long, blood-red strip of a magical treasure into the air, then flickered once and soared skyward upon the artifact.
At the sight of this, a cold gleam flashed through Han Li's eyes. He immediately transmitted his voice to the other four: