Lucas did not speak immediately after that. Instead, he raised his hand and reached into his storage ring, his movements unhurried yet deliberate, as though what he was about to reveal required the proper weight of silence.
One by one, twelve gauntlets emerged from the ring and hovered briefly in the air before settling gently onto the stone floor between them. Even without touching them, the cultivators could feel a subtle pull in the air, a sensation that made their dantians stir uneasily.
Bartho narrowed his eyes. "Those are not ordinary artifacts."
"No," Lucas replied calmly. "They are far from ordinary."
Jennifer stepped closer, careful not to cross the invisible boundary of the artifacts' influence. "I can feel my Qi responding to them. It is almost instinctive."
