The Gentle Wind Pavilion's teleportation formation was also a multi-node system. The destination Li Yan wanted was, of course, the farthest possible—the final node to the north. Having obtained a large sum of spirit stones from the He brothers and Bloodhand Flying Sickle, the cost of each teleportation, though painful, was at least being paid for with a windfall.
The final node of the Gentle Wind Pavilion was also a temporary stronghold, with about fifty disciples guarding the teleportation formation.
As Li Yan stepped out of the teleportation formation and began to walk out of the stronghold, he noticed a cultivator following him from a distance.
The cultivator was a bald old man, short and stout, with a rosacea nose and a large mouth. His expression was cold, and he wore a bright red robe. When Li Yan had entered the Gentle Wind Pavilion at the other end of the market town, this person seemed to have arrived around the same time. However, there were many people teleporting at that time. Although Li Yan remained vigilant, he had only kept a certain distance from everyone within the teleportation formation and had not taken any special precautions against this person. But as the teleportation began and people were sent to different nodes, those who remained became increasingly conspicuous.
After the last three nodes, only the red-robed bald old man and Li Yan were left. In the end, they both arrived at the final destination of the teleportation formation. Li Yan had already noticed that when the red-robed bald old man occasionally glanced at him, his eyes revealed a disregard for life, as if he were looking at a dead man.
All of this put Li Yan on high alert. He circulated his spiritual energy to protect his entire body. He couldn't see through the red-robed bald old man's cultivation, but he could sense an extremely dangerous aura from him. During the teleportation process, he wasn't too worried that the other party would suddenly attack him. In that situation, no matter how high your cultivation was, you could cause the teleportation formation to become chaotic. Everyone inside would be swept into the ethereal spatial turbulence and could be instantly killed. Doing so would be courting death, so it was generally fine to just remain vigilant inside a teleportation formation.
Of course, there were exceptions. For example, a cultivator who practiced the power of space or time would have a certain degree of confidence that they wouldn't be drawn into the spatial turbulence. However, cultivators who could practice these two Rules of Heaven and Earth were practically non-existent in the Mortal Realm. Only some formation masters had a superficial grasp of the power of space, and they could only use it to set up formations like teleportation arrays, but couldn't truly command the power of space. Of course, if your cultivation reached the Nascent Soul stage or above, you could also resist the spatial turbulence. But Nascent Soul cultivators were few and far between; many cultivators would never meet a Nascent Soul Old Monster in their entire lives. Li Yan didn't believe his luck was that bad.
With these thoughts, although Li Yan found the red-robed bald old man strange, he wasn't too worried about him making any unusual moves during the teleportation process.
As the two exchanged glances from time to time, they were soon teleported to the final stronghold of the Gentle Wind Pavilion. As Li Yan was leaving, the red-robed bald old man actually started tailing him, keeping a distance of more than twenty zhang. For a cultivator, an attack from this distance would be instantaneous. This began to make Li Yan feel uneasy. He had already used his full Divine Sense but was still unable to determine the other party's true strength. This could only mean one thing: the other party's strength far surpassed his own.
Li Yan was currently at the peak of the initial stage of Foundation Establishment. With the power of the True Scripture of Gui Water, plus the first layer of the Qiongqi Purgatory Art that he had successfully cultivated, Li Yan was confident he could deal with a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Against a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, with the addition of his Fragmented Poison Body, although he couldn't defeat them, he was confident he could escape. But he couldn't see through the red-robed bald old man before him, which meant that either the other party's cultivation method was just as strange, or he was at the Golden Core stage or above. In either case, under unknown circumstances, Li Yan felt that he was in extreme danger.
But staying in the Gentle Wind Pavilion's stronghold for a long time was not a solution either. Li Yan frowned, quickened his pace out of the stronghold, and directly took out his flying sword, tossing it into the air and streaking towards the horizon at top speed. At this moment, his spiritual energy was fully unleashed, with no intention of holding back.
And just as Li Yan threw out his flying sword, the red-robed bald old man paused his steps as he looked at the sword Li Yan had taken out.
The direction Li Yan was heading was the northern part of the Desolate Moon Continent. The Desolate Moon Continent was vast and boundless, with many places that even cultivators dared not enter casually. Therefore, Li Yan's journey north sometimes involved using teleportation formations not just to save time, but because he had to pass through some extremely dangerous places and had no choice but to teleport.
This stronghold of the Gentle Wind Pavilion was built on the edge of a desert. Li Yan had learned this from a jade slip map long ago. The desert was nearly ten thousand li wide, and Li Yan needed to cross it. There were no more teleportation formations heading north from here, probably because the nearby sects had reached the limit of their influence. So Li Yan had to fly across it himself. According to the description in the jade slip, this desert was sparsely populated and its spiritual energy was chaotic. There were several dangerous places within it, so ordinary cultivators usually traveled in groups and passed through quickly.
Li Yan's jade slip contained two routes through the desert.
Li Yan flew for more than three hundred li in one breath. But when he looked back, his heart sank in shock. Just now, as he kept looking back, whether by sight or with his Divine Sense, the surroundings were vast and empty. But now, not more than fifty zhang away from him, a person was unhurriedly appearing in his field of vision. It was that short, stout, red-robed bald old man. His face was cold and expressionless, but the corners of his mouth were slightly turned up, as if in a silent sneer at the backward-glancing Li Yan.
Li Yan's expression grew uglier. He couldn't help but shout in a deep voice, "Sir, what is the meaning of this? Why have you been following me?" Although he said this, the flying sword under his feet did not pause in the slightest. Instead, it sped up a bit.
"Are you a Ten-Pace Courtyard cultivator? But from the way you control your flying sword, you don't seem like a disciple of the Ten-Pace Courtyard." The red-robed bald old man glanced at the flying sword under Li Yan's feet and finally spoke. His voice was hoarse, like the sound of two pieces of dead wood scraping against each other.
"What business is that of yours? Why are you chasing me so relentlessly? I don't believe we know each other." Li Yan saw that the other party completely ignored his question and seemed to be curious about his identity instead.
"Heh heh, you won't talk? It doesn't matter. I'll capture you in a moment anyway, and a quick Soul-Search will reveal everything. Don't think you can rest easy just because you're a Ten-Pace Courtyard cultivator. This is Malevolent Spirit Sect territory. You can only blame yourself for choosing the wrong place to train." The red-robed bald old man's hoarse voice continued.
Hearing this, Li Yan was furious. This person wanted to perform a Soul-Search on him right from the start. But wary of the other party's strength, he still said in a deep voice, "I am not a Ten-Pace Courtyard cultivator. I just bought this flying sword in a market town to use as a flying artifact."
"Heh heh, are you scared? But let me tell you, it doesn't matter if you are a Ten-Pace Courtyard cultivator or not. What's important is that you must die. This place is already very remote. Even if you are a Ten-Pace Courtyard cultivator, it will be impossible to investigate afterwards." As he spoke, the red-robed bald old man's figure suddenly disappeared from behind Li Yan. In the next moment, Li Yan had already fallen to the ground below. The red-robed bald old man, however, appeared less than ten zhang ahead on Li Yan's path. If Li Yan had continued to fly forward, he would have come face to face with him.
Li Yan, who had landed on the ground, had an extremely grave expression. Just now, he had felt a life-and-death crisis, exactly the same as when he had faced Strategist Ji. Without a second thought, his body had plummeted to the ground like a meteor. The red-robed bald old man's momentary burst of speed had finally allowed Li Yan to feel the terrifying aura on him.
'An initial-stage Golden Core cultivator?' Li Yan felt his mouth go dry. This was not something he could resist at his current level. This person's origins were mysterious, and he didn't bother with any reason. However, during the red-robed bald old man's sudden burst, although Li Yan had dodged, he knew that the other party had not used his full strength. It felt like a cat playing with a mouse. The other party had only wanted to intercept him. Otherwise, if the red-robed bald old man had attacked at that speed, it was hard to say whether he could have dodged the blow.
"Oh, you're at mid-stage Foundation Establishment? Hmm, no, not quite. It seems this old man misjudged." The red-robed bald old man floated in the air, looking down at Li Yan. There was a hint of surprise in his eyes, but it was just a hint. He had thought he could easily intercept Li Yan. With Li Yan's initial-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation, before he could react, he could have just pointed a finger and easily finished him. But the result was somewhat unexpected. With Li Yan on full alert, his Divine Sense had already surpassed the Pseudo-Core Realm and was infinitely close to the range of an initial-stage Golden Core's Divine Sense. So the moment the red-robed bald old man disappeared, Li Yan's Divine Sense had sensed it. Although his spiritual energy was no match for the other party's, at such a close distance, he had still reacted. Without time to think, his body had crashed to the ground like a heavy piece of iron.
Li Yan swept his Divine Sense around and cursed inwardly. This was a boundless desert; he had no way to hide. He quickly calculated in his mind. 'It's still evening now, about an hour until dark. Although it won't affect Divine Sense much after dark, with reduced visibility, there's a greater chance. I have to drag this out until dark to have a better chance of escaping.' These thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant, but his face showed a look of unwillingness.
"Senior, I don't believe I have offended you. Why are you so bent on killing this junior?"
The red-robed bald old man glanced around. The area was a vast, empty desert. Li Yan had no chance to run now. Seeing his unwilling expression, he said faintly, "You have offended someone else. You can only blame yourself. But when the Soul-Search becomes painful in a moment, don't blame this old man either. Someone just wants to know your background, so I can only use the Soul-Searching Art."
Hearing this, a flash of lightning went through Li Yan's mind. He said coldly, "So you're from the Ye Family." Li Yan was extremely clever. In an instant, he had realized that if he had offended anyone recently, besides the He brothers and Bloodhand Flying Sickle, it could only be the Ye Family.
He had dealt with the first three silently, and he believed that Zhuo Lingfeng and Huchen Wuding would not speak of it. The only remaining possibility was that he had helped Huchen Wuding in the final round of the assessment, which had ultimately led to Huchen Jianghai's failure.
The one who should hate him the most would be Ye Luoyan. And Zhuo Lingfeng had felt something unusual after leaving the Huchen family. This should be a sense honed by Zhuo Lingfeng from years of walking on the edge of life and death. It was likely that this person was monitoring them from nearby at that time. But because they were too close to the Huchen family, this person had held back from making a move.
In a flash of thought, Li Yan had already understood.
In fact, it was just as Li Yan had guessed. The red-robed bald old man was not a Ye Family cultivator, but a Guest Elder of the Ye Family. Besides the Ye Family Ancestor, who was a Pseudo-Nascent Soul cultivator, the Ye Family also had another initial-stage Golden Core elder from their own clan. In order to strengthen the family's power, they had spent a huge sum of spirit stones to retain an initial-stage Golden Core cultivator, who was the red-robed bald old man before him. This man was originally a rogue cultivator named Jiang Mingyuan. By a stroke of luck, he had obtained the legacy of an ancient cultivator and a large number of medicinal pills, eventually managing to cultivate to the Golden Core stage.
But after he had finally formed his Golden Core, the cultivation resources left by the ancient cultivator had been exhausted. In order to continue cultivating, he began to kill people and plunder their wealth everywhere. To ensure his tracks were not discovered, he never left any survivors, becoming bloodthirsty and treating human life as grass. But this person was also extremely cunning. The targets he chose were never disciples of major sects, so for a time, he did not attract the attention of any Nascent Soul Old Monsters and lived a carefree life. Because he was skilled in fire-element cultivation methods, he was known as "Ancestor Redfire," a lone titan of the Underworld.