The place where Ancestor Redfire had been was now a huge, bottomless pit a thousand zhang wide. The spiritual energy in this space was raging violently, and the dust kicked up by the explosion blotted out the sun. This was a desert region. The explosion of the magical treasure was of the same type, but when He Manhua had self-destructed his magical treasure in the forest before, the power seemed ten times greater. The sand in the desert was no match for the hard rocks on the mountain.
At this moment, Ancestor Redfire was the only living thing here. Although he had not perished, he was only a hair's breadth away from death. His appearance was tragic and ferocious, like a fierce ghost. Because he hadn't detected any of Li Yan's Divine Sense on the magical treasure earlier, he was only on guard against any potent poisons on it, and his spiritual energy shield was not fully activated.
The self-destruction of even the lowest-grade magical treasure could kill a Golden Core cultivator if they were caught off guard. Although Ancestor Redfire's reaction was extremely fast, he was ultimately a step too slow, especially in the case of a magical treasure that had been refined to the peak of the low-grade self-destructing.
Ancestor Redfire's red robe was already in tatters, with strips of cloth hanging from his body. His exposed body was scorched black. His right arm was gone, and the left side of his face had been blown off, revealing a white jawbone. His left eye was a bloody mess, and his originally bald head had a cracked skull, with red and white matter oozing out. Black blood was constantly gushing from his mouth and nose, and his body was covered in countless wounds of all sizes, from which blood was flowing freely.
Ancestor Redfire extended his only remaining left arm and continuously tapped at the bleeding wounds on his body. In an instant, the wounds that had been bleeding profusely stopped. Then, he tapped his storage pouch several times, and several bottles of medicinal pills flew into the air. Some were tilted by his spiritual energy, and liquids of various colors flowed onto his wounds. From others, a few pills floated out and were swallowed by him. With this continuous treatment, his injuries were healing at a speed visible to the naked eye. But his severed arm and left eye could not be restored. And at this moment, there was something even more fatal that was making Ancestor Redfire both furious and alarmed.
Li Yan fled for his life at top speed. At this moment, he had no reservations. He frantically circulated his spiritual energy without any regard for hiding his figure. He just wanted to get as far away as possible. Along the way, although some cultivators saw him from a distance, they saw the surging aura of a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator and the bright light emanating from his body. Everyone knew that a cultivator was fighting with this person, and a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator going all out was not to be trifled with. They all stayed far away.
As Li Yan flew desperately, he kept looking around. The surroundings were still a boundless desert. Night had already fallen. He had already converted the spiritual energy in his body into water spiritual energy in the Five Elements cycle, but he was not using the method of the Five Elements Return to Primordial Genesis. In that case, although he could double his spiritual power in two breaths, after that, his meridians would no longer be able to withstand the high-intensity spiritual energy circulation. He would not do that unless it was a matter of life and death.
So Li Yan adopted the method of the Five Elements Generating Cycle. The conversion speed between spiritual energies of different attributes was slower, and it couldn't truly achieve a pure single spiritual energy. However, Li Yan was not trying to increase his spiritual power, but just to use the unique characteristics of water spiritual energy. When controlling flight with spiritual energies of other attributes, a dazzling light of different colors would form around the body. Especially when flying faster, the light outside the body would be brighter, which looked very impressive, but it would undoubtedly be a conspicuous moving target in the dead of night.
Li Yan was like a black line streaking across the night sky. Thinking of his earlier method of dealing with Ancestor Redfire, Li Yan still felt a lingering fear and heartache.
When Ancestor Redfire saw through Li Yan's "Stealthy Night Art," Li Yan knew that he would soon catch up. If he were to compete with Ancestor Redfire in speed, he would be close to death. Although Li Yan was cautious and had left the Pine-Inkstone on the path ahead, he wasn't sure it would work. And his estimated plan was not perfect; it was just a hasty decision.
At that time, Li Yan knew that he couldn't divert Ancestor Redfire for too long with just the puppet. After some consideration, Li Yan still continued to set up a trap to delay him for a while longer. But after checking the items in his storage pouch and Earth-Spot, and thinking about the immortal arts he could use, Li Yan sighed inwardly. He felt that the means at his disposal were too few. He had a body of pure spiritual energy cultivated from the True Scripture of Gui Water, but besides the Fragmented Poison Body, his offensive immortal arts were lacking. For close combat, he had the Qiongqi Purgatory Art, but no matter how confident he was, he wouldn't be so arrogant as to think he could face Ancestor Redfire head-on with it.
Li Yan's initial plan was to control a magical treasure to sneak attack Ancestor Redfire. The easiest to control was the Giant Ape Puppet that Bai Rou had given him. But after weighing the pros and cons, Li Yan gave up on this idea. The Giant Ape Puppet would probably be gone for good, and the effect it could have was not necessarily that great.
The other few magical treasures he had just obtained had not yet been refined, so their power would be greatly reduced. But then again, even if he had refined them, a sneak attack with all his might might not have had any effect on a Golden Core cultivator.
Another thing that gave Li Yan a headache was that he couldn't stay in one place to control the Pine-Inkstone. He had to control it from a distance with his Divine Sense. But when he used his Divine Sense to control the magical treasure, as long as Ancestor Redfire was paying attention to his surroundings, he would immediately discover the fluctuation of Li Yan's Divine Sense. So, using a magical treasure for a sneak attack was not feasible.
After thinking it over, he could only rely on his Fragmented Poison Body. At present, this was the only thing that could pose a threat to a Golden Core cultivator.
But no matter how he used the Fragmented Poison Body, he needed a medium. If he just left the potent poison in the air or on the ground, in this vast, sandy place, the poison would probably dissipate on its own before long, before Ancestor Redfire even arrived.
For a moment, Li Yan was at a loss, so anxious that sweat beaded on his forehead. As he was flying, he inadvertently looked up and suddenly saw the bright moon in the sky. His heart trembled, and he thought of the "Lovesickness Under the Moon" he had used in the competition with Du Sanjiang of the Four Symbols Peak for a spot in the secret realm. This made Li Yan's eyes grow brighter and brighter, and a plan slowly formed in his mind.
"Lovesickness Under the Moon" relied on the time of day with the most yin energy to launch its attack, and its toxicity was extremely fierce. It was a suitable choice for severely injuring an enemy in one blow.
Since Li Yan's Fragmented Poison Body had last advanced, among the eighteen new toxins, there was one that was the exact opposite of "Lovesickness Under the Moon." "Lovesickness Under the Moon" needed to be activated by moonlight at midnight, when the yin energy was at its strongest. The new poison, on the other hand, was activated by the midday sun, when the yang energy was at its strongest. It didn't need any Divine Sense control at all. Although the sun and moon were both in the sky at that time, the sun was about to set. Li Yan did not hesitate to choose the former.
"Lovesickness Under the Moon" had a major drawback: it had to be activated by moonlight at midnight, when the yin energy was at its strongest. That was several hours away. By then, Li Yan would have long been caught and killed by Ancestor Redfire. But now, Li Yan had some control over "Lovesickness Under the Moon." To be precise, Li Yan had stronger control over his body. He could use a wisp of his Divine Sense to forcibly activate this poison before midnight. However, the "Lovesickness Under the Moon" poison activated in this way would have greatly reduced power due to the lack of strong yin energy at midnight. But with the overbearing toxicity of "Lovesickness Under the Moon," it was still possible to cause a lot of trouble for Ancestor Redfire.
Although he thought of using "Lovesickness Under the Moon," because of the time, he still needed to use his Divine Sense in the end. The problem returned to the starting point. At the same time, if "Lovesickness Under the Moon" had no medium to be stored in, it would quickly dissipate in the desert.
Li Yan quickly made a decision: to store "Lovesickness Under the Moon" on a magical treasure. Although activating "Lovesickness Under the Moon" required Divine Sense, compared to controlling a magical treasure, that amount of Divine Sense was almost negligible. But whether this so-called negligible amount would be noticed by the other party depended on luck.
And Li Yan planned to use "Lovesickness Under the Moon" to instantly detonate the magical treasure it was attached to at the same time it was activated. This would make up for the shortcoming of not being able to fully unleash the toxicity of "Lovesickness Under the Moon" due to it not being midnight, and might even severely injure Ancestor Redfire.
All of this sounded good in theory, but it was not easy to put into practice. Detonating a magical treasure was completely different from controlling one. It required a large amount of spiritual energy and Divine Sense control. Li Yan racked his brains and came up with an idea: could he use poison to detonate a magical treasure? The attack method of "Lovesickness Under the Moon," when he attacked Du Sanjiang back then, was not a gentle infusion or adhesion to the body to corrode it, but was very overbearing. After being activated by the moonlight, it had carried the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and directly bombarded Du Sanjiang. Du Sanjiang's protective formation was like paper. This form was similar to a spiritual energy attack, but Li Yan had never tried it. Maybe it wouldn't work at all.
After getting the Pine-Inkstone and other magical treasures, although Li Yan hadn't had time to refine them, he had studied them. He knew exactly where the core formations of the magical treasures were and where to control the spiritual energy to make them self-destruct instantly.
Li Yan quickly made a decision. At this life-and-death juncture, he could only give it a try, whether it worked or not. But the cost made his heart bleed. He had just gotten the Pine-Inkstone, and it was a magical treasure that had reached the peak of the first rank. It was actually a grade higher than Bloodhand Flying Sickle's folding fan. But the folding fan had the essence souls of eight Flying Sickle Blood Mantises. It was not easy to refine the essence soul of one demonic beast into a magical treasure, let alone eight, one of which was a Rank Two demonic beast's essence soul. How could Li Yan bear to use the folding fan to sneak attack the old ancestor?
Li Yan took out the Pine-Inkstone and, as quickly as possible, released "Lovesickness Under the Moon" onto it, then drove it into the ground. But not too deep, so that the process of it shooting to the surface wouldn't take too long. After leaving a wisp of his Divine Sense on it, he cursed Ancestor Redfire's ancestors eight generations back. As expected, this wisp of Divine Sense was also going to be greatly damaged. Although these two wisps of Divine Sense today were a very small part, it would take several months of hard cultivation to recover them.
After setting the ambush, it wasn't all done. In the vast desert, how could he make Ancestor Redfire's path coincidentally pass through the trap? Li Yan also had to put in some effort.
So when Ancestor Redfire saw through Li Yan's hiding in the rolling yellow sand, Li Yan directly revealed himself and led the pursuing Ancestor Redfire to constantly change direction. The purpose was to make Ancestor Redfire, while adjusting his position, finally pass through the trap he had set. It was just like hunting in the Great Green Mountains back then. The probability of this method succeeding was actually only fifty-fifty. Ancestor Redfire was very fast, and when changing direction, he might have already bypassed the location of Li Yan's trap in an arc. But even if there was only a slim chance, Li Yan had to do his best. And he couldn't let Ancestor Redfire see through him.
One link after another was needed to get the desired result. If one link went wrong, Li Yan could only think of another way.
Li Yan's painstaking efforts were not in vain. In the end, he successfully led Ancestor Redfire's path towards the direction of the trap. But what Li Yan didn't expect was that when he was more than three hundred zhang away from the trap, Ancestor Redfire actually used an illusion technique to attack and confuse his mind.