Li Yan flew through the air at his fastest speed. The boundless desert below him receded rapidly. As he flew, he circulated the spiritual energy in his body, refining the pills in his mouth. He needed to heal his fractured shoulder bones as soon as possible. For a cultivator, a medicinal pill could easily heal broken bones and torn tendons, which would be considered a serious injury for a mortal. After just a moment, Li Yan felt a tingling itch from his fractured shoulders, a sign of recovery. He couldn't help but feel lucky that he had cultivated the Qiongqi Purgatory Art. Otherwise, without the protection of strong bones and muscles, his internal organs would have been severely damaged by Ancestor Redfire's earlier strike, and he would have been dead or seriously injured and unconscious.
After flying another two hundred-odd li in one breath, Li Yan's mind was racing. He knew that Ancestor Redfire would surely catch up soon. His flying speed was no match for a Golden Core cultivator. After flying for another stretch, he suddenly stopped. He quickly wiped the "Earth-Spot" on his left wrist, and an object appeared in his hand. It was Qin Chengyi's puppet.
Then, Li Yan formed a hand seal, and a wisp of his Divine Sense shot towards the puppet. At the same time, Li Yan's body, standing in its original spot, rapidly faded. In less than a breath, Li Yan had vanished from sight. Where he had been standing, another Li Yan was looking around. It was the puppet, which had transformed into Li Yan's appearance after being imbued with a wisp of his Divine Sense. The puppet paused for a moment, then turned into a streak of light and shot off in another direction.
Where Li Yan had been standing, a gust of desert wind blew past, kicking up a cloud of yellow sand that swept towards the horizon. "Stealthy Night Art"—this was the only unique immortal art from the True Scripture of Gui Water besides spiritual energy cultivation, and at this moment, Li Yan was using it to its fullest extent, not daring to hold back in the slightest.
A feint to the east and attack to the west. Li Yan now needed to buy himself more time, to escape a greater distance. A Golden Core cultivator's Divine Sense generally covered a range of a thousand li. Only by escaping this range would Li Yan have a chance to live. Of course, this also depended on whether Ancestor Redfire had a secret art for enhancing his Divine Sense. Although the switch between the real and fake Li Yan had taken less than two breaths, Li Yan didn't know if Ancestor Redfire's Divine Sense had happened to sweep over at that moment. He could only take a gamble.
Li Yan also hoped that his "Stealthy Night Art" could deceive Ancestor Redfire. But with his current cultivation, he had only cultivated the "Stealthy Night Art" to the first layer. Even if he used it with all his might, he still wasn't confident he could fool Ancestor Redfire. So he had no choice but to use Qin Chengyi's Rank Two puppet. After sending a wisp of his Divine Sense into its body, Li Yan believed there was a good chance that Ancestor Redfire would be drawn to this puppet, which carried his aura, for a short time. The price Li Yan had to pay was the loss of a Rank Two puppet comparable to a Foundation Establishment cultivator, and a wisp of his own Divine Sense.
Although he was heartbroken over the Rank Two puppet, compared to his life, it was the only way. He never thought that he would have to abandon this puppet without ever having truly used it. And if that wisp of his Divine Sense were to be destroyed, although it wouldn't seriously injure Li Yan, he would still suffer a backlash and would need a period of hard cultivation to recover. Li Yan was also at his wit's end.
Less than fifty breaths later, Li Yan, who was hidden in the rolling yellow sand, felt a heart-pounding pressure rapidly approaching from behind, carrying with it a towering rage. This made him shiver. Being chased by a Golden Core cultivator, Li Yan had no power to resist besides fleeing. He could only pray that the measures he had taken could delay him for a little longer.
Although the dose of Li Yan's "Heaven and Earth Isolation" poison was not large, it had still caused Ancestor Redfire a lot of trouble. The moment he was poisoned, besides feeling dizzy, the spiritual energy in his body almost stopped circulating. Alarmed, Ancestor Redfire bit his tongue hard, which cleared his head a little. He swayed and fell directly to the ground. Fortunately, he had only been floating less than ten zhang high. With a Golden Core cultivator's physical body, he could withstand a fall from such a height. Even so, it left him dizzy and disoriented. But no matter how he tried to circulate his spiritual energy, it felt like it was stuck in a deep quagmire. Every inch of progress took a long time. This made Ancestor Redfire panic. In such a situation, if a Golden Core cultivator were to pass by, they could kill him with a single wave of their hand. There was no sympathy among cultivators; people who kicked you when you were down were everywhere.
As for cultivators below the Golden Core stage, as long as his spiritual energy could circulate, he was confident he had the means to ensure that anyone who wanted to rob him would die without a burial place.
Fortunately for him, his Divine Sense was not affected. Under the cover of his Divine Sense, he didn't detect the aura of any powerful cultivators nearby. He breathed a sigh of relief. With his Divine Sense, he quickly opened his storage pouch, took out a detoxification pill, and began to refine it. However, the "Heaven and Earth Isolation" poison was already entangled with his spiritual energy. Even with Ancestor Redfire's high cultivation, it took him nearly a hundred breaths to recover most of it. How could he not be burning with rage? If word of this got out, he would lose a great deal of face, especially since he had almost become a Golden Core cultivator who fell to his death. This, which had originally been a small matter for the Ye Family Ancestor, had turned into a great humiliation for Ancestor Redfire.
However, after being poisoned, he saw that Li Yan didn't take the opportunity to sneak attack him, but instead fled to the horizon. This made him think a little more highly of Li Yan. If Li Yan had come to kill him at that time, he would have ensured Li Yan died on the spot. Every cultivator had their own life-saving trump card; it was just that the cost of using it was usually too great. The life-saving trump card of a Golden Core cultivator was not something Li Yan could afford to face.
After a hundred breaths, feeling that although the spiritual energy in his body was still not circulating smoothly, he could now use most of his immortal arts, Ancestor Redfire didn't delay any longer. He leaped up and gave chase. At this moment, he was even more vigilant. The moment he got close to Li Yan, he wouldn't give him any more chances. He would directly use a powerful immortal art from a distance to kill him.
Just now, in his haste to recover his spiritual energy, Ancestor Redfire's Divine Sense had not been constantly focused on Li Yan. So he had truly not noticed Li Yan's feint, which had taken less than two breaths. When he got up, his Divine Sense quickly scanned the area, and the first thing he discovered was Li Yan desperately fleeing in one direction.
He snorted coldly, flicked his sleeve, and took a step to chase after him.
When Li Yan felt a palpitation, he sensed that the approaching Ancestor Redfire had suddenly changed direction. The direction he was heading was where the puppet he controlled was going. This made him relax slightly, and he focused all his attention on rolling along with the desert sandstorm.
The speed of the puppet controlled by Li Yan was more than a hundred zhang in an instant, a third faster than Li Yan's own top speed. This was because all the spiritual energy slots inside the puppet had been filled with spirit stones by Li Yan. Although this puppet from Qin Chengyi didn't have the eighty hair-raising spiritual energy slots of the Giant Ape Puppet that Bai Rou had given him, it still had forty. At this moment, under his Divine Sense, he was burning the spirit stones inside without any regard for the irreversible damage that the excessive spiritual energy flow would cause to the puppet's internal formation.
Thus, in just a few dozen breaths, it had already traveled more than sixty li. Coupled with the fact that Ancestor Redfire was not used to the speed of his spiritual energy circulation and couldn't control it at will, one chased while the other fled. By the time Ancestor Redfire caught up, the puppet was a hundred li away from where Li Yan had left, and the spirit stones inside the puppet were almost completely depleted.
Ancestor Redfire stood in the sky above a patch of desert, his face ashen. As he had been getting closer to the puppet, he had begun to feel that something was wrong. But the lingering effects of Li Yan's "Heaven and Earth Isolation" poison were still there, making it difficult for him to concentrate. Finally, when he was a hundred zhang away from the puppet, he directly used his "Raging Flame Burns Gold" divine ability from a distance. At this point, he no longer thought about keeping Li Yan alive for a Soul-Search. "Raging Flame Burns Gold" was his most proficient spell. He had once relied on this divine ability to kill a fellow initial-stage Golden Core cultivator. So, as expected, the puppet in front of him was turned into fine powder by a single strike. Even Li Yan's wisp of Divine Sense had no chance to escape and was annihilated along with it.
After the strike, Ancestor Redfire had already sensed something unusual from the spiritual energy feedback. No matter how muddled his head was at the moment, he understood that he had fallen for Li Yan's feint.
Thus, Ancestor Redfire stood in mid-air with an ugly expression, his Divine Sense once again fully spread out, carefully scanning the sky and the ground in all directions.
'Kid, no matter where you go, in the sky or on the earth, I will drag you out. Only by extracting your soul and refining your spirit can I vent the hatred in my heart.' After being escaped by a junior twice, Ancestor Redfire now had no other thoughts besides tearing Li Yan limb from limb. And he believed that Li Yan couldn't have escaped far. Unless Li Yan had a top-tier flying magical treasure that could match the flying speed of a Golden Core cultivator, only then could he fly a thousand li away in such a short time.
Just as Ancestor Redfire used his "Raging Flame Burns Gold" divine ability to destroy the puppet, Li Yan, who was speeding along, felt a heart-piercing pain in his mind, almost causing him to reveal his true form from his "Stealthy Night Art" state. Even so, his state of being one with the yellow sand was separated and stagnated for a moment, and he spat a mouthful of blood directly into the sand.
'He... finally caught up to the puppet.' Li Yan's mind raced, thinking about what might happen next. Enduring the excruciating pain in his Divine Sense, which felt like his flesh was being stripped from his bones, Li Yan's form became slightly more solid, revealing an almost transparent body in the rolling yellow sand. He made a beckoning motion with one hand, and the patch of sand stained with his blood was grabbed by him and put into his storage pouch. He couldn't leave any traces. Then, after a slight hesitation, he looked up at the sky. There was still some time until dark, but the unique sight of the dual sun and moon of the Desolate Moon Continent had already appeared. A huge, round moon had risen in the east, while the setting sun of the western desert was hanging on the horizon. The ethereal Li Yan had a blank expression. He once again took something out of his "Earth-Spot." With a flick of his hand seal, he drove this object into the sand beneath his feet. Then, his slightly more solid body once again merged with the rolling yellow sand, carried away by the fierce wind.
Ancestor Redfire's Divine Sense swept out with all its might, covering a range of a thousand li. After more than ten breaths, Ancestor Redfire retracted his Divine Sense, his brows furrowed. He had not found any trace of Li Yan within the thousand-li range. He had even scanned a hundred zhang underground. With a Foundation Establishment cultivator's cultivation, their Earth Evasion Art wouldn't exceed a hundred zhang underground.
Even Li Yan himself might not have known about this outcome. The immortal arts of the Five Immortal Sects, even if he only had the "Stealthy Night Art," and even if he had just started cultivating it, its power was still world-shaking.
'Within the thousand-li range just now, there were more than thirty-eight thousand birds and beasts. They were all ordinary wild animals, without the slightest spiritual energy fluctuation on them. Even with a transformation-type spell, it's impossible to achieve that. So where is this kid hiding? Could he really have a top-tier flying magical treasure? He shouldn't. Otherwise, he wouldn't have had to use the Earth Evasion Art before. Seeing that things were not looking good, he could have just taken out his magical treasure and flown away. Even if I chased him, it would be a fifty-fifty chance.'
Ancestor Redfire furrowed his brow in thought. He suddenly narrowed his eyes, thinking of a scene he had just sensed with his Divine Sense. It was a scene of patches of yellow sand being blown up by the fierce wind, forming towering sand pillars that spiraled towards the sky and then rolled off in different directions. Now that he thought about it, one patch of yellow sand was somewhat different.