Let alone that Li Yan was unprepared, even if he had been on guard, under the sudden attack of a Nascent Soul cultivator, any attempt to escape would have been a dream.
Li Yan was both shocked and angry. "Senior... you..." Just as Li Yan thought the other party had gone back on her word, the spiritual energy that had just invaded his body only touched him lightly before disappearing without a trace.
The ancient ape puppet released the shocked and angry Li Yan and nodded. "You really do have a five-element miscellaneous spirit root. It seems what you said just now was true. It's just that with such an inferior spirit root, how did you manage to successfully establish your foundation? That surprises me."
The moment the ancient ape puppet released its hand, Li Yan had hurriedly taken two steps back. Hearing her words, he already understood her intention just now. He said with a look of surprise and uncertainty, "Is this ancient ape puppet related to the five elements?" In his urgency, he had already forgotten to address her as senior.
"Hmm, this puppet is called the 'Thousand Luo Ancient Ape.' Its main refining material is the Thousand Luo Stone, which follows the way of the five elements. To be precise, you must have unintentionally used your spiritual energy back then, which activated this puppet, not your Divine Sense. That's why no matter how you used your Divine Sense afterwards, you couldn't cause it to fluctuate in the slightest. And only the five elements' spiritual energy at a specific time can trigger some of its fluctuations. It seems that everything you said was not false."
After releasing Li Yan, the ancient ape puppet stared into the distance, as if lost in thought, and only said a few simple words.
When the mysterious demonic cultivator had said, "You really do have a five-element miscellaneous spirit root," Li Yan had already guessed her intention in suddenly capturing him. Although he was uncomfortable, he was under her roof, and everything was up to her. But after thinking for a moment, Li Yan knew that it should be as she had said. No wonder no matter how he scanned it with his Divine Sense afterwards, the ancient ape puppet showed no abnormality. But then Li Yan immediately denied his own idea.
The reason Bai Rou had said that the ancient ape puppet had an abnormal fluctuation when Li Yan's Divine Sense first appeared was actually from her perspective and feeling. When he had first met Bai Rou in the free market, because of his intervention, Sun Guoshu had directly swept his Divine Sense over Li Yan, trying to make him retreat. In his counterattack with his Divine Sense, Li Yan would naturally use his spiritual energy to protect his body. So after the two Divine Senses collided, the spiritual energy around his body would definitely be agitated and spread outwards. This overflow of spiritual energy was because Li Yan's cultivation was far inferior to Sun Guoshu's, and he couldn't truly control his own spiritual energy at will. So it was normal for the aftershock of his spiritual energy to fall on the ancient ape puppet not far away.
Now that the other party had pointed it out, thinking back carefully, it was indeed the case. Afterwards, he had been misled by what Bai Rou had said about the Divine Sense and had always been using his Divine Sense to probe.
However, after a little thought, Li Yan immediately found a loophole in the mysterious demonic cultivator's words. If he had used his Divine Sense when probing the secret of the ancient ape puppet, he had also taken it out to fight with him. For example, in the black hole of the grotto-cave just now, he had taken out the ancient ape puppet. Otherwise, how could this senior demonic cultivator have entered its body to control it?
But before the mysterious demonic cultivator entered the ancient ape puppet's body, Li Yan himself had been releasing his spiritual energy with all his might to fight. The ancient ape puppet was right beside him, and he even had a wisp of his Divine Sense connected to it, but he had not found any abnormality on the ancient ape puppet.
Li Yan also fell into deep thought. For a moment, it was completely silent here. After a long while, the ancient ape puppet withdrew its gaze from afar and turned to look at Li Yan, who was deep in thought. She spoke in a charming voice.
"Little fellow, all in all, I owe you a favor this time. Otherwise, it's uncertain if I would ever see this world again in this life." When she said this, her voice was less crisp and more vicissitudinous.
Hearing this, Li Yan looked up with suspicion. From what she said, it sounded as if she was the one who was trapped, but at that time, he was the one at the brink of life and death.
Just as Li Yan looked over with doubt, he felt his vision blur, and a slender, beautiful figure appeared before him. The light in the ancient ape puppet's eyes rapidly dimmed, and it stood motionless in its original spot like a dead object.
The person who appeared before him was wearing a purple long dress, looking to be in her late teens. Her face was as beautiful as jade, and her black hair was tied in a bun at the back of her head. Her smooth, jade-like arms were exposed from the purple sleeves that only reached her forearms. What made one's heart beat even faster was that the hem of the purple long dress was gathered up at the back, and as she moved gracefully, a tantalizing flash of snow-white skin was revealed from the front.
With just one glance, Li Yan's mind went "buzz." He felt as if his heart had been fiercely squeezed, and a flush of blood rushed to his face.
"Giggle... the little fellow knows how to blush. Is sister pretty?" A string of silver-bell-like laughter came from the young woman's mouth, making Li Yan at a loss for what to do. He could only hurriedly lower his head.
In the black hole grotto-cave before, Li Yan had only seen a purple phoenix with a broken wing. Who would have thought that a peerless beauty would now come out of the ancient ape puppet's body, and a peerless beauty with all kinds of charms at that. The other party had first called Li Yan "little fellow" in an old-fashioned way, and then inappropriately called herself "sister," but Li Yan didn't feel any sense of incongruity.
"S-Senior... j-junior..." Li Yan didn't know how to answer. He was wondering in his heart, 'Could this senior's true form be that phoenix from before? It's just that now...' Li Yan couldn't help but secretly raise his eyes to look at the purple-dressed young woman's arms. Those smooth, jade-like arms were enchanting in the purple gauze, without the slightest damage.
This small movement of Li Yan did not escape the purple-dressed young woman's notice. She suddenly sighed softly, her expression showing sadness. "Don't guess. I'm not that phoenix from before, nor am I a demonic cultivator. But... I can't be considered a person... either!" Her changes were drastic. Her previous coldness, her recent pretty and cute appearance, and now in an instant, she had become like a young lady from a boudoir, making it impossible for Li Yan to adapt for a moment.
But when the purple-dressed young woman's next words fell into Li Yan's ears, he was shocked. 'Not a demon, not a person. Could it be a ghost... cultivator?' Li Yan hurriedly looked up at the purple-dressed young woman, his figure unconsciously retreating a little.
In this world of cultivators, there were many types: humans, demons, devils, and spirits. Spirit cultivators generally referred to tree spirits and grass monsters. Their cultivation methods were all different. Besides these, there was also a type of ghost cultivator. Ghost cultivators were divided into corpse cultivators and soul cultivators. Corpse cultivators were further divided into zombies, blood corpses, etc. Soul cultivators were divided into resentful souls and wandering ghosts. They were usually the souls of those who had died unjustly or tragically, or those with some kind of obsession who were unwilling to enter the cycle of reincarnation. By a stroke of luck, after absorbing the essence of the sun and moon, they began to develop intelligence and achieve immortality.
Whether it was corpse cultivators or soul cultivators among ghost cultivators, they were often beings that cultivators were unwilling to encounter. They were basically born from the deaths of people with great resentment. After achieving enlightenment, their actions were often unpredictable, and their methods were horrifying. Not to mention being cruel and bloodthirsty, the biggest problem was their mood swings. Their psychology was already distorted, and they often derived pleasure from torturing and killing their opponents.
Hearing that the other party was not a demonic cultivator, and not even a person, Li Yan broke out in a cold sweat. Thinking of her pretty and charming appearance a moment ago, and her somewhat mournful girlish look the next, wasn't this a sign of mood swings?
Seeing Li Yan's expression, the purple-dressed young woman seemed to have realized what he was thinking and couldn't help but smile. But her change again made Li Yan even more nervous. If it weren't for the other party's high strength and knowing that he couldn't run away, he would have turned and fled as far as he could long ago.
"Giggle, I'm not a ghost cultivator. Forget it, I won't scare you anymore. I have something to ask you later, so I'll let you know some things. I was once a Great Elder of the Wood Flow Sect!" At this, the purple-dressed young woman's expression became solemn. In an instant, Li Yan felt that the young woman before him had become incomparably cold, and even the pressure on her body was like a mountain.
"My name is 'Shuang Qingqing,' but you could also say that I may no longer be 'Shuang Qingqing' now. Because what you see is just a remnant of my soul. My main body and Nascent Soul perished a long time ago. I just don't know how many years have passed now," Shuang Qingqing said faintly, her words filled with a hint of desolation.
Hearing this, Li Yan secretly looked at Shuang Qingqing again. Only then did he discover that the purple-dressed young woman's body was not very real. It was somewhat illusory, not like a physical body. It was just that Li Yan had not dared to look closely before.
Shuang Qingqing, the 133rd generation Great Elder of the Wood Flow Sect, was also the last initial-stage Nascent Soul cultivator in the Wood Flow Sect. Her art of mechanisms and puppets had reached the peak recorded in the Wood Flow Sect. She was also a brilliant and peerless figure of her generation. This Thousand Luo Ancient Ape was refined by her.
A long, long time ago, due to the Devil's Cliff Crevice, the four major sects had no choice but to contact the Nascent Soul cultivators of various sects to jointly hunt down the demonic creatures that had crossed over from the crevice. Shuang Qingqing, as a Nascent Soul elder of the Wood Flow Sect, naturally had to step up and participate in the extermination operation in the face of the invasion of demonic creatures from the outside world.
After twenty years of extermination, Shuang Qingqing had made great contributions.
But in one siege, the team of cultivators she led was ambushed by the demonic creatures. Not only were there many of them, but they were also led by three demonic generals. On Shuang Qingqing's side, there was only her, an initial-stage Nascent Soul cultivator. In comparison, the high-end combat power was too disparate.
The levels of demonic creatures were divided into: Demonic Beast, Demonic Soldier, Demon Lord, Demonic General, Demonic Marshal, and Demonic Emperor, corresponding to the cultivators' Qi Condensation, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Spirit Transformation, and Void Refining. Due to the influence of the rules of heaven and earth, the size of the Devil's Cliff Crevice determined the level limit of the demonic creatures that could force their way through. Because the Desolate Moon Continent had discovered the Devil's Cliff Crevice in a timely manner, and the Spirit Transformation cultivators had set up a suppression formation at the fastest speed, the highest level of demonic creatures that could appear on the Desolate Moon Continent was only Demonic General.
When Shuang Qingqing saw that the other party had gone to the trouble of sending three demonic generals to deal with her in the middle of a siege, she immediately understood the reason. The reason was that although Shuang Qingqing's combat power was among the best of the initial-stage Nascent Soul cultivators, it was not too outstanding. It was just that when she summoned her refined "Purple-Winged Ice Phoenix," her combat power would instantly soar to a terrifying level. She could even fight with a late-stage Nascent Soul great cultivator.
So in the many years of fighting against the demonic creatures from the outside world, Shuang Qingqing had already killed six demonic generals. Although they were all initial and mid-stage, the death of a Nascent Soul cultivator was an extremely difficult thing in itself. Unless a late-stage Nascent Soul great cultivator was dealing with the first two realms, it would be easy.
Thus, the demonic creatures had suffered heavy losses, and they of course hated Shuang Qingqing to the bone. So they concentrated their forces and launched an ambush. They had managed to gather two of the remaining mid-stage demonic generals and one late-stage demonic general. It could be said that they would not rest until they had killed Shuang Qingqing.
In this ambush, Shuang Qingqing fought against three demonic generals. After a fierce battle, she was ultimately no match for the three of them combined. In the end, her physical body was blown up, but she also killed one of their mid-stage demonic generals and seriously injured the other. In the end, she had no choice but to use her Nascent Soul to escape with the help of the "Purple-Winged Ice Phoenix." The late-stage demonic general behind her pursued relentlessly. The two of them, one chasing and one fleeing, finally entered the "Flying Sand Grotto-Caves."