Li Yan shook his head repeatedly. "Fellow Daoist Yang and the other two just suffered from a lack of experience. I truly just have the advantage of a good magical treasure!"
"Fellow Daoist Li, a good magical treasure and demonic beasts are a part of one's strength. Even if we wanted them, we would have to be able to produce them first," a burly man said with an envious look on his face.
"I agree with what Fellow Daoist Zhang said. Isn't cultivation all about cultivating immortal fortune? Without such opportunities and destiny, that's just fate," a middle-aged cultivator with a serious expression nodded in approval.
"If Senior Brother Li could call on us to gain some good fortune on future training expeditions, I would be satisfied," a young girl, one of the three women in the group, said with a giggle, covering her mouth as her eyes sparkled.
"As expected of the poison cultivator lineage. This is the first time I've ever seen such a domineering icy venom, Fellow Daoist Li. Even an extremely cold demonic beast like the Extreme Nine Ice Silkworm cannot spit out such an icy venom. However, the Extreme Nine Ice Silkworm isn't a swarm-type demonic beast and has limited icy venom, so that might be one reason," a cultivator with the emblem of a colorful, thousand-legged centipede embroidered on his chest mused aloud.
He too was a poison cultivator from a first-rate poison sect and had always been confident that his own poison techniques were in no way inferior to those of the Malevolent Spirit Sect. But even he felt a headache coming on when thinking about Li Yan's icy venom.
When he saw the Snow Mosquitoes, this poison cultivator couldn't help but think of the Extreme Nine Ice Silkworm, an extremely cold creature ranked high on this world's Poisonous Insect Index. Yet, his words still implied that he felt Li Yan had the advantage because his demonic beasts fought with superior numbers.
Those speaking with Li Yan were not disciples of the Malevolent Spirit Sect. The Malevolent Spirit Sect disciples had long known that Li Yan's Little Bamboo Peak had few people and abundant resources.
Out of habit, they could only sigh inwardly and wonder why the current Martial Uncle Wei wasn't taking any more disciples. Otherwise, they too could be gifted with such powerful magical treasures.
Some Malevolent Spirit Sect disciples even thought of the disciples who had left Little Bamboo Peak back then, cursing them internally for their "shortsightedness and loss of immortal fortune."
As for the suggestions from some that Li Yan was relying on the sharpness of his magical treasures, the Malevolent Spirit Sect disciples simply scoffed. They thought to themselves, 'If the higher-ups of the Malevolent Spirit Sect hadn't considered the insidious nature of poison cultivators and strictly forbidden disciples from killing each other without reason, the sect would probably see swathes of disciples and demonic beasts dying every single day.'
Poison cultivators would use any and every means to kill.
The Malevolent Spirit Sect disciples here were all from the Four Symbols Peak. Their specialty was mixing poison attacks with formations, which was considered relatively gentle. They weren't like those from Lord Lao Peak, Spirit Insect Peak, or Never-Parting Peak, who spent all day trying to create deadly poisons that others couldn't possibly counteract.
Li Yan just chuckled. "We should leave this place quickly. There was a huge battle here just now, and it won't be long before someone comes. The fluctuations of spirit power from before were probably detected long ago."
As he spoke, his gaze seemed to inadvertently sweep over a red-faced elder. When Chu Weixiong had mentioned the Snow Mosquitoes' icy venom, that elder's figure had clearly paused. Although it was just an unintentional tremor, Li Yan had sensed it keenly.
One had to know that the Snow Mosquitoes could not be taken out of the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda. This was an open secret. Li Yan had known for a long time that if he used them, he would eventually be discovered by others, which was why he had hesitated to use them, as it could bring him great trouble.
Therefore, Li Yan had treated the Snow Mosquitoes as a trump card. If he were to use them against an enemy, he would have to annihilate the other party completely.
But last time, after he entered the Earthen Patch, he discovered that the intense soul aura on the Snow Mosquitoes had begun to weaken and disappear.
Upon seeing this, Li Yan was alarmed. If this change in the Snow Mosquitoes affected their attack power, then wouldn't the thing he risked his life to bring out from the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda be all for nothing?
He hurriedly investigated them carefully. After some examination, his heart was filled with even more questions and speculations.
Still worried, Li Yan called the Snow Mosquito King aside and asked it if it sensed anything wrong with this space or its own body.
The Snow Mosquito King thought for a long time but didn't know how to answer. In the end, it could only say that "it just feels like its soul has become more solidified now, unlike before when the soul power was very strong but didn't seem to belong to it, as if it could leave at any time."
Li Yan pondered the Snow Mosquito King's words over and over. He felt it must be due to the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda. That pagoda itself was meant to suppress all kinds of yin souls and essence souls. Soul-body demonic beasts like the Snow Mosquito King, which were gradually born under the rules of the pagoda, had their entire existence, including their lives, manipulated by the laws within the pagoda.
If the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda had a Pagoda Spirit, it was likely that with a single thought from that entity, demonic beasts like the Snow Mosquitoes and Snow Sprites could cease to exist in an instant, utterly erased.
Now that he had brought this type of soul-body demonic beast out of the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda, it fell under the constraints of a different set of worldly laws.
Although the Desolate Moon Continent's world also had some control over souls, such as the laws sending a person's soul to the way of reincarnation after death, it was not solely targeted at souls. The laws of the Desolate Moon Continent were vaster and more complex, not as singular as those in the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda. So, gradually, even within the Earthen Patch space, the Snow Mosquitoes' environment was completely different from before, and their bodies had begun to show signs of integrating with the worldly rules of the Earthen Patch.
To be precise, the rules within the Earthen Patch were silently and constantly repairing the life characteristics of the Snow Mosquito colony.
It was estimated that even if he put the Snow Mosquito King and the others back into the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda now, they would surely be unable to integrate with their former colony.
But another piece of good news also made Li Yan quite happy. Although the life characteristics of the Snow Mosquito colony in the Earthen Patch might have been changed by the laws of heaven and earth, it seemed to be only affecting the mosquitoes' souls. The icy venom on their bodies had not weakened and remained as sharp as ever.
With these judgments, Li Yan felt that he could still use the Snow Mosquitoes. But today, it was clear that the red-faced elder was suspicious.
'This person has been to the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda.' Li Yan came to this conclusion directly, but for the time being, he had no intention of silencing him.
He believed that even within Windy Cool Mountain, there were probably quite a few cultivators who had been to the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda. Was he supposed to find and kill them one by one just to prevent people from finding out?
Li Yan believed that the other party was merely suspicious. The world had countless types of mosquito-like demonic beasts, many of which were extremely similar to each other. Even disciples from Spirit Insect Peak would misidentify them at times.
Nevertheless, Li Yan still glanced at the elder.
Li Yan's guess was correct. This red-faced elder had indeed entered the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda before. By a stroke of bad luck, he had been teleported into the snowfields. Fortunately, he was accompanied by five others. They journeyed together, fighting their way toward the long wall of ice and snow, but in the end, only two survived.
Therefore, the elder's memory of the Snow Mosquitoes on the snowfields was particularly profound. The appearance of Li Yan's Snow Mosquitoes today couldn't help but remind him of the ones in the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda, but his heart was filled with fluctuating doubt.
This was because he did not sense the deeply memorable, trembling aura from these very similar demonic beasts—a feeling of powerful, overflowing soul essence.
So he could never be sure of the species of Li Yan's demonic beasts, yet he had a persistent sense of familiarity.
'If they're not, why can these cold-aura mosquito beasts form an almost identical attack formation of a giant ice sword? But... but... it's impossible to bring any living being out of the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda. I must be overthinking it...'
The red-faced elder suddenly felt Li Yan's seemingly inadvertent glance in his direction and was startled. In that instant, he negated his own thoughts.
'This kid's master is the one in charge here. I'm a cultivator under the jurisdiction of the Malevolent Spirit Sect. If others find out that I suspect these demonic beasts are from the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda, causing trouble and getting this person targeted by the monks of the Jingtu Sect, I'll likely have no other choice but death.' He quickly buried the matter deep in his heart, reminding himself never to reveal even a hint of this suspicion from now on.
The group once again stood upon the Cloud-Piercing Willow. With a single shudder, it vanished from the forest, leaving only the toppled trees in all directions as evidence of the fierce battle that had just taken place.
Li Yan stood at the front of the Cloud-Piercing Willow, carefully observing the whistling environment around them to avoid straying into a dangerous area.
The gracefully-figured Bai Rou stood by Li Yan's side, looking with great interest at the translucent Snow Mosquito King perched on his shoulder.
When not in its combat state, the Snow Mosquito King was like a thousand-year-old ice sculpture, completely devoid of its ferocious demeanor. In Bai Rou's eyes, this just made the demonic beast possess a kind of eerie beauty.
As Bai Rou was looking at the Snow Mosquito King, she suddenly felt Li Yan, who had been observing their surroundings, glance at her seemingly by chance. His gaze seemed to hold a playful quality. A blush instantly bloomed on her jade-like face, and she hurriedly turned her head away, her eyes looking into the distance with a trace of panic.
In truth, Li Yan's gaze had just swept past as a matter of course; there was no other meaning. But this caused Bai Rou's heart to flutter in disorder, as if she were a thief who had just been caught.
Ever since the last time they encountered a powerful enemy, Bai Rou had been forced to use the puppets she had never used before. To be precise, ever since Li Yan joined the squad, she had tried her best not to use her natal magical treasure.
Subsequently, Li Yan saw three puppets, two large and one small. The moment these three puppets appeared, Li Yan found them extremely familiar, because they were three long-armed giant ape puppets.
These three long-armed giant apes were very similar to the Thousand Luo Ancient Ape puppet he had once carried with him all the time. For a period, Li Yan had spent every day taking out the Thousand Luo Ancient Ape to study it.
The fact that Bai Rou had refined her natal magical treasure into such a form was quite a surprise to Li Yan. He had not expected someone with a personality as gentle as Bai Rou's to refine her natal magical treasure into ancient apes.
Bai Rou had always given off the feeling of an orchid in a secluded valley. No matter how you looked at it, these three puppets were a complete mismatch for Bai Rou's delicate appearance.
In Li Yan's opinion, a young woman would surely refine her natal magical treasure into something as beautiful as Shuang Qingqing's Purple-Winged Ice Phoenix. Thus, Li Yan's gaze toward Bai Rou held a touch of bewilderment.
But then he thought that perhaps it was because the Thousand Luo Ancient Ape had accompanied Bai Rou for many years, and now that it had been taken back by Shuang Qingqing, she must have developed an attachment to it. That was why she refined her natal magical treasure into the form of ancient apes again, and he felt relieved.
However, his bewildered gaze, falling upon the eyes of Bai Rou, who was already feeling apprehensive and had been carefully observing Li Yan's expression ever since she took out the three puppets, was undoubtedly both shameful and vexing for her.
When she had been refining the puppets, she was supposed to have made two Golden-Winged Great Pengs. But later, she somehow changed her mind and switched to long-armed giant apes. And when she was crafting the components, the refining method for the Thousand Luo Ancient Ape's components unconsciously popped into her head.
When the final puppet components came out, the look Shuang Qingqing gave her became strange. It was then that Bai Rou realized she had made a mistake, but she could only brace herself and continue refining the remaining puppet components. Otherwise, if she were to melt down the perfectly fine components she just made and refine them again, Shuang Qingqing's reaction would likely be more than just a strange look. That ancestor of hers was quite the eccentric.