These thoughts flashed through Li Yan's mind and were gone. If he did that, the other five, including Bai Rou, would most likely perish.
Although Li Yan's temperament was now vastly different from before, he still couldn't bring himself to do such a thing.
A fierce glint flashed in his eyes. He was about to fully unleash the Qiongqi Purgatory Body, enhanced by the Undead Nether Phoenix, believing he could just barely withstand the dark-gold light cluster imbued with the power of thunder.
Just then, the formation below them let out a final, overburdened "creak" and exploded into a shower of golden light.
Simultaneously, a dazzling white brilliance flared up beside Li Yan, shooting toward the center of the dark-gold light cluster in the blink of an eye. At the same time, Li Yan heard a sharp cry, "Go!" It was Bai Rou's voice.
All of this happened in an instant. As the others stared with pale faces, a massive explosion rocked the sky above them. The sound seemed to make the very heavens tremble and momentarily lit up the world for dozens of li.
Before the others could react, a furious roar echoed from the sky. "A Golden Core magical treasure! To have such a protective treasure..."
Another deafening boom followed, and a figure shot rapidly upward into the sky. It was the dodging figure of Teng Wuji.
At the same time, the Cloud-Piercing Willow appeared beneath Li Yan's feet. "Go!" he shouted urgently.
He had reacted the fastest, instantly understanding what had happened. Stepping onto the Cloud-Piercing Willow, he executed an arcing maneuver, scooping up the other six people, and in the next moment, they were rapidly fleeing out of the valley.
As they fled, Li Yan silently thought to himself, 'Senior Sister is too kind-hearted. What a pity!'
He had long known Bai Rou must have a life-saving protective item, but he never thought the girl would use it so readily and without hesitation.
What was even more of a pity was that the white light contained a terrifying power, indicating it was an offensive treasure. Otherwise, the demonic cultivator wouldn't have dodged so hastily.
Yet, Bai Rou had used it for defense. It was clearly a subconscious action, without any consideration that the treasure was meant for her own survival.
The retreating Teng Wuji was even more astonished. If that small section of a Jade Ruler had been used to attack him by surprise, instead of clashing head-on with his attack, there was a fifty percent chance he would have been injured.
The power of that small Jade Ruler was so immense that even he couldn't take it head-on. It had not only completely dispersed his "Dark-Gold Thunder Light" but still possessed enough residual force to strike at him.
He had to use half of his power just now to block it. He was certain that the cultivator who refined this small Jade Ruler had one foot in the Late-stage Golden Core realm, and was the type who specialized in killing.
Teng Wuji was certain that refining this small Jade Ruler was extremely difficult. It must have been infused with an exceptionally rare artifact-refining material to allow such a small item to completely dissipate his "Dark-Gold Thunder Light" and still have power left over to attack him.
"That young girl must be a disciple of extremely high status within her sect. Otherwise, no one would waste such a precious artifact-refining material, one that even he coveted, to craft such a high-grade magical treasure for her. It was a magical treasure that sealed sixty to seventy percent of a Golden Core expert's power."
To achieve this, the cultivator who refined the magical treasure would have had to spend at least five, or even more than ten years, slowly sealing their spirit power into it, bit by bit, without letting the aura dissipate, all for it to unleash its terrifying, heaven-destroying might in a final, explosive moment.
But what left Teng Wuji most speechless was that such a difficult-to-craft treasure was merely a single-use, high-powered offensive magical treasure. It was a monstrous waste.
"This team of cultivators is a bit strange. To have a core disciple risk entering 'Zhouyang Town' to cause trouble, they must be up to something secretive."
Teng Wuji was old and cunning, instantly considering several possibilities. In the next moment, he reduced the power of the three fist-sized dark-gold light clusters heading for the six fleeing figures by thirty percent.
Although Li Yan's group had blocked Teng Wuji's initial strike, they were still in constant danger of dying at any moment before a Golden Core cultivator, especially a Golden Core demon lord. The distance they had fled was still within his attack range; they were not safe.
Li Yan and the others had just reached the edge of the valley. One more burst of speed and they would be in the open sky. But just then, a cold sneer came from behind. "Hehehe, trying to run? You'd better stay put and let this old man search your souls!"
To their horror, they saw three dark-gold light clusters trailing the Cloud-Piercing Willow like a string of meteors, closing in with the force of a thunderbolt. At such a short distance, their speed was actually a fraction faster than the Cloud-Piercing Willow.
"This is bad!" The dark-gold light clusters rapidly grew larger in their widening pupils as they looked back, reflecting the terror on their faces. Hu Xiaowang and the other three instinctively glanced towards Bai Rou and Li Yan out of the corners of their eyes.
They hoped that the two of them might still possess another treasure like the small Jade Ruler. After all, their masters were esteemed figures in the sect; they should have other magical treasures on them.
But the looks of horror and gravity on Bai Rou's and Li Yan's faces, and the fact that neither was forming any hand seals, instantly told them their fate.
Li Yan knew best. Apart from the two "Ice Cloud Feather" artifact-refining materials Wei Zhongran had given him, he had no life-saving item like Bai Rou's small Jade Ruler.
As his thoughts raced, at the very moment the dark-gold light clusters caught up to the Cloud-Piercing Willow, Li Yan's spirit power surged. The Cloud-Piercing Willow under his feet made a sharp, sudden turn, barely dodging the first dark-gold light cluster.
As the first orb streaked past the side of the Cloud-Piercing Willow, Li Yan and the other five felt the surrounding spiritual energy vanish. They were all instantly breathless as the force from the light cluster pressed in on their bodies.
Even with the spirit power shield of the Cloud-Piercing Willow, a powerful force still penetrated, making their clothes whip about wildly.
Before Bai Rou and the other five could react, Li Yan stomped on the Cloud-Piercing Willow again. Layers of emerald and azure light shimmered around it. As it twisted sharply, it suddenly plunged towards the ground.
Just then, a scalp-numbing "whoosh" pierced their eardrums, causing all six on the Cloud-Piercing Willow to grimace in pain.
It was clear that Li Yan had pushed the Cloud-Piercing Willow to its absolute limit. With his powerful Divine Sense, his reaction speed had surpassed everyone's expectations. However, his cultivation was ultimately insufficient to fully control it. The second dark-gold light cluster arrived in an instant, grazing the top of the Cloud-Piercing Willow's spirit power shield.
Although the shield was hit, Li Yan had fortunately been prepared.
The Cloud-Piercing Willow had two Spirit Stone slots, one at each end. Shuang Qingqing had once told Li Yan that if both slots were embedded with Mid-grade Spirit Stones, its speed could rival that of an Initial-stage Nascent Soul cultivator without the user needing to expend much of their own spirit power.
However, the activation seals required at least a Late-stage Golden Core cultivation to perform. The power of Mid-grade Spirit Stones was not a simple sum of two hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones; low-level cultivators could often only utilize a fraction of it.
This was what Shuang Qingqing had meant when she said that while the Cloud-Piercing Willow was powerful, the controller needed corresponding strength to truly unleash its potential.
Li Yan's total spirit power was currently far from what was required for activation. Otherwise, to escape this time, he would have used the immense spiritual energy of Mid-grade Spirit Stones to pilot the Cloud-Piercing Willow, even if it meant exposing its true speed.
Though he couldn't activate the seals with two Mid-grade Spirit Stones, with his current true strength and the spirit power augmentation from the True Scripture of Gui Water, Li Yan could just barely tap into some of the power of a single Mid-grade Spirit Stone.
On a normal day, he would use his own spirit power for control to achieve maximum speed. But now, facing a Mid-stage Golden Core cultivator, he had already embedded a Mid-grade Spirit Stone into one of the slots and dedicated its power entirely to the protective shield.
With the partial power of one Mid-grade Spirit Stone, using it for flight wouldn't be much faster than his own control, and it would be difficult to maneuver at will.
However, if that energy was channeled into the Cloud-Piercing Willow's spirit power shield, because it was slowly building up and distributing the Spirit Stone's energy across the shield, it could significantly enhance its defensive capabilities.
But the shield needed at least five breaths to recover to its strongest state after each hit. Because of this, the shield on the Cloud-Piercing Willow was not immediately broken.
After the second dark-gold light cluster grazed the shield, it began to wobble precariously in the air, like a small boat in a raging tide. Li Yan could no longer control it freely. As the shield flickered, a large amount of spirit power began to surge to restore it.
But then, another massive explosion resounded outside the Cloud-Piercing Willow. Rings of emerald light bloomed in the night sky like brilliant fireworks.
This time, the third dark-gold light cluster arrived like a shadow, striking the tail of the Cloud-Piercing Willow squarely.
The spirit power shield could no longer hold. After a brilliant flash of emerald light, it suddenly imploded. Having absorbed most of the dark-gold cluster's power, it shattered like a mirror with a "bang," dissipating into specks of green in the air.
At that moment, the dark-gold light cluster had also been mostly depleted, now as faint as a thin mist. Still, it struck the six people on the Cloud-Piercing Willow without suspense.
Another series of crisp explosions rang out. Dizzy and disoriented, the six of them desperately summoned their own magical treasures and spirit power shields.
Watching the six people shouting and scrambling, Teng Wuji's face twisted into a sneer. He slowly lowered his hands, as if watching a troupe of clowns performing a frantic dance.
As expected, in the next moment, a series of thuds echoed as figures plummeted from the sky, crashing heavily to the ground.
Fortunately, Li Yan had started his descent to dodge the second cluster before he could gain much altitude, so they fell from a height of only two men. A cultivator's physical body was not comparable to a mortal's; they wouldn't die from such a fall.
A look of greed intensified on Teng Wuji's face. 'This flying magical treasure was definitely crafted by a Nascent Soul cultivator; it's a high-grade treasure, utterly wasted in the hands of such a low-level cultivator.'
'It just withstood two of my dark-gold light clusters, one grazing and one direct hit. If I were the one using it, its effects would surely make other Golden Core cultivators take notice.'
But just as Teng Wuji was sneering, the smile froze on his face. The outcome was not what he expected. An incredulous thought rose in his mind. 'They... they... withstood it?'
He had planned to capture these cultivators alive, search their souls to get the answers he wanted, and claim the treasures that made even him covetous.
To his astonishment, however, after the series of explosions, five figures were still standing in the air.
Li Yan looked at Bai Rou beside him, his face pale. In the end, he had relied on his physical body to take the force of the dark-gold cluster that hit him.
The dark-gold light cluster left a numb, slightly stinging sensation on his body.
'This is the power of lightning!'