At the same time, a thought identical to Li Yan's arose in Bai Rou's mind. She knew that rather than being locked down by the enemy, it was better to engage in a close-quarters fight.
If she could get close to the enemy, even if it meant sacrificing her three puppets to block one or two of his attacks, she could then self-detonate them when he was off-guard. This would surely create a powerful, temporary barrier between them and the demonic cultivator.
At that point, she could grab the four unconscious people on the ground, and they would have another window of time to escape.
However, self-detonating her natal magical treasures would cause irreversible damage to Bai Rou herself. It might take her years to recover, during which her cultivation would certainly not advance and might even regress.
Furthermore, the difficulty of refining a new natal magical treasure would increase exponentially. She might not succeed in refining another one until she reached the Golden Core realm.
Her only remaining worry was that no other enemy cultivators would appear. Otherwise, they would truly have no chance of escape.
Little did they know, the nearby demonic cultivators had all been recalled to regroup, while the cultivators on their side had been forced by the enemy expert's divine sense to retreat northward, creating a barren zone of several thousand li between the two forces.
But then, a scene that greatly shocked Bai Rou unfolded. She saw Li Yan actually charge forward. "Junior Brother Li, don't!" she cried out urgently.
As she spoke, Bai Rou's hands formed a seal. Before she could even embed the Mid-grade Spirit Stones, her three puppets were already chasing after Li Yan.
Bai Rou was frantic. Junior Brother Li had always been so calm. Why had he become so reckless as to proactively charge the enemy, a Golden Core demon lord at that?
With this, the slim chance she might have had of using her puppets' power to hold off the enemy for a moment was now gone.
Charging a Mid-stage Golden Core cultivator was undoubtedly like a moth to a flame. Even if the opponent were only at the Initial-stage Golden Core, rushing up like this was a suicide mission.
A Golden Core was a Golden Core. No matter how strong Bai Rou thought her puppets were, she would never dare to actively engage a Golden Core cultivator. At most, she would dare to defend her position and fight evasively.
Why was Li Yan being so foolish now? 'Maybe... maybe Martial Uncle Wei also gave him a life-saving magical treasure with a Golden Core-level strike, and he's moving forward to find a chance to use it...'
For a moment, Bai Rou's mind was in turmoil, and she could only cling to this hope.
But all of this happened in the blink of an eye. Just as Li Yan charged the red light and Bai Rou had just formed the seal to command her three Long-armed Giant Ape Puppets...
The "White Blaze Demon Tiger" had already appeared in the air, blocking the path of the three puppets. Looking at Bai Rou behind them, a sinister light flickered in its eyes. It casually lifted a paw and swiped at the three airborne Long-armed Giant Ape Puppets.
The moment the tiger's paw struck out, it rapidly swelled in size, becoming like a wall in an instant. It crashed down with an overwhelmingly heavy, muffled "whump." But it underestimated Bai Rou, so its attack was still unhurried.
Seeing her path instantly blocked by the "White Blaze Demon Tiger," Bai Rou's eyebrows shot up. Her hand seals changed in a flash, and her other jade-like hand simultaneously flicked out three streaks of white light, which shot into the bodies of the Long-armed Giant Apes.
The bodies of the three Long-armed Giant Ape Puppets, which were originally moving to meet the "White Blaze Demon Tiger," trembled violently. In the next instant, a vast power erupted from them, causing the spiritual energy in the area to swirl violently.
Not far away, Teng Wuji, who was in the middle of forming a seal, also felt a jolt. 'Mid-grade Spirit Stones! They still have Mid-grade Spirit Stones! These must be disciples of the Four Great Sects. How could low-level Foundation Establishment disciples from other sects possess Mid-grade Spirit Stones?'
By this time, Li Yan had closed in on the streak of crimson fire. The fiery light had now stopped in mid-air, revealing itself to be a crystal-red jade bottle, similar in shape to a Daoist's Jade Purification Vase, but its color was an exceptionally vivid and demonic red.
Seeing Li Yan approach, the mouth of the bottle suddenly flipped over, and several beams of red light shot out, shining towards Li Yan.
In the distance, Teng Wuji was forming a hand seal, a mocking smile on his face as he watched the approaching Li Yan. He hadn't expected this Foundation Establishment cultivator to be so ignorant of death as to have the courage to fly towards him.
Teng Wuji was considered a variant cultivator with a thunder attribute, but cultivating "Dark-Gold Thunder Light" required drawing upon the power of thunder. Thus, he couldn't practice this art every day, and it had specific environmental requirements.
Back in the Demon Realm, there was a secret realm that nurtured lightning. Although entry required exchanging Demon Crystals and was expensive, Teng Wuji could still afford it. He would enter to cultivate for two days every ten days.
Since arriving in the Desolate Moon Continent, he could only cultivate during thunderstorms, and the lightning that fell did not always meet his cultivation needs. As a result, he couldn't use his "Dark-Gold Thunder Light" lightly. Once depleted, it was not easy to recover.
Earlier, in order to quickly find Li Yan's group, Teng Wuji had used "Dark-Gold Thunder Light," but he had done so by using a large number of less powerful clusters.
If he were facing a Golden Core cultivator, a single "Dark-Gold Thunder Light" from him would turn an area of nearly a hundred li into scorched earth, unlike the pockmarked twenty-li valley he had created when dealing with Li Yan's group.
Now, he couldn't use "Dark-Gold Thunder Light" against the young woman. He didn't want to injure this stunning beauty.
He now knew that the girl's three puppets were made of special materials, and a small amount of "Dark-Gold Thunder Light" would be ineffective. If he increased its power, a single misstep could injure or even kill her.
That was not an outcome he wished to see. Of course, it was safest to let the "White Blaze Demon Tiger" capture her. As for the green-robed youth before him, who also possessed an extraordinary physique and could resist "Dark-Gold Thunder Light"—though he didn't know to what extent—Teng Wuji didn't want to waste even a sliver of "Dark-Gold Thunder Light" to test him.
So, he had summoned the "Spirit-Absorbing Bottle," intending to capture Li Yan in one move.
Any living creature illuminated by the red light from the "Spirit-Absorbing Bottle" would be sucked into the bottle. After an hour and three quarters, they would be reduced to a dried corpse inside, all their spirit power and life force gone.
What satisfied Teng Wuji the most was that he could observe through his divine sense as the demonic beasts or cultivators inside the "Spirit-Absorbing Bottle" watched their own bodies shrivel and their divine souls weaken, letting out blood-curdling wails and pleas for mercy.
Those were the moments that brought him the most pleasure, as if the entire world was beneath his feet. He was a lofty demon god who could easily decide the life and death of others.
At that moment, Li Yan watched the red light shine towards him. His entire body's spirit power surged as he stared warily at the "Spirit-Absorbing Bottle."
Li Yan swept his divine sense towards the red light, and in the next moment, he was stunned. He didn't feel any offensive pressure from the red light, but at the same time, a sense of danger that made his hair stand on end washed over his entire body.
Li Yan immediately dodged to the side. Even if he hadn't sensed anything wrong with the red beams, he would never have let such a light touch him.
The red light from the "Spirit-Absorbing Bottle" missed completely. A look of contempt crossed Teng Wuji's face. 'This little brat is quite cautious,' he thought.
In the past when he used the "Spirit-Absorbing Bottle," at least half of the cultivators who saw the red light would use their magical treasures or immortal arts to counter it directly.
But that would be a wasted effort, as his red light had no offensive power at all. It only underwent a sudden change when it encountered something with a life aura.
In that situation, his opponents would be stunned for a moment, and Teng Wuji would take the opportunity to shoot the red light onto their bodies. But what did it matter if the green-robed boy opposite him was cautious?
Teng Wuji raised a hand, pressed his thumb and middle finger together, and pointed at the "Spirit-Absorbing Bottle" again. Just as Li Yan dodged, the originally concentrated beams of red light from the bottle's mouth suddenly spread out like the gaping maw of a giant python, instantly enveloping an area of over a dozen zhang.
Although Li Yan was dodging, he still wanted to get closer to Teng Wuji, so he hadn't immediately used his "Phoenix Soars to the Heavens" movement skill. Now, he was caught off guard and was instantly enveloped by the red light.
Li Yan felt the space around him become thick and viscous, his body instantly trapped within it. The sense of life-and-death crisis intensified.
Li Yan was horrified. He frantically circulated his spirit power, but the force enveloping him was even stronger, making it impossible for him to break free.
And what started as a small patch of red light on his body quickly began to attract the rest of the scattered light, like it was drawn to him, converging on his body.
Li Yan cast several spells in succession—steaming water vapor, raging flames, howling wind blades—but none could cut through the great net formed by the red light.
In just a short moment, sweat had soaked through Li Yan's clothes. Since he started cultivating, he had faced death several times, but this was the first time he had felt so utterly captured.
The feeling of being at someone's mercy in the next moment caused the usually calm Li Yan to panic. The demonic cultivator now only needed to tap a finger on him to completely seal his cultivation.
But what Li Yan didn't know was that Teng Wuji himself didn't dare to touch even a speck of this red light. So even if the light delivered Li Yan to him, he would stay as far away as possible.
From the moment Li Yan encountered the red light to being trapped by it, only two or three breaths had passed. Then, the "Spirit-Absorbing Bottle," which had been tilted downwards above his head, let out a "humming" vibration.
Li Yan felt as if he had shrunk a thousand times over as the net of red light carried him towards the mouth of the bottle. In the blink of an eye, he vanished.
The space where Li Yan had been standing was now empty.
The night was as dark as ink. In the distance, Bai Rou had seen everything clearly, but before she could react, Li Yan had been sucked into the enemy's magical treasure. "Junior Brother Li!" Bai Rou cried out in alarm.
In the next moment, tears welled up in her eyes. Her jade-like hands became a blur of white afterimages, unleashing a torrent of hand seals. She knew that her three puppets were her last resort, and she didn't dare to self-detonate them immediately, as that would extinguish her only hope of saving Li Yan.
In an instant, the three Long-armed Giant Ape Puppets completely abandoned their defense, charging forward with the desperation of a life-or-death struggle.
They ignored the "White Blaze Demon Tiger" as it transformed into a white gale, weaving between the three puppets and leaving deep claw marks on their bodies. The puppets' every move was a fatal blow, forcing the "White Blaze Demon Tiger" to dodge immediately after attacking, lest it be disemboweled.
To maximize her attack power, Bai Rou even retracted the protective spirit power from her puppets' bodies, relying solely on the hardness of their materials as they charged forward, attempting to get close to the "Spirit-Absorbing Bottle."
This sudden change caught the "White Blaze Demon Tiger" off guard. After just two breaths, it was already at a disadvantage. The demonic beast roared repeatedly, unable to believe that it couldn't even handle a single Foundation Establishment cultivator.