The three Long-armed Giant Ape Puppets were already exquisitely coordinated, moving as if they were twin brothers with a telepathic, blood-bound connection.
After abandoning their defense, every attack landed like a heavy hammer. The "White Blaze Demon Tiger" was beaten so badly it could only retreat again and again in pain.
As they attacked, Bai Rou slapped her waist, and a medicinal pill flew out from her storage pouch straight to her lips, which she caught in her mouth in the next instant.
Although Bai Rou didn't practice poison arts, as a disciple of the Malevolent Spirit Sect, she naturally had a Poison Pill on her. She knew full well what it meant for a female cultivator to fall into enemy hands.
She was now making her final stand, hoping Li Yan could hold on a little longer. She had to quickly inflict heavy damage on the demonic beast before her and rush over. But in her heart, she knew there was little hope against a Mid-stage Golden Core demon lord. Still, she had to risk her life and try.
The poison pill in her mouth would dissolve on contact, bringing death upon entering her stomach. For now, she was using her spirit power to wrap the pill and prevent it from melting. The moment her spirit power dispersed, the pill would instantly dissolve, and in the next moment, she would be reduced to a pile of white bones.
Bai Rou had not learned the poison cultivation methods of the Malevolent Spirit Sect, but she had learned the decisiveness and ruthlessness of a Poison Cultivator. She planned to detonate the three puppets the moment she got close to the demonic cultivator.
In the distance, Teng Wuji had just captured Li Yan when he saw the girl suddenly swallow a pill. This made him frown. Although he didn't know what kind of pill it was, the look of absolute determination on Bai Rou's face gave him a bad feeling.
'It should just be a pill to replenish qi, blood, or spirit power,' Teng Wuji thought to himself.
With his cultivation, it was a joke that the opponent could resist an early Third-rank "White Blaze Demon Tiger" by relying on puppet magical treasures. Before him, she stood no chance.
Although a Mid-stage Golden Core killing an Initial-stage Golden Core wasn't as simple as blowing a puff of air, it certainly wouldn't take much effort.
But first, he wanted to capture Bai Rou alive, and second, he wanted the storage pouch on that boy. So, what should have been a simple matter of killing them both with a wave of his hand had become somewhat tedious.
This hesitation led Teng Wuji to make a mistake he would regret for the rest of his life. Otherwise, if he had taken the opportunity to strike the moment Li Yan's group was knocked out of the sky by the "Dark-Gold Thunder Light," he could have killed everyone there.
Up to this point, the only thing that had posed a threat to him was that small section of a Jade Ruler.
Seeing that Li Yan had been sucked into the "Spirit-Absorbing Bottle," Teng Wuji didn't have time to check the result. In fact, there was no need to check.
Even a Golden Core cultivator who entered the "Spirit-Absorbing Bottle" could only resist for a while longer at most. In the end, they could not escape death. He just needed to wait a moment and pour out the boy's dried corpse and storage pouch.
With a beckoning motion of his right hand, Teng Wuji grabbed the "Spirit-Absorbing Bottle." At the same time, his figure flickered and appeared in front of Bai Rou. He felt extremely uneasy about the pill the girl had swallowed; it was safest to capture her.
Teng Wuji gave Bai Rou no time to react. He appeared before her and swiped a claw down at her head.
Bai Rou was focusing all her efforts on her spell, forcing the "White Blaze Demon Tiger" back with furious roars.
The "White Blaze Demon Tiger" was now whipping its thick tail like a windmill, creating sharp "whooshing" sounds as it stirred the air.
Each lash that struck a puppet would send it staggering back, a striking white mark several inches deep left on its body.
But the other two puppets would seize the opportunity to either land a punch on the "White Blaze Demon Tiger's" body or slam a knee, glowing with dazzling blue spirit light, into its side.
The puppet that had been knocked back would then, with its red eyes flashing rapidly, charge forward again with the force of ten thousand jun, its body glowing with a piercing blue light.
A hint of fear had already appeared in the "White Blaze Demon Tiger's" eyes. The attacks unleashed by the three puppets after being embedded with Mid-grade Spirit Stones were more than it could bear. At this moment, it felt as if its organs were being turned upside down, and its bones ached to the core.
Bai Rou's three Long-armed Giant Ape Puppets already possessed strength close to the Initial-stage Golden Core. Under this reckless, self-damaging assault, and fueled by Mid-grade Spirit Stones, even a beast as ferocious as the "White Blaze Demon Tiger" found itself barely able to hold on.
But all this lasted for less than two breaths. Bai Rou felt a blur before her eyes, and the hairs on her body stood on end. Her reaction was countless times faster than her thoughts. Subconsciously, she formed the hand seal to self-detonate her three Long-armed Puppets.
But in that instant, the space around her seemed to freeze in time. Bai Rou's pair of jade-like arms were nailed in mid-air at the very moment she initiated the seal.
And on her fair, slender neck, a pair of black, withered giant hands had clamped down tightly.
A flush rose on Bai Rou's face. She was utterly horrified. She hurriedly tried to circulate her qi to resist, but the moment the hands clamped onto her neck, the spirit power that had always flowed freely within her body lost all control.
Bai Rou's heart instantly turned to ash. She couldn't even break the spirit power barrier around the pill in her mouth. Still, she clenched her silver teeth.
Without the support of the spirit power from her Dantian, the barrier on the pill would automatically collapse after two breaths.
Beneath Bai Rou's gentle exterior was a fiery heart. She didn't want the opponent's filthy hands to linger on her body for a moment longer; she wanted to end her own life immediately.
But to her terror, after the hand seized her throat, she couldn't even manage to bite down.
Below, the three Long-armed Giant Ape Puppets, having lost Bai Rou's divine sense control, had the red light in their eyes rapidly fade. Their attacks ceased, and they were knocked to the ground one by one by the "White Blaze Demon Tiger's" claws.
At this moment, a voice that plunged Bai Rou into even deeper despair sounded in her ear, and a foul stench assaulted her nose, making her want to retch.
"What do you think you're doing? Let me see what you just swallowed, hehehe..."
As Teng Wuji spoke, his hands moved like lightning. With a gentle squeeze of the left hand on Bai Rou's neck, her small mouth opened involuntarily, revealing a pill on her fragrant tongue, its spirit power barrier about to fail.
With a string of lewd cackles, Teng Wuji bent his left arm inward, bringing Bai Rou's entire body before him. His other hand had long since abandoned the "Spirit-Absorbing Bottle," leaving it to hover in the air.
A finger, as black and withered as a dry branch, reached towards Bai Rou's mouth...
Li Yan entered a crimson space. His body was surrounded by red light. This light was like ten suns in the sky, and the moment he entered, he felt his mouth and tongue go dry.
Everything in his body felt as if it had been vaporized in an instant. Even his spirit power churned within him like boiling water, desperate to burst out. What terrified Li Yan even more was that his consciousness, without any transition, had already begun to grow hazy.
The temperature here far surpassed the searing heat he had once endured in the Flame Palace of the "Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda." In less than a single breath, he was already drowsy and disoriented. It felt as if his three huns and seven pos were about to be melted away, dissipating into thin air.
Yet, in the depths of his being, Li Yan felt as if another force within his body was helping him to barely suppress the scorching heat. But this force was extremely weak, as if it would vanish at any moment.
Li Yan had always been strong-willed. In this semi-conscious state, he knew deep down that his chances were slim. He subconsciously bit his tongue hard. A sharp pain first swept through his entire brain, shocking him awake.
Taking advantage of this brief moment of clarity, Li Yan managed to muster his divine sense and inspect his body. To his slight relief, the force that had been binding him had dissipated, and his body was free again.
Li Yan instinctively took a deep breath, and a stream of air that felt like it would melt his organs entered his abdomen, nearly causing him to pass out from the pain.
But with this breath, the boiling spirit power within him was finally suppressed a little. Li Yan didn't dare to breathe again.
In just a moment, a large amount of water vapor was constantly rising from Li Yan's body. His originally sturdy frame was shriveling at a visible rate.
Li Yan dared not delay. He quickly tried to mobilize his magical power to protect his entire body, but to his horror, although his spirit power was also free, it was completely out of his control.
The moment he tried to circulate it, the spirit power that had just calmed down threatened to erupt from his body like a bursting dam, rampaging through him.
Forcing himself to endure the returning wave of faintness, Li Yan bit his tongue hard again. Seizing the brief moment of clarity, he hastily immersed his divine sense into his Dantian's Purple Mansion.
Li Yan couldn't be bothered with where he was. If his senses were correct, there had been a weak force in his body resisting everything here.
He kept repeating in his mind, "That force, that force..." as if only by doing so could he remind himself of what he needed to do, even in a state of delirium.
He didn't know where this force came from, but a drowning man will clutch at a straw. It was a primal instinct for any living being.
The moment Li Yan's divine sense reached his Dantian's Purple Mansion, it weakened again, and his consciousness began to fade rapidly.
Li Yan knew that the heat here was too overpowering; he couldn't last long. However, through his blurry consciousness, Li Yan saw a strange phenomenon in his Dantian's Purple Mansion, which brought him a glimmer of joy.
Li Yan hurriedly circulated the True Scripture of Gui Water, guiding it according to the Art of the Five Elements. To his ecstasy, after just a moment, Li Yan felt his consciousness rapidly clear up.
The spirit power in his body also gradually calmed down, and the feeling of his three huns and seven pos dissolving was gone.
Li Yan dared not be careless. He continuously circulated the True Scripture of Gui Water while withdrawing his divine sense from his body to check his external condition.
The first thing he saw was his own body, and a cold sweat broke out. At this moment, he had lost nearly seventy percent of his flesh and blood, and his skin had begun to crack.
In many places, his skin had already peeled off, revealing dried, dark-green meridians that looked like sun-baked earthworms, completely devoid of life. If he had been just one step slower, he would probably be a dried corpse by now.
When Li Yan's divine sense had entered his Dantian, he had immediately noticed the anomaly. The five spirit power cauldrons cultivated from the True Scripture of Gui Water in his body, except for the fire spirit power cauldron, which still had a weak surge of spirit power at its base...
The spirit power in the other four cauldrons—water, earth, metal, and wood—was surging like tidal waves, about to break out of the cauldrons. And every time it was about to breach the top of a cauldron, a force would come down and forcefully suppress the gushing spirit power by a tiny fraction.
It was just this tiny fraction that had saved Li Yan's life. The boiling waves of spirit power were never able to leave the cauldrons. Only the spirit power that had originally existed in his meridians was wreaking havoc in his body, but with Li Yan's formidable physique, the damage caused by that spirit power was insufficient.
And the sliver of spirit power that had saved Li Yan's life was precisely fire spirit power. But in its one-against-four struggle, the spirit power within the fire cauldron had already been ninety percent depleted.