This fierce ghost looked incomparably ferocious and as fast as lightning, but its movements, in Li Yan's eyes, were as slow as a turtle crawling. Li Yan seemed oblivious to the fierce ghost's attack and continued to walk forward. In an instant, the afterimage had already pounced on him.
The fierce ghost's long tongue, like a red-hot branding iron, stabbed directly towards Li Yan's forehead. Li Yan's body seemed to blur for a moment. Then his figure reappeared in the same spot. The fierce ghost with its scarlet tongue brushed past Li Yan, but it didn't touch anything.
Although this fierce ghost's spiritual intelligence was not yet developed, it still knew whether it had hit its target or not. Its long tongue shot out and became a straight stick. Its bloodthirsty instinct made its originally dazed eyes suddenly become excited, but then it revealed a look of confusion.
At this moment, Li Yan's figure had appeared behind it, still with his back to it, walking forward at an unhurried pace. After walking a few steps, a "thud" was heard from behind. A colorful mass fell to the ground. And Li Yan pointed a finger backwards, and a long rope formed from spiritual power dragged this mass forward.
Li Yan had not killed this fierce ghost. The ghost's strength was only at about the third layer of Qi Condensation, which was even lower than Li Yan's superficial cultivation. According to the Feng family's words, Zhang Ming certainly had the strength to seal it, so it would be fine to seal it later.
This fierce ghost was unlucky to have encountered Li Yan right at the beginning. It could only stare blankly at the ground retreating bit by bit beneath it.
According to Zhang Ming's cultivation level, he certainly wouldn't advance too quickly, so Li Yan was not in a hurry and walked forward slowly. He had come to this Yin Tomb to see these ghost creatures. Although he had encountered many vicious ghosts and the like in the Secret Realm Plucking of the Wheel of Life and Death before, those were basically conjured by the "Five Elements Dao-Defiance Pearl." It was still different from seeing them with his own eyes, so he would just treat it as an experience.
Li Yan had seen even more terrifying and disgusting vicious ghosts in the Wheel of Life and Death before, so the appearance of this fierce ghost didn't cause him any discomfort. He felt it was just like in the daytime, nothing more. This made Li Yan a little disappointed.
Of course, he had another important reason for coming here. Was that person's killing intent aimed at him? If so, Li Yan couldn't figure out the reason. The other party certainly couldn't see through his concealment technique. Could it be that he had some flaw in his words? But since the other party hadn't provoked him yet, Li Yan didn't want to take the initiative to investigate. If the killing intent was aimed at him, then he would definitely come to him. He just needed to wait.
Li Yan soon arrived at the place where this fierce ghost had been standing just now. This was a broken tomb, which had already collapsed by more than half, leaving a small semi-circular mound of earth. In front of the mound was a leaning, broken stone tablet. The name of the deceased was carved on the front of the tablet, and the back should have been the eulogy.
Li Yan had no interest in this. He walked directly towards the tomb. But to Li Yan's disappointment, this tomb was too small. It wasn't the entrance to a tomb as he had imagined. With such a small tomb, Li Yan could see the general situation at a glance. Although most of it was still covered by loose earth, Li Yan didn't need to use the Earth Evasion Art to enter and check.
He scanned it roughly with his Divine Sense. Inside, there was only a decaying, half-open coffin. The coffin was surrounded by damp soil. This was not the kind of tomb of royalty or nobility that was divided into different functional chambers of various sizes.
The coffin was pitch black, but under the probing of his Divine Sense, Li Yan could still see clearly. There were no more ghost creatures in the coffin, just some colorful broken things, which should be the tattered clothes of the fierce ghost that had fallen inside. Then there was something shaped like a pillow. Li Yan could only guess so, because this thing's original appearance was already unrecognizable. It had rotted to the point where only some outlines remained.
Li Yan could only judge from its placement and some of the marks left behind that it should be a pillow. Through a broken part, there was a small piece of square jade underneath it. After that, there were some gold hairpins, silver ornaments, and the like scattered in the coffin. These were useless to cultivators.
Li Yan looked back at the fierce ghost lying motionless on the ground. It no longer had a single strand of hair on its head.
'It should have been a woman in life.'
If the square jade and those gold and silver ornaments in the coffin were obtained by a mortal, it would be a good income. Although Li Yan didn't know much about it, he could sense that the quality of that square jade was very good. It even had a very faint trace of spiritual energy inside. This was quite remarkable. Wearing this kind of jade on one's body had a strong effect of dispelling diseases and prolonging life. Although it couldn't be said to be priceless, it was still an extremely valuable item. This might also be an important reason why this fierce ghost's body had not decayed.
However, this piece of jade was also worthless to Li Yan. The bit of spiritual energy was almost negligible in his eyes.
Li Yan observed here for a while, and feeling that enough time had passed, he threw this fierce ghost back into the tomb. Then, he picked a green leaf and placed it on the coffin before continuing to walk.
However, the tombs Li Yan passed by next were all similar, all small tombs. But the forms of the ghost creatures he encountered began to become more and more diverse. There were ethereal soul bodies, Jiangshi covered in green fur, and even some strangely shaped ghost creatures with only one ghost claw and one eyeball that attacked Li Yan.
Li Yan thought about it. So-called tombs were usually like this, right? It wasn't as if a huge ancient tomb would appear at every turn. And the formation of ghost creatures was also completely irregular. It could be that a corpse's hand was placed in a position where the Yin energy was most concentrated, or that it was wearing some kind of treasure with spiritual energy. By a stroke of luck, it absorbed the essence of the yin energy of heaven and earth, and finally gained some spiritual intelligence, forming a peculiar ghost creature. That would be more reasonable.
The highest level of ghost creatures Li Yan had encountered so far was only at about the fifth layer of Qi Condensation. Li Yan began to deliberately delay time. He had to make it look like he had gone through a big battle. These ghost creatures did not just stay near their own tombs; most of them wandered around. As a result, the number of ghost creatures Li Yan actually encountered was much more than the number of tombs he passed.
But with all of them sweeping through in a line like this, for a short period of time, no ghost creatures would really appear behind them.
In Li Yan's Divine Sense, after about half an incense stick's worth of time, everyone had already surpassed him. That Fang Guangjun was now about seventy-odd li away from him. As he himself had said, after placing everyone in their proper positions, he had proceeded alone. The places Fang Guangjun went to were all tombs with particularly dense Yin energy. That was where powerful ghost creatures were likely to appear, and of course, also where fortune could be found.
Li Yan's Divine Sense spread out in all directions. The Feng family's ancestor was now in a place one hundred and fifty li away, but he had already taken people underground.
Just as Li Yan was unscrupulously releasing his Divine Sense to observe the situation of others, neither the Feng family's ancestor nor Fang Guangjun paid any attention to Li Yan's side. Especially Fang Guangjun, whose cultivation was only at the initial-stage Foundation Establishment. Normally, his Divine Sense coverage would definitely not exceed fifty li. And Li Yan was more than seventy li away from him. As long as he hadn't cultivated any Divine Sense-type cultivation methods, he would have no idea what was happening on Li Yan's side.
As for the Qi Condensation cultivators on both sides, the strongest Divine Sense was only about six or seven li. Even the cultivators closest to Li Yan on either side, if they moved their position slightly, they might not be able to scan this area.
Li Yan advanced slowly like this. So far, the tombs here in the Feng family had not brought Li Yan any surprises, but this was also within his expectations.
'They're just the tombs of low-level ghost creatures. I really can't expect to gain anything.'
Li Yan thought to himself. If fortune was so easy to obtain here, the Feng family would probably have been wiped out countless times already.
Immediately, his gaze turned to a place in front. That was the central area of this patch of tombs. The Yin energy there was five or six times denser than the surrounding area. At this time, the sounds of fighting from Li Yan's surroundings were also becoming more and more intense. Although Qi Condensation cultivators were not high in cultivation, there were dozens of cultivators here. Once they started fighting, the momentum was also quite large. But this situation did not last long, and the sound quickly disappeared.
The purpose of coming here was already very clear: to clean up the tombs here as quickly as possible. Of course, they couldn't delay too long in this outer area, so as not to wake up powerful ghost creatures from other places.
While Li Yan and the others were advancing from one side, Fang Guangjun had already unfolded his figure and quickly began to clean up from the other three directions. The ghost creatures Fang Guangjun encountered were similar to Li Yan's and the others. Their levels were also not very high. With his cultivation, when he went all out, those ghost creatures would often just be passed by and fall over, their life or death unknown.
So, after only half an incense stick's worth of time, the tombs in the other three directions had all been cleaned up by Fang Guangjun. After that, he began to come to Li Yan's and the others' direction. He also flew quickly through the air, and one by one, ghost creatures fell silently. This left all the disciples dumbfounded. They could only sigh in admiration at the power of the Foundation Establishment stage, wondering when they themselves would have such means.
Cultivators like Tang Tian and Feng Zaiyu, who were at the Great Perfection of Qi Condensation, felt an even more urgent need to reach Foundation Establishment as soon as possible. As Fang Guangjun quickly passed by the disciples, soon, no more ghost creatures appeared in front of them, and the various ghost wails and shrill cries around them also quickly disappeared.
The group of cultivators advanced almost at a run. Soon after, they appeared one after another in front of a huge tomb. Sensing the dense aura coming from the tomb in front, some people began to try to find the entrance. At this time, the distance between them was still several li. Many cultivators' Divine Sense naturally couldn't sense each other's existence. Of course, they could also guess that everyone else, like themselves, had received Senior Fang's help and should have arrived nearby.
And just at this moment, Fang Guangjun's voice appeared in everyone's mind.
"Do not advance rashly. Wait where you are."
After speaking, there was no more sound.
In just one or two breaths, Fang Guangjun's blurry figure appeared in the sky. This time, he did not summon his flying magical treasure. Instead, with a sweep of his sleeve, all the cultivators below were brought up into the sky.
Fang Guangjun didn't explain. Just as some cultivators were feeling a little panicked, in the next moment, they had all landed, their feet once again on the ground below. And at this time, all twenty-odd of them had gathered together.
Fang Guangjun's figure also descended from the sky. As soon as he revealed himself, he said in a low voice to Feng Zaiyu, who had also just steadied himself.
"Hurry up, the next step of the plan!"
As soon as Feng Zaiyu stood firm, he hurriedly looked around. When he saw everything in front of him clearly, a look of joy appeared in his eyes. He knew that the first step of the cleanup was complete.