Li Yan had no desire to invite future trouble over a single incident. If he wanted to annihilate the entire Feng family, it wouldn't take much effort. However, doing so would inevitably alert the Falling Star Valley. He couldn't afford to lose the greater for the lesser, to miscalculate over a trivial matter.
Moreover, as Feng Zaiyu's group ventured deeper, they had already run into trouble. Three dog-shaped monsters appeared before them. They looked as if they had been flayed, leaving only blood-red flesh. Each monster was the size of a grown man and, shockingly, possessed the cultivation of the tenth level of Qi Condensation. They were like vicious spirits from hell.
On Feng Zaiyu's side, only he was at the Great Perfection of Qi Condensation. The highest among the others was at the ninth level, with the rest ranging from the sixth to eighth levels. In a team of Qi Condensation cultivators, such strength was already quite formidable. But with the sudden appearance of three tenth-level monsters, the situation changed entirely.
The face of the lowest-level cultivator, Feng Tao, instantly turned deathly pale. Feng Zaiyu's normally calm expression also became exceedingly grim. He quickly issued an order.
"The few of you, form a defensive formation! You must hold off one of the ghostly creatures for five breaths, no matter what. I will handle the other two."
Behind him, including Feng Tao, were only four Feng family disciples. The other three were also elite disciples from his branch. His branch certainly had more than just these few outstanding disciples, but the others had been taken away by the Feng family's ancestor and had not all been left with him.
At the same time, neither Feng Zaiyu's group nor the three ferocious-looking monsters noticed a faint, almost invisible shadow flit past them.
Li Yan had no intention of secretly helping Feng Zaiyu and his group with their predicament. It seemed that even if Feng Tao were to die, rendering the promise she had made to him impossible to fulfill, Li Yan remained unconcerned as he headed straight for the Foundation Establishment ghostly creature's lair.
In his wake, a great battle erupted in a mere instant.
About the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea later, Feng Tao and the other three were all injured, their clothes torn and tattered in many places, covered in dirt. Yet, Feng Tao's face was filled with joyful surprise as she looked at Feng Zaiyu.
"Father, your cultivation..."
"I've only taken a step closer to Foundation Establishment, that's all. I'm still at the Great Perfection of Qi Condensation! It's enough that you know. You must not speak of this to anyone, or you can't blame me for being merciless!"
Feng Zaiyu waved his hand, cutting off his daughter's next words. He then turned to the other three, who were equally stunned, and spoke in a stern voice, all traces of his previous gentle and refined demeanor gone.
Hearing this, the astonishment on the faces of the three disciples immediately turned to panic, and they repeatedly promised they wouldn't dare.
Feng Zaiyu's words were merely a threat and a reminder. These few were his direct subordinates and shouldn't dare to speak recklessly. Otherwise, Feng Zaiyu had countless methods to make them and their families disappear.
Among the Feng family's various heads, Feng Zaiyu was the one most likely to become their third Foundation Establishment cultivator. This was not good news for some of the Feng family's rival forces, so the family would conceal it for as long as possible.
Just now, Feng Zaiyu still hadn't used his full strength. He still had that pitch-black long nail that specialized in piercing a person's soul. This was also why the Feng family's ancestor had sent him to accompany Fang Guangjun. Among cultivators, how could there be complete trust in oaths?
With the help of the pitch-black long nail, Feng Zaiyu could even put up a fight against an initial-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. However, given Feng Zaiyu's strength, he needed to borrow the power of the Yin Qi within the Yin Tomb Mountain to do so. He himself did not have enough magic power to be devoured by the long nail for it to display its full power. The fact that this magical treasure had been entrusted to Feng Tao showed the degree of importance the Feng family placed on her. If not for Feng Tao's special constitution, which made her unable to cultivate the Feng family's cultivation methods, the family would never have sent away a Heaven Spirit Root talent of her caliber.
At this moment, Li Yan had already arrived at the Foundation Establishment ghostly creature's lair.
Along the way, he had encountered many more ghostly creatures drifting and appearing in the passages, but they were completely unaware of someone flashing past them.
Before him was an enormous blood pool, about three hundred zhang in size. The blood in the pool was a dazzling purplish-red, and the thick, bloody scent was enough to make one retch. A single glance was enough to tell that the blood was extremely viscous. Bubbles of varying sizes rose from the pool. Due to the blood's viscosity, the bubbles often had to push upwards several times before they would pop with a soft 'pop!'.
The churning blood pool gave off a sensation of scorching heat, but this was not actually the case. Standing by the edge of the pool, Li Yan felt waves of bone-chilling cold continuously spreading out from it.
'It seems this is the lair of that skinless, blood-dripping ghostly creature from outside the Feng family's fortress.'
Seeing this blood pool and thinking back to the three dog-shaped monsters with their blood-red flesh, Li Yan had already guessed that this was the lair of the ghostly creature he had seen several hours ago—the same one that had dueled with the Feng family's ancestor, its entire body skinless, with flesh and meridians exposed, constantly dripping thick blood as it moved.
Li Yan stood by the blood pool. After a moment's thought, he extended a finger. Spirit Power rapidly gathered at his fingertip, and soon, a bolt of Spirit Power shot into the blood pool.
The instant the Spirit Power touched the churning blood, a bizarre scene unfolded. The blood pool, which had been relatively calm, suddenly produced several elongated, twisted faces filled with mournful expressions. They abruptly latched onto the bolt of Spirit Power and rapidly coiled along it toward Li Yan's finger. At the same time, the twisted faces opened their mouths wide, letting out silent howls.
The entangled Spirit Power instantly began to emit thick plumes of foul-smelling white smoke. Just as the twisted faces were about to reach his finger, Li Yan gave a gentle flick. The rootless bolt of Spirit Power hovering over the blood pool immediately disintegrated, and the mournful, twisted faces could only fall back into the pool, resentful. After falling back in, the twisted faces struggled desperately before finally sinking back into the depths, their expressions full of reluctance.
"All the blood here comes from the essence blood of unjustly slain, vengeful ghosts. It possesses a strong corrosive power against both consciousness and the physical body. A single drop is enough to slaughter an entire mortal village. If I'm not mistaken, a cultivation method that uses this blood, if cultivated to a profound level, could even corrode an opponent's essence soul and primordial spirit."
Li Yan quickly made his judgment. This blood pool was truly vicious beyond compare. He couldn't imagine how many vengeful souls had to be collected just to create this much essence blood. He didn't know if the Feng family had a corresponding cultivation method to use with this blood pool after obtaining it. Without such a method, one's own essence soul would likely be the first thing to be corroded completely. After all, the ghostly creatures here were inherently problematic in their souls, having become vicious ghosts unable to enter the six paths of reincarnation. Thus, there was no issue for them to cultivate using the blood pool.
Based on his earlier sensory probe, although the blood pool was formidable, it could no longer cause any harm to Li Yan's current physical body.
After another casual sweep of the surroundings with his Divine Sense, disappointment appeared in Li Yan's eyes. Firstly, this blood pool was utterly useless to him. The pool was built upon an exit where subterranean Yin Qi gushed out, the "spring eye" with the densest Yin Qi in this tomb-cavern. This Yin Qi was equally useless to Li Yan.
'Sure enough, it's not like I can find my own immortal fortune in any random place!'
Li Yan immediately felt at ease with this thought. It would be truly abnormal if he were to stumble upon some immense opportunity in any random place he chose.
The next moment, Li Yan's figure flickered, and he arrived in a corner of the tomb-cavern. There lay a broken earthen jar. With a sweep of his long sleeve, he drew the broken jar into his hand. It was covered in dried mud and had a large chip on it, accounting for thirty percent of the entire jar.
Inside the jar's belly were some moist clumps of mud. The bottom was still relatively intact, allowing one to see its original shape. Brown patterns were visible in some places on the broken jar. Looking closely, they seemed to be extremely simple drawings.
Spirit Power flashed in Li Yan's hand, and the dried mud on the jar's surface vanished. After turning it around for a look, he was able to discern the meaning of the patterns. The patterns on the round belly of the jar seemed to be three small pictures. The simple strokes depicted what looked like a person holding a weapon, either throwing it or stabbing at prey.
In the first picture, a small figure held a long, spear-like weapon in one hand and rested the other hand on one leg, body bent forward as if about to throw. However, Li Yan found this posture extremely awkward; it felt like a position from which one could not exert their full strength at all.
In the second picture, the small figure's hands were empty, as if the spear-like weapon had already been thrown. Both hands were raised above its head, one knee bent and lifted off the ground, as if about to run, or perhaps performing some kind of prayer.
In the third picture, the spear-like weapon appeared again. The small figure held the back end with both hands, seemingly about to thrust it upwards or downwards. But now, the pattern at the tip of the weapon was gone; that was precisely where the jar was damaged. This left Li Yan uncertain whether there had been prey or something else at the tip of the weapon.
After looking at it for a while, Li Yan couldn't make out anything special from the three pictures. The jar felt like it was just an earthenware object for burial. Such items were common in many large tomb-caverns, and those earthenware products would often be carved with some meaningful patterns. The pattern on the jar in his hand was likely a depiction of some primitive sacrificial scene of a certain tribe.
If not for the faint fluctuation of soul power coming from this broken earthen jar, Li Yan wouldn't have even noticed its existence.
When Li Yan probed the inside of the jar with his Divine Sense again, he surprisingly could not find the source of that trace of soul power, which he found rather strange. Yet, the soul power was indeed emanating from within.
'Is it inherent to the material itself? Was the material used to make this jar soil that contained the soul of some unwillingly departed vengeful ghost?'
Thinking of the specific environment of this tomb-cavern, Li Yan guessed that perhaps an ancient cultivator, when burying a companion, had used the local soil to refine some earthenware products. Unable to figure it out, Li Yan didn't want to dwell on it any longer.
This broken earthen jar could, at best, be considered a mid-rank Spirit Artifact, and that was only because of its soul power fluctuations. Regardless of whether it was a Spirit Artifact or a Magical Treasure, as long as it targeted the soul or Divine Sense, its rank would invisibly be raised by one level, or even several.
Li Yan injected a bit more Spirit Power, but the broken earthen jar showed no reaction at all.
"Does it require a special soul-controlling cultivation manual?" Li Yan muttered to himself. But then, he tossed the broken earthen jar into the Earthen Patch. Since he had come all this way, he couldn't leave empty-handed. He was currently a Qi Condensation cultivator in the Falling Star Valley. If he needed to spend Spirit Stones in the future, he could take out this unknown object to sell for some, or perhaps exchange it for something else. That would also be a plausible explanation.
He currently had almost no low-level items like magical artifacts or spirit artifacts on him. When he needed to act, he could only resort to using the small wooden sword given to him by the Falling Star Valley.
Afterward, Li Yan took another stroll around the tomb-cavern. Finding nothing else of interest, he floated away.
In the tomb-caverns of Netherworld ghostly creatures, the easiest benefits to obtain were usually the ghostly creatures themselves and the cultivation environment. Ghostly creatures were not like normal cultivators who enjoyed hiding treasures they had bought or plundered in their cave residences. However, the body of a Netherworld ghostly creature was itself an unusual type of magical treasure, which was what the Feng family most desired.