With this doubt in mind, Li Yan used his Divine Sense to carefully examine Feng Tao's body. Upon inspection, he discovered that Feng Tao's fire-attribute Spirit Power was exceptionally pure, and he could faintly sense a trace of the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant's aura within it. If not for the contract between Li Yan and the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant, which made their senses interconnected as if they were one, and if he hadn't been intentionally looking, Li Yan would not have noticed it at all.
'A fire spirit root prodigy of the Feng family, hehehe. If the Feng ancestor knew the real reason why she couldn't cultivate the family's technique, I wonder what he would think.' Li Yan lamented in his heart.
After returning, Li Yan once again entered secluded, arduous cultivation. On one hand, he had entered the Earthen Patch to truly cultivate diligently; on the other hand, it was, of course, a show for outsiders, to prove that he was a true hard-working cultivator. The most basic condition to enter the underground "Shattered Star Grotto" was to cultivate to the eighth level of Qi Condensation.
Putting aside whether Feng Tao could help Li Yan fulfill this agreement, just from Zhang Ming's cultivation aptitude in the eyes of outsiders, it would be unreasonable for him to suddenly advance to the eighth level of Qi Condensation in such a short period.
Time flew by. Zhang Ming's courtyard was silent. Occasionally, a figure would enter or exit, but few people remembered this Zhang Ming; he was lost among the crowd.
In the blink of an eye, another three months passed. On this day, by the river at the foot of the mountain in the Earthen Patch, Li Yan was sitting cross-legged in the middle of a grassy patch. In his dantian, five large cauldrons of Spirit Power were rumbling. The True Scripture of Gui Water was circulating torrentially, and Spirit Power flowed through his meridians like a shuttle. If someone were standing next to Li Yan, they could even hear a "rushing" sound.
Extremely dense earth spiritual energy pressed in on Li Yan from all directions like a canopy. Under his deliberate absorption, Li Yan's entire body emitted a faint golden light, making him look like a gilded Buddha statue glowing by the river. The scenery within several zhang of him became distorted, as if Li Yan were in a different space.
Just then, Li Yan, who was meditating with his eyes closed, heard a familiar voice in his mind. The aura on his body also began to slowly recede. The converging earth spiritual energy around him dispersed. After a few breaths, the golden light faded, revealing Li Yan in a green robe. The moment he opened his eyes, his seated figure became blurry and illusory. The next moment, there was no one left by the river, only the water flowing slowly on.
Inside a mountain cave, the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant was staring blankly at a floating crystalline skull, its eyes filled with anticipation, with a trace of fear appearing from time to time. The light in the cave dimmed, and Li Yan's figure flashed into view.
"Your divine soul is very stable. Are you planning to forge a physical body?" Li Yan just glanced at the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant before asking directly.
"Greetings, Master. I... I can... I can..." When the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant said this, there was a rare hint of hesitation.
Li Yan nodded. "Since you can, then do it! Superfluous words are meaningless. So, I will only ask you, are you willing to lose this opportunity? Are you still willing to exist in this world in only this soul form?"
After speaking, Li Yan's eyes, sharp as knives, stared at the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant. The moment Li Yan's gaze fell on it, the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant's nervous heart trembled violently. Li Yan's words were like a heavy hammer. Each subsequent question made its whole body tremble. Li Yan's voice echoed continuously in its mind.
'Am I willing? Am I willing?'
It knew that if this skull was not refined, it probably wouldn't last for long. A year, two years, or a few years, and then it would completely disappear. At the same time, with its hesitation, its confidence would only grow weaker, and the chances of success would become smaller and smaller.
Li Yan's voice in its mind grew louder and louder.
"Are you willing to lose... are you willing... soul form..."
A thought of fearlessness in the face of life and death slowly rose from the bottom of its heart. The Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant finally let out a low roar and said something that made Li Yan not know whether to laugh or cry.
"I want to use real feet to crush that rascal underfoot, to feel the so-called rush of blood..."
At this moment, in the outside world, the Snow Mosquito King was staring at a leaf leisurely floating down in the courtyard, its gaze wandering, drowsy with boredom. Suddenly, it sneezed. It was stunned for a moment, then a look of grievance appeared in its eyes, and it thought hatefully, 'Damn you, Li Yan! This must be my beloved consorts thinking of their lonely king. It's been so long since I've been intimate with them. I wonder if my consorts are getting along, and how much my children have grown. Alas, you devil who deserves to die ten thousand times a day! You threw me out here and don't care about me anymore. When will these days end... I!!! AM!!! SO!!! BORED!!!'
In the Earthen Patch world, seeing the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant's eyes growing clearer and clearer, Li Yan turned and walked out of the cave. "If you've thought it through, then follow me!"
With that, his figure had already soared into the air and was flying west. The Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant also took a deep breath. A fierce light flashed in its eyes as it looked at the thousand or so remaining vicious souls trembling like chaff in the wind.
"You will all come with me on this journey. Either you will roam the underworld with me, or you will help me succeed!" As it spoke, a brilliant purple light erupted from its body, wrapping up these vicious souls and the crystalline skull, and it flew out of the cave. These vicious souls could not be wasted. This time, regardless of success or failure, it had to at least swallow them all before it began.
In the far west of the Earthen Patch world, there was a green grassland, with only a long river winding through it from the foot of the eastern mountain, like a crystalline jade belt. And today, when Li Yan's figure appeared in the sky above this land, he looked down, and with a thought, the originally gentle and breezy world had the Five Elements spiritual energy suddenly and violently churned.
As the spiritual energy of the world churned, five huge, colorful rings slowly formed in the sky, one inside the other. Yellow, white, black, green, and red. The outermost yellow ring was the essential spiritual energy of the Earthen Patch space. Inward in order were metal, water, wood, and fire. Earth generates metal, metal generates water, water generates wood, and wood generates fire, gathering fire for the earth. The moment the five rings formed, the spiritual energy between them flowed rapidly, endlessly generating one another.
Finally, from the innermost red ring, a dense stream of fire spiritual energy rolled out, rapidly enveloping the grassland below. As the fire spiritual energy gushed out, the grassland below degenerated at a speed visible to the naked eye. The originally large patches of lush green grass withered, shrank, and disappeared in the blink of an eye, revealing large patches of yellow ground.
At this time, Li Yan was still continuously gathering dense earth spiritual energy into this world. With the endless transformation of the five-element rings, the more earth spiritual energy there was, the denser the fire spiritual energy in the innermost red ring in the sky became. Rolling heat waves surged towards the land below. The yellow earth rapidly dried up and cracked in places, and then a large amount of sandy soil appeared.
Li Yan was the master of the Earthen Patch. How the space changed, how the power of the Five Elements condensed and transformed, was all within a single thought. This was the true manifestation of True Lord Qianchong's methods.
And the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant, which arrived shortly after, had its eyes wide, filled with nothing but shock. It knew that this space was very mysterious and extraordinary, and it also knew that Li Yan should have the power to change the concentration of spiritual energy here, as evidenced by the extreme cold water spiritual energy at the mountain's summit. But knowing was one thing; it had never seen someone change the world like this. This had already exceeded its imagination.
At this moment, Li Yan, who could change the heavens and the earth in the sky, actually gave it an urge to worship. Here, Li Yan was a true immortal, an immortal who could turn his hand to make clouds and rain.
Waves of scorching heat madly gushed out from below, greatly invigorating the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant's spirit. At this moment, a desert several dozen li in radius had appeared below. The five-colored halo in the sky was still continuously expanding, its light flowing. Waves of heat washed over from the world. Although this was countless times smaller than a real desert, apart from the lack of a blazing sun overhead, this was a real desert.
Li Yan looked at everything below and couldn't help but nod in satisfaction, but there was still some regret. No matter how dense the spiritual energy here was, it couldn't compare to a real Earth Fire Spirit Vein. It couldn't generate a stronger high temperature for alchemy and artifact refining. This thought just flashed by, and then he turned his attention to the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant.
"You can cultivate here. I will lay a restriction around this area to prevent those Snow Mosquitoes from entering and disturbing you. Do you have any other requests? I'll see if I can do it."
As soon as Li Yan's voice fell, the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant had already flown impatiently towards the center of the desert, in the direction of the spot illuminated by the center of the five rings in the sky, where the fire spiritual energy was most concentrated. It quickly landed, took a deep breath, and felt the waves of heat entering its abdomen. With the influx of the heat waves, a purple light began to circulate throughout its body.
"Master, this is already very good. There's nothing else I need. I've said 'Burning the Soul to Refine the Fire'—use the Hun soul as oil, the Po soul as the wick, and the skull as the base. After I operate this technique, everything can only depend on myself. External assistance will only cause fluctuations in my Three Huns and Seven Pos, and the effect will be even worse, which is not good."
"Alright then, you can begin. If you feel something is wrong, stop immediately. No matter what technique it is, you can at least stop it when you first start operating it. That will minimize the damage. I will stand right here," Li Yan said solemnly. He was already prepared to strike at any moment. If there was a problem with the skull, or if the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant's technique went wrong, he would forcefully interrupt it at the first opportunity.
This time, the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant didn't say any more. It suddenly raised its long trunk, opened its large mouth, and, like a whale swallowing a dragon, it actually swallowed all of the thousand or so vicious souls that had been rolled up with it in one go. Amidst the silent curses filled with resentment and venom from those vicious souls, the purple light on the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant's body grew brighter and brighter.
In less than ten breaths, when the purple light became somewhat dazzling even to Li Yan, the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant's originally huge body suddenly shrank rapidly. When it had shrunk to about half of Li Yan's size, it immediately flew into the crystalline skull that had been placed on the sand.
Before Li Yan could react, the purple light on the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant's body flared up again, and a loud cry, part dragon's roar and part elephant's trumpet, pierced the heavens.
In that instant, the light from the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant's body exploded like a purple sun, so dazzling that even Li Yan couldn't help but close his eyes. And at the same time, a series of obscure and difficult-to-understand incantations sounded in Li Yan's ears. This was not the common language of cultivators; Li Yan couldn't understand a single sentence.
'This must be the language of the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant race!'
Some of a demonic beast's innate divine abilities could only be cast through the language and manuals of its own race. It was a peculiar pronunciation that, when combined with magic power, could shake the heavens and the earth, and only then could it elicit a response from the laws of the world. If one were to use another language, even if the meaning was exactly the same, it would not be able to elicit a response from the laws of the world. This was the peculiarity of some innate divine abilities; they could only be inherited, not obtained through external force.
Li Yan's Divine Sense was locked on the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant the whole time. The moment the incantation began, he could see through the purple light that the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant's face was showing extreme pain. And this pain was growing stronger and stronger. The ball of purple light had already begun to tremble violently.