Sect Master Wang muttered subconsciously, her heart still shaken by the life-and-death struggle of the past few breaths.
They had just come down from the mountain. If the opponent had attacked them like that before, they would have had no hope of escape.
How could these Falling Star Valley cultivators be so formidable?
Just then, the Feng Family Ancestor's choked sounds of "He... guh... guh..." reached Sect Master Wang's ears. The sound startled her, making her think something terrible had happened.
Without any hesitation, Sect Master Wang took a step that covered more than ten zhang before she finally managed to look back at the Feng Family Ancestor.
She saw the Feng Family Ancestor's originally scholarly face contort as if he had seen a ghost the moment he turned to look at the mountain. He pointed a trembling finger towards the peak.
Although there was no one visible there, Sect Master Wang knew he had discovered something with his Divine Sense. For a moment, the Feng Family Ancestor could only make a series of strange noises.
"Fellow Daoist Feng, what's wrong with you?"
Seeing this, Sect Master Wang was filled with suspicion. Her Divine Sense hadn't detected any pursuers, so she quickly asked.
'Could it be that he recognizes that cultivator on the mountain?'
Her reaction was extremely fast, and she had already formed a guess. But why would the Feng Family Ancestor lose his composure to such an extent upon seeing that person?
"He... he... he... is... a... Falling... Star Valley disciple..."
The Feng Family Ancestor's dry voice finally came out. Sect Master Wang was even more puzzled. The person had already transmitted a message from the shadows, stating he was a Falling Star Valley disciple.
If he were an enemy, they would have already met the same fate as the five Foundation Establishment cultivators. But she knew the Feng Family Ancestor to be old and prudent; he certainly wouldn't be shooting arrows without a target.
"That... that... is that... brat surnamed Zhang..."
Just as the Feng Family Ancestor's voice fell, one of the three Feng Family ancestors, who was being pulled along by the Spirit Power rope, also blurted out.
"It's... him!"
The Feng Family Ancestor stared intently at the mountain peak, as if trying to see through all the mist with his gaze.
With his profound cunning and experience, in just an instant, he thought of the inexplicably deceased Fang Guangjun.
But Sect Master Wang, standing beside him, wouldn't give him time to think. Seeing that the Feng Family Ancestor had only spoken half a sentence, she was already displeased.
"It seems you know this fellow daoist. But even so, why are you acting like this?"
The Feng Family Ancestor's thoughts were quickly pulled back to the present. He then remembered that this was no time to be thinking about other things. He took a deep breath.
"There's no doubt he is a disciple of Falling Star Valley, but has Fellow Daoist Wang not carefully sensed his aura?"
Sect Master Wang was taken aback. Among cultivators, unless the other party deliberately released their aura, probing them with Divine Sense was an absolute act of provocation.
Therefore, when she sensed the person appear and kill the enemies, she had only given a cursory scan and didn't dare to truly investigate, for fear of angering him.
The person's aura was very faint, but under the suppression of the great formation and with the other party deliberately concealing it, what was so strange about that?
Now, hearing the Feng Family Ancestor's words, Sect Master Wang was not about to provoke someone who could kill several Foundation Establishment cultivators in a matter of breaths.
Although the opponent had used some tricks and had the help of an insect-type Demonic Beast, they themselves had a large number of Underworld Ghost Creatures helping them before, yet they were still defeated.
"Fellow Daoist Feng, what do you mean by this? You want me to offend a powerful cultivator? Are you trying to get me killed?"
Sect Master Wang's expression changed instantly, and she was on the verge of falling out with the Feng Family Ancestor.
"Yes, yes, yes, I was just a bit emotional. I truly apologize, Fellow Daoist Wang. But what I want to tell you is that I met this person just over three months ago, and at that time, his cultivation was only at the sixth layer of Qi Condensation. The aura he's revealing now should still be at the Qi Condensation stage. I repeatedly probed him back then, and his cultivation was not false in the slightest. You... you understand what this means, don't you?"
The Feng Family Ancestor withdrew his gaze from the mountaintop, his expression a mix of shock and suspicion. After saying this, he gave Sect Master Wang a deep look.
Without pausing, he flew down the mountain again, as if unwilling to linger for even a moment longer, leaving behind a stunned Sect Master Wang.
'Doesn't... doesn't this mean that this person's cultivation is so profound that we can't even see through his true form? A Golden Core cultivator?'
After hearing the Feng Family Ancestor's words, Sect Master Wang's beautiful eyes were also filled with shock.
She knew very well that because the Feng Family Ancestor had to control Ghost Slaves, his Divine Sense was not much weaker than hers. Yet even he couldn't see through the opponent's cultivation.
'Is this a hidden pawn of Falling Star Valley?'
Sect Master Wang didn't know the circumstances under which the Feng Family Ancestor had met this person, but it was clear that the three Feng ancestors had also been present at the time.
'I must ask about the situation. I must befriend such a cultivator in the future!' Sect Master Wang immediately made up her mind.
For a Foundation Establishment cultivator to suppress their cultivation by an entire great realm and hide it from seasoned Foundation Establishment cultivators like them, who had been in the realm for over a hundred years, was nearly impossible.
In that case, there was only one explanation: the opponent's cultivation far surpassed theirs, allowing them to do so with ease.
'But, I know all of Falling Star Valley's Foundation Establishment cultivators, and don't they only have two Golden Core cultivators? The Golden Core Sect Master from back then has been missing for nearly two hundred years. If this person is a Golden Core cultivator, where did he pop out from?'
She was terrified. The two Feng Family ancestors were even more so. They both thought of a possibility: Fang Guangjun's death was more than likely related to this Zhang Ming.
Judging from how Fang Guangjun had killed Tang Tian and the others, he definitely wanted to kill this person as well. But oddly enough, this person and Feng Tao were unharmed. Feng Tao's survival was explainable, as she had been with Feng Zaiyu and was in their own Feng family territory.
But Zhang Ming had left alone and was also safe. Looking at it now, the issue was huge.
At this moment, Fang Guangjun's various unreasonable actions began to form a vague answer in the minds of the two Feng ancestors. But what frightened them even more was...
'Could this person be a secret agent of Falling Star Valley? The last time he came to the Feng family, was he the one who was truly there to resolve our crisis? Or did this person come to the Feng family with some other purpose? Was it surveillance, or did Falling Star Valley grow suspicious of the Feng family because of the recent matter with the foreign races? ...'
One bad thought after another appeared in the minds of the two Feng ancestors. They exchanged a quick glance, their eyes filled with fear and deep helplessness.
Regardless of what the two Feng ancestors were thinking, Li Yan had no time to consider such things. Although he had sensed their Divine Senses sweeping over, he didn't bother to hide his appearance.
Now that he was constrained by a restriction, which annoyed him to no end, his priority was naturally to complete his mission. Especially now, it was no longer as simple as just completing a mission for him.
The attack by these four sects had completely disrupted his plans and thrown him into a life-or-death situation. In the end, the source of all this trouble was these four sects, so he was going to make them pay a heavy price.
In fact, the best and fastest way to deal with these people was, of course, with poison. It was not only swift but could also kill them in droves.
But with cultivators from both sides intermingled here, even Li Yan might not be able to counteract the poisons he set.
To deal with so many people, he would need to lay poison in many places, but he could imagine that many cultivators like the Feng Family Ancestor would walk right into it.
At that time, whoever came would be the first to die. Accidental killings would surely occur. Therefore, Li Yan decided not to use poison for the time being.
There was another, more important reason: he did not want to reveal all his trump cards. If Tianxingzi turned on him in the end, he would have no chance at all.
Facing so many enemies, Li Yan naturally didn't want to fight them all head-on. How long would that take?
Moreover, there was always someone stronger. It was not a given that there were no Foundation Establishment cultivators here who could contend with him. Li Yan was not so arrogant as to think he was truly unrivaled in his realm.
In that case, for a group attack, the Snow Mosquitoes were the natural experts. Although their individual strength was weak, the snowfield in the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda had been a nightmare for Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Countless Foundation Establishment cultivators had lost their lives there. Li Yan himself had only managed to escape with great difficulty. The massive silver swords, formed by tens of thousands of Snow Mosquitoes, were the group attack treasures that had made them the overlords of the snowfield.
With this idea in mind and after scouting the terrain, Li Yan quickly set up an ambush in the mountain. This allowed the Snow Mosquito clan to finally reveal its vicious fangs for the first time on the Forsaken Continent.
Li Yan was thinking about the battle just now. He needed to grasp the attack power of the Snow Mosquitoes from it; he hadn't used the swarm for a long time.
Previously, he had only manifested ten longswords. If he released more Snow Mosquitoes, or used ten silver greatswords to simultaneously deal with a Pseudo-Core Realm cultivator like Cui Ting, it was possible he could achieve a one-hit kill.
'To deal with a Pseudo-Core Realm cultivator, I need to use at least forty thousand Snow Mosquitoes to achieve a surprising effect. To deal with a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, thirty thousand is enough...'
Li Yan quickly calculated in his mind.
Just then, the Qi Condensation disciples from the Snow Moon Wolf Clan and Night Fox Clan who had been following Cui Ting and the others finally arrived at the foot of the mountain, about thirty of them.
The excited voice of the Snow Mosquito King sounded in Li Yan's mind.
"Master, leave these insignificant little demons to me. You can rest easy here!"
To this, Li Yan merely gave a soft grunt. A few breaths later, a series of miserable howls rose from below the halfway point of the mountain, along with a "buzz-buzz-buzz" sound of flapping wings that even Li Yan could hear from the peak.
In just about fifteen breaths, the area once again returned to a deathly silence.
Li Yan's Divine Sense swept over the foot of the mountain. Dozens of shriveled corpses of Qi Condensation cultivators from the Snow Moon Wolf Clan and Night Fox Clan were "fluttering" on the ground.
The reason for "fluttering" was that these corpses were nothing but empty skins, all the essence and flesh within them having been drained dry.
If one were to look closely at these empty skins, one could see densely packed tiny holes, as if they had been pricked by countless fine needles, a sight that would make one's scalp tingle.
'This is truly a great weapon against Qi Condensation cultivators. If the Snow Mosquito clan were to slaughter a town of one hundred thousand people, it would probably only take them half a shichen (one hour).'
Li Yan nodded, quite satisfied with this. At this time, the Snow Mosquito King flew to his side with a smug look on its face.
"Master, these cultivators are nothing to look at. Even ten or a hundred times more would be nothing but clay chickens and pottery dogs, not even enough for a warm-up..."
"You're quite proud of yourself. Why didn't you attack immediately just now? How many of your clansmen died? Tell me!"
Before the Snow Mosquito King could finish its self-satisfied speech, Li Yan had already interrupted him coldly.
This fellow had not personally attacked at the first moment to suppress the enemy, allowing the other Snow Mosquitoes to take advantage of the situation. Instead, he had shouted and commanded a large number of Snow Mosquitoes to rush out, putting on a show of heroic dominance.
The silver greatswords formed by the Snow Mosquito swarm were formidable, but their opponents were, after all, disciples above the seventh layer of Qi Condensation.
Often, in a single blow, although they couldn't significantly hinder the silver greatswords, they could still kill some of the Snow Mosquitoes on the edges.