"Bang, bang, bang!!!"
A continuous series of explosions, like firecrackers, resounded, and the entire courtyard trembled with them, yet the rooms remained completely undamaged.
Although Dao Yu wanted to kill, he also knew he couldn't cause any unusual phenomena.
Even if he only wanted to capture and take the person away, he couldn't let others know that a battle had broken out here.
Therefore, while enveloping the area with a restriction, he had also shielded the courtyard walls and houses to prevent them from being affected by the fight.
Li Yan could tell at a glance that this person was no stranger to carrying out silent killings in the city; his methods were very practiced.
One breath, two breaths... Blood arrows continuously shot from Li Yan's body as his skin was torn open.
Meanwhile, Dao Yu on the opposite side was also somewhat astonished.
'Is this a Golden Core cultivator? Even if he's a powerful body cultivator, so what? How can he contend with me...'
Although only two breaths had passed, Dao Yu's mind was already in turmoil.
When he first clashed with his opponent, he had sneered inwardly. This was the other party, seeing no way to dodge, being forced to clash head-on with him.
'Just a final struggle!' was his thought at the time. He certainly hadn't used his full strength; he still needed to soul-search him to find out Zhao Min's whereabouts.
And then there was the boy's strange and incredibly swift movement skill.
The next moment, Dao Yu almost bit his own tongue. His fist and the opponent's elbow collided in an instant. However, he didn't see the opponent's arm break, no limbs flying, no one sent flying in an instant.
Instead, as the sleeve on the opponent's elbow exploded, a wave of soreness spread through his own fist, making him feel a little uncomfortable.
Startled, Dao Yu immediately shed some of his underestimation.
'This is an extremely formidable body cultivator!'
He then increased the force in his hands, throwing over a hundred punches every breath, each one stronger than the last.
Since he wanted to capture the opponent alive, he didn't dare to use his full strength, lest he turn the other party into dust, Golden Core and all.
As such, he could only increase his power bit by bit. Each increase sent Dao Yu into a deeper state of shock. By the third breath, he was already using thirty percent of his power.
Although his opponent had been beaten to a bloody pulp since the second breath, he still hadn't shown any signs of exhaustion. Instead, he seemed to grow fiercer, as if he were a completely different person from before.
Normally, when he fought a mid-to-late stage Golden Core cultivator, he only needed about ten percent of his power.
Just one blow would likely be enough to cripple their physical body, after which he would directly take their soul.
'This is not much different from some of the Pseudo-Nascent Soul great perfection body cultivators I've seen! Does he also have what might be a top-tier body refining art?'
Dao Yu had already deduced much more in a short moment.
'What is Zhao Min's relationship with this person? Zhao Min, also a human, came to see him. The two must have known each other before, and it wasn't just a simple acquaintance.
Since this person has so many secrets, if he were to use these methods now, it wouldn't be too difficult to subdue Zhao Min in an instant while she was completely off guard.'
By now, Dao Yu had already determined that Li Yan possessed a great treasure and that his origins were definitely not simple.
As a Nascent Soul cultivator, his insight was far beyond that of people like Xing Ming. With just a few clues, he could deduce many things.
Three breaths. Li Yan had pushed his strength to the absolute limit. This was his breaking point.
'This is as far as I can go. If his magical power continues to increase, he'll be able to capture me in just a few more breaths.'
Li Yan's forehead and the corners of his eyes had already split open, injured by the shock of the opponent's tyrannical magical power.
He also knew that the opponent was deliberately holding back, afraid of losing control and giving him a chance to self-destruct.
Once his opponent discovered he could no longer withstand the increased attacks, he would know his limit.
At that point, the opponent would only need to control his strength to capture him with ease.
Now, the entire courtyard was sealed off by the opponent, like a prison. He couldn't escape, and he had reached his limit in resisting head-on.
Since the opponent wanted to soul-search him, Li Yan was certain he wouldn't be killed directly. This was his only chance to gamble.
However, this was just a fleeting thought for Li Yan. The chance to launch a sneak attack on a Nascent Soul cultivator was basically non-existent.
But how could Li Yan be one to willingly await death? The moment he learned what cultivation was, he knew he would not grow old like a mortal.
Beads of blood dripped continuously from the corners of Li Yan's torn eyes, but he didn't blink, letting the blood soak into his eyes.
In his blood-red vision, just after the third breath, Li Yan's aura had reached its peak. Three and a half breaths, four breaths...
"Hehehe, this is your strongest attack!"
Dao Yu, continuously bombarding his opponent, now judged the human cultivator's final strength.
At this point, the man was being sent flying back with every blow, and the sound of his bones cracking was chilling.
With every blow he took, several long, bloody gashes would split open on the human cultivator's skin, deep enough to see the bone.
"Then let me see if you're still hiding anything, hmph!"
After observing his opponent for a breath and a half, Dao Yu still didn't believe he had revealed his full strength.
He was afraid that a moment of lost control would give his opponent time to self-destruct. He had seen such things happen too many times.
With a slight surge of magical power in his body, Dao Yu chopped horizontally with his palm, aiming for Li Yan's neck.
If his opponent couldn't block this attack, he would withdraw his force in an instant and knock him unconscious.
Li Yan's azure shirt was already in tatters, turned a dark bluish-black. Wounds of all sizes covered his body like the open mouths of infants. With his violent dodges, streams of blood gushed out.
Seeing the palm chop down, Li Yan's eyes turned bloodshot. A low, beast-like roar escaped his throat as he violently raised his arm to block.
"Bang!"
First came the sound of a palm hitting an arm, then a large burst of silver and gold light erupted from the point of collision.
Li Yan's body suddenly sank.
"Crack!" Another crisp sound rang out, and his forearm bent at a strange angle.
A stump of white bone, carrying a string of blood beads, pierced through his sturdy muscles.
Li Yan paid it no mind. The intense pain seemed to ignite his ferocity. Disregarding his broken arm, he violently raised his knee and rammed it towards his opponent's groin.
Dao Yu's face darkened, becoming even more sinister.
"Truly, you won't shed a tear until you see the coffin!"
As Li Yan attacked, Dao Yu also turned sideways, violently raising his knee in a similar fashion, crashing it towards Li Yan's knee.
Another loud "bang!" A dazzling burst of light exploded from between their knees, and Li Yan was sent flying in an instant.
His kneecap was a mess of crimson, with numerous bone fragments flying out. Several thick, severed tendons were exposed, drifting from his leg like strands of fallen grass.
His consciousness plunged into a semi-comatose state.
Clashing head-on with a Nascent Soul cultivator—even though he had an unparalleled physique and his opponent held back, the huge gap in realms, coupled with the equally formidable physique of the White Demon Clan, had left him half-crippled in less than five breaths.
Seeing Li Yan's consciousness beginning to fade, how could Dao Yu let such an opportunity slip?
With a stomp of his foot, he was already upon him like a shadow. His hand formed a claw and once again reached for the crown of his opponent's head. He had to perform the soul-search quickly; he had already wasted enough time here.
He was afraid something might have happened to Zhao Min.
As expected, his palm smoothly touched his opponent's hair.
Just as he clenched his five fingers and grabbed, a piercing pain suddenly shot through his palm.
Then, to Dao Yu's astonishment and pain, he saw a single black hair on his opponent's head suddenly grow a section longer.
The hair grew out so abruptly that among Li Yan's inch-long hair, it was glaringly obvious.
Even with Dao Yu's physique, which was even stronger than Li Yan's, the black hair pierced straight through his palm.
"Hiss! Dammit, a magical treasure sneak attack!"
He couldn't help but suck in a cold breath and violently raised his hand. He had realized that his opponent had used a magical treasure transformed into a strand of hair to launch a sneak attack.
Before, he had thought it was just a normal strand of hair with no special fluctuations of the five elements, so he had grabbed it without hesitation.
In intense pain, Dao Yu violently pulled back his hand.
At that moment, the originally dazed expression on Li Yan's face beneath his palm suddenly cleared up. His pair of blood-red eyes gave him a strange blink.
Li Yan's bizarre expression caught Dao Yu completely off guard.
The next moment, he knew why. A force suddenly came from the hand he was quickly retracting. This force instantly reached the depths of his Divine Soul.
His soul, which had been as firm as a rock, suddenly felt a pang of pain. His body, suspended in mid-air, paused for a moment.
As his body paused, a nearly imperceptible spatial fluctuation came from behind his head. But it was just a fluctuation.
Dao Yu didn't feel any power of the five elements, but in an instant, the hair on his body stood on end.
His years of life-and-death struggles with the Black Demon Clan made the image of the hair without any five-element power flash through his mind.
He violently tilted his head.
"Pfft!" With a muffled sound.
A long, black spike flew in from behind his right ear and then out through his right eye socket, taking a large, still-dripping eyeball with it as it flew into the distance.
"Ah!" Dao Yu let out a blood-curdling scream as his body shot off to the side.
This sudden turn of events happened in a flash. Li Yan immediately tapped the ground with his one good leg to stabilize himself.
At the same time, with a beckon of his hand, a black light flashed, and a long black spike flew into his hand.
On the needle-like end of the spike was a sapphire-blue eyeball, from which blood was still dripping.
Looking at the White Demon Clan cultivator who had just stabilized himself and was now looking up at him with a face full of blood, Li Yan cursed inwardly.
'Even with a sneak attack while he was holding back, it wasn't successful. What a pity!'
Just now, Li Yan had not hesitated to use his own grievous injuries to lull his opponent into a false sense of security, setting up a series of traps with the Gui-Yi Water-Parting Spike, but in the end, it had not gone as he wished.
This White Demon Clan cultivator's soul was so powerful that Li Yan couldn't even begin to estimate its strength. After his palm was injured, he had only been affected by the Gui-Yi Water-Parting Spike for less than half a breath before he regained his senses.
Li Yan's final, fatal blow had been detected by his opponent, and he had managed to dodge it in the end. It had failed to pierce his skull from behind.
If it had, it would have directly inflicted heavy damage on his sea of consciousness and divine soul.
Dao Yu stabilized himself and looked fiercely at the ordinary-looking human cultivator before him. One of his eye sockets was now a dark, empty hole.
One of his beautiful, sapphire-blue eyes was gone. Although blood surged in the socket like a tide, not a single drop could flow out, sealed within by his magical power.
This made his originally handsome face terrifying and fearsome, like a demon from hell.
What made Dao Yu even more uncomfortable was that the unknown long spike had not only taken an eyeball but had also seemingly pierced two holes, one large and one small, in his soul.
A torment that ordinary people could not endure emanated from the depths of his soul. He wanted to scream and shout to vent this pain that was in no way comparable to a physical wound.