But when Dao Yu saw the human cultivator appear before him, staring at him with the same fierce expression, he suppressed the pain deep in his heart.
"You! You will fall into endless agony and regret ever coming into this world. I swear it!"
Dao Yu endured the excruciating pain in his soul. His eyes filled with venomous hatred as he slowly spoke to Li Yan, word by word.
This time, he would absolutely not hold back. The pain and humiliation had made him forget about Zhao Min.
As he spoke, Dao Yu formed a hand seal with one hand. Ten glittering golden battle-axes, radiating a chilling aura, appeared beside him.
His finger pointed forward with lightning speed, and the ten axes vanished from his side. At the same time, they chopped down from above Li Yan's head.
Each axe carried a mournful whistling sound, and for a moment, a fierce wind swept through the entire courtyard.
Dao Yu himself didn't even notice that in this attack against Li Yan, he had opted for a long-range magical art instead of engaging in close combat again.
Subconsciously, he had already become somewhat wary of this little Golden Core cultivator's methods.
"Boom, boom, boom..."
A series of loud bangs resounded, and dust and dirt flew everywhere in the courtyard. Dao Yu stared ahead with a sinister expression.
But this expression lasted for only half a breath before it turned into boundless fury.
Because what appeared before his eyes was a huge, deep pit, crisscrossed with deep grooves cut by the axes.
But the opponent's aura had suddenly vanished without a trace.
The caster of a spell knows clearly whether their attack hit the target or not. This was not a case of the opponent being instantly chopped into mince-meat.
That human boy had completely disappeared. He had vanished in the instant of the attack, leaving not a single trace of his aura. Only the faint smell of blood lingered in the air...
"Impossible, impossible..."
In the "Earthen Patch" space, Zi Kun and Qian Ji had just flown away. They followed Li Yan's command and dared not linger by the river at the foot of the mountain, lest they disturb Zhao Min's quiet cultivation.
Zhao Min, after looking around the several caves and finding them quite nice, returned to the riverbank. She stared at the water in a daze, also contemplating her future plans.
Today, she herself hadn't expected Li Yan to make a decision so quickly, which left her feeling a little lost and helpless for a moment.
Her helplessness stemmed from the fact that from now on, Li Yan would have to rely on himself to find a way to leave; she could no longer be of any help.
Just like that, she stared blankly at the "swish, swish..." of the river, slowly calming the emotions in her heart.
Suddenly, the sky distorted. Zhao Min sensed it and looked up in astonishment. Before she could see clearly what was happening, a black shadow crashed heavily onto the ground, shaking it slightly.
"Junior Brother..."
Zhao Min was stunned. When she saw who it was, she couldn't help but cry out in alarm.
Li Yan was covered in blood. From one hand and one foot, stumps of white bone protruded through the skin. The red flesh and green tendons were a chaotic mess. The situation was unspeakably tragic.
Zhao Min's cry of alarm had barely left her lips before she had already rushed to Li Yan's side. She confirmed that this was not Li Yan's Divine Sense projection, but his actual body.
Zhao Min spoke urgently.
"Junior Brother, what happened?"
Before she could help him up, Li Yan had already propped himself up with one hand, leaving a deep, bloody handprint on the green grass. He spat out a mouthful of blood.
At this time, Zhao Min's pair of gentle hands were already on his shoulders. Disregarding the bloodstains on his body, she gently supported his back with her own body and began to investigate his injuries.
"I'm... I'm fine, cough, cough, cough..."
After spitting out a mouthful of blood, Li Yan's mouth was still foaming with blood. His face was a little pale as he spoke, and he gently pushed away Zhao Min's jade-like hands with one of his own.
As he spoke, a silver light surged over his entire body. In an instant, Li Yan was enveloped in a silver glow, his skin as if plated with a layer of silver.
Then, to Zhao Min's surprise, she saw Li Yan's wounds healing at a rapid pace, and the broken bones were slowly rejoining.
Zhao Min was no stranger to the silver light on Li Yan's body; she had naturally seen it before.
When she was healing him, she had seen it, but at that time, the silver light had been very weak, not at all like now, where it was as if a layer of thin silver had been plated on his body.
'What a miraculous cultivation method!'
Zhao Min attributed this to Li Yan cultivating some special technique.
When Li Yan was in the courtyard just now, he had been controlling the Essence Blood in his body, preventing his wounds from healing to deceive his enemy.
Now that he used it, he himself was a little surprised.
This was the first time he had truly used it after completely absorbing the two drops of "Undead Phoenix" Essence Blood, and its effect greatly exceeded his expectations.
At the same time, his Divine Sense had already connected to a place in the "Earthen Patch" space, and several jade bottles of different colors immediately floated before him.
This was a storage space, and Li Yan kept most of his things here. It was just that besides him, no one else knew where he kept them.
At this time, Zhao Min also had several jade bottles in her hand. Seeing Li Yan suck all the pills from the suddenly appearing jade bottles into his mouth like a whale sucking in water, Zhao Min did not put away her own jade bottles. With her status in the "Sacred Demon Palace," the grade of pills she possessed was not something commonly seen.
She just stared at Li Yan with a tense expression. Her earlier question about the cause was just a subconscious expression of concern; anyone could see that Li Yan was injured.
Now, naturally, Li Yan's healing came first. If she found that his pills couldn't treat his injuries, she would ask him to take hers.
Li Yan swallowed the pills and then slowly circulated his energy for about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea before he could suppress some of his internal injuries. The silver light on his body was still flickering slightly. He slowly turned his head to look at Zhao Min.
"That Nascent Soul cultivator from the 'Sacred Demon Palace' followed you. He probably realized something was wrong after your aura suddenly disappeared. He forcefully broke through the restriction and attacked me just now.
Although I managed to launch a sneak attack on him, I failed to kill him. I had no strength left to deal with the subsequent pursuit, so I could only hide here!"
As he spoke, a long, black spike, thin as a needle at both ends and as thick as a finger in the middle, suddenly appeared beside him.
Zhao Min was shocked to see a sapphire-blue sphere stained with blood on one end of the spike. Connecting this with what Li Yan had said, she immediately remembered Dao Yu's sapphire-blue eyes that had captivated countless young women.
"You... you blinded Dao Yu?" she said in astonishment. The shocking news she had received today was too much.
First, Li Yan was seriously injured, then she was told she was being followed, and now it was confirmed that Li Yan had actually seriously injured a Nascent Soul cultivator's physical body.
So, even though she knew her question was redundant, she still asked it out loud.
Dao Yu was an expert approaching the mid-stage of Nascent Soul. In the secret realm, many Black Demon Clan Nascent Soul cultivators had tried to kill him, but none had succeeded. He had even managed to cripple one of them.
And in just a short moment, he had had an eye plucked out by her Junior Brother.
For any cultivator, no matter how high their cultivation or how strong their soul, this was a grievous injury to their physical body. If things went wrong, their head could completely explode.
At this moment, although Li Yan was covered in blood, with wounds big and small all over his body, and his healing hand and foot looked particularly wretched, in Zhao Min's eyes, his survival was an absolute miracle.
If she were to face Dao Yu, Zhao Min felt that aside from injuring him by unexpectedly self-destructing her physical body, she probably wouldn't even be able to scratch him, even if she used the "Heavenly Demon White Jade Plate" technique with all her might.
The gap in their realms was too vast; it couldn't be bridged by a cultivation method.
'How did he manage all this?' Zhao Min asked softly in her heart, though she didn't actually say it out loud.
She didn't know that Dao Yu had held back significantly in order to soul-search Li Yan. If Li Yan had been a cultivator of the same level, it would have been uncertain if he could have injured Dao Yu.
And all of this was something Li Yan had gambled his life on after a quick assessment. It was just that he hadn't won the biggest prize—the opponent's death.
Li Yan nodded, then took a few heavy breaths. Ignoring the shock on Zhao Min's face, he continued.
"This place is safe for now, but with my disappearance, the opponent will only have two guesses. One is that I have a directional teleportation talisman.
But there were no spatial teleportation fluctuations during our fight just now, so if he thinks about it carefully, he might not be fooled.
Two, if he discovers I wasn't teleported by a talisman, he will undoubtedly think that I have an independent space on my body. Then, he will carefully search every inch of this area.
Normally, I wouldn't worry about a Nascent Soul cultivator searching for this magical treasure.
The probability of him finding this spatial magical treasure is less than thirty percent. I have already turned it into one of thousands upon thousands of dust motes.
However, because I escaped in a hurry, I couldn't hide the magical treasure deep underground. If he keeps watch here, we won't be able to get out again.
Also, if he can't find anything, I'm afraid he might bring a Spirit Transformation cultivator. In that case, even if I believe this space is exceptionally stable, I can't predict the various methods of a Spirit Transformation old monster. So that's also an unknown outcome."
After saying so much in one breath, Li Yan began to pant heavily.
Worry appeared in Zhao Min's eyes. She opened her mouth and said, "These are also top-quality healing pills!"
"I haven't fully refined the pills I swallowed. I'll take Senior Sister's pills later.
Those were just my speculations. What I mean is that Senior Sister should be prepared for the worst. This matter has already gone beyond our plans.
However, I still believe that even a Spirit Transformation cultivator cannot break through the space here. I need to meditate and heal now. We'll talk about other matters later."
After Li Yan finished speaking, he closed his eyes. If Zhao Min hadn't been here, he wouldn't have needed to waste his breath. But he had to let her know what had happened to prevent her from letting her imagination run wild.
At the same time, this was also to make Zhao Min prepare for the worst.
Li Yan didn't go elsewhere; he began to circulate his energy and recover by the river.
Zhao Min placed the pills in her hand beside him and then sat down cross-legged as well. She raised her long, white neck and looked up at the sky.
'No matter the outcome, Junior Brother, I will accompany you to the death. With the Heart-Entangling Twin Gu, we can meet again on the Yellow Springs Road!
Your previous judgment was correct. Dao Yu was already monitoring me. If I had returned to the palace, I really wouldn't have been able to come out again next time. After this turn of events, will the Grand Elder come?'
Staring at the sky, she waited, her brows furrowed in silence...
At this moment, Zi Kun and Qian Ji were already flying back at high speed. When they saw Li Yan, covered in blood, the faces of both demons changed drastically.
Not even the time it takes to drink a cup of tea had passed, and their master had ended up in such a miserable state.
But seeing that Li Yan was circulating his energy to heal, the two demons could only stand not far away, staring at him with tense expressions.
Dao Yu's Divine Sense had already carefully searched every room and the entire courtyard more than ten times, but he couldn't find anything out of the ordinary.
'At such a close distance, under my attack, you are not a Nascent Soul cultivator. It's impossible for you to have teleported elsewhere, not even to the nearest room!
Spatial teleportation?
Under my attack just now, you had no time to open a teleportation talisman, and I didn't sense any spatial teleportation fluctuations. So how did this happen...'