The concealed Tianlan Clan cultivator was incredibly fast. In a single twist of his body, he had already shot a hundred zhang across the grassy terrain. In that same instant, the heart-pounding sensation vanished completely.
By now, exactly one breath of time had passed, and only then did a loud explosion erupt in the sky behind him.
After shooting out for some distance, he hastily spread his Divine Sense to scan his surroundings. The area was empty; he could not find the source of the feeling that had made his heart palpitate. This Tianlan Clan Golden Core cultivator assumed it was some strangeness on the part of the female cultivator that had caused it, and his heart relaxed slightly.
Just as he was about to command his distant magical treasure to attack the female cultivator again, he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen, which was pressed against the grass. He quickly looked down, and the sight sent a wave of horror through him. He discovered that below his neck, only a tattered piece of skin remained, and even that was rapidly disappearing. His torso, his internal organs, and the Golden Core he had painstakingly cultivated for several hundred years had all vanished without a sound. Moreover, his neck was also rapidly melting away.
Only then did an immense pain invade his consciousness. But just as a scream reached his throat, his neck was already gone, and no sound could escape. Then, everything came to an abrupt end!
As his consciousness faded, his remaining head also turned into a puff of flying ash, carried away by the night wind. In the last moments before his death, this Golden Core cultivator saw two figures fly toward the flying magical treasure he had attacked earlier. Then, his consciousness plunged into an endless darkness…
One and a half breaths. Everything returned to silence!
Zhao Min casually tossed a small hammer, still crackling with arcs of electricity, into her Storage Pouch. It was a mid-grade magical treasure. Although she wouldn't use it, it would be good for trading for other things in the future.
"Junior Brother, your Fragmented Poison Body is becoming more and more tyrannical!"
"It was Senior Sister's excellent coordination that attracted his attention, allowing me to succeed so easily!" Li Yan chuckled. While his coordination with Zhao Min wasn't perfect, they had another advantage: extreme trust in each other.
Thus, just moments ago, although Zhao Min didn't understand Li Yan's intentions, she had acted according to his wishes without a shred of hesitation. Zhao Min believed that if their roles were reversed, Li Yan would do the same.
Time was of the essence. They both knew they absolutely could not get entangled by the enemy at this moment; every breath was precious. The moment the ambush began, Li Yan had deciphered the enemy's intent. The man's cultivation was only at the Initial-stage Golden Core and posed no threat to two Golden Core cultivators. Li Yan had asked Zhao Min to appear and face him head-on because he was confident he could heavily injure or kill the man in an extremely short time, thereby breaking away from the enemy once again.
He had used the Stealthy Night Art to vanish from the Cloud-Piercing Willow, and the concealed Tianlan Clan Golden Core cultivator had not noticed a thing. Most of his attention was drawn to the approaching Zhao Min. Furthermore, Li Yan's Stealthy Night Art was a cultivation method coveted even in the Immortal Spirit Realm; how could he possibly recognize it?
Everything happened too quickly. Within half a breath, Li Yan was upon him. Although the Tianlan Golden Core cultivator's own concealment technique was excellent, because he was the one who launched the sneak attack, and because Li Yan and Zhao Min's Divine Senses were stronger than his, his hiding spot was immediately discovered.
Li Yan didn't attack directly with a magical art. Instead, he flickered around the man's perimeter, laying down a full six layers of overlapping deadly poison in a circle around him. Li Yan called this poison "Total Transformation," for in a single instant, it could cause one's very body and bones to dissipate into a pile of ash. As long as the timing was right, Li Yan could use this poison against cultivators of the same rank, and after being poisoned, their minds wouldn't even have time to react, still stuck in the previous moment.
The man's cultivation was lower than Li Yan's, and his concealment technique was also inferior, so he fell right into the trap. After setting the trap, Li Yan immediately released a trace of his aura. Being suppressed by an aura at such close range, the Tianlan Clan Golden Core cultivator shot out without the slightest hesitation. But no matter which direction he fled, he would come into contact with the interlocking rings of the deadly "Total Transformation" poison!
Li Yan and Zhao Min's feet had not even touched down on the Cloud-Piercing Willow before they transformed into an elongated afterimage and vanished into the night sky…
Two breaths later, a streak of rainbow light flew to the spot where Li Yan and his companion had been attacked. The rainbow light circled once before its glow dissipated, revealing a woman who appeared to be in her twenties. The woman had a clear and beautiful face, a tall and slender figure, and her hair was styled in two long braids.
She looked down, then swept her Divine Sense around, a look of confusion and puzzlement in her eyes. "Why didn't Nasen stop those two? And where is he?"
In her Divine Sense, Nasen's great hammer had indeed attacked the enemy, but after a strike that lasted less than half a breath, the enemy had continued to flee. Because the exchange was so brief, she didn't know what had happened here, only that Nasen's aura had vanished from the surroundings.
However, at this point, the woman was not overly worried. Nasen's greatest skill was concealment. When he used it, even she couldn't track his whereabouts. She assumed that Nasen, having failed to defeat the enemy, was now tracking them again, waiting for an opportunity to entangle them once more.
Tie Lianggu had said the opponents were two Golden Core cultivators, one at the initial stage and one at the mid stage. The chances of Nasen entangling them were there, but it would involve too much risk. Given Nasen's caution, he would naturally not choose a head-on confrontation. If one strike was not effective, he would immediately retreat and wait for another opportunity to strike.
At this moment, the woman was also holding a small red grass identical to Tie Lianggu's. Before she could send another message to Nasen, the sound of breaking air came from the night sky, and Tie Lianggu's voice, growing from faint to strong, reached her.
"Junior Sister, did that waste Nasen fail to stop them?"
Upon hearing this, the woman's fine eyebrows shot up. This senior brother of hers was a real troublemaker. If their master hadn't told her to look after him before entering seclusion, she wouldn't have bothered with him at all. Now that a clansman had responded to his call for help, he was speaking in such a manner.
"Junior Brother, do not speak recklessly. We of our clan must support one another. The opponents are two Golden Core cultivators, and Nasen is only at the Initial-stage Golden Core. It was already commendable for him to risk an attack. He has likely gone after them!"
By now, Tie Lianggu and Wutu had flown to her position. They scanned the area but could not find Nasen's aura either. Hearing the woman's words, Tie Lianggu couldn't help but curl his lip. He had a Nascent Soul-level master, who else did? However, even with his arrogant personality, he didn't retort.
He had once lusted after his junior sister's beauty. A long time ago, in a fit of lust, he had stealthily caressed her smooth, silk-like calf, and had ended up being beaten quite miserably by her. His master had only taken the two of them as disciples, but it was clear that his master doted more on this extremely talented female disciple. After being beaten, Tie Lianggu didn't even dare to complain.
He could use his master's name to stir up trouble with others without restraint, but he wouldn't dare to do so in front of his junior sister. Of course, there was another Nascent Soul ancestor in the clan, and he felt no superiority in front of that person's three disciples either. But this was already enough for him to act with arrogance and impunity.
"Let's hurry and chase after them!" Tie Lianggu didn't want to send another message to Nasen, lest the secretly tracking man be discovered by the enemy.
The three exchanged no more words. The enemy was ahead, and they had no time to conduct a thorough search. As they spoke, the three of them had already shot off in the direction Li Yan had fled.
When Li Yan had used the Stealthy Night Art earlier, even the gray-haired old man, Wutu, had not noticed a thing.
Under the night sky, several streaks of light shot across the prairie, one in front and the others behind. They would flicker once, and in the next moment, they would be somewhere on the southern horizon.
Li Yan was also secretly glad that he hadn't gone to the core area of the Tianlan Clan and had instead followed the far eastern edge of the prairie to leave. That was why they were able to approach the southern border so quickly. If trouble had broken out in the heart of the Tianlan Prairie, escaping would have been incredibly difficult. The route he had chosen had very few cultivators, which was how they had avoided being surrounded.
When a sliver of light appeared between heaven and earth on the prairie, Li Yan couldn't help but glance back. Zhao Min was frowning incessantly. Along the way, the arrogant youth behind them had been constantly sending them messages, filled with threats, insults, and intimidation, which was extremely annoying.
Li Yan and Zhao Min were both people of few words and couldn't be bothered to respond, but after a long time, they couldn't help but feel increasingly disgusted. The lewd and obscene words had already stirred a genuine anger in Zhao Min. Li Yan suddenly said to Zhao Min in a low voice, "There seems to be someone ahead preparing to block us!"
At this point, Li Yan could only vaguely sense the presence of cultivators at the limit of his Divine Sense. The specific situation was still unclear.
Zhao Min's heart grew colder. The enemy had been unable to catch up to them but had been stubbornly tailing them from behind. It turned out they had called for others to encircle them again.
After flying for another ten breaths, "Two people, both at the Mid-stage Golden Core realm. There is also a group of green-clad armored soldiers at the Foundation Establishment realm. Those armored soldiers have been arranged far apart and spread out," Li Yan explained the situation without waiting for Zhao Min to ask.
"Can we get around them?"
"It will be difficult. The people behind us are locked onto us at all times. If you enter a spatial artifact, I can try to move forward after concealing my aura. But to disappear so abruptly, the enemy can still deduce that I am in this area. With that Pseudo-Nascent Soul cultivator present, the chances of being discovered after a careful search are still high!" Li Yan said calmly.
"Break through!" Zhao Min was even more decisive.
"The two Golden Core cultivators ahead are not like the one who ambushed us before; they didn't come in a hurry. They have already made arrangements. We must be careful. I will not summon Zi Kun and Qian Ji unless it is absolutely necessary!" Li Yan said quickly. He had not yet summoned Zi Kun and the Snow Mosquito clan to attack the enemy; that was his hidden trump card.
"Little beauty, as long as you obediently serve me well, and I am satisfied, you can have a more comfortable death later…" A voice drifted over again.
This forced the two to cut their conversation short. The arrogant youth's constant insults and obscene words were becoming unbearable.
Bate and Balu were two brawny men, both over a zhang tall. They also wore their long hair in small braids, and their builds were exceptionally large and muscular. Both wore short-sleeved leather armor, their thick arms exposed like two iron towers. Their faces, covered in dense beards, looked extremely brave. They both wore the long boots characteristic of the prairie people and stood in the air with their hands clasfen behind their backs, their Divine Senses firmly locked on the vast expanse of the north.
In the early autumn morning, the prairie air was fresh with the unique, rich scent of grass, feeling exceptionally cool and crisp. A thin mist swirled over the horizon, slowly enveloping the land. Occasionally, the distant call of a bird would echo for a long time across the empty prairie, traveling far, far away…
When Li Yan was still four thousand li away from Bate and Balu, something that no one could have imagined happened. Just as Tie Lianggu and his two companions were in hot pursuit, the streak of green light that had been fleeing in their Divine Senses suddenly made a sharp turn. With a flash, it turned back and charged toward them.
Tie Lianggu was only about four hundred li away from Li Yan. At a normal flight speed, this would take about five breaths. Now, with both sides flying toward each other, they collided head-on in the blink of an eye.
The faces of Tie Lianggu and his companions first showed a stunned expression. Then, Tie Lianggu's wild laughter echoed far across the sky.
"Hahaha… they finally realize they have no way out. But now, it's too late even if you beg for mercy!"
In their view, the enemy's Divine Sense had finally reached the blockade ahead. Fearing being surrounded, they had no choice but to make a move in advance!