The slender woman had seen the talisman that Wutu had just cast. Others might not know what it was, but she and Tie Lianggu knew. It was the "Soul-Ferrying Talisman" left by their master! It was meant to protect Tie Lianggu, but it had always been kept by Wutu for safekeeping, for fear that Tie Lianggu would use it recklessly.
After saying this, the slender woman suddenly shouted sharply at the surroundings. "Nasen, why didn't you attack and block the opponent just now? If you had launched a sneak attack, we might have captured that woman. Show yourself!"
As she spoke, the expressions of Bate and Balu also turned grim. That fellow Nasen, due to the cultivation method he practiced, had a reclusive and stubborn personality and was notoriously difficult to command. If not for his reverence for the Great Heavenly Master, Nasen might not even have listened to Tie Lianggu's words.
After the slender woman spoke, she waited for a moment. Apart from the green-clad guards looking around suspiciously, only the sound of the wind could be heard.
"Nasen, I know you are unruly, like a shadow in the night. But this time, even Wutu was so seriously injured. You must give an explanation!" The slender woman's tone grew colder.
She did not immediately lead her people back to the clan, because she knew that after Wutu had used the talisman, their master would arrive soon. Waiting here was the best decision. She was just furious that Nasen had only made a symbolic move earlier and then had ignored them. If he had launched a sneak attack just now, the outcome might have been completely different.
The wind still blew, and the silence remained!
The expressions of the slender woman, Bate, and Balu grew more and more unsightly. Suddenly, the slender woman seemed to think of something, and a chill ran through her heart. 'No, Wutu was poisoned first, and I asked Nasen to attack later. In such a situation, could he really have not attacked? I've already spoken to this extent, yet the other party still hasn't made a move. This is quite abnormal. In the past, he would at least have said something after being pressured. This time, he hasn't even tried to defend himself!'
She then thought of Nasen's one strike. 'He disappeared without a trace after one assassination attempt. Could he have been instantly killed by the opponent…' For a moment, she felt a growing chill. If Nasen had really been killed in an instant, then that man and woman were simply too terrifying.
A faint, almost invisible straight line trailed behind Li Yan. The Tianlan Clan cultivators behind them had vanished in an instant. Suddenly, the flying Li Yan's body sharply veered to one side. He released his grip on Zhao Min's hand and then threw a punch behind him. A force like a tidal wave swept in one direction. Fifty zhang away from him, a talisman was flying straight toward them at an even faster speed.
With a soft "pfft," the sharp pressure Li Yan had felt before vanished in an instant. He couldn't help but be slightly stunned. The talisman the gray-haired old man had cast clearly had the power of a Golden Core cultivator's strike, but after he had thrown a punch from a distance, the talisman, still dozens of zhang away, had shattered instantly upon contact with his magical power. There was no sharp attack as he had imagined!
Just as Li Yan was about to withdraw his fist, his expression suddenly changed. A hidden force, following the spiritual power of his attack, had directly seeped in. Li Yan let out a cold snort. His magical power erupted again, about to shake off that hidden force. But to his horror, before his power could erupt, that hidden force had already reached the back of his fist at an unbelievable speed. In the next moment, the power Li Yan had sent out hit nothing, and then everything returned to normal.
Li Yan violently brought his hand before his eyes, and his body trembled. "What's wrong?" Zhao Min's clear voice came over. She had also sensed a talisman attacking, but seeing Li Yan block it, she had not made a move. Instead, she had vigilantly scanned the surroundings with her Divine Sense. After the talisman was easily shattered by Li Yan's punch, his expression had changed.
At this moment, a small, blood-red grass, just like the magical treasure Tie Lianggu and the others had used for voice transmission, had appeared on the knuckle of his middle finger.
"What is this?" Zhao Min also saw the blood-red grass on the back of Li Yan's hand. Li Yan shook his head, his face unsightly. He was carefully examining it with his Divine Sense, but he found nothing. He also felt no strange sensations in his body. But the more this was the case, the more a sense of foreboding welled up in Li Yan's heart.
By now, they had already entered the mountain range, and still, no one had caught up from behind. "Let's leave this place first!" A "Cloud-Piercing Willow" appeared under Li Yan's feet, lifting both him and Zhao Min, and once again flew deep into the mountains.
Li Yan could not maintain the "Phoenix Soars to the Heavens" divine ability for long. Not only could his magical power not sustain it, but his body also could not endure it for too long.
Standing on the "Cloud-Piercing Willow," Li Yan tried several methods, but he could not remove the blood-red grass from the back of his hand. Whether he tried to expel it with magical power, use a Divine Sense imprint, or wash it with medicinal liquid, the thing did not react at all. Zhao Min also tried, but to no avail.
A fierce look flashed in Li Yan's eyes. He held his hand out flat. With a "bang," a large hole suddenly exploded in the back of his hand. The piece of flesh with the blood-red grass also dissipated into a shower of blood. There was not a trace of pain on Li Yan's face. He just held his hand out flat, a silver light flashing in the bloody hole. Flesh began to regenerate rapidly, healing from the edges of the hole toward the center.
Li Yan, who had been staring at the bloody hole with an expressionless face, suddenly narrowed his eyes. He saw something faintly forming rapidly within the regenerating flesh. The moment the bloody hole on the back of Li Yan's hand healed, a blood-red grass had also re-formed on the back of his hand in that instant. Li Yan's face became extremely unsightly.
"This seems to be a Life-Chasing Talisman?" Zhao Min's uncertain voice came over. She was staring deadly at the back of Li Yan's hand with her beautiful eyes.
"A Life-Chasing Talisman? Used for tracking people? What are its specific origins?" Hearing Li Yan's question, Zhao Min pondered for a moment. "I'm not sure if it's a 'Life-Chasing Talisman,' but it should be something similar. I once saw a description in a classic text in the Sacred Demon Palace. The situation is very similar to yours now, but the pattern that formed was different. A 'Life-Chasing Talisman' cannot be detected by Divine Sense as causing any harm to the body. Even if the flesh is dug out, it will re-form. The cultivator who can refine it must be at least at the Nascent Soul realm, but the shape of the talisman is not fixed; it is all decided by the refiner. Refining it requires the cultivator's own Essence Blood, which is refined into a talisman or attached to something like a jade pendant using a kind of shamanistic curse art. When used, it cannot be cast directly but requires a set of methods similar to shamanistic hexing arts to be deployed. Its function is to constantly link the aura of the person implanted with the 'Life-Chasing Talisman' to the refiner's consciousness. This is mainly because the Essence Blood within the talisman creates a connection with one's own body. The sensing range is hard to say; it is related to the refiner's own cultivation. This thing is usually used by high-level cultivators to protect their descendants. If they are in danger, they can deploy the 'Life-Chasing Talisman.' Firstly, the high-level cultivator who refined the talisman can immediately sense it and has a great chance of saving the user. Secondly, even if the descendant is already dead, it can be used to find the real murderer and avenge them!"
Zhao Min explained everything she knew about the "Life-Chasing Talisman" in one breath, and Li Yan's head began to ache. This already involved shamanism, which was a very special category of cultivation. The cultivation methods of such cultivators were extremely mysterious and unorthodox, often harming the enemy by a thousand while losing eight hundred of their own. Many of their cultivation methods involved sacrificing their own lifespan and Essence Blood in exchange for gaining the upper hand against the enemy. Like poison cultivators, this type of cultivator was one that many people were most unwilling to encounter. He had never thought he would run into one on the Tianlan Prairie.
Even now, Li Yan did not know how the other party had managed to use this "Life-Chasing Talisman" on him. He had not been injured in the previous battle, so there was no possibility of his blood being collected by the other party. He had no idea that the other party had just used his lingering aura as a guide to cast the spell. If Wutu had tried to cast the spell ten breaths after he had left, he would have been powerless to do so.
"Judging from Senior Sister's description, it seems this is most likely the art. Then, does Senior Sister know how to remove it?"
"Someone who understands shamanism might be able to break it. I don't know how to remove it either. However, even if the 'Life-Chasing Talisman' is not forcibly broken, it can only exist for a maximum of seven days. It is said that it will dissipate on its own when the time is up. This is also just what I've seen in the classics. Whether it's true or not, the classics did not confirm!"
"The classics collected by the Sacred Demon Palace have a certain degree of credibility. Seven days? The purpose of the other party using this art is of course to kill us. They will certainly make their move within seven days. But the information we got from the soul-search was that the two Nascent Soul cultivators of the Tianlan Clan were both in seclusion due to injuries…" A sharp light flashed in Li Yan's eyes. He had no intention of fighting a Nascent Soul cultivator and surviving.
"The Yunlan Mountain Range is said to be hundreds of thousands of li wide. We can get out by flying at full speed for five or six days. As long as we can reach the Tingyun Kingdom, even the Nascent Soul cultivators of the Tianlan Clan would not dare to go over easily."
Li Yan immediately made a decision. He, of course, had another method, which was to hide in the "Earthen Patch" for seven days, but that was the same situation as when he had encountered Dao Yu. Li Yan knew very little about shamanism, but one thing was very clear: shamanism could not be understood with common sense. If he hid in the "Earthen Patch" and still could not break the tracking of the "Life-Chasing Talisman," then he would undoubtedly be digging a grave for himself and Zhao Min. Being watched by a tiger, the moment he showed his head, he would be firmly clamped down by the other party.
Zhao Min had no objection to this. She also couldn't think of a way to break the shamanistic art. Using the power of the Tingyun Kingdom to force the Tianlan expert not to cross over was the best strategy at the moment.
In the next moment, the "Cloud-Piercing Willow" transformed into a streak of rainbow light and flashed into the distant sky.
…
In the central region of the southern Tianlan Prairie, there was a city covering an area of more than seven hundred li. It was called a city, but it was actually an area composed of various tents and stone houses on the prairie. It was just that the closer to the central area, the denser the tents and stone houses became, and the tents and houses in the central area were more magnificent and taller.
Given the unrestrained nature of the prairie people, even in the most densely populated areas, the houses were often at least three hundred zhang apart. There were large green spaces in front of and behind the houses, and horses, cattle, and sheep could be seen everywhere. Not only were there cultivators flying in the sky here, but a large number of Tianlan Clan mortals also lived here. These mortals could also continuously provide future generations of disciples for the cultivators.
On a high slope on the prairie, there was a cluster of tall stone houses that stretched for dozens of li to the rear, looking very conspicuous. Around it, teams of green-clad guards in bright armor patrolled from time to time. Whenever a Tianlan Clan mortal passed by from a distance, their eyes would be filled with supreme reverence as they looked at the stone houses on the high slope. One by one, the Tianlan Clan people would kneel down, clasp their palms together, and murmur words, their faces filled with incomparable piety. Only after a set of complicated prayer rituals was completed would they kowtow again before leaving.
Underneath a tall stone house, there was a secret chamber a thousand zhang from the ground, built with powerful earth-element magical arts!