"Mm!" the black-robed Great Heavenly Master casually responded. Then, he raised a hand, and as black qi swirled in his palm, he sent a stream of spiritual power into Wutu's body from a distance. A moment later, he withdrew his magical power, but his brow was tightly furrowed!
Then, his Divine Sense swept over Tie Lianggu's Golden Core in the void. The slender woman had already protected Tie Lianggu's Golden Core with her magical power, suspending it in the air, for fear that others would be corroded by the deadly poison on the Golden Core a second time.
Then, the black-robed Great Heavenly Master's brow furrowed even more.
After thinking for a moment, he took out a white jade bottle. He gently opened the stopper, and a refreshing coolness emanated from the bottle. With a wave of his hand, Tie Lianggu's Golden Core entered the white jade bottle. He immediately capped the bottle and then put it into a storage ring on his hand.
This action of his made the slender woman at his side's eyes flicker, but after the black-robed Great Heavenly Master gave her a faint glance, she quickly lowered her head. At this moment, her heart was filled with suspicion. This master before her, whether in appearance, demeanor, or tone, was definitely her master. She had followed the Great Heavenly Master for several hundred years; she would not be mistaken about this.
However, what puzzled her a little was that her master today no longer had that unfathomable feeling of the past. The aura he exuded was something even she could sense, as if he were of the same realm as her. However, her status in the clan was also very high, not that of an ordinary Golden Core cultivator. Her master had told her many things in the past. Thinking about the current situation with the Tingyun Kingdom, she felt that it was probably her master's deliberate act. This time, in order not to attract the attention of the experts over there, he had deliberately behaved this way.
But when she saw the storage ring on the black-robed Great Heavenly Master's hand, she couldn't help but be a little surprised. If she remembered correctly, her master's storage ring was not of this shape. She seemed to have seen this ring before; it used to be casually placed on a shelf in her master's secret chamber. Its grade was naturally not as good as the one on her master's hand.
A cultivator would not casually change their commonly used items, especially her master's original ring, which he was never seen without. Doubt arose in her heart again, and she couldn't help but steal another glance. But when the black-robed Great Heavenly Master looked at her, the slender woman felt a chill run through her body, and an extreme sense of trepidation and unease filled her heart. She knew that this master of hers had probably seen through her thoughts. She quickly suppressed the inappropriate thoughts in her heart.
"Give this pill to Wutu. Send him back to the clan first. I'll be back soon!" The black-robed Great Heavenly Master then flicked his finger, and a crimson pill flew into the slender woman's hand. At the same time, his gaze turned to the distance.
With a move of his feet, he had already vanished from his original spot in a strange manner, leaving only a faint sentence echoing in everyone's ears.
…
In the Yunlan Mountain Range, Li Yan and his companion had already flown more than ten thousand li. Demonic beasts and cultivators had begun to appear more frequently here, but their levels were still not high. This was still related to the route Li Yan had chosen.
"The other party hasn't caught up yet. I wonder what means they plan to use to deal with us?" Li Yan withdrew his Divine Sense and rubbed the space between his eyebrows with his finger. Ever since he had learned he was afflicted with the "Life-Chasing Talisman," he had been pushing his Divine Sense to its limit, taking as many precautions as possible, but he had not found anyone following them. Using his Divine Sense like this for a long time, Li Yan was already feeling a bit exhausted.
"As long as we go deep into the Yunlan Mountain Range, there will be secret agents from the Tingyun Kingdom and some cultivators who are hostile to the Tianlan Prairie. If a fight breaks out, the situation might be different," Zhao Min said softly. At this moment, although she still gave off a heroic air, she no longer had the sharp and tyrannical aura she had on the prairie, and had returned to her plain appearance. She also knew that the biggest worry at this time was a Nascent Soul cultivator from the Tianlan Clan tracking them down, so she offered a word of comfort.
"That's the only way…" Before Li Yan could finish his sentence, the "Cloud-Piercing Willow" under his feet suddenly plummeted downward without any warning, like a ten-thousand-jin meteorite falling from the sky.
"Hiss!" With a sharp, thin sound, five thin cracks appeared in the space where Li Yan and his companion had just been. At the same time, a somewhat surprised voice came out. "Eh? To be able to sense it, truly extraordinary!"
Appearing with this voice was a somewhat blurry figure. He was slowly retracting his hand, which was curled into a claw, and looking down. And at this time, a thousand zhang diagonally below him, Li Yan and Zhao Min had already separated, forming an offensive and defensive posture at a diagonal angle. They were also looking up at the sky, where a figure was rapidly solidifying.
Soon, a sturdy, black-robed middle-aged man appeared. His eyes were as deep as a pool, and his long hair, styled in countless small braids, hung down to his waist. He, too, regarded Li Yan and his companion with a cold gaze.
"You are not cultivators from the Tingyun Kingdom. What is your purpose in coming to our prairie?" The black-robed middle-aged man sensed that the auras emanating from Li Yan and his companion were very different from the Tingyun Kingdom cultivators in his memory. His main body had fought with the Tingyun Kingdom so many times, and he was quite familiar with the cultivation methods practiced by the Tingyun Kingdom cultivators.
But Li Yan below did not pay him any mind. At this moment, he was rapidly communicating with Zhao Min via voice transmission. "Fortunately, it's a Pseudo-Nascent Soul cultivator. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to dodge that last strike!"
"He's a very, very strong one among the Pseudo-Nascent Souls, even stronger than the gray-haired old man we met on the prairie!"
"Kill!" Li Yan's second voice transmission.
Just as the black-robed middle-aged man had asked his question, the two people below suddenly disappeared. He immediately sensed two killing intents firmly locked onto him. His eyebrows shot up. He had not expected these two to be so decisive in their killing. This was completely different from the somewhat gentle character of the Tingyun Kingdom cultivators he had dealt with for many years.
The black-robed middle-aged man's killing intent overflowed. After he had attacked once, he felt that the other party was of great origin, not a cultivator from some small sect. His previous thoughts immediately changed. Although the Tianlan Clan was very strong, it was only a relatively strong force on the Verdant Continent. They were neighbors with the Tingyun Kingdom, and of course, they wanted to annex each other to seize cultivation resources, but they were not so stupid as to intercept and kill anyone who came to the Tianlan Prairie. There were some great sects and great clans that they were also unwilling to offend, and could not afford to offend. He had intended to observe the other party further and investigate their background before making a decision.
However, the reaction of this man and woman had greatly exceeded his expectations. They attacked at a moment's notice.
Faced with the two's attack, the black-robed middle-aged man's body did not move in the void.
Li Yan's body appeared abruptly behind the enemy. With an expressionless face, he formed a sword with his fingers. A golden light flashed at his fingertips, and he silently stabbed at the back of the black-robed middle-aged man's heart. His movement skill was truly strange and fast, and he had used the most indestructible gold-element art among the five elements attacks!
Almost at the same time, Zhao Min's graceful body appeared in front of the black-robed middle-aged man. A blue light flashed on her palm. From a distance of more than ten zhang, she sliced horizontally with her palm like a saber. Wherever the jade palm passed, a dreamy, illusory blue long saber shadow formed in front of her, carrying a boundless, bone-chilling cold, yet giving people a very dazzling feeling. A single glance was enough to make one feel as if they were intoxicated by it.
A touch of surprise appeared in the black-robed middle-aged man's eyes, as if he were truly attracted by the illusory blue light before him, and he paid no heed to Li Yan's attack from behind. Instead, he stretched out a hand, seemingly fast yet slow, and reached for the blue illusory long saber, as if to grab it and play with it carefully.
His palm had not yet touched the blue illusory long saber when a muffled sound came from his back. "Pfft!"
Li Yan's fingers pierced through the other party's back without any hindrance. He was first overjoyed, then his expression changed. The qi in his body erupted, and he shouted sternly, "Retreat!"
In his senses, his fingers had not met the resistance of bone, nor the splash of warm blood. Instead, it was as if he had pierced into nothing, like a cloud of mist, completely empty, without the slightest feeling of impact. Li Yan was a veteran of a hundred battles and immediately sensed the danger. Without thinking, he shouted to warn Zhao Min, and a golden spiritual light flashed wildly on his body. At the same time, he fiercely tapped the void with his foot. At the point where his foot tapped, a circle of golden light spread out in all directions with his foot as the fulcrum, like ripples, and a loud bang erupted in the air.
He had to get completely away from the other party. At this moment, a strong sense of life and death swept through his Sea of Consciousness. With the help of the strong force under his feet, he violently pulled his arm back, intending to get away at top speed. But to his surprise, a strong suction force came from his arm, pulling his body forward with a fierce tug.
And what surprised him even more was yet to come. The black-robed middle-aged man now turned his head slightly, a strange smile on his face that sent chills down Li Yan's spine.
In front of the black-robed middle-aged man, his hand, which had been reaching out seemingly slow yet fast, had already touched the blue illusory long saber.
Zhao Min had, of course, heard Li Yan's explosive shout, but she had also seen Li Yan's body lurch forward, his face changing drastically. Her body, which had been about to retreat, instantly changed from pushing off with her feet to bending her knee and lunging forward. She could not abandon Li Yan. Instead, the coldness in her eyes grew even more intense. She quickly raised her other hand and chopped down vertically.
Another blue illusory long saber, from top to bottom, cut through the sky and was upon the black-robed middle-aged man's head in a flash. The moment her jade palm chopped down, the ink-colored demon flower with stems and leaves appeared on her forearm once again. With a violent shake, it gave her fair, smooth arm an exotic beauty.
This strike of Zhao Min's, combined with her previous one, formed a "cross" slash of heaven and earth in front of her. In an instant, the world became as cold as a bone-chilling winter.
The black-robed middle-aged man did not hesitate because of this. His hand had already grabbed the horizontally slashing blue illusory long saber in a flash. With a fierce grip, an immense and powerful force burst forth. Amidst a series of crisp clinking sounds, the blue illusory long saber shattered inch by inch, turning into a sky full of ice crystals in the blink of an eye. And on the black-robed middle-aged man's palm, a layer of blue ice quickly froze, and his entire arm was instantly covered in a thick layer of frost. The shimmering blue was beautiful to look at, but the bone-chilling cold that filled the air would not make anyone feel comfortable.
At the same time, a faint light flowed across the black-robed middle-aged man's face. He paid no mind to his arm. At the same time, he also ignored Li Yan behind him. His other hand had already been swiftly raised, blocking above his head just before the saber's edge touched his hair. He opened his palm, as if he had been waiting all along, and the other blue illusory long saber chopped down in an instant.
With a "ding," the long saber directly struck his palm. The black-robed middle-aged man was about to clench his palm into a fist again and crush the long saber in his hand. Suddenly, his body came to an abrupt halt. In an instant, starting from his palm, a layer of blue ice crystals rapidly covered his body. His hair and eyebrows were instantly covered in frost. At the same time, an ice sword shot straight from his palm toward his internal organs.
He had already experienced this kind of icy cold power. Just now, a similar power had tried to enter his body through his skin, but he had blocked it. It was just that the saber chopping down from above, in his senses, had a magical power fluctuation about thirty percent stronger than before. This was, of course, to be expected. The woman opposite him had clearly heard the man behind him shout, but she had advanced instead of retreating, obviously wanting to save the other party. Her second strike was naturally a full-powered strike.
However, that extra thirty percent of power still had no effect on him. Unexpectedly, upon contact, the black-robed middle-aged man was shocked and felt that something was wrong!