When the black-robed middle-aged man caught Zhao Min's "cross slash" saber, a hidden force, nearly fifty percent stronger than the one on the surface of the blade, erupted in an instant. Like a tiger emerging from its ambush, it broke through his body's defenses and entered.
This sudden turn of events caught the black-robed man off guard. Although he had already overestimated the opponent's combat strength, it was clearly not enough. His reaction was also extremely fast. The instant the hidden force invaded, the magical power in his body had already rolled back like a tide, blocking the ferocious attack that was aimed directly at his internal organs.
However, with his internal power thus divided, Li Yan behind him suddenly felt the suction force on his arm greatly diminish. With a sharp twist and pull of his wrist inside the opponent's body, and the ripples at his feet spreading even more rapidly, his figure shot backward like lightning. In a flicker, he had appeared more than six hundred zhang behind the black-robed middle-aged man.
Zhao Min, having succeeded in her strike, also flew back, her white robes fluttering. Her arms spread like a giant bird, and her body shot backward. In the air, although her appearance was still plain, she gave off the ethereal feeling of a celestial fairy in the clouds.
The black-robed middle-aged man did not pursue. He stood motionless in the void. His body trembled slightly, and a faint light flowed over him. Large clouds of green smoke rose from his ice-crystal-covered body. Then, he spat out a gray, pellet-sized object. The moment this object came into contact with the external spiritual energy, it made a sizzling sound, and clouds of gray, decaying qi continuously spread out.
The black-robed middle-aged man glanced at it, then with a wave of his large sleeve, he swept the gray pellet into the distance. Only then did he turn slightly to the side, his gaze sweeping over the two who had him in a pincer formation.
"I didn't expect it, I really didn't expect it. You have hidden yourselves so deeply. Each of you clearly has the combat strength of a Pseudo-Nascent Soul Realm, yet you only show the cultivation of a Mid-stage Golden Core. I think if Wutu wasn't a wind-attribute cultivator, you two would have had an even easier time making him capsize in the gutter. You, you clearly cultivate a water-system cultivation method, yet your strength is like that of a ferocious tiger…" He glanced at Zhao Min as he said this, also feeling shocked by this woman's formidability. He had truly misjudged. The other party was simply a hidden, ferocious demon.
"You, with your pure, indestructible gold-system magical power, are actually of the extremely rare Saint Spirit Root. But most importantly, you are also a poison cultivator. It's truly amazing. If I hadn't seen what happened to Wutu and the others before, I really would have fallen for it. I am now more and more interested in you two."
After he finished speaking, he looked at the two of them from the corner of his eye. Seeing that their expressions only twitched slightly before returning to normal, he couldn't help but admire their calmness in the face of the enemy. However, in his heart, he was not as relaxed as he sounded. He was now even more wary of the origins of the two before him. Such aptitude, even the top-tier sects on the Verdant Continent would be fighting to recruit them. But the other party's style of doing things was completely different from the super sects in his impression. If disciples from those sects had come to the prairie, they would have probably revealed their identities long ago.
On the other side, Li Yan and Zhao Min were not as calm as they appeared. They were rapidly communicating via secret voice transmission. Li Yan's heart was in turmoil. The attack just now was not as simple as it seemed. This Pseudo-Nascent Soul cultivator had appeared strangely. In order to quickly deal with him, he and Zhao Min had used about seventy percent of their combat strength in what seemed like an easy strike. Furthermore, Li Yan had used the sharpest gold-system power in his assassination, converting all his five-element power into the purest gold-system magical power in a short period to increase his attack strength.
At their level, even if one did not specialize in body cultivation, breaking through the opponent's defense was an extremely difficult matter. The development of the situation was indeed as he had expected. Under the power of the gold system, he had directly pierced through the body. In his view, with the combat strength of the two of them being able to easily slay those of the same rank, a combined attack could heavily injure the opponent. However, without understanding the opponent's true strength, they could not go all out; they both reserved their defensive power. Fortunately, they had done so, which gave them the possibility to react when the situation suddenly changed.
What truly horrified Li Yan was that he didn't know what kind of divine ability the other party had cultivated. His body was very peculiar. He had clearly torn open the other party's flesh, but the other party was completely unharmed. Moreover, under the condition that he had applied the deadly fragmenting poison on his fingers, not only did the poison fail to kill the other party, but the black-robed middle-aged man had turned his head and gave him a strange smile. He didn't look injured at all.
Finally, the gray pellet the black-robed cultivator spat out was the deadly fragmenting poison he had injected into the other party's body. This person had actually condensed it into a ball and spat it out. Li Yan had never heard of such a method of expelling poison.
"His cultivation method is too strange. Could it also be a type of shamanism? Not only can the fragmenting poison I planted not spread, but it can also be spat out at will!" Li Yan was unable to understand and, for the first time, was at a loss as to how to respond.
"He should have been sent by the master refiner of the 'Life-Chasing Talisman.' He might have just used shamanism, but fortunately, he is not the master refiner of the talisman!" Zhao Min's voice was still cool, without a trace of fluctuation.
"Judging from the attack just now, we're in trouble. Attacking his physical body is useless, and poison arts are also useless against him!"
"Regarding shamanism, I have read some classics. Our attacks are not useless, just not strong enough. He can only resist them, not easily break them. Just now, after he spat out the poison you injected, his body must have also been affected!" The two quickly communicated in secret and did not immediately attack again.
And the black-robed middle-aged man was also observing the two, while slowly gathering his magical power to heal the injuries in his body. In fact, just as Zhao Min had said, the attack just now was not ineffective, just that the attack power was not enough. Under Zhao Min's sudden explosive attack, he had divided his internal power and was finally injured by Li Yan's poisonous qi.
However, what Li Yan and Zhao Min had guessed wrong was that the black-robed middle-aged man did not know shamanism. Li Yan's close-quarters attack being ineffective was a trap set by the black-robed middle-aged man. His main body was naturally special, and coupled with his outstanding cultivation, he had dared to do so, wanting to capture Li Yan in one fell swoop.
His main body was a "Water-Cloud Beast," and its body structure was very unique. His internal organs were located in small spaces that were like separate clouds, and they moved around in his body like water. Apart from his head, the positions of the organs in his body were not fixed. One moment, his heart was in his chest, and the next moment, that cloud might have flowed to his lower abdomen like water, while the cloud enveloping his liver might have flowed to his chest. At the same time, he himself could also control the movement of the separate cloud spaces in his body to designated positions, which was extremely strange.
When Li Yan had stabbed in just now, he had moved an empty cloud space to his back, waiting for the opponent's attack. This cloud space was a completely independent place, with no organs, no blood. When it floated to his back, the previous piece of flesh had also been moved away. Therefore, after Li Yan's direct assassination broke through the skin, the place his finger touched was empty. The other party had only suffered a minor external injury.
The fragmenting poison carried by Li Yan's finger had completely struck an independent small space, and all the poison had only spread in this space. After the black-robed middle-aged man felt that the opponent had poisoned him, the strange body of the "Water-Cloud Beast" came into play. He directly squeezed that small cloud into a ball and then spat it out. This method, for the "Water-Cloud Beast," was like the method of scraping the bone to heal the poison, digging out a large piece of flesh and taking away all the deadly poison wrapped in it.
Just as Zhao Min had said, this had still caused some damage to the black-robed middle-aged man. The lost cloud space would take a period of time to grow back, just like an ordinary cultivator's body being injured and the flesh regenerating. It was just that that piece of cloud did not contain any organs. Therefore, the black-robed middle-aged man still gave people the impression of having easily expelled the poison.
These were things that Li Yan and Zhao Min could not possibly know, and thus, they felt that the black-robed middle-aged man was unfathomable.
The cold light in the black-robed man's eyes intensified. Though he had been standing motionless, he gave his head a gentle shake, and his body instantly returned to its normal state. At the same time, he let out a soft scoff.
"Is this all you have?"
Under the astonished gazes of Li Yan and Zhao Min, as he gently shook his head, the long braids that reached his waist suddenly flew up. In the blink of an eye, they had split in two directions, shooting toward the two of them, one in front and one behind. The distance of several hundred zhang was covered in an instant.
In the eyes of Li Yan and his companion, strips of black ropes suddenly appeared before them, so fast that they had no time to dodge. A great golden light erupted from Li Yan's body. His palm waved out a sky full of golden light, and an incomparably sharp and powerful force cut through the air. Zhao Min's hand once again conjured a very long blue saber. With a flash of its blade, it also cut toward the braids in front of her.
Amidst a series of hissing sounds, the two felt as if their attacks had entered a mass of flowing water, completely unaffected by any force. This made their attacks feel like they had struck empty air. The force they unleashed had no point to focus on and erupted, sending an extremely uncomfortable feeling of misplaced force from the attacks. After this force entered their bodies, Li Yan and Zhao Min's internal organs felt particularly uncomfortable, as if they had been twisted together in an instant.
Although the two of them were both Dharma and Body dual cultivators, the attack just now was a genuine body cultivation technique, which grew stronger against the strong, not one that would miss its mark. However, the two were incomparably experienced in combat, and their reactions were also lightning-fast.
The long braids that attacked Li Yan were agitated by his force and bent, the tips of the braids turning in different directions like the raised heads of snakes. In the next moment, they rapidly wrapped around his body. Li Yan spread his hands to the left and right, and two fireballs abruptly appeared in front of him. The fireballs grew with the wind, and in an instant, they had expanded to the size of a washbasin and suddenly covered the attacking braids in front of him.
At the same time, after Zhao Min's saber cut at the braids to no avail, the blue saber shadow immediately shattered, turning into jumping blue flames that leaped onto each of the braids. They looked like clusters of ghost fires dancing in the night, extremely cold and eerie.
Li Yan and Zhao Min were both masters of combat. Seeing that their attacks were ineffective, they almost simultaneously chose to use fire-system magical arts to solve the problem before them. The transition between offense and defense was seamless, without the slightest hesitation or pause. Everything was natural, and it was impossible to tell that this was a hasty change of moves.
All of this was seen by the black-robed middle-aged man, and he couldn't help but be moved. "Indeed of great origin. This experience in offense and defense could not be achieved without walking out of life and death time and time again. It could never be so smooth and fluid. However, you are still a bit too naive!"
After the red and blue flames made contact with the braids, they did not ignite in an instant as Li Yan and his companion had expected, as if fire meeting oil-soaked vines. Amidst a series of hissing sounds, the braids flew out of the fire completely unharmed. In the moment of the two's astonishment, they had already been wrapped around their bodies, round after round. Even their hands and feet were bound. Then, with a fierce tug, the braids rapidly retracted, pulling the two toward the black-robed man.
Li Yan's internal power erupted completely, wanting to break free from the restraints. But no matter how dazzling the golden light on his body was, making it impossible to look at directly, the braids outside still held him firmly. On the other side, Zhao Min was in the same situation. The black demon flower with stems and leaves appeared on her arms and jade-like neck, and the blue waves rose one after another, but she also had no way to escape.
This made the cold light in Zhao Min's eyes grow even colder. In the blink of an eye, she and Li Yan had already been dragged to within ten zhang of the black-robed middle-aged man!