The moment she was encased by the gray gravel, Qiu Jiuzhen's heart filled with anxiety, and the Golden Core above her Dantian began to spin frantically.
Her arms finally began to lift slowly, but the opponent's fatal blow was already descending.
Compared to the attack of the ancient, black-robed foreign cultivator, Qiu Jiuzhen's speed was almost negligible. Her Divine Sense could already feel the vicious wind of the attack. His cruel smile was already visible in her eyes. She couldn't help but sigh inwardly. The magical power in her Golden Core ceased to flow to her meridians; in an instant, she decided to self-detonate her Golden Core.
However, she had no confidence she could succeed. It all depended on which side was faster.
But just at this moment, Qiu Jiuzhen suddenly felt her waist tighten, and then she was yanked diagonally downward by a powerful force.
At the same time, the withered vine at her feet was struck by a black light.
One moment, the vine connected to her feet was continuously outputting gray gravel; the next, it began to emit a foul stench. A large amount of black liquid appeared on the vine, and along with the stench, plumes of foul-smelling black smoke rose. Qiu Jiuzhen's body had now been pulled diagonally downward. The vine immediately detached from her jade-like feet and retracted, trailing wisps of black smoke.
"Boom!"
With a loud bang, the dual hammers in the ancient, black-robed foreign cultivator's hands slammed heavily into each other, striking nothing but air.
Everything happened too quickly. Neither the ancient black-robed foreign cultivator nor Qiu Jiuzhen had time to react.
"Hm?"
The ancient black-robed foreign cultivator let out a surprised sound. When he looked again, he saw that Qiu Jiuzhen had already flown four hundred zhang away.
With the withered vine no longer wrapped around her feet, the gray gravel on Qiu Jiuzhen's body quickly fell away. Her upper body was now exposed. She looked around and couldn't help but be stunned.
She saw Baili Yuan, less than five zhang away from her, holding a vine in one hand, the other end of which was wrapped around her waist. This vine was different from the ancient black-robed foreign cultivator's withered vine; it radiated a refreshing wood-attribute spiritual energy.
In Baili Yuan's other hand, he held up a Guanyin Vase, from which a jet of black liquid was shooting toward a rapidly retreating withered vine.
"You..."
Recognizing Baili Yuan, an expression of disbelief appeared on Qiu Jiuzhen's exquisitely beautiful face. The Supreme Mystery Teachings and the Malevolent Spirit Sect had fought countless times over the years. Under their respective masters, their disciples had often dealt killing blows to one another. What's more, she had relentlessly pursued and tried to kill him during the Secret Realm plucking.
"Cut the nonsense! Recover quickly, I can't hold on for much longer!"
Seeing Qiu Jiuzhen in a daze, Baili Yuan grew anxious. Cold sweat was already trickling down his forehead, because behind him, a demon cultivator was attacking him frantically. Aside from the direction facing Qiu Jiuzhen, Baili Yuan's other three sides were covered by layers of dense shrubs. The demon cultivator was hacking his way through, clearing a path.
Evidently, Baili Yuan had rescued her while engaged in a fight of his own, and for that sliver of time, he had taken a huge risk.
Qiu Jiuzhen said no more. She gave Baili Yuan a deep look with her beautiful eyes, then soared into the air once more, flying toward the ancient, black-robed foreign cultivator…
But not everyone was as lucky as Qiu Jiuzhen. With every breath, cultivators fell from the sky.
Wang Tian was also grievously wounded and knocked unconscious. Du Sanjiang desperately retrieved him into a Spirit-Storing Pouch, which finally brought the frenzied Zuo Shengyan back to some semblance of clarity. But in the process, her right arm was severed, and her body was covered in countless wounds, large and small. In many places, ghastly white bone fragments pierced through her snow-white skin.
Miao Wangqing's entire shoulder was caved in. Covered in blood, she immediately fell unconscious.
Li Changting, who had been keeping an eye on her, had remained close by. He immediately sent out a large number of Gu-insects to protect her. After sacrificing hundreds of Gu-insects, he finally managed to pull Miao Wangqing into his Spirit-Storing Pouch, saving her from perishing on the spot.
The Demon Clan side knew that time was of the essence and had launched an all-out assault from the very beginning. The moment the two sides clashed, the entire sky was filled with explosive and bloody carnage. Severed limbs and flesh flew everywhere.
In just over twenty breaths, the area spanning several thousand li had become a scene of brutal tragedy.
If even elite disciples like Wang Tian were in such a state, the ordinary Golden Core cultivators from the other peaks, as well as the Golden Core cultivators from the subordinate sects, had long begun to fall one after another.
At the sixteen-breath mark, Chan Master Dajing could no longer suppress both Li Yan and Li Yuyin with his power alone. However, it would not be an easy task for Li Yan and the other to defeat him in a short time either.
Chan Master Dajing knew that the situations with Yiye and Wei Zhongran were also at a critical point. If he could just hold on, they could free up two Nascent Soul combatants, which would absolutely be enough to turn the tide of the entire situation.
After witnessing Qi Jinghong's fate, he had raised his guard a hundredfold. It would be extremely difficult for Li Yan to launch a successful sneak attack again.
Every single person on both sides was extremely anxious, unleashing almost their full strength.
Mo Qing and the mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator surnamed Ye were locked in a stalemate. This was already the full extent of Mo Qing's combat power as an initial-stage Nascent Soul cultivator.
Wei Zhongran, on the other hand, was engaged in evasive combat, occasionally managing a counterattack. Although he had fallen into a disadvantage under the continuous attacks of the two, the sheer abundance of his magical power compensated for much of the gap in his cultivation level. Whenever he attacked, the two demon cultivators had to defend with all their might.
"Damn it, does he have some kind of sixth-rank or higher Qi Recovery Pill? Otherwise, with such powerful attacks, even a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator should be running out of magical power by now!" the two demon cultivators communicated furiously via voice transmission.
Thirty breaths were almost up, yet they still hadn't taken down a single initial-stage Nascent Soul cultivator. They hadn't even managed to grievously wound their opponent. And whenever Wei Zhongran attacked, it was with almost the full magical power of a peak initial-stage Nascent Soul cultivator. Where did he get such profound magical power? It was completely unexpected to the two demon cultivators.
On the other side, Arhat Yiye had reached a dangerous point. His gray monk's robe was stained with large patches of blood. Even with his profound Buddhist cultivation method, facing the siege of the Sixth Sir, he was still at a greater disadvantage than Wei Zhongran.
The Sixth Sir's mastery of arts was simply not something a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator could possess. If his body hadn't been unable to recover over the past hundred years, forcing him to stabilize his cultivation at the mid-stage Nascent Soul level, Arhat Yiye would have had a hard time holding on for so long today.
The magical power in the Sixth Sir's body was insufficient to support the greater might of his arts; he could only execute them with finesse. But even so, Arhat Yiye was pinned down by him, most of his energy occupied, allowing Hang Lin's flying sword to pierce through his chest.
Fortunately, his "Vajra Arhat Body" had been cultivated to the lesser completion stage. Only then was the flying sword forced out after penetrating several inches. But his lungs had been injured by the opponent's sword qi, and his aura was steadily declining.
"Peak Master Li, go and assist Arhat Yiye!" Li Yan immediately sent a voice transmission to Li Yuyin after a quick scan of the battlefield.
Li Yuyin was also constantly observing her surroundings. After a fierce assault alongside Li Yan for over a dozen breaths without achieving their intended goal, she had of course seen Arhat Yiye's plight.
"Then you be careful!" she immediately replied to Li Yan via voice transmission. After fighting alongside him, she already knew that Li Yan's strength was definitely superior to her own. Holding off Chan Master Dajing should not be a problem. But Yiye's side was indeed about to break. She had no choice but to go.
As Li Yuyin sent the voice transmission, even before she shot off like a bolt of lightning, a snow-bright dagger flew from her hand. It directly intercepted the flying sword Hang Lin had unleashed. With a sideways movement, she also blocked Hang Lin's path.
"Traitor, where do you think you're going!"
She and Hang Lin were of the same generation. The two knew each other very well, but Hang Lin had formed his Nascent Soul several decades before Li Yuyin.
"Hmph! You stinking hag, why don't you go find another man to fool around with!" Hang Lin retorted.
Before, as a member of a reputable and orthodox sect, there were some things he naturally couldn't say when facing Li Yuyin. But now that his identity had been exposed, he no longer had any scruples…
Seeing Li Yuyin leave, Li Yan actually felt a sense of relief.
His and Li Yuyin's fierce assault had been fruitless, and this monk's defense was exceptionally strong. Because the two had never coordinated before, they had each focused on their own powerful attacks, which prevented Li Yan from using many of his techniques. Furthermore, with Li Yuyin so close, he couldn't be one hundred percent certain of her attack trajectory and didn't dare use techniques like the Fragmented Poison Body, fearing he might inadvertently drag her into it.
Now that Li Yuyin had gone to help Arhat Yiye, Li Yan was finally free of constraints.
If Li Yuyin knew what Li Yan was thinking, she would undoubtedly be incredibly frustrated to learn that Li Yan considered her a burden.
In truth, after fighting alongside her for just a single breath, Li Yan realized he was not skilled at coordinated attacks, but he couldn't just tell her to leave. Seeing Arhat Yiye on the verge of collapse provided the perfect excuse.
Li Yuyin was not that weak. The real reason was that her true expertise lay in Gu arts. In order to nurse her injured Natal Gu, her strength today was the weakest among all the Nascent Soul cultivators present. Otherwise, if her Gu-insects were successfully re-refined, her strength might not rank in the top three, but her ability to be a nuisance would surely make even Li Yan want to keep his distance. That was the most enviable of abilities—a wide-area group attack.
The few Nascent Soul cultivators on the Demon Clan's side also saw the adjustment on the Malevolent Spirit Sect's side, and they immediately communicated via voice transmission.
"Kill Wei Zhongran and Li Yan as quickly as possible!"
They also saw that the critical point of the battle had shifted to Wei Zhongran. Both Hang Lin and Li Yuyin were newly advanced Nascent Soul cultivators, and it would be difficult for them to determine a winner in a short time. Previously, they had arranged for Chan Master Dajing and Qi Jinghong, two veteran Nascent Soul cultivators, to deal with Li Yuyin and Li Yan, thinking that even if they couldn't kill them, they could at least heavily wound them in a short time.
Now, Hang Lin was separated, and the Sixth Sir would have difficulty taking down Arhat Yiye anytime soon. With Li Yan facing Chan Master Dajing alone, perhaps Dajing, having learned from his predecessor's mistake, could achieve what Qi Jinghong could not.
Of course, the demon cultivators' side now focused more of their attention on Wei Zhongran.
At this moment, after battling the two demon cultivators for dozens of breaths, Wei Zhongran's aura finally began to show signs of decline. In that case, it might still be possible to complete the mission of killing him within the three hundred breaths given by the First Sir.
"Benefactor, allow this old monk to witness your true divine abilities!"
As Chan Master Dajing spoke, the golden light from the string of prayer beads in the air continuously expanded. The prayer beads swelled in the wind, and in an instant, the eighteen beads grew to a size of over thirty zhang. Each golden prayer bead was the size of an adult's head. As they circled in the sky, they descended to cover the space above Li Yan's head.
This string of prayer beads could manifest a Vajra Bodhisattva, which Li Yan had experienced before. This Vajra Bodhisattva seemed to possess a suppressive force. Under its golden light, Li Yan felt the circulation of his own magical power become sluggish. Only then did he understand why Li Yuyin's movements had been so slow during their earlier fight. Furthermore, this Vajra Bodhisattva's attacks were incredibly fierce. Even with Li Yan's powerful physical body, when he struck it, the opponent only swayed slightly. And Li Yan didn't dare to take any of its attacks head-on.
Li Yan was naturally astonished, but the fact that he had been able to shake the Vajra Bodhisattva earlier had also surprised Chan Master Dajing. He knew how powerful the suppressive force of his manifested Vajra Bodhisattva was, yet someone was able to contend with it.
Now, seeing Li Yuyin leave, and with the Sixth Sir urging him via voice transmission, a flicker of pain crossed Chan Master Dajing's eyes. He then pointed a finger at the sky, and the visage of the Vajra Bodhisattva, dozens of zhang tall, instantly transformed into a wisp of golden light and retracted into one of the prayer beads.
Immediately, Li Yan's Divine Sense detected a puff of green smoke, invisible to the naked eye, rising from each prayer bead. The green smoke billowed up from the beads and, in the next moment, transformed into kneeling human figures, continuously kowtowing up and down.
As the figures formed by the green smoke continued to kowtow, a golden circlet rapidly appeared beneath the massive prayer beads and descended toward Li Yan's head.
"This… this is Willpower!"