This Wind-Iron Beast had just deployed its Silver Crescent Spade magical treasure to clash with its opponent. It only needed to delay for a moment, and it could join forces with its companion to kill this exhausted but still terrifyingly formidable female cultivator on the spot.
This was especially true since its companion, having witnessed the fall of its Dao Companion, had already gone mad, resorting to a self-harming, frenzied attack that not even a peak Pseudo-Nascent Soul Realm cultivator would dare to face head-on.
But to its astonishment, in the single breath of their second exchange, the opponent's attack came like a surging tide crashing against the shore, each wave stronger than the last.
Just as a sense of foreboding rose sharply in its heart, another "wave" crashed down upon the Silver Crescent Spade. This force was even a fraction stronger than the sum of the dozen previous blows.
'This is impossible...'
The Wind-Iron Beast was utterly horrified. He couldn't believe his opponent could still possess such combat strength at this point, especially when he had clearly sensed her aura rapidly declining just before.
To fight against the three of them and even manage a kill, he, with his rich combat experience, should not have made such a mistake in judgment.
Little did he know that Gong Chenying, seeing no hope of escaping the area covered by the iron scales, had decided to perish together with him.
Gong Chenying's Qiongqi Purgatory Art had already reached the fifth layer, and what she was now using was the fifth layer's "Blood Core Bone Fusion" technique.
It simultaneously burned the Essence Blood and Golden Core in her body, fusing them into her muscles and bones, allowing them to erupt with a final, brilliant burst of light and power.
After using this art, Gong Chenying would have less than ten breaths of time before her core shattered and her blood ran dry. The Blood Core Bone Fusion was inherently a mutually destructive tactic, several times more powerful than self-detonating one's Golden Core.
At this moment, Gong Chenying once again erupted with a formidable combat strength that far surpassed that of a Pseudo-Nascent Soul cultivator.
With a "chi" sound, the azure light instantly pierced through the silver light screen and stabbed directly into the eye of the Wind-Iron Beast.
"Ah!"
A piercing scream erupted from the Wind-Iron Beast's mouth. A great expanse of black light surged from its body—this was a powerful defense formed by unleashing its magical power without reservation.
It wanted to firmly protect its head, to prevent the halberd in its eye from advancing another half-inch. But Gong Chenying's figure, flying up at a slant, kicked the butt of the halberd heavily once more.
"Pfft!"
"Pfft!"
Two sounds emerged simultaneously. Gong Chenying spat out another jet of blood!
And under her kick, the entire shaft of the halberd transformed into an azure flood dragon. Despite the Wind-Iron Beast's full-powered defense, it still penetrated through one of its eyes, shot out from the back of its head, and carried with it a long trail of white and red fluid.
The black light on the Wind-Iron Beast's body was extinguished in an instant, and its massive body crashed heavily toward the ground.
At this moment, the golden light formed by the old woman shielding Gong Chenying's side had also completely disappeared. The iron scales whistled as they reached Gong Chenying's side.
By now, she no longer had the chance to use her final ounce of strength to completely destroy the other Wind-Iron Beast's Demonic Core. Whether she dodged or attacked, she first had to defend against this wave of attacks.
"You... will... die!"
The other Wind-Iron Beast stood in the distance, looking like a bloody, flayed monster, its eyes glinting with a man-eating light.
"Then let us die together!"
Even at this moment, Gong Chenying's voice remained calm and steady.
She quickly calculated in her mind. It would take about three breaths to get through this field of "iron scales." During that time, she might be able to use her final moments to launch the last attack of her life.
She only had the strength for one last strike. Whether it succeeded or failed, her core would shatter and her blood would run dry.
"A Ying!"
"Sister Ying, dodge... away!"
"A... Ying..."
The wave of voices from all around once again entered Gong Chenying's mind, which was as placid as an ancient well. She knew that there was no way she could dodge this wave of attacks.
If not for Granny Xiu blocking the attack for a moment at the end, she would have already perished under their combined assault while launching her own attack.
'We will meet again in the next life, Li Yan!'
Traces of blood still remained on Gong Chenying's incomparably beautiful face, but her eyes held only tranquility. With this thought, she turned sideways and charged toward the overwhelming sheet of iron scales.
Beside her, the azure halberd let out a sorrowful cry, then turned and flew back, trailing a long streak of azure light as it closely followed Gong Chenying. It was going to accompany its master in one last blaze of glory!
Just as Gong Chenying was about to unleash her final power, a sharp shout suddenly thundered across the heavens and the earth.
"Sixth Senior Sister, don't! Qian Ji, lead all clansmen into battle! Zi Kun, to... battle!"
Following this voice, an overwhelming pressure rolled in from the southeast.
With all the Nascent Soul cultivators fighting high in the Nine Heavens, this pressure pinned the tide of low-rank Wind Beasts to the ground.
Many of the Wind Beasts that had not yet developed spiritual intelligence had their bones shattered inch by inch.
"Bang, bang, bang!" A series of sounds echoed across the ground as Wind Beasts exploded into clouds of bloody mist. The red rain of blood scattered across the ground, like giant red flowers blooming one after another...
Among them, many third-rank Wind Beasts died instantly. However, the entire battlefield was too vast, and the pressure was mainly directed at the area where Gong Chenying was.
Some of the third-rank Wind Beasts in the distance with powerful Divine Sense or keen senses had their expressions change drastically, and they fell to the ground like meteorites.
Although their bodies didn't explode, their qi and blood churned uncontrollably, and they couldn't control the magical power within their bodies at all.
"A Nascent Soul cultivator!"
"That's... a powerful Nascent Soul cultivator!"
Under this immense pressure, which was like a torrent, more than seventy percent of the Tianli Clan cultivators below were unaffected. Only a few who were locked in close combat with the Wind Beasts were still fighting.
Gong Chenying, who had turned to charge at the enemy, was violently jolted upon hearing the words "Sixth Senior Sister."
Although many people on this battlefield were calling her name at this moment, this voice was the familiar one she had been longing for day and night, and the name he called out was so special.
Ever since that person fell into the Devil's Cliff Crevice, she had never spoken of him in front of anyone, even giving the impression that her feelings for her Little Martial Uncle were extremely faint.
But in countless nights, she would gaze at the moonlit sky, her Divine Sense lingering for a long time over Li Yan's courtyard. There lay her memories, her budding emotions.
And also, the thing she most dreaded to see... the sorrow of a courtyard without its master!
Gong Chenying thought she was hallucinating, but she couldn't help but pause in mid-air and look up in the direction of the voice.
There was no familiar figure there at all.
"Die!"
In that brief moment, Gong Chenying felt she had regained her senses. She once again channeled the final power of the "Blood Core Bone Fusion," but just then, a hand abruptly appeared on her shoulder.
The turbulent, raging magical power within her body was suddenly and forcibly suppressed by a stronger power. Gong Chenying's expression changed drastically; she had no desire to be captured alive.
Just as she was about to desperately channel her magical power again, the voice came once more.
"Sixth Senior Sister, it's me! Are you really trying to throw your life away?"
Then, in a somewhat dazed state, Gong Chenying saw a figure in green robes standing beside her, a hand resting on her shoulder.
At the same time, the sheet of iron scales that had been bearing down on her, already right before her, inexplicably froze in mid-air.
"Hmph!"
With a cold snort from this person, the iron scales instantly flew backward.
"Ah!"
The Wind-Iron Beast that had been covered in blood, staring at Gong Chenying with a ferocious expression, saw a large patch of "black clouds" flying back at it at high speed.
It had no chance to even dodge. In an instant, it was dismembered by the countless returning iron scales. Until its death, it couldn't understand why the scales it had shot out were so incredibly powerful.
At the same time, with a "bang," the corpse of the other Wind-Iron Beast that was falling also exploded into a rain of blood without any reason.
The two Wind-Iron Beasts didn't even have a chance for their Demonic Cores to escape before their souls were scattered, completely vanishing from this world.
As Gong Chenying stood there dazed, she felt two streams of powerful and majestic spiritual power enter her body. This spiritual power was gentle yet suffused with boundless vitality. It quickly coursed through her body for one cycle.
The Pill Poison in Gong Chenying's body was swept away by one of these streams of spiritual power, leaving not a trace behind. Then, that stream of spiritual power vanished without a trace.
The vitality within the other stream of spiritual power caused the old and new injuries in Gong Chenying's body to heal at a rapid pace. Even the Essence Blood she had consumed was slowly being restored.
Finally, this extremely pure wood spiritual power dispersed to all parts of her body, and the remaining spiritual power covered her Golden Core.
The Golden Core, which had already begun to crack, immediately felt countless streams of vibrant life force pouring into it...
Wood spiritual power, even without medicinal pills, was the best healing spiritual power. And what Li Yan had done was not only instantly combine the five elements into the purest wood spiritual power, but it also contained the wood spirit charm from the Wood Essence Pool of the Giant Wood Clan, a portion he had kept unrefined within his body.
The wood spirit charm could not only temper the body but also heal severe internal injuries. This was why Li Yan had chosen to keep a portion of it, just in case.
Li Yan looked at the cold, beautiful woman with blood still at the corner of her mouth. He hadn't expected the Tianli Clan's situation to be this dire. At the same time, he felt a lingering fear in his heart.
If he hadn't met Zhuo Lingfeng and used the teleportation formation, he would have regretted it for the rest of his life.
There were too many Wind Beasts here. Although he had used his pressure to kill many low-rank Wind Beasts, there were many Tianli Clan warriors below locked in rolling combat with the enemy. He had to avoid those people with his pressure, lest he kill them as well.
It wasn't that Li Yan couldn't precisely control his magical power, but rather that his previous attack covered a wide area, and his focus was more on the woman before him.
As Li Yan's gaze swept over the area, streams of incomparably icy aura shot up into the sky all across the land. It was Qian Ji, leading a large group of his clansmen, howling as they emerged.
Li Yan had already withdrawn his pressure because several equally powerful pressures had descended from the sky. Among them were even two Late-stage Nascent Soul Great Cultivators, who were rapidly approaching from below.
"Little Martial Uncle, you... where did you come from!"
At this moment, Gong Chenying's somewhat unusual voice came from his side.
Her face was pale, but her star-bright, beautiful eyes were fixed on Li Yan. There were no tears in Gong Chenying's eyes, no mist, only disbelieving shock.
Since childhood, she had rarely cried again. Just like when Granny Xiu sacrificed herself to block a fatal blow for her, Gong Chenying's heart had only tightened, but she shed no tears. The warriors of the Tianli Clan do not have tears; they only have bloody battles and charges.
"Sixth Senior Sister, do not use your magical power for a while. First, take this pill to heal your wounds, then swallow that drop of medicinal liquid!"
Li Yan slowly removed his hand from Gong Chenying's shoulder. With a flip of his other hand, a Bodhi Pill appeared and he passed it to her.
Then, communicating with Earthen Patch through his thoughts, a drop of Rongsun entered a jade bottle, which then floated in front of Gong Chenying.
After so many years, Gong Chenying's composure had been honed to be exceptionally tough. At this moment, she had already woken up from her disbelief.
Although she wasn't completely clear-headed, feeling the warmth from her shoulder, the rapidly improving injuries inside her body, and the familiar voice from her dreams so close, she finally believed that everything before her was real.
She had a thousand words to say, but she knew this was not the time for questions. Her beautiful eyes moved away from Li Yan's face.
She first swallowed the Bodhi Pill. She hadn't even heard Li Yan mention the name "Rongsun," otherwise she would have been astonished by what he had produced.
Then, she felt a heart-penetrating coolness slide down from her mouth. The remaining injuries in her body healed at an unbelievable speed.
Her muscles, bones, and flesh were instantly coated in a mint-like coolness, sweeping away the fatigue from her successive battles...
Li Yan gave the last Bodhi Pill to Gong Chenying without hesitation. He still had one more or less complete True Essence Pill, but he could see that Gong Chenying had not yet reached the point of needing it.
That was his last one, a lifesaver for when all hope was lost. Unless it was absolutely necessary, Li Yan would never use it.
As Gong Chenying took the pill, Li Yan saw her aura recovering at a speed visible to the naked eye, which finally put him somewhat at ease.
In the distance, the battle between the two sides erupted once again. It was Qian Ji leading the Snow Mosquito Clan against the Wind Goose Beasts.
He had seen that the Wind Goose Beasts were suppressing the Tianli Clan's Bone-Shattering Spikes, and the Tianli Clan's Grey Cloud Eagles were almost completely wiped out.
As soon as the Snow Mosquito Clan appeared, a cloud of smoke rose into the sky. One of fire, one of ice, the two types of demonic beasts clashed.
Although the vast majority of the Snow Mosquito Clan were not as large as the Wind Goose Beasts, their numbers were far greater, and they were most adept at surrounding and attacking.
One Wind Goose Beast was immediately surrounded and hacked at by several ice swords. Since the number of Wind Goose Beasts was also considerable, the Snow Mosquito Clan could no longer form the sky-piercing giant sword they had in the past.
However, firstly, many of the Wind Goose Beasts had just been killed by Li Yan's pressure; secondly, the extreme cold of the Snow Mosquito Clan was no ordinary ice-attribute art, they were a completely different species.
Thus, the fire-attribute Wind Goose Beasts had met their powerful natural enemy.
On the Wind God Continent, such an extremely cold variant species of heaven and earth was almost non-existent. The Wind Goose Beasts had never encountered a natural enemy with a completely opposing attribute. Now, clouds of watery mist constantly rose from their bodies.
With every collision, their internal magical power would stagnate. This wasn't to say the Wind Goose Beasts weren't strong, but the ice-attribute arts they had encountered before did not possess this kind of irremovable, extreme cold.
The Wind Goose Beasts' combat strength was instantly reduced by twenty to thirty percent, and Qian Ji alone took on two third-rank Wind Goose Beasts.
Within a fifty-zhang radius of him, it had already turned into a world of ice and snow amidst the severe cold. The Tianli Clan's A Yuan and the others had long since retreated to a safe distance.