When Gong Chenying looked back again, she saw a cave entrance behind her. Outside the entrance were three thick black wind pillars, constantly churning and swaying back and forth, but they did not follow her inside.
Gong Chenying slowly descended to the ground. Inside the cave, from the deep and dark recesses, gusts of sharp, yin-cold wind kept blowing out, making the temperature here extremely low.
If Gong Chenying's body were not constantly circulating with magical power, in just this short moment, she would have been covered in a thick layer of ice armor.
If a mortal were here, even with cotton clothes, they probably wouldn't last a hundred breaths before being frozen to death.
The reason Gong Chenying had felt a "warm" wind blowing when she first came in was because the temperature in the wind pillar was two to three times lower than here.
Gong Chenying glanced at the deep cave. After a moment's thought, she turned back and walked towards the entrance.
When she was still fifty zhang away from the entrance, the three black wind pillars outside the entrance seemed to sense her presence and actually began to dance wildly outside, their movement speed several times faster. Gong Chenying felt a terrifying power from the wind pillars that made her heart palpitate.
"The power of a Nascent Soul realm cultivator, impossible to fight!"
And what shocked her even more was that there were not just three wind pillars outside the cave. She was only being blocked from seeing outside the entrance by the three wildly swaying wind pillars.
Gong Chenying, through the gaps between the three wind pillars, could see a series of wind pillars dancing like specters in the back, densely intertwined.
"How do I get out of here? Could it be that Father and the others are also trapped here?"
One by one, thoughts flashed through Gong Chenying's mind. Each of these wind pillars had the terrifying power of a Nascent Soul cultivator. With her cultivation, she probably couldn't get out.
To be able to break through one wind pillar just now was a fluke. Apart from her having the combat strength of an Initial-stage Nascent Soul cultivator for a short time, it was also with the help of the four "Golden Bell Talismans" Li Yan had given her.
And now, including the one on her body, there were only three "Golden Bell Talismans" left. Looking at the densely packed, wildly dancing wind pillars, Gong Chenying felt that three "Golden Bell Talismans" would not be enough to let her break through very far.
Seeing the scene before her, Gong Chenying also thought of a possibility. Could it be that her father and the others had also been here before?
However, she still had a question in her heart. With her father and the Sixth Elder working together, although there were many of these wind pillars, they also had the strength to break through them bit by bit. They would not be trapped in one place.
Just like how she had broken through one wind pillar and then arrived here.
"I wonder if there are more such caves above? If there are, I can use the momentum to rise for a while, enter other caves to rest temporarily, and then break through upwards..."
Gong Chenying saw that those wind pillars, for some unknown reason, did not enter the cave.
After thinking for a while, she wanted to investigate, so she carefully released her Divine Sense and slowly probed outside the cave entrance...
But just as her Divine Sense had just probed out of the cave entrance, several gusts of yin wind suddenly blew from somewhere. Gong Chenying only felt a sharp pain in her mind, and a muffled grunt came from her mouth. A trace of blood immediately overflowed from the corner of her mouth.
As soon as her Divine Sense left the cave entrance, it was instantly shattered into pieces. Gong Chenying's Sea of Consciousness was immediately affected. Fortunately, she had been cautious before releasing her Divine Sense. As soon as the feeling of heart palpitations came out, she abandoned that wisp of Divine Sense.
But even so, she still couldn't abandon it in time. Her Sea of Consciousness was still affected, and a sharp pain came over her. Even a person with a tough mind like Gong Chenying couldn't bear it and couldn't help but let out a muffled grunt.
At once, she could neither use her Divine Sense to probe the situation nor stick her head out to look up. So she didn't know what the situation of the cave she was in was like from the outside.
After standing at the entrance for a while, Gong Chenying walked to the side of the stone cave, stretched out a jade-like finger and pointed at the cave wall. Then, she used her finger as a brush and began to draw on the cave wall.
As the mixture of ice crystals and rock fell from the cave wall, a section of bamboo was carved by her.
After doing all this, Gong Chenying glanced at the cave entrance again. There were still only a few wind pillars twisting and dancing wildly. She then shouldered her red-glowing long spear and walked towards the depths of the cave.
Could Li Yan come? When would he come? Had Li Yan's own danger been resolved? She didn't know. So, she had to find a way out herself.
After leaving the mark of Little Bamboo Peak at the entrance, Gong Chenying embarked on the journey of finding another exit alone...
Li Yan was rapidly ascending. Seeing the six black wind pillars churning behind him, like six black monstrous pythons stirring up a wild wind, chasing after him closely.
However, Li Yan's speed was strangely fast, and he had already put a distance between himself and the six wind pillars, leaving them behind.
"Faster, with such a change happening below, I wonder if Sixth Senior Sister's side will be affected!"
Li Yan thought in his heart.
But just then, the dark red light on Li Yan's body flashed wildly, and he suddenly felt a huge pressure from all around.
The force was so great that even through the two layers of protection of the talisman and the spiritual power, it made him feel a tightness in his chest.
"Not good!"
Li Yan looked around again, and the scenery around him had already changed in an instant. He was now no longer in the space with the weaker wind pillars above.
Sometime, the wind pillars that had just been flying around chaotically had all disappeared. In their place was a thick black qi swarming in from all directions.
In the instant Li Yan was observing, the six wind pillars that had been closely pursuing in his Divine Sense had also suddenly disappeared. All the changes were so sudden.
"Bang, bang, bang..."
Amidst a series of crisp sounds, the thick grey ice that had just re-condensed on Li Yan's body turned into a shower of ice shards. The "Primordial Chaos Earth-Suppressing Talisman" also burst and disappeared after erupting with its last wisp of red light.
As soon as the "Primordial Chaos Earth-Suppressing Talisman" dissipated, the spiritual power shield on Li Yan's body was instantly squeezed tightly against him, emitting a series of "ga-zhi-zhi..." teeth-grinding sounds.
This thick black qi seemed to be the Nine Serenities heavy ice from the underworld, extremely heavy, and the cold qi was already as thick as a solid.
Even through the spiritual power shield, a layer of black frost quickly formed on Li Yan's body, and gusts of strange cold drilled straight into the seams of his bones.
Years of life-and-death experiences had made Li Yan's reactions extremely fast. In an instant, the "Five Elements Return to Primordial Genesis" in his body had already started to operate on its own.
The Dantian sea instantly seemed to boil, and streams of pure, hard, and yang magical power were born, immediately rushing towards his four limbs and bones.
The spiritual power light shield on Li Yan's body also turned a crimson red in an instant.
"Chichichi..."
The thick black qi gave off bursts of white smoke. Li Yan immediately felt the pressure on his body lighten, and a wave of warmth spread through his four limbs and bones.
"I hope Sixth Senior Sister wasn't caught by these wind pillars!"
As soon as Li Yan thought of Gong Chenying, a wave of anxiety came over him, which made him, who was usually calm, become uneasy.
Coming here, he of course couldn't always put Gong Chenying into his storage space. Under such circumstances, Gong Chenying wouldn't agree either, as that would make her coming here meaningless.
And just as he thought he had slightly controlled the situation and wanted to carefully investigate what was happening around him, a wave of inexplicable heart palpitations shot straight from the bottom of his heart to his Sea of Consciousness.
Just as Li Yan was searching for the source of his unease, a figure suddenly flashed out from the thick black qi in front of him.
It was a man of similar height to Li Yan. His attire was very strange; it was the official robes of the imperial court, or more precisely, the crimson robes of a top scholar.
The man's face was quite handsome, but his skin was a bluish color, and his eyes were more white than black, looking very evil. He wore a top scholar's crown, a top scholar's robe, and held a long, emerald-green flute in his hand.
But this person's expression at this moment would send a chill up one's spine at first glance. His top scholar's robe was a blood-red color.
The entire official robe looked as if it had just been fished out of a pool of blood. As he walked step by step, drops of blood dripped from the hem of his robe into the void. He left a bloody footprint with each step, as if lotuses were blooming under his feet.
But they were the kind of bloody red lotuses. His whole body exuded an extremely thick smell of blood. And the long, emerald-green flute in his hand glowed with a gloomy green light, making his bluish face look particularly sinister and terrifying!
"What vigorous qi and blood!"
The man said this as he walked, and at the same time, his pair of eyes, which were more white than black, stared at Li Yan without blinking. A timid person would have fainted from fear at this moment.
Li Yan looked at the approaching man in the blood-dripping crimson scholar's robe. His Divine Sense quickly swept around, but he found that he couldn't penetrate the thick black qi beyond a hundred zhang.
"I wonder how far I am from Sixth Senior Sister, and what her situation is now?"
Although Li Yan was anxious in his heart, his face was as calm as an ancient well.
"How should I address you, Fellow Daoist?"
Li Yan heard the other party's somewhat evil words. He did not answer, but asked instead.
"What vigorous qi and blood!"
The man turned a deaf ear to Li Yan's question and said this again. And a strange smile appeared on his face, which looked particularly cold.
As he said this for the second time, the long, emerald-green flute in his hand suddenly swung out fiercely. The twelve holes on the long flute immediately emitted a shrill, ear-piercing whistle.
At the same time, some things flew out from the holes of the long flute. The world was instantly filled with all kinds of wails and ghost cries, which filled Li Yan's entire mind.
"Give me back my life!"
"How about you accompany me for a while, how about it, how about it..."
"Hehehe... why are you still alive!"
"Young man, young man, young man..."
They were people who were either as thin as a stick, or looked like a yaksha, or were dripping wet all over, or had red hair like fire, or had tongues so long they dragged on the ground...
Li Yan couldn't help but narrow his eyes.
"I had a feeling the yin wind here was special. This place is indeed related to ghosts!"
Seeing these things of various shapes, he couldn't help but think of the scriptures he had seen on ghosts like the state ghost, the wailing ghost, the fierce ghost, the violent ghost, the wandering soul, the hill ghost, the thorn ghost, and the vicious ghost.
As soon as these evil-looking things appeared, they rushed towards Li Yan. In Li Yan's perception, these ghosts were not illusory soul bodies, but real yin ghosts that had been refined by someone.
If the other party was just a ghost soul, Li Yan only needed to deploy the Gui-Yi Water-Parting Spike, and he should be able to easily scatter the souls of these things before him.
But the other party had a real physical body. Although he could also break through the body to attack the ghost soul, this was no different from attacking a normal living being.
As Li Yan's mind raced, his two large sleeves had already been waved forward at the same time. The extremely pure fire-attribute magical power in his body erupted, and two scorching hot fireballs flew out.
The hardest and most yang was the best way to restrain yin and gloomy things. The two sides crashed into each other in an instant!
"Boom, boom, boom..."
A series of red flames erupted on the bodies of those ghosts. But to Li Yan's great surprise, his attack did not kill them in one blow.
Those ghost-like things became even more frantic in the fierce flames. They brandished their claws and teeth, and in their madness, they still rushed over.
"This... is..."
Li Yan was stunned, but his hands did not slow down. He formed a hand seal with both hands, and a fire wall ten zhang high and thirty zhang wide flashed in front of him.
The flames on the fire wall were even more intense. As soon as the ghosts rushed over, they all stopped after crashing into the fire wall. Then, under the roasting of the two extremely pure high temperatures, they wailed and turned into specks of starlight.
"What vigorous qi and blood!"
Just then, another somewhat familiar sentence came to Li Yan's ears. He looked up and saw that the man in the blood-dripping crimson scholar's robe had quietly appeared by his side.
A bluish-bearded hand suddenly stretched out and clawed at Li Yan.
The other party's speed was so fast that even Li Yan's Divine Sense did not notice how he had gotten to his side.
A sharp glint flashed in Li Yan's eyes. He also threw a punch at the other party. The fist and claw crashed into each other in an instant.
"Bang!"
A black and a red ball of light exploded between the fist and claw. Li Yan's figure only swayed slightly before he immediately stabilized himself, while the man in the blood-dripping crimson scholar's robe slid back a certain distance.
"A Mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator!"
Li Yan immediately made a judgment in his heart. Then, he brought his fist to his eyes. On his fist, five bluish claw marks had appeared, which were emitting wisps of bluish smoke and making a "zizizi" sound.
In the instant Li Yan looked at his fist, the five bluish claw marks had disappeared at a speed visible to the naked eye.
At the same time, Li Yan only felt his entire left arm, starting from his fingers, along his wrist, arm, elbow, and shoulder, rapidly lose all feeling. And this numbness was still continuing to spread into his body...
"Yin-Cold Ghost Poison!"
Li Yan had not expected that there was still a deadly poison that could harm him. This was something that had not happened for a long time.
As his thoughts raced, the Fragmented Poison Body in his chest and abdomen had already started to operate. Three streams of qi shot out from it, and along his meridians, they quickly rushed towards his left shoulder.
After being knocked back, the man in the blood-dripping crimson scholar's robe showed no shock. Instead, a ball of white light erupted from his eyes, which were more white than black, and his expression was actually one of excitement.
He waved the long flute in his hand again, and a shrill sound came from the holes of the flute again. A larger number of ghost-like things flew out.
Not far away, Li Yan's expression hardened. The aura of those ghosts was several times stronger than before.
And the man in the blood-dripping crimson scholar's robe did not stop waving the long flute in his hand, but continued to wave it. Densely packed ghosts flew out from the flute!