"May I ask, Fellow Daoist Li, how is A Ying now? And what is the situation in the clan?"
After basically confirming Li Yan's identity, Gong Shanhe immediately looked into Li Yan's eyes and asked, straightforward and direct.
He didn't ask why Li Yan could cross the realm. The other party had already said he was his daughter's martial uncle. It wasn't surprising for him to come to visit a fellow disciple, or to come here for training, and then stop by the Tianli Clan.
Gong Shanhe, upon suddenly seeing an outsider, had many things he was concerned about at this moment, but he could only ask about the most worrying things first.
Hearing his question, a trace of anxiety also flashed in the depths of Li Yan's eyes. He thought for a moment.
"Our time is a bit tight. In a moment, I will need Clan Head Gong to first explain the situation on your side, so we can see how to get out quickly. As for the situation in the clan, it's roughly like this..."
Then, Li Yan began to quickly give a rough account of the current situation of the Tianli Clan. He focused on the comparison of the high-end combat power of the two sides, and the situation of the Tianli Clan's territory being compressed.
Although Gong Shanhe was anxious about his daughter's matter, seeing the other party start by talking about the clan's situation, he listened attentively.
Soon, his gaze towards Li Yan became different. After Li Yan had quickly finished speaking, he once again cupped his hands at Li Yan.
"Thank you, Fellow Daoist Li, for your help, which allowed my clan to escape a calamity. I didn't expect Yan San to be so cunning."
"After setting up a trap to lure me and the Sixth Elder into being unable to escape, he then secretly cultivated two fourth-rank Wind Beasts, and launched a decisive battle when the Fifth Elder was injured, almost annihilating the Tianli Clan. My Tianli Clan is truly grateful to you, Fellow Daoist, from the bottom of our hearts!"
Li Yan had only roughly talked about the last great battle, but he didn't say who was responsible for the one death and one injury among the Wind Beast's Nascent Souls.
Even so, Gong Shanhe could still hear that it was because of this person's help that such a result was achieved. The other party's great kindness was beyond doubt. He would have to ask for the details once he had the chance.
The meaning of Li Yan's previous statement "time is a bit tight," Gong Shanhe did not understand for a moment, but he knew that this was not the time to get bogged down in details, and he quietly waited for Li Yan to continue.
Seeing that the general situation had been explained, Li Yan immediately continued.
"I came here with Senior Sister Gong this time. I couldn't persuade her, even with the Great Elder and the others. In the end, I could only bring her along."
"It's just that we had some accidents earlier. In the process of exploring this place, we were blocked by a completely different kind of wind pillar."
"Those chaotic wind pillars were not too dangerous, and it was still possible to defend against them. However, when we had descended to a certain level, we encountered a field of rhythmically swaying wind pillars..."
Li Yan again quickly recounted what had happened before.
In fact, when he had said that Gong Chenying had come along, Gong Shanhe had already had a premonition that something was wrong. By now, Li Yan had already met him.
If Gong Chenying were nearby, she should have come over long ago. There would be no need for Li Yan to explain it like that.
When he heard about those "rhythmically swaying" wind pillars, he already knew the result in his heart.
For a moment, Gong Shanhe's face became a little unsightly. But he also believed what Li Yan said. He of course knew his own daughter's character very well.
"Senior Sister Gong's current strength is at the Late-stage Golden Core, but she has already cultivated the 'Qiongqi Purgatory Art' to the fifth layer. With a full burst of power, she can temporarily fight an Initial-stage Nascent Soul."
"I also gave her four talismans that can resist the attacks of a Nascent Soul cultivator. She should be fine for a while, so we need to get out of here quickly."
"But before that, I still need to ask Clan Head Gong to explain the situation here, and then we will decide how to break out!"
Although Li Yan was anxious in his heart, he had already met Gong Shanhe at this time. The best situation was of course to get a more accurate message about this place from him. Gong Shanhe had been trapped here for a long time, and his understanding of this place was much greater than his own.
Even if he wanted to go and save Gong Chenying immediately, he had no clue at the moment. The most important thing now was to first understand the situation here.
Gong Shanhe took a deep breath.
"Fellow Daoist Li just said that the Third Elder has also divined the life and death of the Sixth Elder? And at that time, she was able to detect that he was fine?"
"Yes, but only once. That was many years ago."
After hearing Li Yan's words, Gong Shanhe's expression actually relaxed a little.
"In that case, it's possible that A Ying will not have an accident in a short time, because the situation I and the Sixth Elder encountered when we were trapped here was almost exactly the same as yours."
"At that time, we were also blocked by those 'rhythmically swaying wind pillars.' Then, I also had the Sixth Elder wait for me above while I went down to investigate, and in the end, I was swept here."
"And since Fellow Daoist Li was also swept here, and the Third Elder had previously divined that the Sixth Elder should also be trapped, then it is very likely that A Ying will also be swept into the same space as the Sixth Elder."
"The first time the clan performed the divination, it was at least half a year after we were trapped. This means that the Sixth Elder stayed in that space for at least six months. Six months, this means that the accident didn't happen immediately..."
Gong Shanhe quickly analyzed. Although his analysis was all heading in a positive direction, and unexpected things often happen in the world, at least it gave him and Li Yan some hope.
After a simple judgment of Gong Chenying's situation, the two of them were also slightly at ease. Then, Gong Shanhe also quickly explained the situation here to Li Yan.
He and the Sixth Elder had come here, it should be a trap set by Yan San, because under this swamp, there was another kind of Ghost-Creature Wind Beast.
This kind of Wind Beast was not a soul body, but a real, extremely yin and extremely cold Wind Beast. He didn't know why no one had discovered them before.
And later, it was probably Yan San who first discovered them. For some unknown reason, this kind of Ghost-Creature Wind Beast had never broken through the ground and had been hidden deep under the swamp all along.
However, according to Gong Shanhe's speculation, in the deepest part of this swamp, there might be a dormant peak fourth-rank Wind Beast.
Once this Wind Beast awakens, Yan San should not be its match, and then all the surrounding Wind Beast races may be devoured by it, and even the Tianli Clan will face a catastrophe.
Therefore, after realizing something was wrong, Yan San used this to persuade the "Wind Iron Beast" and "Wind Elephant Beast" two clans to join forces. After that, they even disregarded the massive deaths of their clansmen and launched years of crazy attacks on the Tianli Clan.
The purpose was to occupy the Tianli Clan first, and then use its rich resources to create a peak fourth-rank, or even a fifth-rank Wind Beast among the three clans, in order to suppress the Ghost-Creature Wind Beast at the bottom of the swamp.
All of this was the result Gong Shanhe had come to after being trapped here for these years and connecting the cause and effect. Although it might not be accurate, Gong Shanhe was fifty percent sure that his speculation was not wrong.
And the reason Gong Shanhe was lured here was some clues deliberately left by Yan San. He should have also been here before and had also encountered danger.
It was just that with his Late-stage Nascent Soul Great Cultivator's cultivation, in the end, after paying an unknown price, he still escaped.
Then, Yan San wanted to lure the Tianli Clan's Nascent Soul cultivators here and use a borrowed knife to kill people.
As for who came here, Gong Shanhe guessed that the one Yan San wanted to plot against the most should be the Great Elder, but in the end, it was he and the Sixth Elder who came.
Although they had failed to lure the Great Elder, in fact, Yan San's plan was already half successful. The Tianli Clan had lost two Nascent Soul cultivators at once...
After Gong Shanhe was trapped here, he of course constantly tried to break out. But at the entrance of the cave, there were three identical-looking, Mid-stage Nascent Soul ghost creatures blocking his way.
With his years of experience in fighting Wind Beasts, he quickly judged that the ghost creatures here were a kind of Wind Beast.
With Gong Shanhe's strength, under the pincer attack of three Mid-stage Nascent Souls, there was no way he could break out. But what made him strange was that the three Mid-stage Nascent Soul Ghost-Creature Wind Beasts only forced him here, but never entered to pursue and kill him.
Li Yan frowned slightly upon hearing this, but did not interject and continued to listen to Gong Shanhe's narration.
And in this cave, there were originally also many mid- to low-rank Wind Beasts. Later, after being repeatedly killed by Gong Shanhe, this place became empty.
Until three months after he had entered here, one day, just as he was thinking hard about a countermeasure, thinking of rushing out again to see if he could find a way to get rid of the three Mid-stage Nascent Soul Wind Beasts' entanglement.
From the deepest part of this cave, a gust of extremely cold yin wind that even he could not resist suddenly blew.
He had also explored the internal environment of this cave day and night. Apart from the only entrance, there were no other exits, which was also a reason for his helplessness.
In this cave, even the "Earth Evasion Art" could not be used.
It was as if there was a power that he could not perceive enveloping this world. Gong Shanhe guessed that this place should be a certain location of the "Heaven's Eye Pit," and the cave should be affected by the "Sky Eye Wind."
And the deepest part of this cave was just a cliff wall. That day, an unbearable yin wind had actually blown out. He didn't even know where that yin wind came from.
That yin wind seemed to want to freeze him to death. It blew for about half an incense stick's time. Gong Shanhe, unable to defend with his magical power, could only take out various defensive magical treasures to resist the cold wind together.
But those yin winds seemed to ignore his defense and directly penetrated his defense and entered his body. This made him struggle to hold on while fully circulating his magical power.
In the end, Gong Shanhe had already begun to feel dizzy. And at that time, the extremely cold yin wind suddenly disappeared without a trace.
And at that time, he was already exhausted, and the magical power in his body was so frozen that it was almost unable to circulate.
It wasn't until about half an hour later that he had recovered a little. He immediately meditated and sat down to regulate his breath. It wasn't until three days and four nights later that he had recovered.
At that time, although the recovered Gong Shanhe had not returned to his peak state, his strength had already recovered to eighty or ninety percent.
As a Nascent Soul cultivator, his control over his body had of course reached a subtle level. Any subtle changes in his body would be difficult to escape his detection.
At that time, he felt that his qi and blood were somewhat depleted. The result of his consideration at that time was that the yin wind was too domineering. After the yin wind had entered his body, he had already been injured by it, which was why that situation had occurred.
Then, after cultivating for a few more days, the depleted qi and blood also returned to normal. Gong Shanhe didn't pay much attention to it at that time. He had to consider more about that extremely cold strange wind. What exactly was it?
But when he began to search carefully in the cave again, he still did not find the source of the terrifying strange wind.
And for the next period of time, that strange wind did not appear again.
Gong Shanhe felt that he had a guessed result. The gust of wind that had somehow blown here should be a rare, relatively special "Sky Eye Wind." The chances of this should only occasionally occur.
He began to try to break through the encirclement at the entrance of the cave again, putting his mind on escaping to live. But three months later, that strange and terrifying yin wind once again blew from the depths of the cave.
Gong Shanhe cursed in his heart, but he could only once again desperately use his power to resist. The next thing that happened was similar to the last time.
Again, when he felt he was about to be unable to hold on, and was about to faint, that yin wind suddenly disappeared again.
Then, Gong Shanhe could only meditate and sit down to recover again. But a few days later, when he had recovered about seventy to eighty percent, he was stunned to find that his body had actually lost a lot of weight.
A cultivator's weight, in fact, could be easily controlled by himself. Even a cultivator weighing several hundred jin, if he wanted to lose weight, it would only take a thought. It mainly depended on whether he was willing.
But Gong Shanhe was very clear that he had not deliberately controlled his body to lose weight. And he cultivated the "Qiongqi Purgatory Art," which was a top-tier body cultivation method. His muscles and bones were quite strong.
For this situation to happen, of course, was abnormal. With Gong Shanhe's intelligence, he quickly had a new judgment this time.
Gong Shanhe guessed that the yin wind would stop every time he was about to be unable to resist, just because it didn't want him to die immediately.
And every time he rushed out of the cave entrance, he would be forced back by those three, and they would not pursue and kill him inside, just because they had other purposes.
"Trapped me, used me as a cauldron!"
This was the first thought that arose in Gong Shanhe's mind. Every time, he would lose some qi and blood. It was clear that someone was deliberately absorbing his qi and blood.
Gong Shanhe was a physically strong body cultivator, but he was not a brute. On the contrary, he was a particularly intelligent person. With just a little thought, he thought of something that made his hair stand on end.
In the depths of this cave, there should be an unknown powerful ghost creature. He had the full ability to kill him, but the other party wanted to obtain more qi and blood from him, not just a one-time thing.
Therefore, he was allowed to survive here, but he was not allowed to escape. That terrifying existence wanted a "living cauldron."
Once he thought this through, Gong Shanhe felt a chill all over his body, and it was extremely terrifying to think about.
So, the third time the yin wind came, after resisting for a period of time, Gong Shanhe deliberately entered a state of suspended animation a little earlier.
As expected, as Gong Shanhe's body "swayed precariously," the extremely cold yin wind immediately disappeared. Almost at the same time, Gong Shanhe endured the sharp pain in his body and the dizziness in his head and immediately flew towards the depths of the cave.
He did not spare his magical power and used his fastest speed. In almost a few breaths, he had reached the deepest part of the cave. As expected, he saw that on the cliff wall of the dead end, there was still a slight spatial distortion.