It was not without reason that the Immortal Spirit Realm wanted to annihilate the Five Immortal Sects, or went to great lengths to obtain their cultivation methods.
When the cultivation methods practiced by Li Yan and his peers reached their later stages, they seamlessly integrated with the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth, becoming heaven-defying. Perhaps with just a single sliver of the five elements' power, taking a life from afar would be a matter of a single thought.
Li Yan watched as the blood-red scholar hats danced around the man. That person was also an experienced fighter. Although one of his companions was dead, he instantly launched another attack.
Seeing his opponent return to normal, Li Yan felt a pang of regret. Simultaneously manipulating two "Black Water Talismans" was still a stretch for him. It had only caused the man a moment of intense pain in his divine soul and had failed to hook out his life soul.
If he were to use this move again now, the opponent would be on guard. The arts of the Gui Water Immortal Sect, so far, were mostly focused on swift assassinations.
Li Yan's mastery of "Soul-Tugging Execution" was still minor. Engraving a "Black Water Talisman" took a certain amount of time. The moment that man crushed the "Black Water Talisman," he had already launched an attack, not giving Li Yan much time.
With only one Mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator left, a smile appeared on Li Yan's face.
On the other side, Gong Shanhe, though locked in a fierce battle with the other red-robed man, was experiencing a tempest in his heart.
'Killing... killing a peer of the same realm in five breaths? Is this person really a cultivator from the Malevolent Spirit Sect... He didn't use poison arts or formations. What kind of evil technique was that?
Why does it look like the most vicious "Blood Curse Art" from sorcery... No, it's not! The "Blood Curse Art" requires the enemy's blood as a medium, and the incantation is inexplicably complex. The fastest it can be cast is fifteen breaths...'
Seeing the technique Li Yan used, Gong Shanhe almost couldn't believe he was a cultivator from the Malevolent Spirit Sect. He was somewhat familiar with several of the Malevolent Spirit Sect's top-tier techniques.
But knowing was one thing; if he were to fight against the likes of Zhu Luan, he would definitely be far too cautious.
The speed at which Li Yan killed his opponent was too fast. Even Gong Shanhe himself, at his peak, fighting one-on-one, probably couldn't do it in such a short time.
He couldn't even believe this was his own daughter's junior brother. If Li Yan hadn't killed the beast that had been trapping him right before his eyes, he would have thought Li Yan was deceiving him.
However, Gong Shanhe was, after all, a clan leader. He returned to normal in just a few breaths.
'Now it's two against two. It seems we might really be able to escape today!'
With the situation like this, a wave of joy rose in Gong Shanhe's heart!
...
By the time Gong Chenying reached the cave entrance, the clear-featured nun was already there, a strange expression on her face. Then, she spoke a sentence that filled Gong Chenying with ecstatic surprise.
"Why has the power of the wind pillars outside weakened so much? I can sense a much greater distance, a place filled with black gas.
There are four people fighting. Two of them are identical... 'Yin Mountain Beasts.' Judging from their auras, they should be clones of that Fifth-rank 'Yin Mountain Beast'...
In addition, there is a young man in a green shirt and a tall, thin person who are currently with..."
"Senior, can you describe the appearance of those two in detail?"
Before the clear-featured nun could finish, Gong Chenying, who was usually the epitome of calm, actually interrupted her.
This made the clear-featured nun turn to look at her. This woman had not shown the slightest bit of emotion even when facing death before.
'It seems these two are really important to her!' she thought to herself.
After asking her question, Gong Chenying realized her rudeness and quickly bowed in apology.
"Senior, it was my rudeness. It's just that I am anxious!"
The clear-featured nun's expression didn't change much. She then described the appearance of the two people she sensed. As Gong Chenying listened, her heart filled with joyful surprise.
'It really is Little Junior Brother and A'die! They're both fine, and they've even met up...'
Gazing out of the cave, Gong Chenying immediately extended her Divine Sense carefully. Although her Divine Sense couldn't travel far before it began to waver, at least it wasn't being shredded the moment it left the cave as before.
'The power of the wind pillars outside has indeed diminished!'
Gong Chenying confirmed what the clear-featured nun had said.
"A sudden increase in Divine Sense range, and a decrease in the power of the wind pillars here. Is this a regular pattern, like the tides? Or has something unexpected happened?"
The clear-featured nun also had a look of doubt on her face. She was still investigating and pondering, and for a moment, she did not venture out rashly.
What she didn't know was that Li Yan had also discovered that after killing one of them, the surrounding black gas had thinned considerably. It was just that in the heat of battle, he hadn't had time to carefully examine his surroundings.
"Senior, under these circumstances, can we go over now?"
Gong Chenying's beautiful eyes were filled with anxiety.
"We can give it a try. Give me those talismans you had earlier. If there are any left over, I will return them to you!
Also, I will place a restriction on you. As long as you don't have any crooked ideas after we leave this place and reach the surface, I will remove the restriction's seal for you.
I'll say it again, don't even hope that they can remove the restriction I place. If you don't believe me, you're free to try, but you will bear the consequences yourself!"
The clear-featured nun stared at Gong Chenying without blinking. There was another sentence she kept to herself.
'If you can find a Spirit Transformation cultivator, perhaps they can help you remove the seal's restriction!'
Her current strength had fallen too drastically. She still had some means to deal with Nascent Soul cultivators, but Spirit Transformation cultivators were another matter entirely.
Gong Chenying said no more. With a thought, she communicated with her storage ring. With a flash of light, three "Golden Bell Talismans" floated before her. The clear-featured nun swept her Divine Sense over the talismans, then nodded and took them with a wave of her hand.
With her experience, a quick inspection told her that Gong Chenying had not lied about the talismans.
On the other side, Gong Chenying had already spoken again.
"Senior, please!"
Gong Chenying's face had returned to its calm state. The fact that the other party was being upfront with her showed that she genuinely wanted to get out. Otherwise, she could have just placed the restriction on her and used her to threaten her father and the others.
This meant the other party didn't want to create a rift between them, lest her father and the others become angry and truly try to secretly eliminate her first.
The clear-featured nun didn't stand on ceremony any longer. She turned and pointed a finger at Gong Chenying's forehead. Gong Chenying felt a trace of heat enter her forehead, and she felt slightly dizzy, but she quickly recovered.
Then, to her surprise, Gong Chenying discovered that her magical power and cultivation were still intact, but her Divine Sense was suppressed and could not leave her body. The clear-featured nun also retracted her snow-white finger.
"You will temporarily be unable to communicate with others via voice transmission. Everything else is unaffected. I will lead you on this journey, so there is no need to worry about your safety. If we can rendezvous with your junior brother, I imagine there will be no need for you to act later."
Gong Chenying didn't want to say much and simply nodded. The other party was guarding against the possibility that once she was safely delivered to her father's side, they might secretly communicate and then turn on her, betraying her after she had served her purpose.
Seeing Gong Chenying's calm demeanor, the clear-featured nun couldn't help but think more highly of her.
"Don't do anything. Just stay by my side. Let's go!"
The clear-featured nun's expression also became solemn. She estimated the distance; it was about sixteen hundred li between them. In the past, this distance could be covered in a single thought.
But now, even with the defense of the "Golden Bell Talismans," the power of the wind pillars had only decreased, not their number. Everyone understood the principle of an ant colony biting an elephant to death. Taking another person with her would still consume a great deal of her soul power.
By the time they got there, her strength might only be maintained at the Mid-stage Nascent Soul, and not the strongest kind. She would need some soul-nurturing treasures to recover later, but at most, she could only recover to the Late-stage Nascent Soul.
Therefore, she had to keep Gong Chenying under her control, and she would not voice these thoughts.
"I will leave everything to Senior's judgment!" Gong Chenying nodded.
...
Just as the red-robed man opposite Li Yan played a mournful note on his flute, on the other side, the other one fighting Gong Shanhe suddenly drifted far away, doing his utmost to evade one of Gong Shanhe's attacks.
As he drifted away, that person also quickly brought the long flute to his lips, and another mournful sound rang out.
But by forcefully withdrawing from the battle like this against an expert like Gong Shanhe, even though Gong Shanhe's strength was greatly diminished, the red-robed man still took a slash of finger qi from him.
"Swish!"
The hem of his long robe at his leg was instantly torn by an invisible, forceful qi. Thick blood immediately gushed out, dyeing that patch of clothing an even more glaring color.
After taking this hit, the aura of the red-robed man condensed, showing signs of decline.
Gong Shanhe's attack was not so simple as to only cause superficial wounds. The scorching hot, potent qi had turned the meridians in the red-robed man's leg into a mess of pulp.
The originally smooth flow of magical power throughout his body was now obstructed and interrupted when it reached his leg.
The fact that his opponent retreated despite being injured and that both of them made the same strange move gave Gong Shanhe a sudden sense of foreboding.
On the other side, Li Yan also felt a sudden palpitation, a strong sense of unease rising from the bottom of his heart. Almost at the same instant this feeling arose, Gong Shanhe shouted.
"Behind you!"
Li Yan felt a stinging pain in his back. Then, it was as if thousands of fine, sharp needles pierced directly through his bones. These fine needles seemed to be made of ten-thousand-year-old ice. In an instant, Li Yan felt his internal organs fill with chunks of frozen cold.
From the previously quiet cave behind him, gusts of yin wind suddenly blew out!
Gong Shanhe was all too familiar with this kind of yin wind. Before the wind even arrived, the pores all over his body stood on end. His face changed drastically, and his reaction was extremely fast.
But even though he knew, in an instant, the magical power in both their bodies had already begun to stagnate.
This was exactly the extremely cold yin wind attack from the depths of the cave that Gong Shanhe had been most worried about. This gust of yin wind had appeared only four days ago. Logically, it shouldn't have appeared, but it just had to appear at the moment they were about to break out!
Previously, when Gong Shanhe and Li Yan flew out of the cave, the opponent hadn't attacked. They had thought that, just as they had judged, the terrifying existence might really be injured and hibernating, and would only wake up again in a few months.
But after the opponent used the long flute to play the mournful sound, the terrifying yin wind appeared again.
"This is that extremely powerful yin wind. We must not be careless! But there is one piece of good news. It seems that after leaving the cave, its power has weakened by thirty to forty percent. We... we should get as far away from the cave as possible!"
Gong Shanhe's voice instantly rang in Li Yan's mind.
With a sweep of his Divine Sense, Li Yan saw rays of golden light bursting from Gong Shanhe's body as he slowly flew towards the red-robed man. His movement speed, however, was extremely slow.
The two red-robed men in front maintained the mournful sound from their flutes, a wave of blood-red qi surging around them, but neither took the opportunity to attack Li Yan and Gong Shanhe.
'They are unable to divert their attention to attack. Could it be that the appearance of the yin wind, which occurs once every few months, is orchestrated by them? At that time, Gong Shanhe was also unable to break out and escape. The timing on both sides is such a coincidence...'
Li Yan thought quickly. The fact that the opponent couldn't divert their attention to attack them was a silver lining in this misfortune.
At the same time, "The Five Elements Return to Primordial Genesis" in his body was operating at full capacity. In an instant, the five elements merged, and his fire-attribute magical power rolled like a wave of fire.
Immediately, Li Yan felt the bone-piercing, stinging cold in his body quickly recede.
He immediately flew forward, wanting to get away from the cave entrance. However, the yin wind behind him had a powerful pulling force, as if it wanted to tear the flesh from his bones, which made his flying speed not very fast.
Li Yan's Dantian was already a sea of crimson clouds, the fire waves emitting rumbling sounds. Under the assault of the yin wind, his body was covered in wisps of mist, but he still continued to move forward slowly, resisting the powerful suction from behind.
Thirteen breaths later, Li Yan had advanced ten zhang. Sure enough, the strange, cold yin wind and the tearing force behind him began to slowly diminish.
On the other side, Gong Shanhe was only half a step behind him. At this moment, Gong Shanhe looked like a golden giant, with golden light shining from his brows and eyes.
Every time he threw a punch behind him, those golden rays would burst out from between his fingers and knuckles. With every punch he threw, the surrounding space would tremble violently.
The yin wind, visible only to Divine Sense, actually showed cracks, and Gong Shanhe would take the opportunity to take a big step forward.
"Boom, boom, boom..."
Gong Shanhe was as mighty as a lion, constantly advancing amidst the rumbling sounds.
'Even now, he is still so formidable. Among Nascent Soul cultivators, he is also a supreme expert of this realm!'
Seeing Gong Shanhe's might, Li Yan was surprised. He had always thought that he could crush anyone of the same rank, but this Clan Head Gong, even after being trapped here for so long, was still so ferocious.
But just as Li Yan thought they could slowly escape this predicament, another unexpected change occurred.
As the two of them slowly approached, more than a hundred zhang away, the two red-robed men suddenly looked at each other. One of them flickered and appeared in front of the other.
"You will all die today!"
The red-robed man who had flown over now had an extremely venomous look in his eyes, sweeping a vicious glare over the two of them.
Immediately, his body instantly shrank. In the blink of an eye, he was only an inch tall. Then, he stepped into the Dantian of the other red-robed man.
"Not good!"
Seeing this, Li Yan cried out inwardly.
The next moment, the aura of the remaining red-robed man suddenly skyrocketed. In an instant, he had the appearance of a Late-stage Nascent Soul Great Cultivator.
However, the aura fluctuations on his body were extremely intense and unstable. It was clear that although the opponent had used a secret art, it would not last long.
Moreover, the price of this kind of secret art must be extremely high. Otherwise, the red-robed man who had shrunk his body would not have looked so venomous. The price was definitely something he was extremely unwilling to pay.
As the red-robed man's aura soared, the mournful sound from his flute also suddenly rose in pitch.
Li Yan immediately felt the yin wind behind him suddenly intensify, letting out an incomparably ear-piercing, sharp, strange shriek. A tearing force, more than double the previous one, suddenly fell upon him!