At the same time as the Malevolent Spirit Sect's Qi Condensation competition, in front of a small courtyard in the Ten-Pace Courtyard, a young cultivator with a huge Sword Case on his back was talking in a low voice with two cultivators standing outside the gate. After a few words, he pushed open the courtyard gate and walked in. In the courtyard, green trees soared into the sky, their thick shade cool and refreshing. This was a quadrangle courtyard. There was no one in the courtyard. Many spirit grasses were planted on the ground in the courtyard, divided into neat plots, lush and green, their light fragrance carried by the gentle breeze, very quiet and elegant. This cultivator had no intention of staying. He just glanced in the direction of the courtyard and then walked toward a building. He pushed open the door of the building. The interior was antique, with hollowed-out window lattices, a dark-colored long table surrounded by a few simple and elegant circular chairs, and an elegant screen with exquisite craftsmanship, carrying a strong sense of Eastern culture and aesthetic charm.
After entering the room, the cultivator with the Sword Case walked straight behind the screen. Behind the screen was a bookshelf, filled with neatly arranged classics. He went to the bookshelf, took out a classic, and then began to read it seriously. When he turned to a certain page, he would gather his spiritual power with his hand and tap on a certain character. The character would ripple, then disappear from the line, making the line of words discontinuous and disordered. In this way, he continuously flipped through the pages and tapped, and a certain character in each line would continuously disappear. After he had tapped thirteen times in a row, the classic in his hand turned into a purple light and disappeared without a trace. The bookshelf in front of him then twisted, revealing a black hole glowing with a purple light. The black hole slowly rotated, as if leading to an endless void. The cultivator with the Sword Case then stepped into it and disappeared without a trace. After he entered, the black hole also twisted a few times and then disappeared without a trace. The bookshelf from before reappeared there, with the rows of classics still as they were.
Under a gray sky, there were bare gray mountain ranges everywhere, with towering peaks stretching endlessly. At this time, on top of a gray mountain peak, the space twisted, and a cultivator with a Sword Case walked out from within. And on the cliff in front of him stood a young man with sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes, his hands behind his back, looking into the distance.
"Senior Brother, Elder Xing asked me to tell you that the Malevolent Spirit Sect is indeed using Qi Condensation cultivators to participate in the Wheel of Life and Death. The selection is already underway." The cultivator with the Sword Case saw no surprise on the face of the young man with sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes in front of him, who seemed to be waiting for someone. He took a step forward and said respectfully.
"Oh, have they entered the urn?" the young man with sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes said faintly without turning his head, his voice neither surprised nor pleased.
"Then should we inform the senior brothers from the Supreme Mystery Teachings and the Pure Land Sect?" the cultivator with the Sword Case asked carefully.
"Them? They are still in those few places and haven't come out yet. I'll tell them when the time comes," the young man with sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes' voice remained the same, but his gaze shifted to a farther distance.
The cultivator with the Sword Case followed the young man with sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes' gaze. In the distance, among the sprawling gray mountains, faint roars could be heard from time to time, and fluctuations of spiritual energy of various colors also flashed across the sky.
And at the foot of the mountain where the young man with sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes stood, there were dozens of cultivators with a soaring aura of slaughter and blood. Their gray robes were somewhat torn, and many of them were stained with blood. They all stood there with expressionless faces, their spiritual pressure all at the tenth layer of Qi Condensation.
Li Yan looked at the disciple of Never-Parting Peak a few dozen meters away, whose face was somewhat pale as he looked in his direction. A cloud of insects buzzed above his head, but did not attack Li Yan.
Li Yan's expression was blank, and he did not make any move. The ground under the disciple opposite him suddenly sank. That disciple was clearly prepared. His figure had already soared into the air, and that cloud of insects also suddenly flew toward Li Yan. However, at this moment, a large patch of yellow sand covered the area above the insect cloud. The insect cloud let out a sharp cry and darted through the yellow sand to attack Li Yan, but many of them had already fallen during their attack.
After the Never-Parting Peak disciple dodged the "Quicksand Art" under his feet, his figure floated a few dozen meters to the side. As soon as he landed, a warning sign suddenly rose in his heart. But before he could react, a cloud of smoke had already drilled into his trouser leg from under his feet. He immediately shouted, "Not good!" However, it was too late. He quickly took out a medicinal pill and swallowed it, but in just two breaths, his heart spasmed, and he cried out in pain and threw away the pill bottle. Then, his pupils turned a snow-white color.
At this moment, the blue light shield flashed, and a figure appeared here. It was the supervising Foundation Establishment cultivator of this stage. He knocked the person out with a single palm strike, then with a wave of his large sleeve, the remaining insect cloud in the sky and the layer of Gu-insects on the ground had disappeared. He looked up at Li Yan and left a sentence, "Thirty-three wins," then grabbed the disciple and flew toward the floating pavilion. The supervising Foundation Establishment cultivator was frustrated. As long as this person was on stage, regardless of which battle stage, if the opponent was poisoned, most of them needed to be sent to the Golden Core elders to be detoxified. The reason he said most was because there were a few types of poison that they could indeed neutralize with spiritual power or some antidotes. But for another part of the toxins, even Foundation Establishment cultivators were not confident of neutralizing them in a short time. And this kid only knew how to poison, not how to detoxify.
At this time, a great uproar arose in the various areas below the stage. It was clear that more and more people were watching Li Yan's match. This was not something Li Yan could help. After he had used his twelve Fragmented Poisons several times, he had already attracted the attention of many people.
"That Little Martial Uncle has won again. Could it be that even those with a higher realm can't defeat him?" a cultivator asked with a curious look on his face.
"Look at you. Didn't he also lose a few matches? But it seems that it's difficult to win against him if you're below the late stage of the tenth layer of Qi Condensation," a mature-looking cultivator said.
"Senior Brother is right. The few matches this person lost were mostly to those at the perfected tenth layer. Most of them, after a short, fierce battle, he would automatically admit defeat," another person said bluntly.
"But this person is really strange. His Divine Sense-controlled poison is truly formless and traceless. More than a dozen senior brothers have already fallen for it, and they were all at the ninth or tenth layer."
"The main thing is that his magical power is also strange. He's clearly at the mid-stage of the sixth layer of Qi Condensation, and the quality of his spiritual energy is also so-so, but he can just drag on until a senior brother at the early or even mid-stage of the tenth layer has no temper. How profound must his spiritual power be?"
"He should be at the late stage of the seventh layer of Qi Condensation. I heard this from a Foundation Establishment Martial Uncle. He has a way of hiding his cultivation, which we can't see through. But even so, it's really as you said, strange. For a seventh-layer to be able to hold off a mid- to late-stage eighth-layer is already quite good."
...
Li Yan returned to the area of Little Bamboo Peak with a calm expression. Wei Chituo and the others smiled at him as if it were nothing strange. Li Yan also smiled and returned the gesture, then quickly sat down cross-legged to recover. In these few days, as the number of people became fewer and fewer, the intensity of the battles became more and more concentrated. He had to seize every moment to recover.
What he didn't notice was that a pair of beautiful eyes were staring at him with increasing curiosity.
In these few days, Li Yan had completely immersed himself in battle, becoming more and more adept. The coordination between the True Scripture of the Nether Water and his twelve Fragmented Poisons became more and more proficient. But he only added the use of his earth-element spirit root and did not reveal more of his miscellaneous spirit roots. This made many people think he was a three-element Earth Spirit Root of water, wood, and earth.
Li Yan also began to continuously use his twelve Fragmented Poisons in conjunction with the three-element immortal arts. What made others' hearts turn coldest was his Divine Sense-controlled poison. Wherever he walked, he might quietly leave behind a Divine Sense-controlled poison, either activated underground with the "Quicksand Art," or in the air with the "Cloud and Rain Art," or in the wind with the "Wind Blade Art." As long as the opponent carelessly stood in a place he had walked, if their Divine Sense did not carefully probe for any residual immortal arts, then just a little bit, a tiny trace, could quickly activate the Divine Sense-controlled poison. The next moment would be the opponent's unlucky time.
Li Yan had also summarized a set of attack methods from this. As soon as he entered the battle stage, he would quickly fly a few circles in the stage, making the opponent curse him for being shameless in their hearts, not knowing where Li Yan had left a hidden trap. In this way, they had to constantly keep their protective spiritual light open, constantly release their Divine Sense, and also constantly be careful whether they had entered an area Li Yan had walked through. They themselves could also store poison in other areas, but they couldn't remotely activate it. Those toxins would volatilize on their own in a short time, unless they released a huge amount of poison to cover the entire battle stage, but they didn't have that much magical power.
These cultivators fighting against Li Yan, while fully activating their protective spiritual light and Divine Sense, had to take down Li Yan as quickly as possible. Otherwise, in just an hour or so, their spiritual power would be completely exhausted. But Li Yan just adopted a method of kiting and defending. That headache-inducing rain screen couldn't be broken through in a short time. And Li Yan's magical power was greatly inconsistent with his realm. Several early- and mid-stage tenth-layer cultivators, relying on their profound magical power, had come up and unleashed a barrage of powerful Spirit Treasures and immortal arts, wanting to knock Li Yan down in a few exchanges. But apart from his difficult-to-deal-with rain screen, Li Yan was as slippery as an eel, using earth escape and quicksand techniques alternately. And you didn't dare to get too close.
The Never-Parting Peak disciple just now was also at the mid-stage of the tenth layer. After a barrage of powerful immortal arts, Li Yan had managed to withstand it in a sorry state. The insect cloud was also barely held back by Li Yan's sky-covering yellow sand of the earth element. A few dozen Gu-insects had managed to get through, but in the end, they were paralyzed and fell into the rain screen, turning into a large lump of gray matter on the ground. In the end, it wasn't that this disciple didn't want to release his protective spiritual light and drive more insect clouds, but that in his memory, Li Yan had walked through all the areas of this battle stage. He had no more spiritual power and Divine Sense. So in the end, although a warning sign rose in his heart, his body was already tired and empty, and he still fell for Li Yan's Divine Sense-controlled poison.
And those supervising Foundation Establishment cultivators already knew that as long as someone was poisoned, they could announce the end of the match. They would appear on the field at the first moment to knock the person out.
Now, when the cultivators of the various peaks saw Li Yan, besides paying more attention, many of them were cursing him for being shameless. But no one was confident of taking down Li Yan in a few exchanges, unless it was a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
But what they didn't know was that among Li Yan's twelve Fragmented Poisons, only two could be controlled by Divine Sense. One was the one used against Zhou Guan'er, which caused people to lose their minds, their eyes to turn pure white, and attack all living beings within sight. He had named it "Flirtatious Glance." This made the cultivators who heard the name of this poison in the future feel that Li Yan was even more shameless. The other was called "Triumphant March." This poison was one of the earlier ones Li Yan had tested on the platform at the back of Little Bamboo Peak. It could seep into the interior along the stems and leaves of plants and the pores of the human body, liquefying the trunks of plants and animals from the inside out, finally turning them into a pool of black water. But this poison was too overbearing. Li Yan had never dared to use it in this competition. He was afraid that if he used it, the opponent might die before the Golden Core cultivators could arrive. He himself didn't know how to detoxify it and couldn't neutralize it for the opponent in time.
Li Changting kicked the ground under her feet, occasionally revealing her smooth, fair, and round calves from under the hem of her long robe. "This kid is interesting. Even a mid-stage tenth-layer disciple lost. Junior Sister Min, I think he might be able to catch up to my Wuyi in the future."
A chill ran down Zhao Min's spine. She thought to herself, 'You're just like your aunt, speaking without any reservation, especially the way your aunt looks at Wei Zhongran.'
She looked at Li Changting. "Senior Sister Li, that kid can't compare to Li Wuyi. His heart isn't ruthless enough. The first time Li Wuyi participated in the Qi Condensation competition, how many of his opponents weren't seriously injured? But I really hope that kid can participate in the Wheel of Life and Death. That way, he might be able to fight more freely." Zhao Min always felt that Li Yan had many methods he hadn't used. If he did, even a perfected tenth-layer Qi Condensation cultivator might not be able to get the better of him.
"Mmm, mmm, my Wuyi is a real man. I love his fake hypocrisy the most."
Zhao Min was speechless, and a shiver ran down her spine.
The moon set and the sun rose, the sun set and the moon rose. Another two days passed. When the huge moon had risen to the center of the sky, the competition reached its final moments. At this time, there were still one hundred and forty cultivators. Many of these people had just fought two or three matches, with both wins and losses.
Li Yan looked at the two lines of characters slowly condensing from the flowing blue light on the blue screen: "Thirty-three" versus "Four hundred and five." He heard a voice in his ear, "Lots drawn. Seventeenth battle stage. Thirty-three versus four hundred and five."