'What is this damned thing? Who in the world are these people?'
The short-haired, soap-robed man was utterly shocked. The void-like space he sensed gave him a heart-pounding premonition that if he were to enter, he would never be able to come out again.
In that moment, he felt a fear he had not experienced in a long time. A thought instantly surfaced in his mind: the nun and Li Yan had extraordinary origins. The techniques they employed were things he had never even heard of.
He had originally thought that after establishing his dominance, he could easily subdue and slaughter these people. Yet, from the moment he made his move, he found himself constrained at every turn. He had never encountered Nascent Soul cultivators like these before.
It had now reached a point where he himself felt a sense of life-and-death crisis, a development that had far exceeded his expectations.
Gazing at the short-haired, soap-robed man several dozen yards away, who had only been half-dragged in despite him activating the Earthen Patch , Li Yan's Sea of Consciousness was being assailed by waves of excruciating pain, like ten thousand arrows piercing his heart.
Under the strain of frantically channeling his Divine Sense , his Sea of Consciousness felt as if it were about to collapse...
This was a series of measures he had set up. It was clear the short-haired, soap-robed man would not let this matter rest.
Li Yan had already taken the risk of exposing the existence of the Earthen Patch . After disrupting the Five Elements rules around his opponent, causing a momentary weakening of the man's magical power, he intended to close the distance and pull him directly into the Earthen Patch .
Once the man was inside, with Li Yan's current cultivation as a late-stage Nascent Soul Great Cultivator, combined with his ability to freely control the power of the Earthen Patch , he was seventy percent confident he could slay him.
Inside that space, the power of the Five Elements would no longer obey the short-haired, soap-robed man. It would be a feat if he could exert even thirty percent of his combat strength.
Furthermore, Li Yan had even planned to slap several types of deadly poison onto the man's body the instant he entered. At that moment, while his opponent was still in the process of being teleported, he would be utterly unable to dodge.
Even if that failed, Li Yan could still isolate a section of the space and trap him inside until he died of attrition. Li Yan would never release him; he was not one to do something so foolish.
But a plan was just a plan. Although his earlier use of the Five Elements Disarray Mantle , which he had only cultivated to the introductory level, had indeed affected the Power of Rules in his opponent's vicinity.
However, when he tried to seize the opportunity to pull the man into the Earthen Patch , Li Yan had miscalculated. He had still underestimated the terrifying power of a Spirit Transformation cultivator.
The short-haired, soap-robed man reacted faster than Li Yan could pull him in. The moment he sensed something was wrong, he immediately rooted himself to the spot.
In his haste, only the man's legs entered the heart-stoppingly empty space. He stood several dozen yards away, resisting the terrifying suction force, not entering the Earthen Patch as Li Yan had imagined.
Li Yan's Sea of Consciousness had already suffered a backlash from using the Five Elements Disarray Mantle . Now, the pain was so intense that his consciousness was beginning to blur.
He could no longer budge his opponent an inch. Li Yan knew his plan had failed.
He was not a god. He could only plan his moves carefully, but he could not guarantee that every plan would succeed.
Realizing he couldn't complete his plan, Li Yan immediately abandoned the idea of pulling the man in. In an instant, he dispersed the entrance to the Earthen Patch while his body shot backward once more.
But his mind was meticulous. In the spot where the entrance to the Earthen Patch had been, he instantly created a rather large spatial crack to mislead his opponent.
Just as the short-haired, soap-robed man, horrified, was about to wave his hand to attack Li Yan, the suction force suddenly vanished, and his "lost" legs reappeared.
In front of him, a massive spatial crack was rapidly closing like a giant mouth.
"What art is this? What in the world is this art..."
The short-haired, soap-robed man was on the verge of going mad. He had nearly been pulled into that space, and the sense of dread it emitted still left him with lingering fear.
The attacks Li Yan launched were nothing like he had anticipated. To think he had been so careful, preventing his opponent from making physical contact, assuming he was trying to use poison.
Though he was confident that the deadly poison of a Nascent Soul cultivator could not harm him, he was naturally unwilling to test that theory.
The few attacks Li Yan had launched were all exceedingly strange, repeatedly putting him on the defensive and even causing him to break out in a cold sweat.
A soul attack, the inexplicable chaos of the Five Elements rules around him, and just now, how had he opened a spatial crack without him noticing?
At this moment, faced with Li Yan's endless stream of life-threatening techniques, a sense of dread actually began to well up in his heart.
Li Yan had already flown a thousand yards away. A tide of bone-deep pain washed over his Sea of Consciousness and Divine Soul, causing his entire body to tremble.
Casting an art on a cultivator a major realm above him, whose magical power was far too profound, had resulted in a severe backlash. He knew that for a short time, he could not use the Five Elements Disarray Mantle again.
Doing so would very likely cause his Sea of Consciousness to collapse and shatter.
Though Li Yan's attempt this time had not truly succeeded, if word of this were to get out, it would likely cause countless jaws to drop.
A Nascent Soul fighting a Spirit Transformation , nearly trapping the Spirit Transformation cultivator and ending his life.
As Li Yan retreated, the short-haired, soap-robed man also charged out of the area of chaotic Five Elements. Although he was alarmed by the mysterious nature of Hong Yin and Li Yan, he could also see that the condition of the two was rapidly declining.
He was almost certain that their previous ferocious and valiant onslaught could not be sustained.
"Good, very good! I never expected the Tianli Clan to have such hidden dragons and crouching tigers. I have truly underestimated you. Take another blow from me!"
The short-haired, soap-robed man's face was ashen. In the distance, Wan Qingshe was already dumbstruck. His sword heart, which had always been like unbreakable ancient ice, was already showing signs of shattering amidst the repeated shocks.
'Isn't the sword the most powerful attack in the world, the sharpest tool for killing...'
One unbelievable thought after another flooded Wan Qingshe's mind, causing his confidence to waver.
He had never imagined that the Tianli Clan could be this formidable. His master had not only failed to take them down but had also lost four flying swords in the process.
Only now had the remaining five flying swords returned to his master's side.
Although he couldn't know the specifics of what his master had just experienced, the destruction of the flying swords and his master's ashen face said it all.
'When I first came to the Tianli Clan , I actually thought that without their Great Sacrificial Priest, they were just a bunch of useless rabble. I even took the initiative to provoke Li Yan...'
Thinking back on his arrogant arrival and condescending demeanor, a sense of fear now rose in Wan Qingshe's heart. Since he had become confident in his ability to fight above his rank, he felt he could roam the world freely, with few at his level worthy of his notice.
But upon seeing the battle today, he realized these people were the truly valiant and powerful experts. They actually dared to attack a Spirit Transformation cultivator. He had been truly courting death back then.
In contrast, when he was before his master, a mere flick of his master's little finger could easily take his life.
After Hong Yin and the others had just repelled the flying swords and stabilized themselves in the air, Hong Yin's expression grew even more solemn as she watched Li Yan make his move from a distance.
'The combat power of a Sword Cultivator cannot be judged by common sense!'
Previously, she too had felt that by borrowing some of the Power of Rules , she could hold her own against an initial-stage Spirit Transformation cultivator for a short period.
But the sheer sharpness of the sword cultivator's attacks still exceeded her expectations. It wasn't that she had never encountered a Sword Cultivator before, but rather that she hadn't had a precise grasp of her own current strength.
Following the short-haired, soap-robed man's angry roar, the heavens and earth within a ten-thousand-li radius changed color once again.
In an instant, chilling winds surged from all directions. Clouds and winds gathered, churning and layering themselves oppressively above everyone's heads.
The entire world was plunged into a storm of flying sand and stones. Towering, ancient trees that would take several people to encircle groaned with cracking sounds in the fierce wind.
Their branches and leaves danced wildly, and unable to hold on, they snapped off one by one, flying into the distance...
The world turned dim. The short-haired, soap-robed man's robes flapped noisily in the cold wind. The five recalled flying swords instantly became four, but each of the four transformed, swelling to the size of a door plank.
"Slash!"
As the short-haired, soap-robed man's lips moved slightly, a voice that seemed not to be his own spread out from the densely overcast clouds of the nine heavens. It reverberated in all directions, shaking the four corners of the world like a colossal thunderclap in the sky!
As the sound faded, four streaks of lightning-like sword light flashed, once again cleaving down toward the heads of the four individuals.
The moment the sound rang out, the Great Elder's expression changed. In a flash, he appeared beside Yan San and kicked out at his body.
"Get back!"
Just as Yan San was startled, the force of the Great Elder's kick had already reached him.
He felt a powerful yet gentle force wash over him and instantly understood the Great Elder's intention.
He was already heavily injured and the weakest among them; he definitely couldn't withstand the next sword strike.
His reaction was extremely fast. In a flash of lightning, his body was already soaring through the air. Propelled by the leg strength of a late-stage Nascent Soul Great Cultivator, he was instantly sent thousands of li away.
However, in his final glance toward the Great Elder, his perpetually icy eyes held a trace of warmth. The two of them had fought and tried to kill each other for so many long years; who could have imagined a scene like today's?
The Great Elder, however, had no time to worry about such things. The sword that had been aimed at Yan San was now right above his own head.
He knew the importance of Yan San. On the Tianli Clan's side, even his own death was acceptable, but if Yan San died, the peace that had just appeared for the Tianli Clan would truly be lost.
As the Great Elder retreated rapidly to the side, a phantom image of a Qiongqi once again materialized over his body. The next moment, this phantom fused into the Great Elder's form.
Rays of light instantly flared, and a translucent suit of armor formed in a flash. Simultaneously, a ferocious Qiongqi beast-head helmet instantly covered his head.
On his limbs, chest, abdomen, and back, protective guards marked with red beastly patterns also appeared.
At this moment, the Great Elder's aura surged, instantly surpassing the realm of a late-stage Great Cultivator and vaguely reaching the level of an initial-stage Spirit Transformation cultivator.
Down below in the great formation, Gong Shanhe and the other Nascent Soul cultivators' faces also changed drastically.
"True Spirit Armor!"
"The Great Elder has used the secret art!"
As horror filled their hearts, an inexplicable sorrow appeared on their faces.
The True Spirit Armor was a technique from the sixth level of the Qiongqi Purgatory Art , accessible when one had reached perfection and was on the verge of touching the seventh level.
It required borrowing the Nascent Fire of a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, burning the Nascent Soul itself as fuel to unleash power nearly equivalent to that of an initial-stage Spirit Transformation cultivator, but it could only last for five breaths at most.
Afterward, the Nascent Soul would begin to wither rapidly, its realm continuously dropping until, finally, death.
This was one of the two strongest offensive methods of the Tianli Clan below the Spirit Transformation realm. The other was a terrifying Great Shamanic Art that used the physical bodies of several Nascent Soul cultivators as a blood sacrifice.
That method would result in the immediate death of several Nascent Soul cultivators, but its power was even greater. It was the Tianli Clan's ultimate trump card in the absence of a Great Sacrificial Priest, and the Third Elder was currently capable of using it.
Clearly, the Great Elder was unwilling to resort to that kind of attack. It was the ultimate strike, one that was tantamount to mutual destruction for the clan.
However, he could also guess that if the three of them ultimately failed to stop Xue Longzi's advance, the Third Elder would absolutely unleash that clan-destroying blow.
The method he was using would only cause backlash to himself, or his own death. He did not want Li Yan, Hong Yin, or his clansmen to die.
Not far away, Li Yan's heart also jolted when he saw the ferocious, crimson armor instantly materialize on the Great Elder's body.
Given the current state of things, his Qiongqi Purgatory Art had not yet reached the point of breaking through to the seventh level, but he had already read the manual for the True Spirit Armor, so he was naturally aware of this art.
But at this moment, he had no extra time to think. A giant sword, the size of a door plank, had already reached his head, carrying the might of heaven and earth.
Just as Li Yan was about to use Phoenix Soars to the Heavens again, he felt as if the hundred-li radius around him had been plunged into a swamp. It was too late to even think of dodging.
But he still frantically channeled his magical power, managing to angle himself away from the blade's edge. However, the sword qi trailing from the giant sword instantly created a web of cracks across Li Yan's protective spirit shield...
On the other side, Hong Yin fared similarly.
However, she held her crimson-glowing long spear and stabbed out ten thousand times in an instant. The entire space was suddenly filled with countless Maitreya Buddhas, each the size of an adult's head, with their chests bare.
These Maitreya Buddhas, each with a wide, joyful smile, fluttered in the air like butterflies, forming a Buddhist wall that protected the Hong Yin below.
As the giant sword struck, the Maitreya Buddhas exploded one by one. But the giant sword, originally gleaming with a cold light, was now coated in a thick layer of golden light.
Subsequently, the giant sword actually began to drip with golden liquid, as if it were melting.
As the Maitreya Buddhas exploded, Hong Yin, holding her spear with both hands, was forced back at an astonishing speed. It seemed that with every exploding Buddha, she had to endure another impact, continuously retreating to dissipate the force.