The moment the Ren-surnamed Daoist split his longsword and attacked his enemies, he was instantly met with a counter-attack. The five-colored birds and the azure snake had already reached him almost as soon as he had made his move.
However, there was no trace of panic on the Ren-surnamed cultivator's face. With a shake of his shoulder, the empty scabbard on his back let out a dragon's cry. Streams of Sword Qi burst forth from within, like a volley of ten thousand arrows, instantly striking the approaching three five-colored birds and the azure snake.
First, the five-colored birds erupted in a brilliant five-colored light, exploding in bursts of flame. The azure snake, however, was struck with such force that the fierce glint in its eyes intensified. A crackling sound ran along its body as green light flowed, and it was violently thrown backward.
The exchange of attack and defense was completed in an instant. The Ren-surnamed cultivator, having unleashed the Sword Qi from his scabbard, felt his body tremble violently the moment it made contact with the four demonic beasts. He staggered back five or six steps, a trickle of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth before he managed to stabilize himself. Yet, he had still withstood the assault.
Despite being weaker in both realm and numbers, he had not shown any signs of defeat even after being put at a disadvantage. Li Yan, watching from the shadows, couldn't help but feel a sense of admiration. This man was truly capable, even more ferocious than the Ten-Pace Courtyard cultivators he had seen before.
At the same time, from this single exchange, Li Yan also gained some understanding of the Beast-Refining Mountain cultivators. The combination of demonic beast essence souls in their magical treasures followed a certain pattern. The most obvious one was a balance of offense and defense; when an offensive beast appeared, there would be a defensive beast at the ready to protect its master.
As for how many demonic beasts they had refined into their magical treasures, Li Yan was no longer concerned. Seeing as the Nascent Soul from Beast-Refining Mountain had at most seven demonic beast essence souls in his natal magical treasure, an ordinary disciple wouldn't have too many.
The Jade-Blood Sect sword cultivator seemed unfazed after falling behind in the first clash. To Li Yan's surprise, he launched a second attack, once again taking the initiative.
To some, this might seem like a morbid obsession, but Li Yan caught a flicker of cunning in the man's eyes. Li Yan knew this person was no fool. He had clearly tested the cultivation methods of the two opponents, realized he couldn't win, and seemed to have the intention of retreating. He was just hiding it well, still putting on an appearance of fighting to the death.
Li Yan knew he was running out of time. The Ren-surnamed sword cultivator could break away at any moment. Thus, Li Yan fully circulated his concealment art and snuck towards the Silver-Vein Flower.
The three men ahead were locked in a fierce battle, neither side paying much attention to what was behind them. With their cultivation levels being so similar, their Divine Senses and combat awareness were stretched to the limit, and their perception of their surroundings was at its most sensitive.
They simply couldn't believe anyone else was present within a thousand zhang. But just as Ning Xiong was directing the azure snake to meet the enemy, the snake's body suddenly stiffened, as if something was wrong. Ning Xiong thought the Ren-surnamed sword cultivator had launched a surprise attack that his snake had detected first.
He focused his attention to check, but then he realized something was amiss. The azure snake he had refined was looking back uncertainly at a spot behind him. Ning Xiong didn't turn his head, but his Divine Sense swept out. A moment later, his face changed drastically.
How could Ning Xiong's sudden change escape the eyes of Hu Hai and the Ren-surnamed sword cultivator? It was just that their reactions were different. Hu Hai trusted his junior brother. Ning Xiong's change had occurred without any prior voice transmission, so something real must have happened.
The Ren-surnamed sword cultivator, however, thought it was a trick. With a cold sneer, he retreated slightly. On full alert, he then swept out his Divine Sense.
During their fight, both sides had deliberately avoided the Silver-Vein Flower. A battle between Foundation Establishment cultivators could easily destroy a town, so the three had intentionally controlled the battlefield, keeping it a thousand zhang away from the flower. For Foundation Establishment cultivators, a thousand zhang was a distance that could be covered in an instant.
Their reactions were different, but the result was the same. The black flower that had been gently swaying in the wind was gone. It had completely vanished, leaving only a pit in the ground, as if it had been ripped out, roots and all.
At such a close distance, the three of them had noticed nothing. Even though Ning Xiong had sensed something was off beforehand, all he saw now was a pit. For a moment, all three faces were utterly unsightly, especially Hu Hai's and Ning Xiong's.
This Silver-Vein Flower had been within their grasp more than half a day ago. They had only refrained from picking it immediately to lure someone into their trap. Now, it had vanished into thin air. What shocked them most was that it had all happened without a sound.
If not for the fact that Ning Xiong's azure snake was a soul refined from a Shadowmoon Azure Snake, which had an almost pathological sensitivity to light, they might have remained completely oblivious.
The Ren-surnamed sword cultivator's eyes darted around. With a beckoning gesture, the two rainbows of light flew back into his hand and reformed into a single longsword. He chuckled at Hu Hai and Ning Xiong. "Hehehe, the hunter gets pecked in the eye by the goose he was hunting. The chicken flies away and the eggs are broken. What a fine mess, haha..." With that, his body shot backward, leaving only the sound of loud laughter echoing behind him.
Hu Hai and Ning Xiong's eyes just flashed with a fierce light. Hu Hai also shook his head. The two did not give chase, letting the Jade-Blood Sect sword cultivator go.
They knew it was not wise to linger. What had just happened was too strange. They believed the most likely explanation was that a Golden Core stage expert had just passed by and casually took the Silver-Vein Flower.
Mid and high-level cultivators were mostly eccentric individuals. Who knew if that person would come back looking for trouble? So why would they continue to tangle with the Jade-Blood Sect sword cultivator? Besides, that man was truly troublesome. Even with the two of them, though they might have been able to kill him, it would not be a quick affair and would come at a great cost. That was not their purpose here.
Li Yan was actually still hidden nearby and hadn't gone far. The process of approaching the Silver-Vein Flower had gone smoothly, but at the last moment of picking it, he had been discovered by that azure snake, which had essentially broken his "Stealthy Night Art" immortal art.
This nearly caused Li Yan, who had always had absolute confidence in this art among cultivators of the same rank, to flee into the sky. Fortunately, he suppressed his unease and stayed put to observe.
It was unknown whether that azure snake was sensitive to spatial fluctuations or had some other innate talent, but the moment Liayan picked the Silver-Vein Flower with extreme speed, it immediately turned its head and looked towards the flower's location. Thankfully, Li Yan's movements were incredibly fast, and he had instantly tossed the flower into his Earth-Spot.
After that, the azure snake seemed to have lost its target and just looked around hesitantly. This allowed Li Yan to relax a little. Though he was confident he could escape pursuit, he didn't want to have several people chasing him.
Making a fortune in silence was Li Yan's consistent principle. He waited until Hu Hai and Ning Xiong had also hurriedly retrieved their magical treasures and flown off. After about another tea's time, Li Yan slowly revealed himself a thousand zhang away.
He stroked his chin and murmured to himself, "That demonic beast must possess some kind of space-related innate ability. It actually exposed a flaw in a secret art from the Five Immortal Sects with just the soul of a second-tier demonic beast. I'll have to be more careful when using this art in the future."
Clad in a black robe, Li Yan moved through the forest. After leaving the vicinity of the Silver-Vein Flower, he acted with even greater caution. Even so, he still encountered several cultivators along the way. They were either in groups or traveling alone.
Whenever he detected someone with his Divine Sense, he would either avoid them from a distance or restrain his aura and sneak past, not making contact with anyone. Li Yan felt that with his level of caution, coupled with a Divine Sense far superior to his peers, he should be able to reach the "Red Maple Pool " smoothly under most circumstances on this second level, unless he ran into a mid-stage Golden Core cultivator or stronger.
But traveling like this for a long time was taxing on his Divine Sense, and it consumed a lot of Spirit Power. Li Yan thought about the few groups of cultivators he had just encountered and decided to simply drop the "Stealthy Night Art." He reduced the range of his Divine Sense to two hundred li. This way, even if others could detect him, they wouldn't just come looking for trouble unless they were specifically seeking it.
After flying for another few dozen li, Li Yan suddenly looked up in one direction. He had felt a heart-palpitating aura rapidly approaching him from there.
Li Yan quickly expanded the range of his Divine Sense. What he saw made his face change. A middle-aged cultivator in a green robe was leisurely chasing a woman. And the direction they were heading was, by sheer coincidence, exactly where Li Yan was.
It was clear that both of them had already discovered Li Yan, especially the green-robed middle-aged man behind. The moment Li Yan's Divine Sense swept over, a cold, murderous intent flashed in his eyes. His gaze seemed to pierce through the distant forest and lock onto Li Yan. An imposing aura emanated from him without any restraint. At the same time, a cold shout came from his mouth: "Scram!"
"Rhino-Horned Green Python!" Li Yan recognized its true form at a glance. Although it had taken human form, as a demonic beast below the third tier, its demonic aura was still obvious. It was just that this beast had reached the peak of the second tier, so its demonic aura had become extremely faint, but Li Yan still recognized it instantly.
The woman flying in front was also someone Li Yan recognized. It was the full-figured woman in a tight-fitting outfit he had met outside the pagoda when he first entered the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda . At this moment, her face was flushed, her cloud-like black hair was disheveled, and she looked nervous and dishevelled. Her clothes were torn in several places, revealing large patches of snow-white skin, looking utterly seductive.
"Fellow Daoist, save me! I can..." The moment Li Yan spotted the two, the beautiful woman, a complete change from her previous coldness outside the pagoda, bit her pearly teeth and sent a voice transmission to Li Yan. But before she could finish, Li Yan had already changed direction and flown off at high speed, completely ignoring the Rhino-Horned Green Python's earlier disregard for him.
Li Yan had no desire to get involved. The one chasing the beautiful woman was a peak second-tier Rhino-Horned Green Python, likely the overlord of this "Green Python Forest." For this beast to have dominated this place for so many years and still be recorded in the jade slips, its combat power was definitely not as simple as a human Pseudo-Core.
Moreover, the full-figured, beautiful woman's aura was also exposed at this moment; she was clearly a Pseudo-Core cultivator as well. With both at the same realm, for the beautiful woman to be forced into such a state showed how powerful the demonic beast was.
Although cultivators of the same rank had varying combat abilities due to different cultivation methods, in this case, the Rhino-Horned Green Python behind looked calm and composed, while the beautiful woman in front couldn't even get away. How could Li Yan not guess the beast's formidable strength?