Thinking of this, Wei Zhongran's brow suddenly furrowed.
'That's not right. How does Li Yan's physical body show traces of having cultivated the Qiongqi Purgatory Art? And its toughness far surpasses that of Chenying and Min'er.'
'This must be the reason he was able to hold on until now. Min'er certainly didn't teach him this; she doesn't have the authority to secretly transmit this art to others. Could it have been Chenying?'
Wei Zhongran was startled. Immediately, he realized that even Gong Chenying couldn't casually pass on her clan's secret arts to outsiders, unless…
'Qing A Wang!' A thought flashed rapidly through Wei Zhongran's mind.
'Could it be that Wuyi and I have been wrong all along, and Li Yan and Chenying are the ones who are truly in love?' Wei Zhongran couldn't help but look at the unconscious Li Yan again.
He then gently shook his head. 'That's not right either. This shouldn't be the Qiongqi Purgatory Art. Even if Chenying taught it to him, no matter how deep their feelings, she could at most teach him up to the third layer.'
'But Li Yan's physical strength was already able to contend with a Mid-stage Golden Core demonic cultivator to some extent. Let alone the third layer of the Qiongqi Purgatory Art, even the fourth layer wouldn't be capable of that.'
'Chenying is a stubborn person; she would never betray her clan's rules, even unto death. Could this be another supreme body refining art, similar to the Qiongqi Purgatory Art?'
'But how did Li Yan obtain this immortal art? And I've never even heard of it…'
For a moment, Wei Zhongran felt that he had guessed wrong again. He knew far more about the Tianli Clan than others and had a deep understanding of the Qiongqi Purgatory Art. He started to feel that perhaps he was being too suspicious.
…
Li Yan only felt his body growing colder and colder, yet his mind was becoming clearer and clearer, as if the cold was waking him up.
As a familiar voice drifted from a distance, "Martial Uncle Wei, why is Junior Brother Li's aura getting more and more chaotic…"
A bolt of lightning flashed through Li Yan's mind, and in an instant, many images flashed before his eyes.
'It seems I was fighting someone before, a Golden Core demonic cultivator. Am… am I dead?'
In an instant, Li Yan remembered many things, but it only brought him panic and fear.
He had never been to the Nine Serenities Underworld, but he felt as if he had arrived there now.
Death was something everyone feared, and Li Yan was no exception. He looked around. It was silent here; he was all alone between heaven and earth.
Even he, who was usually exceptionally calm, felt his heart sink continuously.
'It seems I've gone one step ahead of Bai Rou and the others. That demonic cultivator would never have let Senior Sister Bai and the rest go. Perhaps I'll meet their souls again soon.'
Li Yan felt colder and colder. Feeling his body lose sensation bit by bit, he subconsciously tried several times to raise his magical power to resist, but the once-surging tide of spirit power in his meridians was empty.
Slowly, Li Yan found that his consciousness also had a feeling of detaching from his body. All his consciousness was gathering towards the top of his head, unable to perceive anything else. It was about to break through the Niwan Palace and fly away.
At the same time, in the originally gray sky above Li Yan's head, the dark gray clouds slowly began to swirl, and the speed became faster and faster.
Soon, a vortex formed above Li Yan's head, and the center of the vortex became brighter and brighter.
As the vortex rotated, a huge suction force was generated from the center. At Li Yan's Niwan Palace, his three huns and seven pos faintly appeared, and faces of Li Yan showing joy, sorrow, or anger flickered alternately.
Li Yan was greatly shocked. He already felt that something was wrong. A sharp pain came from his Niwan Palace. This was the instinct of his three huns and seven pos trying to break free from their bonds.
Although he didn't know where he was, he also understood that once his three huns and seven pos left his body, he was not a Nascent Soul cultivator. It would be absolutely impossible to return his soul to its place.
'Don't they say that souls are taken away by the Black and White Impermanence ghosts? Am I going to fly away on my own?'
Looking at the vortex above his head spinning faster and faster, and the white light within it becoming brighter and brighter, it was now dazzling, making the surrounding gray world seem even more colorless.
Under the powerful suction force, a small half of one of Li Yan's huns had already moved out of his body.
Li Yan was shocked and angry. He quickly focused all his consciousness, trying to use it to block his Niwan Palace, but it was all in vain. The situation did not change in the slightest due to his efforts. That hun continued to be pulled longer and stretched upward.
In horror, Li Yan looked down and saw that his entire body was already covered in faint blue flames. Yet he felt no pain, nor could he feel any temperature. It was unspeakably strange.
Li Yan felt his soul being pulled out of his Niwan Palace bit by bit. The only part of his body he had any sensation of now was this small Niwan Palace.
After concentrating his spirit several times, he finally gave a bitter smile and gave up trying. 'Among the six of us, I am the first to walk towards hell after all.'
…
Inside Li Yan's cave residence on Windy Cool Mountain, only Wei Zhongran stood alone. He looked at Li Yan lying on the bed, feeling the soul that was slowly condensing at Li Yan's Niwan Palace, and sighed softly.
"With more than half of his physical body damaged, it's ultimately beyond saving. His soul is already on the verge of dissipating!"
Wei Zhongran slapped his waist with one hand, and a small, almost transparent, pale green bottle appeared at Li Yan's Niwan Palace.
Then, his hands quickly drew several arcs in the air, and one by one, complex, ancient incantations flashing with either white or gold light appeared above Li Yan's prone body, illuminating it with flickering light.
Wei Zhongran could already feel Li Yan's body slowly growing cold. No matter how many mid-grade medicinal pills he had, Li Yan's physical body was almost like a sieve full of holes.
Especially the dozens of ruptured areas in his internal organs, under Wei Zhongran's divine sense, looked like the open mouths of infants, the insides already a mangled mess.
Only heavenly and earthly treasures had the ability to regenerate flesh and continue muscle. Even if Wei Zhongran invited his own master, there would be nothing he could do. Unless a Spirit Transformation cultivator took action, only then would it be possible for Li Yan to be revived, but that was clearly impossible.
Wei Zhongran had heard that the Spirit Transformation ancestors of the Four Great Sects were all in seclusion, preparing for the final, all-out battle with the demonic clan. How could they consume their magical power for a Foundation Establishment cultivator at this time?
Even if he asked his master to plead on his behalf, it would be impossible.
'Judging by the severity of that demonic cultivator's throat injury, the force of Li Yan's final blow was so fierce that if the opponent hadn't been a supreme body cultivator, his neck would have been severed by that one blow.'
Wei Zhongran of course understood how great the rebound force Li Yan had endured was, and he was also surprised by Li Yan's final, desperate blow.
In a sneak attack, he himself was not sure he could take that blow from Li Yan head-on with his physical body.
Wei Zhongran now could only use a spell to first collect Li Yan's soul and later find a suitable body for him to perform Body Seizure. This, which was almost a miracle for mortals, was still achievable in the eyes of powerful cultivators.
And just as those ancient incantations began to condense into a larger one, about to be imprinted on Li Yan's Niwan Palace, a faint silver light suddenly flashed on Li Yan's motionless body.
Although the silver light flashed and was gone, how could it escape Wei Zhongran's eyes? He immediately paused the seal in his hand and looked again intently.
…
Li Yan simply let go of his three huns and seven pos. At this point, what else could he hope for? One by one, familiar faces flashed before his eyes. Li Yan sighed and slowly closed his eyes.
But at this moment, on his body covered in faint blue flames, a point of silver light suddenly appeared at his lower abdomen. No matter how the faint blue flames swayed, they could not cover the brilliance of this point of silver light.
At the same time, an ancient, indifferent voice suddenly appeared in Li Yan's consciousness, "Nine Heavens of the Netherworld, one rebirth per heaven. Crossing the Yellow Springs River, a will undying and unextinguishable."
This voice was very familiar to Li Yan, identical to the indifferent voice in the Silver Page space.
Just as Li Yan was stunned, before he could react to the meaning of the words, the point of silver light at his lower abdomen suddenly became dazzling, sending out circles of silver ripples.
The silver light, like a tidal wave, spread throughout his entire body in an instant.
The faint blue flames on Li Yan's body were immediately suppressed, becoming unsteady. Under the sweep of the silver ripples, in a flash, they covered Li Yan's Niwan Palace and his entire body.
The half of his soul that had already been pulled out was, in the next moment, severed from the suction force coming from the vortex above his head by the silver light. That hun quickly fell back into the Niwan Palace.
…
Wei Zhongran stared intently at the lower abdomen of Li Yan lying on the bed. After a point of silver light appeared, a layer of silver quickly spread and covered his exposed, wounded skin.
In an instant, Li Yan's entire person, including his face, was as if covered by a silver mask, becoming shiny and silver, which was a bit creepy to look at.
Wei Zhongran immediately stopped the seal in his hand. However, his figure did not move, but a golden-yellow color had already appeared on his body.
He stared at Li Yan. Although his hand movements had stopped, if he found anything wrong with Li Yan, he was ready to intervene at any time.
Li Yan's bizarre change, Wei Zhongran's first reaction was "being possessed by someone."
But when his divine sense swept over Li Yan's body, his surprise was mixed with joy. He then carefully scanned it again with his divine sense, just to be sure.
After a long while, he finally muttered, "Is this caused by the Fragmented Poison Body? How can there be such a strange physique in the world?"
In Wei Zhongran's divine sense, under the cover of the silver light, Li Yan's body was slowly recovering. He could clearly see that at some of the broken bones, the tendons and meridians were slowly wriggling.
Even the most severely damaged organs in his body were filled with a silver color, which Wei Zhongran's divine sense could not see through.
But with the appearance of these silver lights, Li Yan was clearly also enduring great pain. The unconscious Li Yan's teeth were chattering, and his body was constantly convulsing.
Even with such great pain, Li Yan still didn't wake up.
…
After losing its target, a ferocious ghost face slowly emerged from the bright center of the vortex above Li Yan's head.
It stared at Li Yan standing on the lone bridge below with a ferocious gaze, its eyes filled with extreme anger. It opened its mouth and let out a silent roar, and the dark clouds still hanging above Li Yan's head suddenly began to rotate rapidly.
But after a moment, the rotating dark clouds, like a ferocious beast that had lost its target, circled a few times. The ferocious ghost face in the center of the vortex above showed confusion and incomprehension in its eyes.
Slowly, the vortex dimmed, and then it finally disappeared without a trace. The sky above Li Yan's head was still a stretch of gray.
Li Yan's originally numb body suddenly felt waves of sharp pain. With a gasp, Li Yan quickly looked down.
He saw that the silver light at his lower abdomen was getting brighter and brighter. The tendons and meridians in his body felt like they were being pulled out one by one, and then violently twisted back together.
Li Yan felt that even his three huns and seven pos were trembling in pain, and sweat was pouring out like a spring.
In this empty space, Li Yan roared continuously, shaking the faint blue flames on his body until they began to fall off one by one.
He was in so much pain that he wanted to run wildly, but his body was still firmly nailed to the bridge.
What frightened him even more was that, under the torment of what felt like ten thousand knives and swords wreaking havoc inside him, his consciousness was becoming clearer and clearer. As a result, the pain he endured was also getting greater and greater.