The man in gray slowly strolled from the cave entrance toward the two figures collapsed on the ground. In the pitch-black cave, he moved like a ghost, silent and traceless, but in the eyes of the fallen woman, his presence grew colder, filling her with trembling fear.
The man in gray glanced at the completely naked Zheng Xingfan, then at the woman, whose black hair was spread across the floor, her body so white it was dazzling even in the darkness, smooth as jade. He murmured to himself.
"It seems you cultivate some kind of seductive union art. His vitality was extremely vigorous just now, and yet, even after the man had fallen, you managed to hold on for a while longer by borrowing the power of his vitality before finally succumbing to the poison!"
This person was, of course, Li Yan. He had entered the cave not for any improper thoughts, but because a bold plan had formed in his mind.
If it was feasible, he might be able to complete his mission without even needing the Nascent Soul cultivators from Windy Cool Mountain to lure out the Demonic General.
Entering the cave was no problem for Li Yan. A casually placed formation like this one generally only provided simple protection, soundproofing, and spiritual sense-blocking effects, mainly serving as a warning system.
Li Yan simply took out the Heaven-Stealing Kerchief and draped it over the formation, and a large hole appeared silently.
What worried Li Yan was what came after he entered with his "Stealthy Night Art." After all, these two were Golden Core masters.
Li Yan hadn't been able to probe with his Divine Sense earlier, but he remembered that when the woman in the green gauze had fought him, she was at the Initial-stage Golden Core. The cultivation of the other man in the cave was unknown.
Under such circumstances, Li Yan became exceptionally careful. For a long time after the hole appeared in the formation at the cave entrance, he stood there silently, his entire figure indistinguishable from the heavy darkness of the night.
A series of blush-inducing cries continuously entered Li Yan's ears, and a wave of heat washed over him. He fiercely circulated his Spirit Power for a full Heavenly Cycle, and only then did a cool sensation spread through his mind.
Holding his breath and concentrating, Li Yan's eyes quickly returned to a state of indifference and clarity. After listening for the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, he placed a hand through the hole corroded by the Heaven-Stealing Kerchief, and the "Fragmented Poison Body" art began to operate silently.
The two inside the cave were at the height of their passion and excitement. Furthermore, Zheng Xingfan was quite confident in his warning formation, never believing that anyone other than a Nascent Soul cultivator could tamper with it without triggering any alarm.
The woman in the green gauze had been in this area for some time, and since she had long harbored thoughts of capturing Zheng Xingfan's heart, she was very familiar with the surroundings. She had seen Zheng Xingfan's formation before.
Under the cover of his stealth, Li Yan released the "Tiger-Devouring Wolf" poison without any hindrance.
"Tiger-Devouring Wolf," a poison with a slightly pungent taste, could be dispersed into the air. When inhaled, the poison would enter the Dantian with the flow of Spirit Power, dissolve into the sea of the Dantian, and rapidly devour Spirit Power.
It caused a cultivator to feel as if their essence blood had been drained in a very short time, leading to fainting or even direct death.
This was one of the three potent poisons Li Yan could currently concoct, and he possessed the antidote for it.
The reason he chose this poison was that he didn't want to kill them before his plan had even begun.
In their moment of bliss turned to tragedy, the woman and Zheng Xingfan would never have imagined that with their own scouts all around, unwittingly acting as their outer guards, their own formation restriction would be so easily breached.
The two were completely unaware of the faint scent seeping into the cave.
Looking at the two people at his feet, Li Yan couldn't help but feel that this sneak attack had been remarkably easy. He just needed to moderately release wisps of the faint poison.
He was afraid that if he misjudged the amount, the two would suddenly die in their excitement.
But the passionate man and woman were completely oblivious to the extremely faint, pungent scent mixed in with the erotic smell that filled the entire cave. Even Li Yan's own nostrils were filled with the decadent air.
The result was so smooth that Li Yan himself found it surprising. If it were a normal situation, even poisoning a single Golden Core cultivator and trying to deceive their extremely keen senses would be incredibly difficult, requiring a constant search for the right opportunity.
'Lust is truly the thing that makes people drop their guard the easiest!' Li Yan inwardly cautioned himself.
With a wave of his hand, Zheng Xingfan's set of white robes on the ground covered the beautiful woman's body. Then he no longer looked at her.
Instead, he shifted his feet lightly, taking a silent, diagonal step to the side, and walked over to the stark-naked Zheng Xingfan.
Zheng Xingfan was not dead, nor had he fainted. It wasn't just him; the beautiful woman at his side was the same. The two of them simply couldn't muster an ounce of Spirit Power, not even the strength to speak.
Seeing Li Yan walk over to him, Zheng Xingfan didn't know what the other party intended to do. He could only see the gray hem of Li Yan's robes and the tips of his exposed feet.
From beginning to end, he hadn't even seen Li Yan's face. In his terror, he tried to shout, but only an extremely low, muffled whimper escaped his throat.
Li Yan looked at Zheng Xingfan, who was lying on his side. His hearing was excellent, and he could still make out that the two words Zheng Xingfan had managed to utter were "Poison... cultivator."
Poison Cultivator, a cold and ruthless cultivator who walks in the darkness. This kind of cultivator could kill without a trace, and even kill opponents of a higher realm.
To hunt their enemies, they would use any means necessary, capable of lying in wait for long periods, enduring powerless solitude and loneliness.
For a simple act of poisoning, they might even use themselves as bait, putting themselves in danger to lure out their prey.
They could poison vast numbers of innocent people with a wave of their hand without feeling the slightest guilt. All these things were what Zheng Xingfan and others knew about Poison Cultivators.
Zheng Xingfan was terrified. He had always been wary of opponents being Poison Cultivators when he fought, but today, fortune and nightmare had arrived at the same time.
At his moment of greatest excitement and happiness, this person had risen from hell like a ghost. He even wondered if this person had been sent by Venerable Wan.
Zheng Xingfan wanted to see this person's face clearly and argue his case, saying everything he could think of so that Venerable Wan couldn't just kill him so casually.
But there was not a shred of strength in his body. He didn't even know why he had lost the ability to resist a step ahead of the woman, a result of having much of his primordial Yang absorbed without his knowledge.
The woman's condition was slightly better than Zheng Xingfan's, but she didn't dare make any sound to disturb this strange person who was approaching Zheng Xingfan.
She had been in the process of refining the primordial Yang absorbed from Zheng Xingfan and had thus lingered in her ecstasy for a moment longer, holding on for a bit more time. But this, in turn, made her even more terrified.
Li Yan looked back at the woman covered by the white robe. She happened to be able to see this side and was staring intently with her beautiful eyes, not making a single sound.
Li Yan gave a gentle laugh, a brilliant smile spreading across his face. Then he turned his head back and slowly squatted down.
Zheng Xingfan finally saw clearly that it was an ordinary, unremarkable young face. He quickly searched his memory for any recollection of this person.
But no matter how he tried, he couldn't remember anyone like this by Venerable Wan's side.
This sent a growing chill through his heart. He knew that some Poison Cultivators were more skilled in assassination. They normally wouldn't appear before others and were used by their masters as a last resort.
They liked to hide in the shadows. They either didn't act, or when they did, there was absolutely no room for maneuver.
The person before him must be a secret assassin trained by Venerable Wan. Didn't that mean his earlier boasts had all fallen into this person's ears?
Zheng Xingfan's lips trembled, his teeth chattering uncontrollably, making a dense "kakakaka" sound.
He tried to control his emotions, desperate to say something, but all that came out was a low mumble and the clacking of his teeth.
Li Yan reached out and patted his face, finally speaking in a very low voice that only the three of them could hear.
"The mysterious power from the Desolate Moon Continent!"
Then, before Zheng Xingfan's somewhat stunned gaze, Li Yan raised his right hand. A yellow light flashed, and a folding fan appeared in his hand.
Without a moment's pause, Li Yan's left hand slid lightly across the fan's ribs, and a rice-grain-sized red flame shot out.
In the dark pupils of the woman not far away, the rice-grain flame drew a thin line of light and landed on one of Zheng Xingfan's feet.
It was a large, bare foot. The moment the rice-grain flame landed on it, a "tzzz" sound was heard, and a tiny hole appeared on Zheng Xingfan's foot.
The speck of flame bored right in. Immediately, Zheng Xingfan's entire body began to shake violently and uncontrollably. He himself didn't even know what had happened.
An unbearable, intense pain shot up from the sole of his foot. He wanted to sit up, to see, to remove this intolerable agony.
But he couldn't do it at all. His body was completely devoid of strength. His throat could only produce more and more suppressed whimpers.
His face was contorted by the excruciating pain, his former handsomeness and heroic bearing gone.
A strange smell of roasting meat, or rather, the stench of burnt flesh, filled the air.
Meanwhile, the beautiful woman on the other side had her mouth agape in horror, her eyes reflecting the dancing speck of starlight-like flame.
From her perspective, she witnessed a scene that made her blood run cold. A rice-grain-sized red dot of light bored into one of Zheng Xingfan's feet.
Like a small red fish leaping into the sea, the inside of Zheng Xingfan's entire foot began to flicker, now bright, now dim. It was clearly a ball of flame, dancing and burning within.
What sent chills down the woman's spine was that, apart from being completely red, the outer skin of Zheng Xingfan's foot showed no other abnormalities; it was perfectly intact.
Only wisps of green smoke continuously rose from the hole where the red flame had entered, carrying the smell of burning flesh that gradually filled the air and was slowly inhaled by her.
This caused the woman, while feeling extreme cold, to have her full bosom under the white robe begin to rise and fall violently, just as she had been in her moment of rapturous excitement.
As the ball of flame danced and burned within Zheng Xingfan's foot, the red flame actually traveled up, spreading from his ankle to the inside of his calf.
The skin on Zheng Xingfan's ankle and calf also turned red as it went up, like a slowly expanding, successively lit, bright red lantern.
The woman's gaze subconsciously shifted to Zheng Xingfan's face. It was a face that could no longer be called a face.
His eyes, nose, mouth, and even his ears were no longer in their original positions, a result of extreme contortion.
The woman could even imagine that wherever the red flame passed under Zheng Xingfan's skin, it was like a greedy red venomous snake, causing his flesh and blood to sizzle and shrink upwards like a receding tide, rapidly disappearing.
The once strong, green tendons became withered and charred upon contact, then turned into black charcoal before dissipating into nothingness.
What kind of pain was that? The woman dared not imagine. Her gaze toward Li Yan was now filled with boundless terror and trepidation.
And that man in gray just squatted there, holding his folding fan, staring intently as Zheng Xingfan's leg slowly turned into a long, bright red lantern...