The stout Demonic General shook his head.
"Bringing the South Sea Nascent Soul cultivators over could be of some use, but if they were to turn on us at a critical moment... especially that Late-stage Nascent Soul Great Cultivator, he likely has some means to temporarily suppress the restriction on his body."
"I imagine that without the presence of Lord Tu Tai and your three ancestors, even you and I together might not be able to restrain him, and it would instead tie up our own forces."
"Placing restrictions on them in the first place was a deterrent, to make them not dare to act rashly. This allowed us to use their disciples to charge the front lines and continuously wear down the strength of the Desolate Moon Continent's cultivators."
"Now, that goal has basically been achieved. It's time for these Golden Core cultivators at the front to exert their final strength."
"When it's time to deploy the South Sea Nascent Souls, Lord Tu Tai will personally supervise the battle."
As he spoke, the stout Demonic General's gaze swept slightly over a group of cultivators to the side. Those were the South Sea Golden Core cultivators who had been placed under restrictions.
Immediately, his gaze sharpened, and his tone became much more sinister.
"What we didn't expect was that those South Sea Nascent Soul cultivators who had already escaped would actually sneak back in and launch this pincer attack."
"I have just received a Ten-Thousand-Li Voice Transmission from the other two Demonic Generals left in the South Sea. When they tried to teleport a portion of the Golden Core cultivators over, they discovered that many of the restrictions had already been removed."
"The sects where the lifted restrictions were discovered have already erupted in rebellion. The South Sea is now a chaotic mess. We are in the process of eradicating some sects from the root!"
After hearing this, the slender, green-robed man's eyebrows twitched slightly. With this sudden turn of events, the Demon Clan would have to accelerate their offensive.
He had been here all this time, on one hand, to coordinate with the other party's actions, and on the other, to wait for the final great battle to begin.
Moreover, when the stout Demonic General had been listening to the voice transmission talisman earlier, he had not hidden it from him, so he was also clear about the situation in the South Sea.
But the slender, green-robed man knew that with the chaos in the South Sea, even if the Demon Clan wanted to use thunderous methods to eradicate dissent, it would be impossible to do so completely.
Their manpower was ultimately limited. Eighty percent of their forces were invested here. At most, they were just making an example of a few over there to warn the others; it likely wouldn't be very effective.
The power of a single Nascent Soul could stir up a region of heaven and earth, let alone several premeditated Nascent Souls.
However, the chaos in the South Sea would not have a fundamental impact on either the Demon Clan or them.
The South Sea was just a battlefield, not their main base. Their numbers had already determined their fate; they were a group of rootless duckweed.
Only by occupying the Devil's Cliff Crevice as soon as possible and breaking it open could they establish the greatest foundation for themselves at present.
"Then let's fight!"
The slender, green-robed man took a deep breath. Watching his subordinates, who had already split into two groups and charged out, a cold light flashed in his eyes.
"Fellow Daoist Tang is right. Today, you and I will kill to our hearts' content. I want to see the strength of the Desolate Moon Continent's top experts!"
As the stout Demonic General spoke, his body had already shot up into the depths of the sky. These two had shockingly both reached the Late-stage Nascent Soul realm—they were Great Cultivators!
...
After the Nascent Soul's Divine Sense was no longer locked on him, Li Yan had already fled westward like an arrow loosed from its string.
He knew very well that soon, there would likely be no safe place within a ten-thousand-li radius. Now, while the two sides had not yet engaged, was the best opportunity to escape.
Seeing Li Yan flee so quickly, the Golden Core cultivator who had been chasing him from behind showed a hint of hesitation in his eyes.
After pausing briefly in the air, he gritted his teeth and continued to chase in the direction Li Yan had fled.
When the Foundation Establishment cultivators behind him saw this, they were secretly delighted and followed suit.
In truth, everyone understood in their hearts: if they could catch up to the cultivator ahead, killing him would be best. Otherwise, their actions constituted fleeing in the face of battle.
Although they were only Foundation Establishment cultivators and would be assigned to the Demon Clan's garrison camp upon return, they were still at the center of the conflict, and no one could predict unexpected events.
Now, if they had a reason to get far away from the center of the battlefield, they couldn't ask for more. Especially since they were just following orders; when it came time to assign blame, they wouldn't be the ones taking the fall.
The Golden Core cultivator who had decided to pursue Li Yan, however, was being somewhat deliberate. He had clearly heard the conversation between the two sides. With his realm, he was definitely supposed to return to participate in the battle.
But he ultimately chose to temporarily leave this place by pursuing Li Yan. Their current location was only a little over seven hundred li from the Demon Clan's garrison camp.
With this Golden Core cultivator's wind-attribute spiritual root, returning to the Demon Clan's camp was more than feasible. He was just pretending not to know.
According to his guess, the kid up ahead must have a great deal to do with the drastic change in the nameless valley. As long as he captured him, he should be able to atone for any mistakes with merit.
...
When Li Yan sensed the Golden Core cultivator leading the chase behind him, he was first stunned, thinking that even in this situation, that person still wouldn't let him go.
However, he was also a quick-witted person. When he sensed that the person was chasing him while also seeming to divert his Divine Sense to constantly keep an eye on the situation behind him, he understood everything.
'He's afraid of battle!'
Thinking of this, Li Yan immediately dismissed him. Since the other party's main intention was to escape and he had reservations, his actions would be timid and hesitant.
The Golden Core cultivator behind him was clearly one who specialized in speed, but with his own "Phoenix Soars to the Heavens" movement skill, plus the trump card of "Rongsun," although he couldn't shake him off over a short distance, the final result would definitely shock the Golden Core cultivator behind him.
Just like that, Li Yan drew an extremely faint trail in the sky and quickly disappeared over the horizon. Not long after, the Golden Core cultivator behind him was horrified to find that with his much-vaunted flight speed, he was actually being left further and further behind.
The Golden Core cultivator already suspected Li Yan's true cultivation level because Li Yan was not using a flying magical treasure, but was also traversing the sky with only his physical body.
The group of Foundation Establishment cultivators behind them had long since been left so far behind they were out of sight.
Li Yan paid no mind to the group of trackers behind him. He just wanted to get as far away from this place as possible. But no matter how fast he was, when he had flown less than a thousand li to the west, he felt a cataclysm descending from behind him. The earth suddenly shook and the mountains swayed.
Even from a thousand li away, all sorts of shrill whistles and explosive sounds shot straight into the clouds, shaking the flowing clouds until they dispersed. The hundred beasts whimpered, scurrying about like headless flies.
Li Yan only felt the qi and blood in his chest churn violently, and an indescribable nausea and discomfort in his abdomen.
The spiritual light around Li Yan's body flashed wildly, like a bright candle in the dark night that could be extinguished at any moment.
After rapidly circulating the Spirit Power through his body for two cycles, Li Yan finally stabilized his figure in the air, a deep sense of fear rising in his heart.
From a thousand li away, just the aftershocks of the collision had nearly caused him to plummet from the sky. If he were in the midst of it, could he last for one or two breaths, or ten?
Li Yan had simply overlooked one point. This time, there were no Foundation Establishment cultivators involved in the clash, so of course, the combatants no longer had to worry about the low-level cultivators on their own side and could let loose.
No matter how fierce Li Yan was among his peers, it was like a child showing off among other children. He did not possess the heaven-defying divine ability to turn the tide.
In the face of absolute power, he too felt boundless fear and a sense of powerlessness.
Terrified, Li Yan spared no Spirit Power. The Spirit Power within the five-element cauldron in his Dantian boiled like a roaring, angry wave, tide after tide, spreading throughout his body without any regard for consumption.
At this moment, the meridians that had been widened by the essence blood of the "Undead Nether Phoenix" were being fully utilized by him. Raging torrents surged through the thick channels.
Li Yan himself, like a meteorite from the sky, drew a very thin, long straight line that was almost invisible to the naked eye, and streaked westward with crushing force.
Before the shocked eyes and gaping mouth of the Golden Core cultivator behind him, the already illusory small dot on the horizon flickered a few times and then completely vanished from his Divine Sense...
And inside his own body, due to the excessive consumption of Spirit Power just now, his meridians were already feeling incredibly sore and swollen. If he were to continue infusing Spirit Power at high intensity, his meridians would snap one by one.
"He... he must have cultivated a top-tier wind-attribute cultivation method..."
The Golden Core cultivator thought to himself with his mouth wide open.
...
The great battle between the two sides began at dawn and lasted until the evening of the next day. Mountain peaks collapsed one after another, rivers flowed backward, and large tracts of forest were turned into scorched earth and wisps of green smoke.
Within a twenty-thousand-li radius, large showers of blood would rain down from the sky from time to time. Magical treasures, having lost their owners, would crash to the earth, creating deep ravines and pits.
The roars of companion spirit beasts shot into the sky, like howls on the verge of death.
Because the Windy Cool Mountain cultivators had advanced along their entire northern front, and the cultivators led by the Mid-stage Nascent Soul expert from "Luoshu Lake" on the southern side were only conducting containing and pincer attacks, the main battlefield gradually shifted away from Windy Cool Mountain.
By noon of the second day, it had already been pushed south by about seven thousand li.
...
When Li Yan returned to Windy Cool Mountain, it was already the evening of the third day. After several days of desperate flight, he had made a large circle from west to north and finally returned to the outskirts of Windy Cool Mountain.
Li Yan slowly emerged from the void, but still maintained an illusory form, ready to hide in the clouds at any moment.
He carefully swept his Divine Sense across the area below. The Windy Cool Mountain's protective grand formation was shimmering with colorful light; it was clearly not in its concealed state, which could only mean that the formation was operating at full power.
The surface light barrier of the grand formation was riddled with thousands of holes. Many places had huge, intersecting cracks, as if it could shatter like a mirror at any moment.
Outside the grand formation, the once beautiful mountains and rivers of Windy Cool Mountain had been razed to vast plains. It was dead silent. Li Yan felt as if he had arrived in an isolated, boundless, lifeless space.
After observing for a long while, he quietly approached a corner of the grand formation. Taking out his Windy Cool Mountain token, he drilled directly in.
The place he chose to enter was an extremely remote area in the back mountains. Li Yan was very careful as he entered, constantly scanning his surroundings with his Divine Sense. If the situation looked bad, he would immediately fly away.
But to his relief, although outside the grand formation was like hell on earth, inside the formation, it was still the Windy Cool Mountain of his memory, the scenery unchanged.
Many cultivators had already appeared within his Divine Sense. Li Yan had an impression of some of them; they were people he had likely met before. From this, Li Yan was certain that Windy Cool Mountain had not fallen.
Just as Li Yan entered and was probing with his Divine Sense, two Golden Core cultivators leading more than twenty people immediately flew towards him from not far away, shouting loudly.
"Who dares to sneak into the grand formation?"
At the same time, Li Yan felt his body being firmly locked onto by the other party. If he were to make any move at this moment, what awaited him would surely be an attack like a violent storm.
Li Yan wasn't surprised at being discovered. He also sensed that although the other party was questioning him, their hostility was not very strong; they were just extremely vigilant.
These people stopped two or three li away from Li Yan.
Li Yan's judgment was based on a very simple reason: the Windy Cool Mountain token could only be used by himself. Even if it were taken by a Golden Core or Nascent Soul cultivator, it would be unusable.
The token contained a trace of the cultivator's Divine Sense. When the cultivator perished, or the token was taken, the Divine Sense would immediately dissipate, or the cultivator could voluntarily withdraw the Divine Sense from the token, at which point the token would be immediately destroyed.
The other party had also rushed over to investigate after receiving a voice transmission from the cultivator guarding the core of the grand formation, rather than a warning triggered by the formation's restrictions being damaged.