Li Yan and Zhao Min were now standing in front of a stretch of dilapidated city walls. Above the walls behind them, a bright yellow vortex was slowly rotating—the very place they had just come from. The token for the "Hellsoul Clan" secret grotto could only be used once. Upon entry, it would emit a protective green light to envelop the token holder. When the green light came into contact with the entrance's formation restriction, the person entering would be teleported away, and the token would subsequently vanish.
Li Yan knew the method from the jade slip and also knew that these tokens, after being collected, would be sold to other cultivators again.
'This is almost a no-cost business!' Li Yan thought to himself. Although the cost of refining these tokens was not insignificant, he estimated that the cost had long been recovered. A token was needed to enter, but getting out was very simple; one just had to throw oneself into the bright yellow vortex above.
Li Yan and Zhao Min looked around. They did not find anyone else nearby, or rather, any other living creatures. The surroundings were dead silent. Even the cultivator who had issued the warning earlier was nowhere to be found. Apparently, that person was only responsible for guarding this place and did not want to meet others. If you had a token, you could enter. Otherwise, if you got close, he would activate the formation restriction to attack.
Li Yan immediately spread his Divine Sense. After just a few breaths, "There's no one nearby for now. Let's go!"
Zhao Min naturally had no objection to what Li Yan said. She followed Li Yan and flew rapidly forward. The aura around their bodies also quickly concealed itself, trying not to attract the attention of others.
"How could Wusitu appear here by such a coincidence?" Zhao Min asked via voice transmission. That Wusitu definitely hated the two of them. When there was an enemy nearby, you either killed them or stayed far away. This was Zhao Min's most direct way of thinking.
"It should just be a coincidence. His surprised expression didn't seem feigned. Especially after he said one sentence to me, the four people who came with him immediately became wary of him. They should also be here to find some cultivation resources. These few people might have formed a team in advance. It was just a chance encounter. In that kind of environment, for an acquaintance of Wusitu to suddenly appear, it was only natural for the others to become vigilant, which led to that situation."
Li Yan replied via voice transmission.
"Oh, so that's why you left without another word. Junior brother, you are truly treacherous!"
Just now, Li Yan had not waited for Wusitu to explain to the others. He had only said one sentence and then left immediately, precisely to arouse the suspicion of those few people. The less Li Yan explained, the more those people would suspect that he and Zhao Min might be helpers that Wusitu had found, with some ulterior motive.
Actually, if one thought about it for a moment, this was impossible. If you were looking for others as helpers, it would be better for both sides to pretend not to know each other. But even so, for anyone, even if they felt that the situation was not as it seemed on the surface, they would still have suspicions. Similarly, those few people would not easily let Wusitu go. They would definitely make him explain clearly. With this slight delay, Li Yan and Zhao Min had already entered the "Hellsoul Clan" secret grotto.
In the afterglow of the never-setting "sunset," the figures of the two grew smaller and smaller, slowly becoming two small black dots, and quickly disappeared over the horizon.
Wusitu looked at the four people who were faintly surrounding him, feeling somewhat indignant. That Zhang Ming and the other person had only glanced at him sideways, said a vague sentence, and then quickly left. He was immediately suspected by the others. But he knew that at this time, it was best not to move, otherwise it would cause more misunderstandings, and even lead to the few of them attacking him at the same time.
Amidst his indignation, another thought suddenly rose in his mind. They had come to the secret grotto this time, the five of them had actually agreed on it four years ago. In these four years, they had each been preparing to obtain that item. Originally, the five of them should have arrived here twenty days ago, but because Wusitu had not yet recovered from being poisoned, they had been delayed for a lot of time.
"I imagine you are all aware of my poisoning. In fact, it was caused by those two just now!" Wusitu had regained his composure, but as he looked at the location of the bright yellow light shield where Li Yan had left, a murderous glint flashed in the depths of his eyes.
"Oh, Wusitu, so you were actually injured by these two. Which sect or family are they disciples of?" the revealingly dressed, bewitching woman said in surprise.
"I don't know, but the two of them may be from the same sect. You all know what I'm capable of. To be able to poison me is not as simple as just throwing out some poison mist or liquid. One of them must be an extremely powerful poison cultivator, or perhaps both of them are from a poison cultivation lineage. The man is called Zhang Ming, and the woman, I only know her surname is Zhao!"
Although the antidote was given by Zhang Ming, Wusitu still couldn't deduce whether it was really Zhang Ming who had poisoned him, or if it was a trap set by the two of them together. Facing one poison cultivator and facing two poison cultivators were completely different concepts. It was not a simple addition of power, but the level of danger would increase several times. Therefore, after his poison was cured, Wusitu had also thought of looking for Zhang Ming and the other person, but at the same time, he had been hesitating.
"At least one of them is a poison cultivator? Then is their purpose for coming here the same as ours?" the hunchbacked man said, tilting his head and looking at Wusitu sideways.
"As Fellow Daoist Sha said, there is a poison cultivator among them, and the icy venom in the body of the 'Black Cloud Frost-Condensing Worm' is also of great help to poison cultivators. And the news of the 'Black Cloud Frost-Condensing Worm's' appearance was also spread five years ago. If you add the preparation time, it's about the same time we would run into each other. However, I really have no way of knowing their true purpose for coming here!"
Wusitu also said coldly. These four people were still surrounding him, their auras firmly locked on him, looking as if they were ready to attack at any moment. This made Wusitu very displeased. Anyone could see that this was a little trick of Zhang Ming's.
"Simple. Just kill them when we see them again!" The person in the black cloak's voice was somewhat hoarse. A Late-stage Golden Core and an Initial-stage Golden Core brat, that's all. Their side had the numbers. What's more, there was also a poison cultivator among the five of them. Even Wusitu could be considered a poison cultivator. So they had ways to counter poison cultivators.
Even Wusitu thought so. If he also used a technique with corpse poison on the other party, it would be extremely difficult for them to detoxify it. He didn't know the other party's poison, but the other party might not be able to cure his poison either.
"It's better to have less trouble than more. To kill two Golden Core cultivators, if the other party fights with their lives, someone among us will inevitably be injured." The thin, dark, and withered old Daoist who had not spoken, his voice was deep. Apparently, he did not agree.
For a moment, the revealingly dressed, bewitching woman and the hunchbacked man's eyes also flickered. They did not immediately express their attitude.
Wusitu narrowed his eyes slightly, then he suddenly spoke.
"I have a piece of news here. Some time ago, my clan participated in the siege of the Tianlan Clan. I imagine you are all aware of this. What I want to say is that the matter of the Tianli Clan cultivators killing mortals was brought out by these two. They also got a chance to enter the 'Wood Essence Pool' from my clan. This is also the reason for my conflict with them. The other six clans also gave them a lot of good things because of this…"
He stopped after saying this much.
"What? Your clan's 'Wood Essence Pool' allowed them to use it?" The hunchbacked man was the first to cry out. The other three's expressions were also uncertain. They of course knew what the Giant Wood Clan's "Wood Essence Pool" was. It was said to be a supreme treasure that was useful even to Nascent Soul cultivators. They also knew that it was almost impossible for outsiders to enter. At least, they had never heard of any outsiders entering.
Of course, the few of them had also wanted to enter before, but no matter what their relationship with Wusitu was, or how willing they were to pay a huge price, they had all failed in the end.
"Are you saying that the destruction of the Tianlan Clan is related to these two?" The bewitching woman's voice also lost its charm and became slow. If one looked closely at her eyes, they were revealing an incomparably greedy light.
"It's not wrong to say that. Although he only brought out the news, you all know how great the impact of that event was!"
"In other words, they have a lot of gifts from your alliance on them…" The black-cloaked person's voice became even hoarser.
"Let's capture the 'Black Cloud Frost-Condensing Worm' first. Then we'll look for these two in the grotto. They definitely won't leave for a while. We might have an unexpected harvest then!" The thin, dark, and withered old Daoist also nodded with a smile. The two of them, who were willing to spend tens of thousands of Spirit Stones to come here, how could they leave so easily?
What they didn't know was that Wusitu had not mentioned that Li Yan and his companion had directly rescued A Guxi and the others. Although that would have better highlighted Zhang Ming and the other person's importance, it would have also shown how bold they were, a feeling of having nothing to fear. Once he said that, it would only make these four people associate Zhang Ming with an extremely terrifying force behind him. That would instead turn into fear of the other party.
Li Yan and Zhao Min flew under the afterglow of the never-setting "sunset." The sky above was pitch black, and below was a vast expanse of yellow sand glowing with a dim yellow light, forming a strange scene. They had already been flying for half an incense stick's time. Besides the different dilapidated ruins that appeared in the yellow sand below, they had only encountered one cultivator along the way. Although that cultivator was also a Golden Core cultivator, the moment he sensed Li Yan and the other person's aura, he immediately fled far away, not staying for a moment.
Su Hong had said that although there were not as many cultivators here as before, it was still a good place to kill and rob.
Li Yan followed the route in the jade slip and led Zhao Min towards a certain direction. The place they were going to was called "Blackwater Canyon." There was a river there, and the river water was bone-chillingly cold. It was said to lead directly to the Land of the Nine Serenities, but no one had confirmed this to be true. But it was enough to show how deep this river was. The Spiritual Energy in the river was extremely thin, and the types of creatures that could survive were also extremely rare. And that "Howling Cold Stone" was said to have been discovered by someone on a certain section of the river bank. So for a period of time, many cultivators came here to search, but found nothing more. Some people even went into the depths of the river to search. Not only did they not find the "Howling Cold Stone," but some cultivators never surfaced again.
Later, according to some cultivators who had entered the river, this small, not-wide river was unusually deep, as if it were endless. They had not found any treasures after trying to descend continuously. And the further down they went, the more their magical power was consumed. Later, almost every inch they descended, the consumption of magical power was several times that of before. But there were still some cultivators who, out of a fluke, kept diving. The next moment, the magical power in their bodies was consumed at an incredible speed, and they sank before they could even swallow a medicinal pill…
However, Li Yan still wanted to go and have a look. Opportunities were often not laid out in front of you, but had to be sought. The danger was a reminder for him to be more careful.
At this time, a large area of dilapidated houses appeared in the desert below. The light around the flying Li Yan and Zhao Min suddenly flickered rapidly. In an instant, the two of them disappeared from the sky.
At the same time, "swish swish swish…" sharp sounds of breaking through the air rang out. Streaks of yellow light shot towards the sky from the yellow sand below, passing through the position where Li Yan and Zhao Min had just been!