Right now, Qian Ji was still refining the Black Cloud Frost Condensation Worm. Apart from not needing someone to protect him, he had to rely on himself for everything. There was no telling when he would come out of seclusion.
These two demonic beasts had had a hard time following him. Due to his own personality and the need to hide his trump cards, they had been unable to walk about outside for many years, spending most of their time hidden in the Earthen Patch.
Now that he was back in the sect, he had no more scruples. He could let them be free for a while.
Moreover, he had already told his Master and Eldest Senior Brother about this matter to avoid any unnecessary trouble that might arise from the sudden appearance of a third-rank Golden Core level demonic beast on Little Bamboo Peak.
In the courtyard, a look of excitement flashed in Zi Kun's eyes. He first pointed a finger into the air, and a small purple flag spun around and levitated in the air.
As Zi Kun activated his cultivation manual, in the next moment, it transformed into a streak of purple light and instantly disappeared into the ground beneath his feet.
Following that, a translucent purple light shield flashed over Li Yan's bamboo courtyard and then vanished, and everything returned to normal.
At the same time, in a certain room on Little Bamboo Peak, Wei Zhongran, who was sitting cross-legged, gently lifted his eyelids. His divine sense was quickly released and retracted. A hint of a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"What a powerful formation. Even a late-stage Golden Core cultivator might not be able to break through it easily!"
He whispered to himself, then re-entered a state of samadhi to practice his breathing exercises.
At this time, Li Yan had already flashed into the cultivation chamber. The door then closed gently and silently behind him.
In the cultivation chamber, Li Yan did not sit cross-legged to cultivate. After sensing that the formation outside had been activated, he quickly swiped his right hand over his left wrist, and a simple and mysterious round rhomboid crystal appeared in his hand.
Gazing at this simple, round rhomboid crystal, Li Yan was somewhat lost in thought. He had not used this item for nearly a hundred years.
Back then, seeing the great power of the Demon Clan, he had once wanted to use this item to transport all his relatives to one place, but in the end, he did not use it.
Li Yan was dazed for a few breaths, then he took a deep breath. With a thought, his figure disappeared from the cultivation chamber.
Zi Kun, still standing in the courtyard holding the token, felt his divine sense stir. He had sensed Li Yan's disappearance, but he was already used to it.
In his view, Li Yan had probably entered the Earthen Patch. The reason he had him set up the formation was to conceal everything here.
'No matter how the master cultivates, I have to go out for a walk first. This is a top-tier sect on a continent, and I, young master, also have a status now!'
With this thought, Zi Kun quickly dashed out of the bamboo courtyard...
In a stone chamber, there was an extremely dense earth spiritual energy. Golden spiritual energy was leaping everywhere.
In the originally empty stone chamber, the space suddenly rippled, and a figure appeared here. The figure quickly changed from blurry to clear; it was Li Yan.
Feeling the earth spiritual energy rushing into his body, Li Yan couldn't help but take a deep, comfortable breath. He instantly felt a sense of comfort all over his body.
He greedily took a few more deep breaths before he opened his eyes.
"Eh? Why is it you? You're not dead yet?"
Just as Li Yan was breathing, a voice suddenly came over.
Then, right in front of Li Yan, a huge middle-aged man's face was looking at him with surprise. In his pair of huge eyes, which were almost half as tall as Li Yan, a smile appeared.
"Greetings, Senior Pingtu!"
Li Yan immediately knelt down respectfully and kowtowed three times while speaking.
"Alright, alright, enough with these mundane formalities. It really surprised me that you didn't perish in the Demon Clan invasion!"
Pingtu shook his giant face, looking Li Yan up and down.
Li Yan, however, did not stand up until he had finished his respectful kowtows.
Although Pingtu had not taught him any cultivation methods, the guidance and help he had given him were no less than that of a master.
If it weren't for the medicinal pills he gave, Gong Chenying would have long since perished, and he himself might have been captured on the spot when he assassinated Dongli Qing in the Demon Realm.
What's more, the Earthen Patch had benefited him endlessly, allowing him to bring out the Snow Mosquito Clan, which had repeatedly helped him when his strength was weak.
In the Sacred Demon City, the Earthen Patch, as an impenetrable space, had saved his and Zhao Min's lives. These instances were undoubtedly acts of rebirth.
"Senior also knows about the Demon Clan invasion?"
"Nonsense. So many demonic beasts from here went out, and only half of them came back. Can't they talk? I'm not deaf!"
Li Yan thought it made sense. Back then, it wasn't just the cultivators of the Desolate Moon Continent who resisted the Demon Clan; the demonic beasts from the secret realm also participated in that great war.
"Senior is right to admonish me. I have just returned to the sect, and have come here immediately!"
"Oh, just returned to the sect? Let me calculate... It seems to have been about a hundred years, right? Were you trapped somewhere?"
Pingtu pondered for a moment. With his experience, he had a rough guess, which was not far from the actual situation.
"Reporting to Senior, this junior was indeed trapped on a foreign continent!"
Upon hearing this, Pingtu's expression shifted slightly, but he did not speak, quietly waiting for Li Yan to continue.
"Back during the Demon Clan invasion, this junior fell into the Devil's Cliff Crevice while fighting an enemy. Then, by a stroke of luck, I did not perish and ended up on the Forsaken Continent..."
Li Yan didn't beat around the bush and quickly began to tell Pingtu about his situation over the years.
From falling into the Devil's Cliff Crevice to reaching the Forsaken Continent, apart from some matters concerning him and Zhao Min, he told him everything.
What Li Yan said this time was basically the truth, which was extremely rare. Apart from telling True Lord Qianchong about his origins more than ten years ago, for a hundred years, Li Yan could only keep many things hidden in his heart.
In front of this artifact spirit, Li Yan's true secrets made him speak without any reservations. After all, the cultivation method he practiced was too special; one mistake and he would be crushed to pieces.
This meant that even Zhao Min could not know many things.
At first, Pingtu was just a little surprised. After all, for a small Foundation Establishment cultivator like Li Yan to be able to pass through the Two-Realm Barrier without dying was unbelievable even for someone with Pingtu's knowledge.
But he had seen more bizarre things, so he was only surprised for a moment and didn't find it too incredible.
But when Li Yan mentioned True Lord Qianchong, an extremely excited look immediately appeared on Pingtu's giant face.
"Kid, you said... you met the old master? Really?"
"Senior, I already said it was just a wisp of his divine will, not his main body..."
"Right, right, right, just a wisp of his divine will. Did you tell the old master about the young master and me?"
In the entire stone chamber, the earth spiritual energy churned violently, as if a monstrous wave had been stirred up. If it were still the Qi Condensation stage Li Yan, he might have been seriously injured by the influx of such dense spiritual energy.
"This junior naturally told Martial Uncle about it. I explained the circumstances of my encounter with Senior, and also some things about Senior Brother Bu Chong before he left here..."
Li Yan's body surged with magical power, protecting his whole body, as he nodded and said. The giant face on the other side showed a look of joy.
"Does the old master still have contact with his main body? Did he say when he can come back?"
"This..."
"What, did the old master run into trouble?"
A fierce look immediately appeared on the giant face. In this space filled with such dense earth spiritual energy, Li Yan actually smelled a pungent, bloody scent.
'The Five Elements Dao-Defiance Pearl is truly the most powerful and malevolent weapon in this world. Although I don't know how much of Senior Pingtu's strength has recovered, how many living beings must have been killed to have such a fierce killing aura!'
"There should be trouble. Martial Uncle Qianchong said that his main body might be trapped somewhere, but his life is not in danger."
After thinking for a moment, Li Yan said, half-truth and half-lie. He didn't want to make Pingtu too anxious.
That wasn't what True Lord Qianchong's divine will had told him back then. He had told him that if he could ascend to the Immortal Spirit Realm, he should go to the Five Immortal Sects to see if Dong Fuyi had returned.
After that, he could let Dong Fuyi go find him. A cultivator who was already at the Body Integration stage two million years ago, a predicament he still hadn't been able to escape from, one can imagine what kind of desperate situation it was.
In his current state, Pingtu had probably only recovered to around the Spirit Transformation stage. Even if he could leave here, it wouldn't be much help.
Hearing Li Yan's words, Pingtu fell silent for a moment.
"Senior, you don't have to worry. Senior Brother Bu Chong has also gone to find him. With his intelligence, he will naturally think of a way."
"If he knows Martial Uncle Qianchong's specific whereabouts, he might even directly ascend to the Immortal Spirit Realm to seek help from the sect."
Li Yan quickly comforted him.
"Oh? You met the young master again? This... how is this possible? This is too much of a coincidence. You've run into everything! Kid, did you come here today to make fun of me?"
Pingtu was first stunned, then that killing intent actually turned towards Li Yan in an instant.
Li Yan knew that the other party didn't want to kill him, but that Pingtu's mood was agitated at the moment, and he couldn't control his own killing intent. Li Yan couldn't help but give a wry smile.
"Senior, you have to let me finish. It's not that I met Senior Brother Bu Chong, but that Senior Brother Bu Chong also found the Forsaken Continent back then and found that wisp of Martial Uncle Qianchong's divine will..."
Li Yan then recounted what he knew of Pei Buchong's situation, and Pingtu's aura gradually calmed down.
"So that's how it is. Your generation of the Gui Water Immortal Sect owes our Ji Earth Immortal Sect quite a few favors. You escaped the Forsaken Continent through the passage discovered by the young master!"
A smile appeared on Pingtu's giant face, followed by a sigh.
"My current strength has only just recovered to the mid-stage of Spirit Transformation. This is undoubtedly a hundred and eight thousand li away from my original realm..."
He whispered this sentence. Li Yan heard the deep helplessness in Pingtu's words. This was of course not just helplessness about his current low strength.
Back then, Pingtu had heard that after the "Five Elements Dao-Defiance Pearl" was transformed into the Wheel of Life and Death, some of the rules within it had been changed by True Lord Qianchong.
Even Pei Buchong, who had reached the Spirit Transformation stage back then, could not restore it and take it out of the secret realm.
This was what led Pingtu, as the artifact spirit, to give three of the five drops of origin power he had painstakingly cultivated to Pei Buchong to carry with him for life-saving purposes, causing Pingtu's strength to decline sharply.
Now, Pingtu was still unable to restore it to the "Five Elements Dao-Defiance Pearl," so he was also unable to leave here. This was the most difficult knot in Pingtu's heart to untie.
"Senior, your main body is unable to leave this place, so even if you want to help, you are powerless. The most important thing now is to restore your strength. I wonder if there is anything this junior can do to help you?"
Li Yan knew that Pingtu's main body was still in slumber. Now that he was a Golden Core cultivator, he wondered if he could be of some help.
"Hehehe, little fellow, it's enough that you have this thought. This place has the best spiritual energy on the Desolate Moon Continent, and top-tier spirit plants that you all don't have."
"It's just that these spirit plants are still not of a high enough grade. To completely heal my injuries, I would probably need a ninth-rank or higher medicinal pill."
"Or, at least a hundred supreme-grade spirit stones could restore about seventy percent of my injuries, perhaps allowing me to recover to the initial-stage of Void Refining. That way, I could try to re-transform into the Five Elements Dao-Defiance Pearl."
"But it's just an attempt. There's about a ten to twenty percent chance of success. After all, that is the power of rules left by the old master."
"However, over these long years, I have been constantly thinking of ways to break the power of the rules, and I have come up with a few methods. Perhaps I can give them a try then."