Li Yan glanced at Yang Youxian, who was now more dead than alive under his palm. To obtain more memories, Li Yan had long since protected his sea of consciousness with magical power.
Otherwise, under such a brutal soul search, Yang Youxian wouldn't have lasted ten breaths before his sea of consciousness collapsed and he died.
The moment Li Yan's palm left Yang Youxian's head, the seven or eight storage pouches on Yang Youxian's body, as well as the amber-colored jade bracelet on his wrist, all flew off. Then, a medicinal pill also flew into Yang Youxian's mouth.
Subsequently, Yang Youxian's figure vanished from the ground, having been collected by Li Yan. Li Yan did not kill him immediately.
He had always been cautious and thoughtful in his actions. For someone like Yang Youxian, the sect would most likely have a soul lamp or life tablet of some sort. Once he died, the sect would know in the next moment.
Such things would surely be in Yang Youxian's own memories, but Li Yan didn't have time to search through everything. He would just be as careful as possible.
"What did you find out?"
Just then, a voice came from a corner of the wall, and then a black figure quickly materialized from the void. It was Gong Shanhe. He had been waiting in the room all along. Of course, Yang Youxian couldn't have discovered his presence.
Besides, even if he had, it would only have made him more terrified.
"His master is called 'Venerable Green Sea', the Third Island Master, the mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator."
"And the one whose arms were cut off by the Great Elder last time is the Second Island Master. Although he has already regrown his arms, a stream of the Great Elder's power still remains in his body, and he is in seclusion to dissolve it."
"According to Yang Youxian's own speculation, the Second Island Master's strength may only be seventy or eighty percent of what it used to be. Therefore, the current Nascent Soul level combat power on the island is lower than before."
"Similarly, in that battle, because the Sea-Breaking Beasts did not know the situation, they also participated in the attack on the fleeing Great Elder."
"They also had a fourth-rank Sea-Breaking Beast whose physical body was blown up by the Great Elder during a sneak attack. Therefore, the two sides have not had another major battle yet."
"As for the remaining matters, I mainly searched Yang Youxian's recent memories and information about the people he interacts with the most. I didn't check too many trivial matters."
Gong Shanhe nodded. This was all part of their plan. For two Nascent Soul cultivators to plot against a Golden Core cultivator was simply too easy.
"Your aura concealment technique should be fine, but are you really confident about transforming into his appearance and entering their sect?"
Now that things had come to this, Gong Shanhe knew it was time to make a real move. Li Yan had previously insisted that he would be the one to transform into the other's appearance and was very confident of not being discovered. He had been worried all along.
"Hehehe… to be precise, it's a disguise, not a transformation!"
As Li Yan replied, he reached out and opened Yang Youxian's storage pouches one by one. Even if the other party wasn't dead, the divine sense imprints left on them were like nothing in front of Li Yan.
With the other's memories, he familiarly opened the storage pouches and quickly checked them. He still had to first confirm if the items for concealing his identity were all there after he disguised himself as the other party.
He couldn't delay here for too long, lest the Shopkeeper Wu who was still waiting outside came looking for him.
Thus, after quickly confirming Yang Youxian's sect token and some of the tokens for transacting with the shop here, under Gong Shanhe's watchful eyes, Li Yan first reverted to his original appearance.
Then, with a slight flash of light in his hand, a gray pill the size of a fingernail appeared. It had no spiritual energy fluctuations at all, and its appearance was dim and dull, colorless and odorless.
Li Yan formed a hand seal, and a pool of clear water appeared out of thin air in front of him. He then dropped the gray pill into the water.
Under Gong Shanhe's strange gaze, the pill quickly dissolved into the water. After waiting for about fifty breaths, Li Yan began to quickly apply the suspended clear water to his own face.
Subsequently, Gong Shanhe was surprised to find that Li Yan began to stretch and pull the skin on his face, even pressing and pulling on his cheekbones.
And those bones also seemed somewhat soft, actually deforming in Li Yan's hands. Yet Li Yan showed no sign of pain, indicating that the pill was very peculiar.
At the same time, Li Yan released his divine sense, constantly observing Yang Youxian's appearance in the Earthen Patch , his hands never stopping…
Another quarter of an hour later, a white-robed cultivator of about forty appeared before Gong Shanhe. This person had fair skin, a cold, stern face with a pair of long, narrow eyes, giving him a very sinister feeling. It was "Yang Youxian," with his storage pouches hanging at his waist.
Gong Shanhe had been constantly observing Li Yan with his divine sense, and in the end, an identical "Yang Youxian" appeared before him.
After "adjusting" his face, Li Yan finally took out a waxy yellow pill, crushed it, and applied it to his face again.
The moment he finished, the realm on Li Yan's body also changed again, instantly and completely solidifying at the late-stage Golden Core , exactly the same as Yang Youxian.
At this moment, even though the two were so close, Gong Shanhe could no longer detect any abnormality in Li Yan's cultivation.
And what surprised Gong Shanhe the most were the two pills, one gray and one yellow, that Li Yan had taken out. He could already see the value of these two pills.
Without using any techniques or spiritual energy, one could change their appearance. It even seemed that the bones under the skin could be altered.
This change had absolutely no cultivator's methods involved. To be precise, it was the most common disguise art in the mortal martial world. But in the eyes of a cultivator, it was a world away from a mortal's disguise art.
And the cultivator's methods for checking illusions were completely useless against this kind of disguise. This was a fundamental change from the bones to the muscles, not a change brought about by a technique.
"No wonder you were so confident. This thing is truly a treasure for passing off the fake as genuine, for killing and plundering!"
After Gong Shanhe carefully probed again and again, he couldn't find any trace of illusion in the appearance of the "Yang Youxian" before him. If he hadn't seen Li Yan change his appearance right in front of him, he would not have believed it.
What Li Yan used was the Verisimilitude Pill that Bu Luo had given him during the Nascent Soul Grand Ceremony.
Back then, if Li Yan's realm hadn't been so much higher than Bu Luo's, and if he wasn't familiar with Bu Luo's aura, he definitely wouldn't have been able to tell that someone had disguised themselves and entered the Malevolent Spirit Sect.
"Yang Youxian" just sneered coldly.
"Then we'll act according to the plan. Clan Head, you wait at the appointed place!"
"When you are entering their sect's grand formation, you must be extremely careful. The moment you notice something is wrong, flee immediately and use the voice transmission talisman I gave you. Escape is the top priority. I will rush over at the fastest speed!"
Gong Shanhe thought for a moment and still said with concern. Although he had made a plan with Li Yan, he always felt guilty for letting the other party put himself in a dangerous situation.
But Li Yan had also analyzed the reasons for him before. His going was indeed more certain than his own. Just his concealed cultivation technique alone was something he himself could not achieve to Li Yan's level.
But a possible hurdle that could still be detected was when using the sect token to enter the Qionglin Sect's protective grand formation.
"It's fine, I've checked everything. That token was also refined with Yang Youxian's essence blood. I will borrow a trace of his essence blood to open it. No one will notice this point."
Another reason Li Yan hadn't killed Yang Youxian immediately was that he still needed him to provide essence blood at any time. But all of this had to be done very secretly, so that no one would discover the strange fluctuation of essence blood appearing.
Li Yan believed that the Earthen Patch could of course shield everything he did, but his movements had to be fast.
Gong Shanhe nodded. He just urged him again. He had already given Li Yan two specially made voice transmission talismans.
He had asked him that if he encountered danger, not to transmit his voice, but to just throw out the special voice transmission talisman to save time for escaping. He would rush over at the first moment.
…
In the secret room on the third floor of the "Immortal Treasure Market," Li Yan looked at the jade account book and the two storage pouches before him, his face showing not much expression. Shopkeeper Wu, on the other hand, was looking at him with a broad smile.
"Senior Brother Yang, here are this month's accounts, the acquired items, and the spirit stones. Please check them."
"Yang Youxian" glanced at them faintly. He first picked up a storage pouch. After his divine sense sank into it, he found that there were four bottles of medicinal pills, three magical treasures, and some materials inside. Among them, a black inkstone was also lying quietly inside.
After withdrawing his divine sense, he put his divine sense into the other storage pouch, and his eyes immediately lit up.
"These are all mid-grade spirit stones, and there are as many as one hundred and ten thousand. The scale of the Qionglin Sect's business is truly not small."
This person was of course Li Yan. He hadn't expected a market shop to have such a high income in a single month.
This was much higher than the monthly income of the former "Falling Star Valley." But on second thought, the Qionglin Sect was a shop run by a first-rate sect with great effort.
And thinking of the thousands upon thousands of disciples in the sect, after taking these spirit stones back for cultivation, with so many Nascent Soul and Golden Core cultivators in the sect, it actually couldn't be considered too much.
Of course, the other party definitely didn't just rely on this one shop to support themselves.
With a placid expression, Li Yan withdrew his divine sense and unceremoniously tied the two storage pouches to his waist. Then he took the jade account book.
The amber-colored jade bracelet on his wrist shot out a ray of light, which hit the jade account book, and it subsequently transformed into a book.
Inside were the records of the month's accounts. Li Yan, familiarly, flipped directly to the last page of the account book and branded a divine sense imprint on it.
He had seen these scenes several times in Yang Youxian's memory, so of course, he was just copying them.
Seeing this, the smile on Shopkeeper Wu's face grew wider.
The cooperation with this Senior Brother Yang was becoming more and more tacit. Since he was so trusting as to put his divine sense on the accounts he had made, then he would not go and check the small tricks he had played.
If he were to follow the normal procedure, Yang Youxian would still have to go to the warehouse and check everything from beginning to end, and then verify it with the account book one by one. In that case, it definitely wouldn't match up.
Then Shopkeeper Wu would be done for. He could just go back to the sect and receive his punishment.
"Alright, Junior Brother Wu, I'll be heading back with Junior Brother Cao now. I'll have to trouble you to take care of the shop here!"
Seeing that the process was finally over, Li Yan immediately took his leave.
"Senior Brother Yang, why are you leaving in such a hurry this time? I've booked a fine banquet at the 'Clear Lotus Inn' tonight, with a specially cooked third-rank 'Flowing Jade Snake'!"
Seeing this, Shopkeeper Wu couldn't help but feel strange. In the past, after Yang Youxian and the others came, they would at least stay for one night, enjoying the delicacies of the Wind Beasts and the alluring bodies at night.
"Next time. There have been some matters in the sect recently, and we're a bit short on Golden Core manpower. I also have to be on duty!"
Li Yan waved his hand. What he said was not nonsense. Now that the Qionglin Sect had one of its Nascent Soul cultivators injured by the Great Elder, all patrols were being strengthened, and all Golden Core cultivators also had to go out on rotation.
Shopkeeper Wu's heart tightened. He immediately knew what the other party was talking about.
"Alright, then we'll get together when Senior Brother Yang and Senior Brother Cao have time. We've got a lot of new, good cauldrons here recently!"
Although Cao Lang was not here, he had always been tactful in his speech. He didn't have a Nascent Soul master as a backer, so he naturally wouldn't offend anyone.
…
Above a sea region, Cao Lang and Yang Youxian stood side by side in a flying magical treasure that resembled a red coral.
Cao Lang looked at the silent Yang Youxian, his mind racing. He had made a lot of spirit stones from purchasing things this time.
"Senior Brother Yang, how did your talk with that person go?"
Cao Lang said with an expectant look. Yang Youxian just sighed.
"To be honest, Junior Brother, we didn't reach an agreement. I observed that magical treasure, and it is also damaged. Its rank has already dropped. At most, it's worth about twenty thousand spirit stones."
"But the other party insisted that my judgment was poor and that it's best to have someone who knows their stuff come and talk in detail. It's just a magical treasure, not some truly rare item. If it were hundreds of thousands or millions of spirit stones, it might be worth our masters coming over."
"Shopkeeper Wu himself has handled so many such deals. The other party was just making an exorbitant demand. He wanted to see a Nascent Soul cultivator, probably because he couldn't determine the rank of the magical treasure himself and wanted to use our masters to appraise it."
"But there's no need for that at all. I can see its value. He's just dreaming!"
"Oh, what kind of magical treasure was it?"
Cao Lang asked again. He had actually inquired about it from Shopkeeper Wu later. He also said they hadn't reached a deal, but he didn't believe it at all. So he himself had gone to the "Clear Lotus Inn" to find that person.
Cao Lang wanted to talk to the other party personally, but unfortunately, that person had already checked out and left.
"It was a strange porcelain bowl with patterns of some unknown small grass carved on it…"
Four days later, after they had made a large detour and avoided the sea region where the Sea-Breaking Beasts were located, at this moment, a stretch of islands appeared in Li Yan's line of sight in the distance.
But these islands were quite large. Just looking from the air, each island was like a medium-sized city. Although the islands were separated by hundreds of li, one could faintly see purple light flowing between them, which was the formation connection between them.
The two flew directly over the islands in front of them without stopping and flew quickly towards the center.
On the surface, Li Yan seemed calm, but in his heart, he was quickly memorizing the scenes he saw. At the same time, he secretly sent out his divine sense to carefully observe the formation below, to reserve an escape route for himself.
When it came to things like sneak attacks, Li Yan felt he was still very experienced. Even though the other party had a late-stage Great Cultivator, for some reason, Li Yan felt a trace of inexplicable excitement in his heart.
Of course, Cao Lang knew nothing of this. He didn't know who he had brought back. He was still talking to "Yang Youxian" off and on.