Just as Li Yan was entering and exiting the passage, in a space at the very center of the Wheel of Life and Death's core, an ancient voice boomed, causing the dense yellow qi here to roil. "This little fellow actually has a self-circulating five-elemental spirit root. This familiar aura... I remember now, it should be someone from the Gui Water Immortal Sect. Heh heh, millions of years, and I've waited for someone from the Gui Water Immortal Sect. The little fellow is very interesting; he discovered a few of the little tricks I deliberately left for my Five Immortal Sect people. But the aura of those disorderly five-elemental spirit root people makes me very uncomfortable. There are actually hundreds of such five-elemental spirit root creatures. They are all inferior. Those who plot shall die." The ancient voice slowly faded, but it penetrated this space and flew into the five-elemental space of the Wheel of Life and Death.
Li Yan, who was flying through the five-colored space, suddenly paused. He seemed to have heard a voice echoing in his mind just now. An ancient voice in that voice actually gave him the urge to kill all the people with five-elemental spirit roots here. The voice seemed to have a magical power, causing a murderous intent to rise in his heart, his emotions in turmoil. His sanity was lost, and his eyes began to fill with blood. But at the same time as he heard this voice, the True Scripture of Gui Water in his body involuntarily accelerated its circulation. A stream of spiritual energy rushed straight to his Niwan Palace, giving him a jolt and clearing his mind considerably. Li Yan's vigilance rose sharply.
Li Yan quickly circulated the True Scripture of Gui Water and then rapidly spread his divine sense in all directions. But after a moment, he withdrew his divine sense with some doubt. Besides the dancing ribbons of light, he had found nothing unusual.
'This place is truly bizarre, but I definitely didn't mishear. I must be extra careful,' Li Yan thought to himself. He immediately slowed down his speed and flew with his full attention on any movement within his divine sense.
Li Yan flew towards a yellow ribbon of light. He did not immediately go to find the other two purple ribbons of light. If according to the rules of the Wheel of Life and Death, blue rhomboid crystals with the same core color would not intersect, then when Li Yan arrived in this five-elemental space outside the passage, he was basically certain that these two ribbons of light should be very far apart. Now, in his line of sight, there was a yellow and a pure white ribbon of light on his left and right. He observed silently for a while and found that the yellow ribbon of light was moving towards his purple ribbon of light at a slightly faster speed. This meant that Gong Chenying and the others might intersect with this yellow ribbon of light. Li Yan knew that pure white was the color chosen by the Ten-Pace Courtyard, so the passage within should be that of their cultivators. Li Yan planned to cause some trouble for the cultivators on these two paths before looking for Baili Yuan and the others. At the same time, he had to confirm one thing, otherwise he would have no choice but to return to the purple ribbon of light's passage.
The yellow ribbon of light Li Yan was heading towards was only about twenty li away from his purple ribbon just now, and now it had moved to about seventeen or eighteen li away. In this sky, even if Li Yan slowed down, this distance of a dozen or so li was only a matter of two or three breaths before he arrived.
Li Yan stood on the yellow ribbon of light, his figure rising and falling with it. He took out the blue rhomboid crystal, and his divine sense quickly sank into it. Soon, his divine sense arrived at the core. Just as he entered, his divine sense once again transformed into his appearance here. Li Yan quickly landed on the small path with ten semicircular archways on the ground. After observing for a long time, it was just as he had judged. Whichever ribbon of light the crystal was closer to, the map in its core would change to the terrain of that current ribbon. After confirming this point, Li Yan finally felt relieved. Otherwise, if he went to look for Baili Yuan and Gan Shi, even if he found the two purple ribbons of light, he wouldn't be able to know the position of the semicircular archways. Most importantly, he wouldn't know the current position of the team within the passage. Even if he happened to find a semicircular archway without a map, if he entered and found himself in an area covered by the giant black shadow, he would be turned to dust the moment he showed his head. That would be no different from suicide. How could he do such a thing?
Now that he had confirmed that the blue rhomboid crystal he held could indeed display the map of the current passage, Li Yan's divine sense locked onto the brightest gate, which was the fifth one. In the five-colored world, Li Yan flew quickly towards the seventh gate. The distance of several li was covered in the blink of an eye. By the time Li Yan arrived at the seventh gate, the bottom of the sixth gate in the crystal's core within his divine sense had already lit up. Clearly, the cultivators here were passing through at a relatively fast speed.
Li Yan didn't delay any longer. He circulated the True Scripture of Gui Water, and in a short while, the blue rhomboid crystal in his hand was shining with a brilliant green light. He then disappeared from outside the ribbon of light. And just a breath later, Li Yan reappeared outside this yellow ribbon of light, his face expressionless, holding the crystal.
'So this is a team of demonic beasts, and they are all flying types. No wonder their progress is so fast. Although I didn't dare to release my divine sense to approach that late-stage, second-tier demonic beast, from the fact that it wasn't holding a blue rhomboid crystal, it clearly doesn't need to maintain the five-elemental balance within. This is the second team of demonic beasts I've encountered. It seems the demonic beasts really haven't allied with the three sects. Judging by their numbers, there are still ten first-tier demonic beasts left, but I don't know how many will be left when they finally meet Senior Sister Gong and the others.' A smile curled on Li Yan's lips, but it seemed somewhat sinister.
When he had entered just now, his divine sense had quickly probed the other party. It was just a quick release and retraction, so that late-stage, second-tier Skypiercing Celestial Bull had not discovered his existence. This was precisely why Li Yan had chosen the seventh gate further back. After experiencing three trials, he knew that in the passage, whether it was cultivators or demonic beasts, their divine senses were mostly focused behind them or in their current area. They rarely probed forward. Probing behind was to constantly confirm the distance of the giant black shadow in the sky, so as to adjust their forward speed at any time. Placing their divine sense in the team's current area was naturally to deal with the overwhelming attacks. If they weren't careful, even a Foundation Establishment cultivator could die on the spot. As for the area ahead, their divine sense would at most extend a hundred meters, as a necessity for clearing the path. Any further was meaningless. There was nothing but dead silence there, so no cultivator or demonic beast would waste their divine sense power to probe so far, especially after experiencing a few trials and knowing the rules here. So Li Yan chose to enter from a distance of two li away from them.
After entering, Li Yan discovered that this was a place of corridors and palace walls. He was standing on a crimson high wall dozens of fathoms tall. Below was a long alleyway flanked by two crimson high walls. After confirming with his divine sense that the other party was not from the three sects, he already felt that his presence had faintly begun to trigger the restrictive rules here. How could he dare to delay? The blue rhomboid crystal in one hand shone with a brilliant green light, while he waved his other hand towards the sky. Immediately, a dozen or so Bee Gu flew out from his Spirit Beast Pouch. At the same time, he had vanished from the passage.
The crimson palace walls were immensely tall. Looking up, it was as if one were in a cold, desolate imperial palace, able to see only a sliver of the sky. A large man clad in crimson-black armor was wielding a great lance, dancing like the wind, his two huge black wings beating rapidly as he advanced. But the armor on his body was already in tatters. There was a large, damaged depression on his back, clearly struck by a heavy object, breaking the armor and piercing the bone.
Red shadows would occasionally shoot out from the crimson palace walls, as if peeling off pieces of red wall skin. These red shadows were flat, with triangular heads and blood-basin mouths, bearing a slight resemblance to Crimson-Blood Demon Bats, but their attacks were several times more ferocious. While biting, their mouths would constantly spray out a large amount of red mist, instantly filling the palace alleyway with it.
The man in the crimson-black armor was named Potian, a prodigy of the Celestial Bull clan among demonic beasts. His strength could move mountains, and his cultivation had reached the peak of the late-stage second-tier, equivalent to a human cultivator's Pseudo-Core realm. The ten demonic beasts behind him were from the Celestial Bull and Saintly Light Moth clans. At this moment, Potian's black face had turned purple, and he let out a few low roars from his throat from time to time.
"Those monks in the last trial were ferocious. They actually killed fifteen of my boys. In the first trial, in the battle against the Blackwind Demon Wolves, I only lost five of my boys." He looked back resentfully. Only six Celestial Bulls and four Saintly Light Moths were left behind him. They were all injured, but with the ferocity of demonic beasts, they showed no sign of fatigue. Instead, their eyes were filled with madness.
"The Six-Syllable True Word of the leading monk was extremely tricky. I was actually trapped by it. If I hadn't sacrificed a Natal Spirit Light at the critical moment to block that fatal blow, I would have surely died. What a pity, one of my two Natal Spirit Lights is gone, and my realm has now fallen from the peak to the late stage. Dammit, dammit, dammit!"
Potian repeated "dammit" several times, showing the hatred in his heart. A demonic beast's Natal Spirit Light was the essence of its cultivation, second only to its demonic core. One could cultivate one upon reaching the second tier, and another at the peak of the second tier. When one cultivated a third, one could enter the third tier, like a human forming a Golden Core.
This time, his mind had been trapped by a Foundation Establishment monk's Six-Syllable True Word. The monk had taken the opportunity to use his Jiuhua Chan Staff, striking his back so hard that his armor shattered and flew off, breaking several of his back bones and injuring his internal organs. If he hadn't hastily sacrificed a Natal Spirit Light, he would have likely been smashed into a pulp by that one staff strike. That was a full-power attack from a peak Foundation Establishment cultivator. In the end, although they killed all the cultivators, Potian's side was left with only ten first-tier demonic beasts, and he himself was heavily injured. Fortunately, there were two hours of recovery time in each trial, so they had managed to recover a little. But thinking of how a human cultivator had used despicable means to make his realm fall, his anger soared. It would take at least a dozen years to cultivate back that Natal Spirit Light. With his ability, he had believed that he would have no problem getting into the top two in this Wheel of Life and Death. He did indeed have the capital for it. The prowess of the Celestial Bull clan combined with the agility of the Saintly Light Moths... if they hadn't run into a team of more than forty people from two sects at once, Potian would have truly been hard to match.
"My boys, in another five li, we'll reach the ten-li mark again. We must be careful this time." Potian was already filled with rage, and with the harassment of these endless red monsters, they had long since held their breath. Although this red mist was not fatal, when sprayed by so many red monsters, it had already become a threat to their lives. As Potian's huge black wings beat, a black radiance suddenly shot out from between his eyebrows, directly sweeping into the red mist in the air.