As he flew, Li Yan became more and more cautious. In the half-day that had passed, he had encountered six more battle scenes. But he was quick to notice and avoided them early on. These six battles varied in size. The largest involved more than a dozen people fighting, the light from their spells making the originally dark red sky dazzlingly colorful. The sound of explosions was endless, accompanied by shouts and screams, with flesh and blood flying everywhere.
Li Yan couldn't help but sigh. Ever since he entered the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda, there had been constant fighting. Especially after entering the second level, he encountered people fighting almost every day, and he himself had been unavoidably drawn in several times.
"In the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda, human life is treated like straw. And after entering the palace under Red Maple Pool, it's even more of a bloodbath. The fat monk I met earlier was clearly a Chan Monk from the Jingtu Sect, but where was a trace of Buddhist compassion? He was also killing for treasure. Perhaps this is the real training—fighting, robbing, scheming, and the constant pressure of powerful beings on your nerves."
As Li Yan proceeded cautiously, another two days passed. In these two days, he encountered many monks, clearly several times more than before.
The journey was through a desolate desert with solitary smoke, with occasional flashes of ruined walls or large expanses of remnant palace complexes. Under the dark red sky, it all looked bloody and desolate.
Sun Jiuhe's sharp left fingernails had embedded themselves in a cultivator's celestial crown. He looked at the distant desert and said coldly, "You really haven't seen this person?"
A black-clothed cultivator knelt painfully on the ground before him, fresh blood seeping from his forehead and flowing down, like streaks of crimson earthworms crawling on his face. In front of him floated a jade slip. A hazy white light emerged from the slip, showing the figure of a person standing there. It was, of course, Li Yan.
"Really... really... haven't. I have no quarrel with you, fellow Daoist..." The black-clothed cultivator didn't know why these three had cornered him here and then directly captured him. At this moment, he could only speak with a look of terror. But before he could finish his words, with a "kacha" sound, the words in his mouth turned into a screech that was cut short, and his body limply fell.
The burly man beside Sun Jiuhe pursed his lips. "Fellow Daoist Sun, searching like this is not a solution!"
On the other side, the pale-faced cultivator surnamed Qiu saw Sun Jiuhe kill the black-clothed cultivator with a wave of his hand. He couldn't help but lick his lips with his crimson tongue, then unhurriedly took out a jade bottle. Only then did Sun Jiuhe withdraw his left hand with a look of violence, and the black-clothed cultivator fell limply to the ground.
As the black-clothed cultivator fell, a faint soul, visible only to cultivators, floated out from his celestial crown. The soul looked bewildered, not knowing what had just happened. But when it saw its surroundings, the confusion in its eyes immediately disappeared, replaced by a face full of terror. The wisp of soul hurriedly tried to flee into the distance.
"Fellow Daoist, where are you going?" In the next moment, the wisp of soul, with a look of despair, was grabbed by the cultivator surnamed Qiu and directly pushed into the jade bottle. A cruel look appeared on his face.
Sun Jiuhe and the burly man exchanged a glance. They knew that this cultivator's soul was probably going to be used by the black-clothed cultivator as a test subject for his poison research. Its fate would be extremely tragic, wailing for death day after day but unable to find it.
"Does Fellow Daoist Zhu have a better way?" Sun Jiuhe let out a long breath. They had been in the palace under Red Maple Pool for three days. Although they had engraved Li Yan's appearance from memory, they had not found a single clue so far. They had, however, done a fair bit of robbing and killing. The number of storage pouches at their waists had increased considerably.
"This palace is too big. Since Brother Sun doesn't know if that person came to seek a breakthrough or to find treasure, we don't even have a direction to search," the man surnamed Zhu said helplessly.
Hearing this, Sun Jiuhe's expression became even more unsightly. Given Li Yan's age, he really couldn't judge why he had come here. It was possible he was here to break through to the late-stage of Foundation Establishment. It was also highly probable that he was here to find treasure.
In that case, Sun Jiuhe and his group had no clue as to where Li Yan might have gone.
These past few days, Sun Jiuhe had not been entirely focused on finding Li Yan. They were also looking for the other eleven people who had entered at the same time as Li Yan. As long as they found them, they might know the direction Li Yan took after entering. That would at least give them a general area.
But what Sun Jiuhe didn't know was that Li Yan had been the last to enter, and no one had planned to ambush him. After entering, they had all scattered. But this was not to say Sun Jiuhe's method was wrong.
"I think that person should be here to find treasure." At this moment, the cultivator surnamed Qiu had already put the jade bottle into his storage pouch and said leisurely.
"Oh? Why does Fellow Daoist Qiu say so?" Sun Jiuhe and the man surnamed Zhu looked at the pale-faced cultivator.
"For no other reason than that Brother Sun said he is a poison cultivator. I believe that most poison cultivators who come here are looking for some kind of poison-making material. At least, the probability is smaller than them coming here to seek a breakthrough," the cultivator surnamed Qiu said, stroking his chin as his eyes darted around.
"Mm, what Fellow Daoist Qiu says is reasonable. Instead of searching around aimlessly like this, it's better to go to those few places where resources are easily regenerated to look for this person. The probability will be much higher. We might even run into the other eleven who entered with that brat. After all, most cultivators who come here are mainly looking for treasure. We might get some information by asking around then."
Sun Jiuhe and the man surnamed Zhu exchanged a glance and agreed.
In a dilapidated grand hall, more than twenty cultivators were fighting. A book-boy with a bamboo basket on his back, the oilcloth on the basket now uncovered and trampled under his feet, was rapidly weaving through the crowd and fleeing out of the hall. To say that more than twenty cultivators were fighting was not as accurate as saying that most of the cultivators were shouting and chasing the book-boy, Bu Luo, within the hall.
"Brat, hand over that silver page quickly..."
"Kill him! He secretly snatched a page just now while others were fighting..."
"Even if we have to chase him to the ends of the earth, we will flay this brat alive! He secretly attacked me just now..."
Amidst the shouts of the crowd, spirit qi crisscrossed the palace hall, and the various colored lights from magical treasures and talismans were dazzling.
"Hey, do you people have any sense of reason? There's another silver page over there. Why don't you go snatch that one? Why are you all ganging up on me? Do you really think I'm easy to bully?"
Under the siege of dozens of cultivators, although Bu Luo had several high-quality magical treasures protecting him, he had nearly been hit several times. If it weren't for his sudden sneak attack and the fact that he had already fled a good distance before everyone reacted, with his late-stage Foundation Establishment strength, he would have been blasted to smithereens long ago under the siege of so many cultivators.
Looking at the dark mass of cultivators closely following behind him, although Bu Luo's tone was tough, he had long since lost his previous disdain. He knew he had poked the hornet's nest this time.
Among the cultivators chasing him, some hesitated and looked back upon hearing his words. In the depths of the palace, six people were still fighting fiercely. Not far from them, a silver paper page was floating in the air. Apart from these six people constantly approaching the silver page, none of the other twenty-plus cultivators dared to go forward and snatch it.
The few cultivators who were moved by Bu Luo's words immediately dispelled the idea of taking the opportunity to snatch it after feeling the irresistible power of the immortal arts spreading from the battle group of the six. Then they shouted again and chased after Bu Luo.
Bu Luo only felt his heart grow more and more flustered. In the past, whenever he encountered such a situation, his young master could solve everything with a wave of his hand.
In the past few days, relying on a belt his young master had given him, he had hidden his aura three times, snuck up on others, and then found an opportunity to snatch a treasure and run.
These were all things he did on the side while looking for medicinal herbs. Bu Luo didn't think it was a big deal. The treasures here went to those who were capable of getting them.
Although he had been chased the first three times, he had managed to escape smoothly with the magical treasures his young master had given him. He had even counter-killed one of his pursuers when there were too few of them, scaring the rest away.
The most he had angered was only four people at once. He couldn't defeat four people, but with the oilcloth covering his bamboo basket, he had directly fled far away, and the four could only give up amidst curses.
After three times, he had indeed snatched quite a few medicinal herbs and two spirit treasures that looked quite good, as well as one low-grade magical treasure.
Today, when he passed by a palace, he saw many cultivators constantly gathering here from a distance, so he knew something was happening. Bu Luo, of course, immediately slapped his belt, making his figure disappear from the air, and then snuck into this dilapidated grand hall.
Then he saw that inside the hall, under the leadership of six Pseudo-Core cultivators, they had formed six teams and were taking turns to bombard a wall inside the palace. The six teams should have discussed it beforehand. Each time, only one team would go forward to attack the wall. There were also three formation masters among them.
Curious, Bu Luo hid nearby and watched. He saw them either having the formation masters break the restriction or using brute force to attack the wall. It was just that the formation restriction on that wall was too powerful. Bu Luo had stayed here for nearly a day, and the light on the wall had only slowly dimmed. Bu Luo was already drowsy from boredom.
When it was midnight, the dozing Bu Luo heard a loud "boom," which scared him so much that he almost revealed himself from his hidden state. He quickly opened his eyes and saw two silver lights flying out from the broken part of the wall, eager to escape. They looked like two single pages from a book, but they were flowing with silver light, and he couldn't see clearly what was on them.
These two silver pages looked extraordinary. The six teams instantly lost their previous calm. There were no more restraints. They all rushed towards the two silver pages. Especially the six Pseudo-Core cultivators, without any warning, they mercilessly attacked each other.
The cultivators led by the six formed individual battle groups, fighting even more intensely.
After the two silver pages flew out from the broken wall, they weaved through the spirit power, but for a time, no one managed to get their hands on them.