With the situation as it was now, Yiming's first reaction was to rule out the possibility of Li Yan being a poison cultivator. He had cultivated for over a hundred years, and illusion-poisons that could instantly confuse the mind were truly rare. On the other hand, there were many such immortal arts. Some could even trap a person in an illusion for a lifetime, to be forever lost within.
It was not strange for a body cultivator to be able to cast immortal arts. As long as one was a cultivator, one needed to cultivate spirit power. The monks of the Jingtu Sect were skilled in body refining arts, and there were many immortal arts that complemented them. This was the same principle as a woman cultivating a Charm Body Art while also practicing illusion arts, which would not decrease but instead increase the power of the Charm Body Art.
Li Yan slowly stood up, his face calm as he watched the battle between the man and the crane. Then he glanced at the white-robed young man in the sky and the struggling Bu Luo far away, who was trying to sit up. Finally, his gaze fell on Yiming, and their eyes met.
"How did you find out?" Yiming did not continue to press his attack on Bu Luo, nor did he go to help Xu Yehua. Instead, he looked at Li Yan seriously.
"Great Master, for the formation in the cave to be set up so cleverly with the help of the environment, could it be the work of a great master from the Jingtu Sect? I just don't know if this trap was set for me, Jianghai?" Li Yan said faintly. He did not answer Yiming's question but asked one of his own.
But his words stunned Yiming. In a single sentence, Li Yan had revealed that he had long seen through his hidden tracks and knew he was a monk from the Jingtu Sect. Although any monk appearing here could almost certainly be confirmed as a disciple of the Jingtu Sect, it was not always the case. There were more temples in the world than just the Jingtu Sect.
But to be able to cleverly use the lava in the Flame Palace to set up a formation, only someone very familiar with this place could do it. Undoubtedly, this was most likely a Jingtu Sect cultivator.
Although Yiming was surprised, he still wore a smile on his face. "I didn't expect fellow Daoist's divine sense to be so powerful, to be able to bypass the self-protection of the formation restriction and discover the situation inside the cave without a trace. The strength of your divine sense far exceeds your peers."
Yiming instantly thought of a problem. The other party was clearly a body cultivator, but had been mistaken for a poison cultivator by Sun Jiuhe before. Now, he was displaying the characteristics of a magic cultivator with a powerful divine sense. For a moment, he was even more unable to figure out Li Yan's origins.
"I have no grudge with the three of you. Why go to such lengths to take my life?" Li Yan still did not answer Yiming's question but stared at him and said slowly. As he spoke, the black robe on his body began to flutter without any wind, its corners flying up.
Before, it had all seemed to have nothing to do with Li Yan. But how could he have relaxed his guard? Whether it was the other party stopping three hundred li away from him at the beginning, or this Jingtu Sect Chan Monk's concealment, it only made him more suspicious. What puzzled him the most was the timing of Xu Yehua's attack on Bu Luo. It was by no means something an experienced person would do.
In that case, the only explanation was that they had let Bu Luo pass for another purpose. In that case, Bu Luo might just be a bait. Only this reason made sense.
Thinking of this possibility, although Li Yan did not want to cause trouble, he was familiar with setting traps. If you asked Li Yan to fight for something, he would have a headache. But if you asked him to set a trap, it was truly effortless and traceless.
He could do it within a radius of a hundred zhang, or even a thousand zhang. It was just that the commotion would be too great.
Silently, he had filled the area within a few dozen zhang around him with the poison "Flirtatious Glance." As long as one did not approach within a hundred zhang, they would be fine.
When Xu Yehua had quietly released the white crane, Li Yan had already detected it with his divine sense. It was just that he thought the other party was still trying to sneak-attack Bu Luo. When Xu Yehua and his position intersected, the white crane had arrived above his head with incredible speed.
Although all this had happened suddenly, when the white crane flew to within thirty zhang of Li Yan, it was already poisoned. Although it was less than half a breath before it flew to the top of Li Yan's head, it was enough to trigger the poison in its body.
Everything Xu Yehua had done could no longer pose any threat to Li Yan. But this did not mean that as long as Li Yan had poison on him, he was invincible in the world. That was just a joke.
A person with high cultivation could instantly detect that the air within a certain range was different, such as that green-robed middle-aged scholar.
"Chan Monk Yiming, hurry up and make your move!" At this moment, Xu Yehua said with a mixture of shock and anger. He was being forced back continuously by his own white crane. Unable to kill the crane, for the time being, he could only try to slow down its storm-like attacks and then trap it with magic power.
After speaking to Yiming, he hurriedly shouted again, "Quickly kill that book-boy!" He said this while turning his head to the still-dazed white-robed young man in the air. If anyone familiar with him knew, they would know that Xu Yehua was truly anxious. At this moment, he had lost his usual composure and didn't even call him "Eleventh Junior Brother."
Li Yan was shocked when he heard this. Only then did he know that the monk before him was a monk of the "Yi" generation of the Jingtu Sect. This was enough to show that his cultivation was extremely profound.
Hearing this, Yiming frowned. Since he had lost the advantage of a sneak attack, he now had to face him head-on. He slowly said to Li Yan, "Amitabha, can the benefactor be so kind as to lend me his head?" He still wore a friendly smile, but the words from his mouth were chilling. In any case, neither side was willing to state the reason, so they would have to see who was superior.
After speaking, the yellow monk's robe on his body began to rustle. With his hands clasped together, he took a step towards Li Yan.
On the other side, the white-robed young man only came to his senses after Xu Yehua's sharp shout. Everything that had just happened had been too fast. He hadn't even known that the monk Yiming was ambushing here. Xu Yehua had just brought him along, only saying on the way that they were going to ambush someone. He had not said anything else.
After entering the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda this time, the white-robed young man had come to know Xu Yehua's ruthlessness, which had put him in a difficult period of breaking through his own psychological barriers. So now he was not as cheerful and talkative as he had been at the beginning. With things on his mind, he naturally had no interest in asking questions. He just had to follow orders.
This suited Xu Yehua's purposes perfectly. He was also at a critical period of fighting for power and profit in the sect. If it weren't for the fact that he felt every junior and senior brother was a key force, he would not have brought the white-robed young man here.
He felt that although Eleventh Junior Brother's cultivation was not weak, his personality would prevent him from achieving great things. But even so, if he were roped in by others, it would still be a considerable loss. So he had brought him out for training under some pretext, taking the opportunity to cultivate him into his own faction.
Everything that had happened today made the white-robed young man feel as if he were in a fog, like a fool. After hearing Xu Yehua's shout, the white-robed young man, like a puppet, flew somewhat blankly towards Bu Luo, who was lying on the ground.
Bu Luo struggled to prop himself up with his elbows. Monk Yiming was a veteran Foundation Establishment master. His strength was no longer that of a Pseudo-Core in the practical sense. He only needed a single opportunity to leap over the dragon gate.
Even if one had only cultivated the "Lesser Vajra Body" of the "Vajra Arhat Body," its destructive power was terrifyingly chilling.
Bu Luo was already at the late-stage of Foundation Establishment. Although he had not deliberately cultivated his physical body, as long as a magic cultivator's realm reached a certain level, his physical body would be strengthened on its own.
A late-stage Foundation Establishment physical body could also withstand a full-power blow from a Great Perfection Qi Condensation cultivator without any harm. This didn't sound very strong, but if it were a mortal martial artist, even if he were to chop at him with a divine weapon for a year and a half, he would not be able to harm a single hair. This was the might of an immortal.
And before, Monk Yiming had almost fatally injured Bu Luo with just a single shoulder charge, making it extremely difficult for him to even prop himself up.
A moonlight silver plate spun and danced in front of Bu Luo. It was the magical treasure he had released from the basket behind him, intending to attack Xu Yehua. But before he could launch it, he had been hit by Monk Yiming's shoulder charge and ended up in this state.
Bu Luo had, of course, heard Xu Yehua's shout to the white-robed young man. He didn't know if the young man was naturally this dazed or if he was doing it on purpose, but he would not just sit and wait for death.
...
A fist, with a dull sound, came smashing towards Li Yan's face without any fancy moves. Li Yan's heart tightened. The other party had seen him fight the peak second-tier Rhino-Horned Green Python before, yet he still dared to clash with him head-on like this. It showed how confident he was.
Li Yan's eyebrows raised. The wide sleeve of his right hand instantly billowed like an inflated flour sack. He also met the attack with a fist, as if sealing and hanging.
With a muffled "peng," the two's fists stopped about five or six feet apart. In front of their fists, two arcs of different colors had already collided. Li Yan's black fist arc was slightly concave, while the front of Chan Monk Yiming's golden fist arc had a section protruding. But both their figures were rock steady.
"Yi!" Monk Yiming couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. This seemingly ordinary punch of his had used seventy percent of the power of his "Lesser Vajra Body," leaving thirty percent to protect himself. But under this punch, the opponent's strength was not as sharp and solid as he had seen before. Not only was it not as high as his, but it seemed to be a notch weaker. This made doubts spring up in his mind.
Li Yan was also slightly surprised. He knew that the monks of the Jingtu Sect were especially good at body tempering arts. Although he couldn't say that every monk followed the path of a body cultivator, the Chan Monk's opening punch to the face said it all.
So Li Yan had also intended to test him. He had not dodged the other's attack. After feeling the oppressive force of the other's blow, he thought for a moment and then used half of his strength to clash with him head-on.
This test made Li Yan's initial underestimation of him dissipate quite a bit. After seeing Gong Chenying's fighting process before, it had left a deep impression on his mind. In the secret realm, when Gong Chenying fought against the masters of the major sects, her physical strength had almost completely crushed her opponents.
This had given Li Yan an invisible and powerful confidence in the Qiongqi Purgatory Art. But after testing the other party today, he was sure that what the other was cultivating was the most difficult to cultivate of the Jingtu Sect's body refining arts, the "Vajra Arhat Body." He just didn't know if the other had already cultivated the "Lesser Vajra Body."
Li Yan had never fought with other body refining cultivators before, and he had only heard about the specific cultivation realm and state of the "Vajra Arhat Body." In their exchange today, he couldn't tell for a moment how much strength the other party had used and could only make corresponding adjustments as the situation unfolded.