Li Yan's plan was to first get close to his opponent, preventing him from having a chance to cast any arts, and then use the Five Elements Disarray Mantle to buy himself a brief moment to cast his own.
And what he cast was the divine ability, Quaking Cosmos!
This divine ability had a function similar to a Nascent Soul cultivator's Instantaneous Movement . Crucially, it could carry another person along using only one's physical body.
At its fastest, it could reach seventy percent of the speed of a Nascent Soul Instantaneous Movement . Li Yan, carrying one person, could instantly teleport over 3,500 li away in half a breath.
However, over the years, Li Yan had to cultivate other techniques as well, and had only managed to cultivate this art to the entry-level. Carrying one person, he could teleport about five hundred li at a time.
In order to get this person far away from the Tianli Clan , Li Yan could only drag him into the Chaotic Flow Space and use the ability as many times as possible. Once the opponent lost his bearings, Li Yan would seize the chance to escape.
Before entering the Chaotic Flow Space , he had already placed ten Sand Star King Stones near the Tianli Clan . He refused to believe that with so many Sand Star King Stones , he wouldn't be able to find his way back.
But this move was also like walking on a cliff's edge; one misstep, and he would be teleported into a dangerous place.
Yet, when he thought of the terror of a Spirit Transformation cultivator and the danger Gong Chenying was in, Li Yan couldn't care less.
Fortunately, after activating Quaking Cosmos , although Li Yan couldn't control the specific teleportation location, he could still roughly control the direction.
At the very least, he wouldn't just plunge headfirst into a meteorite belt if he saw one. That would be too pathetic. This allowed him to mitigate the danger at the first opportunity.
But a plan was just a plan. When Li Yan entered the Chaotic Flow Space and wanted to roughly confirm his surroundings to avoid plunging into a perilous land, he could only once again use the Five Elements Disarray Mantle to buy himself time. This was the third time he had used the Five Elements Disarray Mantle today.
His Sea of Consciousness had already suffered a backlash before. Although he had hastily swallowed a pill to nourish his Sea of Consciousness , he had no time to fully refine it, so his recovery was not good.
Using the Five Elements Disarray Mantle this time in the Chaotic Flow Space gave Li Yan a splitting headache and his consciousness blurred once again. He knew he could not forcefully use this art anymore.
But without the aid of this art, he dared not stop. The moment the teleportation force dissipated, the short-haired, soap-robed man would immediately break free, and he had only teleported a thousand li, which was not nearly enough.
And so, Li Yan steeled his heart and continuously used Quaking Cosmos . Fortunately, this art did not require the use of Divine Sense , but it did consume a large amount of magical power.
But this way, Li Yan knew he was also in great danger. However, he could only bet on his luck. He planned to teleport about five times in a row in the Chaotic Flow Space and then look for an opportunity to escape.
Two or three thousand li here could mean an unknown distance in the outside world.
With a wave of his hand, Li Yan popped three drops of Rongsun into his mouth. He had finally used the Rongsun , of which he had very little left.
As his cultivation grew stronger, he would need at least six drops of Rongsun to fully replenish his current magical power.
But of course, Li Yan wouldn't wait until his magical power was completely depleted before replenishing it, so he could take it drop by drop.
"He's... he's doing it again... Just how many of these multi-person teleportation talismans does he have? Did he rob the grave of some ancient cultivator?!"
The short-haired, soap-robed man was terrified, his face ashen. He had no idea where the other party had gotten so many terrifying multi-person teleportation talismans.
This was already the fourth teleportation. In the subsequent jumps, his opponent didn't even wait for the teleportation force to dissipate. Before the surrounding spatial laws had settled, he was whisked away again.
And every time the teleportation started, the short-haired, soap-robed man trembled with fear. He prayed silently, hoping nothing would go wrong, while at the same time, Li Yan's recklessness made his legs go weak.
For such a thing to happen to a Spirit Transformation cultivator was truly a rarity. But it was often the case that the higher one's cultivation, the more one feared death.
Before him, another kaleidoscope of scenes flashed by. When the picture became slightly clearer again, the short-haired, soap-robed man was, for once, not swept away by an immediate teleportation force.
'He's out of teleportation talismans...'
This was the first thought that popped into the short-haired, soap-robed man's head, but in the next instant, his expression changed.
Li Yan's head was splitting, and his nerves were stretched taut in an instant. Just as the teleportation force began to wane, he had tried to cast Quaking Cosmos again, but this time, he had failed!
Although the light of the art appeared on his body, Quaking Cosmos was unable to teleport them away.
Although his Sea of Consciousness was in agony, Li Yan could still sense some things. It was an instinct honed from years of battle; many unknown forces had appeared in the surroundings.
And these forces were extremely chaotic, a jumble of spiritual energy , killing intent, darkness, icy venom, and more. It made Li Yan's own magical power extremely unstable.
"This... this is a chaotic land!"
Li Yan's heart constricted violently. Although he had been prepared for the possibility of ending up in an extremely dangerous place, when it actually happened, his pupils contracted sharply, and he broke out in a cold sweat.
Li Yan had planned to teleport five times in the Chaotic Flow Space to gain some distance and then seize an opportunity to escape. But on the second to last jump, he had actually plunged headfirst into a perilous land.
Li Yan had always considered himself to have excellent luck. Today, in his haste, he had no time to discern the direction, and now he was truly trapped. His heart sank infinitely.
This was a gray area. Above their heads, there was a dark crack.
"Brat, die!"
A somewhat muffled voice sounded in front of Li Yan.
Due to the extreme chaos of the jumbled forces here, even though they were not too far apart, the short-haired, soap-robed man's voice sounded exceptionally erratic.
The short-haired, soap-robed man's face twisted into a ferocious snarl. His body shot upwards, heading straight for the dark crack. Clearly, he believed that was the way they had come. And he could also see that this was a dangerous place.
Given the current circumstances, although he cursed Li Yan endlessly in his heart, his first reaction was to leave this place immediately. Of course, he would kill Li Yan first.
His reaction was swift. As he flew, he pointed a finger at Li Yan, and a cold glint shot towards Li Yan's face.
A cold glint also flashed in Li Yan's eyes. He slid to one side, but because his right leg was severely injured, his speed was affected.
That sword light reached Li Yan's left shoulder in an instant. The coldness in Li Yan's eyes intensified. Disregarding his injuries, he also threw a punch.
A pillar of black light shot out from his fist. At the top of the pillar, a very blurry phantom head of a Qiongqi also appeared.
However, the direction he struck was not the short-haired, soap-robed man himself, but the pitch-black crack above his head.
In a flash, both made their own judgments. Due to the close proximity, Li Yan couldn't completely avoid that sword strike.
If he couldn't withstand it, half of his body would be instantly split open. But Li Yan was also ruthless, determined to destroy his opponent's escape route.
"In your dreams!"
A sense of disdain rose in the short-haired, soap-robed man's heart. So what if he was a late-stage Nascent Soul ? To think he still wanted to achieve something in front of him.
He quickly raised his arm, and with his index and middle fingers together, he slashed viciously at the phantom head of the black, ferocious beast.
However, in the next moment, the short-haired, soap-robed man suddenly let out a roar of unwillingness.
"No!"
Just as their attacks were about to connect, the chaotic forces around them suddenly surged. Pale yellow spots of light appeared all around.
The moment these spots of light appeared, rays of light fell upon their techniques and their bodies.
Their techniques immediately twisted and deformed. The flying sword that had already slashed into Li Yan's left shoulder, currently clashing with his newly erupted protective spirit shield and silver light, was hit by a dozen or so rays from the light spots. In that instant, cracks appeared on the sword's body with a series of cracking sounds. The magical power and spiritual energy on the sword dissipated like air from a punctured wineskin, and its power vanished instantly.
The punch Li Yan threw also collapsed under the irradiation of those light spots and rays, the black light pillar instantly disintegrating. The short-haired, soap-robed man's second sword qi met the same fate, instantly dissolving.
What horrified them both was that when those light spots and rays hit them, the spiritual power shields on their bodies began to waver unsteadily.
Whether it was Li Yan or the Spirit Transformation stage short-haired, soap-robed man, the protective light shields on their bodies were rapidly dissolving.
This was especially true for Li Yan. His magical power was not as profound as his opponent's. In just a moment, his spiritual power shield was like a sandpit in the rain, covered in a dense array of small dots.
What terrified them even more was that the forces here were chaotic and distorted. Among them were two extremely strong pulling forces that instantly dragged their bodies in two different directions.
Neither direction was towards the black crack above. Instead, they were being pulled towards a distorted, blood-red thin mist that had appeared beside them at some unknown time.
A buzzing sound emanated from it. Within their line of sight, the blood-red mist was composed of countless lines.
One moment the lines would be vertical, the next, amidst the buzzing, they would become twisted and warped, clearly indicating an unusual danger.
The short-haired, soap-robed man let out a furious roar. With a wave of his hands, talismans appeared one after another. Amidst flashes of multi-colored light, his body finally stabilized.
On the other side, Li Yan did the same. The moment he sensed trouble, ten talismans quickly appeared in his hand. They were the Primordial Chaos Earth-Suppressing Talismans he had acquired from killing and looting in the Chaotic Flow Space .
Each talisman emitted an immense gravity, pinning Li Yan firmly to the spot.
Each Primordial Chaos Earth-Suppressing Talisman possessed a "fixing" effect from an immortal art , making it incredibly stable. It could hold against the various strange suction forces of the Chaotic Flow Space for one to five breaths.
Li Yan only had about forty of these talismans, but they were life-saving in critical moments.
Li Yan found that the tearing force here was very strong. A single Primordial Chaos Earth-Suppressing Talisman could only last for one breath before exploding, its power completely consumed in an instant.
For a time, both men threw out every defensive talisman they could muster, but the light spots and rays were too terrifying, causing their magical power to be consumed at a drastic rate.
In Li Yan's case, his magical power was decreasing at a rate of ten percent per breath just to rapidly restore the pits on his light shield. In other words, in ten breaths, Li Yan's entire magical power would be depleted.
'This won't do. Apart from Rongsun , no other medicinal pill can sustain consumption at this speed...'
As Li Yan's thoughts raced, the silver light on his body flared brightly again. His very bones emitted an ear-grating sound of being pushed beyond their limits.
Before the eyes of the short-haired, soap-robed man, he was horrified to see Li Yan slowly but surely breaking free from the blood-red mist behind him. Although his movements were extremely slow, he was already moving.
And as Li Yan increased the distance from the blood-red mist, his speed visibly increased.
"A physical strength... greater than that of a Spirit Transformation cultivator!"
The short-haired, soap-robed man saw the extraordinariness of the silver light on Li Yan's body. It was different from the Tianli Clan's Qiongqi Purgatory Art that he knew.
His opponent was only using magical power to defend against the distorting forces, yet he was slowly breaking free from the blood mist's restraint with just his physical strength.
The short-haired, soap-robed man, under the interweaving of various chaotic forces, could no longer borrow the normal Power of Rules .
Therefore, although his magical power was more profound than Li Yan's, the power he could exert was inferior.
He watched as Li Yan, after just three breaths, moved even further from the blood mist, his speed of escape increasing.
A fierce glint flashed in the short-haired, soap-robed man's eyes. Two long swords suddenly appeared in his hands, and he was about to slash behind him to cut through the tearing force of the blood mist with his magical power.
But the moment the long swords appeared, they were hit by numerous yellow rays of light, causing the magical power he was using to maintain his defense to gush out like a bursting dam.
He was shocked. He couldn't even execute that sword strike. The long swords might just shatter during the slash.
"Damn it, activating a magical treasure here requires more than seven times the normal amount of magical power!"
The short-haired, soap-robed man was both shocked and enraged. But no matter how he struggled, he couldn't move his body forward an inch. And this was with the assistance of the talismans on his body.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!!"
With every breath, the talismans on both of their bodies continuously erupted in bursts of light.