Strategist Ji looked at Li Yan, who had fallen to the ground and had turned over to look at him. He laughed sinisterly. "Hehe, you think you can escape? No matter what, this is your end result."
Seeing Li Yan's silent, indifferent eyes, he thought for a moment and then said, "I just don't understand, how did you find out that I was going to harm you? And how were you able to escape from Hong Linying's hands?"
Li Yan looked at him, dragging one leg. At this time, blood was gushing out from there. In just a short while, it had already stained the ground red along the corner of his pants. He struggled to support himself with the tree trunk beside him and slowly stood up. The hem of his tattered black robe was also stained with a blackish patch of blood.
He bared his white teeth and grinned at Strategist Ji. "Hehe, of course, it was the handwriting left by my senior brother that told me. Why wouldn't Marshal Hong let me go? His target is you, not me!"
Strategist Ji was stunned. He suddenly didn't understand. He felt that there was something wrong with Li Yan's words, but for a moment, he couldn't think of where the problem was.
In the instant that Strategist Ji was stunned, Li Yan suddenly slapped the tree he was supporting himself on and let out a low roar. "Then let's die together."
Strategist Ji's thoughts were still on Li Yan's last sentence. He suddenly saw Li Yan's ferocious face, and his palm suddenly slapped the tree trunk. Before he could figure out what he was going to do, he felt a fierce wind behind his head. He immediately shouted in his heart that something was wrong. No matter what, he had not expected that Li Yan would still have an ambush here. This was a whole li away from the place where he had just set up the ambush. This was something he had never expected.
He didn't have time to turn around. A spiritual light flashed all over his body, and his hands continuously waved behind him. But then he heard a "swish, thud, thud" sound, followed by a muffled groan, which startled some of the birds that had just returned to the treetops and sent them flying into the night sky again.
After Li Yan's palm slapped the tree trunk, he once again used the force to roll to the side. He heard a series of chaotic sounds and a heavy muffled groan in his ears. When he turned over and raised his head again, he saw a scene that made his heart turn cold.
At this time, Strategist Ji was in a very sorry state, one could even say miserable. His black robe was torn in more than a dozen places, and his left arm was pierced by two sharp, hard wooden spikes as thick as a finger. The tips of the wooden spikes were still carrying some twisted black things, which were the meridians of the human body. But what made Li Yan's heart turn cold was that Strategist Ji was still alive and well. His chest was constantly heaving, and he was staring at Li Yan with eyes that wanted to eat him. His dark, purple-tinged face would twitch from time to time, and then he walked towards Li Yan step by step.
"You are really good, really very good. To be able to plot against me one after another," he said, pausing on each word as he walked. Blood was gushing out from his elbow like several streams of water. Behind him was a patch of wood chips and broken branches. The seven or eight rows of densely packed wooden spikes tied together that had originally attacked him had been cut to pieces by the wind blades he had just waved behind him. But he had only protected his back and the back of his head and had not been able to completely disperse them. Two sharp wooden spikes had still instantly pierced his left arm, bringing out the blue veins inside. He didn't know if the bone was injured, but at least it was very difficult to use his left hand for now. Even if he recovered in the future, with his current magical power, he might not be able to return to his original state.
This was a trap commonly used by hunters to capture large demonic beasts—the "Log Spike Trap." It used hard branches sharpened into spikes with a base as thick as an adult's finger and a sharp, conical head. These sharp spikes were then embedded in a thick log, forming something like a mace. Then seven or eight of these maces were tied together in a large wooden frame, suspended between two trees. One end was tightened with a torsion rope, and the other end of the torsion rope was tied to a certain place with a slipknot. When the torsion rope was touched by an external force, the slipknot would instantly be released, and the log spikes would whiz out. Because of its large area, sufficient force, and strong inertia, its attack range was usually within two or three zhang in front of it. But it also had a drawback. In order not to affect the smooth path of its advance and to increase its inertia, it was usually suspended in the air, about one or two chi from the ground. So, if it were a small animal, it would only have to lie on the ground, and it would just whiz over its head.
But Strategist Ji, firstly, was confused by Li Yan's words. He didn't know what he meant and was thinking about it, so he was caught off guard. Secondly, he had been looking for immortals in the deep mountains before. How could there be hunters there? It was either demonic beasts or cultivators. If a mortal hunter went there, let alone set a trap, he would have been eaten by a demonic beast or killed by a cultivator's sword before he had gone very far. Thirdly, his divine sense was useless against this kind of physical trap. Fourthly, he had never expected that Li Yan could set up ambushes in different places consecutively. It was a pity that a master of the secular martial world, a cultivator who had just entered the path of cultivation in the cultivation world, had fallen for this trick.
Li Yan supported his body with his elbows and half-lay up. "Hehe, it's really a pity."
"I didn't expect a half-grown child like you to be so full of tricks. Let your teacher see how many tricks you have," Strategist Ji had already walked to a position two or three steps away from Li Yan and stopped. At this time, he raised his right hand and quickly tapped his left elbow and arm a few times. Instantly, no more blood gushed out.
"Now, there's truly nothing left," Li Yan said, half-supported. He had calmed down by now and even chuckled lightly.
Strategist Ji looked around, then focused his eyes and carefully looked around Li Yan. After a while, he slowly walked closer. Just as he reached Li Yan, he suddenly moved. In a blur of movement, his right hand tapped repeatedly. When his movements stopped, Li Yan had already fallen on his back.
"Now, there's truly nothing left," Strategist Ji said, standing in the forest, looking at Li Yan lying on his back at his feet.
Li Yan was silent, only his eyes would occasionally move a little. Even the blood from the wound on his leg had stopped gushing out.
It turned out that Strategist Ji had just immobilized Li Yan in an instant and had also sealed the major acupoints near the wound on his leg, so that the blood would no longer flow out. He didn't want Li Yan to die from blood loss yet.
Strategist Ji raised his head again and looked around. The dense forest stood tall and intertwined in the distance. Only the moonlight from the sky shone through the branches and leaves in wisps of clear light. He carefully checked the area around Li Yan as the center. Sure enough, he did not find any other traps. Only then did he feel relieved. He then glanced at Li Yan on the ground, confirmed that he was immobilized and could not escape, and then his figure flickered and he swept towards the platform halfway up the mountain.
After a few breaths, he had already arrived on the platform where he had been ambushed by Li Yan just now. The huge rock on the ground was gone, leaving only a pit, a few water pouches, a small section of two stone pillars as thick as a baby's arm, and a small piece of a demonic beast's tendon. He picked up the demonic beast's tendon and looked at it, then picked up a few water pouches and shook them. He stood in place and thought for a while. Then he quickly walked to the cliff behind the giant pine tree and looked down. It was dark and bottomless in the night, like the giant mouth of a monster full of fangs. He couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart. His current physical body was only a little stronger than that of a mortal. But in the end, it was still a mortal body. If he fell, he would be a pile of mud or be pierced into several pieces by the upward-facing rocks at the bottom of the cliff.
After looking, he had basically understood how Li Yan had set up the ambush. Although he was not a mountain hunter, he was the prey in the trap just now. Knowing the process of being ambushed, and looking at these things, plus he was an old hand in the martial world, he could also guess the general idea.
After a few flashes, he had disappeared from the platform and disappeared into the forest at the foot of the mountain.
Strategist Ji came to a place not far from where Li Yan was lying on his back. A trace of pain suddenly flashed across his face, and black blood overflowed from the corner of his mouth. He quickly sat down cross-legged, hurriedly took out a translucent crystal stone from his robes with his right hand, slowly closed his eyes, held the crystal stone in his hand, and began to breathe in and out. He had not rested for these few days, and he had also been seriously injured just now. His body was in a very bad state.
More than an hour later, Strategist Ji slowly opened his eyes. At this moment, his internal spiritual power had recovered to about seventy or eighty percent. Looking at the crystal stone in his hand, which had turned from translucent to cloudy, a look of heartache flashed across his face.
There was no spiritual qi here, so he could only rely on this crystal stone to recover. And this crystal stone had been left to him by the previous sect master of the "Immortal-Seeking Lineage," who had told him, "If you can embark on the path of immortality in the future, then this crystal stone will definitely be a great help to you." For so many years, although he had embarked on the path of immortality, he had always been reluctant to use it. Today, he had used it under such circumstances.
This was a spirit stone from the cultivation world. It contained spiritual qi and could help people cultivate. These were also what Strategist Ji had heard from the seniors in his sect. Their sect only had this one crystal stone, and it had been passed down for more than ten generations.
He could have returned to the inner valley of the Strategist's Manor and used the spiritual qi diffused from the pool to recover. But before, he had already consumed nearly half of his internal spiritual power. This was all the result of forcibly using the Wind Blade Art. Originally, with his current realm, he could still cast eleven or twelve Wind Blade Arts with all his strength. But just now, in order to deal with Li Yan, to cut the huge rock on his foot and to break the "Log Spike Trap," he had cast a total of six Wind Blade Arts. If he had then carried Li Yan and walked another seventy or eighty li of mountain road, it would have been absolutely impossible. Just as he was returning from the cliff, the fire poison in his body had already erupted. If he did not suppress it, he would have died before Li Yan. And the half of the spiritual power left in his body was not enough to suppress the fire poison. In his urgency, he had no choice but to use this sect's treasure.
Looking at the cloudy spirit stone in his hand, he was lost in thought for a while, and then he put the spirit stone back in his robes.
He raised his right hand and pressed hard on his left elbow and upper arm respectively. With two "hissing" sounds, he let out another muffled groan. The two finger-thick wooden spikes on his left elbow and upper arm shot out from his flesh and deeply into the distance, bringing a string of blood beads with them. Then his right hand quickly tapped the wound again, stopping the gushing blood. Looking at the several black and blue veins on his left arm that were either drooping or broken and exposed, he couldn't help but frown.
He then stood up, and with a few flashes, he flew quickly through the forest. After half a cup of tea's time, his figure flashed again, and he appeared in his original place. Looking at the closed-eyed Li Yan on the ground, Strategist Ji bent his right finger and pointed. A wisp of finger wind flew out and entered Li Yan's head.
"I know you're not asleep. I don't want to know how you knew my purpose now. Knowing or not knowing, the result is the same. I just didn't expect that a fifteen or sixteen-year-old child like you would be so vicious. Every scheme is a good way to trick people. I really underestimated my own disciple," Strategist Ji said, looking at Li Yan, a resentful light flashing in his eyes.
It turned out that his plan was to forcibly suppress his fire poison for another half a year. At that time, Li Yan would probably have at least cultivated to the middle stage of the first layer of the Qi Condensation stage. His chances of breaking through to the fourth layer would be more than fifty percent. But now, not only had the time been brought forward, but Li Yan's magical power was also far from his minimum requirement, and he had also been fundamentally damaged. Now, the fire poison in his body had already erupted because he had used a lot of his spiritual power, and his qi and blood were also greatly damaged. But at this time, there was no other choice. Qi and blood could be slowly replenished. Could Li Yan still wait for him for another half a year? Could the fire poison that had already erupted in his body return to its previous state?
At this thought, Strategist Ji was extremely resentful in his heart. A plan of several years had ended up like this because of this person.
"Am I vicious? Didn't you want to exchange my life for yours?" A moment later, Li Yan on the ground suddenly said in a hoarse voice.
"Oh? It seems you knew. I really want to find out how you knew. But now I don't want to waste any more time. With your mind-nature, to be able to relentlessly and continuously kick over the water pouch and sprinkle water on the demonic beast's tendon without me seeing any flaws, if I wasn't poisoned with a potent poison, I really would have taken you as a real disciple."
A strange look flashed in the eyes of Li Yan lying on the ground. To say that Strategist Ji could see how the trap was set up when he went to the platform just now, he wouldn't have been surprised. But for Strategist Ji to be able to deduce that he had kicked the water pouch many times, that was a bit unexpected for him.
"Oh, you even saw that. Teacher is really amazing," Li Yan said lightly, but in his heart, he thought, 'You still haven't seen the other problem.'