Li Yan was greatly alarmed. Looking at the golden halberds shooting toward him, covering the sky, he estimated that his little bit of protective spiritual power would be pierced in just two or three breaths, and he would become a porcupine. He couldn't help but let out a long sigh. It seemed his only choice was to take a final gamble. At this moment, Du Sanjiang's voice echoed in his ear, "Junior Brother Li, admit defeat. Otherwise, I might not be able to control the situation inside the formation."
Li Yan's pale face was covered in sweat. He pressed his lips tightly together. Du Sanjiang frowned, thinking, 'Why is this Junior Brother Li so ungrateful? In that case, I can only do my best to control it at the critical moment. But at that time, serious injury or disability might be unavoidable.'
Li Yan, however, was silently calculating in his heart. 'My protective spiritual light can probably block it for three breaths, but I can't bet everything on it. Then let's bet on one breath. I'll admit defeat after one breath.'
Looking at the golden halberds that were already shooting toward him from not far away, Li Yan mustered all his spiritual power. Instantly, his protective spiritual light flared. And at this time, outside this area, Li Wuyi was already standing in the air, his spiritual light flickering unstably. He was also not sure if he could save Li Yan in time, so he could only be on full alert.
All of this had happened in just a brief moment. A Divine Sense voice transmission was just a matter of a slight thought. And Li Wuyi had already flown into the sky above the stage as soon as the formation changed.
After Du Sanjiang's voice transmission, the golden halberds were only two hundred meters away from Li Yan, then one hundred and fifty meters, one hundred meters, fifty meters...
However, just as the golden halberds were about to hit his body, whether it was the cultivators watching this match below the stage, or Du Sanjiang and Li Wuyi, they were all holding their breath. Li Yan was sweating profusely, mustering and squeezing all the spiritual power in his body without reservation.
At this moment, a sudden change occurred on the battle stage. An intense white light rose from Du Sanjiang's body. Du Sanjiang was like a huge white pillar of light, so dazzling that people couldn't look directly at it and had to close their eyes. Even Li Wuyi couldn't help but blink. A profound pressure rose from Du Sanjiang's body, and then a heaven-shaking loud noise came from him.
Just as Du Sanjiang was controlling the formation to attack, his heart had suddenly jumped, and the seal in his hand had involuntarily faltered. Immediately after, he felt a white light fiercely press down from his external protective formation, and then a pressure no less than that of a perfected tenth-layer Qi Condensation cultivator all hit it. Although his protective formation was not bad, it also depended on what it was compared to. If he had fully activated it, he estimated he could block a full-power attack from a cultivator of the same rank. But at this time, he had already been activating the formation for more than half an hour, and the spiritual power used for the attack had also consumed more than seventy percent. And the enemy was controlled by him in the formation, so he had not taken many precautions. The protective formation was torn apart in an instant like a thin layer of paper, and then it boomed on his body.
Du Sanjiang felt a great force strike him. He had no time to release his protective spiritual light and was instantly sent flying a dozen or so zhang away. Fortunately, although the protective formation was torn, it had blocked most of the force. Even so, Du Sanjiang lay on the ground, dizzy and disoriented, his vision a blur of white light. He tried to get up, but failed after two attempts.
And at this moment, in the formation, Li Yan, looking at the scalp-numbing, countless golden halberds that were less than ten meters away from him, was releasing all his spiritual power to resist for one breath before admitting defeat. But the next moment, these dense golden halberds first paused in mid-air, and then slowly turned into a sky full of golden light and dispersed. He was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed. "It worked!" But the next moment, his face couldn't help but change greatly, and he shouted, "Quickly send Senior Brother Du to the Sect Master! Quickly send Senior Brother Du to the Sect Master..." He didn't know if his Eldest Senior Brother could hear him. He was so anxious that he was shouting and randomly pointing his finger in the direction of the outside. But he couldn't see the situation outside and didn't know where Du Sanjiang was, just waving his arms randomly.
Just as Du Sanjiang's consciousness began to recover, he suddenly felt a coldness on his body, and a sharp pain came from his brain. Then he found that his body was becoming even colder, and then his body lost consciousness. At this time, two streams of black blood actually flowed out from his nose. But in his daze, he felt that he was already in mid-air...
This formation did not block sound. After all, it was temporarily set up and was originally used for illusion space and surprise attacks. Li Wuyi, of course, heard Li Yan's call.
He was greatly alarmed and did not stop at all. When he picked up Du Sanjiang, he found that black blood was already flowing from his nose. It was clear that he had been seriously poisoned. He quickly and continuously sent in spiritual power to protect his heart meridian, and his figure disappeared without a trace.
At this time, there was an uproar below the stage. Anyone who was paying attention to this battle had a blank look on their face, not knowing what had happened, where that final white light came from, and how Du Sanjiang was poisoned. Could it be a Divine Sense poison?
In the floating pavilion, Yan Longzi and the elders let out a sigh of relief. Li Wuyi, who was standing to the side, also let go of a breath he had been holding. Although Du Sanjiang had not yet woken up, his life was not in danger. Du Sanjiang was the disciple of a Golden Core elder. If something had happened, even if Li Yan had been unintentional, and he had been very timely in his rescue, dead was dead. He imagined that the Golden Core elder from Four Symbols Peak would surely hold a grudge against Li Yan. Even if Wei Zhongran came forward afterward, it would at most be a superficial matter. If Li Yan went out alone in the future, who knows what would happen.
"This poison is truly overbearing. Fortunately, Li Yan issued a warning at the first moment, and Martial Nephew Wuyi also protected his heart meridian in time. Otherwise, if it had been a dozen or so breaths later, even if his life could be saved, he would have been left with a serious underlying illness, which could very well have a fatal impact on his future realm. Even so, he will need at least a day or so of recuperation to recover. But he can still make it to tomorrow night's match. Calculating the time, it's just the final match. But it's a good thing he has already won two matches and only needs one more win. But this poison?" Yan Longzi said after a moment of thought.
"Li Yan has never used this poison before. This poison is not controlled by Divine Sense, but is automatically activated," an elder said with a grave expression.
"Time-activated," another elder said concisely.
This group of old monsters were indeed all masters of using poison. They quickly guessed the function of this poison. This poison was one of the two most special poisons among the twelve in the Fragmented Poison Body, and its toxicity was extremely fierce. These two poisons could erupt on their own at the Wushi and Zishi hours respectively, and both were activated with the help of the fiercest sunlight of the Wushi hour during the day and the most gentle and yin moonlight of the Zishi hour at night. But because of this, they were also limited by whether the weather was clear or not. For example, they could not be activated on a cloudy day. (TN: The Wushi hour is from 11 am to 1 pm. The Zishi hour is from 11 pm to 1 am.)
When borrowing the fiercest sunlight and the most yin moonlight of the day, the power depended on the realm of the poison user. For example, when Li Yan used it now, he could achieve the power of the perfected tenth-layer of Qi Condensation. These two types of Fragmented Poisons were also the most toxic among the twelve in the Fragmented Poison Body now, and he had never dared to try them. But today, in his repeated counterattacks, Du Sanjiang had mostly ignored and taken them head-on. Although Li Yan had used poisons including Divine Sense-controlled ones, these poisons had all directly attacked or attached to Du Sanjiang's protective formation. Whether he made them erupt immediately or detonated them with his Divine Sense later, he could not break through Du Sanjiang's protective formation. Forced into a corner, he had thought of borrowing one of the two poisons, "Lovesickness Under the Moon." This poison was one that erupted on its own when the yin qi was at its peak in a day. And tonight, the moonlight was particularly bright, which was a good means of attack. But at that time, it was still early before the Zishi hour. He could only attach "Lovesickness Under the Moon" to the surface of the formation during his initial attacks, and then hold on bitterly and wait for the Zishi hour. In the end, he finally held on until the Zishi hour, and the poison erupted on its own with the help of the strongest yin and gentle power of the moonlight, breaking through the formation, but at the same time, also severely poisoning Du Sanjiang.
The people below the stage, including Li Wuyi on the scene, did not see how the attack was made. But Li Wuyi was very close and still felt a force that did not belong to Li Yan fluctuate in that space for a moment. The great Golden Core cultivators on the floating pavilion, however, noticed a very fine streak of brilliant light shooting down diagonally from the huge moon in the sky and landing on Du Sanjiang. Then, the poison attached to Du Sanjiang's body immediately reacted violently, exploding with a great flash of light. Then, countless mists entered Du Sanjiang's body. After they connected the cause and effect and thought about it carefully, they determined that it should be a time-activated type of control. Among them, there were also those who were skilled in this way. For example, they could dissolve some poisons in water and then make them act up at a certain time with the help of the power of heaven and earth. But this required extremely high pharmacological knowledge and profound magical power to determine when it would volatilize, and also to prevent the poison from being carried away by the flowing water.
Li Wuyi, of course, also heard this and couldn't help but marvel at the strangeness of the Fragmented Poison Body. Then he left here. Li Yan was still trapped in the battle stage's formation.
In the end, this battle was declared as Li Yan's victory. Although Li Yan could not break the formation and could not walk out, the formation also could not attack because no one was controlling it. He just had to wait until the Spirit Stones supporting the formation were exhausted, and the formation would naturally stop running, and he could walk out.
The sect did not explain what poison Du Sanjiang was afflicted with, which made the disciples on the stage somewhat dissatisfied, but they only discussed it and did not dare to say it out loud.
They all felt that Li Yan's victory in this match was extremely strange. What kind of technique could he use to break through the protective formation of a master at the perfected tenth-layer of Qi Condensation? And this was also a genius disciple who had been taken in by a Golden Core elder. You know, Du Sanjiang was ranked in the top three among the Qi Condensation masters of Four Symbols Peak, and some people said that Du Sanjiang was now very likely the number one Qi Condensation cultivator of Four Symbols Peak.
Li Yan flew back to the area of Little Bamboo Peak crookedly, meeting the gazes of his senior brothers. After landing, he forced a smile. "I got lucky with a sneak attack." After saying that, without waiting for any feedback from the others, he had already sat down on the ground with a plop, holding two Spirit Stones to recover. His current state was very bad; one could say he had run out of fuel.
Seeing him like this, the others exchanged a look. Thinking about the almost fatal situation Li Yan had just been in, they knew that what Li Yan said was not an exaggeration, so they naturally did not disturb him. As the competition progressed, the battles between the cultivators became more and more frequent. Li Yan's next turn on stage might be in just one or two hours.
Wei Chituo, Yun Chunqu, and the others walked to the side and discussed in a low voice. Faint words like "spiritual power... heaven and earth..." could be heard. Of course, Li Yan, who was now fully focused on meditating, could not hear them.
Zhao Min listened to the lively discussions around her, bowing her head in thought. Li Changting also looked up at the sky with a puzzled expression. She had a feeling that what had broken through Du Sanjiang in the end was not Li Yan's own spiritual power, but seemed to have borrowed some kind of power from heaven and earth. At this time, Zhao Min also looked up at the huge full moon in the sky. Of course, she was not the only one who had this feeling. There were also several powerful Foundation Establishment cultivators who had their own guesses. The reason was simple: Li Yan could not possibly possess such profound spiritual power.
Wang Tian's face was gloomy. He never would have thought that this Li Yan could actually defeat Du Sanjiang. In Li Yan's last one or two matches, it would be very difficult to seriously injure him. Previously, besides instructing the disciples of Spirit Insect Peak to be ruthless when they met Li Yan, he had also found other peak's Foundation Establishment cultivators who were on good terms with him through his connections, and had them order their Qi Condensation disciples to deal with Li Yan. But in the end, only three or four people had agreed. The others were unwilling to offend that madman Li Wuyi and had directly refused. Among those three or four people, probably only one or two were truly willing to put in the effort. This made Wang Tian very unhappy. Although some of the opponents Li Yan met later had indeed been instructed to deal with him, it was unknown how many of them had actually put in the effort. And that...