One must know that even for a four-element Profound Spirit Root, one couldn't be certain of successfully cultivating to the ninth level of Qi Condensation. As for Foundation Establishment, only cultivators with a three-element Earth Spirit Root or better had a chance. A four-element Profound Spirit Root couldn't break through to the Foundation Establishment stage through their own cultivation alone; they required the assistance of a large number of medicinal pills.
As for the five-element Miscellaneous Spirit Root, there were extensive records in the ancient texts. Generally speaking, the highest they could cultivate to in their lifetime was around the fourth or fifth level of Qi Condensation. To break through the bottleneck to the sixth level often required a massive amount of heavenly materials and earthly treasures. If what Li Yan said was true, that the Qi Condensation cultivators from the three opposing sects who entered this time were basically all ninth- or tenth-level miscellaneous spirit roots, how many precious materials and how much time would it have taken to cultivate them? Even for a behemoth like the four great sects, it would probably take at least several decades and consume about one-twentieth of the sect's resources to cultivate so many miscellaneous spirit root Qi Condensation cultivators. They must truly hate our Malevolent Spirit Sect to the point of wanting our utter demise.
The crowd was deeply shaken by what Li Yan said. However, if they knew that Li Yan also had a miscellaneous spirit root, there's no telling what they would think. But they would probably end up with the same thought as Gong Chenying, Wu Shixi, and Yu Yiyong, the few who knew the inside story—that the Fragmented Poison Body had changed Li Yan's constitution.
"In that case, we can just discard these green gourds. Just find a few people to jointly maintain the balance of the five-elemental power within the blue rhomboid crystal, or have these five-element miscellaneous spirit root Qi Condensation cultivators do it directly, right?" a voice from the crowd spoke up. It was a young cultivator from Never-Parting Peak. His words made many people nod in agreement. Saint Spirit Roots and Heaven Spirit Roots were rare, but Profound Spirit Roots and Earth Spirit Roots were not. Most cultivators possessed three or four spirit roots. As long as they found a few people, or even just two, it was possible to gather all five elements of qi. Not to mention the other side had a large number of Qi Condensation miscellaneous spirit root cultivators; a single one of them would be enough to balance the five-elemental spirit qi in the crystal.
"I don't have definite information on this, but the problem should lie with several people attacking at the same time. How much tacit understanding would be needed to achieve perfect control? Even if it could be achieved, the five-elemental spirit qi wouldn't have been cultivated by a single person, so there would be fusion issues. Thus, it might not be able to meet the balance requirement of the crystal. As for their miscellaneous spirit root Qi Condensation cultivators, you all tried it just now. Do you think one person can accomplish it?" Li Yan said slowly, frowning in thought.
The young cultivator from Never-Parting Peak was taken aback, as were the others beside him. Even if two people cultivated wood spirit qi, there would still be fundamental differences, and it would not be easy to achieve compatibility. This would be extremely difficult to coordinate. Thinking of the consequences for the cultivator who had infused spirit power earlier, no one brought up the idea of a Qi Condensation cultivator maintaining the five-elemental balance in the crystal again.
Li Yan paused again, a hint of confusion in his eyes, as if something was troubling him. But no one interrupted him this time. Right now, most of the cultivators here were more shocked by Li Yan. One must know that besides getting his hands on the blue rhomboid crystal a bit earlier than them, all these conclusions were derived from his own observation and comprehensive reasoning. He then peeled back the layers one by one, presenting the matter before them. The meticulousness of his thoughts and the clarity of his reasoning astonished them.
There were many here who were confident in their own meticulous minds, but no one dared to say they could sort out most of the perplexing issues as clearly as Li Yan. From deducing that the two Foundation Establishment cultivators entered one after another, to demanding the green gourds, and now to all these conclusions, Li Yan, in their eyes, had relied solely on the poison he had set and his suspicions about the blue rhomboid crystal, and then pursued the matter bit by bit. It was truly incredible.
Even confident individuals like Wu Shixi, Ding Yiwei, and Mei Bucai now couldn't help but sigh inwardly. If the same thing happened again, they wouldn't have checked the spirit roots of the Qi Condensation cultivators. They would have just confirmed the enemy was truly dead, taken the storage pouches, and left immediately.
If Li Yan knew their thoughts, he would surely shake his head. Though his mind was as fine as a hair, he wasn't that much better than these prodigies. The reason he performed this way was mainly due to the effect of his True Scripture of Gui Water, which had some kind of mysterious connection with this secret realm. By now, he also had a theory about this secret realm.
The confusion in Li Yan's eyes flashed for only a moment before they cleared up again. He organized his thoughts and continued.
"If these five-element miscellaneous spirit root Qi Condensation cultivators are as I speculate, and they don't accelerate the consumption of the five-elemental balance time in the crystal, then their green gourds are for the use of the Foundation Establishment cultivators. But since, according to the previous analysis, two Foundation Establishment cultivators cannot appear in the same sphere at the same time, what is the point of them doing this? After checking a few of the Qi Condensation cultivators from the two sects who were poisoned by my trap, I found that the time they were poisoned was extremely close, almost at the same time. Does this not show that the main reason the two sects spent so many resources to cultivate these five-element miscellaneous root cultivators is... they can appear in the sphere at the same time."
As Li Yan spoke, his expression became grave, and he enunciated word by word a result that everyone least wanted to hear.
"In this case, the role of the Foundation Establishment cultivator is: one, to meet the rule requirement of having a high-level cultivator lead the team to activate the Wheel of Life and Death; two, to lead these five-element miscellaneous spirit root cultivators into this place, so that these extra thirty-six Qi Condensation disciples can swarm us; three, in case of an emergency, when their own Foundation Establishment cultivator in the sphere dies, he can unexpectedly attack again. At that time, his stamina and cultivation would be something we cannot contend with."
"Then if the third party they encounter is still one of their own, can they merge into three paths?" The moment Li Yan's voice fell, Gong Chenying's voice rang out, but the content of her words was even colder than this world of ice and snow.
Li Yan's eyes looked somewhat lost as he watched the snowflakes falling from the sky. He shook his head and said nothing.
For a time, the howling wind in this space grew stronger, and a sense of sorrow rose in everyone's heart. If the other side could continue to merge their forces like this, then besides certain death, there was no other way out for them.
"But I speculate that they probably can't merge their forces indefinitely. Although there are loopholes in the rules here, I think it might also be a hidden measure by the senior expert who created this Wheel of Life and Death. Otherwise, why would he specifically create a five-elemental blue rhomboid crystal instead of a single-attribute one?" Li Yan paused for a moment, then withdrew his gaze and said after some thought. But while his words had some reason, they were not convincing. Li Yan sighed inwardly. In truth, he couldn't be sure how many paths the other side could merge, but from what he had seen in the core of the blue rhomboid crystal, he had a faint feeling that this cheating method was deliberately put in place by the great power who created this space. Since it was deliberate, it would of course only tilt the scales of fairness a little, not completely, otherwise it would lose its meaning. But he couldn't reveal the secret that he could enter the core of the blue rhomboid crystal. This likely already involved the True Scripture of Gui Water. Moreover, what he had seen still needed a chance to be tested secretly.
"Then how does the Foundation Establishment cultivator outside the sphere know that the one inside is dead?" Gong Chenying continued to press. Her question still concerned the life-and-death matter of the Foundation Establishment cultivators. Although Li Yan had previously deduced that the two entered one after another, he had not explained how they communicated. This was also related to the possibility that the other side didn't know the Foundation Establishment cultivator inside was dead, in which case Li Yan's deduction would have a loophole. This would have a great impact on their future offensive strategies.
"Heh, this question should be explainable. Did Senior Sister Gong notice something inside the sphere earlier? The core of the blue rhomboid crystal held by the Supreme Mystery Teachings cultivator was white, while the one from the Ten-Pace Courtyard cultivator you handed me had a deep green core," Li Yan chuckled this time. When he had taken the crystal from the skeletal hand of the Supreme Mystery Teachings cultivator, he had been quite puzzled.
After hearing Li Yan's seemingly random words, some of the Malevolent Spirit Sect cultivators were initially confused, but soon, comprehension dawned in many of their eyes, and they began to whisper among themselves.
Gong Chenying nodded after hearing this and didn't press further. She remembered very clearly that when choosing a passage outside the Wheel of Life and Death, the Ten-Pace Courtyard had chosen a white-cored blue rhomboid crystal. She had even paid special attention to Wang Lang because of it. What Li Yan said was clear: there must be some kind of secret message within the crystal, something that could determine the other party's location or aura. Otherwise, why would the two sides swap crystals? Thinking of this, she couldn't help but recall how his expression had been somewhat dazed when she had handed him the crystal inside the sphere.
'This little martial uncle is truly remarkable. I completely overlooked such an obvious thing.' In truth, Gong Chenying was being too hard on herself. In that situation, seeing such a turn of events, her mind was naturally in turmoil. And if one wasn't deliberately paying attention to the crystal, one really wouldn't notice that the tiny color in the center was different and had appeared in the hands of someone it shouldn't have.
"Little Martial Uncle, why can only one Foundation Establishment cultivator from a team enter the Wheel of Life and Death to activate it?" a simple-minded voice rang out from the discussing crowd.
Hearing the greasy tone in the voice, Li Yan knew who it was without looking. He hadn't expected the fatty to react so quickly. Li Yan naturally understood his meaning. It was that since they had determined the other side could do all this, could they not hide a few more Foundation Establishment cultivators when entering the Wheel of Life and Death?
"I can't figure out the reason for that either. It's probably a restriction of the activation rules here, which likely cannot be broken. Besides, at that time, everyone in the passage was under the watchful eyes of dozens of Golden Core masters. What kind of heaven-defying means would be needed to conceal one's cultivation? By the same token, the reason the other side doesn't have two Foundation Establishment cultivators enter the sphere is probably that when a third high-level cultivator enters, it might cause a drastic change in the sphere's rules, leading to a result none of them want to see," Li Yan couldn't answer, but after a moment's thought, he posed a rhetorical question from another angle.
This time, no one spoke. They all stared at Gong Chenying, because the one-hour limit was almost up. Although they didn't know the certainty of the answers to their questions, and many questions remained unexplained, this was all they could do for now.
Gong Chenying took a deep look at the crowd. She saw doubt, hesitation, indifference, and also calmness in their eyes. She knew that Li Yan's speculation might not convince many, but she felt there was a fifty percent chance it was the truth, because her little martial uncle's reasoning was very clear. So she believed half of it. Because there were many questions Li Yan couldn't explain either, she suspected the other half. This was her character. She could listen to others' suggestions, but the decision was always her own.
'Fifty percent is enough. Fate? Ever since I stepped onto the path of cultivation, it has been a struggle!' Gong Chenying stood proudly in the snow.
Her gaze swept over everyone one by one, finally resting on Li Yan. She looked at the two blue rhomboid crystals in his hand and the three green gourds on the ground, which were gradually being buried by the white snow, leaving only their outlines. Her eyes suddenly focused, and she had a plan.
"Give me your blue rhomboid crystals and green gourds," Gong Chenying said to Li Yan, a simple request. The other cultivators didn't find it strange. It was normal for such secretive items to be in the team captain's hands.
Li Yan showed no dissatisfaction. With a wave of his hand, the two crystals and three gourds flew towards Gong Chenying. At the same time, his lips moved slightly.
Gong Chenying watched the five items whistling towards her, her pretty face calm. But she suddenly heard a voice transmission in her ear. "Senior Sister Gong, I have a way to get out of this trial path."