With a flick of his outstretched finger, Li Yan sent a surge of vigorous fire-attribute Spirit Power into the broadsword. Instantly, the blade was engulfed in roaring flames. Then, like a hot knife searing flesh, it pressed against the Snow Sprite Lord's chest, releasing a great plume of white smoke. In the blink of an eye, the blade plunged forward as if it were a heavy piece of iron sinking into a mire.
Just as the blade was about to sink halfway through the ice, Li Yan abruptly withdrew his Spirit Power. He flicked his finger again, and this time, a cold, dark-as-ink stream of Spirit Power shot into the broadsword. The once blazing weapon instantly turned pitch-black and frigid.
Li Yan's expression remained unchanged; this was something he had already discovered during his earlier tests. In truth, fire-attribute arts were most effective against ordinary Snow Sprites, but the same did not hold true for a Snow Sprite Lord. After the golden broadsword was obstructed, Li Yan had immediately switched to fire-attribute Spirit Power, and sure enough, the cutting speed increased dramatically. But as the flaming sword carved deeper, Li Yan felt his own Spirit Power draining away at an ever-increasing rate, until he felt a faint sense of losing control.
The source of this was the cluster of blue, ethereal fire at the core of the ice. It seemed to possess an extreme craving for pure yang fire. If not for the barrier of ice, it would have long since lunged at the flaming sword and wrapped itself around it. Just as the fiery blade was about to pierce the final layer of ice, Li Yan unhesitatingly switched his Spirit Power to the water attribute and ruthlessly slashed toward the blue flame, which had been stirring restlessly but now froze with a human-like confusion.
The pitch-black, ice-cold broadsword sliced through the final protective layer at the heart of the ice. The cluster of blue, ethereal fire seemed to sense the danger and leaped up, darting through the opening and fleeing toward the cave entrance. Li Yan's gaze was fixed on the blue flame. He could clearly see a miniature Snow Sprite at the center of the fire, its face etched with panic. It clutched a small flag, shot Li Yan a nervous glance, and then soared away, shrouded in its blue fire.
At this moment, the blue, ethereal fire was not entirely pure. Only its core was a deep blue, while its edges were intertwined with numerous crimson flames.
'So it hid its Essence Soul within the Demonic Core,' Li Yan sneered inwardly. A level two demonic beast had not yet formed a Demonic Core, so its life essence could only be a cluster of Essence Soul , far more condensed than the soul of a level one beast, and its capacity for Body Seizure was several times greater. If it escaped, once it assimilated the pure yang flames it had devoured from the Demonic Core, it would have a much easier time seizing a body than a human cultivator, given the homogenous nature of Snow Sprites. It could potentially take over any Snow Sprite, though of course, the Snow Sprite Lord's Essence Soul would naturally choose a powerful one for a more suitable host.
As he sneered, Li Yan's right hand bent into a claw. His palm instantly turned pitch-black as a vast torrent of water Spirit Power surged forth. His arm seemed to stretch across space, shooting out to snatch the cluster of blue, ethereal fire.
Under normal circumstances, even if a level two demonic beast's physical body was destroyed, its Essence Soul would not be so easily captured by someone like Li Yan. However, this particular demonic beast's Essence Soul was currently being seared by the flames of pure yang and was utterly incapable of channeling its magic power. Escaping like this was already the extent of its abilities. The weakness during advancement was no simple matter; it wasn't something one could overcome through sheer resilience or a desperate struggle. When things were beyond one's power and one's magic was no longer under control, all effort was futile. Otherwise, how could Li Yan have so easily crept up behind it and taken its life?
"Fellow Daoist, please spare me! If you let me go, everything here is yours! I also have many secret stashes that I can give to you!" Once captured, the miniature Snow Sprite within the blue fire, still clutching its little flag, began to beg for mercy, its body trembling uncontrollably. More than fear, its shaking was due to the searing pain from the pure yang fire.
"Oh? I don't think there's anything here that interests me besides your Demonic Core and that little purple flag in your hand. As for the things here... they are already mine," Li Yan said, unmoved. He glanced at Cheng Wenming's Storage Pouch, still attached to the waist of the shriveled husk on the ground, and then at the storage pouches of Ye Xiuwen and the other man, tossed into a far corner.
As for the "secret stashes" the Snow Sprite Lord's Essence Soul mentioned, they were likely within this very cave residence. The Snow Sprite Lord couldn't leave the Melting Cave, so any hidden items had to be here. Li Yan figured there was no better storage place than a cave residence protected by a formation. Though the cave was reasonably large, he should be able to find them with a thorough scan of his Divine Sense. Still, he didn't want to waste time, so he didn't ask, instead feigning disdain as if he were about to strike.
"Fellow Daoist, please hear me out! This little flag is indeed an extraordinary item. It is part of an extremely powerful formation, but only I know the activation incantation! I destroyed the jade slip with the manual long ago. If you kill me, what use will the flag be to you? My talk of secret stashes was not baseless either. Besides the spirit plants I've collected in this Melting Cave over hundreds of years, there are also items I took from outside cultivators. You must know that I cannot leave the Melting Cave, so the things I took from those cultivators have been kept here. Some of these items were brought from the outside world, while others were obtained within this space. Because everything here carries the aura of a Vicious Soul, I can distinguish them even though I cannot leave. Didn't you all come from the outside world precisely for these things? If you spare me, Fellow Daoist, I will offer them all to you!"
The Snow Sprite Lord was truly desperate. Feeling the bone-chilling cold emanating from Li Yan's palm, the searing pain from the yang fire was immense. Yet, this frigid Spirit Power actually brought it a strange sense of relief. Enduring the agony, it spoke, a thought it couldn't comprehend nagging at its mind. This person was clearly a fire-attribute cultivator, so how could he also possess water-attribute arts? Water-attribute arts were the bane of its Essence Soul; its blue, ethereal flame offered no resistance at all.
Although the Snow Sprite Lord knew that fire and water spirit roots could not exist in the same person, it was unaware of the concept of a Miscellaneous Spirit Root. Its knowledge came from its bloodline inheritance, and everything in this space was derived from Vicious Souls over tens of thousands of years. Fragments of memories from those Vicious Souls were integrated into its inheritance. Thus, it only knew that water and fire were incompatible and could not coexist in one person.
'This space?' Li Yan caught a phrase that was easy to overlook in the Snow Sprite Lord's rushed speech. He thought to himself, 'The Snow Sprite Lord is a level two demonic beast, so it doesn't have any soul-searching arts. It seems it doesn't know where it actually is, only that it and the cultivators who come here exist in two different spaces. It must be unaware of the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda's existence. It probably perceives the Snow Sprite King's ability to ascend to other pagoda levels as travel to another space. Still, from its words, I know that the formations it has were all plundered from cultivators.'
"The formation this little flag deploys isn't as powerful as you claim. Doesn't my presence here prove everything? Even the formation you set up outside this cave was nothing special. These things are meaningless to me," Li Yan said. Though he greatly desired the formation set, his voice grew colder, making the Snow Sprite Lord feel as if it held no value.
His words indeed sent the Snow Sprite Lord into a panic. The cultivator before it was right; the two formation sets had been completely useless against him. He had appeared inside its cave residence just like that. In that case, the formations it treasured so much were truly worthless to this person.
"Fellow Daoist! Fellow Daoist! Your magic power is heaven-defying, but you must have come here for heavenly materials and earthly treasures! I have a section of 'Melting Bamboo Shoot' here. It's two thousand years old, a treasure left behind by the previous Snow Sprite Lord. I obtained it later but have never used it. If you agree to let me go, this item will be yours. What do you say?" the Snow Sprite Lord hurriedly offered.
"A two-thousand-year-old Melting Bamboo Shoot?" This time, Li Yan didn't hide the shock on his face. He had heard of this item before and was astonished to find it here. This thing was incredibly precious in its own right. This Snow Sprite Lord was clearly no fool to have treasured it this way; it naturally understood the demand for it among outside cultivators.
"Melting Bamboo Shoot" was not unique to the Melting Cave, but it was extremely rare—a top-tier heavenly material in the cultivation world. It was rumored to accelerate the circulation of Spirit Power or demonic power. It offered no recovery or enhancement to one's power reserves; its sole function was acceleration. However, this came at the cost of massive consumption of one's own Spirit Power or demonic power. By that logic, this item should be a burden. In a fight, one would want as much magic power as possible. Wouldn't rapidly depleting it be suicidal?
However, by enabling Spirit Power to circulate through the meridians at great speed for a short time, it would multiply the power of one's arts, even by severalfold. The resulting increase in destructive force was unimaginable.
One could just imagine a cultivator in a life-or-death battle, suddenly unleashing a supernatural art with power far exceeding their normal limits. What a devastating counter-attack that would be.
Almost all cultivators understood the principle of increasing power by accelerating Spirit Power circulation, but no one was willing to do it. Or rather, even if they wanted to, they couldn't. Perhaps a few special cultivation methods could achieve it, but that was undoubtedly drinking poison to quench thirst.
The circulation of magic power originates from the Dantian. Forcibly increasing the speed to its limit would, in a very short time, cause the Dantian to rupture under the unbearable load before the Spirit Power could even circulate throughout the body, turning the cultivator into a cripple.
Some cultivators, in a final, desperate struggle, had no choice but to crazily circulate their Spirit Power, but that was often just to self-destruct in a final, mutually destructive attack.
Certain special cultivation methods could also momentarily increase the circulation speed of magic power, but the consequence would be severe damage to one's meridians. In the best-case scenario, it would take months of recuperation. In the worst, the meridians would be shattered, and the physical body would collapse, necessitating a new body through Body Seizure.
The "Five Elements Return to Primordial Genesis " that Li Yan cultivated was one such secret art from the Five Immortal Sects. It instantly merged the Spirit Power of the five elements and doubled its circulation speed, increasing attack power by fifty to sixty percent. Even with the backing of a profound sect like the Five Immortal Sects, this art couldn't be used casually. Currently, Li Yan could only sustain the explosive power for two breaths. Any longer, and he would be asking to lose his physical body.
Even so, after those two breaths, he would be essentially crippled, left with only the mobility of an ordinary person. He would need at least eight hours of meditation to recover. Therefore, Li Yan had never used this art in combat. He didn't dare. To use it was to face a moment of immediate life and death.