The Snow Sprite Lord, having withdrawn its hands, suddenly heard a crackling sound from within its body, like dry wood burning. The perpetually dull expression on its square head also showed pain, and a "huo huo" sound came from its mouth. It quickly raised its hands, forming seals as they danced in the air. One ice flower after another floated down from the sky, fluttering down onto its head and body. Its expression had just eased when wisps of green smoke rose from its body. Its face then twisted in pain again. As its hand seals moved faster and faster, more ice flowers descended, making it look like an object whose fire had just been extinguished, emitting unwilling, twisting green smoke.
And at this moment, a cold voice rang out in the cave residence. "You are very weak now. Do you need my help to complete the final step of the devouring?" Then, an illusory figure appeared less than five zhang in front of the ice throne. This person's appearance was too sudden, causing the Snow Sprite Lord, who was refining the yang fire, to tremble violently. Even its twisted, pained face showed a hint of bewilderment. He thought this was an illusion that had appeared during the refining process because the two sets of formations, inside and outside the cave residence, had not given him any warning at all. Especially the "Great Dragon-Elephant Formation" that he relied on the most, which had not made a single sound.
The Snow Sprite Lord endured the severe pain, regulating its breath to calm its mood while trying to look at the phantom. The figure had indeed disappeared. He felt that he had walked out of the Inner Demon Illusionary Realm of his cultivation, but it had felt so real just now.
Just as the Snow Sprite Lord was feeling a little bewildered, it only felt a strong force tighten on its Celestial Crown, and a powerful force violently swept into its body. Then its body trembled violently. It turned its head with some difficulty. Before its consciousness dissipated, it clearly saw a figure standing on the ice throne behind it. Its eyes were filled with bewilderment and a trace of disbelief. It murmured, "It's... you. How... how could you...", then its huge body crashed onto the ice throne.
Li Yan withdrew the hand that was on the Snow Sprite Lord's head, his face expressionless as he looked at the scene before him. He had naturally used the "Heaven-Stealing Kerchief" to enter. This Ancient Treasure now brought Li Yan not just surprise, but power and mystery. Before he entered the Snow Sprite Lord's cave residence, he had thought that if the "Heaven-Stealing Kerchief" alerted the other party, the result would be either he would give up hunting the demonic core and leave directly. With his "Stealthy Night Art" and speed, the other party really couldn't stop him. The other result would be to have a big fight with the other party after alerting them. But given that the other party had already captured Cheng Wenming, and his own previous performance, he estimated that as long as he did not forcibly bombard his cave residence, this Snow Sprite Lord might just swallow its anger and not fight with him.
Just after Li Yan took out the "Heaven-Stealing Kerchief" and gently covered the crevice in the snow on the cave wall, the front, which had been perfectly normal, now showed a wide cave in Li Yan's Divine Sense. And there, it was none other than the Snow Sprite Lord, who had just spat out a small flag from its mouth, as if about to use some powerful divine ability, and seemed completely unaware of what was happening outside.
Li Yan did not hesitate for a moment. Because he had sensed a sharp formation fluctuation from the purple small flag that the Snow Sprite Lord had spat out. His first guess was that the other party was going to strengthen the cave residence's defense, not that the other party had discovered him and was about to attack him.
He flashed into the Snow Sprite Lord's cave residence and immediately put away the "Heaven-Stealing Kerchief." Although he judged that the other party should not have discovered his infiltration, he still operated his Stealthy Night Art at full strength. Subsequently, he confirmed that the other party was planning to devour Cheng Wenming on the ground, which was why he had strengthened the cave residence's defense. But he was still on full alert. It wasn't until the other party used the "Great Dragon-Elephant Formation" that he began to relax a little. But then he developed a deep interest in the "Great Dragon-Elephant Formation."
Although Li Yan had no intention of going forward to attack the "Great Dragon-Elephant Formation" to test it, from his time with Gong Chenying, he would often exchange some views on formations. So he could see the extraordinariness of this formation at a glance. However, to say it was an exchange with Gong Chenying was more like asking for advice. Li Yan couldn't catch up to Gong Chenying's attainments in formations even if he tried his hardest.
Feeling the powerful pressure from the formation rushing towards him, greed arose in Li Yan's heart. In his feeling, let alone the unknown formation before him, even the protective formation outside the Snow Sprite Lord's cave residence was much stronger than the few sets of formations he had on hand.
The few sets of formations Li Yan had were all defensive types, with only a slight attack effect, more for warning and creating illusions to confuse. This was also a relatively common simple protective formation for disciples of the Malevolent Spirit Sect. With the existence of the Malevolent Spirit Sect's Four Symbols Peak, there were of course high-quality formations. Once such a formation was used, it might even cause headaches for Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators. But such formations all required a massive amount of Spirit Stones to purchase. How could a small Foundation Establishment cultivator like him even get a glimpse of them?
Gong Chenying herself also had a very good set of formations. It was said that even an ordinary early-stage Golden Core cultivator, without using their full strength to probe, could not see through the land it transformed. But that was something Gong Chenying had painstakingly found the materials for and refined. And she had already claimed ownership by dripping blood. When Li Yan was traveling alone in the martial world, she had taken it out and was about to cut off her essence blood and Divine Sense to give it to Li Yan, but was immediately stopped by Li Yan. Due to the appearance of the sect's urgent summons, Li Yan had sensed the turmoil in the cultivation world. Although he was selfish, he would never have any selfish desires for his own people. Naturally, he would not take this life-saving item of Gong Chenying.
The formation Zhao Min owned was not much stronger than Li Yan's. But she had a purple-red string, which she used to tie her ponytail, not attracting any attention at all. Similarly, before Li Yan left, she also took it down and gave it to Li Yan. Although Li Yan didn't know what it was, he also knew that it must be the final life-saving item that her master or martial mother had given to Zhao Min. He also flatly refused. But Zhao Min just placed it in his hand and wanted to turn around and leave. In the end, he was still blocked by Li Yan, who flashed in front of her. After looking at Zhao Min with a smile, he only said one sentence, "You look really good with it tied in your ponytail. Wait for me to come back!" Then he gently floated the purple string before Zhao Min's eyes.
Looking at the streaks of purple light thrown out by the small flag, Li Yan, hidden in the dark, was in a bit of a daze for a moment. Then a smile appeared on his lips. "This set of formations is really good. It must not have been refined by this demon. I wonder where it got it from!" Because from the aura fluctuation of the formation, he did not feel a trace of demonic qi. It was clearly refined by a human cultivator.
Next, Li Yan was in no hurry at all. The consequences of devouring and cultivating, whether for humans or demons, were the same. It required a refining process. That would be the most dangerous time. He wouldn't have to spend much effort to act. What he had to do was wait, wait for the other party to completely devour Cheng Wenming, when his physical strength and spirit power were mixed, and he needed to merge and refine them, then he could act.
As he had expected, the pained expression of the Snow Sprite Lord after completing the devouring, and the fluctuating spirit power on its body, appeared extremely unstable, all in line with his thoughts. Li Yan no longer hid his tracks, and even spoke to break its concentration. At the moment the Snow Sprite Lord's mind was breached, he slid his foot and arrived behind the Snow Sprite Lord on the ice throne.
There was no more nonsense. When fighting with people, every breath was crucial. Li Yan had experienced this firsthand. Back then, when his magic power was far inferior to Strategist Ji's, even though Strategist Ji's intelligence was unparalleled, he still died at Li Yan's hands. Not a small part of it was due to talking too much nonsense with Li Yan, which disrupted his rhythm. Li Yan liked to kill in one blow and would not do any boring tricks of toying with his opponent. Before the Snow Sprite Lord could react, he had already struck another powerful force into the Snow Sprite Lord's body.
Just this one force had instantly caused the Snow Sprite Lord to lose all its combat power. It had been struggling to maintain a balance after devouring. Li Yan only needed to destroy this balance, and the Snow Sprite Lord itself would be drowned by the rampaging spirit power in its body. This was the most terrifying thing when a cultivator's practice reached a critical point. No matter how powerful your magic power was, it would be in vain. So whether it was a cultivator or a demon, when they were advancing or cultivating some great divine ability, they would protect themselves heavily, either by asking their closest friends to guard them or by setting up the strongest protective formation. Otherwise, Su Hong would not have been willing to give Li Yan the other two heavenly materials and earthly treasures she had bought from the Chant-Garment Assembly just because she needed Li Yan to guard her. She was even willing to expose her relationship with the Malevolent Spirit Sect to gain Li Yan's trust. Otherwise, in her state at that time, she could not have focused on cultivating to recover. With an unsettled mind, not only would the effect be unsatisfactory, but she would also be suspicious at the slightest movement, and inner demons would grow.
Looking at the already unconscious Snow Sprite Lord at his feet, Li Yan's hand, a large blade conjured from spirit power, appeared directly at the Snow Sprite Lord's neck and cut down without any hesitation. With a "chi" sound, the Snow Sprite Lord's huge head rolled down. But the spirit power blade did not stop at all. It conjured one afterimage after another. Amidst continuous "chi chi chi" sounds, the Snow Sprite's four limbs were also separated. Then its body was split in two from the chest.
If the Snow Sprite Lord were conscious, with the effect of its spirit power, just the ice and snow armor on the outside of its body would not be something a Foundation Establishment cultivator could casually shatter with spirit power. But after losing consciousness, all of this became abnormally simple. In the end, when the large blade cut open the ice and snow armor on the outside of the Snow Sprite's chest, there was a loud "clang." The large blade was frozen in mid-air, as if it could no longer cut downwards.
The tip of the large blade was stuck on a huge block of ice. Through the ice, one could see the blue ethereal fire and some crimson fireballs intertwining within. Li Yan looked at the Snow Sprite Lord, which was now only a torso, with a calm expression. He knew that even if he had cut off the Snow Sprite's head and limbs, as long as the blue ethereal fire under this block of ice was not extinguished, after it had merged with those crimson fireballs, the Snow Sprite Lord could still be reborn and recover. Because this solid block of ice was the Snow Sprite Lord's most core protection --- its demonic core.
So he thought for a moment, stretched out a finger, and tapped the spirit power blade. A golden light flared on the large blade, and it made a buzzing sound. The body of the blade trembled even more fiercely. The tip of the blade made a tooth-aching "gegege" sound on the ice block, cutting a deep, sharp mark on it, but it still could not split the large ice block of the Snow Sprite Lord's torso. Li Yan's seemingly casual strike just now had actually summoned his gold spirit power. The gold element was invincible and could cut through anything, making it the best tool for cutting. It had cut off the Snow Sprite Lord's five limbs with a single stroke. It was only at the end that it met with obstruction. Li Yan's abundant magic power surged out again, increasing his spirit power to seventy percent. But even so, it only managed to cut a deeper gash on the Snow Sprite Lord's chest.