Once someone like Zhao Min cultivated the "Heavenly Demon White Jade Plate," she would have a fifty percent chance of advancing to the Nascent Soul stage in the future.
At the same time, she would be a Nascent Soul cultivator who had mastered the "Heavenly Demon White Jade Plate" cultivation method. How many of her peers could be her opponent?
To use such a person as a spy just to exchange for the life of one of their Nascent Soul cultivators was simply not worth the loss; the loss was too great.
The more crucial point was that Zhao Min was human. Anyone who knew the secrets of the great war between the Black and White Demon Clans would know that the Black Demon Clan and the human race were irreconcilable. This was the point that Shanggong Changge was most at ease with.
As for why Dongli Qing had turned out like that after tracking Zhao Min today, she couldn't be sure of the reason, and Zhao Min had returned to the "Sacred Demon Palace" early on.
She had also secretly investigated this point. Dongli Qing had gone out through the east gate, while Zhao Min had stayed in the city, and the time of Dongli Qing's death simply did not match up.
She guessed that it was possible that Dongli Qing had discovered someone else's abnormality while following Zhao Min, which made him temporarily change his original purpose.
It was just that he himself had never expected that with his Nascent Soul cultivation, the end would be like this.
Shanggong Changge didn't care about anything else. As long as there was no problem with Zhao Min's identity, she would not let some things be connected to her, and thus implicate herself.
But she would not let this matter go either. She would secretly investigate Zhao Min again carefully.
'With those words just now, I finally managed to get the Spirit Transformation elder of the Dongli branch out of the city. The longer he stays at the place of Dongli Qing's death, the more stable the memories of those five disciples will become...'
Shanggong Changge looked at the towering momentum in front of her leaving her far behind, a smile appearing on the corner of her mouth.
When she first saw the "Black Demon... Jiao... go..." left by Dongli Qing on the ground, she also couldn't figure it all out at the first moment.
But with quick and careful thought, Shanggong Changge felt that the last word "go" was a bit superfluous. Then, a flash of inspiration came to her mind, and she immediately thought of Dongli Qing's request for her to ask Zhao Min to become his Dao Companion.
'Could that be the character for 'Zhao'? Was it because Dongli Qing was unable to continue writing when he finally died? Otherwise, the last word seems a bit redundant no matter how you look at it.'
At that time, Shanggong Changge almost lost her composure, but she still managed to hide her shock very well.
'These are all my guesses. How could Dongli Qing's death be related to Zhao Min? It can't be related.'
She constantly speculated about the cause of this incident in her heart.
Zhao Min would definitely not kill someone because of Dongli Qing's intentions. With Zhao Min's current status, apart from a few people, no one could force her to do something she was unwilling to do.
So, she had to determine whether this matter was related to Zhao Min.
So after a plan, she used the pretext of returning to the palace to deliver a message. She first inquired about Zhao Min's news in the palace, and then she went to find Dongli Qing's five disciples.
Finally, she confirmed that Dongli Qing's departure from the "Sacred Demon Palace" today was indeed related to Zhao Min. This matter was immediately linked to Zhao Min.
This made Shanggong Changge's heart tighten.
But fortunately, Dongli Qing had only arranged for his five disciples to spy on Zhao Min from a distance. This gave Shanggong Changge an opportunity.
Shanggong Changge was also bold. For her own sake, she did not hesitate to risk being discovered by a Spirit Transformation cultivator and really erased some of the clues left by Zhao Min.
But because of this, she also saved her own life after ascending to the Immortal Spirit Realm in the future.
Immortal fortune, destiny, all cycle in the heavenly Dao's cause and effect.
At this time, Li Yan was quietly staying ten thousand zhang underground, six hundred li away from where Dongli Qing had fallen.
The "Earthen Patch" had long since flown from Li Yan's left wrist, turning into a small patch of brown, wet soil and blending in with the surroundings. Li Yan's true body had flown into it.
Although Li Yan was confident that when someone noticed the anomaly in the mountain range where Dongli Qing was, he could fly at least three thousand li away on the "Cloud-Piercing Willow," a flying speed that fast would inevitably attract the attention of others, especially those high-level cultivators.
So, he chose to risk staying deep underground near the mountain where he had ambushed Dongli Qing. But he couldn't be too close. While using Earth Evasion, he constantly changed directions and released his Divine Sense to sense the movements above.
From the moment Dongli Qing started to show symptoms of poisoning until his aura just erupted, Li Yan had plunged headfirst into the "Earthen Patch" without any hesitation.
Li Yan believed that even a Spirit Transformation level cultivator might not be able to detect the aura of the "Earthen Patch." His confidence of course came from Ping Tu's condescending look back then, and his recognition of the power of the Five Immortal Sects.
Li Yan stayed quietly in the "Earthen Patch." He didn't know what was happening outside now.
He was carefully recalling every step that had happened today, to see if there were any loopholes that could bring adverse consequences to Zhao Min and himself.
But he absolutely did not know that Dongli Qing had not died directly, but had had a moment of clarity at the end, which had almost brought a disaster upon him and Zhao Min.
However, even if Li Yan knew that this would be the result, if he had to do it all over again, he would still choose to ambush Dongli Qing without hesitation, but the plan would be more detailed and thorough.
Dongli Qing had completely disrupted their escape plan. According to Zhao Min, he had arranged for spies in the palace to watch her closely, like a maggot on the bone.
And the other party also wanted Zhao Min to become his dual cultivation partner. For these reasons, killing intent had already surged in Li Yan's heart, so he thought of ambushing Dongli Qing.
However, his original purpose was also that the most likely outcome would be to make the other party poisoned and go into seclusion, unable to go out.
But at that time, he had not told Zhao Min about his plan to ambush Dongli Qing.
He had to make all the necessary preparations before he could determine the time of implementation.
Ambushing a Nascent Soul cultivator was a life-and-death gamble for the current Li Yan. And it was possible that his own life would be gambled away, while the other party was completely fine.
After Zhao Min left, Li Yan immediately began to outline a plan. The result was that he had a comprehensive plan in about an hour.
From this, it could be seen that Li Yan was already familiar with ambushing and killing people. At the same time, he also directly included the "Ghost Flood Dragon Clan" in his calculations.
There was no reason to be on guard against a thief for a thousand days. If the calculation was good this time, then he could kill two birds with one stone and take the opportunity to destroy the "Ghost Flood Dragon Clan."
Since the other party had already followed Zhao Min three times, then there would definitely be another move next time. That was to use this point to lure Dongli Qing out.
At that time, Li Yan thought he could use the Illusion Poison to poison the other party, and then, while his mind was affected, let him see his "true form"—a jiao-snake.
Then, with his appearance, Dongli Qing would definitely want to capture him to find out everything.
And Li Yan would leave "Sacred Demon City" at the fastest speed while the other party had not yet broken free from the Illusion Poison. This time would probably only be a few breaths.
So the place where Li Yan set up the Illusion Poison had to be remote and very close to the city gate.
As long as Li Yan left the city, he would immediately lead Dongli Qing to the vicinity of the "Ghost Flood Dragon Clan" sect. There, he would find a suitable place to set up layers of traps.
Li Yan believed that with the potent poison released by the Fragmented Poison Body, even a Nascent Soul cultivator would have to fall seriously ill and go into seclusion to detoxify.
However, with Dongli Qing's thoughts on Zhao Min, he would definitely want to find out the origin of the "jiao-snake" no matter what.
His power and status were already extremely high. Even if he was poisoned himself, he would have the ability to find out and level the "Ghost Flood Dragon Clan."
The most important key points in his plan were:
Could the Illusion Poison affect a Nascent Soul cultivator?
Where to set up the Illusion Poison?
How to plan his own route to escape in time; his own flying speed when escaping;
And where was the final place to ambush Dongli Qing and launch a fatal blow?
And before all this, the most important thing for Li Yan to do was to once again improve his own strength to ensure that the success rate would increase. And the fastest way was to completely refine the first drop of "Undead Nether Phoenix" essence blood.
For this, he had to spend more than two years to complete this matter. After his strength had grown, Li Yan immediately proceeded to the next step of the plan.
Finding a suitable place to set up the Illusion Poison, Li Yan quickly chose a remote area near the east gate.
That place was mostly a temporary residence for down-and-out cultivators. These people would go to the main city area's market during the day to set up stalls to make a living or to accept some tasks in exchange for Spirit Stones to survive.
So apart from some main streets, many places had very few pedestrians.
The reason Li Yan was familiar with that place was that since finding Zhao Min, he had carefully measured every part of "Sacred Demon City" with his footsteps.
He made himself constantly familiar with the situation in the city, so as to be prepared for leading Zhao Min away in the future.
Although he was very familiar with that place, Li Yan still chose and chose again, and finally confirmed the place for the ambush.
But Li Yan would not stop there. He later spent more than a month, and would go to the east city almost every two or three days.
He confirmed two more ambush areas near the east gate of "Sacred Demon City," so there were a total of three usable places.
At the same time, he observed the opening and closing times of the city gates, the situation of the Demon Guard Army, and so on. As for which one to use in the end, Li Yan would decide on the day of the operation.
After doing all this, Li Yan still had a few more important things to complete.
Li Yan flew hundreds of thousands of li away from "Sacred Demon City" again and began to look for some foreign Golden Core cultivators as targets.
His main purpose was to hone and comprehend the role of the Illusion Poison. This poison had only been separated after advancing to the Golden Core, and he was not yet familiar with it.
His targets ranged from the Initial-stage Golden Core to the Late-stage Golden Core, and even Pseudo-Nascent Soul cultivators.
In four months, Li Yan repeatedly made moves, but his purpose was not to kill the other party, but to comprehend the application of the Illusion Poison.
This was very different from his previous practice of striking like a poisonous snake from the shadows and killing the other party in one fell swoop. This caused Li Yan to be almost killed by his opponent on three occasions.
But fortunately, he had already prepared a backup plan. In addition to the Illusion Poison, he had laid other layers of potent poison, which was why he had survived one life-and-death crisis after another.
This kind of challenge between cultivators was the most common thing on the Forsaken Continent. Almost every moment, in different regions, at different times, similar things happened.
Many cultivators here would fight to the death over a single word of disagreement. It was not strange.
So, Li Yan's actions were also well-considered. And the objects of his challenges were even more unique. They were the cultivators who had won challenges at others' doors.
A small number of these people were cultivators with sects behind them. The meaning of their door-to-door challenges was different. In the eyes of outsiders, they represented their own sects.
And the other half were mostly rogue cultivators, and they were particularly powerful themselves. They used challenges everywhere to temper themselves and improve their cultivation, and at the same time, they were not afraid of others' life-and-death battles.
They would also be stopped by a black-robed person in some desolate mountain ridge.
The other party would cast a spell to conceal their aura, and their whole body would be shrouded in black mist, making it impossible for people to see their true face.
The black-robed person would often directly attack without saying a word. Whether you were willing or not, you could only accept the battle.
No one who fought with him survived, and it was the kind where not even bones were left. The black-robed person was extremely secretive and clean.
So, for a period of time, no one noticed that such a thing was happening.
It was the most normal thing for a cultivator to go into seclusion to comprehend after challenging others. Even his good friends might not be able to discover that something was wrong in time.