The sixth tier also turned into rubble and fell into the endless void in the blink of an eye. Immediately after, a series of sounds like shattering porcelain came from the seventh tier, and its surface began to be covered with spiderweb-like cracks.
Li Yan could already feel the half of his body that was still on the seventh tier begin to sink. His heart shuddered. Without thinking, he leaned his body forward sharply, and at the same time, lifted both his hands, a crazed look in his eyes. The moment his hands touched the eighth tier, the seventh tier shattered with a boom, instantly turning into fragments and scattering away. Li Yan, like a great ape climbing a tree with its body arched, clung to the edge of the eighth tier with both hands and one foot. His other leg was suspended in the bottomless black space below.
Li Yan was anxious. He looked at the large pieces of white jade staircase fragments falling below and quickly looked around. After a sweeping glance, he couldn't help but relax. The cracks that were rapidly shattering the steps had actually stopped at the seventh tier. No more cracks appeared on the eighth tier. Li Yan let out a long sigh of relief. He also knew that all this was only temporary. It might be because he hadn't stepped onto the eighth tier, or perhaps he hadn't triggered some kind of rule.
Now he was in the same situation as the last stage, once again at the edge of the steps. He didn't know when the shattering would happen. At that time, he would truly be helpless. And he didn't know if this counted as stepping onto the eighth tier.
Pingtu looked at the eighth line of light that had just appeared on Li Yan's forehead, which seemed as if it would disappear at any moment. His eyes narrowed again. 'He has climbed onto the eighth tier, but it seems the situation is not good. He might fall at any time. This should be the staircase beginning the Seven-Star Shattering Cauldron, which caused him to hastily step onto the eighth tier without being prepared, leading to this situation.'
Pingtu had lived for millions of years and naturally knew the small matter of Foundation Establishment like the back of his hand. He had a good grasp of Li Yan's situation. But this was a Secret Realm, not the Spirit Immortal Realm . Some medicinal pills were not available, and his cultivation had not recovered. He could only sigh at the ocean and was unable to intervene.
After confirming that he was temporarily safe, Li Yan relaxed slightly. He was now between the seventh and eighth tiers, neither up nor down. Here, he could also feel the pressure emanating from the eighth tier. Although he had long anticipated this pressure, upon truly coming into contact with a little of it, a sense of powerlessness welled up from the bottom of his heart. He had not yet stepped onto it, just being between the two tiers made him feel as if he would be knocked down immediately.
His body swayed under the immense pressure from above. Li Yan let out a deep breath of turbid air. Just as he was about to circulate all the spiritual energy in his body and charge up in one go, he couldn't help but be stunned. He suddenly found that although his hands were gripping the edge of the eighth tier, relying only on the temporary gripping force of his hands and the strength of one foot, this spiritual energy should be completely unable to resist the pressure from above the eighth tier. The reason he was still standing on three points like an ape was because a sticky liquid had been produced between his hands and the sole of his foot and the steps.
Li Yan was no stranger to this sticky liquid. He had practiced with spiritual energy during the Qi Condensation stage, but at that time, the amount of sticky liquid was very small, at most a thin layer. Now, a large amount of water-like substance had condensed.
'Is this the "To Be Together Forever" of the Fragmented Twelve?' Li Yan muttered to himself, somewhat unsure. He didn't use this poison much, because it had no direct effect on enemies. Instead, it had a strong adhesive property that would stick different items together, but it would not corrode or turn into a deadly poison that entered the body. Its greatest function was that the items stuck together would begin to assimilate after twelve hours and would be firmly fused together. Li Yan had verified this several times during the Qi Condensation stage. For example, if he stuck a piece of ink bamboo and a stone together, after twelve hours, it would form something like a hammer, and there would be no trace of the joint, as if it were naturally so, a work of art. Even if Li Yan deliberately tried to split it with a spirit sword at the joint, a large piece of rock would be brought out from the bamboo head.
After trying a few times, Li Yan lost interest in this poison. Not being able to kill quickly was not of much use to a Qi Condensation cultivator. If he couldn't kill his opponent quickly, then he would be the one to die. His cultivation was too shallow. If things dragged on, any accident could lead to his direct death. But since he had already discovered its characteristics, he had given it the name "To Be Together Forever."
In his urgency today, he had subconsciously circulated his spiritual energy and filled his hands and feet with this poison. He never thought it would have such an effect. Looking at the sticky liquid under his palm, after his spiritual energy liquefied, even the Fragmented Twelve had begun to change a lot. It had actually helped him again during his Foundation Establishment. Of course, Li Yan didn't care about how many hours. Even if he hung like this for twelve hours, he would not assimilate with the steps. This poisonous liquid was originally transformed from his own spiritual energy and could be controlled freely. Moreover, his physical body was not here.
All this, in fact, had become clear in a flash of Li Yan's thoughts. He knew that this was not the time to consider these things. He sensed the medicinal power of the Foundation Establishment Pill in his body. At this time, about sixty percent of it had disappeared. But based on his current position, with the remaining forty percent of the medicinal power, plus his own spiritual energy, there was still hope for a breakthrough. He should seize the momentum and climb onto the eighth tier.
Li Yan's mind sank. Just as his spiritual energy whistled from the cauldrons in his Dantian and twisted into several pillars of spiritual energy, his body suddenly trembled violently, as if he had been hit hard. A tearing pain he had never felt before swept through his Divine Sense, and the qi in his body became chaotic. The originally very obedient spiritual energy, like wild horses that had lost their restraints, rampaged through his body.
Li Yan was hit by this sudden change and his qi and blood churned. In his alarm, he forced himself to concentrate, but this force became more and more chaotic and mixed. He was faintly beginning to lose control of this spiritual energy. 'Not good, the Fragmented Twelve is about to break through.'
In a time of crisis, Li Yan became even calmer. He barely maintained his clarity of mind and thought quickly. According to the introduction of the three great poison bodies in the sect's classics, although there was not much related knowledge introduced, there was still some about the promotion of the poison body. The description said that it was usually after a cultivator had a major breakthrough in their cultivation realm that the poison body they cultivated would have a breakthrough, generally after the cultivation realm had been stabilized for a period of time. As for whether there was an unexpected occurrence like today, the classics were not very clear. After all, since the founding of the Malevolent Spirit Sect, there had only been a few people with the three great poison bodies, and their poison body breakthroughs all happened after their cultivation was stabilized.
This sudden change in Li Yan this time might have been because he had inadvertently used the Fragmented Poison Body when charging through the nine tiers of Foundation Establishment, thereby triggering a full-scale outbreak.
Thinking of this, Li Yan felt like crying but had no tears. His grasp in his urgency just now was just an instinctive reaction under long-term cultivation. He didn't expect it to cause such a result. Now, at the critical moment of charging through the nine tiers of Foundation Establishment, with his spiritual energy out of control, not only might he fall directly back to the seventh-tier Foundation Establishment realm, but in his current state, it was hard to say whether he could let the Fragmented Poison Body break through normally in reality.
After thinking and thinking, for a moment, this matter was not something he could control. Although there was no sweat on Li Yan's forehead, anxiety began to appear in his eyes. He tried his best to calm down, but his body was already in a mess. The twelve fragmented pieces had actually begun to gather together again. This gathering was not urgent, but it had re-blocked Li Yan's newly expanded meridians. Li Yan only felt that the spiritual energy in his body was running out. What was more terrifying was the pressure from the eighth tier. If it were a series of battering rams hitting him directly, it would make Li Yan's body continuously fall. Even the "To Be Together Forever" sticky liquid on his palms and the sole of his right foot had begun to stretch continuously, appearing as strands of clinging threads.
Pingtu looked at the line of light that had seemed to appear faintly just now, which was now beginning to disappear and was almost completely invisible. This was a sign that he was being blasted down from the eighth tier. His heart was also sinking bit by bit. If Li Yan ended like this, then he would be a seventh-tier Foundation Establishment. Although this was already very good for many cultivators, for the sparsely populated Five Immortal Sects, it meant one less supreme expert.
Looking at the ever-stretching sticky threads, Li Yan's entire body had changed from the initial arched-waist, three-point slanted stance to a continuous tilt. This was causing his falling speed to get faster and faster. The most detestable thing was the pressure and bombardment from above, which almost made it impossible for Li Yan to breathe. His heart was beating at a terrifyingly fast rate. At this moment, Li Yan was afraid that his heart would explode directly from his chest.
At the same time, he was enduring the pain of the Fragmented Poison Body re-separating after just fusing. Li Yan's body was constantly convulsing. In just two breaths, his falling speed had already put him in a head-down, feet-up position. The sticky threads on his palms and the sole of his foot had been stretched to two inches. As the sticky threads continued to stretch, many of them had begun to break. They would retract reluctantly, finally turning into a drop of water at the origin point. The pulling force on Li Yan's body was continuously decreasing.
At this time, Li Yan's mind had begun to become chaotic. The sliver of clarity he had just now was being occupied by the immense pain of the Fragmented Poison Body separating. There was only one thought in his mind: to escape this painful state as soon as possible. But his body's continuous falling made it impossible for him to cultivate in peace. Subconsciously, he suddenly struck a pose, a pose that he could make in his current state.
When he struck this pose, a powerful force suddenly generated in his body. This force did not come from his Dantian's Purple Mansion, but from his muscles and bones. The moment this force was born, it was like a thousand troops and ten thousand horses, directly filling Li Yan's entire body and directly shattering the slowly separating Fragmented Poison Body into dozens of pieces.
But this sudden impact was too violent. Li Yan, who was sitting cross-legged in the Secret Room, suddenly opened his mouth and spewed out a large mouthful of fresh blood, like a blood arrow shooting out several zhang. But immediately, Pingtu's eyes lit up. The line of light on Li Yan's forehead that was almost about to disappear slowly lit up again.
Li Yan only felt his internal organs being hit by a sudden great force. The organs in his body felt as if they were being stirred directly by a hand. He almost fainted directly. But after practicing under this familiar pain thousands of times, his instincts had formed a habit. Amidst a muffled grunt, he felt his mind suddenly clear up. The moment he was clear-headed, he found that although his hands were still on the eighth tier, his body was strangely twisted, as if suspended in mid-air. And at this moment, a surging power was raging in his body. Following this, the re-fused Fragmented Poison Body was instantly shattered into dozens of pieces. Even his originally dried-up meridians were recovering their spiritual energy at an astonishing speed.
Looking at his strangely twisted body, a flash appeared in Li Yan's eyes. 'Qiongqi Purgatory Art? I didn't expect this art to be able to generate power here.'
However, this was not the time for him to think too much. He didn't have time to check the condition of the Fragmented Poison Body in his body. Feeling his body filled with strength, Li Yan's hands suddenly clenched into fists, grabbing the remaining long sticky threads. At the same time, the foot that had begun to move away from the steps took advantage of the momentum and wrapped several hundred sticky threads around its ankle. With a loud shout, he suddenly exerted force at all three points simultaneously, pulling himself upward fiercely. His originally upside-down body, against the pressure, righted itself at an incredible speed. At the same time, his other foot had also stepped from its suspended position onto the eighth tier. This process was very short. The sticky threads had already snapped under this great pulling force. By the time Li Yan's body was upright, there were less than fifty sticky threads in his hands. However, Li Yan did not stop. Against the knife-like pressure, with a loud roar, he slowly stood up straight. At the same time, the True Scripture of Gui Water and the Qiongqi Purgatory Art in his body circulated simultaneously. With a sudden lift of his leg, amidst the rumbling sound of the suppression of the rules of heaven and earth, he actually stepped onto the ninth tier with one foot.
And at that moment, a cold voice sounded in Li Yan's ear. "Ant, you dare!"
This voice was as cold as ten-thousand-year-old ice. Li Yan suddenly felt his whole body as if he had fallen into the nine netherworlds. His rising figure instantly froze, as if he had been frozen in mid-air. The voice gave rise to a feeling of being completely unmatched in Li Yan's heart, as if it would suppress everything. And amidst this voice, the eighth tier under Li Yan's other foot had already shattered.