Upon hearing this, the purple elephant sneered, "Since you already know my origins, do you really think you can become my master with just your Foundation Establishment cultivation? You are far from qualified. Although I haven't recovered, if even one of the other divine elephants appears in a moment, will you still be able to remain so calm?"
Hearing this, a mocking expression touched the corners of Li Yan's lips. When the purple elephant saw this, a flicker of panic crossed its heart. It seemed that capturing this boy for the time being was truly impossible. Things had become rather troublesome.
"Oh, is that so? Why don't you let me take a guess?" Li Yan said with a smile. This time, he didn't wait for the purple elephant to speak before immediately continuing.
"You wanted to kill me at first because you sensed that I had once refined the Great Dragon-Elephant Formation. As soon as I die, you'll be free. That's why you wanted to kill me at the first opportunity. But in fact, your bloodline dictates that you must obey my commands forever, just like this…"
As Li Yan spoke, a small purple flag appeared before him.
The moment the small purple flag appeared, a look of panic crossed the purple elephant's face. It retreated two steps consecutively, its eyes filled with deep apprehension. But then, a sharp glint suddenly flashed in its eyes, and it let out a cold snort, as if it had thought of something.
Li Yan's heart skipped a beat. 'Could it be different from what I thought!' He immediately formed a seal, his lips moving silently. A ray of spirit light shot from his fingertip, and he pointed at the purple elephant. Seeing Li Yan point at it, the purple elephant's expression grew tense. The next moment, a look of pain indeed crossed its face.
Only then did Li Yan feel relieved. But just as he was about to continue the spell and make the purple elephant suffer, the pain on its face slowly faded. Amidst the pain, its eyes also held a look of bewilderment, which was quickly replaced by wild joy.
Li Yan frowned and pointed again. The look of pain reappeared on the purple elephant's face, but after less than a breath, its expression returned to normal once more.
"Hahaha, the bloodline refinement has indeed disappeared! Boy, you are dead for sure!" Although the purple elephant was still in pain, it burst into laughter.
Hearing this, Li Yan simply lowered his finger and looked at the purple elephant, his face calm as he said, "As I expected of you!"
The laughing purple elephant's laughter died abruptly upon hearing Li Yan's inexplicable words. It asked, somewhat confused, "What do you mean?"
"Nothing much. Just that you are not one of the ten Purple Divine Dragon-Elephants that were originally refined," Li Yan said faintly.
"Oh, boy, what does it matter if I am or not? What can you do to me? That bit of pain is no longer enough to restrain me," the purple elephant said with disdain.
"If I'm not mistaken, you are likely just the last wisp of essence soul from the ten dragon-elephants. I don't know how you managed to escape the restraints of the 'Great Dragon-Elephant Formation,' but clearly, you haven't escaped them completely."
"The high-temperature magma here is greatly beneficial to you, but your current state clearly doesn't allow you to continuously absorb the heat to recover quickly."
"If you could, you would have just directly ingested the hottest magma to recover faster, wouldn't you? But you only absorbed some of the hot air here before stopping, which means your body can no longer bear it."
"Hmm, at the very least, you need a fusion process, right? Only then can you continue to devour more high temperatures. And if you could eventually swallow the magma, I'm afraid that would be what allows your strength to take a great leap." Li Yan stated slowly.
"Oh, human boy, you may be weak, but you're not stupid. But don't you think you've realized this a little too late?"
As it spoke, the purple elephant flicked its long trunk again. The heat waves within the formation instantly formed tornadoes that spiraled into its large mouth. At this moment, the purple elephant's semi-corporeal body flared with brilliant purple light. More fine purple lines appeared, and the lines grew closer and closer together, as if they would overlap and solidify in the next moment.
Li Yan remained standing where he was, staring blankly at the scene before him, seemingly deaf to the purple elephant's words. But just as the purple lines on the purple elephant's body were about to overlap, its body suddenly began to tremble violently, like someone suffering from a severe illness.
Its expression instantly changed from arrogance to agony, and the light on its body flickered between bright and dim. Its Spirit Power became chaotic and violent. In the next moment, the purple elephant fell directly from mid-air, landing on the rock on its back with its four feet in the air.
Only then did Li Yan let out a light chuckle. "Oh, I wasn't finished. Since you can absorb this high temperature to recover, then I'll just have to make it so you can't."
"You… you… you're also a poison… cultivator! What on earth… are you?!" The aura around the purple elephant grew increasingly violent, as if it would explode in the next moment. It tried to struggle and get up from the ground, but the stinging pain in its soul made it completely unable to control its body.
Looking at the purple elephant, a smile appeared on Li Yan's face. "So, you were really in a state of suspended animation or deep slumber before. You must have only woken up after entering the Flame Palace."
"Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant... if I remember correctly, 'Great Sun Purple Qi, Dragon-Elephant Divine Power, aggressive as fire, the ten directions tremble.' Devouring the sun and fire seems to be the innate ability of the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant. But I wonder how the 'Great Dragon-Elephant Formation' was used before that it caused the ten Purple Divine Dragon-Elephants within to slumber for so long, preventing you from recovering. That, I can't guess."
Under the purple elephant's terrified gaze, Li Yan had already walked up to it. First, he sent out a stream of Spirit Power, instantly suppressing the violent chaos of the purple elephant's Spirit Power, but at the same time sealing its body, preventing it from struggling in the slightest.
Then, with a flick of his sleeve, the small purple flag once again floated before him. The moment it saw the flag, the purple elephant's terror intensified.
"You… what are you… going to do…"
"Hehehe, nothing much. Didn't you say the bloodline refinement in your body was about to disappear? Well, since your true body is here now, I'll just have to refine it again."
Li Yan chuckled. His hands were already raised, dancing like butterflies flitting through flowers. One after another, incantation seals shot out and landed on the small purple flag. The surface of the flag immediately began to billow without any wind. Subsequently, ancient and cryptic syllables emanated from the flag's surface, which then formed complex runic symbols that drifted down onto the body of the purple elephant on the ground.
"Despicable human, how dare you…" the purple elephant let out a fierce roar, but its body was sealed, completely unable to move. It could only watch helplessly as the ancient runes landed on its body, its eyes filled with unwillingness and rage. Though it tried to struggle, it was all in vain.
A short while later, Li Yan was sitting cross-legged on the rocky ground, looking with a smile at the purple elephant standing dejectedly before him.
"Alright, you can tell me your origins now."
Li Yan glanced at the unconscious Bu Luo beside him. He had only briefly used his Spirit Power to sort out the injuries in Bu Luo's body and had not yet truly treated him. Even if Bu Luo weren't unconscious now, Li Yan would have found a way to make him so. Li Yan had no desire for Bu Luo to know about the purple elephant's existence.
Hearing Li Yan's question, the purple elephant hesitated for a moment. But the invisible suppression from its bloodline made it feel aggrieved, yet utterly unable to resist.
"Yes, Master. But my memories are not entirely complete. The 'Great Dragon-Elephant Formation' was passed down from the ancient Dragon-Subduing Sect. It is a formation of astonishing power, garrisoned by ten third-rank Purple Divine Dragon-Elephants, signifying control over the ten directions of heaven and earth. Its power can trap even Nascent Soul cultivators."
"Later, during a great battle with demonic creatures from another realm, in order to defend a fissure, the Great Elder of the Dragon-Subduing Sect used his own power to deploy the 'Great Dragon-Elephant Formation' and simultaneously trapped two invading Demonic Generals. In the end, although the two Demonic Generals were slain, the Great Elder of the Dragon-Subduing Sect also perished due to the exhaustion of his Divine Soul. At the same time, of the ten formation spirits of the 'Great Dragon-Elephant Formation'—the ten Purple Divine Dragon-Elephants—seven were annihilated, and three were heavily injured."
"The three heavily injured Purple Divine Dragon-Elephants, knowing they could not recover, pooled the last of their soul power to cast an inheritance divine art, intending to condense their last essence souls into a single, young Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant. However, before it was complete, the three Purple Divine Dragon-Elephants dissipated into nothingness, leaving only an unsolidified, young essence soul. That is me."
As the purple elephant spoke, it gave Li Yan a complicated look. It now felt a fear of this person from the bottom of its heart. Although it wasn't a true essence soul of a Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant, it had still existed for a very long time.
The "Great Dragon-Elephant Formation" had changed hands several times, and it had experienced several masters. But it had never met anyone as cunning as the person before it. He was clearly just a young brat, which was why it had dared to make a move, yet it had still inexplicably fallen into his trap.
In fact, it had woken up as soon as they entered the range of the Flame Palace. But as long as Li Yan didn't use the Great Dragon-Elephant Formation, it couldn't leave the small flag on its own. Therefore, the purple elephant knew nothing of Li Yan's cultivation methods or techniques. Otherwise, it would have been much more careful about when it made its move. Moreover, after spending several hundred years in the extreme cold of the first level, it was still in a weakened state and couldn't just expose itself casually.
Li Yan's heart first filled with joy. Although he had seen that the "Great Dragon-Elephant Formation" was extraordinary, he had never imagined it to be this powerful. It was practically a heaven-defying magical treasure. But Li Yan immediately recalled what Shuang Qingqing had once told him.
No matter how powerful a magical treasure was, its effectiveness depended on whose hands it was in. With his current cultivation, he would be lucky to unleash twenty percent of the formation's power.
More importantly, the purple elephant had already said that all ten formation spirits had perished. How much power could this formation still have? Looking at the purple elephant's body, he wondered how much of its combat power would remain even after a full recovery.
When the purple elephant was not controlled by his Great Dragon-Elephant incantation seals earlier, he had known that this little elephant was definitely not any of the ten original Purple Divine Dragon-Elephants. But the little elephant was, after all, condensed from the original formation spirits, so there was still some connection in its divine soul. That was why it had shown signs of pain and struggle under the control of the incantation seals, but he hadn't been able to truly control it.
"After the 'Great Dragon-Elephant' was brought back to the Dragon-Subduing Sect, its power was lost. But no one knew that the formation spirits within had died; they thought they had just fallen into a long slumber after the great battle. So it was passed down from generation to generation."
"The Dragon-Subduing Sect also suffered a great loss of vitality due to the death of that generation's Great Elder. They lost faith in the Four Great Sects and decided to hide the entire sect away completely."
Hearing this, Li Yan couldn't help but sigh inwardly. 'Whether it was the Wood Flow Sect or the Dragon-Subduing Sect I heard about today, they must have been great ancient sects. It's just that in the great battle at the Devil's Cliff Crevice long, long ago, these once-illustrious major sects all disappeared into the long river of history. Shuang Qingqing, the Great Elder of the Dragon-Subduing Sect... these were all dazzling figures of their generation. Both were able to fight two to three Demonic Generals of the same level at once. I wonder how many such peerless figures appeared back then, and how many fell.'