Soon, Li Yan confirmed his true identity, because he had Divine Sense, something a mortal would never possess.
"But Green Mountain Pass, A Ying, Little Gong, Little Meng, Dongling Min..." One by one, familiar figures and names flashed through his mind. They were so real, not at all like a dream.
After staring blankly for a long time, Li Yan finally let out a long breath. Whether he was willing to believe it or not, it was all a dream.
But this dream was fundamentally different from ordinary dreams. When you wake up from an ordinary dream, you don't take it to heart. But the dream just now was like living through an entire lifetime.
"Parting in life and death, both real and fake, a fleeting illusion, the dust settles!" After thinking for a while, since the real dream was something Li Yan couldn't figure out, he decided not to think about it anymore.
But when he thought of his dream-self as a Marshal, a heroic spirit rose from his chest, because he still had to see the people he wanted to see, just like when he had rushed back from "Fallen Immortal Slope" regardless of the consequences.
In the pitch-black passage, a withered figure moved forward again. The waves of heat were as they had always been, but they seemed to ignite the oil in his heart.
Day after day passed, each day indistinguishable from the year. One day, the crawling Li Yan vaguely seemed to see a trace of light ahead. This made him stop.
He took a deep breath. This kind of illusion would appear every so often. He needed to work hard to calm himself down before these illusions would disappear.
Li Yan closed his eyes. In here, there was no difference between his eyes being open or closed; he relied mainly on his Divine Sense. But keeping his eyes open made it less likely for him to fall into a deep sleep.
A moment later, Li Yan opened his eyes again and looked up. This shocked him, because through the gaps in the drifting black smoke, there was indeed a trace of light, sometimes hidden, sometimes visible.
Li Yan suppressed the slight excitement in his heart. This time, he sent a wisp of his Divine Sense forward again. After a long while, a long-lost smile appeared on Li Yan's face.
"This time it's really not an illusion!" After retracting his Divine Sense, the Spirit Power in his body began to circulate at a speed several times faster than before. He wasn't trying to speed up, but to activate a Spirit Power shield around his body. This action would undoubtedly consume a large amount of Spirit Power, but the more hope there was, the more cautious Li Yan became.
A withered hand appeared at the edge of the cave. Then, as black Spirit Power flickered on the palm, it grabbed the cave wall. With a fierce grip of his five fingers on the wall, a figure shot out like an arrow.
This was a secret chamber filled with golden light, about twenty zhang in size. There was nothing in the room, only a tightly closed stone door in front. The surrounding area was still assailed by waves of heat.
After the figure came out, the black passage on the wall behind him flashed and then disappeared without a trace.
This was a tall, thin man in a black robe. He held one hand high above his head, the other hanging down to his leg. The light of the protective shield on his body was brilliant.
The figure first spun around quickly in this strange posture. Seeing no attack coming, he seemed to let out a long sigh of relief. Then, he somewhat stiffly brought his hands, one from above and one from below, slowly to his chest.
As he brought his hands back, a continuous series of bone-cracking sounds like popping beans was heard. At the same time, the black-robed man slowly began to move his body, legs, and feet. More popping sounds came from his body.
Then, he began to perform a series of stretching movements at an even slower speed. He moved so slowly that by the time he finished one set of movements, half an incense stick's time had passed.
This person was undoubtedly Li Yan. After seeing the light in the dark passage, it took him about another day to escape.
Feeling the unrestrained freedom, Li Yan, laughing loudly, actually started to walk quickly around the room. It was only after a long time that he slowly stopped and let out another long, foul breath.
Li Yan glanced around again through the gaps in his long hair scattered across his forehead, then his gaze fell on himself. His black robes were still damaged. This was a black robe comparable to a low-grade Spirit Artifact, yet it was still damaged.
Then, the black robe on his body exploded with a bang. A wave of air spread out from the black-robed man, causing the heat waves, which were almost visible to the naked eye, to distort. First, the Storage Pouch at his waist floated into the air, and then the black robe on his body instantly turned into fragments of black butterflies.
Then, just as Li Yan was about to take out new clothes from his Storage Pouch, his gaze turned blank again.
He looked down and saw a skeleton wrapped in dry skin. After a moment of shock, Li Yan once again stretched out his shriveled arms and looked at them again and again. Then he touched his face; it was just as bony, with two high cheekbones.
Li Yan, who had originally thought of conjuring a bronze mirror, immediately dismissed the idea. He didn't need to look to know what a sorry state he was in.
After using the "Cloud and Rain Art" to give himself a simple rinse, Li Yan quickly took out a new set of black robes and put them on. He simply tied his long hair back, and only then did he feel much better. At least his skin was not so dry, but his spirit had not recovered much.
Li Yan first walked to the door. After sensing it with his Divine Sense, he quickly confirmed that it was a one-way door. That is to say, this door could only be opened from the inside; it couldn't be opened from the outside. The reason was very simple: there was a formation restriction on the door, the kind of one-way restriction formation that Li Yan recognized.
After confirming the restriction on the door, a smile appeared on Li Yan's withered face. When he first entered this place, he had felt an extremely dense Fire Spirit Qi. The Fire Spirit Qi here was almost comparable to the secret chamber in the secret realm where Ping Tu was.
Therefore, Li Yan immediately thought that this should be the true interior of the "Flame Palace," a paradise coveted by fire-type cultivators.
Cultivating a fire-type cultivation method here, to say one could advance a thousand li in a day was an exaggeration, but one day of cultivation here was definitely equivalent to a month of arduous cultivation outside. But this was only for fire-type cultivators; it was not very effective for other cultivators.
But Li Yan didn't think so. He actually felt that the black and golden passages were an important reason why cultivators came here for a breakthrough. Otherwise, the "Flame Palace" would be too specifically targeted at fire-type cultivators.
But the almost solidified Fire Spirit Qi in this secret chamber was specifically prepared for fire-type cultivators.
Li Yan couldn't help but admire the meticulousness of the great divine arts practitioner who had designed the "Flame Palace." When a cultivator, after experiencing life and death, passed through the black and yellow passages to reach this place, both their Spirit Power and body would be at their limit. To be suddenly thrown into a place with dense Spiritual Energy at this time, that kind of cultivation could cause a total transformation.
But this place was obviously where fire-type cultivators would receive the greatest blessings. However, this was also no problem for Li Yan. After confirming the situation here, Li Yan opened his mouth and spat out a small purple flag. With a spin, the "Great Dragon-Elephant Formation" was immediately laid out in the secret chamber. At the same time, with a flash of purple light, a Purple Divine Dragon also flew out.
As soon as the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant flew out, it had a resentful look on its face and was about to complain to Li Yan. This time, Li Yan had left it there for more than a year, completely ignoring it. No matter how it tried to send a voice transmission, the other party did not respond at all. In the end, it had to give up, which made the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant angry.
But when it saw Li Yan's appearance, it was startled and took a step back. Its entire body's soul power surged, and it looked vigilant. A moment later, it looked at Li Yan with a puzzled expression and asked uncertainly, "Ma...ster? How did you end up looking like neither a human nor a ghost?"
Li Yan gave a bitter smile and shook his head, but he still briefly explained the situation to the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant. However, he omitted the process in the black passage, only saying that the black passage suppressed Divine Sense and Divine Soul severely, so he didn't let it out.
In fact, Li Yan didn't know that if he had really let the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant out, the black passage would not have been so calm. Both the black passage and the golden passage could only have one living being in them at the same time.
But if another living being was released from within, it wouldn't be as simple as being repelled. The difficulty would increase exponentially. The Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant would probably be imprisoned inside just like him. Not only would it be unable to help him, but it was possible that both man and beast would have their souls annihilated.
After listening to Li Yan's account and looking at his miserable appearance, even with the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant's arrogant personality, it couldn't help but shudder. But it was quickly attracted by the dense and hot Fire Spirit Qi here. It no longer paid any attention to Li Yan, but directly found a corner, lay down, and began to absorb it. The Spiritual Energy here was much better than magma.
Li Yan, of course, paid it no mind. He also sat down cross-legged on the spot. Under the circulation of the True Scripture of Gui Water, he had already converted the Spirit Power in his body to be mainly fire Spirit Power and slowly entered a meditative state. Although he had come here for the Crimson Mother Essence, he certainly couldn't miss this kind of cultivation environment.
Time flew by. When the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant opened its eyes, more than a month had passed. At this time, the purple glow on the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant had turned a deep purple, and the patterns on its skin were clearly visible to the naked eye. Even if an ordinary cultivator were to check with their Divine Sense, they might not be able to sense that this was a soul body. Its body looked like that of a ten-year-old child.
The Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant stretched contentedly. The Fire Spirit Qi here had actually raised its rank again. It was now at the mid-stage of the second rank. It glanced at Li Yan not far away, and a strange look appeared in its eyes.
At this time, Li Yan's skin was no longer dry. As his aura circulated during this period, his muscles had begun to recover and bulge. Although he still looked thin, at least he looked like a person now.
"Seeing the Spirit Power surging in his body, this is a sign of a breakthrough," the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant thought to itself, curious. It was shocked by the power of Li Yan's Body Tempering Art.
But during the time Li Yan had practiced with it, he had not used any magic arts at all. But it knew that a cultivation method that could support such a terrifying Body Tempering Art to be practiced repeatedly in a day must also be a top-tier cultivation method in this world.
Today, waking up to see Li Yan's Spirit Power fluctuating, it wanted to see what a breakthrough for Li Yan would be like.
Just like that, the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant stared at Li Yan with its big eyes without blinking. Gradually, it became puzzled, because the Spirit Power in Li Yan's body was always boiling, but there was no sign of him breaking through a bottleneck.
"How is this situation different from others' breakthroughs? With Spirit Power circulating at such a high speed, if it's just for cultivation, isn't he afraid of damaging his meridians?"
In fact, how could it know that Li Yan's high-speed circulation of Spirit Power was due to the rapid conversion and balancing of the five elemental Spirit Powers in his body? This was to maintain the harmony of the five elements' yin and yang. The reason for the extremely fast circulation of Spirit Power was that the Fire Spirit Qi here was too dense.