"My lady..." The monstrous giant only had time to cry out. With the rod in his right hand, he hastily reached back with his left.
His already extremely long arm suddenly shot out several more zhang, grabbing the falling young woman in his palm.
In his haste and genuine panic, his heart was thrown into chaos. He let out a painful groan as chunks of flesh fell from his face again. In his concern, he had forgotten to suppress the "Three Thousand Vexation Threads." The fine threads on his face immediately reappeared and tightened, causing the newly grown flesh to fall off once more. The pain made him roar at the sky.
Li Yan sensed the commotion behind him, but he did not stop. He took the opportunity to continue fleeing, widening the distance between them. His Divine Sense, however, swept backwards. A moment later, a look of relief appeared on his face. Only then did he slowly stop, his gaze flickering as he looked back.
'It's finally taking effect. This woman's magical power is truly profound!' Li Yan's thoughts raced.
This was clearly Li Yan's favorite poison to use, "Flirtatious Glance." This poison was infamous among the disciples of the Malevolent Spirit Sect, but Li Yan was particularly fond of using it. The reason was simple: any cultivator or demonic beast afflicted by it would attack friend and foe alike in a desperate frenzy, which was especially suitable for situations where he was outnumbered.
Li Yan's use of "Flirtatious Glance" had now reached a highly sophisticated level. He could silently disperse it into the air, and the poison would infect anyone who came into contact with a certain medium. This time, when he sealed the young man's divine soul, he had casually planted the poison on him. It was just that the young man had been burned to a pile of charred bones before the poison could take effect.
Li Yan was not confident that the couple would fail to detect the poison if he simply dispersed it into the air. The perception of Golden Core cultivators was too sharp, and Li Yan did not take risks he wasn't sure of.
However, Li Yan desperately hoped that the couple would also be poisoned. At that time, they would kill each other. Would he even need to lift a finger? It would be just like what happened with Xu Yehua and his life-bound spirit beast.
In the end, his plan was only half-successful. As expected, the Golden Core masters acted swiftly, extinguishing the flames before the young man was completely incinerated. But only the young woman, in her heartache, had touched the young man's remains. The rough-looking man had attacked him directly, forcing Li Yan to risk damaging his own heart meridians to create another opportunity to administer the poison.
Li Yan had long been certain that the young woman was poisoned, but apart from her grief-stricken expression, she had seemed completely normal, even attacking him several times. This had made Li Yan's confidence in his most prized "Flirtatious Glance" waver for a time. Only now did he feel a sense of relief, but he was still awed by the power of the couple.
Li Yan stopped, his Divine Sense locked firmly on the two of them. His mind immediately became active again. Now that the situation had turned, he had another opportunity to exploit.
Although the young woman's situation was sudden, the monstrous giant was a Golden Core cultivator after all. He immediately recognized the strangeness of his wife's condition. The hand he used to grab her was already covered in a thick layer of spiritual power for his own protection.
"My lady, my lady..." The monstrous giant ignored his own pain and quickly sent a stream of spiritual power into the young woman's body. But a moment later, he abruptly raised his head, looking towards Li Yan's position like a dying, ferocious beast.
At this moment, not only was the spiritual power in the young woman's body showing no signs of weakening, but it was also beginning to surge, rampaging through her meridians, completely uncontrollable.
"Poison again! You... are... a Malevolent Spirit Sect... cultivator. To think... you concealed it... so... well. What a fine move by the Malevolent Spirit Sect, sending a Foundation Establishment poison expert to lull me into complacency. However, I suppose... you all have only just discovered us. You wanted to confirm our presence before sneaking back to report... what a pity I saw through it."
The monstrous giant spoke through gritted teeth, spitting out each word. In his mind, a poison potent enough to harm him and his wife had to have been concocted by at least a mid-to-late stage Golden Core cultivator.
The Foundation Establishment cultivator before him was certainly incapable of refining such a vicious poison himself. Thus, for someone of his realm to obtain such a deadly substance, which could only be refined by mid-to-high level cultivators, it typically had to come from one of the Four Great Sects. And among the Four Great Sects, the one strongest in the art of poison was undoubtedly the Malevolent Spirit Sect.
When he said this, Li Yan was initially startled. He hadn't expected the other party to see that he was a Malevolent Spirit Sect cultivator. There were thousands of poison cultivators in the world, yet the other party had guessed it without hesitation. Had he accidentally revealed some clue? But before he could even digest his shock, he was completely confused by the monstrous giant's next words.
'This monster thinks I was sent by the sect. This means they are hiding from the Malevolent Spirit Sect. Does he have a grudge against the sect? If so, he recognized my identity because they have a high degree of protection against various poisons. And since I, at my realm, was able to poison and injure them, combined with their likely enmity with the Malevolent Spirit Sect, he was able to guess...'
As Li Yan's thoughts raced, he came to his own conclusion. Although not entirely correct, he had guessed a good part of it.
While Li Yan was pondering, the situation on the other side changed again. The young woman's expression grew more pained, and the pure white in her eyes slowly came to occupy more than half of her irises. Then, she raised her head coldly and looked at the monstrous giant.
Li Yan's Divine Sense was still locked on them. Seeing this, he couldn't help but feel a surge of joy. He knew that the young woman could no longer suppress the poison's effects. "Flirtatious Glance" was finally about to erupt.
Just as Li Yan was rejoicing, the monstrous giant also sensed that something was wrong with his wife. He could no longer be bothered with Li Yan. Instead, he poured a surging wave of spiritual power into the young woman's body. For a moment, he actually managed to temporarily suppress the spiritual power that was beginning to turn violent in her body.
The pure white in the young woman's eyes retreated for an instant, and a moment of clarity returned to her mind.
She looked at the monstrous giant, her voice no longer crisp but hoarse as she said, "This poison is too domineering. I thought I wouldn't have to reveal my true form, but I didn't expect to lose my mind in an instant."
As she spoke quickly, to Li Yan's confusion, the young woman suddenly broke free from the monstrous giant's huge hand and let out a roar that was not human.
Her head of neatly tied, jet-black hair instantly came loose, whipping about as if torn by the wind. Her exposed skin, originally smooth and snow-white, rapidly turned a glossy black amidst a rippling and churning of her flesh.
A large cloud of black smoke also erupted from her body. The smoke's diffusion range was even larger than the monstrous giant's, only stopping its outward spread when it reached nearly a hundred zhang.
Then, with an expression of anticipation yet shock on Li Yan's face, although the young woman's face remained delicate, she seemed to have become a different person in just a few breaths. Her glossy black skin also grew dense patterns. These patterns were also ferocious demonic faces. As the young woman's body swayed, these human-faced patterns seemed to come alive.
"It really is another demonic beast!" Li Yan muttered to himself. Although he had anticipated it, seeing it with his own eyes was still somewhat shocking.
As the young woman's long hair flew about, a pair of sharp horns had also grown on her head. The pair of horns were only a few inches long, several times smaller than the monstrous giant's. They shimmered with a colorful light, their tips like two black diamonds.
The young woman's figure also showed signs of growing larger in an instant, though not as exaggeratedly as the monstrous giant. It was enough to stretch her palace gown tight, her chest towering high like clouds. The pure white in her eyes was also rapidly receding.
"It still didn't erupt! How are they so difficult to deal with!"
Li Yan cried out inwardly. The young woman, just like the man before her, had actually suppressed "Flirtatious Glance" again after revealing her true form.
The moment Li Yan sensed something was wrong, he stepped on the Cloud-Piercing Willow, turning into a streak of emerald light and shooting into the distance once more.
"Catch him! Search his soul! We must know why they came and how much they know!"
The pair of demonic beasts behind him, seeing Li Yan flee, both let out a sharp cry. They couldn't believe that a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator could force them into such a state. It was still unknown if they could even purge the potent poison from their bodies afterward. The hatred in their hearts was already sky-high. After guessing Li Yan's origin, they were even more determined not to let him leave alive.
Li Yan fled for the better part of a day, well into the night. But the other party's magical power was profound, and he was never able to pull too far ahead.
By now, Li Yan had already consumed three drops of "Melting Bamboo Shoot" several times to recover his magical power. This pained Li Yan greatly. He finally understood the fundamental difference in spiritual power between Foundation Establishment and Golden Core.
At the same time, he knew that this was with the other party diverting a portion of their magical power to suppress the poison in their bodies. Otherwise, at their full speed, even with the support of "Melting Bamboo Shoot," his consumption would be even faster.
At the same time, Li Yan was also puzzled. Suppressing a poison was not curing it. No matter how profound one's magical power was, there should be a time limit. The bodies of these two demonic beasts were excessively tough, as if they could suppress it endlessly.
More than half a day had passed, and the auras of the two demonic beasts behind him were only slightly disordered. There was still no sign that they couldn't suppress the poison.
While Li Yan was lamenting his precious items, the two behind him were beyond shocked. Although they were diverting magical power to suppress the poison, they had imagined that they would catch up to the cultivator in front of them in at most an hour or two.
Their current flight speed was something only Golden Core cultivators could achieve. The flying magical treasure of the cultivator in front was undoubtedly high-grade, at least mid-grade. Such a magical treasure could usually only be refined by Nascent Soul cultivators. But the more powerful the flying magical treasure, if it were to reach this speed using spirit stones, it would have to be mid-grade spirit stones.
Therefore, the only way to achieve this effect was for the cultivator to continuously and forcefully pour in large amounts of spiritual power. The rate of spiritual power consumption would be astonishing. A Pseudo-Core cultivator's spiritual power would be depleted in less than half an incense stick's time. Even accounting for him constantly using spiritual power recovery pills, after taking them seven or eight times, his meridians would be unable to bear it.
Moreover, he would be unable to immediately expel the impurities from the pills, the pill poison. It would accumulate more and more in his body, and his spiritual power would become increasingly impure. At that point, he naturally couldn't continue taking pills, or it would trigger a full-blown outbreak of pill poison.
What the couple couldn't imagine was that the other party had been fleeing for more than four hours. And in their Divine Sense, the other party still seemed full of vigor, showing no signs of barely holding on.