At this moment, they were less than five zhang apart. Just as the giant black net was about to envelop Li Yan, he swung his sleeve forward forcefully.
Two streams of black, water-attribute spiritual power rolled towards the giant black net. In his desperation, he had already used his strongest water-attribute magical power. Then, mustering his remaining strength, his body plunged downwards.
In an instant, the world seemed to become damp. The already cold weather turned even more frigidly chilling.
Sensing the abundant water spiritual power surging towards him, the rough-looking man let out a soft cry, "Ignorant child."
He formed a hand seal, and the mesh of the black net instantly expanded. The spiritual power Li Yan had unleashed passed right through the suddenly enlarged gaps in the net as it approached. The black spiritual power seemed to first merge with the giant black net before quickly breaking away in the next moment, leaving only a giant hole.
After the spiritual power passed through, the mesh of the giant black net shrank back to its original size, its momentum completely unhindered. At the same time, it changed direction, swooping diagonally downwards. The densely woven mesh created a sharp whistling sound as it flew.
If one were caught by this net and the rough-looking man did not hold back his strength, the person inside would be instantly sliced into countless square pieces of flesh and blood, which would then scatter across the sky. If he did hold back, Li Yan would still become a fish in the net.
A crazed look appeared in the rough-looking man's eyes. He dodged the spiritual power that flew through the net's mesh. He hadn't felt any attack from the spiritual power; he knew the opponent was just trying to use the force to push the net away.
As he sidestepped the spiritual power, his nose caught a faint, sweet scent. He was startled for a moment, and then he felt an intense, throbbing pain in his head as he inhaled the sweet air.
A horrifying scene then unfolded before the eyes of the pink-gowned young woman beside him. She saw her husband, who had been smirking coldly just a moment ago, his face suddenly beginning to fester and decay at an incredible speed.
The flesh on the rough-looking man's face rapidly rotted and fell off. The first to go was his nose, leaving two large, dark holes on his face in an instant. His two eyes also quickly bulged out.
"This is a potent poison!" the rough-looking man watched as chunks of his own flesh fell from his face. He roared in terror, but with his nose gone, he could only produce a muffled, indistinct sound.
Under this sudden injury, he lost control of the giant black net. Li Yan, who had seemed on the verge of death, suddenly returned to normal. He executed a swift turn, dodging out from under the giant black net. Then, with a flash of yellow light from his hand, the Li Fire Profound Yellow Fan appeared. Without hesitation, he fanned forward, sending a streak of red flame shooting towards the rough-looking man who was howling in pain.
Just as the red flame shot out, a pink figure appeared in front of the rough-looking man. With a delicate shout, a pink flower flew out, meeting the wind.
As the flower flew, it grew countless times larger in an instant, shielding both herself and the rough-looking man behind it. The pink flower seemed to possess a spirit of its own. The stamen in the center of the flower, like a long snake's tongue, extended and retracted, coiling around the red Li Fire and dragging the blazing flame back into the flower bud.
Then, the petals closed, and the entire flower bud began to shake violently. Plumes of thick pink smoke emanated from it. The entire flower, as if heavily stimulated, shook its "head" madly.
This turn of events happened so quickly that the four cultivators in the distance had no time to react. One moment, their manor master was displaying his might, beating the opponent to a pulp. The next, the master's face, still holding a look of contempt, was suddenly ghastly white bone, and even the bone was rapidly turning black and decaying.
Li Yan was surprised to see his attack blocked by the pink-gowned young woman. His figure couldn't help but pause. At that moment, an angry roar came from behind the pink flower. The voice was completely unfamiliar; Li Yan had never heard it before.
'Could there be another master hidden here?'
Li Yan was alarmed. He had scanned the area repeatedly with his Divine Sense before and believed he had a basic grasp of the situation. Besides, he didn't believe he could be so unlucky as to run into so many Golden Core masters.
Just as Li Yan was about to release his Divine Sense, the pink flower bud in front of him suddenly shrank rapidly, revealing two figures behind it.
The pink-gowned young woman held the flower in her hand, her fine brows furrowed. The red flame from the opponent's earlier attack was so domineering that her magical treasure was already showing signs of damage after devouring it.
She was astonished, but Li Yan was even more shocked. Was the red Li Fire really this ineffective against Golden Core cultivators? The Li Fire that was unbearable for Foundation Establishment cultivators was instantly absorbed by the opponent. This was the second time he had seen the Li Fire being devoured; the first time was by the Bright Fire Qilin. It seemed that although the red Blood River in the fan was strange and mysterious, the Blood River was too small, and the power of the Li Fire it contained was insufficient.
But what shocked Li Yan even more were the two figures that were now revealed.
After the flower shrank, two figures were revealed. But one of them made Li Yan's heart race. He saw that it was the same tall and short pair. Before, the rough-looking man was tall, but still within the range of a normal human. But now, when Li Yan looked, the pink-gowned young woman was unchanged, but the rough-looking man had become terrifyingly grotesque.
'This is definitely not a symptom of poisoning,' Li Yan thought.
The rough-looking man's face had been hit by Li Yan's "Three Thousand Vexation Threads." This was a potent poison that had emerged from Li Yan's Fragmented Poison Body when he had just reached Foundation Establishment, but he had been unable to use it at will back then. The reason was that this poison needed to be launched with spiritual power. Only when it was within a zhang of the opponent and inhaled would it transform into several strands of black gas, as tough as refined steel, which would rapidly wrap around the head.
While corroding the flesh and bones, the black gas threads would tighten. As the bones were corroded by the poison, they would quickly become brittle, and the entire skull would soon shatter into countless pieces with a "bang."
Previously, when Li Yan used this poison, he couldn't conceal it well within his spiritual power. The unleashed spiritual power would carry a strong, sweet scent, which would alert people from afar, undoubtedly indicating an abnormality in the spiritual power.
Now that his cultivation had greatly increased, his control over this poison was far superior. This was especially true because the poison was black. When Li Yan used water spiritual power, the abundant, damp, black spiritual power in the air not only effectively reduced the sweet, fishy smell, but the poison also became almost one with the water spiritual power. Unless one carefully discerned it, it was impossible to discover. This was the beginning of the true fusion between his Fragmented Poison Body and the spiritual power of the True Scripture of Gui Water.
Although Li Yan had many potent poisons at his disposal, successfully poisoning an enemy, especially a strong one, was by no means easy. Looking back at his past methods of poisoning, all of them required careful planning. Cultivators are extremely sensitive to the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, especially when fighting an enemy, their senses are even sharper.
Today, his opponent was a Golden Core cultivator. Li Yan had used several methods to show weakness, even going so far as to damage his own heart meridians to appear injured after the heavy blow from the giant black rod. Only under the other party's powerful Divine Sense did he manage to trade injury for trust, creating an opportunity to get closer and administer the poison.
At this moment, the rough-looking man was gone. Standing with the pink-gowned young woman was a giant, monstrous man.
This person was over a zhang tall. Rolling black smoke surrounded his body. The smoke churned as if wanting to expand outwards, but when it reached a few dozen zhang from his body, it seemed to be forcibly contained, converging back towards the monstrous man, unable to spill further.
The smoke thickened and thinned, but it did not affect Li Yan's Divine Sense. In his senses, the monstrous man's blue robe was torn to shreds, hanging at his waist. He was bare-chested, his massive muscles bulging. His originally bronze skin had turned a glossy black, and on the black skin, thick blood vessels and blue veins were knotted like the roots of an old tree.
Somehow, the glossy black skin was densely covered with patterns. These patterns resembled ferocious demonic faces, shifting and changing with the flexing of his muscles, as if they were alive.
The changes on his face were especially terrifying. The flesh that had fallen off was rapidly regenerating. Just as it was about to fully recover, a dozen or so fine black threads would emerge from within the flesh. The reappearance of these dozen black threads caused the newly recovered flesh to be pulled taut again, and a good portion of it was squeezed off and fell to the ground, causing the monstrous man's face to contort in pain. But in the next moment, a wave of black gas emerged from his head, and flesh began to writhe and grow on his white bones once more.
The monstrous man's large hands had grown long, purplish-black nails, each as sharp as a blade. What was even stranger was that a pair of curved, sharp horns had grown on his head, like those of a water buffalo, with distinct textures, but they were a glossy, jet-black.
It was clear that Li Yan's potent poison was being suppressed by the opponent, but it could not be eliminated. Thus, the flesh on his face was in a constant cycle of regeneration and decay. This situation also managed to prevent the poison from further constricting and breaking his skull. Gradually, the fine black threads on his face no longer appeared, and the flesh stopped falling off. Li Yan's "Three Thousand Vexation Threads" had finally been suppressed by him.
Li Yan was momentarily stunned. Several thoughts flashed through his mind. 'A demonic beast? An ancient demonic beast? Or some ferocious beast? To be able to regenerate flesh and blood... this shouldn't be something a third-rank demonic beast can do.'
As Li Yan's thoughts raced, he couldn't recall reading about such a demonic beast in any text, especially one that could regenerate flesh and blood with third-rank abilities. The black smoke around its body was particularly strange; Li Yan couldn't sense any of the five elements from it.
"Boy, no matter what prestigious sect or family you come from, you will die now. But to see my true form before you die, your life as a cultivator has not been in vain."
The monstrous man, covered in swirling patterns, gnashed his teeth and pointed a finger as thick as a carrot at Li Yan, his voice a guttural rumble.
The rough-looking man, now transformed into a monstrous giant, was furious. The poison the opponent had used was so powerful that he had to reveal his true form and use his powerful body to suppress its spread. He had seen poison cultivators before, and had even killed quite a few, but their methods were usually nothing more than an itch to him. Only a few top-tier poison cultivators could make him wary.
But the person before him was just a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator. How could he possess such a potent poison? Thus, he had already concluded that Li Yan must come from a major poison cultivation sect or family. Only then would it be possible for his elders to bestow upon him such a ruthless and powerful poison treasure for protection.