After successfully refining his natal magical treasure, Li Yan would still need a period of nurturing before he could control it with ease. All this time added up would not be short.
Although Li Yan wanted to go to the Devil's Cliff Crevice now, thinking about the increasingly fierce war, what he needed most at the moment was to increase his own strength.
And the fastest and most convenient way was to refine his natal magical treasure.
Thus, he flew on while thinking. Seeing the night deepen, Li Yan planned to send two messages to Bai Rou and Sun Guoshu early the next morning to inform them of his whereabouts.
As for the Green Sixteen Squad, his master would surely arrange everything.
However, just as Li Yan was about to approach the mountain peak where his Cave Residence was located, a sudden, earth-shattering bang came from the back mountain dozens of li away.
The loud noise was like a cataclysmic thunderclap in the middle of the night, coming without any warning. This was the heartland of Windy Cool Mountain. Li Yan was still lost in thought when the Spirit Power in his body was instantly shattered by the shock, and he was directly knocked out of the sky.
"Hehehe, a feint. As expected, it's right here!"
"Foreign race, with the ambitions of a wolf cub, your wicked intentions deserve to be punished! Today, you shall not leave!"
At the same time as the loud bang, two voices also sounded in the air, but they were immediately drowned out by the massive explosion. For a moment, no one paid them any mind.
Li Yan's body crashed heavily onto a pile of rocks, sending stones flying everywhere. At the same time, he heard a series of mournful screams echoing from near and far in the distant night sky.
Li Yan was thrown into a state of extreme dizziness. He had just been knocked down from a height of sixty to seventy zhang. Fortunately, his body was different from that of an ordinary cultivator; otherwise, he might have been smashed into a pulp. (TN: 1 zhang ≈ 3.33 meters)
After all, a Foundation Establishment cultivator's body had not been tempered by a Core Tribulation like a Golden Core's. Without the protection of Spirit Power, its resistance to impact was limited.
His long experience with slaughter allowed Li Yan to stagger to his feet even while dizzy. At the same time, he had already slapped several defensive talismans onto his body.
But his head was still ringing, and the two sentences he had just heard were still echoing in his ears.
Before he had time to think carefully, the ground beneath his feet suddenly shook again, and his body fell downwards once more.
Several more heaven-shaking roars came from the sky, but he could no longer hear them, because the mountain peak and his Cave Residence were collapsing into a pile of rubble.
The thunderous roar of the collapsing mountain drowned out all other sounds.
In his great anxiety, the Spirit Power in Li Yan's body circulated wildly. The defensive talismans outside his body emitted dazzling lights, producing a dense "pop-pop-pop" sound like a violent storm.
Immediately after, a black Spirit Power shield was also instantly deployed, and his Divine Sense spread out rapidly.
But to Li Yan's horror, his usually incredibly agile Divine Sense, at this moment, seemed to be sealed by the smoke, dust, and rain of stones, unable to extend more than two zhang from his body.
Without time to think, Li Yan dodged through the sky full of huge rocks. He had already taken out the Windy Cool Mountain token from his Storage Pouch and hung it on his waist, immediately activating the restriction on it.
A small ball of red light emerged from the token and flickered continuously. After a brief sensing, Li Yan relaxed a little. The token could still be used and could sense the presence of living beings around him.
With his Divine Sense basically useless, he didn't know how the Windy Cool Mountain token was refined, but it could still issue warnings.
Through sensing, he could see red dots displayed on the token, allowing him to determine if the person closest to him was friend or foe. Any light spot that was not red had to be an enemy.
Li Yan glanced at it. At least within a fifty to sixty li radius around him, it was all red dots. Further out, many white or green light spots appeared.
"It's an enemy attack!"
Although Li Yan didn't know why the Windy Cool Mountain grand formation had suddenly lost its protection without even issuing a warning, he at least had a simple judgment.
All of this was completed in a very short time. Immediately, Li Yan flew desperately in one direction.
Li Yan paid attention to the token at his waist while trying his best to identify the direction. As he flew, cultivators from Windy Cool Mountain continuously appeared in his Divine Sense.
These people were also scurrying around in the rain of stones that shot through the sky. Many cultivators with weaker magic power, after flying not far, had their Spirit Power shields riddled like sieves by the arrow-like stone rain. Their mournful screams were immediately drowned out by the rumbling noise.
Li Yan didn't know what had happened at Windy Cool Mountain. He just charged forward blindly, the Spirit Power in his body being consumed rapidly. Almost every few zhang he advanced, he consumed a large amount of Spirit Power.
Even with his magic power far exceeding that of his peers, after advancing only three hundred-plus zhang, he had to hold a Spirit Stone in one hand and desperately absorb the Spirit Energy while continuously charging forward.
But the speed of absorbing Spirit Energy was far slower than the consumption of magic power. The power contained in the stone rain outside was astonishingly great.
In the places he passed, streaks of light of various colors continuously entered his field of vision, only to flash and disappear in the rain of stones.
Everyone was heading in different directions. Chaos, nothing but chaos. Some people let out unwilling cries for help the moment their Spirit Power shields collapsed.
Someone even saw Li Yan rush past and tried to grab him. Li Yan's head was dizzy, not knowing what drastic change had occurred. He only had one thought: to get away from this place.
When he saw someone reach out to grab him, he unhesitatingly dodged. In the past, for this kind of act of dragging him down with them before death, he would have killed the other party first, but at this moment, saving magic power was the best policy.
His "Phoenix Soars to the Heavens" movement skill drew an almost straight line through the shooting stone rain, flying straight in one direction.
Only occasionally would he change course slightly when encountering other cultivators.
The stone rain outside Li Yan's body flew like a volley of ten thousand arrows without any pattern, either hitting his Spirit Power shield or crashing into each other with a "bang," turning into piles of dust the next moment.
The defensive talismans outside Li Yan's Spirit Power shield were almost all gone, trying their best to emit their final light in the stone rain.
Just like that, amidst the screams and thunderous rumbles, as well as the thunderous explosions from the sky, Li Yan charged forward for an unknown distance.
Just when he only had thirty percent of his Spirit Power left and was about to use "Rongsun," his vision suddenly brightened, and the starry sky filled his eyes.
His Divine Sense also suddenly expanded into the distance, like silver water pouring out, without any obstruction. Li Yan was instantly overjoyed.
In his Divine Sense, there was a relatively intact forest ahead. It was silent, and his Divine Sense did not sense anyone's presence. After rushing out of the stone rain, Li Yan flew there without hesitation.
More than ten breaths later, Li Yan finally stopped on a tall tree in the forest. During his flight just now, he had carefully scanned the surroundings with his Divine Sense several times to confirm there was no ambush here.
He couldn't fly around randomly anymore, but he had to at least find a place to adjust slightly and make his next judgment.
Until this moment, Li Yan still didn't know what had happened. He wanted to figure out some of the reasons for the incident to make an accurate decision.
The moment Li Yan landed on the treetop, his Divine Sense swept towards the distance. He soon determined his current location.
This was the edge of Windy Cool Mountain, or to be precise, four hundred li east of the center of Windy Cool Mountain.
"I actually broke out of the Windy Cool Mountain's protective grand formation? Why didn't I encounter any obstruction from the formation?"
While Li Yan was surprised at his current location, his Divine Sense had already scanned westward in the dark night.
That was the central area of Windy Cool Mountain. It was still filled with smoke and dust, and the rumbling sound was incessant. Some scattered large rocks or small debris would occasionally shoot towards the forest where Li Yan was, with a sharp whistling sound.
They would smash some trees into piles of wood from top to bottom, or punch dense small holes in the thick leaves before the debris embedded itself deeply into the tree trunks or the hard soil below.
Li Yan was not too concerned about the debris around him, as it was no longer capable of breaking his Spirit Power shield.
But to Li Yan's disappointment, the moment his Divine Sense touched that cloud of smoke and dust, not to mention going deep, it was sealed again after advancing only a zhang.
"What is going on?"
Just as Li Yan was feeling anxious, several more streaks of light, white, red, yellow, or purple, rushed out from the smoke and dust in his direction.
Li Yan quickly scanned them with his Divine Sense. He might not know all these people, but the flickering Windy Cool Mountain tokens at their waists, as well as the increasing number of red dots on Li Yan's own token, indicated their identity.
It seemed that there were many cultivators who had thought of this method to distinguish friend from foe when their Divine Sense was useless.
Among them, Li Yan even saw several Golden Core stage cultivators. Their Spirit Power shields were also pitted and their light was dim as they scrambled out of the smoke and dust in a sorry state.
And at this moment, a cold shout came from the sky. The voice was low, but it resounded throughout the heavens and earth, easily suppressing the rumbling sound of the collapsing mountain peaks.
"The Demon Clan has arrived. Nascent Soul cultivators, quickly assemble to meet the enemy."
Following this cold shout, Li Yan and the others who had just flown out of the smoke and dust looked up towards the sound in the sky. Under the starry sky, seven figures stood in the void.
These figures were actually already out of sight, because they were standing at a height of ten thousand zhang, beyond the reach of even a cultivator's eyesight.
After hearing the voice, Li Yan and the others could only send out their Divine Sense following the sound, and only then did they discover the location of the seven people.
Following this cold shout, Li Yan felt a dark light flash above his head. Before he could react, the smoke and dust in front of him had already disappeared, and his vision was clear again.
And what entered Li Yan's eyes was a scene he would never forget in his life. The Windy Cool Mountain range, stretching for hundreds of li, had been destroyed as if by a world-ending force.
There was not a single intact mountain peak. Everywhere were large and small crisscrossing ravines, riddled with holes, and piles of rubble. On the ground were mutilated corpses, all of them cultivators from Windy Cool Mountain.
Li Yan just casually swept his Divine Sense and saw at least five to six hundred of them, the vast majority being Foundation Establishment cultivators, with a very small number of Golden Core cultivators.
And in the sky six hundred li away from Li Yan, two groups of cultivators were now slowly retreating to either side after the smoke and dust had dispersed.
There were more than fifty of these cultivators, and each of them was exuding a terrifying power. They were all Nascent Soul stage cultivators.
One side consisted of humans and demons, namely demon generals and foreign Nascent Soul cultivators. The other side consisted of Nascent Soul stage cultivators led by the Four Great Sects.
Clearly, they had been fighting just now. Li Yan and the other low-level cultivators had no idea which side had the upper hand.
After hearing the words from ten thousand zhang up in the sky, these people had all stopped fighting.
"The ones ten thousand zhang up are Spirit Transformation cultivators!"
Not only was Li Yan the first to react, but everyone here with even a little judgment looked up at the sky again with horrified expressions.
But this time, no one dared to release their Divine Sense to scan anymore. They just gazed from afar. Although they couldn't see any figures, everyone's eyes were filled with shock, fear, and supreme reverence!
Only a Spirit Transformation cultivator could command a Nascent Soul cultivator like this. Otherwise, who in this world would dare to speak to a Nascent Soul cultivator in such a manner?