Daling and the other four had also discovered that the situation had reached its most critical point. Desperate, they wanted to escape. In less than a breath, Daling, Su Changyang, and Zhantian had already moved about fifty zhang in three directions.
Originally, Su Changyang was closest to the edge of the golden light. At this time, it was only eighty-odd zhang away. Daling still had over a hundred zhang to go, while Zhantian, who was on the edge of the center of the golden light, still had over one hundred and twenty zhang.
In the past, traveling ten thousand li in a single breath was not a difficult task for them. But now, a distance of over a hundred zhang was like a mortal trapped in a quagmire, every step a struggle.
For the short distance of just a few dozen zhang, they had already paid a heavy price.
Daling's youthful and handsome face was no more. As if his years had been stripped away in an instant, his appearance had reached that of an old man in his eighties or nineties. His originally black eyebrows were now a sheet of snow.
Zhantian and Su Changyang were in a similarly wretched state. In a trance, a moment's erosion had turned their hair into piles of silver threads. Two elderly men were struggling forward in the mire.
Yuandu could only remain where he was. Even with the help of the spiritual power transferred from the three of them, the one-chi-tall Nascent Soul had already closed its eyes.
He floated quietly in the air, seemingly doing his best to resist the golden light outside his body. His face would twist in pain from time to time. The few words he had just spoken seemed to have exhausted all his strength.
Similarly, in just about two breaths of time, the First Sir outside was already shaking like a leaf, his entire black robe soaked as if washed with water.
And at this time, the demon marshal Tu Tai below had already gathered his power to the final stage. His Divine Sense had finally confirmed a position in the Devil's Cliff Crevice.
That position was a long, thin crack, about wide enough for one person to pass through. Faint roars could be heard from below.
The "Lesser Realm-Breaking Pearl" in his hand was already nocked on the bowstring.
As Daling and the other three watched with bloodshot eyes, the scene they least wanted to see happened. The now-free Sixth Sir and Eleventh Sir vanished in a flash and had already pounced downwards.
And at the same time, amidst Tu Tai's wild laughter, the bowstring in his hand sang, and a streak of black light, carrying the power of heaven and earth, shot towards the back of Windy Cool Mountain.
Daling and the other three were trapped in the golden light. At this moment, even if they wanted to desperately unleash their Spirit Transformation cultivation, they were already isolated from the power of heaven and earth. Even the usually calmest Daling had veins bulging on his forehead, throbbing violently.
His eyes were wide with fury as he watched the situation rapidly change before him...
Just as the demon marshal Tu Tai was gathering his spiritual power to draw his bow, Li Yan and the others felt the surrounding spiritual power suddenly and rapidly decrease and disappear. Everyone was at a loss. Four thunderous voices rolled in from the sky.
"Fall back to defend?"
Although they didn't know who was giving the order, seeing the Nascent Soul cultivators of the various sects in the sky already rushing to their positions without hesitation, Wei Zhongran and Zuo Qiudan had also quickly separated.
Wei Zhongran at the same time shouted at some of the dazed low-level cultivators of the Malevolent Spirit Sect.
"Didn't you hear the order? Fall back to defend! Quickly, fall back to defend!"
At this time, cultivators from the Ten-Pace Courtyard, Jingtu Sect, and Tai Xuan Teachings had appeared beside Li Yan and the others, quickly flying in front of them.
In this kind of large-scale group battle, the cultivators of the Malevolent Spirit Sect were not the most lethal on this battlefield, but they had the widest range. Wherever they passed, there was often a cloud of smoke or a swamp.
Various birds and Gu-insects flew through it, and layers of poisonous barriers shrouded the wilderness. Apart from the demonic cultivators with their powerful bodies and strong resistance, the foreign cultivators and the South Sea cultivators suffered heavy casualties.
And some of the quick-reacting low-level cultivators of the Malevolent Spirit Sect had already rushed towards the Devil's Cliff Crevice. Li Yan also had no choice but to fly towards the north. For a time, the cries of various demonic beasts and the tide of mist and water vapor retreated backwards like a receding tide.
He now felt that he was too insignificant. In a real great battle, he was like a leaf. Death could befall him in an unguarded moment.
At this moment, two mournful screams suddenly came from the sky, and in an instant, a large shower of blood drifted down. A series of strange, cackling laughs came from above their heads.
Two black-robed cultivators with hair reaching their legs appeared above the heads of the Windy Cool Mountain cultivators.
In a single encounter, two Nascent Soul cultivators from the Windy Cool Mountain side had instantly perished. The most terrifying thing was that neither of them had managed to escape with their Nascent Soul.
Of the two Nascent Soul cultivators, one was from the Jingtu Sect, a junior brother of Liaoyuan, whose Buddhist "Vajra Arhat Body" had been cultivated to the Great Ascension.
He was preparing to intercept the pouncing Demon Clan when he was unexpectedly pointed on the forehead from above. His powerful physical body, which feared neither wind nor thunder, crumbled inch by inch under that single finger.
His Nascent Soul, before it could even use Instantaneous Movement, had also turned into a shower of blood and dissipated in the air.
The other was the Mid-stage Nascent Soul expert from the "Luoshu Lake" in the South Sea. Similarly, he only had time to let out half a scream before his Dao dissipated and his body perished.
"Is this a Spirit Transformation cultivator or a Late-stage Nascent Soul Great Cultivator?"
The battlefield fell silent for a moment. To be able to so easily slay a Nascent Soul, especially when one of them was a powerful Mid-stage Nascent Soul, who else could do it besides a cultivator at the Late-stage Nascent Soul or higher?
This sudden turn of events made all the cultivators on the Windy Cool Mountain side feel a bone-chilling cold.
"It's a Spirit Transformation cultivator! Where are our ancestors?"
The monk Liaoyuan in mid-air felt his heart sink. He had heard a few screams from high above earlier, which sounded like Martial Uncle Yuandu's voice.
Although screams were rising and falling all around, the monk Liaoyuan had still been able to distinguish it. This had horrified him and given him a bad feeling.
But just over a breath later, the orders from the four Spirit Transformation masters came through. Although the tone was not smooth, it had put him slightly at ease.
But the cultivation of the two black-robed figures who had just appeared, even he could not sense. There was only one possibility, a result that made his heart sink to the bottom of a valley.
"Our ancestors have been trapped by the enemy! Otherwise, how could a Spirit Transformation cultivator be out here!"
Zhu Luan and Mo Gu, who were retreating towards the Devil's Cliff Crevice, also exchanged a glance. They had also heard Yuandu's initial scream.
Only a few of them, the Late-stage Nascent Soul Great Cultivators, had had contact with Spirit Transformation cultivators, so even though the battlefield was filled with the sounds of screams and battle cries, they could still distinguish who it was.
Just as they hesitated for a moment, two Nascent Soul cultivators on their side had instantly perished. How could they have time to think carefully?
Then they heard the divine monk Daling's voice from the sky: "Foreign demon, how dare you, a senior, slaughter your juniors? I will surely send you to hell!"
"You should worry about yourselves first!"
A black-robed figure in the sky chuckled strangely, showing no fear of the divine monk Daling's words. This made the monk Liaoyuan and the other few Late-stage Nascent Soul Great Cultivators instantly confirm the opponent's cultivation.
Zhu Luan, who was retreating under orders, suddenly stopped. Looking at the Devil's Cliff Crevice that was just a short distance away, he immediately sent a voice transmission to Mo Gu and Mo Qing.
They didn't know what had happened to the four ancestors above. The Demon Clan's side had instantly freed up two Spirit Transformation cultivators to deal with them, while their own ancestors' voices were heard, but no one appeared to stop them.
"Has the situation really become so dire?"
Such a chilling thought arose in the minds of several of them at the same time.
"Junior Brothers, go back and defend quickly. I will hold them off."
After speaking, Zhu Luan turned and shot up into the sky without looking back. Mo Qing was stunned, then fell silent. A trace of pain flashed in Mo Gu's eyes, but he did not say any more and turned to fly north.
They were all old monsters of over a thousand years, and their reactions were extremely swift. They immediately judged that what they needed to do now was to buy as much time as possible and delay the opponent as much as possible.
Delay until the four ancestors appeared. But facing a Spirit Transformation cultivator, even if he and Zhu Luan were the inheritors of the Malevolent Spirit Sect's unparalleled Three Great Poison Bodies and had reached the level of a Great Cultivator, there would be no other outcome but death!
And at the same time, Liaoyuan's face showed a look of sorrow as he also flew up. At the same time, another figure from the distance also shot up into the sky.
This person was the old man who had just led the other Nascent Soul cultivators out of the Devil's Cliff Crevice, and his cultivation had also reached the Late-stage Nascent Soul.
He also shouted sternly, "Qian is here too!"
Along with the old man, a white-armored dragon-scorpion that had revealed its true form also rose into the sky. It was impressively a late-stage fourth-rank demonic beast, its aura identical to the bare-chested burly man from before.
In the sky, the Sixth Sir and the Eleventh Sir looked down coldly.
The two quickly transmitted their voices: "That fourth-rank demonic beast should be from the secret realm. It must be captured alive. After a Soul-Search, we can definitely get many secrets from the secret realm. This is what we need most right now."
Then, the Sixth Sir at the same time shouted to the group of cultivators on the south side.
"You don't need to worry about these three people and one beast. Quickly charge into the Devil's Cliff Crevice!"
All of this happened within two breaths. At this moment, in the golden light ten thousand zhang up, the killing intent on Daling and the other four was palpable. Their faces were as gloomy as they could be, less than a hundred zhang from the edge of the golden light.
But the gray round bead that the demon marshal Tu Tai had shot had already fallen into the Devil's Cliff Crevice. They didn't need to guess that a heaven-shaking change would happen there in the next moment.
Having the cultivators fall back to defend was just a helpless remedy. If the two-realm passage was really opened, even the two-realm force generated in that instant would leave few of the cultivators below alive. But what other method was there at this time?
Tu Tai looked at the "Lesser Realm-Breaking Pearl" that had already fallen into the Devil's Cliff Crevice, a smile appearing on his face.
The position where the "Lesser Realm-Breaking Pearl" fell had been determined in advance. On the other side was the weakest point between the two realms that they had been trying to expand for tens of thousands of years.
The Sixth Sir and the Eleventh Sir looked at the three people and one beast coming like moths to a flame. They were not in a hurry to intercept and kill, nor did they stop anyone from falling back to defend the Devil's Cliff Crevice.
The two of them looked at everything before them as if a cat were playing with a mouse. The cultivators from both sides below, after a moment's pause, instantly started fighting again.
Shuang Qingqing glanced at the scene above and couldn't help but sigh in her heart. It seemed she would have to take Bai Rou and leave this continent.
"I just don't know if the node I knew of before is still there. Otherwise, I can only risk entering the chaotic flow space. Perhaps relying on the material of the 'Thousand Luo Ancient Ape' and my own fragmented memories, I might be able to cross the chaotic flow space. Otherwise, if she and Bai Rou stay on the Desolate Moon Continent, they would only be waiting for death."
These Spirit Transformation cultivators were not someone she could deal with.
"It's time to go home. It's just that when I came out back then, I never thought that only a wisp of a remnant soul would be returning."
Shuang Qingqing had already reached not far from Bai Rou in a few flashes. When the two-realm passage opened and the two-realm force erupted, that would be the best time for her to escape.
But to everyone's surprise, after the gray round bead fell into the Devil's Cliff Crevice, just as Daling and the others were about to reach the edge of the golden light, there was still no movement. The demon marshal Tu Tai's wild laughter came to an abrupt halt.
Something that greatly surprised him had happened. His Divine Sense had been closely following the "Lesser Realm-Breaking Pearl" he had shot. He would only activate it when the "Lesser Realm-Breaking Pearl" reached the largest crack.
This point was different from a true "Realm-Breaking Pearl." Because the power that a "Lesser Realm-Breaking Pearl" could unleash was less than satisfactory.
Its power was only forty to sixty percent of a "Realm-Breaking Pearl." So, to exert its greatest effect, it had to be manually controlled and activated at an appropriate time.
This was unlike the "Realm-Breaking Pearl" itself, which had a formation inside that could sense the place with the densest aura of the other realm. In other words, a "Realm-Breaking Pearl" could automatically find the weakest point of the barrier between the two realms within a certain range, which was something a "Lesser Realm-Breaking Pearl" could not do.