Zuo Qiudan saw many cultivators, especially the Malevolent Spirit Golden Core cultivators who had withdrawn earlier, constantly trying to get closer to the Devil's Cliff Crevice, but they were all blocked by the frenzied swarm of enemies.
Without a word to anyone, Zuo Qiudan cut a path straight towards the edge of the Devil's Cliff Crevice by himself.
But the time was too short. In less than ten breaths, even with Zuo Qiudan's formidable strength, he couldn't immediately break through while weaving through the intense battle groups of all sizes.
On the other hand, the low-level cultivators, knowing they lacked the strength to go down into the Devil's Cliff Crevice to save anyone, had instead gathered in increasing numbers near the edge.
By the time Li Yan went down, Zuo Qiudan was less than five li away from the Devil's Cliff Crevice. He was very dissatisfied with Li Yan's actions.
He didn't think Li Yan could do anything. The young woman in white was a lesson from a predecessor's failure. This was just adding another person to die in their place. He felt it was a great pity for someone like Li Yan.
He had a good impression of Li Yan from their few encounters and considered him a prodigy of the younger generation.
Thus, Zuo Qiudan began an all-out assault in the last five li, intending to bring Li Yan up along with the others. As for the young woman in white, he would have to see how the situation developed.
He hadn't seen Wei Zhongran for nearly thirty years, so he didn't recognize Zhao Min, merely assuming she was another of Wei Zhongran's disciples. Of course, if he could save her, he certainly would.
If he lacked the strength, and since both were of the younger generation, he would still choose to save Li Yan first. Of course, all this was under the premise of ensuring his and Wei Zhongran's safety.
Zuo Qiudan recognized Zhao Zhi, but on a battlefield teeming with mid- and high-level cultivators, he wouldn't have noticed her earlier cries, unless it was for something as eye-catching as what Wei Zhongran had done.
Once the final sprint began, in just a moment, Zuo Qiudan had killed two foreign Golden Core cultivators.
Those two were only at the mid-stage Golden Core level. Faced with a cloud of red mist casually summoned by Zuo Qiudan, they were swept into it before they could dodge. After resisting for less than a breath, they plummeted from the sky.
But because of this, he was targeted by a mid-stage Nascent Soul foreign cultivator from high above.
It was unknown if the two Zuo Qiudan killed were this person's blood descendants, but the mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, even after taking a water-elemental dharma seal from the Jingtu Sect's Arhat Liao Chan, still wore a ferocious expression as he casually swiped down at Zuo Qiudan below, despite coughing up a large mouthful of blood.
Zuo Qiudan instantly felt his entire body freeze, unable to move an inch. Immediately after, a grain of purple sand the size of a thumb was already above his head.
Zuo Qiudan was greatly alarmed. Although he had the magical power to contend with a Nascent Soul cultivator, that only referred to ordinary initial-stage Nascent Soul cultivators.
In front of a truly powerful Nascent Soul cultivator, no matter how impressive his combat strength was, he could not fight across several realms.
But that was all he had time to think. The grain of purple sand had arrived in an instant. Zuo Qiudan sighed in his heart. His recklessness had finally attracted the attention of a Nascent Soul cultivator.
But in the next moment, Zuo Qiudan felt a chill on his back, followed by a burning sting. His entire body was instantly free again.
A Buddhist chant came from above. Arhat Liao Chan of the Jingtu Sect was now standing in the sky above him.
Across from them, a transparent hole had appeared in the foreign cultivator's left chest, through which the several snapped, vine-like meridians were clearly visible.
The foreign cultivator was spraying blood from his mouth and continuously retreating.
Liao Chan was also a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator. His opponent had actually tried to kill one of his own side's disciples right under his nose while fighting him.
He recognized the person. It was the young one from the Zuo Family of Shengzhou, whose skill in pill concoction had apparently reached the level of a grandmaster.
The Zuo Family of Shengzhou was a first-class cultivation family aligned with the Jingtu Sect. Arhat Liao Chan naturally couldn't let Zuo Qiudan perish. Although he was a bit slow to act, he still saved him.
However, Zuo Qiudan was still grazed by the grain of purple sand on his back and suffered a serious injury.
Seeing the foreign cultivator's audacity, Arhat Liao Chan seized the opportunity and flicked his finger. A prayer bead reappeared from the distant sky and, in an instant, was before the foreign Nascent Soul cultivator's forehead.
The foreign Nascent Soul cultivator had just taken a hit from his opponent's dharma seal in order to attack Zuo Qiudan.
But this had exposed a flaw, and he was struck in the left chest by one of Liao Chan's prayer beads. Liao Chan, pressing his advantage, had the prayer bead instantly turn back and aimed it at his opponent's head.
The foreign Nascent Soul cultivator was filled with hatred for Liao Chan for ruining his good deed. A great light shone from the large hole in his left chest, and the bloody wound healed at a rapid pace.
He snorted coldly from his nose and shouted.
"Buddhist cultivation methods are nothing special. I, Hu, will kill that kid today."
As he spoke, he curved his left hand into a claw and grabbed at the prayer bead above his head. At the same time, he swung his right hand again, intending to kill Zuo Qiudan.
But in the next moment, his expression changed drastically, and his cold shout turned into a cry of alarm.
"A Willpower Bead!"
He violently retracted his hand, intending to dodge again. But how could Liao Chan let him escape? He had been waiting for this moment. Otherwise, if the opponent had been on guard, he would have vanished with an Instantaneous Movement.
Liao Chan's right hand was raised in a single-hand mudra. He sharply bent his middle finger, pointed his remaining four fingers forward, and shouted.
"Descend!"
The foreign Nascent Soul cultivator's blurring figure suddenly paused. It was just this slight delay that allowed the prayer bead to swiftly pass through his body.
The foreign cultivator let out a tragic scream. His protective spirit light, which had previously resisted Liao Chan's attacks, was instantly disintegrated and melted away.
His entire head exploded, and a two-inch Nascent Soul, with a look of panic, clutching a storage pouch, instantly fled.
Buddhist sects cultivated Willpower, and Confucian sects cultivated Righteous Qi. These were completely different from Spirit Power. Not only could they attack the enemy, but they could also entangle their Divine Sense and soul, and were very difficult to remove. They were the things cultivators were most unwilling to encounter.
Although the foreign Nascent Soul cultivator knew of the existence of things like Buddhist Willpower, they had been wandering in the chaotic flow space for years and had almost never seen it.
Although they had fought with the Jingtu Sect in the past few months, Willpower was not something that just anyone could easily cultivate. So, the foreign Nascent Soul cultivator only knew that this thing was extremely troublesome.
They had no specific methods for dealing with it.
Today, in his fight with the Jingtu Sect monk, this powerful foreign cultivator had been on guard, but his opponent had fought him for a long time without ever using Willpower.
It was as if his opponent didn't have Willpower at all. Coupled with his haste just now, he had fallen for the trap.
At this moment, although his Nascent Soul had escaped, Arhat Liao Chan in the distance had no intention of pursuing it. This made the foreign Nascent Soul cultivator even more panicked.
Because he could already feel a layer of gray substance wrapped around his soul, and his consciousness was rapidly fading...
...
At the edge of the Devil's Cliff Crevice, Zuo Qiudan was stunned. Li Yan had only thrown Wei Zhongran's body up, while he himself had turned around and swiftly flown back down.
"You..."
Catching Wei Zhongran's body, Zuo Qiudan completely ignored the "bang, bang" sounds of the demonic cultivators' attacks hitting his protective spirit shield and hesitated for a moment.
'He's actually going back to save that young woman in white!'
However, at this moment, Zuo Qiudan had to protect Wei Zhongran first. In his hesitation, he did not follow him down.
In the distance, several streaks of light were approaching. Yan Longzi, Li Yuyin, and Peak Master Yi of Four Symbols Peak, along with several other Golden Core cultivators, had appeared. They were only a few breaths slower than Zuo Qiudan...
With a flicker, Li Yan used the suction from the abyss, and his figure shot through the thick fog like an arrow released from a bowstring. In just two breaths, he was at Zhao Min's side.
He once again grabbed the long sash at Zhao Min's waist. At this moment, Zhao Min had also opened her beautiful eyes. She just quietly looked at Li Yan, who gave her a light smile.
"Master is safe now. It's time for us to go up too!"
Then, the black spirit light on Li Yan's body flashed wildly again. Zhao Min, however, suddenly reached out an arm and placed it on Li Yan's body.
She didn't turn her body horizontally but positioned herself almost shoulder-to-shoulder with Li Yan.
Li Yan looked up at the sky. The Spirit Power in his body once again surged, and his body rose higher, the power of "The Five Elements Return to Primordial Genesis" erupting once more.
And just then, the smile on Li Yan's face suddenly vanished, and in the next moment, it turned deathly pale.
Zhao Min, at his side, was once again violently pulled downwards. But she only fell about half a person's height before she managed to stabilize herself, using the force of Li Yan's shoulder.
At that moment, the rain of stones, the corpses of cultivators from both sides, and the fragments of magical treasures around them seemed to accelerate in time, falling downwards at several times their normal speed.
Li Yan's body, which had just started to rise, after ascending a little, also began to plummet rapidly into the abyss...
By now, sixteen breaths had passed since Wei Zhongran charged out from the bottom of the Devil's Cliff Crevice. This was merely the time it took for an ordinary person to take a dozen or so breaths.
And Yan Longzi and the others had just landed on the edge of the cliff above...
The two-realm passage at the bottom of the Devil's Cliff Crevice had finally begun to dislocate and reorganize. It was constantly changing the spatial laws around the two-realm barrier.
"Junior Sister Min..."
"Li Yan!"
"Senior, quickly..."
"Alas! This is bad!"
As they fell rapidly, Li Yan and Zhao Min vaguely heard the shocked shouts and calls of Gong Chenying, Wei Chituo, Lin Daqiao, as well as Zuo Qiudan and some familiar Malevolent Spirit cultivators from above.
It seemed there were also the voices of his Martial Mother, First Senior Brother, and the Sect Master, but he could no longer hear them clearly. The sounds quickly faded from his ears.
In a short moment, Li Yan erupted with his full power several times but was unable to make his body rise. However, he managed to slightly control the speed of his descent.
Li Yan forcefully suppressed the terror in his heart, forcing himself to calm down. He estimated that in just that instant, he and Zhao Min had already fallen about a hundred zhang.
Because the speed was too fast, all sounds became muffled, leaving only the continuous "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh" of the wind in their ears.
Li Yan and Zhao Min didn't know that after the spatial laws began to change, the force of space had already carried them away from their original position as they fell.
As he fell, Li Yan was deliberately controlling his balance while quickly surveying his surroundings. He had already sensed that something was wrong and was rapidly thinking of a countermeasure. But in just that short moment, his back was already soaked with sweat. He couldn't think of a solution at all.
Just then, his right hand suddenly shook violently. The force came so suddenly, and he was trying so hard to control his body, that by the time he felt it, his right hand had been shaken loose uncontrollably.
Immediately after, the hand on his shoulder gave a sharp push. A powerful force came through, and Li Yan's falling body, after a pause, was actually thrown several feet upwards.
"Senior Sister!"
Li Yan was instantly jolted from his thoughts. Below him, Zhao Min, after pushing him away, was falling even faster due to the rebound force.
Her long, dark ponytail had become somewhat disheveled, and as it floated high up, it danced wildly against her cheeks...
But her gaze towards Li Yan was exceptionally clear. Her heroic face, carved like white jade, wore a smile, and the already rounded angles of her face became softer, more beautiful.
At the same time, she pointed to the sky, then gave Li Yan a gentle wave. Without saying a word, she closed her beautiful eyes again, letting herself fall just like that...