Zhao Min's previous feelings for Li Yan had been a matter of choice and hesitation. The fact that Li Yan had been willing to descend into the Devil's Cliff Crevice had already surprised her; that was an act of risking one's life.
And then, after lifting her father to safety, he had actually turned back to save her. This made Zhao Min feel that the figure she often thought of in her heart was truly worthy.
Especially at the end, when she felt that it was impossible for them both to make it up and had pushed him away, Li Yan had remained steadfastly unwilling to leave, continuing to fall with her into the endless abyss.
As her heart pounded with nervousness, for a moment, she felt no fear of death.
But her voice was still as cold as ever.
"You can let go of my hand first. Even if you wanted to go up now, it's impossible."
Li Yan looked at the jade-like beauty so close to him. That face, beautiful enough to topple cities, was as cold as ever, but her words suddenly held a softness that had never been there before.
Hearing this, he couldn't help but be taken aback. Only then did he remember that he had been holding her by the waist this whole time. A flush of color rose to his dark face.
Although only a few breaths had passed, for him to hold on like this without letting go seemed a bit too forward.
He quickly pulled his hand back, a hesitant look on his face, momentarily at a loss for words.
Zhao Min only moved her body slightly away. Since they were both inside the Spirit Power shield summoned by Li Yan, the space was not very large, and the overall situation looked somewhat intimate.
Zhao Min slapped her Storage Pouch, and more than twenty talismans appeared in her hand. Four of them actually emanated the aura of the Golden Core realm; they were defensive talismans that only a Nascent Soul cultivator could refine.
These were not something Li Yan's talismans could compare to. Although Li Yan had obtained many things from the Golden Core cultivators he had killed, whether it was magical treasures or talismans, they were almost all offensive types.
Defensive magical treasures and talismans were already extremely rare, let alone mid- to high-grade ones.
"There is a powerful Formation Spirit inside this formation of yours."
Only after taking these things out did Zhao Min look again at the purple formation outside the Spirit Power shield.
She was now ready to use these items at any moment, though of course only after the defenses laid by Li Yan began to collapse.
"You... you can sense its existence?"
After seeing Zhao Min take out the defensive talismans as instructed, Li Yan had refocused his attention on the outside, trying to find an opportunity to escape.
Hearing her words, he couldn't help but turn his head in surprise to look at her again. He hadn't made the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant reveal itself, yet Zhao Min had exposed it in a single sentence.
Logically, although Zhao Min was at the Pseudo-Core Realm, her true strength was still a great deal weaker than the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant. She shouldn't have been able to sense its existence.
"Yes, my senses are somewhat sensitive to demonic beasts. That's one of the reasons I went to Never-Parting Peak."
Zhao Min said faintly. As Li Yan turned his head, his breath was close to her ear, making Zhao Min's heart race a little faster, but she continued to stare at the Great Dragon-Elephant Formation outside.
"Oh, so Senior Sister Min has such a talent. This is the first I've heard of it. It's truly surprising. In that case, why don't you come out and say hello!"
The first half of Li Yan's sentence was directed at Zhao Min. He was genuinely surprised and envious, without a trace of falsehood. A talent like this, one that could ignore differences in strength to sense the presence of demonic beasts, was one in a hundred thousand.
This meant that Zhao Min's speed and quantity in refining spirit beasts were at least twice as fast as others. As for the latter half of his sentence, it was directed at the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant within the formation.
It could be said that Zhao Min's ability to refine Gu-insects far surpassed that of any other disciple from Never-Parting Peak. As long as her Divine Sense could keep up, she could easily refine a large number of them.
"Your constitution is very similar to the legendary 'Ice Soul Blue Jade Body'!"
A majestic voice suddenly rang out, and then a demonic beast wreathed in deep purple lightning appeared within the "Great Dragon-Elephant Formation."
Seeing this, Li Yan's face couldn't help but twitch.
The Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant at this moment was like a divine beast descending upon the world, its appearance solemn and dignified. This was clearly a deliberate act of posing as a peerless ferocious beast, completely devoid of the fawning attitude it usually showed him.
Although they were talking, Li Yan did not relax his constant probing of their surroundings. Unfortunately, the area around them was a boundless expanse of dark yellow, and the two of them were still falling, or perhaps rising, or moving sideways.
He tried to control his movement but found himself completely unable to do so. He had also secretly tried several times to connect with the "Flowing Light Talisman" that Wei Zhongran had given him, but there was no response.
Logically, the Devil's Cliff Crevice was right behind Windy Cool Mountain, as close as it could be to the teleportation point Wei Zhongran had set. But to Li Yan's disappointment, the "Flowing Light Talisman" remained silent.
This was the second time he had taken the initiative to try and connect with it. He had done the same when being chased by a Nascent Soul cultivator, but both attempts had ended in failure.
This made Li Yan begin to doubt whether the "Flowing Light Talisman" could even be used. But deep down, he knew that Wei Zhongran would never lie to him about this; there was no point. He might as well have not given it to him in the first place.
Li Yan also had a faint feeling that this time it was likely because the Devil's Cliff Crevice was a two-realm passage, and the laws of heaven and earth had blocked the "Flowing Light Talisman."
Especially given what Wei Zhongran had just done—he had been collapsing the Devil's Cliff Crevice, which must have stirred up certain forces within the spatial passage between the two realms.
'Could we have been teleported into a chaotic flow of space?'
A thought that sent a chill down his spine emerged in Li Yan's mind. He had seen the term "Chaotic Flow Space" many times in ancient texts; it was a land of death with no return.
'But there's no Astral Wind here...'
Li Yan was thinking nonstop, but he was still explaining the origin of the Formation Spirit to Zhao Min.
"This is a variant species of heaven and earth, hmm, I guess you could call it a juvenile of the ancient... Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant?"
For the first time, a change appeared on Zhao Min's usually calm and beautiful face. In her knowledge, the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant should no longer exist on the Desolate Moon Continent.
Several thousand years ago, an elder of the Malevolent Spirit Sect had a Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant as a spirit beast. It was said that the bloodline of that Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant was already impure, but it was still treated as a high-grade spirit beast by the sect until it later left with that elder.
After that, no Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant had ever appeared on the Desolate Moon Continent again.
Zhao Min was amazed.
'Where did Li Yan get the soul of such a ferocious beast? To use a Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant as a Formation Spirit... what an extravagant display.'
Although this Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant's soul had perished in its youth, it had still managed to survive, which showed the power of an ancient variant beast's bloodline.
The Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant had been looking at Zhao Min majestically, but when it heard Li Yan say the word "juvenile," it couldn't help but feel a wave of depression.
It had used up its soul power to increase its imposing aura, only to have Li Yan expose its true nature in an instant.
"What is an 'Ice Soul Blue Jade Body'?"
Li Yan's somewhat surprised voice sounded. Although he was anxious, he didn't want to show it.
That would only make Zhao Min anxious as well, and eventually, they would both lose their composure. At the same time, he was also curious about what the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant had said; it was something he had never heard of before.
"Oh, that is a very pure soul constitution, like the 'Saint Spirit Root' among cultivation aptitudes. This kind of soul..."
Just as the Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant began to speak, the surrounding dark yellow world suddenly changed. The change came so abruptly that it left no time to prepare. Even Li Yan, who was constantly observing his surroundings, had not noticed anything.
Seven-colored lights—red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and violet—suddenly shot towards them from all directions.
The change came so suddenly that by the time Li Yan reacted, the lights had already struck the outermost layer of talismans.
A series of "bip-bop" sounds, as dense as raindrops, rang out. Then, before Li Yan's and Zhao Min's disbelieving eyes, the talismans began to burn instantly.
Although those talismans only had the defensive power of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, with dozens of them stacked, even a Golden Core cultivator couldn't destroy them so quickly.
Then, the Little Purple Divine Dragon-Elephant's anxious voice entered Li Yan's mind.
"Master, this is bad! These lights are too domineering! The formation can't hold out for long..."
As it spoke, the "Great Dragon-Elephant Formation" around them had already erupted in a dazzling purple light, but under the shroud of the seven-colored lights, the purple glow was also rapidly dimming.
Zhao Min's reaction was also extremely fast. Without the slightest hesitation, she flung her hands out, and dozens of talismans shot out, instantly arranging themselves around the two of them.
But the moment these talismans came into contact with the seven-colored lights, whatever was producing them, these defenses that could withstand the weight of a great mountain in the outside world, ignited and burned rapidly on contact.
This included the four talismans that emanated the aura of the Golden Core realm. They only lasted a breath longer than the others before they too began to burn.
Seeing this, Zhao Min's heart went cold. These talismans were nothing like Li Yan's.
Wei Zhongran and Zhao Zhi had spent a great number of Spirit Stones to buy these talismans to increase Zhao Min's chances of survival in this great war between the two races.
And these talismans had indeed saved Zhao Min's life several times in the Devil's Cliff Crevice. But in the face of the mysterious seven-colored lights, each talisman was no different from a thin sheet of paper.
"Even this isn't working..."
Li Yan had no defensive magical treasures on him. Currently, his strongest defense was the "Great Dragon-Elephant Formation."
As Li Yan spoke, Zhao Min flicked her jade-like hand again, and a purple light flew out. It was the small, purple-red cord she usually used to tie her ponytail.
This was her strongest life-saving defensive item. Back when Li Yan was preparing to leave the small mountain village and head north to the Jingtu Sect, Zhao Min had taken it out, intending to give it to him, but he had refused.
This magical treasure was a gift from her mother, Zhao Zhi. It was something the Wei Family Ancestor had personally refined when she and Wei Zhongran became Dao Companions, and it contained a sliver of the Wei Family Ancestor's Divine Sense.
This was an extremely rare defensive magical treasure, let alone one personally refined by a Nascent Soul cultivator.
Zhao Zhi had never used it and had eventually given it to Zhao Min.
The moment the purple-red cord appeared in the air, it spun rapidly, instantly expanding to form a hollow ring. At the same time, it released streams of purple-red light, which immediately enveloped the two of them.
Before they could react, the light on the surface of the purple-red cord surged and violently collided with the surrounding seven-colored lights.
In an instant, the world before Li Yan and Zhao Min's eyes seemed to change. A blinding explosion of light flashed continuously, and the sound of the explosions was deafening.
Inside the ring formed by the purple-red cord, the two of them were shaken back and forth like tumbler dolls. By forcefully circulating their Spirit Power, they could only barely stabilize themselves and keep from falling.
But how could Li Yan and Zhao Min care about such things now? Their eyes were fixed on the outside.
"This is not good. I'm afraid we really can't escape this time."
Just over five breaths had passed when Li Yan and Zhao Min discovered with horror that the light on the purple-red cord was rapidly contracting, while the seven-colored lights seemed to be getting brighter.
Li Yan didn't know the origin of the purple-red cord, but its defensive power was far stronger than the "Great Dragon-Elephant Formation."
The Great Dragon-Elephant Formation had shown signs of collapse in less than a breath after the seven-colored lights appeared, and that was with the other talismans taking on a lot of the pressure for it.
The purple ring had held on for several breaths all by itself, but now it too was on the verge of collapse.
Clearly, this was their strongest life-saving method!