However, Li Yan had now made a judgment about this place. There was no one here. This was the best news for him.
Firstly, although he had only seen three rooms, the furnishings within all gave the impression of a place long abandoned, with no valuable treasures left behind.
Secondly, Li Yan's judgment was based on the origin of this place as Meng Zhiyuan had described it, which he then cross-referenced with other information.
The layout here was clearly that of a cultivator's cave residence. Li Yan was certain without needing to look any further.
Besides the three rooms he had been to, the rest would surely include the most common layouts of a cultivator's cave residence, such as a Beast-Rearing Chamber, a Pill-Refining Chamber, a Spirit Plant Garden, and so on.
Thinking of this, Li Yan's figure flashed and disappeared from the reception hall.
The next moment, he appeared in another room, looking at the deep imprints on the floor.
"Left by a pill furnace. A pill or artifact refining chamber!"
Li Yan knew his judgment was correct. The opponent's final killing move was to teleport people into the cave residences of several powerful experts. If there were truly experts here, he would undoubtedly be dead.
But now he knew that he was safe for the time being.
Even Meng Zhiyuan could not enter and exit this place at will, or rather, he was unwilling to enter, because it would be very difficult to get out again.
The reason Li Yan knew so much was not all from what Meng Zhiyuan had said, but because Li Yan had previously soul-searched two two-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats.
Although their rank was low, and Li Yan had expected that they wouldn't know any high-level secrets, they would surely know some of the basic situation here.
After the soul-search, Li Yan already knew a great deal, something Meng Zhiyuan would never have imagined.
Because in the previous siege, it was an all-or-nothing situation where one side would be completely wiped out. Otherwise, there would be no opportunity or time to soul-search others.
Meng Zhiyuan also hadn't expected anyone to be able to walk out of the tunnels. In his view, he had simultaneously sent out five groups of his kin.
Although the two-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats had suffered many casualties, not a single group had been completely annihilated. This meant that no one had time to do anything else.
In addition, his soul was injured, and during the process of being held hostage by Li Yan later, he was always in a state of not being fully conscious. Due to this oversight, he simply couldn't think so thoroughly.
The other few four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats thought that Li Yan had captured Meng Zhiyuan during their fight. After all, those two-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats had been tailing Li Yan all along.
Therefore, when Meng Zhiyuan later answered some of Li Yan's questions, although it was half-truth and half-lie, Li Yan was still able to deduce more things through comparison.
This place was a location left behind by ancient cultivators, and it was built by very powerful ones. As for how powerful, they should be at the Spirit Transformation stage.
In the memories of those two two-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats, this place was not the cave residence where Meng Zhiyuan's so-called "Venerable Duanmu" and his two daughters lived.
Rather, it should be two Spirit Transformation level experts who led their Dark Spirit Demon Bat clan to guard an empty cave residence here.
In other words, of the three sub-cave residences Li Yan and the others had seen before, only two were inhabited. The other one was empty.
As for the situation in these three sub-cave residences, those two two-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats were also unclear. At their rank, they simply had no access to that information.
The Dark Spirit Demon Bat clan lived in the Forbidden Land all year round, and the Forbidden Land would only open when the formation was triggered.
If they wanted to come out temporarily, they had to cast a spell to open the restriction, and the spell was only in the hands of a few six-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats and their direct disciples.
In their memory, "Venerable Duanmu" did exist, and he had indeed lived here, but he was just one of the cultivators who rotated through this post.
Every hundred years, two other Spirit Transformation stage experts would come to guard this place. After living here for a hundred years, "Venerable Duanmu" left with another Spirit Transformation cultivator.
In the somewhat hazy memories of the two-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats, a total of twelve Spirit Transformation stage experts may have come here one after another, which meant six hundred years.
And their clan had been stationed here all along.
The reason for this was that at that time, the Forsaken Continent was at war with the Verdant Continent. As vassals of the Demon Clan, their clan was naturally conscripted to participate in the war.
But in one of the major battles, two Nascent Soul stage ancestors and a portion of the third-rank experts of the Dark Spirit Demon Bat clan were captured by the experts of the Verdant Continent.
At that time, the Demon Clan was extremely tyrannical, so when they conscripted small races like the Dark Spirit Demon Bats, they actually planted restrictions in their bodies.
If they detected the slightest abnormality, they would completely annihilate their clan.
After a group of Dark Spirit Demon Bat experts was captured, the experts of the Verdant Continent had already gained insight into the situation on the Forsaken Continent.
They came up with a countermeasure: to incite some of the races of the Forsaken Continent to defect. They acted and removed the restrictions on the captured group of Dark Spirit Demon Bats.
And they told them that as long as they left a portion of their people to fight against the Demon Clan together, all of their clansmen could have their restrictions removed and then be brought to the Verdant Continent.
And they promised to give them a cultivation land with abundant Spiritual Energy on the Verdant Continent, and required that under the agreed conditions, they would not need to send any more clansmen to participate in the war, allowing them to prosper and multiply on the Verdant Continent.
Faced with this demand, the Dark Spirit Demon Bats understood very well in their hearts. The Verdant Continent's treatment of them was essentially no different from the Demon Clan's; both required them to participate in life-and-death battles.
But in the specifics, there were still major differences.
First, the experts of the Verdant Continent would not plant restrictions in their clansmen's bodies.
Second, only a portion of their people would be left to fight. Although these people were the elites of the clan, it would definitely not lead to the extermination of their race.
Third, this was a way to continuously break down the power of the Demon Clan.
But knowing was one thing. Comparing the two, in order to preserve their race, the Dark Spirit Demon Bats still chose to side with the Verdant Continent.
Of course, in doing so, they were also taking a huge risk.
They had no chance to defect in batches. If the situation looked bad and they wanted to return to the Demon Clan's side, it would be impossible.
This kind of fence-sitting behavior would not be tolerated by either side.
So they only had one chance. Once they defected to the Verdant Continent's side, they would have to move everyone over at once before the Demon Clan could react.
But if, in the end, the experts of the Verdant Continent could not fulfill their promise, their clan would be gone for good, wiped out by the other side.
However, fortunately, the experts of the Verdant Continent signed a Blood Contract with the Dark Spirit Demon Bat clan, which calmed their hearts a little.
Although this contract contained the power of laws, and violators would suffer heavenly punishment and destruction, the strongest experts of the Dark Spirit Demon Bats were only six-winged, which meant Nascent Soul stage cultivators.
They couldn't know if Spirit Transformation cultivators had any means to deal with it, but at least it was a comfort, a glimmer of hope.
Steeling their hearts, the few experts of the Dark Spirit Demon Bats decided to bring their entire clan to the Verdant Continent's side.
It must be said that the cultivators of the ancient era were truly powerful. At that time, although the Dark Spirit Demon Bat clan was said to be very weak among the Demon Clan, they already had ten fourth-rank, six-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats in their clan, which was ten Nascent Soul cultivators.
In the present day, this would already be considered a top-tier sect.
And the Verdant Continent side indeed did not go back on their word. In the end, it was determined that eight fourth-rank, six-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats, more than twenty third-rank, four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats, and a hundred two-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats would be left behind.
The rest of the Dark Spirit Demon Bats were all handed over to the remaining two six-winged ones to be taken to the Verdant Continent. This effectively took out eighty percent of the Dark Spirit Demon Bat clan's top fighting force at once.
In order to allow the remaining Dark Spirit Demon Bats to fight with peace of mind, one of the two six-winged ones who had gone over even teleported back once not long after to inform the clansmen who had stayed behind to fight of all the clan's affairs.
The Verdant Continent had truly fulfilled all its promises as agreed. The Dark Spirit Demon Bat clan had already settled down in a very good region.
With that, the remaining Dark Spirit Demon Bats had to fulfill their end of the agreement as well.
Just like that, the remaining Dark Spirit Demon Bats initially also fought and risked their lives on the battlefield. In that world-shaking, two-realm great war, the Dark Spirit Demon Bats quickly suffered heavy casualties.
Even the six-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat experts were all injured, and three of them perished quickly.
Of the five surviving six-winged experts, four were already so seriously injured that they could no longer fight, and the Dark Spirit Demon Bat clansmen below had suffered even more severe casualties.
Only one four-winged one was left, and about forty two-winged ones. In the end, they had to withdraw from the battlefield to recuperate.
Finally, they were arranged to be here. Besides serving two Spirit Transformation experts, they were also responsible for guarding the periphery and the daily allocation of some war resources.
As for why they had been stationed here all this time, the two two-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats Li Yan had soul-searched only knew that they were following orders.
Some matters they only gradually learned from Meng Zhiyuan and the others in the years that followed.
Many years passed like this. They welcomed one century, and then another, but the Verdant Continent side never sent them to the battlefield again, nor did they let them return to their clan.
But in this way, even though the lifespan of Demonic Beasts was originally long, those two-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats had already begun to die off.
Only a few broke through to the third-rank Demonic Beast realm, thus escaping the fate of a temporary death.
During these years, the remaining Dark Spirit Demon Bats were still procreating, but this was no longer a long-term solution.
Thus, the five four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats began to try asking the Spirit Transformation experts how they could be considered to have fulfilled their original agreement. They did not want to waste away like this any longer.
At that time, the one who came forward to answer them was the Spirit Transformation expert named "Venerable Duanmu." His final answer was that it would be at most another hundred years.
The five four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats said sorrowfully.
"This deep sea is boundless, and cultivation resources are scarce. Some of our talented clansmen may not be able to hold on until then!"
Over the years, the five of them had not been able to advance their own realms, but their lifespans were not yet a problem for the time being.
However, one of the four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats below was already over seven hundred years old, which was nearing the limit for a Demonic Beast of his rank. If he didn't advance his realm soon, he would surely die.
And this Demonic Beast was Meng Zhiyuan. His talent was among the best in the clan at that time.
After so many of their elites had died, they did not want to see Meng Zhiyuan die so mediocrally.
The rewards from the Verdant Continent over the years had also been mostly consumed by them. Besides daily cultivation, there were also four two-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats whose talent was not weak either.
They had pooled all their resources to barely help these four achieve Core Formation. Now, they no longer had the supreme-grade pills to extend Meng Zhiyuan's life.
So, they wanted to let Meng Zhiyuan leave this place now, to let him alone return to his clan.
Otherwise, they would ask the Verdant Continent to provide supreme-grade pills to allow Meng Zhiyuan to extend his life or advance his realm.
After their persistent pleading, "Venerable Duanmu" contemplated for a long time and finally agreed to let Meng Zhiyuan return to his clan early.
However, at this time, he also received orders that the great war ahead had reached a final, critical juncture.