Seeing the other party's strange and difficult-to-deal-with attack art exposed, a smile appeared on Qi Jinghong's face.
Li Yan's soul art attack was truly powerful. Even his Divine Sense could not detect the trajectory of the other party's attack, which was why he had been invaded in his Sea of Consciousness earlier.
But the crimson great cauldron formed from his magical treasure was an immortal art he had cultivated, called "Melting Stone Crimson Flame," which could increase the power of his pure yang fire by more than double.
As expected, under his art, the other party's art was countered and had nowhere to hide.
The reason he was able to force out the other party's soul art was not that Qi Jinghong thought Li Yan was that incompetent, but that his pure fire-system cultivation was indeed extraordinary.
He thought back to that time, if he hadn't encountered a late-stage Nascent Soul great cultivator of the Demon Clan, if he had fought to the death, he would have had a chance to self-detonate, and might have been able to perish together with the enemy.
But that was all in the past. Now, he wanted to be the first to deal with the weakest Li Yan, so he could quickly free up his hands to help others.
The sound of explosions in the surroundings was deafening, and the few battle groups were fighting with extreme intensity.
Qi Jinghong chanted an incantation, and his hands drew a strange arc in the air. He then fiercely slapped the empty space in front of him.
Two palm prints suddenly appeared on the side of the crimson great cauldron closest to him. Then, with a "dong," a loud sound echoed, shaking the surrounding space.
The high temperature around the great cauldron rose again, climbing steadily, making Li Yan's figure on the opposite side become even more blurry in the distorted high temperature.
Following this loud sound, a cloud of red smoke suddenly spewed out from the sky-facing mouth of the great cauldron. As soon as the red cloud left the cauldron's mouth, it shot towards Li Yan's body.
The moment Li Yan saw the red cloud, he was about to cast a spell to avoid it, but then his expression changed slightly.
When the red cloud first left the great cauldron's mouth, it was only about thirty feet in size. Over a distance of several hundred zhang, it shot to Li Yan's front in an instant, and in a flash, it had grown to over three hundred feet, directly enveloping Li Yan within it.
Just as the soul silk threads were forced out and incinerated, Li Yan seemed to have been affected by the destruction of his art. His body became a little sluggish before he managed to move more than two hundred feet to the left.
Just as he seemed to have drifted to the edge of the red cloud, he was suddenly swept into it. Then, the huge red cloud began to churn violently, and a "crackling" sound immediately came from within the red cloud.
It seemed as if something was being burned. Qi Jinghong, who was connected to the red cloud by his mind, felt the temperature at the center of the entire red cloud drop rapidly at first.
He couldn't help but feel a little tense.
"I didn't expect this kid to have a good protective magical treasure on him!"
And just as this thought arose in his mind, just as he was about to once again pour his magical power into the red cloud to increase its power, suddenly, the temperature at the center of that patch of red cloud rose sharply again, and the "crackling" sound became louder.
Qi Jinghong's expression instantly returned to normal. This was the pure yang true fire—his ultimate skill. In daily battles with other Nascent Soul cultivators, he would basically not use it until the very end.
The other party's defense didn't even last half a breath. One reason was that he had used this art right from the start, and the other was that Li Yan probably had no defense against it at all.
A cruel smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. He suddenly struck his Dantian lightly with one hand and spat out another stream of hot air.
The hot stream turned into a thin, blood-red flame, which flew directly towards that patch of red cloud. This was a wisp of pure yang true fire that he had cultivated over hundreds of years.
He was going to burn Li Yan to ashes in one fell swoop and end the fight as soon as possible.
'I hope your Nascent Soul can last one more breath, so I can capture your Nascent Soul alive.'
'Hmph! What peerless genius, what reaching Nascent Soul in a hundred years of cultivation. You just got some bullshit luck and got some opportunity. After this, I'll slowly search your soul and force all your secrets out.'
As Qi Jinghong spat out the pure yang true fire, his thoughts raced.
This Li Yan had always been obscure, but since his return, he had shown extraordinary cultivation aptitude. He had long suspected that this Li Yan must have obtained some great opportunity.
That was why he had pretended to ask about matters on the Forsaken Continent earlier. In his opinion, the many details Li Yan had deliberately omitted were to cover up some very important things.
And these were very likely to be some powerful cultivation method, or a heavenly material or earthly treasure.
As long as he could capture Li Yan's Nascent Soul alive, he was confident that he had ways to pry open the other party's mouth. Even if the other party had set up a restriction deep in their soul, he had many methods to make Li Yan wish for death but be unable to find it.
And just as his thoughts were racing, suddenly, a speck of blood-red light with a long, thin red trail flew out of the red cloud and shot towards his face with a scorching heat.
This made Qi Jinghong's expression freeze for a moment, because he had no idea what had happened.
"How did my 'Melting Stone Crimson Flame' reflect back?"
This was his first reaction, because that speck of blood-red light, whether in color or the high temperature it emitted, was extremely similar to the "Melting Stone Crimson Flame" he had cast.
But in the next moment, he felt something was wrong. The blood-red speck flashed and was already in front of him, crashing head-on into the pure yang fire he had spat out.
What shocked Qi Jinghong was that his pure yang true fire, upon contact with that speck of blood-red, was "melted" by the other party.
The high-temperature flame was actually "melted" into nothingness, not devoured.
At this time, Qi Jinghong's pure yang true fire had only just been spat out five zhang. That streak of pure yang true fire was as if it had been pressed by a finger at the tip of the flame, held back with the speed of lightning, and rapidly shortened.
With just this momentary delay, by the time Qi Jinghong felt something was wrong and wanted to dodge, it was already too late. The speck of blood-red flashed and was in front of him.
In his haste, Qi Jinghong's entire body's magical power surged. He suddenly opened his mouth wide, and the Nascent Soul figurine above his Dantian sea also shot up.
The figurine's body was burning with golden flames, and its face was solemn and dignified. In an instant, it was as if the fire god Zhurong had descended upon the world. With a rapid wave of its hands, an even more torrential heat wave surged towards Qi Jinghong's mouth.
Qi Jinghong's Nascent Soul was constantly tempered under the pure yang true fire. After hundreds of years, the Nascent Fire on the Nascent Soul was thirty percent stronger than the pure yang true fire.
A wisp of Nascent Fire could instantly burn the seawater within a radius of three thousand zhang to nothing, leaving not a single drop. This was his true trump card.
However, he only had two wisps of Nascent Fire in total and would not use them unless absolutely necessary.
Qi Jinghong would never have dreamed that he would use his Nascent Fire today after fighting with the other party for less than five breaths. He felt a life-and-death crisis descending upon him from that speck of blood-red light.
A large patch of even more dazzling golden light had already poured out of his mouth. The speck of blood-red flashed and disappeared into the golden light. Qi Jinghong's face instantly turned blood-red.
Then, his eyes suddenly widened, as if his eyeballs were about to fall out of their sockets. A strange "ge ge ge..." sound came from his throat.
It was as if someone had grabbed him by the neck.
"Bang!"
Along with the strange sound from his throat, there was another muffled sound. A blood hole the size of a small finger appeared at the back of Qi Jinghong's head, and a large amount of blood and brain matter shot out.
And at this moment, a figure flashed out of the red cloud in front like lightning. Then, with a flicker, Li Yan appeared in front of Qi Jinghong.
Li Yan's face was expressionless, showing neither joy nor sorrow. He raised a single hand, and at the same time, squeezed out a cold word from his mouth.
"Die!"
Immediately, a black light flashed in his hand, and a thing with sharp points at both ends stabbed into the back of Qi Jinghong's waist. It was the Gui-Yi Water-Parting Spike that had been being nurtured.
With his head already severely injured, Qi Jinghong's entire body's magical power could no longer form an effective protective light shield, and he was stabbed in the waist by the needle-thin sharp spike.
The Nascent Soul figurine inside his body had just sensed that his physical body was rapidly losing its life force. A look of terror appeared on its small face. Even now, he still didn't understand what had happened.
But at this time, there was no time to think. The Nascent Soul figurine's figure blurred inside his body, and it was about to leave the body. Suddenly, the Nascent Soul's blurring body convulsed.
Then the phantom solidified again, and a look of pain appeared on the Nascent Soul figurine's face. A sky-shattering scream came from its mouth. It was a huge, uncontrollable pain from the depths of its Divine Soul.
"Ah..."
The scream had just risen, but in the next moment, it came to an abrupt end.
The Gui-Yi Water-Parting Spike in Li Yan's hand instantly touched the surface of Qi Jinghong's Nascent Soul. After being pinned by its Divine Soul, the Nascent Soul figurine's whole body shone with a great golden light, and an equally surging magical power burst forth.
Before cultivating the second layer of the "Wave-Hiding Soul-Slaying Art," although the Gui-Yi Water-Parting Spike's surprise attack was successful, the power of the soul it pinned was limited against a Nascent Soul.
Just as its Divine Soul was about to break free, the Nascent Soul figurine's body suddenly, from head to toe, turned pitch-black. And in the black color, a blood thread was deeply embedded in the Nascent Soul's body.
A look of unbearable pain appeared on Qi Jinghong's Nascent Soul's small face again, and it could no longer gather a single bit of magical power.
Immediately, Li Yan's magical power poured in along the Gui-Yi Water-Parting Spike. The powerful magical power instantly destroyed the already poisoned and blackened Nascent Soul into a cloud of blood foam.
He had no thought of obtaining the other party's Nascent Soul for soul-searching, putting all his effort into one decisive blow.
By now, Qi Jinghong's face still held a look of disbelief. Before his death, he could not have imagined that a cultivator as powerful as himself would perish in such a way.
All of this happened too fast. The entire exchange between the two sides lasted only seven breaths. Qi Jinghong was dead!
Even the most powerful Nascent Soul of a Nascent Soul cultivator had no chance to escape. Li Yan stood there like a ghost beside Qi Jinghong, his face indifferent and cold.
When the other side's seven Nascent Souls surrounded them, the strength of the two sides was clearly compared. The moment Li Yan was intercepted by Qi Jinghong, he quickly thought of a countermeasure in his heart.
The First Sir's side, out of fear of attracting more strong experts, wanted a quick battle. How could Li Yan's side not be the same? They were at a disadvantage in terms of the number of Nascent Souls.
They simply could not fight a protracted battle.
Wei Zhongran, Arhat Yiye, and Mo Qing could be compared to mid-stage Nascent Souls, but this was just a guess of their strength.
The other side really had three mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivators. Especially since Li Yan and Li Yuyin had only formed their Nascent Souls for ten years, the situation was extremely unfavorable.
As for Li Yan himself, he had not cultivated the various arts of the Nascent Soul stage for long, and none of them had reached the minor completion stage.
Li Yan knew that if he fought head-on with the other party, he would definitely be at a disadvantage. Currently, only the profoundness of his magical power was comparable to a mid-stage Nascent Soul. His mastery of arts was far from enough.
And the only thing he had that could deal with Nascent Soul cultivators without further cultivation was his Fragmented Poison Body. But poisoning a Nascent Soul cultivator was difficult.
So, Li Yan pretended to be a cultivator who cultivated soul attack techniques, trying to paralyze the enemy and wait for an opportunity to poison them. This was also the fastest way.
Although he hadn't mastered the second layer of the "Wave-Hiding Soul-Slaying Art," it did indeed make Li Yan's attacks somewhat similar to soul arts.
After a round of attacks, although Qi Jinghong couldn't be too sure that Li Yan was a soul cultivator, he still believed it to some extent.
He, who also couldn't afford to drag things out, had in a very short time used his "Melting Stone Crimson Flame" divine ability, trying to burn Li Yan to ashes in one fell swoop.
And the moment Li Yan saw the "Melting Stone Crimson Flame," his heart skipped a beat. Because, these years, because the Gui-Yi Water-Parting Spike needed to be nurtured.
So besides cultivating other techniques, in order to increase his strength as soon as possible, he had come up with other ideas. The best idea was to have a large number of heavenly material and earthly treasure pills to consume.
Of course, Li Yan couldn't find such pills in a short time. And pills that could greatly increase the strength of a Nascent Soul cultivator, Li Yan's assets couldn't afford.
So he thought of the many magical treasures on his body. He had killed many enemies over the years, but he had tested all their magical treasures, and there weren't many that he found to be of impressive power.
Especially now after forming his Nascent Soul, the magical treasures he had obtained during the Golden Core stage felt more and more inadequate. On the contrary, some things he had obtained during the Foundation Establishment stage had always puzzled him.
Besides the Heaven-Stealing Kerchief and the broken pottery jar, there was also the mysterious Blood River that could melt the silver pages. The red cloud formed above the Blood River could form a powerful flame attack.
Back then, it had been refined by Li Yan into the Li Fire Profound Yellow Fan. This magical treasure had indeed helped Li Yan repel strong enemies several times during the Foundation Establishment stage.
But when he reached the Golden Core stage, the power of those flames could no longer cause much damage to Golden Core cultivators. The main reason was that the amount of red cloud was small. Against Golden Core cultivators who were countless times stronger than Foundation Establishment cultivators, the power was obviously not enough.