Chapter 1582: A Strange Development
Master Wei had now become even more cautious, slowly starting to fly forward.
At the same time, his divine sense continued to spread out, and he soon flew to the nine-hundred-and-ten-zhang mark. However, when he got there, no demonic beasts or cultivators appeared.
Then came nine hundred and twenty zhang, still no attack…
At nine hundred and thirty zhang, a terrifying fluctuation suddenly arose. Right in front of Master Wei, a desolate rhino completely covered in fire appeared.
‘It’s not the four Spirit Transformation cultivators attacking. It’s still a demonic beast appearing every thirty zhang. If you add the great demon guarding the final pass, that’s exactly four demonic beasts. But as long as they don’t all come out at once, there’s hope of breaking through!’
At this moment, Master Wei confirmed the final situation he would face.
With this thought, his figure instantly accelerated, turning into an afterimage as he dashed towards the final few dozen zhang.
At this time, the crowd outside was surprised to see Master Wei suddenly increase his speed in the sea of fire. This was Master Wei beginning to disregard everything and unleash his full power.
But after he unleashed his strength, he did not fight with the demonic beast that appeared. Instead, he tried his best to shake off its entanglement and rushed towards the thousand-zhang mark.
‘Is he trying to fight the final great demon at the fastest speed?’
Such a thought immediately appeared in many people’s minds.
But how could it be so simple to shake off the demonic beasts in the sea of fire? The price Master Wei had to pay was also great. He could not resolve the attacks of the demonic beasts chasing him; he could only endure them head-on.
Moreover, as he flew up quickly, passing through patches of the fiery sea, several late-stage Spirit Transformation demonic beasts were already trailing behind him.
Fortunately, with his careful preparation, he managed to pull some distance while dodging. If he couldn’t kill the great demon at the thousand-zhang checkpoint in the shortest possible time, he would definitely be surrounded by the pursuing demonic beasts. Adding the great demon at the checkpoint, he would probably only have one last option: crushing the Evasion Talisman.
Master Wei planned to use the Exotic Fire again at the last moment, letting it erupt completely once. Then, he would launch his strongest attack, allowing him to kill the great demon before being surrounded.
The reason he had this confidence was that he still had a secret art he had not used, and the remaining power of the Exotic Fire could still hold the great demon for less than half a breath.
However, this amount of time should be enough for him.
There was another key reason here. If he were to kill a demonic beast of the same rank in the outside world, it would be almost impossible.
But the demonic beasts here seemed to be condensed from souls or manifested illusions; they did not have Nascent Souls inside them.
Therefore, as long as their bodies were destroyed, they were considered slain, without having to worry about their Nascent Souls continuing to attack. This was the biggest difference from dueling in the outside world.
To achieve all this, he had less than half a breath of time, and after performing this art, he would have little combat power left.
But as long as he could pass the trial, that was enough. The other matters could be handled by Han Zhumei and the others.
Similarly, given the current state of his Exotic Fire of Heaven and Earth, to hold back a late-stage Spirit Transformation demonic beast, even for just a moment, that single release would likely cause it to be almost completely annihilated.
He would need to nurture it for a thousand years or even longer to recover, but for all this, Master Wei felt it was worth it…
The moment Li Yan summoned the Fuxi Plate, his entire body was still shrouded in a dense, dark glow. He had not converted his own magical power into the fire attribute.
A cultivator who possessed both water and fire spirit roots, apart from those with Miscellaneous Spirit Roots, was an extremely rare existence. Although such cultivators existed, Li Yan did not want to attract the attention of others.
This was the Immortal Spirit Realm. A Miscellaneous Spirit Root cultivator who not only successfully established his foundation but also broke through all the way to the Spirit Transformation Realm.
If things went wrong, people would associate him with the Five Immortal Sects. But if he was just using a fire-attribute magical treasure, then there would be no problem.
As soon as the Fuxi Plate appeared, Li Yan directly placed it above his head. As his magical power poured in, the Fuxi Plate immediately began to rotate.
Then, under Li Yan’s control, the Taiji Yin-Yang Fish on it instantly turned into the power of Solitary Yang, and the Blood River within it erupted in an instant.
An intense power of utmost Yang immediately emanated from the Fuxi Plate. And as the Fuxi Plate rotated, the surrounding sea of fire instantly became turbulent.
The heads within the sea of fire were like small boats in a raging tide. One by one, huge waves of fire swept them up and surged towards Li Yan.
But wherever they got close to the Fuxi Plate, the flames would immediately splash away in all directions, as if they were being sent flying by the spinning wheel around the Fuxi Plate.
The heads in the sea of fire could only attack by borrowing the power of the fire sea. Under such circumstances, how could they even get close to Li Yan’s body?
In an instant, they were swept into the distance along with large swathes of the fiery sea!
Even the blood-red head at the two-hundred-zhang checkpoint was sent flying along with the sea of fire it was in after a roar of anger. It didn’t even have time to get close to Li Yan before it disintegrated.
This effect startled even Li Yan himself. He had not expected the Blood River he controlled to be so domineering.
Moreover, the Blood River did not devour the flames within the Blood Pagoda Lamp at all, as if it were a lofty monarch who looked down on these flames.
And the flames here, upon sensing the aura of the Blood River, seemed to gain sentience. They led the heads, which were roaring unwillingly, to retreat and make way.
When Li Yan dealt with Qi Jinghong back then, a similar situation of flame suppression had occurred. This was almost identical to Shangguan Tianque’s previous attempt to pass the trial; both diverted the sea of fire away from themselves.
But Li Yan didn’t need to consider too much. He just had to control the Fuxi Plate to turn into the power of Solitary Yang, which was to control the Blood River within it, allowing the Yang qi to rise alone according to the law of Yin and Yang of heaven and earth.
Li Yan found that at this moment, by controlling the rotation of the Fuxi Plate above his head, he had cleared a space for himself below. He just needed to keep ascending, and the surrounding sea of fire couldn’t get close at all.
While shocked, he quickly controlled the rotation speed of the Fuxi Plate. He didn’t want to cause too much of a commotion, as that would be counterproductive.
He made it so that the surrounding sea of fire, after being struck out by the Fuxi Plate, was only about three feet away from his body. This way, from the outside, it would still look like he was surrounded by a sea of fire.
The flickering flames would also make his figure appear and disappear within them.
In reality, the heads in the sea of fire were hit by the fire waves and sent into the distance before they could even attack him. Then, the empty space would be filled by other flames.
Under this scenario, outsiders would only see Li Yan, like Shangguan Tianque, constantly diverting the sea of fire to avoid the attacking heads.
It was just that Shangguan Tianque used a fire control art, while Li Yan used a magical treasure. However, both of them had to continuously consume magical power.
In this regard, even Wu Gouzi felt that Li Yan would eventually accumulate Pill Poison rapidly from constantly taking medicinal pills, making it difficult for his magical power to last.
Inside the lamp’s cover, Li Yan flew upwards at a speed that was neither fast nor slow, with the rotating Fuxi Plate above his head.
And under his control, it was very easy for him to fly to the three-hundred-zhang checkpoint…
Just as Li Yan summoned the Fuxi Plate, what he didn’t know was that although he controlled the rotation speed of the Fuxi Plate, the sea of fire inside the Blood Pagoda Lamp had already changed.
At the base of the Blood Pagoda Lamp, four Spirit Transformation cultivators were sitting cross-legged, continuously driving the Blood Pagoda Lamp.
Although the Pure Yang Hall had handed over the content and rules of the assessment to the Blood Lantern Sect to formulate, there certainly had to be someone to supervise.
The Blood Lantern Sect brought out the Blood Pagoda Lamp. Afterwards, either Wu Gouzi himself or his disciples would control this magical treasure, and there had to be cultivators from the Pure Yang Hall monitoring at all times to ensure that the other party did not exceed the rules.
Or, the Pure Yang Hall would send cultivators to control this magical treasure.
In the end, to show his fairness, Wu Gouzi also took out a set of techniques for the four cultivators from the Pure Yang Hall to control.
The set of techniques he took out was definitely not the true technique for the Blood Pagoda Lamp, but just a modified, generic Treasure Control Manual.
Therefore, it was impossible to unleash the true power of the Blood Pagoda Lamp, and that terrifying lamp light thus did not appear.
This set of techniques had also been tested in advance by the Pure Yang Hall and was judged to be in compliance with the assessment rules.
As the four cultivators from the Pure Yang Hall were driving the magical treasure, a middle-aged woman suddenly frowned first, then she spoke.
“Something’s not right. The demonic beasts in the southern sea of fire seem to have been disturbed and have become restless. They’ve started to surge towards the east and west sides. What… what is going on?”
The middle-aged woman looked at the cultivators sitting on her left and right with a suspicious expression. She had felt something was wrong just now.
But after probing with her divine sense, she found that the cultivator who was currently breaking through the trial was also using the same method of parting the sea of fire as before.
It was just that the other party was not using an art, but had summoned a magical treasure. The power displayed by this magical treasure was not earth-shattering; it could barely part the sea of fire around him.
The few of them were not Wu Gouzi; they had never refined this magical treasure.
Although they could drive this magical treasure, they could not sense the internal changes like the owner of the magical treasure could, and could only discover that something was different.
Especially as Li Yan broke through the trial and ascended, although he stirred up the sea of fire, once the flames were far from his body, the turbulence would quickly weaken.
Although this middle-aged woman noticed the difference, no matter how she looked at it, it seemed to be a necessary phenomenon brought about by the other party’s attempt to pass the trial.
“There really is this problem. The demonic beasts in the sea of fire in my direction have also become restless!”
The cultivator sitting to the left of the middle-aged woman also chimed in at the same time.
“It’s the same on my side. The sea of fire here feels like there are undercurrents surging!”
The cultivator on the right said the same. And just at this moment, the cultivator opposite the middle-aged woman also suddenly opened his eyes.