Chapter 1592: The Same Kind of Person

“We will proceed according to this plan. We must completely annihilate the Broken Army Sect in this battle! After obtaining the two Great Nothingness Fruits, Elder Wei and I have discussed it. In the end, only one will be left for the sect. The other one will be given to one of the esteemed elders based on their performance in this rank-promotion battle. Of course, all of this must be convincing to others. This also includes Elder Yu from the first trial. If the final evaluation of everyone’s performance is not as good as Elder Yu’s in the first trial, then even if we win this battle, the other Great Nothingness Fruit might be rewarded to the elder. On this point, the sect will definitely be fair and will not let those who have contributed feel disheartened. As for the supreme-grade Spirit Stones, the sect will also only take half. The rest will be rewarded to everyone based on their contribution. I hope all the elders will give their all in this battle.”

Han Zhumei looked at the several marks already made on the map and spoke to the other three Spirit Transformation Supreme Elders.

She had said the same thing to the other Nascent Soul elders and Golden Core disciples before, but the rewards promised to them were naturally other treasures.

“Elder Han, we have no problem on our side, but for you to go out alone, I don’t think it’s very meaningful. The other party will definitely hole up in one place, or be scattered and guarding several places. They will definitely have Spirit Transformation cultivators leading people to guard the grand formation. Even if you find the other party, you may not be able to sneak in without being discovered. This is not to say that I don’t believe in Elder Han’s strength. But the Broken Army Sect has also been preparing meticulously for this battle for many years. Any grand formation they can produce now, I think, must have been exchanged for with a massive amount of resources. It could even be of some use against Void Refining cultivators.”

The middle-aged beautiful woman hesitated for a moment before chiming in.

After Han Zhumei had arranged everything for them, she wanted to go out alone to see if she could find a loophole in the other party’s defenses and then assassinate their Spirit Transformation realm cultivators.

If she succeeded, the remaining members of the Broken Army Sect would be no cause for concern.

On the Bright Flame Sect’s side, just as Mu Guyue and the others had guessed, they would not defend.

Whether it was the Spirit Transformation, Nascent Soul, or Golden Core realm cultivators, they all felt that with their advantage, they should naturally focus on attacking.

Otherwise, if they also adopted a defensive stance, the Broken Army Sect would most likely do the same. Then after five days, it would be a draw.

How could the Bright Flame Sect be willing to accept that? However, they also knew that once they adopted an offensive stance, they would be putting themselves at a disadvantage from the beginning. Attacking was naturally not as good as defending.

However, they had also discussed certain countermeasures for this.

“By acting alone, I can bring my advantages into play. Moreover, you will be in the open, and I will be in the dark. This one-open, one-dark approach is actually better! As soon as you launch an attack, no matter how the other party defends, as long as they make a move, there will be loopholes, and I may have an opportunity to exploit. Another point, all elders must remember, once you discover the other party’s location, the three of you elders should not try to launch an attack alone. Instead, you must immediately send a message to the other two. Only after the three of you have gathered can you launch an attack together. The fog here is too disruptive. If one elder leads a team to advance rashly and gets into danger, there will be no reinforcements for a short period of time.”

Han Zhumei’s voice was like a yellow oriole as she once again admonished the three.

Since there were only five days, and with the interference of the dense fog, searching also required a certain amount of time. If you added the time for the other party’s defense or escape, five days might not be enough.

Therefore, what they had marked on the map earlier was the deployment of the search method and plan.

They would split up and search horizontally, which could accelerate the determination of the enemy’s hiding place, but undoubtedly, their own forces would also be dispersed.

Therefore, after they split into three teams, they were actually about one hundred and fifty li apart from each other. This way, they were both within a safe range of divine sense and could ensure that they could spread out their search along the line.

And once they encountered the enemy, the three teams could also quickly gather together in the shortest possible time.

The method adopted by their three teams was to spread out horizontally and search in a circle from the outermost periphery, shrinking the circle layer by layer.

This search speed, under the leadership of a Spirit Transformation cultivator, would probably take no more than three hours to search through once.

If they did not find a trace of the enemy, they would search again from the center outwards, in the opposite direction, until they reached the maximum extent.

After two such sweeps, if they still hadn’t found the other party, then they would have to consider whether the Broken Army Sect had come to find them. They would then return to their own area and search in the same way.

In fact, using this method was very consuming of both mind and magical power, but Han Zhumei had no choice. Who told them they didn’t have enough people?

The Bright Flame Sect had complaints and dissatisfaction with the assessment rules set by the Pure Yang Hall for the final pass.

But they did not dare to say it out loud. In their view, this situation was clearly somewhat partial to the Broken Army Sect.

The Bright Flame Sect clearly had a huge advantage and of course believed that the final victory would be theirs, and all the benefits would naturally be theirs.

But in this way, the Bright Flame Sect could not exert its advantage.

On the other hand, the Broken Army Sect, as long as they held onto the idea of a draw and blindly adopted a hiding strategy, the Bright Flame Sect might have all the strength in the world but no way to use it.

And the chances of a final draw were very high. After all, if a Spirit Transformation cultivator wanted to hide, they really might not be able to find the other party within five days.

But the Pure Yang Hall nowadays was paying more and more attention to the cultivation of agility. Having great martial strength was useless if it couldn’t be brought to bear.

In fact, although the assessment for the second pass this time was not Chongyangzi’s idea, and it was impossible for him to influence the promotion and evaluation rules of a third-level sect, he still put forward his own suggestions. This really had nothing to do with taking care of Li Yan and the others!

Instead, Chongyangzi thought of the scene where he was ambushed by the Heavenly Mountain Garden back then. At that time, he had a whole body of cultivation, but what could he do?

Therefore, while having strength, it was best for a subordinate sect to also possess keen observation skills and strong adaptability. This was what the Pure Yang Hall needed.

Under this situation, if the Bright Flame Sect wanted to achieve its goal, it couldn’t just think of overpowering people like a brute.

Therefore, Han Zhumei would also go out alone to bring out the speed of her wind-attribute cultivator. She had two purposes.

One was to find the other party’s hiding place as soon as possible, and the second was to kill the other party’s Spirit Transformation cultivators. This was the Bright Flame Sect’s trump card.

And in this way, without Han Zhumei knowing it, her thoughts had invisibly aligned with Li Yan’s.

After Han Zhumei finished giving her orders, everyone was unwilling to wait any longer. They immediately followed the plan, each leading their people into the dense fog and heading towards their predetermined targets…

After Li Yan entered the dense fog, he was like a fish in the sea, moving forward quickly without any hindrance.

He did not take a detour to avoid anything, but followed a straight line, directly sneaking towards the opposite area.

When they had entered the Mountain River Diagram earlier, they had also observed all of the other party’s places. Of course, they had also mapped out some important locations in their own minds.

They imagined that if the other party wanted to defend, or temporarily settle down, or come forward to search for the Broken Army Sect, where would they likely appear?

So Li Yan also had a predetermined target area in his mind. Of course, he felt it was more likely that he would encounter the other party on the way.

The Bright Flame Sect would definitely adopt an offensive strategy, so they would want to find the Broken Army Sect as soon as possible.

But even Mu Guyue had not expected that the Bright Flame Sect would search in a circular pattern, from the outside in, layer by layer. This was because the Bright Flame Sect felt that the Broken Army Sect would only cower and probably wouldn’t even dare to think of an ambush.

This caused Li Yan to miss the other party as he advanced, as he was heading straight for the core area of the other party’s region.

On his way, Li Yan, with the cover of the dense fog, was able to sneak even faster. In almost a very short period of time, he was already approaching the central area between the two sides.

But he had not found any trace of the enemy along the way. He was also prepared for this.

His side had sneaked over shortly after the dense fog rose, and his speed was not slow. Even if the enemy was also coming head-on, their speed should not be faster than his.

This was a dense forest, now filled with heavy fog. Li Yan, relying on his vision alone, could only see a range of about three feet.

On this point, he was not much different from a Golden Core cultivator, unless he had cultivated a divine ability similar to the Buddhist Dharma Eye.

In the dense forest, the huge plantain leaves had condensed many water droplets. Under the cover of the dense fog, they were converging along the leaf stems and dripping down.

And from the dense branches and leaves above, water droplets were also constantly falling, like a light rain in the fog.

The water droplets fell on the ground and the thick layer of leaves covering the ground, constantly making some pattering sounds.

And in the dense forest, although there were no demonic beasts, this was a space. It was unknown whether it was deliberately brought in from the outside world or nurtured by the spatial rules of this place, but many wild beasts had already appeared.

These wild beasts were everywhere in the forest. Many poisonous snakes that looked like vines seemed motionless, but when a bird or a small wild beast passed by, they would suddenly launch a fatal attack!

Li Yan’s figure turned into a wisp of mist and had long since merged with the surrounding dense fog. The places he passed, even the thick layer of accumulated leaves on the ground, would not be deformed in the slightest.

The water-filled pits formed on the accumulated leaves on the ground also would not show any traces.

Li Yan looked at the arm-thick tree branch with dark brown cracks that brushed past his cheek. He could even sense the blood flowing quietly under this “tree branch.”

It was a giant python, quietly waiting for its prey to arrive. But it had no idea that a person had just quietly walked past it.

It only sensed the surging of the surrounding mist, brushing past its body…

Li Yan’s feet gently stepped over the head of a gray rabbit hiding in the grass. The other party was also completely unaware.

It was still turning its pair of red eyes, occasionally poking its head out of the grass quickly, then vigilantly scanning its surroundings, and then quickly lowering its body again…

Li Yan felt everything around him. He had a very familiar feeling about this environment.

This feeling, in his vast memory, was so distant, yet it was as if it had just happened yesterday…

It was just that at that time, all around him, there would be Uncle Guoxin and a group of villagers. They would shuttle through the forest, holding their spears or hunting knives, and would be even more careful…

At that time, Li Yan would deliberately lighten his footsteps and at the same time, pay attention to where he stepped to avoid stepping on dry branches and fallen leaves and making a sound.

At every moment, he still had to be vigilant and pay attention to the well-camouflaged wild beasts that might be overlooked in the surroundings…

Li Yan’s mind at this moment recalled his youth in the Great Green Mountains, his naivety and ignorance at that time. At the same time, his divine sense continued to probe the surroundings.

And at a certain moment, the wisp of mist he had transformed into suddenly seemed to be stirred by the wind and blew to one side.

Li Yan, who was performing the “Stealthy Night Art,” was startled for no reason. In that instant just now, he seemed to have sensed something.

But when he felt something was wrong, everything in his divine sense was as usual. He did not sense any spatial fluctuations or any strange aura.

But in that instant, Li Yan had noticed that something was wrong. At this moment, everything around him was still constantly changing.

This change was not just the surging of the mist in his vision, the gentle swaying of the trees, but also a kind of psychological balance that seemed to have been suddenly broken.

This feeling was like when he was quietly hunting in the Great Green Mountains back then, and a strange demonic beast suddenly broke in quietly.

This was not the divine sense perception of a cultivator, but an instinctive perception of the changes in the world as a former hunter.

Li Yan immediately stabilized his figure and became extremely vigilant. He began to carefully search the vicinity!

He did not rush to find the other party. Instead, he accelerated the circulation of the “Stealthy Night Art” to better hide himself.

He knew that doing so would instead cause a brief unstable fluctuation in his body. Although it would be very subtle, it would still be there!

Previously, Li Yan had not circulated the cultivation method to its limit, because he did not think that even so, there would be anyone here who could discover his existence.

And when he felt the very familiar environment here, he thought of the Great Green Mountains. For a moment, his mind had a sense of relaxation, and he just walked casually.

But it was that freedom of mind, becoming one with heaven and earth, that suddenly gave him a strange feeling of his soaring mind being broken.

After feeling that something was wrong, Li Yan immediately looked around slowly…

At this moment, Han Zhumei was standing on a tree branch that was only as thick as a little finger. Her figure was transparent, and the surrounding surging mist seemed to be able to pass directly through the middle of her body.

Even the surrounding branches and leaves passed through her body, still intertwined in a crisscross pattern without any change.