Chapter 1747: Calculated Demise

Taking advantage of the soul-tearing pain as it slowly ebbed, the middle-aged cultivator tried to communicate with the array. Even if he couldn’t kill his opponent, he could at least buy time to escape. But Shi Ying was faster, refusing to waste words and attacking once more.

Earlier, the agony had prevented him from thinking clearly, making him believe his subordinate had betrayed him. But as his spirit recovered slightly, his thoughts became much sharper. He realized that the man before him was not the real Shi Ying; the man was using artifacts he had never seen Shi Ying use. Furthermore, Shi Ying couldn’t possibly possess such a rich abundance of Water-element magical power. But it was too late.

The Nascent Soul on the ground moved, the space around it blurring. Simultaneously, a vortex appeared in the grand array above them. Within that vortex, a faint rope appeared, its end looping into a noose—the very same noose that had hanged Yang Zun and the others…

“No!”

With two soft thuds and a final scream, the blurring body of the Nascent Soul stiffened and solidified once more. The vortex above vanished instantly, right as the noose had emerged by a foot to slip over Shi Ying’s head. The array above turned transparent again, making the dark clouds and light rain visible once more.

Two more bloody holes had appeared in the center of the Nascent Soul’s forehead and throat. A massive amount of spiritual energy began to dissipate rapidly. Within seconds, the Nascent Soul turned completely black, its life force vanishing…

Shi Ying scanned the surroundings. His tense expression finally relaxed. He lifted his hand, and streaks of light flew to him from several directions—the storage artifacts of the three deceased.

He quickly inspected them. They were all dead, so even the mental seals left by the late-stage Void Refining expert couldn’t withstand Li Yan’s Divine Sense attacks once the source was cut off.

Li Yan finished his check of the loot. Aside from the four familiar storage rings he couldn’t break, he successfully opened the rest. Expressionless, he stowed everything away. His Divine Sense swept over the bodies several more times to ensure nothing of value remained.

With another wave of his hand, four balls of fire shot out. In just a few breaths, the three corpses and the Nascent Soul vanished from the world forever!

Shi Ying stood in place, contemplating for a moment before a gray pill appeared in his hand…

A moment later, Shi Ying’s body blurred. When his figure solidified again, Li Yan—dressed in black—appeared within the array. From beginning to end, he had never approached the middle-aged cultivator closely. Even when the Nascent Soul was heavily injured, Li Yan had no intention of performing a Soul Search.

Seeing that he was the only one left in the array, Li Yan walked toward the spot where the leader had been sitting. That was likely the eye of the array. He sat down cross-legged…

Last night, while trapped in that maze array, Li Yan knew the odds were against him. An array he couldn’t solve, combined with numerous enemies—the thought had made his scalp go numb. No matter how well Li Yan could fight above his rank, he wasn’t reckless in such a situation. Usually, if he couldn’t win, he at least had the certainty of being able to escape.

Outside, the night was black and the rain was heavy. Li Yan’s clothes were soaked with sweat as he desperately considered a way out. It was only when Shi Ying appeared to kill him that he thought of a plan to escape. Since he couldn’t win by force, he would try the “Golden Cicada Shedding its Skin” maneuver.

Li Yan believed that by using his Soul Arts, a late-stage Spirit Transformation cultivator wouldn’t be able to withstand a single blow. But he still needed time to use the Truth-Chaos Pill to transform into the man. He didn’t dare to use magical power to change his appearance before a Void Refining expert.

Thus, he needed an absolute space, and he deployed his thirty-third new poison—Pitch-Black Night. Since its creation, Li Yan had never used it against an enemy. He spread the poison to cover an area, and the moment the middle-aged cultivator and the others sent their Divine Sense in, they were enveloped by the toxic mist. Their senses couldn’t penetrate it. And in the moment Pitch-Black Night formed, Li Yan went all out.

The poor Shi Ying not only suffered soul trauma but his techniques became useless due to the chaotic spiritual energy. He fell unconscious instantly and was taken into the Earthen Patch…

When the middle-aged cultivator and the others flew down, Li Yan left only a small amount of the Pitch-Black Night poison while donning Shi Ying’s belongings. The leader didn’t detect any sign of an illusion on Li Yan, and Li Yan had already anticipated the questions he would be asked.

A sliver of Li Yan’s Divine Sense manifested a body within the Earthen Patch to Soul Search the real Shi Ying at maximum speed, focusing directly on the man’s final memories. He was stunned to find out that Ming Qi had actually escaped, breaking through the grand array.

This shocked Li Yan. Ming Qi had hidden herself even deeper than he had; she had broken through an array that he couldn’t. Shi Ying’s memories were filled with shock and confusion; she had moved so fast that even the master of the array hadn’t reacted in time to stop her. Li Yan realized then that the reason he hadn’t seen Ming Qi was because she had long since left the array.

When the middle-aged cultivator dismantled the array, Li Yan hadn’t yet thought of how to get rid of the three. His original intent was simply to escape, just as Ming Qi had done. But the leader’s decision to head toward Xianhe Manor to intercept Ming Qi meant Li Yan would be under strict supervision for the immediate future. He had to change his plan!

If the leader had intended to return and report immediately, the trouble would have been even greater. He would have had to find a way to break away on the road. In that scenario, the leader would have quickly deduced something was wrong and hunted him down. However, as long as he wasn’t trapped in an array, Li Yan felt his chances of escaping were much higher.

On the way to Xianhe Manor, Li Yan became interested in the Ming sisters. He thought back to their brief interactions. After sorting through the details, he discovered a point that had previously made him suspicious but that he had overlooked—a discovery that made him think his previous guesses were wrong…

Along the way, Li Yan looked for an opportunity to strike the three. He was close to them, so he kept looking for a chance to use his Fragmented Poison Body. In that environment, poison was undoubtedly the best way to kill someone covertly. But after much consideration, he waited for a more suitable moment.

During their journey, the middle-aged man and the other two were on full alert, scanning the surroundings constantly. Since Li Yan had decided to act, he had to consider the consequences of a Void Refining expert’s eruption. He waited until they went into hiding to wait for Ming Qi.

At that moment, the three Spirit Transformation assassins were ordered to wait for commands, so they completely retracted their Divine Senses. The leader’s attention was focused on the outside. This opportunity was a match made in heaven. Li Yan’s research into the Fragmented Poison Body was masterful. During his years in Huangqi Valley, he had advanced even further, and this time he pushed his poisoning methods to their absolute limit.

He didn’t dare be careless. He had to kill the leader in one blow, yet the result still surprised him. The two Spirit Transformation cultivators were no challenge at all; no one was on guard against him, and the three sat almost side-by-side. Li Yan poisoned them with ease. The two didn’t feel a thing, though Li Yan left the female assassin with a single breath of life, albeit in a dazed state.

Right then, Li Yan began his first wave of probing. He needed to confirm if the leader had been poisoned to death. With a simple thought, a Heart-Shifting Gu the size of a flea appeared in the grass. The Gu slowly crawled toward the female assassin, climbing up her leg. The middle-aged cultivator remained motionless…

At that point, Li Yan was almost certain the man was dead. Yet, the final result nearly cost him. He had used the most toxins on the leader—a mixture of various poisons he believed were most likely to kill. But the man wasn’t dead. The moment the female assassin moved to kill him, he unexpectedly struck!

Fortunately, Li Yan’s poison was the most exotic in the world. Even if it didn’t kill him instantly, it severely weakened him… Li Yan’s subsequent attack was also full-force. A cultivator of this level could turn the tables in an instant if they had a trump card left. Thus, after everything was over, Li Yan found himself trapped in this array!

However, Li Yan wasn’t worried now. This array was likely the same one from yesterday—a guess he had initially made. When that familiar noose appeared, he was certain. This time, to ensure the best concealment, the leader had only deployed four array flags. Li Yan knew where the boundary was, and he remembered the man had retrieved dozens of flags yesterday. This meant the concealment was better, but the strength was significantly weakened.

Li Yan was very interested in this array; it was truly powerful. Once fully deployed, even the boundary was impossible to find. Of course, that was unless one encountered someone like Ming Qi, who likely possessed a unique treasure. Li Yan didn’t use the Sky-Stealing Scarf immediately. He wanted to try breaking the array himself; this was a rare opportunity.

He had scanned the leader’s belongings but couldn’t be sure if there was a manual for the array. He suspected there wasn’t; such a powerful array was precious even to a Void Refining expert. If Li Yan held such a thing, he wouldn’t carry a manual; he would keep it in his memory. But since Li Yan knew the location of the eye and the array was currently unguided, he could simply keep attacking it. This made breaking it relatively simple while allowing him to gather more information through the changes in the eye.

Furthermore, Li Yan was very fond of another of the leader’s artifacts: the Crimson-Shadow Blade. That artifact could fly at a speed that left Li Yan in awe while remaining concealed. Even in its hidden state, it was faster than Li Yan’s full flight speed—currently one of his weaknesses. He had set his sights on it before he even acted. He also noticed the artifact was likely offensive in nature. Such a dual-purpose artifact, similar to a flying sword, was exactly what he needed!

An hour later, someone was quietly and steadily approaching Li Yan…