Chapter 95: Li Yan Beneath the Moonlight

    Li Yan was greatly shocked. Staring at the countless golden spears that filled the sky, shooting toward him like a storm, he knew that his protective spiritual light would last no more than three breaths. After that, it would be pierced through, and he would end up looking like a hedgehog.

    "It seems I have no choice but to gamble everything one last time!"

    Thoughts raced through Li Yan''s mind.

    At that moment, Du Sanjiang’s voice suddenly echoed beside his ears.

    "Junior Brother Li, admit defeat. Otherwise, I may not be able to control the formation’s power."

    Li Yan’s pale face was drenched in sweat. He pressed his lips tightly together but said nothing. Du Sanjiang frowned, thinking to himself:

    "This Junior Brother Li really doesn’t know what’s good for him. If that’s the case, I’ll just have to do my best to control things at the critical moment. But if he ends up seriously injured or crippled, I may not be able to stop it."

    "My protective spiritual light should hold for three breaths... I can’t risk it all. I’ll bet on one breath. If I survive the first, I’ll admit defeat."

    Staring at the golden spears drawing ever closer, Li Yan surged all his internal spiritual power, causing the protective aura around his body to blaze brilliantly.

    At this time, outside the fighting area, Li Wuyi was already hovering in mid-air. Spiritual radiance flickered across his body, unstable. He couldn’t be sure if he could reach Li Yan in time, but since Li Yan refused to admit defeat, he could only stay on high alert.

    Following Du Sanjiang’s voice transmission, the golden spears were now only seventy zhang away from Li Yan, then fifty, thirty, ten...

    As the golden spears neared his body, all the spectators beneath the stage, as well as Du Sanjiang and Li Wuyi on the platform, held their breath. Li Yan was sweating profusely, madly drawing out every bit of his spiritual power to hold his defense.

    Just then, a sudden, dramatic change occurred on the battlefield.

    Du Sanjiang, who was controlling the formation, suddenly felt his heart jolt. His hand seals faltered slightly, and in the next moment, he felt a beam of white light slam onto the protective formation around his body.

    A force no weaker than a cultivator at the peak of the Qi Condensation stage smashed into it. Though his defensive array was formidable, everything depended on comparison. If it were at full strength, it could block a full-force strike from someone of the same stage.

    However, he had maintained the array for over half an hour, and with the spiritual power consumed by controlling its attacks, over seventy percent of his energy had already been spent. The enemy was within his formation, and he hadn’t expected an external threat thus, he hadn’t kept up his guard.

    The protective array was like a sheet of paper, instantly torn apart. That overwhelming force then struck his body directly...

    From the outside, all the spectators saw a fierce white light explode from Du Sanjiang''s body. In an instant, he became a towering pillar of white light so intense that even cultivators in the Qi Condensation realm couldn’t look directly at it, they all closed their eyes.

    Even Li Wuyi involuntarily blinked, as a powerful pressure surged up from Du Sanjiang’s position.

    BOOM!

    Almost simultaneously with the light’s eruption, a deafening explosion rang out from Du Sanjiang’s body.

    He felt a massive force crash into him. He didn’t even have time to release his protective spiritual light before being sent flying over ten zhang away.

    Fortunately, although the protective array was torn apart, it absorbed the majority of the force. Even so, Du Sanjiang lay on the ground, his head spinning, vision filled with white. He tried several times to stand, but failed each time.

    Inside the formation, Li Yan stared wide-eyed at the countless golden spears frozen just three zhang away from him. He had been ready to defend with all his strength and then concede defeat.

    Suddenly, the dense spears halted mid-air, then disintegrated into a sky of scattered golden light. He froze in surprise then burst into joy.

    "It worked!"

    But in the next moment, his expression changed dramatically, and he shouted:

    "Quick! Take Senior Brother Du to the Sect Master, hurry, hurry!"

    He didn’t know if his senior brother could hear him. In panic, he pointed wildly outside the formation while shouting. But trapped inside the array, he couldn’t see outside and had no idea where Du Sanjiang was, he could only wave his hands desperately.

    Just then, as Du Sanjiang’s consciousness began to return, he suddenly felt a chill wash over him. A sharp pain stabbed into his head, and then his body turned even colder... until he lost all sensation.

    Two streams of black blood slowly flowed from his nostrils. Yet in his dazed state, he vaguely felt as if he were floating in the air...

    Li Wuyi had, of course, had seen everything happen inside the formation. Shocked, he wasted no time. When he swept Du Sanjiang up, he noticed black blood already seeping from his nose. Clearly, he’d been poisoned.

    He pressed one hand to Du Sanjiang’s left chest, continuously channeling spiritual power to protect his heart meridians. In the blink of an eye, they both vanished from the arena.

    By now, the spectators below were in uproar. Everyone who had been watching the match looked stunned and confused. No one knew what had just happened. Where had that last beam of white light come from? How had Du Sanjiang been poisoned? Was it some kind of soul poison?

    In the lofty pavilion in the sky, Yan Longzi and the other elders sighed in relief. Standing nearby, Li Wuyi finally lowered his heart from his throat. Though Du Sanjiang had not yet awakened, his life was no longer in danger.

    Du Sanjiang was the disciple of a Core Formation elder. If something had happened to him, even if Li Yan had not done it intentionally and had acted swiftly to help, death was still death.

    Surely that Core Formation elder from Four Symbols Peak would hold a grudge against Li Yan. Even if he gave face to Wei Chongran, it would be superficial at best. If Li Yan ever went out alone in the future, who knew what might happen?

    "This poison is truly vicious. Thankfully, Martial Nephew Wuyi protected his heart meridian in time. A few breaths later, even if his life was saved, the damage would’ve left a permanent injury. It might’ve even fatally impacted his future cultivation."

    "Although he’s fine now, he’ll still need at least a day to recover. He might still make it for tomorrow night’s match, which will be the final round. He’s already won twice, he only needs one more win. But this poison…"

    Yan Longzi paused, deep in thought. The poison in Du Sanjiang’s body was indeed fierce, but for cultivators at their level, it wasn’t impossible to purge.

    "Li Yan has never used this poison before. It wasn’t triggered by divine sense, it activated on its own."

    One elder spoke gravely.

    "A timed trigger," another elder said succinctly.

    These old monsters truly lived up to their reputation as masters of poison, almost instantly they deduced the triggering method behind this poison.

    This poison was a combination of the two most peculiar among the Twelve Fractured Poisons. Their toxicity was exceedingly fierce, and each of the two could activate on its own, one at midday and the other at midnight.

    They relied respectively on the blazing yang energy of the midday sun and the soft yin energy of the midnight moonlight, times when the opposing forces of yin and yang reached their peak. However, this activation was also dependent on the weather; on cloudy days, the poisons couldn''t be triggered.

    These two particular poisons were also the most potent among the Twelve Fractured Poisons, and he had never dared to use them until today. In the face of repeated counterattacks, Du Sanjiang had forcibly resisted most of them without care.

    Having exhausted all his means and left with no other choice, he thought of utilizing one of the two poisons "Lovesick Under the Bright Moon", which would autonomously erupt with the moonlight''s most concentrated yin force, potentially catching the enemy off guard.

    Tonight’s moonlight happened to be unusually bright, making it a perfect opportunity.

    Yet, it was still some time before midnight. During the earlier exchanges, he had already affixed the "Lovesick Under the Bright Moon" poison to the outer surface of the formation surrounding Du Sanjiang. The rest of his task was to grit his teeth and endure until midnight.

    Fortunately, in the final moments, he endured long enough. The poison drew on the moon’s peak yin power and erupted of its own accord, breaking through the formation and at the same time, poisoning Du Sanjiang.

    The spectators below, even Li Wuyi who was on-site, hadn’t noticed how the attack was carried out. But being the closest, Li Wuyi had sensed a power within that space, something that didn’t originate from Li Yan.

    The Core Formation cultivators in the sky pavilion, however, caught a faint glimmer of light descending from the enormous moon overhead, streaking obliquely down onto Du Sanjiang. Moments later, Du Sanjiang was blasted away amidst the explosion of brilliant light. sea??h thё Novёl?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Once they pieced everything together, they concluded it must be a time-triggered mechanism. Some of them were proficient in such arts themselves.

    For instance, some could dissolve a poison in water and let it activate via timed triggers, but this required an extremely refined mastery of poison control, something no mere Qi Condensation cultivator should be capable of.

    Li Wuyi, of course, heard all of this and couldn’t help but marvel at the bizarre nature of the Fractured Poisons. Then, he left while Li Yan was still trapped inside the formation.

    Li Yan was ultimately declared the victor. Although he couldn’t break the formation or exit it, without anyone left to control it, the formation lost its offensive capabilities. All he had to do was wait until the spirit stones powering the array were depleted, and he could walk out on his own.

    The sect never clarified what poison Du Sanjiang had been afflicted with, which left many of the disciples in the stands disgruntled. But their complaints remained in hushed whispers, they dared not voice them aloud.

    Everyone felt that Li Yan''s victory was nothing short of eerie. Du Sanjiang was ranked among the top three Qi Condensation experts of the Four Symbols Peak and some even claimed he was the current number one.

    Amidst the gazes of his senior brothers, Li Yan staggered back to the Little Bamboo Peak area. Upon landing, he forced a smile.

    “Just a lucky sneak attack!”

    Before anyone could respond, he dropped straight to the ground and sat cross-legged, clutching two spirit stones to begin his recovery. His current condition was dire, his spiritual energy was nearly exhausted like a flickering oil lamp on the verge of going out.

    Seeing his state, the others exchanged glances. Recalling the near-death struggle he had just endured, they finally accepted that Li Yan wasn’t faking anything.

    As the tournament progressed, the matches between cultivators became more intense. Li Yan might be called to fight again in just one or two hours. He needed to recover as quickly as possible.

    Wei Chituo and Yun Chunque moved to one side, whispering amongst themselves. Snippets of words like "spiritual energy" and "heaven and earth" drifted out but at this point, Li Yan who was in full meditation heard none of it.

    Zhao Min sat quietly, deep in thought amidst the scattered discussions around her.

    Li Changting also gazed skyward in confusion. She had a vague sense that the final blow which defeated Du Sanjiang hadn’t come from Li Yan’s own power but rather from some force of heaven and earth. Yet she couldn’t identify what it was.

    Wang Tian, wearing a dark expression, never imagined Li Yan could defeat Du Sanjiang. With this level of combat ability, it would be extremely difficult to seriously injure Li Yan now.

    Du Sanjiang was already an outstanding cultivator at the Qi Condensation stage, otherwise he wouldn’t be a registered disciple under a Core Formation elder. Earlier, seeing Li Yan battered and on the verge of defeat, Wang Tian and Zuo Shengyan had been secretly pleased.

    Even when they saw Li Yan driven to the edge by the golden spears, still refusing to concede, they had all but pictured him falling to the ground, gravely wounded.

    But no one expected Li Yan to turn the tables in the final moment, how could that not leave the two of them feeling stifled?

    “Brother Tian, an you tell how that kid managed to turn the tables in the end?”

    Zuo Shengyan asked after stewing in silence for a moment. She had only reached mid-Foundation Establishment herself and was thoroughly baffled.

    “Probably used some kind of spirit treasure, most likely a one-time-use, concealed-type item that he placed in the area ahead of time. That’s why Junior Brother Du didn’t detect it and ended up falling victim.”

    Wang Tian’s face remained dark as he answered.

    He also suspected Li Yan had borrowed some form of heaven-and-earth power to achieve that outcome but on further thought, he doubted Li Yan possessed such divine abilities. It had to be some treasure gifted to him by Wei Chongran, maybe even a magical tool, which explained his extraordinary combat strength.

    “Next, we’ll see if there’s another chance to teach that brat a lesson!

    If not, and he makes it into the final 108, he better pray I’m not one of the three team captains at the end because if I am, I’ll definitely pick him for my team.”

    Wang Tian said with a vicious edge.

    (Chapter End)