The two azure monstrous worms in front of Gong Chenying had already dissipated. The other two that had charged at Wang Lang and forced him to retreat had also transformed into two wisps of azure qi, swiftly returning to Gong Chenying's front, where they once again became the massive long halberd.

At this moment, there was no longer any spiritual energy on the surface of the halberd. The halberd itself bore the marks of sword cuts, its spirituality greatly diminished.

Wang Lang also retracted the sword in his hand, pointing to summon back his two equally dim flying swords. He couldn't help but gasp in a cold breath.

"This woman is truly formidable. She is clearly a mid-Foundation Establishment stage cultivator, and her injuries seem even heavier than mine, yet she blocked my full-force strike.

What a pity. If I still had eighty percent of my spiritual power, I would only need to unleash the 'Unstoppable' sword again, and a single strike would take her life!"

The 'Unstoppable' magical treasure bestowed upon him by his sect was originally for the use of Core Formation stage cultivators. It was extremely awkward and difficult for Wang Lang to wield. Otherwise, when he used it, Quan Jiuxing wouldn't have found a flaw and succeeded in his attack, leaving him severely wounded.

The 'Unstoppable' magical treasure was too overbearing, requiring enormous spiritual power to sustain. Even with Wang Lang's Pseudo-Core stage cultivation, that single attack consumed about eighty percent of his spiritual power, and he subsequently entered a period of weakness.

"Junior Sister Gong, you are truly impressive. But how many more of my sword strikes can you take?"

After saying this, the light from Wang Lang's two flying swords brightened again. With a humming sound, they transformed into an arc and obliquely stabbed towards Gong Chenying's shoulders. Meanwhile, he himself strode forward, charging at Gong Chenying head-on.

He did not want Gong Chenying to escape to the sides. He used the two flying swords to directly seal off her left and right paths, forcing Gong Chenying to face his attack head-on.

Gong Chenying looked at the attacks charging towards her. Her pale face still showed no fear. She patted her storage bag with her right hand. The storage bag flickered with spiritual light, but this time, nothing appeared.

Gong Chenying sighed inwardly. She had originally wanted to squeeze out the last of her divine sense to unleash the small golden axe, but now she couldn't even open her storage bag. Her spiritual power had also been completely exhausted in the previous strike.

But this action of hers caused Wang Lang's facial muscles to twitch continuously.

"What kind of cultivation technique is this girl practicing? Even when she can no longer summon her magical treasures, she still looks like she has the strength to fight. Her physical body is so formidable. Is she human or a demonic beast?"

Gong Chenying looked at the increasingly close cold gleams, enduring the tearing pain from her muscles. She took a deep breath, and the bones in her body crackled like popping beans.

Her jade-like hand grabbed the azure long halberd in front of her. The next moment, a circle of impenetrable spear-flowers appeared before her. Two loud bangs then echoed in her ears, as if lightning had struck from heaven and earth.

Wang Lang, who had been closing in, suddenly retreated. He felt dizzy, his ears were filled with a buzzing roar, and his qi and blood surged chaotically within his body.

At the same time, a powerful wave of air slammed into him. Wang Lang felt a sharp pain in his chest and abdomen. The wound instantly reopened, and a large amount of blood gushed out. His throat tasted sweet, and he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, his face instantly turning ashen gray.

Across from him, Gong Chenying's entire body was like a person made of blood. A large amount of blood gushed from her waist and abdomen, and the azure long halberd in her hand, having lost its spiritual power, had been severed into two pieces in the collision with the flying swords.

One of the pieces still had a deep sword mark on it. If not for the halberd being forged from excellent materials, it would have been split into three pieces in that one strike, and she herself would have been cleaved into several pieces.

Fortunately, in the moment of crisis, she had turned her body to deflect the force, which lessened part of the opponent's strength. But her body was still thrown high into the air by the backlash, and the place she was falling was precisely into the continuously advancing black shadow!

Gong Chenying arced through the air, still tightly gripping the two pieces of the azure halberd. She had fallen into a semi-conscious state, yet one scene after another flashed through her mind, finally stopping at one particular image.

It was a little girl of seven or eight years old, standing barefoot on a hanging bamboo house. Her eyes were filled with stubbornness as she looked at a large urn almost half her height.

Inside the urn were multi-colored centipedes, spitting, emerald snakes, and various poisonous insects like spiders and scorpions. They were raising their heads and hissing at the girl who was peeking her head over.

Although the little girl was trembling all over and her face was drained of color, she gritted her teeth. She resolutely and cautiously stood on her tiptoes, directly extending a pair of bare, slender arms into the urn. But she had already turned her face away, her eyes tightly shut…

Just as Gong Chenying was about to fall into the black shadow, a figure shot out from an angle. A sharp glint flashed in this person's eyes, and he positioned his body horizontally to block behind Gong Chenying.

The next moment, Gong Chenying slammed hard into his arms. With this collision, the man's body also flew backward at a high speed. Before he could react, his back had already touched the black shadow rising from behind.

In his great alarm, his left hand braced Gong Chenying's back, and with a forceful shove, he pushed the girl in his arms out, causing her to fall heavily onto the ground in front of the black shadow.

The man's back, however, had already emitted wisps of black smoke, and a sharp pain entered his mind.

This person was none other than Li Yan. Under Pingtu's escort, he had arrived here in just a few breaths. Throughout the journey, he had been pondering Pingtu's final words, but he still didn't understand their meaning.

But just as he was thinking, he felt a wave of dizziness. When he opened his eyes again, it was precisely the moment when Gong Chenying was brandishing her azure halberd to block the attack. He immediately saw that something was wrong. There was not a trace of spiritual power in the spear-flowers. Although Gong Chenying's eyes were firm, they were already lifeless.

Then came two loud bangs, which made Li Yan's head spin and feel as if he was about to fall to the ground.

He barely managed to steady his mind and saw Gong Chenying falling backward into the black shadow. Without time to think further, Li Yan’s spiritual power surged from his entire body. He flew at a speed he had never reached before.

He finally made it just in time to Gong Chenying's side. But because he was moving too fast, he couldn't grab her in time, so he could only block with his body and then gave her a hard push.

Subsequently, a reverse collision force was generated, which pushed him into the black shadow behind.

At this, Li Yan was greatly alarmed. But at this point, he was powerless to change his trajectory. He felt a chill on his back, followed by a bone-piercing pain that penetrated from his back.

A succession of sharp pains that went straight to his internal organs kept assaulting him, causing him to let out a muffled grunt. At the same time, images from his past flashed through his mind. Scenes of how the sky's black shadow had silently turned everything into dust as it passed.

"Now I can't show off any more. I'll die here today! Hahahaha… In the end, I didn't let myself become a ruthless person; the good ones often die first."

As Li Yan thought this, his hands did not stop moving. While pushing Gong Chenying with his left hand, his right hand mercilessly punched backward. His late tenth-level Qi Condensation cultivation erupted with full force, actually producing a pillar of light that fiercely struck the ground beneath the black shadow behind him.

The next moment, his body was forcefully pushed forward. But a series of sharp pains once again shot from his right hand into his mind, causing his pupils to violently constrict.

"My right hand is done for too!"

Just as this thought flashed through Li Yan's mind, the next instant, he fell heavily onto the ground. The fall left him in a daze for a moment, but the maddening pain from his arm and back immediately brought him back to consciousness.

Subconsciously, the Guishui True Scripture frantically circulated. What happened next left Li Yan somewhat bewildered. Where his spiritual power passed, it felt cool, and the pain rapidly disappeared like a receding tide.

This made Li Yan stunned. He quickly waved his right arm, and what appeared before his eyes was a completely intact arm. Only the right sleeve of his sect's spiritual artifact robe, from the elbow down, was gone.

Li Yan hurriedly looked back. The black qi behind him was only a few inches away. Inside, it was pitch black. The trees, grass, and even the iron-hard rocks that were there before had all turned into a void. There was only endless darkness, revealing a gaping, sinister maw…

Just as Li Yan looked back, a killing intent suddenly arose from ahead. This startled Li Yan who without turning his head, lunged at Gong Chenying, who was lying on the ground beside him.

Wang Lang was looking at Li Yan with blood-red eyes. His chest was still covered in large patches of blood, and fresh blood continuously gushed from his chest and abdomen.

When Wang Lang had fallen to the ground, he had also experienced a period of ringing ears and blurry vision. Coupled with Li Yan's quick movements, he had not seen Li Yan's hand entering the black shadow or his back being corroded by the sky's black shadow.

He just saw a flash before his eyes. A figure had pounced and caught Gong Chenying's fall. The two had instantly broken away from the black shadow. When he saw that the other person was also a Wraith Sect cultivator, he was furious.

As his divine sense swept over him, he found that the opponent was only a small tenth-level Qi Condensation cultivator. His eyes were blood-red as he repeatedly pointed at his body with one hand, instantly slowing the gushing of blood from his chest and abdomen.

With his other hand, he patted his waist, and a few pills appeared in the air, which he inhaled in one breath.

Under the pressure of the opponent, Li Yan's legs felt a little weak, and the circulation of spiritual power within his body became sluggish. He couldn't care less about the injury on his back and the strange situation with his right arm.

With trembling legs, he suddenly picked up Gong Chenying. After taking a deep breath, he took large strides and ran to the side. It wasn't until he was sixty or seventy zhang away from Wang Lang that Li Yan felt the pressure on his body suddenly lessen. He immediately accelerated and dashed wildly into the distance.

He had no intention of taking the opportunity to kill Wang Lang. A severely wounded Foundation Establishment cultivator was not someone he could provoke. The pressure alone from Wang Lang's Pseudo-Core stage aura made his mind tremble and his legs unstable. How could he dare to get closer?

But Li Yan also saw that Wang Lang, who had just clashed with Gong Chenying, was now too weak to pursue. So he fled for his life.

Wang Lang could only watch helplessly as a person stood up, picked up Gong Chenying and ran off. He never got a clear look at Li Yan's face from start to finish.

As he ran at top speed, Li Yan swept his divine sense over his back. A moment later, he was relieved. In his divine sense, besides his robes being completely shattered, a large area of dark skin and muscle was exposed, but there were no wounds.

At the same time, there was nothing wrong with the circulation of spiritual power within his body. This temporarily put his mind at ease. At this moment, he recalled the nonsensical words Pingtu had said when sending him out of the secret chamber, and a flash of inspiration went through his mind.

But he looked down at the jade-like person in his arms. Her long legs were almost half-dragging on the ground, and Li Yan couldn't help but smile wryly. Among the women he knew, this Sixth Senior Sister and that Zhao Min were really tall.

Although he had grown much taller in the past few years, he was only slightly taller than these two. Now, carrying the slender girl, it wasn't a strain on his stamina, but her long legs dragging on the ground made it difficult to move.

A faint fragrance and the smell of blood reached Li Yan's nose. This made Li Yan frown. He had to find a safer place to treat Sixth Senior Sister's injuries now.

Otherwise, Gong Chenying would have a hard time holding on for too long. Gong Chenying's face had now turned a grayish-blue, and her aura was extremely weak.

...