Li Changshou is extremely grateful right now…

Thankfully he had come with Elder Wan Linyun…

If he had been even slightly slower in restraining him, this old master would have charged straight up there to directly confront this group of mighty warriors!

This place was two thousand five hundred li from the Dao Cultivation Gate, essentially at the border of the sect’s “nominal territory.”

—According to the customary rules of the Eastern Victory Divine Continent, resources and spirit veins within two thousand li of the Dao Cultivation Gate belonged to the sect.

For them to position themselves at this subtle distance, deliberately setting up such clever concealment and cover formations in a location beyond the sect’s detection range…

The behavior of those inside was already quite suspicious!

However, it seemed somewhat tyrannical to just rush in spreading powders and raising dust just because of this.

Yet…

When Elder Wan Linyun took out a treasure in the shape of a Taiji yin-yang double fish pattern and pulled Li Changshou’s paper warrior incarnation silently underground into the formation…

If Li Changshou hadn’t been quick-handed and sharp-eyed for a second time to restrain this late-stage Celestial Immortal realm poison immortal, Wan Linyun would have charged out with an angry roar of “Evil creatures seeking death!”

There was no other reason—waves of demonic qi and accumulated karmic obstacles rolled within.

Inside the formation were dozens of great demons, their cultivation ranging from True Immortal to Celestial Immortal realm!

Besides these, there were over a hundred human figures, most in the True Immortal realm, with more than ten in the Celestial Immortal realm…

Elder Wan Linyun turned his head to glare at Li Changshou, about to transmit something, but Li Changshou made a gesture of silence.

He took out two jade pendants, giving one to Elder Wan Linyun.

Another of his little gadgets series—the [Heart Voice Jade].

Holding these pendants, they could communicate through heart voice without any fluctuations in immortal power, magical power, primordial qi, or air—the concealment was excellent.

The drawback was that they couldn’t move too far apart.

Li Changshou transmitted in his heart: “Elder, you can just think what you want to say in your mind, and this disciple will hear it.”

“Aiya! Changshou, why are you stopping me!”

Elder Wan Linyun gritted his teeth and said in his heart: “Let me go eliminate these great demons and kill these degenerates who consort with evil demons!”

“Elder, please don’t be hasty, don’t be hasty…

Calm down, impulsiveness is a demonic obstacle!”

Li Changshou hurriedly said: “Could Elder tell this disciple how you plan to eliminate these great demons?”

“Naturally with supernatural arts and poison pills!”

“By charging straight in?”

“When launching a sneak attack, one must first strike suddenly and fiercely, instantly crushing one or two powerful opponents!”

Probably because he felt the enemy hadn’t discovered them, Elder Wan Linyun now also calmed down and advised Li Changshou:

“When encountering this kind of situation, Changshou, you mustn’t be impulsive in the future—getting surrounded would be dangerous.

But I’m not afraid!

The closer they are to me, the more effective my poison pills and poison arts become!”

Li Changshou transmitted in his heart: “But Elder, think about it—what if you’re injured or fall here?

First, they have superior numbers;

Second, we’ve only roughly sensed their cultivation realms. What if a Golden Immortal is hiding here, deliberately trying to lure us in…”

Elder Wan Linyun frowned, his usually stern elderly face showing traces of contemplation.

What Changshou said made quite a bit of sense.

Li Changshou continued his ‘gentle persuasion’:

“Elder, you’ll certainly display great supernatural might later. Just with that supernatural art, you taught this disciple, combined with your tens of thousands of years of accumulated poison pills, eliminating these enemies here would be no problem at all.

But what if they scatter and flee when they see the situation turning against them? Wouldn’t that leave hidden dangers for our sect?

That’s the third point.”

“That’s true,” Elder Wan Linyun agreed.

Li Changshou continued:

“This disciple observes that although there are many Celestial Immortals here, there’s a mix of humans, demons, and spirits.

Elder, look at how they’re seated—humans, demons, and spirits are all mixed together, yet there’s no communication between them.

Under normal circumstances, shouldn’t humans be closer to humans, and demons closer to demons?

Elder, look there!

Those two great demons with blue fur all over their bodies—their auras are similar and intermingled, they must have been together for years, either siblings or a married couple, though they could also be…

Ahem, but right now they’re separated by a hundred zhang…

Think about it, consider it carefully—there must be something unusual here.

These humans, demons, and spirits may have already had their consciousness taken over!

Just like those cultivators who attacked Senior Uncle Jiuwu and the others outside the Golden Palace—they’re just puppets!

That’s the fourth point…”

Elder Wan Linyun narrowed his eyes, slowly nodding, somewhat ashamed.

The old master said in his heart: “Fortunately Changshou came with me, or I might have made a grave mistake!”

Li Changshou smiled in his heart: “Elder, you’re devoted to the Dao of Pills and have an upright heart—naturally you wouldn’t think in such devious ways.

This disciple has just been constantly thinking about these matters, worried about this kind of situation occurring. Who would have thought it would happen…”

“Sigh, Changshou, what do you think we should do?”

Li Changshou secretly breathed a sigh of relief…

He had finally convinced him.

Li Changshou asked in his heart: “Elder, have you refined any soporific drugs or poison pills that are gentle and not easily detected at first?”

“Of course I have, but why use such things?”

Elder Wan Linyun’s old eyes showed slight confusion, “Wouldn’t the strongest poison work better?”

“If we directly spread poison mist here, these enemies will immediately react and scatter.

It’s like throwing a rabbit onto a furnace lid—it will jump away immediately.

But if the furnace lid slowly heats up, letting the rabbit fall unconscious first, it will be cooked without realizing…”

Elder Wan Linyun’s eyes lit up, and he showed Li Changshou his trademark cold smile, saying in his heart: “Indeed, that’s how it is.”

The Elder touched his ring and took out seven or eight porcelain bottles, saying softly:

“This substance can intoxicate a Celestial Immortal’s primordial spirit and make their Dao body go numb. It’s called [Heart-Bewildering Soul-Intoxicating Powder].”

Li Changshou blinked, “Could it be that this pill formula is also Elder’s creation?”

“Correct,” Elder Wan Linyun showed that ‘cold smile’ again, “I developed it in my spare time since poison pills can sometimes be too violent.

But this is complex to refine, so I hadn’t included the formula in the poison manual I gave you before;

I’ll teach it to you when we return.”

Li Changshou praised: “Elder, this disciple already obtained the formula in the outer hall.

It was recorded in a damaged jade slip—I didn’t realize it was also one of Elder’s precious pill creations.”

“Heh heh…

Take these for self-defense.

I had forgotten about these before—they’re just soporifics, perfect for your self-defense.”

Elder Wan Linyun casually stuffed these porcelain bottles into Li Changshou’s hands, and fearing Li Changshou would decline, immediately took out more than ten more bottles from his ring.

The poison immortal’s stockpile of poison pills made even Li Changshou feel…

Envious.

Now this was a foundation!

And this poison immortal Elder’s personality of immediately [giving giving giving] at the slightest prompt truly earned Li Changshou’s admiration…

Fortunately, he was here ready to [take take take]!

“Changshou,” Wan Linyun asked proactively, “can I make my move now?”

Li Changshou continued in his heart: “Elder, this disciple observes that this should just be the enemy’s vanguard. If they wanted to attack our mountain gate, they couldn’t possibly have only this many experts.

Best not to let even one escape.”

“Then, Changshou, how should we use these soporifics to keep all these bandits here?”

“First use immortal power to wrap them and seep them through the entire formation’s area, then let the soporifics slowly rise from underground…

This disciple only needs two bottles for self-defense, Elder should take the rest for eliminating enemies.”

“No need, I’ve refined quite a lot of this—it was originally meant for trapping enemies rather than killing them.”

Elder Wan Linyun answered in his heart, showing that smile again.

What he admired most was Li Changshou’s character—seeing treasures without trying to keep them all…

Following Li Changshou’s ‘guidance,’ Elder Wan Linyun used eighteen bottles of Heart-Bewildering Soul-Intoxicating Powder;

Using strands of immortal power, he delivered these soporifics directly beneath each hidden figure, then let them slowly disperse.

Li Changshou still wasn’t at ease, continuously transmitting reminders:

“Elder, add more for those great demons—their demon race’s drug resistance is much stronger than our human race…”

“Elder, be careful, immortal power fluctuations might alert them.”

“Elder, pay extra attention to those few in the trees…”

Half an hour later.

Silence reigned within the formation as several figures fell from the trees, hitting the ground like sandbags…

Underground, Elder Wan Linyun was full of praise in his heart and was about to rush out to finish these people off.

“Elder!”

Li Changshou quickly held back this powerful figure and continued:

“Why must we go out now?

What if someone is deliberately pretending to be drugged, trying to lure us out? Wouldn’t we be falling right into their trap?”

“Mm, Changshou speaks sense. What should we do next?”

Li Changshou said in his heart: “Use the same method to release poison…

But this time, it must be fierce and violent poison, giving them no chance to counter.

We must also consider that they might break free from the soporific’s influence when faced with death, and their primordial spirits might flee their bodies, or demon souls might escape…”

As he spoke, Elder Wan Linyun continuously nodded in agreement beside him.

The Elder’s eyes were now full of kindness and gentleness;

Previously, Elder Wan Linyun had been worried…

Worried that Li Changshou’s cultivation was too shallow to properly utilize poison pills, wasting these difficult-to-refine pills.

But today’s events made Elder Wan Linyun realize…

This disciple’s relationship with the Dao of Poison…

Was even more compatible than his own!

After giving a few instructions, Li Changshou continued:

“If you have doubts, you can poison the great demons to death first;

This disciple has a Soul-Catching Zhenzhu that can search their fragmented memories to determine their origins.

If these human cultivators also deserve death, we can kill them later.

After all, demons… we can just kill them outright.”

“Good!”

Elder Wan Linyun agreed, briefly contemplated in his heart, and then decided to act with full force.

The Elder raised his bronze staff underground, pointing it upward. Strands of dense green poison mist spread through the earth, seeping into the bodies of the great demons who had already been drugged unconscious…

Soon, the group of great demons began to convulse violently;

Li Changshou was initially somewhat worried—after all, he wasn’t personally handling this, there was no formation suppression, too much time had been wasted, and there were no other backup plans. Perhaps one or two demon souls might escape…

However, after a short while, Li Changshou was shocked.

What powerful Celestial Immortal poison!

It was a lethal poison that could directly kill the demon souls and primordial spirits of the Celestial Immortal realm great demons!

Soon, all the great demons here revealed their true forms. Even those of superior realms only thrashed a few times before falling still;

Their auras were completely gone, though their demon power remained full.

Elder Wan Linyun was about to go out again, but Li Changshou stopped him once more.

How many times was this now…

Why did this Elder keep wanting to rush out when everything could be done from below?

“Changshou, we’re still not going?”

Li Changshou smiled wryly: “Elder, do you have Samadhi True Flame or some powerful true fire? You can just burn them from afar.”

Wan Linyun said: “Of course I do. I have a true fire called Ten Thousand Poisons Soul-Refining Fire, its power surpasses even Samadhi True Flame.”

Then, this thin-faced elder, following Li Changshou’s guidance, released clusters of flames from underground…

If someone had been watching this formation from the air, they probably would have witnessed a primordial world horror story.

These hidden figures first silently fell unconscious, then those great demons were gradually enveloped by poison mist, quickly dying from convulsions, passing without a stir…

Afterward, ghastly green flames emerged from the ground, consuming the great demons’ corpses, and reducing them to piles of ash…

From beginning to end, the great demons hadn’t struggled at all, passing very peacefully…

Those drugged human figures hadn’t noticed anything at all.

At this point, a figure finally emerged from the ground.

It was a young woman in a long dress, holding a pearl, who walked among these piles of ash for a while.

The Soul-Catching Zhenzhu, extracting remnant souls, searching for memory fragments…

Shortly after, more dense mist rose from the ground, directly destroying the primordial spirits of those human cultivators as well.

Flames arose everywhere, and within this concealment formation… everything was green.

The young woman walked back and forth, the Soul-Catching Zhenzhu spinning rapidly…

Suddenly, a blood-colored light shot out from the green flames, flying directly toward the young woman and piercing her neck.

The woman tilted her head, looking at this blood light, then lightly patted it.

Pat!

A blood-winged black mosquito was gently slapped dead by this woman.

More blood lights tried to fly over but were directly caught by clusters of true fire and instantly burned into wisps of blood qi.

—These mosquitoes weren’t real mosquitoes, seemingly transformed by supernatural arts, condensed from blood qi.

…

Meanwhile, at an unknown distance away, in a stone cave near Spirit Mountain in the Western Ox Continent, the blood-robed cultivator Wen Jing opened his eyes, filled with shock.

How had one-third of the puppets he’d collected been… silently eliminated?

Because of the great distance, Wen Jing had only just discovered the anomaly there.

Most importantly…

That woman just now, what kind of being was she?

Why couldn’t he find her primordial spirit at all?

Could it be that some powerful expert had intervened?

Wen Jing narrowed his eyes, feeling somewhat apprehensive in his heart.

Although these casualties had come unexpectedly;

The three most important Golden Tortoise Island cultivators, hiding in the back absorbing the power of the Blood Lotus, hadn’t been affected, so his plans hadn’t completely failed.

Wen Jing continued sensing with closed eyes, but now he could no longer ‘see’ what was happening within that formation.

The puppets had all died.

…

Eastern Victory Continent, that forest.

Underground.

Having captured those blood lights, Li Changshou and Wan Linyun looked at each other…

Elder Wan Linyun’s thoughts were simpler, sighing in his heart:

“Fortunately Changshou, you were vigilant enough. If we had been ambushed, the Dao Cultivation Gate would have been in danger!”

Li Changshou, however, thought a bit more…

Mosquitoes?

Could control people’s consciousness through mosquitoes?

Were there such formidable mosquitoes in the primordial world?

Could it be… from the Great Tribulation of Sealing the Gods, the one who drained Turtle Spirit Holy Mother, an inner disciple of the Severing Teaching, and also drained three ranks of the twelve-ranked Golden Lotus…

Blood-Winged Black Mosquito! The Mosquito Swarm?

Could it… could it be that powerful figure?

The primordial world was truly too dangerous!

“Elder, don’t go out, just use true fire to burn this place once more.”

“Good!”

At once, green flames arose everywhere, consuming all the trees in the area.

Another half hour later, the formation was completely clean, without a trace remaining, the ground barren, truly not a blade of grass survived…

Several figures emerged from the ground, quickly gathering all the ashes with magical power into a pile;

They also collected all the remaining damaged storage treasures and artifacts into several treasure bags.

Then, one person held a wooden fish and gently struck it, while several people began chanting scriptures.

Underground, Wan Linyun asked in confusion: “Changshou, what are they doing now?”

Li Changshou smiled: “Chanting scriptures to dispel karma. If any remnant souls can’t be absorbed by the Soul-Catching Zhenzhu, this will send them to the underworld for reincarnation, eliminating future troubles.

Afterward, Elder, you can use your power to scatter these ashes around.

Dust to dust, earth to earth.

Cultivation originally takes spirit qi from heaven and earth—letting them return to nature after death also aligns with our Dao Cultivation Gate’s principles.”

Elder Wan Linyun smiled and nodded;

When the chanting above stopped, this poison immortal waved his Dao robe underground, and that large pile of ashes flew up and scattered throughout the formation.

Li Changshou sighed softly in his heart.

Perfect…

Although he hadn’t personally done it…

The sense of ceremony was still there…

Elder Wan Linyun blinked: “Perfect? What does that mean?”

Li Changshou hurriedly said: “Oh, it means there are no more worries.”

Then he quickly put away his jade pendant, stopping the heart voice transmission.

Elder Wan Linyun reviewed their entire process of eliminating enemies, feeling deeply moved, his gaze at Li Changshou…

Growing ever more fond.

Afterward, those figures dove underground, transforming into paper people that Li Changshou collected into an empty treasure bag.

They would need to be decontaminated before being used again…

He didn’t dare underestimate Elder Wan Linyun’s poison.

“Elder, let’s go back. We can hand these things and the Soul-Catching Zhenzhu over to the sect for them to handle.”

“Good.”

“By the way, Elder, one more thing—please don’t mention that this disciple was present…”

Thus and so, this and that.

Li Changshou gave instructions back as the elder and youth slipped underground, returning to the Dao Cultivation Gate’s mountain gate…