As the demon roc dove down, the five people below had different reactions.

The two True Immortal level elders surged their immortal power, strengthening the formation while preparing to fight with all their might;

Youqin Xuanya immediately rushed toward Li Changshou and Ling’e, drawing flying swords from the sword box on her back to steadily protect the three of them.

As for Ling’e and ‘Li Changshou’…

Ripples like water appeared beneath their feet, with their soles already half an inch into the ground, ready at any moment…

To slip away using the earth escape technique.

Screech—

When the demon roc was still a hundred zhang in the air, it suddenly screamed fiercely, spread its wings, and dozens of long spikes flew out from beneath its several-zhang-long wings, shooting toward the formation below!

Li Changshou immediately transmitted to Youqin Xuanya, telling her to hold steady for now.

Youqin Xuanya held that porcelain bottle ‘carrying their fate’ in her left hand, while her right hand formed a sword finger seal held before her body, her simply tied hair floating gently as she raised her head to stare at this demon roc.

She could sense that behind the demon roc was an even more terrifying existence…

Even though she was only in the Return to Dao realm and hadn’t achieved immortality yet, there wasn’t the slightest fear in Youqin Xuanya’s gaze.

Only determination, only the resolve to fight!

Ling’e glanced at Li Changshou, her gaze full of admiration, as if saying: ‘Senior Sister Youqin is so cool.’

‘Li Changshou’ smiled calmly without responding, his gaze also falling on that Celestial Immortal in the high air…

This fellow was unexpectedly somewhat troublesome.

The spikes fell densely, and the two True Immortal elders struck out together as the formation’s light barrier immediately shook chaotically, several times nearly breaking;

After all, it was a hastily constructed protective formation.

The demon roc felt it had already tested the formation’s strength and weaknesses, its beak making a “gaga” cold laugh…

It first looked up at the Celestial Immortal old Daoist in the sky, then lowered its head to charge fiercely downward again!

At this time, Li Changshou’s transmission immediately entered Youqin Xuanya’s ear:

“Junior Sister, prepare.”

Youqin Xuanya’s spirit shook as she focused completely on observing the situation.

When the demon roc charged down, she lightly shouted: “Please Elders, withdraw the formation!”

The two True Immortal level elders simultaneously withdrew their immortal power, and the formation’s light barrier above instantly disappeared!

With no more obstacles in its path, the demon roc charged down ferociously, its demon power surging as it directly attacked these two already injured external affairs elders!

At this moment, these two elders truly broke out in a cold sweat for themselves…

At this moment, Youqin Xuanya remained very calm. Facing the powerful pressure from a True Immortal level great demon, she found the right opportunity, pulled out the porcelain bottle’s wooden stopper, and wrapped the bottle in magical power…

In this situation, she, a small Return to Dao cultivator, actually didn’t show any trembling.

When the demon roc charged near the two True Immortal level elders, Youqin Xuanya followed Li Changshou’s earlier transmitted instructions, letting out a light shout as she directly threw the porcelain bottle!

“Elders retreat!”

The two elders immediately dodged left and right, but they simultaneously remembered something and each turned their heads to look, in an instant…

Four elderly eyes bulged, their eyeballs almost popping out!

Poison pills needed immortal power to activate their toxicity before secretly harming enemies, not to be thrown directly like this!

One of the demon roc’s bird eyes stared at Youqin Xuanya with some contempt, wrapping a surge of demon power around the incoming porcelain bottle to shake away the poison pill inside…

At this very moment!

Firelight exploded behind the porcelain bottle as one of Youqin Xuanya’s flying swords had already struck the bottle!

The porcelain bottle instantly shattered, and the poison pill within also exploded, scattering its toxicity!

The surge of demon power swept out by the demon roc mysteriously disappeared…

The two elders opened their mouths, somewhat dazed…

The demon roc was still over ten zhang above the ground when its demon body trembled, fell head-first, and crashed unconscious at the formation’s edge, lying there motionless.

This…

Works too?

The two elders, and even Youqin Xuanya herself, were all somewhat surprised at this moment.

In their hearts, they all had similar thoughts:

‘Elder Wanlin Jun’s refined poison pills are truly remarkable!’

However, the actual situation was…

Throwing bottles to release poison naturally wouldn’t work like this; just now was merely Li Changshou secretly taking action.

In that instant earlier, the surge of demon power swept out by the demon roc had been secretly neutralized by this ‘Person Character Three Number’ paper puppet;

And when that poison pill directly exploded, only weak toxicity had spread.

What knocked out the demon roc was the confusing drug Li Changshou had secretly released.

Li Changshou arranged things this way just for the [shared memory] of [Youqin Xuanya throwing poison pill, everyone faints together].

And the confusing drug he secretly spread wasn’t just enough to knock out this demon roc…

The two elders closest to the demon roc immediately felt dizzy, their bodies swaying as they slowly lay down.

Elder Tian held onto his last breath of immortal power, looking at Youqin Xuanya, and couldn’t help smiling bitterly as he said:

“Xuanya…

Poison isn’t used by directly throwing… it…”

With several clangs, Youqin Xuanya’s flying swords fell from the air. She had no time to respond as her eyes slowly closed, her body becoming weak and powerless as she fell directly from mid-air…

Lan Ling’e stepped forward two steps, quickly catching her senior sister, and was about to use the earth escape technique to hide away.

But suddenly, Ling’e also felt her vision go black as she held Youqin Xuanya, falling together to the ground…

‘Senior Brother you really…’

Ling’e sighed softly in her heart as she honestly fainted, but wasn’t particularly worried.

‘Li Changshou’s’ figure also swayed as he held his head and groaned twice, slowly falling, yet happened to shield beside his junior sister.

This one demon and four people, plus one paper puppet, lay scattered on the hillside.

At first glance there truly weren’t any flaws – it was just that Youqin Xuanya didn’t know how to use poison and was knocked out by the confusing drug he had released.

However, that Celestial Immortal old Daoist in the high air merely gave a cold laugh when he saw this, and actually…

Didn’t directly come down.

The old Daoist took out a great seal and a treasured pearl, first raising the pearl to float above his head, releasing green light to envelop himself;

Then he threw that great seal toward where the group was located, smashing down from afar.

The great seal grew with the wind, instantly becoming several dozen zhang long and wide, with treasure light flickering around it;

With Celestial Immortal cultivation reinforcing it, it seemed about to directly collapse this valley!

In some dark, narrow corners, the corners of Li Changshou’s mouth twitched slightly.

This old Daoist was clearly in the Celestial Immortal realm, and the five people below had already been knocked out by their confusion drug, yet he still wouldn’t come down, using magical treasures to attack from afar…

Li Changshou sighed in his heart.

To meet a fellow practitioner- ahem, to meet such a troublesome enemy!

Fortunately, his earlier preparations were sufficient.

Watching that great seal rapidly fall, bringing up thousands of layers of airwaves and rolling spiritual energy, though its imposing manner was sufficient, it carried some elements of probing.

Li Changshou remained calm, glancing at the sensing stone and looking at the cave entrance deep in the valley.

His divine consciousness covered three hundred li in all directions, searching for any other dangers.

The ‘Person Character Three Number’ paper puppet lying on the ground didn’t move;

But from this puppet’s sleeve, a treasure pouch made of spirit beast skin silently opened, and several jade frogs jumped out, curiously surveying their surroundings while idly waiting nearby…

At this moment, a gaunt old Daoist emerged from a nearby grassland.

The old Daoist said nothing as he took out a square ‘chessboard’ from his bosom and directly threw it into the air.

Only to see seventy-two ‘miniature formation bases’ like chess pieces shoot out from it;

The formation bases linked together with spiritual power flowing between them, spreading open a layer of light barrier in mid-air!

The great seal fell at this moment!

But the light barrier only shook slightly, not only steadily blocking the treasure seal but even directly deflecting it.

This chessboard wasn’t an ordinary formation disk, nor was it a magical tool;

This was Li Changshou’s extension based on the Luo Heaven Treasure Umbrella’s concept, taking a solid…

Small step on the path of formation miniaturization.

However, the drawback of formation miniaturization was the formation bases themselves lacked spiritual power.

Although this formation blocked one strike from the treasure seal, it quickly dimmed afterward, dissipating on its own as the formation bases’ spiritual power was exhausted, automatically returning to the chessboard…

A true one-time protective formation.

Overall, though this miniature formation’s effect was far inferior to powerful defensive magical treasures, it had bought enough time.

In the instant the formation deployed, several large hands emerged from the ground, pulling the unconscious two elders along with Ling’e and Youqin Xuanya underground.

Even the Hundred Mortals Hall external affairs elder who was usually quite familiar with Li Changshou couldn’t escape having his hair grabbed by the merciless iron hand…

No choice, most cultivators kept flowing long hair, and this position… was the most convenient to grab.

Only the Number Three paper puppet remained on the ground.

As for who this old Daoist was who emerged to save them…

Currently, Li Changshou’s paper puppets weren’t just three types, but divided into five types, with designations:

Heaven, Earth, Person, Divine, Ghost.

[Divine] Character paper puppets: One of Li Changshou’s trump cards, used specially for high-level battles, accompanying Li Changshou’s true body, their quality equal to [Heaven] Character paper puppets but carrying various trump cards.

This suddenly appearing old Daoist was Divine Character One.

He simulated late-stage True Immortal realm aura fluctuations, his body surging with immortal power as he faced off against the Celestial Immortal old Daoist high above.

The Celestial Immortal old Daoist in the air focused his eyes;

Holding the treasure seal, with the green pearl above his head, his sleeves billowing as he pounced toward the old Daoist on the ground.

Divine Character One gripped a fly-whisk magical treasure, but its silver threads had been coated with Celestial Immortal poison…

This Divine Character One paper puppet let out a low shout, his figure soaring skyward while chanting, his left palm brewing azure lightning.

One above and one below, these two old Daoists were still several hundred zhang apart when they directly began offering treasures and casting spells at each other across the distance!

Above, the treasure seal smashed horizontally as blood light flickered in that Celestial Immortal old Daoist’s eyes, a purple long sword appearing in his hand to slash out divine light.

Below, the old Daoist was wrapped in immortal power, his movement technique ghostly and hard to capture as divine lightning burst from his palm, using precisely the [Luo Heaven Yang Thunder True Scripture]!

A great battle immediately unfolded in the air, with divine lightning shooting, treasures flying wildly, swords clashing with fly-whisk, and old branches shaking chaotically!

This Celestial Immortal level old Daoist soon discovered that though this suddenly appearing opponent’s aura fluctuations were at the True Immortal realm, the power of his techniques and quality of immortal power seemed even somewhat stronger than his own…

For the moment, he actually couldn’t take down this True Immortal old Daoist!

Unexpectedly, several silver threads fell from that fly-whisk, like silver needles secretly piercing this Celestial Immortal old Daoist’s neck.

But the treasure pearl above the Celestial Immortal old Daoist’s head trembled slightly, streams of green light falling to directly melt the silver needles.

That was…

In the darkness, Li Changshou’s eyebrows raised as he sensed somewhat familiar energy from it.

This green pearl…

Was a poison-avoiding treasure pearl refined from a Red Sun Poison Dragon’s dragon pearl!

Good item…

With the opponent having this treasure, the effectiveness of his poison would be greatly reduced.

But Li Changshou remained calm, his consciousness falling on the Divine Character One paper puppet, calculating this puppet’s immortal power consumption;

The paper puppet’s fly-whisk moved like a brush, writing golden light characters in mid-air.

Divine ability: Writing Scriptures Becomes Law.

In an instant, dozens of golden characters flew chaotically among the lightning.

That Celestial Immortal-level old Daoist immediately felt pressure, his immortal power surging chaotically when struck by the characters.

After just fighting for a while, the Celestial Immortal old Daoist had already sustained light injuries…

Though Divine Character One paper puppet had only consumed twenty percent of its immortal power, it deliberately showed a weakness, being grazed by the treasure seal as its immortal light shook chaotically and its figure fell toward a forest below.

— Paper puppets having immortal power to protect themselves could to some degree make up for their lack of defense, just consuming more immortal power.

In the air, that Celestial Immortal level blood pattern puppet finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Following the primordial world combat guideline of ‘strike while the iron is hot’, this Celestial Immortal old Daoist quickly pursued downward.

Although Li Changshou also somewhat wanted to test if he could use divine abilities to single-handedly fight a normal mid-stage Celestial Immortal cultivator with his [Divine] Character paper puppet carrying various trump cards.

But combat wasn’t child’s play – when it was time to strike, strike, and end things quickly.

In the trunks of several large trees in the forest, three figures that had just gotten into position slowly opened their eyes, with miniature formation disks in their sleeve pouches already activated by immortal power…