naaapseattle Chapter 154 The idea is difficult
Chapter 154 The idea is difficult
Chapter 154: A Tricky Opponent
Li Lan controlled the flying boat and quickly sailed out of the Chongshan Region.
Along the way,
He still maintained his cautious habit, not only using Spirit Bean Soldiers piloting multiple other flying boats to clear the way ahead,
but also extending his divine sense to its limit, constantly observing his surroundings,
ready to turn around and leave immediately at the slightest disturbance.
It was precisely because of this caution,
that after cultivating in the Chongshan Region for so many years, he had never encountered any major trouble.
However, this time,
after flying for several hundred miles,
Li Lan seemed to sense something,
and his brow furrowed slightly.
This fellow is truly persistent!
Could it be that he thinks I'm afraid of him?
Li Lan thought for a moment. This matter would eventually need a resolution.
With a thought of his divine sense,
the flying boat quickly turned around and sailed away from Jiuhua County City.
Li Lan found a secluded spot,
and ordered the Spirit Bean Soldiers clearing the way ahead to set up several formations in advance.
Before long,
a clap of thunder flashed in the sky, followed by a rumbling sound.
A snowy white bolt of lightning streaked across at extreme speed, appearing before Li Lan's flying boat and blocking his path.
Once the other party stood still, it could be seen that it was a middle-aged male cultivator with a head full of silver hair.
His entire body was wrapped in a layer of lightning plasma, with tiny electric arcs flickering in and out of existence around him.
Li Lan had long ago preserved the other party's aura.
With the unique technique ""Thousand Mile Breath Locking Technique"", within five hundred miles,
any aura that had been recorded, all its movements could not escape his discerning eye.
Li Lan feigned a surprised expression,
walked onto the flying boat's deck, clasped his hands, and bowed, saying:
“Dou *Shixiong*?
What a coincidence, are you also heading to Jiuhua County City to participate in the Foundation Establishment Pill auction?”
At this moment, Dou *Shixiong*,
had a twisted smile all over his face.
“Junior Brother Li, you've made this Senior Brother wait so bitterly!
If I had known that auctioning the Foundation Establishment Pill could lure out a timid person like you, why would I have waited so hard until today?
Li Lan pretended to be bewildered.
“Senior Brother, what do you mean by this?
Are you perhaps still looking for this Junior Brother to discuss the matter of plundering the Spirit Vein?
I apologize, this Junior Brother only wishes to cultivate in peace and does not want to participate in such pointless killing.
If Dou *Shixiong* is still here for this matter,
please spare your words. This Junior Brother finds it difficult to accompany you.”
Having said that,
Li Lan turned around and was about to control the flying boat to leave.
“Heh heh, my good Junior Brother, we are all smart people, let's take off that hypocritical mask.
To be honest, this Senior Brother really dislikes someone holding a grudge against him behind his back,
If you don't die, this Senior Brother can't sleep.
To allow this Senior Brother to have a good night's sleep, after much thought, I can only ask Junior Brother to depart.”
After Dou *Shixiong* finished speaking,
the frustration that had accumulated over the past half year due to the other party's excessive caution seemed to be completely swept away.
After venting,
he no longer wasted words.
Dou *Shixiong* slapped his storage bag,
and a bronze-colored clam-shell shaped clapper appeared before him.
He formed a hand seal,
and dazzling white electric arcs suddenly burst forth from around the clapper artifact.
Suddenly,
within an extremely short period,
a bolt of lightning as thick as a water bucket, with the speed of lightning, struck towards Li Lan.
At this moment,
he truly felt the situation that Old Man Wang of the Wang family had experienced back then at the Hengshan Spiritual Vein.
The speed of this lightning-attribute spell was simply too fast,
so fast that even at Li Lan's Qi Refining Twelfth Level realm,
it was still difficult to fully follow with the naked eye.
By the time he reacted,
that bolt of lightning had already arrived before him.
It left almost no room for Li Lan to cast spells.
If it were an ordinary cultivator without an instant-cast protective artifact here instead,
he would likely have perished here unjustly under this sudden, unexpected strike alone.
But Li Lan was not an ordinary cultivator after all,
with a thought of his divine sense,
a completely black wooden stake blocked his path.
The imposing lightning struck the wooden stake, but not even a single electric arc flashed out,
and it instantly vanished without a trace.
“Hmm?”
The smile on Dou *Shixiong*'s face froze, and his eyes widened.
He seemed somewhat unable to believe everything before his eyes.
One must know,
that the lightning-attribute artifact in his hand was a peak Tier 4 item,
which was exceptionally rare in itself.
Coupled with him being a unique lightning spirit root cultivator,
the spells he cast were even comparable in power to some treasures.
Under his full-strength strike,
even with the existence of elemental counter-attributes, it absolutely shouldn't have been like this, without causing any ripple.
Could it be that this inconspicuous wooden stake the other party summoned is actually a Tier 5 artifact?
Only an artifact a major tier higher, combined with elemental counter-attributes, could block his lightning strike so easily.
But Dou *Shixiong* quickly dismissed this conjecture.
Tier 5 artifacts are treasures that only cultivators at least at Qi Refining Great Perfection can barely activate.
The other party is merely at the Qi Refining Twelfth Level, his dantian hasn't even condensed qi into a core yet, where would he get so much magic power to activate this item?
“You—.”
Dou *Shixiong* was extremely puzzled and was about to ask something.
But Li Lan did not give him this chance.
Li Lan deliberately waited for the other party to attack first,
precisely to personally experience the power of lightning-element spells.
Now seeing the astonishing speed of this method,
he no longer underestimated the situation,
and immediately flipped his hand, taking out the Divine Brush Creates Dragon Diagram that had been hidden in his sleeve.
He silently chanted the spell,
and a lifelike ink dragon broke free from the painting, letting out a clear dragon roar with its head raised.
Dou *Shixiong* immediately felt his body sink,
and his entire body's escape techniques seemed to lose their effect.
He looked at the ink dragon in disbelief, his eyes seemingly spitting fire.
He gritted his teeth and said:
“So, the scoundrel who sneak-attacked me back then was actually you!
It seems I didn't accuse you wrongly today!”
Li Lan had no intention of reminiscing with the other party at all.
Taking advantage of the flying boat losing its effect and rapidly descending,
with a thought of his divine sense,
the Spirit Bean Soldiers hidden in the dark on the ground immediately activated the formation.
In that moment,
a mighty force as heavy as a mountain descended upon both of them.
A rumbling sound gradually rose,
and the ground beneath their feet rippled like a giant earth dragon turning over.
Ink-black iron chains as thick as wrists broke out from within, constantly wriggling.
In the blink of an eye, within a ten-mile radius, there was no place left to land.
“Previously, a kind cultivator reminded me that the supplementary materials for my formation array were too cheap.
I am someone who listens to advice, so I went back and purchased older materials to replace them,
Now, please allow Dou *Shixiong* to experience this improved grand formation.”
As Li Lan spoke, his will moved,
and the Earthbound Thousand Machine Diagram was fully activated.
Dou *Shixiong* only felt it was somewhat difficult to move,
let alone moving as freely and elegantly escaping as before,
even wanting to move a little faster was extremely difficult.
What made his expression change even more was that,
wisps of milky white magic power were uncontrollably leaking out from his body through his pores.
Flowing downwards, towards the ocean formed by ink-black iron chains.
This grand formation beneath his feet was actually absorbing his magic power!
Seeing the other party's expression like this,
Li Lan's heart settled slightly.
Just as he said,
after being reminded by Wang An,
he immediately replaced all the supplementary materials for casting in the ""Earth Imprisoning Thousand Machine Lock"".
The Earth Vein Sinking Gold Flags were changed from the original ten-year-old Spiritual Locust Wood to thirty-year-old ones.
The Cold Iron Stones used for the Aged Cold Iron Chains were also changed to hundred-year-old Cold Iron.
So many rare materials,
could not be purchased with just spirit stones alone.
If not for the help of the Qian Business Association,
Li Lan wanting to gather them in just a few years would be purely a fool's dream.
Fortunately,
all this hard work did yield some results after all.
According to the age of the original formation supplementary materials, the power of this formation was only around mid-Tier 2, and could only have significant effects on cultivators at the Qi Refining Fourth Level.
For cultivators at the Lingqi Middle Stage, or even late stage, the effect would not be very significant.
But now, after some improvement of the materials, judging from Dou *Shixiong*'s expression,
the power of this formation might be able to increase to around peak Tier 4.
Even cultivators at Qi Refining Great Perfection would find it difficult to resist its influence.
“Dou *Shixiong* dislikes someone holding a grudge behind his back, little does he know, this Junior Brother is the same.
For this Junior Brother to have a good night's sleep, I'll have to ask Senior Brother to die.”
As Li Lan spoke, his hands did not stop.
With a single hand, he stroked the storage bag at his waist,
and several rays of light appeared.
Judge Cui's Pen, Silver Light Needle Treasure, Fishing in the Plate Diagram, Qinghong Duan Shui Sword Method Treasure Talisman—
A lion uses its full strength even when hunting a rabbit.
What Li Lan had always adhered to was, if he didn't make a move, so be it,
but once he did, he would do so with the force of thunder, completely putting the other party to death.
Therefore,
he gave Dou *Shixiong*, this Qi Refining Great Perfection cultivator, enough face.
After a brief exchange, he used all his abilities,
and summoned all the trump cards he currently possessed.
This scene,
completely stunned Dou *Shixiong*.
He had thought that since Li Lan could escape from the battle at the Hengshan Spiritual Vein,
he should have some hidden backup plans and trump cards.
But he never expected,
that the other party's trump cards were so formidable, even possessing items that only Human Emperor Hall Executors could have,
such as the Judge Pen, a treasure artifact said to counter all things.
How could this not surprise him.
What shocked him even more was that,
the other party actually held a complete Talisman Treasure!
One must know, this item is so rare that even many Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators do not possess it.
Where did this kid get this from?
Although he didn't recognize some of the other artifacts, judging solely from the magic power fluctuations emanating from them, he could still determine that,
each of these items was no ordinary artifact.
This single glance instantly chilled Dou *Shixiong*'s heart.
What exactly is this kid's background?
He hides things way too deeply!
With these artifacts protecting him,
it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he has no equal below the Foundation Establishment Stage.
If he were at his peak, perhaps he could still contend with the other party for a bit.
But last time, in order to escape with his life from the Hengshan Spiritual Vein, many of his trump cards were rendered useless and left there.
Now he only has his magic power, with nothing else to protect himself besides that clapper artifact.
Dou *Shixiong* knew deeply,
that whether one won a battle against another cultivator, the difference in cultivation realm was only one factor,
artifacts, grand formations, talismans, spells, and so on were all equally indispensable.
It was precisely because of this,
that over the past half year, he had been frantically searching for some soft targets,
preparing to plunder some usable items from them.
Li Lan was one of them.
Only,
Dou *Shixiong* hadn't expected,
that Li Lan, who seemed easy to handle and usually kept quiet, would be so tricky.