On the small white jade boat, Gong Chenying was still sitting in a corner with her legs crossed, continuing her closed-door cultivation. However, a blush remained on her face and neck.

Li Yan was still standing at the front of the boat, controlling it. The corner of his eye would occasionally fall on the stunningly beautiful woman, but every time his gaze landed on Gong Chenying, her long eyelashes would visibly tremble.

"How has he become like this? Is this… an infatuation? Bah…"

Gong Chenying was secretly annoyed. With her cultivation, how could she not feel Li Yan's gaze?

Although her eyes were tightly closed, she was unable to enter a state of cultivation for a long time. It seemed Li Yan was extremely bored and would look at her every so often. This made her heart beat faster, and her mind started to wander.

With Gong Chenying's willpower, once the shackles of her emotions were broken, she was no different from a normal young girl in love. Moreover, she had already decided that Li Yan was the only man for her in this life, so she became just as emotional as an ordinary girl.

While her mind was wandering, she temporarily forgot about Li Yan's potential connection with Zhao Min, and all that was left was a heart full of hope and anxiety.

She had no idea that Li Yan was frequently looking back to constantly confirm their position. To move quickly and reduce their target, the small white jade boat was only an illusion of about a zhang in size. Li Yan was at the front, and Gong Chenying was at the back.

Li Yan's divine sense was limited, so he could only constantly use his eyes to scan the surroundings to prevent any sudden changes. With the two of them so close, it would have been strange if his gaze didn't pass over Gong Chenying.

But his actions made the increasingly sensitive Gong Chenying feel a certain way today, which would have been absolutely impossible in the past.

While controlling the flying boat, Li Yan was also thinking about what had just happened. Since Gong Chenying hadn't recovered, he had to come up with a plan to put them in a dangerous situation and then find a way to survive.

At that time, he sent a message to Gong Chenying, saying that he could hide in the overwhelming black shadow behind them and wait for an opportunity to launch a sneak attack on Wang Lang.

Gong Chenying was startled when she heard Li Yan's message, thinking he had been possessed. She was about to check his condition. Li Yan signaled for her not to move, as Wang Lang's divine sense had already firmly locked onto both of them.

Then, Li Yan once again brought up the "Fractured Poison Body," a lie he had already prepared. This excuse always worked.

He also subtly showed his right arm to Gong Chenying, which left her dumbfounded and feeling a sense of unreality. But Li Yan looked so confident that she really had no idea that the Fractured Poison Body was so powerful to such a monstrous extent.

Li Yan knew she didn't believe him, so he seemingly unconsciously controlled the small white jade boat to move closer to the black shadow on the side. Under Li Yan's gaze, Gong Chenying saw Li Yan extend one hand and point toward the center of the region, as if he were saying something.

But at the same time, he had quietly extended a finger from his right hand. Then, he suddenly caused the small white jade boat to shake. It was as if he had gotten emotional while talking to her, causing the small white jade boat to accidentally get close to the thick black shadow under the sky. He then acted as if he was hurriedly trying to avoid it after realizing what had happened.

And under Gong Chenying's disbelieving gaze, Li Yan's finger, with the shaking of the small white jade boat, quickly extended into the black shadow and then came back. This movement was extremely concealed.

In addition, Li Yan's other hand made a large gesture. He believed this had attracted Wang Lang's divine sense.

With just that one extension and retraction, Gong Chenying had seen it very clearly. A very absurd idea arose in her heart. That terrifying, incomparably black shadow, the black shadow that could destroy everything, the black shadow that made everyone here terrified.

It was actually… actually possible to extend a hand into it?

But Gong Chenying quickly returned to normal. Wang Lang was rapidly approaching, her own fighting power had not fully recovered, and with Li Yan's various strange behaviors in the Wheel of Life and Death, she gritted her teeth and agreed to Li Yan's plan.

What Li Yan didn't know was that if he hadn't come out of the black shadow, Gong Chenying had already decided to self-destruct and perish with Wang Lang. As for the wish she had since she was a child, she could only give it up. She couldn't have everything perfect, so she would do what her heart desired and what she thought was the most important thing to do at that moment. What would Li Yan feel if he knew about Gong Chenying's thoughts?

As expected, Wang Lang thought the two of them were in a conflict of opinion. With his pursuit, Gong Chenying had become furious and had thrown the troublesome Qi Condensation disciple into the giant black shadow, and was about to escape on her own.

Gong Chenying further showed weakness to the enemy, only using a portion of her strength. The moment Wang Lang relaxed his guard, she suddenly unleashed her full power to force him toward the location where Li Yan was. This all sounds simple, but it was extremely difficult in practice.

Gong Chenying had to conceal her strength on one hand and ensure her own safety on the other. She also had to make sure that the battlefield did not move too far from the black shadow during the fight.

When Wang Lang began to think about using brute force to defeat a body cultivator, Gong Chenying knew her chance had come. After a powerful blow, a continuous storm of attacks followed.

With Wang Lang losing the initiative, she forced him to retreat continuously. In her heart, which was pounding wildly, Li Yan indeed emerged safely from the black shadow as they had planned beforehand, which finally allowed her to put her mind at ease.

If Wang Lang had retreated just one or two more steps, he would have been alert to the black shadow beside him. Simply being wary of the terrifying black shadow, he would have gone around it.

If Li Yan had not appeared by then, Gong Chenying would have directly used a wide, sweeping fighting style to force Wang Lang to be unable to advance. In the end, she would have used her body to charge into the black shadow with him.

Li Yan thought of all this and a trace of a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. He then thought of the red light Wang Lang had swallowed when he fled, which instantly restored Wang Lang's aura. Since Wang Lang hadn't used it until then, Li Yan could guess that swallowing that red light would come with a heavy price.

"I wonder if that red light was really a pill and what kind of pill it was? If I could have one of those red lights, even if it came at a heavy price in a time of crisis, it would be better than paying with my life.

But even if he swallowed the red light, so what? It's still a question whether he can resist the poison of the 'Bone-Clinging Maggot'!"

When Li Yan thought of this, an insidious smile unconsciously appeared on his face. But this smile, appearing at this moment, took on a different meaning in someone's divine sense.

Gong Chenying gnashed her teeth in anger. Li Yan was looking at her while showing such a wicked smile. He must have been thinking of something dirty.

Gong Chenying's mind also couldn't help but go back to the scene of her being almost half-naked, and Li Yan looking at her with a wicked gaze.

And the unfortunate Li Yan was still thinking about his own worries.

"I don't even have an antidote for the 'Bone-Clinging Maggot' I laid on the sword. Lu Qiutong's spiritual beads all turned into six lumps of gray stuff. Is Wang Lang's flesh and blood body stronger than a spiritual treasure?"

...

Wang Lang only felt his back becoming numb, and he was slowly losing feeling in his back. The heartbreaking pain from before had begun to disappear quickly. He knew this was not a good sign.

He desperately used the last of his spiritual power to fly on his sword, recklessly flying toward the spherical object in the center.

The red light that shot into his mouth was a pill, but it was a pill that Wang Lang had never wanted to take. But the moment the sharp blade was inserted into his back, he felt a strong sense of life-and-death crisis in his heart.

This feeling was something he had never experienced since he started cultivating. It was as if he would be turned to dust and ashes in this world if he hesitated for a moment longer. In this strong life-and-death crisis, he unhesitatingly took out a pill he had never thought he would use, the "Borrowed Foundation Pill."

The name of this pill was similar to the "Foundation Establishment Pill," but its effect was completely different. The "Borrowed Foundation Pill" borrows the power of life and transforms it into the foundation needed by the body.

Within half an hour, it could prevent all injuries. Unless his head was cut off and his soul was destroyed, he would be safe. But all this was gained at the cost of burning his life.

If someone were to meet Wang Lang at this moment, they would not be able to recognize him from his appearance at all. This was no longer the handsome and dashing young man of the secular world.

In the short time that had passed, Wang Lang had turned into a haggard middle-aged man of over forty, and his face was still visibly aging rapidly. His skin also began to change from smooth to rough and was constantly shriveling and deteriorating.

He had obtained this "Borrowed Foundation Pill" years ago after killing an evil cultivator from the Blood God Sect. He had originally planned to sell it for spiritual stones, but after some thought, he decided to keep it just in case. But he never thought he would ever have to use this pill.

With his extraordinary talent, his path to forming a Core Formation and Nascent Soul would be smooth sailing. His strength would soar all the way. The opportunities for him to be on the brink of death were minimal, so he had forgotten about this pill.

It was only when he was organizing his storage bag before entering this secret realm that he rediscovered this pill and casually brought it with him.

As Wang Lang flew at high speed, he still held a long sword in one hand. The body of this sword had long since turned gray-brown, without any spiritual energy. It was as if it had entered its twilight years even before Wang Lang.

But Wang Lang held the long sword tightly, and the anger in his heart burned even more fiercely. Since he had taken the long sword from his back, he had recognized that it was the one Junior Brother Miao Zhengyi had been nurturing in his sword box.

"They actually killed Junior Brother Miao, and they even took his sword box. The person who attacked me from the black shadow must be that Qi Condensation disciple from the Wraith Sect. But how could they hide in the black shadow? Did Junior Brother Miao also die from a sneak attack without even knowing it?"

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration went through Wang Lang's mind. He thought of the spatial anomaly that he and Quan Jiuxing had experienced during the last stage, and his face changed dramatically.

"Did the Wraith Sect obtain more secrets of the secret realm than us three sects? Dammit, who was the person who attacked me? What other secrets do the others know? I must tell the sect about all of this!"

As he flew and pondered, he only felt his body becoming more and more unresponsive. And the vitality borrowed from burning his life by the "Borrowed Foundation Pill" was also disappearing at an incredible speed.

At this rate, he wouldn't last even half an hour before his life came to an end.

In this urgent situation, Wang Lang could no longer spare any thought for other matters. He flew even more frantically toward the center, with only one thought in his mind: he must get this message out.

But his body was becoming more and more shaky in the air. No matter what he did to suppress the potent poison that had entered his back, it was all in vain.

He only felt that if it weren't for the protection of the "Borrowed Foundation Pill," his internal organs would have long since been corroded by this poison. Even so, he felt that his organs had already become hard and were about to turn into gray stones.

"What kind of poison is this?"

...