A roar echoed from an unnamed, low-lying mountain.
The sky buzzed loudly on one side, a cloud of blackish-yellow mist covering most of the sky. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a swarm of ferocious-looking bees, each the size of a palm. Gray and red lights flickered within, as if something were trapped inside.
In the adjacent sky, a red python with wings spanning over ten zhang, resembling a fiery dragon, soared through the air, spewing large fireballs that bombarded the ground.
Beneath the winged python, a man continuously waved a scarlet banner, from which wisps of crimson spiritual light emanated, enveloping the python and enhancing its aura.
The man's face was sickly pale, but his spiritual pressure had already reached the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm. "Boy, you should just surrender," the man said with a cold snort towards the ground below, but there was no response.
This made Wang Yan's face darken. He didn't say anything more and fully activated the scarlet banner. With a wave, the winged python opened its mouth and spat out a thick pillar of fire, which slammed onto the ground with a deafening boom.
The point where the pillar of fire struck shimmered with spiritual light, as a two-zhang wide cyan shield blocked the attack. Then, the giant shield split into three smaller shields, sinking towards the ground and rapidly rotating around a cloud of yellow wind.
This was a condensed cloud of yellow sand that refused to dissipate. Within it, a figure was resisting the countless fiery attacks raining down from above.
The figure was Zhang Ling. His expression was neither sorrowful nor joyful, only a cold light gathered in his eyes. His hands continuously pushed out hand seals, and three flying swords hovering beside him soared into the sky, slashing out streaks of cyan sword light towards the winged fire serpent.
But the fire serpent's entire body was engulfed in blazing red flames, transforming into fireballs in mid-air.
For a time, cyan sword light and crimson flames intertwined, unleashing violent gusts of wind that swept in all directions. Nearby trees and boulders were shattered, and even the topsoil was ripped away.
It seemed Zhang Ling was at a disadvantage. Indeed, his current situation was not good.
The man not only possessed mid-stage Golden Core strength, but the flame banner he wielded was also extraordinarily powerful. Moreover, he had brought along two female cultivators at the early stage of the Golden Core realm.
In fact, only two hours had passed since he left the snow mountain. After flying a distance from the snow mountain, he had rested in a small mountain.
After all, he hadn't seen any other cultivators in the snow mountain, and whether there were any other cultivators in that snow mountain was just speculation.
Unexpectedly, other cultivators had chased after him while he was resting, and three high-level cultivators had come at once.
Zhang Ling had never seen these three people, but he soon noticed a snow ferret perched on the man's shoulder, the same one he had seen in the ice cave.
He had been careless and allowed the snow ferret to escape, and now it had attracted other cultivators. Zhang Ling immediately knew things were not good.
The snow ferret also shrieked when it saw him. As expected, the three directly demanded the Ice Mulberry from him. He immediately turned to leave.
As for handing over the Ice Mulberry to save his life, that was even more impossible.
If the strength of the two sides was similar, Zhang Ling might consider it, but all three were Golden Core cultivators, and the pale-faced man was even at the mid-stage. He was afraid that they would turn against him the moment they obtained the Ice Mulberry.
Then, the three of them attacked him, chasing him relentlessly. During the escape, Zhang Ling also used the Sword Light Escape Technique once, conjuring a large number of sword light escapes, hoping to escape the pursuit of the three.
At first, he really escaped thirty or forty miles. As long as he widened the distance a little further, he could get rid of these three. But the three of them jointly used a secret technique, immediately increasing their speed several times and catching up in one fell swoop.
Seeing the distance gradually closing, it was not a solution to keep running away. He had been locked on by the three people's divine senses and could not widen the distance. Zhang Ling had no choice but to land here and directly face the three.
Under the joint attack of the three, he was immediately at a disadvantage.
If he hadn't unexpectedly released all the Earth Spirit Bees just now, trapping the other two early-stage Golden Core female cultivators at once, the situation would probably be even worse now.
But the situation was not optimistic at the moment. More than two thousand Earth Spirit Bees had already been killed or injured, and it wouldn't be long before the two cultivators escaped.
If the three of them joined forces, he would really be in danger. The top priority now was to quickly kill the strongest male cultivator.
Zhang Ling was calculating how to quickly kill this pale-faced man.
Wang Yan was not in a hurry at this time, controlling the scarlet banner to continuously attack Zhang Ling. At the same time, he glanced at the swarm of spirit insects not far away.
Junior Sister Chen and Senior Sister Zhao were trapped inside. These spirit bees were somewhat powerful, but he could also see that this swarm of spirit bees was relying on quantity to trap the two women. At this time, with the two women attacking inside, they had also killed a lot of spirit insects.
Before long, they would be able to escape.
And the little kid at the early stage of the Golden Core realm had some strength, but how could he compare to him, a mid-stage Golden Core expert? He was suppressed by him at the moment. Even if he fought hard with spiritual power, he would not be defeated. What's more, his scarlet banner was not an ordinary magic weapon, and its attack power was extremely strong. It wouldn't be long before he could break through this person's defense.
At this time, a huge whistling sound suddenly came from below. For a time, the ground was gray and yellow, forming a huge yellow sand tornado, which was also mixed with large and small stones, looking like it was very powerful.
Wang Yan showed a mocking look, his divine sense passed through the sand and immediately locked onto the cultivator inside. In order to prevent this person from escaping.
As for the attacking sand, in his opinion, it could be easily blocked and was not worth worrying about.
At this moment, the person in his divine sense did not escape, but was continuously urging hand seals, and the three cyan flying swords floating outside his body quickly overlapped together, as if he was using some means.
Wang Yan sneered and didn't even move. A red jade pendant flew to his side, forming a hemispherical shield in front of him.
With the defensive magic weapon guarding him, it was enough to resist the next attack.
Wang Yan didn't want to delay any longer. A fierce look flashed on his face, and he spat out two clusters of scarlet essence into the flame banner in his hand. Suddenly, red and black runes appeared on the scarlet banner.
Quickly waving this treasure, the winged fire python that had condensed above absorbed the power of the runes and turned black, and its body grew three times larger. Then, it spewed out a dark red flame.
This flame did not attack first, but covered the fire python's body. The winged fire python quickly danced in the air, forming flame afterimages in mid-air.
Then, the afterimages turned into fire snakes that were more than ten feet in size. At first glance, there were as many as two or three hundred.
Wang Yan fully activated his whole body's spiritual power and injected it into the banner in his hand, and waved it down vigorously. The many fire snakes seemed to have received an order and rushed out, and the entire sky was dyed red.
