The Long Journey to Immortality

Yi Qiyan nodded slightly, "Then I'll count down from five. Han Lu, don't go easy on me."

"Don't worry," Han Lu said with a smile, "If I held back when competing with you, the Holy Maiden of the Five Poisons Sect, I would have been defeated in no time."

Although confident of victory, Han Lu still kept the principle of respecting her opponent in mind and had no intention of holding back during the match.

Upon hearing this, Yi Qiyan chuckled and then made a hand seal, activating the restrictive array set up around the arena.

A pale purple light curtain rose from the edge of the arena.

The light barrier activated by this formation looks thin, but it can withstand the attacks of most Golden Core stage spells, enough to prevent the two Foundation Establishment cultivators in the arena from destroying the building by using spells and magic weapons.

After completing all the preparations, Yi Qiyan slowly placed her hand on the storage bag, coughed lightly, and began to count down.

"five……"

Many cultivators enjoy countering each other's moves and playing a defensive counter-attacking style when engaging in combat.

However, at this moment, neither of the two cultivators on the arena chose to use the safest method to conduct this duel.

Therefore, as they counted down to the ten-thousandth five, almost simultaneously, the two cultivators standing on the arena unleashed the methods they had anticipated long ago.

Han Lu made up her mind to try out her many newly acquired magical treasures in this competition.

The handkerchief she had just obtained from Xiaoyaozi's cave a few days ago transformed into a red light and flew out of Han Lu's storage bag, hovering above the arena. Under the activation of the magic technique, it expanded nearly a hundred times in a single breath, resembling a cloud that "sinks" red and covered half of the arena.

As for Yi Qiyan, she began practicing poison techniques, which she wasn't particularly good at when she was in the Qi Refining Mirror.

The ancient cultivation lineage she obtained in the ancient cultivation secret realm was related to poison, so naturally, she wanted to take it out and test its effects at this time.

Seeing the thick black fog drift out of Yi Qiyan's storage bag and gather into a ball that crashed towards Han Lu, Han Lu dared not be careless.

Yi Qiyan's poison is definitely not as potent as that of other cultivators, and Han Lu has no intention of risking her life.

With a wave of her hand, the red handkerchief floating in the air seemed to instantly become incredibly heavy, falling straight down and covering Han Lu's head, completely isolating her from the outside air.

The black poisonous mist collided with Ropa, which emitted a faint red glow, and it had truly met its match.

Ninety-nine percent of the poisonous fog was completely blocked or absorbed by Ropa, with only a small amount bypassing Ropa and reaching Han Lu's side.

This toxic fog cannot be prevented from entering the body simply by breathing or not breathing.

However, Han Lu's constitution was such that even a small amount of poisonous fog did not have the slightest effect on her.

She just thought the air smelled a bit unpleasant, but nothing else.

Yi Qiyan watched as the poisonous mist she released was easily blocked, her expression not changing much. She just felt that Han Lu was more skilled and had anticipated her actions, which was why she had used the red Luo Pai magic weapon in advance.

As the poisonous fog dissipated, Han Lu flicked the red handkerchief covering her head, stirring the air and making a crisp sound, as if she were asking for credit.

Taking advantage of this opening, Han Lu controlled Luo Pa and slammed it down on Yi Qiyan.

Chapter 445 Formation

Seeing the magical weapon approaching, Yi Qiyan remained calm.

While using his lightness technique to try to dodge, he also summoned his rarely used spirit sword and thrust it at the red robe.

Although Yi Qiyan's cultivation path is not the orthodox path of the Central Plains cultivators, she, as a saintess, still possesses a spiritual sword.

Not only do they exist, but their quality is also quite high.

Although her sword-wielding technique was somewhat crude and far inferior to Han Lu's, she ultimately managed to use the correct magical weapon to counter it.

Seeing Yi Qiyan wield her spirit sword, Han Lu changed her moves.

The cloth, which had been unfolded with the intention of temporarily trapping Yi Qiyan, was twisted in an instant, turning back into a thread, like a rope, and wrapped around the sharp and gleaming spirit sword.

Because her sword-wielding skills were not up to par, Yi Qiyan was naturally unable to control her spirit sword to unleash its sword light to counterattack or fly away to dodge. Her second-grade magic weapon spirit sword was tightly wrapped by the red cloth controlled by Han Lu, which concealed the sharpness of both its blades under the red cloth.

Thus, the spirit sword could no longer be used freely. Its sharpness, which was meant to counter the red Roba, was cleverly neutralized by Han Lu in an instant.

The two magical treasures entangled in the air, while the battle between the two Foundation Establishment cultivators continued.

Having determined that the two magical treasures were evenly matched for the time being, the two, who were already able to freely control multiple magical treasures and use various methods at the same time, turned their attention to other aspects.

Knowing that Han Lu would be unable to use the Luo Pa, a magical artifact that could isolate poison, Yi Qiyan summoned the three-colored poison mist again, intending to use the same trick again and let Han Lu have a taste.

Unexpectedly, Han Lu cleverly applied what she learned, covering herself with the bronze bell as a defensive artifact.

The copper bell's ability to isolate toxins is not as good as Ropa's, but it can't compete with Han Lu's superior ability to resist toxins.

About 30% of the three-colored poisonous mist was inhaled by Han Lu, but it only caused her face to change color a few times before the effect wore off in less than ten breaths.

Seeing this, Yi Qiyan realized why her poison technique had such a poor effect on Han Lu.

"It seems that the true spirit bloodline in Han Lu's body will still take effect even when she is in human form. It is said that some true spirits are immune to all poisons. It is likely that a top-level true spirit like the phoenix will naturally have a high resistance to some toxins."

"My poisonous mist, which is effective against Foundation Establishment cultivators, is indeed no match for Han Lu."

However, the inheritance that Yi Qiyan obtained recorded many rare poisons that circulated only in small circles during the ancient cultivation era, including quite a few poisons that could poison even Golden Core and Foundation Establishment cultivators.

There are also toxins specifically designed to deal with true spirits. After all, true spirits were the main adversaries of cultivators back then, so naturally there would be special toxins to counter them.

Thinking of this, and knowing that the poisons in her storage bag would probably not be very effective against Han Lu, Yi Qiyan adapted to the situation and used the methods of the Central Plains cultivators to deal with Han Lu.

As a saintess, Yi Qiyan possesses many magical treasures. She aspires to become a "Taoist of Many Treasures," using a large number of high-quality magical treasures to defeat Han Lu.

Considering that Han Lu possessed the Illusionary Phoenix bloodline, Yi Qiyan did not take out the magic treasures used for illusions and soul attacks. Instead, she summoned out the magic treasures that were good at external martial arts from her storage bag.

Another spirit sword of considerable quality flew out of Yi Qiyan's storage bag as a streak of rainbow light.

However, the spirit sword was not aimed at Han Lu, but at Hong Pa, who was still entangled with another spirit sword.

Yi Qiyan had no shortage of experience in combat, and she made what she believed to be the most correct choice in this situation.

Seeing this, Han Lu was not in a hurry. After hesitating for a moment without using the True Spirit Transformation technique, she took out other magic treasures.

Han Lu's favorite paulownia wood flute flew out of her storage bag, and then the spiritual sword formed by the Seven Kill Sword Technique also leaped out of Han Lu's dantian.

Compared to three months ago, the color of this spiritual sword has changed slightly due to the influence of the metal on its outer casing.

The original gold color was covered with a layer of silvery-white darkness, and the power of the artifact was much greater than before.

Once again employing her "semi-automatic musical instrument playing" technique, Han Lu cast illusions on the arena.

At the same time, the Spirit Sword once again split into nine, with one half flying into the air to join the stalemate between Ropa and the Spirit Sword, while the other half attacked Yi Qiyan herself with lightning speed.

The lone spirit sword spun rapidly through the air, leaving strange marks in its wake.

This is another new application of the sword formation by Han Lu.

First, use a spirit sword to outline the trajectory of spiritual energy and roughly arrange the sword formation.

After the basic setup is complete, the remaining spirit swords are returned to the formation, and the sword formation is arranged in a slow-to-fast manner.

Faced with the attack of the spirit sword, Yi Qiyan summoned several other defensive magic treasures to defend herself.

With the power of the spirit sword being divided into nine, its strength naturally decreased considerably. Yi Qiyan's defensive magic treasures, though only used casually, still managed to block all the incoming spirit swords.

From the beginning until now, Han Lu and Yi Qiyan have exchanged seven or eight blows, and the two sides have fought back and forth, just as Yi Qiyan had expected, they are evenly matched.

However, all of this was not on the track that Yi Qiyan had expected. She was quite uncomfortable with the Central Plains style of fighting, and felt that she had only used 60% of her skills.

Yi Qiyan thought to herself, "Han Lu's characteristics are too much of a counter to me."

Even without the transformation of true spirit, Yi Qiyan was unable to freely use her poison and spirit insects, which were her greatest strengths, against Han Lu.

After fighting for about a hundred breaths, Yi Qiyan regretted seeking out Han Lu to spar and break through her mental barrier at this time.

But despite the regret, we still have to fight for this victory.

Yi Qiyan felt that the current situation was still evenly matched, and even in terms of scale, she was slightly better than Han Lu.

But soon, she stopped laughing.

Han Lu's spirit sword, which had been flying haphazardly in the air, finally drew upon spiritual power to roughly depict the sword formation that Han Lu wanted to set up.

The spiritual swords that were just entangled with Yi Qiyan's magical artifacts instantly withdrew from the battlefield and flew to their designated positions within the magic array.

With meticulous planning, Han Lu completed the sword formation without facing any threats.

Golden halos emanated from the spirit sword located in the center of the sword formation, spreading outwards. When the halos touched the other spirit swords that had already taken their positions, they were activated as if a mechanism had been pressed, causing them to emit intense light outwards.

Besides the light, the cry of a true phoenix also emanated from Han Lu's spiritual sword.

These melodious chirping sounds, however, made Yi Qiyan's heart flutter.

Now, even a fool can see that Han Lu has prepared a powerful move, which she is about to unleash in this sparring match.

Yi Qiyan knew she couldn't just sit and wait to die, so she thought of using her magic weapon to destroy the sword formation and ruin Han Lu's newly set-up stance.

[Author's Note] It was my fault for not proofreading carefully. Thank you all so much for helping me find the typos and grammatical errors.

Chapter 446 Nine Spirit Sword Formation

The sword formation that Han Lu set up at this moment was the "Nine Spirits Sword Formation" that she had learned from the ancient cultivator Fang Lin.

Because she possesses the bloodline of the True Spirit, the spiritual sword she wields is naturally imbued with the aura of the True Spirit from her bloodline.

Using the spiritual energy sword to divide it into nine, Han Lu gained a new understanding of the Nine Spirits Sword Formation.

In this way, she wouldn't have to go through the trouble of searching for the bloodlines of nine other mid-to-high-grade True Spirits to forge the Spirit Sword, and she could still unleash this powerful sword formation.

Opportunism and trickery naturally come with both gains and losses.

This sword formation only utilizes the bloodline power of three kinds of true spirits, so naturally the supernatural powers that the sword formation can unleash are limited to the three kinds of true spirits that Han Lu possesses.

In that case, this move seems a bit like "taking off your pants to fart".

Having mastered the "True Phoenix Manual," Han Lu can transform into three true phoenixes and freely use the three phoenix supernatural powers she has learned. So why bother to painstakingly set up a sword formation and use this roundabout way to use the supernatural powers she knows and is good at in this way?

It is under the special rule of sparring with Yi Qiyan that the "Nine Spirits Sword Formation" modified by Han Lu has found its place.

By completing the sword formation and successfully executing it, Han Lu can use the various supernatural abilities she has learned from her true spirit bloodline in combat without breaking the rules, in her full human form.

But Yi Qiyan didn't want Han Lu to have her way.

Looking at the sword formation that was almost complete, Yi Qiyan subconsciously took out a magic weapon from her storage bag that was quite suitable for this moment.

A feather fan appeared in Yi Qiyan's hand.

Infused with spiritual energy, Yi Qiyan swung her arm and vigorously brandished the feather fan of unknown grade.

The feather fan stirred up gusts of strong wind, and at the same time, seven or eight black flames flew out from the feather fan, rushing towards Han Lu's spirit swords that were forming an array.