Ji Yuan and Lin Yubai each consumed over ten types of elixirs, and a hint of color finally returned to their faces, their auras gradually stabilizing.
However, despite the ingestion of numerous potent elixirs, the vast medicinal forces dispersing within their bodies could only temporarily suppress their severe injuries. There was no sign of any improvement.
After a while, Lin Yubai suddenly fell into a deep slumber. Fleeting sparks of lightning flickered with his breathing, and faint thunder rumbled softly within the tree hollow.
Ji Yuan observed for a moment before confirming that this was likely his cultivation technique, which had automatically activated in response to his severe injuries.
Though he was worried about Lin Yubai's condition, he was currently struggling to protect himself and had no capacity to focus on anything else.
Taking a deep breath, he slowly sat up cross-legged, each movement aggravating his internal injuries and sending waves of more intense pain through him.
The physical pain was secondary; the agony within his soul was the most perilous. Every moment, he felt as though his soul was about to dissipate.
As he sat cross-legged, enduring the excruciating pain, Ji Yuan took a considerable amount of time to barely achieve a state of focus, slowly sinking his consciousness into his physical body.
Upon self-examination, even he couldn't help but feel a chill. Besides a massive crack in his lower dantian, his flesh and blood were filled with sharp, aggressive energy.
This sharp energy raged within him, burning with dark red demonic flames, constantly eroding his physical form.
Not to mention his purple mansion and sea of consciousness at the center of his brow, which also bore enormous cracks. If not for the suppression of the sword qi lake and the circulation of the Soul Refining Secret Art, his soul light would have long since vanished, and his very soul would have been torn from his body.
If it had come to that, he would not even have the chance to reincarnate, having already disintegrated into nothingness before entering the cycle of rebirth.
After pondering for a long time, Ji Yuan decided to address the injuries to his physical body first. Though his soul was of utmost importance, his physical body was the vessel that carried it, and any mishap was unacceptable.
He attempted to mobilize the spiritual power within him, but there was no response. Most of his spiritual power had dispersed throughout his meridians, and the small portion remaining in his dantian was being suppressed by the Xuantian Soul Devouring Tower.
After some thought, he considered slightly easing the tower's suppressive force. However, the moment he had this thought, he saw the remaining spiritual power in his dantian begin to dissipate.
Alarmed, Ji Yuan immediately abandoned the idea and instructed the Xuantian Soul Devouring Tower to suppress his dantian with full force.
This was the only spiritual power he had left that was relatively intact. If it were to dissipate completely, he would be unable to maintain his cultivation at the Second Realm.
It was not impossible for him to fall all the way back to the initial stage of the Enlightenment Realm, or even revert to being a mere mortal.
However, his current condition was already giving him a splitting headache. With his spiritual power unusable, he naturally couldn't refine the elixirs he had consumed, and could only let their medicinal effects dissipate on their own.
Even then, it would be considered good if one or two tenths of the efficacy could be utilized; the rest would be wasted.
Wasting some elixirs was a minor concern. The main issue was that in his current state, without the aid of medicinal power, it seemed almost impossible to stabilize his internal injuries.
Suddenly, Ji Yuan's mind jolted. He flipped his wrist, and a sheathed dagger appeared in his palm.
He slowly grasped this sacred artifact, and immediately felt a surge of righteous energy flow into him, along with a sage's aura circulating throughout his body.
Wherever it passed, the aggressive energy and demonic flames silently vanished, as if they had never existed.
Under the shroud of the sage's aura, his internal injuries actually began to show signs of improvement. Although a significant distance remained before healing, at least they were no longer worsening.
Ji Yuan's state of mind finally began to calm. The intense pain within him gradually subsided, no longer as heart-wrenching as before.
Even his soul light, enveloped by the sage's aura, no longer flickered violently as it had previously, finally enjoying a rare moment of peace.
After a long while, Ji Yuan slowly opened his eyes, looking at the unsheathed dagger in his hand with surprise. Although there was still pain within him, it was no longer unbearable, only a very slight sensation remained.
Even the flesh and blood ravaged by the sharp energy and demonic flames began to radiate a faint spiritual glow. Beneath a thin layer of blood essence, the damage was slowly self-repairing.
His gaze flickered with a mixture of emotions. Seemingly making a decision, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes again.
At this moment, Ji Yuan forcibly mobilized a small portion of his soul light, gathering the spiritual power that had dispersed into his meridians. Then, following the general principles of the Xuantian Dao Scripture, he circulated it within his body, bit by bit.
As each small cycle was arduously completed, the spiritual power he mobilized grew from the thickness of a hair to that of a finger.
When he felt it was sufficient, he immediately guided this spiritual power into his right arm, where it then served as a bridge between him and the unsheathed dagger.
Without hesitation, he fully activated his cultivation technique, generating a suction force within his body that drew upon the sage's aura from the artifact!
For half an hour, Ji Yuan's face was flushed red with effort before he managed to extract a trace of sage's aura from the unsheathed dagger and integrate it into his own spiritual power.
He then quickly manipulated this spiritual power, making it circulate rapidly within his body, finally flowing into his dantian through the meridians.
"Soul Devouring Power!"
With a thought from Ji Yuan, the Xuantian Soul Devouring Tower immediately generated a suction force, engulfing the spiritual power containing a trace of sage's aura and storing it in the topmost layer.
Infused with countless pure spiritual energies, a vortex formed in this layer. The immense pressure compressed a large amount of spiritual energy and spiritual power, subsequently extruding a high-quality mid-grade spirit crystal.
As this spirit crystal materialized, enveloped by the magnificent pure spiritual qi, the entire small tower seemed to be imbued with a hint of sage's aura.
Under this aura, the spiritual power within Ji Yuan's body immediately ceased its dissipation. Even without the Xuantian Soul Devouring Tower's suppression, not a single trace would leak out.
With just a flicker of his thought, the spiritual power dispersed throughout his meridians seemed to respond to a summons and surged back into his dantian.
Although the cracks in his lower dantian, purple mansion, and sea of consciousness still existed, they would not cause any significant impact in the short term. A wisp of sage's aura flowed out from his dantian, permeating his body with a faint layer.
After a considerable time, Ji Yuan exhaled a heavy breath. Blackish-red gas, tinged with a strong scent of blood, was mixed within.
Although his injuries were still severe, he was at least temporarily out of mortal danger. With the presence of the sage's aura, his spiritual power and soul light would no longer be depleted.
And with his spiritual power no longer needing to be suppressed by the Xuantian Soul Devouring Tower, he finally had the energy to begin refining the elixirs within him!
As waves of potent medicinal energy surged, his entire body emitted a soft, radiant glow. His flesh and blood, like parched land receiving sweet rain, frantically absorbed the elixirs' power.
Several hours later, Ji Yuan slowly opened his eyes. Although three areas within him still bore ferocious and terrifying cracks, the injuries elsewhere had been completely suppressed.
While complete recovery would undoubtedly take two to three months of diligent effort, at least he now possessed some measure of self-preservation.
If he were to fight desperately, he could even contend with cultivators at the peak of the Second Realm, and even posing a threat to those at the late stage of the Second Realm was not impossible.
After recovering more than half of his spiritual power, the first thing he did was retrieve six Heavy Water Beads from Lin Yubai's sleeve.
These six Heavy Water Beads, after enduring a direct blow from the elder of the demonic path, had their spiritual essence greatly depleted. Their surfaces appeared dim and lusterless, covered in a layer of dark red demonic qi.
He attempted to dispel it with spiritual power, and even to activate the restrictions within the beads, but to no avail. Instead, sweat beaded on his forehead.
After much deliberation, Ji Yuan could only re-store the Heavy Water Beads into his six acupoints, slowly nourishing them with spiritual energy to replenish their depleted essence and, as much as possible, repair their spiritual nature.
After consuming a few more elixirs, he turned to look at Lin Yubai beside him. Seeing that his aura was significantly more stable than several hours prior and his internal injuries were slowly healing, Ji Yuan's worries gradually dissipated.
Although he didn't know how it was achieved, Lin Yubai's condition was much better than his own. With another day or two, he should recover from his near-death state.
At that point, Lin Yubai would at least regain some strength and would not continue to slumber.
However, did they have that much time?
Approximately four to five hours had passed since they fled. Ji Yuan estimated that the demonic elder should have almost completely expelled the Heavenly Punishment power within him.
And with a distance of over two hundred li, a cultivator of his level would need less than fifteen minutes to fly there on a weapon.
Perhaps in another hour or two at most, the old devil would discover traces of their escape and reappear before them.
However, given their current state, not to mention a cultivator at the early stage of the Third Realm, even one or two cultivators at the mid to late stage of the Second Realm would be enough to cost them half their lives.
After much thought, he sighed deeply and then took out a set of formation flags from his Emerald Ring.
After spending some time setting up this formation, which was adept at concealing auras, Ji Yuan placed several bottles of elixirs beside Lin Yubai and then cautiously exited the tree hollow.
He moved as far away as possible, and as much as possible, cleared his tracks, before heading rapidly in another direction.
After about fifteen minutes, Ji Yuan arrived about seven to eight li away from the tree hollow. He deliberately left a few traces, made them appear as if he had fled in haste, and then proceeded deeper into the marshland.
Along the way, Ji Yuan frequently stopped, either setting up temporary formations with the flags or burying stacks of talismans, marked with special techniques that would instantly ignite all the spiritual energy within the talisman core if there was any disturbance.
Sometimes, he even deliberately took detours and created diversions, leading anyone who discovered them to believe he had subtly changed his direction of travel.
In this way, although his progress was extremely slow, everything he left behind was sufficient to buy him a considerable amount of time.
Especially since these arrangements were made as much as possible to suit the old devil's temperament. Even though the man had suffered a minor setback once, he would still be led around in circles.
By the time the old man realized what was happening, Ji Yuan would be long gone.