Xiao Fei burned the corpse of the black-robed cultivator with a burst of fire, then cleaned up the scene, eliminating all traces of the battle.
Xiao Lan had returned to the Soul Nurturing Pearl. Her current awakening was much stronger than the previous one, and she could maintain a strength roughly equivalent to the late stage of Qi Refining.
However, her consciousness was still not fully clear. After devouring the residual souls of the Lin family cultivators, she had intended to attack Xiao Fei. Xiao Fei controlled her with his soul blood and placed her back into the Soul Nurturing Pearl to recuperate.
With the ability to devour vital blood, Xiao Lan now possessed the means to deal with living people.
Otherwise, although her previous vengeful spirit form was terrifying, it was only powerful in certain specific aspects.
When facing living people, she would still be quite wary. The vital energy and yang energy of the living were vigorous, and their souls were complete. Forcing oneself to devour a person's soul was difficult, and the yang energy would burn her ghostly form.
After gaining the ability to devour vital blood, Xiao Lan could now directly attack living people.
Xiao Fei cleaned up the scene and continued to fly forward.
However, after every short distance he traveled, he left behind a tracking marker.
This was something he had extracted from the black-robed cultivator just now.
This person was originally responsible for tracking and leaving markers to guide other Lin family cultivators to pursue him.
However, he had been misled by intelligence, believing that alchemists were not skilled in combat, and had underestimated his opponent, which led to his demise.
The Lin family had gone to great lengths to ensure no mistakes were made and to prevent Xiao Fei from escaping, truly using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
Merely to deal with an alchemist like him, who was not skilled in combat, they had dispatched over a dozen Qi Refining cultivators, as well as a Foundation Establishment elder.
Xiao Fei couldn't help but sigh, thinking the Lin family thought too highly of him. What was he, that he deserved such high-level pursuit?
Fortunately, the Foundation Establishment elder had gone to the Cuihua Mountain Range in advance, and it would take some time for him to catch up.
Now that the black-robed cultivator responsible for tracking had been killed by him, Xiao Fei could temporarily escape the pursuit.
However, it was not a viable long-term solution for the Lin family to continuously station people in the Cuihua Mountain Range. Moreover, he was still somewhat unwilling to simply flee.
He couldn't fight them, and he couldn't run easily.
Xiao Fei quickly made a decision. Rather than letting the Lin family cultivators search aimlessly after losing their target, he might as well lead them himself.
Thus, Xiao Fei flew forward aimlessly, leading a group of Lin family cultivators in pursuit behind him.
After flying for half a day, they arrived at a desolate area. In front of them was a stone mountain, and at the foot of the mountain was a dark cave.
Xiao Fei walked to the cave entrance and scanned it with his divine sense. Finding no other living beings, he strode inside.
The cave was very deep and had many branching paths.
"This will do!"
Xiao Fei muttered to himself, leaving a tracking marker on the ground at the cave entrance, then took out several wax balls from his spatial artifact and crushed them.
The environment inside the cave was relatively enclosed and poorly ventilated. Poisoning here would remain effective for a long time without spreading.
Xiao Fei had cultivated a considerable amount of second-tier Black Leaf Datura in his spatial artifact over the years. It was more than enough to deal with Qi Refining cultivators, and could even incapacitate Foundation Establishment cultivators.
He sprinkled a large amount of colorless and odorless powder along the cave and also around the entrance.
However, the cave entrance was relatively open and prone to dispersion, and the efficacy of the poison would decrease over time.
After setting everything up, Xiao Fei checked it again. Finding no oversights, he left the cave and hid in a patch of bushes on the opposite side of the stone mountain.
He took out a cloaked garment that could conceal his form and draped it over himself, suppressing all his aura.
This cloaked garment was obtained from Lin Da Gou back then. Apart from being used a few times in the Dragon Fall Abyss, it had been stored in his spatial artifact ever since.
At this moment, his figure had vanished. At a glance, only a patch of bushes swaying in the wind could be seen at the original spot.
About half an hour later, a group of Lin family cultivators followed the tracking markers to the cave entrance.
"Third Elder, according to the marker left by Lin Xing, the person should have entered this cave!"
"Where is Lin Xing?"
The Third Elder of the Lin family was a thin old man, but his eyes constantly flashed with sharp light, making it impossible to look directly at him.
"Lin Xing is not here. He must have pursued them inside."
The Third Elder felt a bit puzzled. Under normal circumstances, when a tracked target entered a cave or a building, the tracker did not need to follow; they only needed to guard the entrance.
Lin Xing, as an experienced tracker, would not be so reckless.
"Perhaps some special circumstances caused him to pursue them."
The Third Elder did not voice his doubts and instead gave an order.
"Lin Ju, take four people in to investigate. The rest will guard outside."
"Yes!"
Five Lin family disciples walked into the cave as instructed.
The Third Elder had brought a total of ten Lin family disciples this time, with the remaining five staying with the Third Elder to guard the entrance.
Since the situation inside was uncertain, the Third Elder only sent half his men, to mitigate the risk.
Even though they were facing an alchemist who was not skilled in combat.
However, having lived for over a hundred years, he knew that the cultivation world held many bizarre methods that could lead to death, and caution was never amiss.
Moreover, Xiao Fei had a Golden Core expert backing him.
They waited at the cave entrance for a long time, but the people who went in vanished like stones sinking into the sea, with no news.
"Lin Feng, go in and take a look."
The Third Elder felt something was amiss and ordered a young man beside him, handing him a yellow bowl-shaped artifact.
"Take this artifact with you. If you encounter danger, do not engage in prolonged combat."
"Thank you, Third Elder!"
Lin Feng took the yellow bowl-shaped artifact, sacrificed it into the air, and inverted it, forming a transparent shield that protected him.
Under normal circumstances, cultivators not engaged in combat would not activate such defensive measures.
Doing so would continuously consume spiritual power, and when it came to actual combat, insufficient spiritual power could be fatal.
Lin Feng entered the cave under the protection of the shield. After a moment, he fled back in a disheveled state, carrying a large bundle of corpses.
"Bad news, Third Elder! They are all dead! All five of them are dead."
Lin Feng threw the large bundle of corpses at the cave entrance, panting.
Everyone gathered around and found that all five corpses had blood flowing from their seven orifices.
"They've been poisoned! Everyone, quickly activate your defenses."
With the Third Elder's loud shout, everyone successively activated their defensive measures to prevent the poison from invading.
However, it was already too late. Although the poison at the cave entrance had weakened considerably, they had been guarding there for so long that the poison had already entered their bodies.
Within moments, a Lin family disciple collapsed to the ground, blood flowing from his seven orifices, followed by the others, one after another.
The Third Elder's eyes spun with stars. He fully mobilized his spiritual power and divine sense within his body, trying to locate the poison.
After searching his entire body, he found nothing. At this moment, he had thought of a possibility.
"The poison of the Black Leaf Datura!"
Only this poison was undetectable in its early stages, and by the time it was discovered, it was already in its late stages.
The antidote for this poison was the leaves of the Black Leaf Datura, which the poisoner usually carried with them.
His only path to survival was to find the poisoner and obtain the antidote before the poison took effect.
The advantage of this poison was that it was undetectable, and its disadvantage was also the same: combat effectiveness was not affected before the poison took effect.
The Third Elder's divine sense was fully unleashed, searching inch by inch in the vicinity. He believed that the poisoner should still be observing nearby.
When his divine sense swept over a patch of bushes for the third time, his brow furrowed, but he remained outwardly composed, showing no reaction.
"Not good, it seems I've also been poisoned!"
The Third Elder cried out loudly and flew into the distance.
As he was about to fly past the bushes, he suddenly attacked. A golden sword energy emerged from his fingertip and shot towards the bushes.
"Boom!"
This sword energy struck Xiao Fei, sending him flying over a zhang away.
Xiao Fei scrambled up from the ground, sacrificing a high-grade artifact shield to block in front of him.
He glanced at the spot on his abdomen that had been hit by the sword energy. A large piece of skin had been scraped off, and his abdomen ached faintly.
The might of Foundation Establishment was indeed terrifying!
When the Third Elder flew past from the side, he had already prepared secretly, circulating the "Body Tempering Art" for defense. As expected, he had been ambushed by this old schemer.
He hadn't expected this Foundation Establishment elder of the Lin family to be so cautious and vigilant even against a small fry like him in the Qi Refining stage. He wondered if the elder had actually been poisoned.
The Third Elder's time was as precious as his life. After the sneak attack with the golden sword energy failed, he did not hesitate. He sacrificed a flying sword and slashed at Xiao Fei.
The high-grade shield Xiao Fei had placed in front of him was cut in half as if it were made of paper.
This golden flying sword was a spiritual artifact used by Foundation Establishment cultivators, one level higher than artifact treasures. Xiao Fei dared not meet it head-on.
With a shift of his feet, his body turned into an afterimage and he dodged to the side.
The "Body Tempering Art" at its peak could make him immune to artifact treasures, but it did not say he was immune to spiritual artifacts.
As for the golden sword energy just now, it was merely a casual strike made in haste.
Although Xiao Fei dodged this attack, the golden flying sword followed him like a shadow, like maggots on bone, giving him no time to even catch his breath.