Chapter 1529: Fog Locks the Heavens
In a world filled with red light, the land was a red desert. The sky, which had been silent all along, suddenly flashed with a dark red light.
Then, the sky twisted and distorted, and four figures appeared, quickly changing from blurry to clear.
Li Yan looked around. This was the second time he had come here. It was just as desolate and barren as last time.
There were only three people beside him: the two Supreme Elders and Great Master Lan. The others had not followed them in.
This was because it was unknown how long this exploration would take. It might take years just for Elder Hao to lead Li Yan and the others into the area behind the mountain crevice and find that grand formation.
Therefore, there was no point in the others coming here. They couldn’t just wait around doing nothing.
Outside the mountain crevice, leaving Elder Tang alone was sufficient. If anything happened, he would be the first to notify Xue Tieyi and the others outside.
Moreover, they did not want their entry to attract the attention of others. It would be difficult to conceal the disappearance of so many top-tier cultivators from the Soul-Suppression Palace all at once.
With the two Supreme Elders leading the way, the four of them crossed this red desert. Although they were not in as much of a fiery hurry as when Elder Hao had led them out last time, arriving in an instant…
…it only took a few breaths for the four of them to be standing in front of that mountain crevice. This speed was in no way comparable to Xue Tieyi’s.
“Li Yan, after you enter, immediately release the Power of the Cold Moon until it is completely depleted this time.”
“We will maintain contact for a period of time first, to test the effects ahead.”
“If there are any problems, you can still retreat in time. Later, we will follow the previously agreed upon plan and try to make contact once every month.”
Elder Tang first stared at the mountain crevice in front of him, then turned his head to look at Li Yan.
Although he believed that there would be no problem with the Power of the Cold Moon released by Li Yan, this time, they had placed too much hope on it, and had also gathered all the resources of the sect.
Therefore, everything was done for the sake of stability. They did not want to make a mistake in any link, advancing cautiously step by step, to see if the plan could truly make progress.
Li Yan naturally had no objection to this and immediately nodded in agreement.
“After you two enter, just follow closely by my side! Tang San, we’re going in then. You must guard this place well. I don’t want to be trapped again.”
Elder Hao the Second had a solemn expression.
If he had cultivated the “Saintly Soul Transformation Art,” he would definitely have let Tang San go in this time. He was truly tired of being trapped inside; the thought of it made his scalp tingle.
“As long as you protect the two of them, there will be no problem!”
A solemn expression also appeared on Elder Tang San’s youthful face.
These two were, one, a guiding beacon, and the other, the key person the sect had meticulously planned to use to break the restriction.
“Even if I die, I will not let anything happen to the two of them!”
As this voice sounded, Elder Hao took a deep breath. The next moment, with a sweep of his magical power, he took Li Yan and Great Master Lan and disappeared from before the mountain.
Since everything had been decided, they acted with great decisiveness.
Elder Tang stared at the mountain crevice. He did not linger either, but immediately sat down cross-legged on the spot.
He and Elder Hao had long since discussed it. This time, even if they failed, the other party would have to use all his strength to protect the lives of Li Yan and Lan Feng.
As long as they could return, leaving behind the seeds of kindling fire, plus himself, there would still be a chance for future exploration.
After sitting down, Elder Tang immediately released the Power of the Cold Moon…
The yellow fog was thick, obscuring the sky and sun. After Li Yan entered, he couldn’t even last for a single breath before he completely lost his sense of direction.
Beside him, there were only two figures also shrouded in yellow fog. Li Yan didn’t know if he was flying forward, ascending, or falling.
A rope of spirit power was already firmly tied around his and Great Master Lan’s waists.
He was just passively following Elder Hao’s direction, continuously moving forward, truly as if he had fallen into a thick fog.
‘After losing my Divine Sense and entering this thick fog, apart from the Power of the Cold Moon which can penetrate it, whether it’s my line of sight, magical power, or ordinary soul power, I either can’t see into the distance, or it gets dispersed…’ Li Yan thought to himself as he released the Power of the Cold Moon.
His Power of the Cold Moon was still connected to another stream of the same power. This was because as soon as they entered the mountain crevice, Elder Tang’s power had followed them in.
At that time, it was very easy for the two of them to sense each other. Knowing that there was no problem, both the people inside and outside the fog felt a sense of relief. There had been no unforeseen accidents.
In the days that followed, Li Yan quickly lost his perception of time, spending all his days traveling through the thick yellow fog.
The Power of the Cold Moon he had initially accumulated had been used up about ten days ago.
Afterward, Li Yan could only circulate his cultivation method to recover the Power of the Cold Moon while roughly calculating the time in his head, hoping to release his Power of the Cold Moon again after a month.
But Li Yan soon discovered that it was very difficult to perceive time here. In a state of disorientation, his consciousness also quickly became blurred.
He could only roughly calculate in his mind, and when he felt it was about a month, he would release the Power of the Cold Moon.
Fortunately, there were three of them traveling together. Along the way, Elder Hao constantly introduced the situation here, which added a bit of life to this desolate and empty place.
Otherwise, Li Yan felt that flying around aimlessly all day long would only give one a sense of endlessness, without an end in sight.
It would make one feel extremely empty and soon give rise to a sense of despair.
At the same time, Elder Hao’s understanding of this place also gave Li Yan and the other a lot of new knowledge about this frightening and hair-raising place.
At the same time, the other two would also calculate the time in their minds. Occasionally, the three of them would compare and verify, which reduced Li Yan’s error in time perception by a lot.
The fog was thick, and time flew by. The three of them flew tirelessly day and night, as if they would fly until the end of time, until death. It was truly a case of not knowing the years in the fog, of winter ending without one realizing…
On this day, after Li Yan had released the Power of the Cold Moon for the three hundred and fifteenth time, the flying Elder Hao suddenly spoke, his voice filled with pleasant surprise.
“I’ve found that grand formation!”
Li Yan and Great Master Lan, who were already in a state of confused consciousness, didn’t even react after Elder Hao finished speaking.
It wasn’t until Elder Hao suddenly accelerated, leading the two of them to rush in one direction, that their consciousness returned to their bodies. The next moment, joy appeared on their faces.
In an unknown region, the yellow fog was gone. Above was a pale yellow sky, and below was a boundless blue sea.
In the sky, a ripple of light suddenly appeared. Amidst a blur and distortion, three figures appeared.
Elder Hao looked at the world here, and a hint of reminiscence immediately appeared in his eyes. He and the Third Elder had stayed here for too long; they knew every region here like the back of their hand.
“There’s no problem now that we’re here. This is the formation that the old Sect Master constructed outside the cave back then. To be precise, it’s the undamaged foundation of a part of the grand formation.”
“This formation is extremely vast. The formation bases inside are as dense as stars, and its range is…”
Elder Hao spoke as if he were listing family treasures. While speaking to Li Yan and the other, he also waved his hand, and the spirit power ropes tied to their waists immediately disappeared.
Great Master Lan was not too surprised by Elder Hao’s words. She was a grandmaster of formations and knew that the reason this formation was so vast was because of the need for the formation bases.
This was to use countless small points to continuously gather the power of heaven and earth, in order to impact the chaotic power in that cave.
Otherwise, if the formation base was small, the power it could accumulate might not even be as strong as a single blow from a Body Integration cultivator, and it would be of no use.
After hearing this, Li Yan was already clicking his tongue in amazement.
Although he had heard from the other party before that the old Sect Master and his team had established a grand formation outside the cave that resembled a throat, he had only thought it was a few dozen or a hundred li in size.
To see with his own eyes that the formation before him was so vast, almost two to three tenths the size of a top-tier sect’s sect-protecting grand formation.
After arriving here, it was Great Master Lan who flew in front. After they chose a direction, the three of them flew forward continuously, with Elder Hao narrating.
After arriving here, Li Yan’s mood also instantly improved. The suffocating sense of oppression was finally gone, and his line of sight could sweep unobstructed to the distant horizon.
They were not flying very fast, because Great Master Lan would stop from time to time to search around, as if looking for and observing something, but she did not explain.
Li Yan guessed that she was probably looking for things like the formation eye and formation base of this grand formation…
A month later, Li Yan and the others were still flying over a blue sea. For this past month, they had not flown in a straight line, but had been circling around with Great Master Lan, searching and seeking.
At a certain moment, Li Yan, who was flying in the air, suddenly saw an island faintly on the blue sea at the end of the horizon.
They had been flying for a month, during which Li Yan had also seen some islands, but the largest of those was no more than thirty or forty zhang. Some could even be described as just a reef exposed above the water.
But the island ahead looked quite large.
“We’re here!” Elder Hao said softly.
“Let’s go over!” Great Master Lan nodded.
This time, Great Master Lan did not linger, but flew directly towards the island on the horizon. In just a moment, they had flown over the island.
This was a reef island with a radius of three to four thousand zhang. Looking at everything below, Elder Hao’s eyes showed a look of emotion.
On this reef island, he and the Third Elder had spent countless years.