"No, it's not contracting as a whole."
But soon, people realized that the Grand Defensive Formation wasn't shrinking its coverage area uniformly.
Only certain sections were retracting.
And the shrinking sections kept getting smaller.
At first, everyone figured that if the Grand Defensive Formation continued to shrink, sooner or later some world within the Ancestral Martial Heavenly River would be exposed outside.
Even if the Grand Defensive Formation couldn't be broken, once it no longer provided protection, it might as well not exist.
But right now, although the Grand Defensive Formation had shrunk somewhat, its overall coverage was still vast.
This partial shrinkage confused them.
"Are they planning to break through one section at a time?"
Someone offered a guess.
Though the shrinking section was small, if it continued, given enough time, it would be enough to peel a small world away from the vast Ancestral Martial Heavenly River.
But soon, the Grand Defensive Formation's contraction came to a stop.
The sight was quite unique.
It was like a colossal sphere, with a tunnel appearing in one section — yet the tunnel was still part of the sphere. The sphere hadn't been breached.
A tunnel had simply formed within the middle of the sphere.
And at the far end of that tunnel sat the location of that special barrier gate.
Boom—!
Suddenly, the barrier gate of the Grand Defensive Formation erupted with a pillar of light.
The pillar shot outward. From everyone's perspective, the direction it struck was exactly where the Ancient Clans were located.
"What are they doing? Self-destructing?"
No one understood.
Rumble—!
But then, sparks erupted across the starry sky.
The mighty pillar of light had been intercepted.
Something had blocked the barrier light pillar.
But there was clearly nothing in front of it!
"No — something's not right."
It wasn't blocked. It was being devoured — the barrier light pillar's power was being swallowed.
And as it continued to consume, a massive object materialized.
It was a city. An enormously large city.
How enormous? Comparable to a small world.
But it wasn't a world. It was merely a city.
A city comparable to an entire world — magnificent beyond measure.
Hanging from this colossal city was an enormous plaque.
Seeing that plaque, every spectator was filled with utter shock and astonishment.
Written across it, in bold characters, were the words: Ancestral Martial Realm Sect.
"Ancestral Martial Realm Sect?"
"Could this be what they've been searching for — the treasure of the Ancestral Martial Heavenly River?"
"So it wasn't the Crouching Dragon Martial Sect's treasure after all. It was the Ancestral Martial Realm Sect's treasure."
"The intel that leaked out was false. The Crouching Dragon Martial Sect truly had no treasure."
"But the Ancient Clans' target was never the Crouching Dragon Martial Sect. It was the treasure of the Ancestral Martial Realm Sect."
"So that's how it is. So that's how it is."
Even the spectators now had their epiphany.
They understood why the Grand Defensive Formation had only contracted by such a small margin.
There was no need to pull back the entire formation. They only needed the Ancestral Martial Realm Sect to slip outside the formation's protective range.
They simply needed the Ancestral Martial Realm Sect to emerge.
That was their goal!!!
"It appeared! It finally appeared!!!"
Inside the Ancient Clans' formation world, the Rock Hammer Demon Tribe's chief let out a wild roar of excitement.
The Seven Realms Immortal Pavilion's Master raised his head, closed his eyes, and began to take deep breaths.
Among the other surviving members of the Ancient Clans, many wept tears of joy.
This battle had been nothing short of an enormous gamble.
The stakes were countless lives of their own people.
But fortunately, they had won.