Though Marquis Nanlong's voice remained calm, his eyes were fixed on the spiritual herbs atop the altar table, gleaming with undisguised greed. He wanted nothing more than to seize every last one of them in his grasp.
Not a single one of these spiritual herbs was anything less than what he and the old man needed most desperately. Now that they were within arm's reach, the desire to take them was almost unbearable.
The moment he had entered this place and spotted the herbs, he had nearly acted on impulse, wanting to sweep them all up without a second thought. But he had never expected that a bizarre and utterly foreign restriction formation stood between him and his prize. The result was a rather painful jolt that forced him to wait quietly for the old man like a good boy.
Now, hearing the old man surnamed Lu call out the name "Small Sumeru Vajra Formation," Marquis Nanlong's spirits surged and his heart filled with delight.
When he had first made contact with the restriction moments ago, he had already sensed that this formation was vastly different from any he had studied before, and had been quietly worried. Now that the old man recognized it, that was excellent news indeed.
"Brother Lu, you know this restriction?" Marquis Nanlong asked, barely suppressing his excitement.
"Back in the day, I came into possession of certain Buddhist cultivation texts. I never practiced them, of course — the cultivation method didn't suit my attributes — but I did retain some memory of the Buddhist formation restrictions recorded therein. The Small Sumeru Vajra Formation is one of the most profound among them. Brother Nanlong, if this restriction truly is that formation… the trouble will be considerable." The old man's gaze returned to the altar table, and his brow began to furrow.
"What do you mean? Surely it can't be unbreakable." Marquis Nanlong's expression shifted slightly, his tone carrying a note of disbelief.
"This Small Sumeru Vajra Formation is also known as the Vajra Immortal-Trapping Formation. It may be one of the rare restrictions in the world that can only be broken through sheer brute force — there is no clever key or counter-art to it. To dismantle this formation, you must constantly bombard the protective barrier it generates with attacks, without ever stopping. Even though the formation may not rank particularly high among Buddhist arrays in terms of raw defensive power, in terms of endurance it is said to be indestructible and unyielding — as long as the restriction has not been completely destroyed, it will rapidly regenerate to its original state." The old man spoke gravely after a moment's thought.
Then, as if to prove his words, the old man flicked his finger casually. A fireball shot toward the altar table several zhang away.
With a muffled bang, the fireball detonated on its own before ever touching the altar, dissolving into nothing.
A thick barrier of spiritual light materialized around the altar table, shimmering with a brilliant golden radiance. Ancient Buddhist runes, each the size of a bean, surfaced one after another across the barrier's surface, blooming like flowers of silver, covering the entire barrier from edge to edge.
Marquis Nanlong's expression darkened. He had already witnessed this phenomenon once before and showed no surprise.
"Eh! What's that?" The old man beside him suddenly let out a sharp exclamation.
Marquis Nanlong started, involuntarily turning his head to look.
Lu Weiying was staring wide-eyed at a point within the golden barrier, his face frozen in utter astonishment.
Intrigued, Marquis Nanlong channeled spiritual light into his eyes and struggled to peer through the barrier along the old man's line of sight.
At the center of the golden curtain, where the altar table had previously held nothing but the handful of spiritual herbs, a silver-hued alms bowl had appeared out of thin air, roughly the size of a human head. Strange, esoteric runes drifted lazily across its surface, and eight pale jade talismans lay flat around it, cradling it in their midst.
Hovering a foot above the bowl were three small objects, motionless in the air.
Only when Marquis Nanlong concentrated could he make them out — a small silver sword, a jet-black Buddhist staff, and a blood-red orb.
Though each was barely an inch in size, the three objects emanated threads of spiritual light in three distinct colors. The three beams intertwined and merged, enveloping the alms bowl on the altar table beneath them.
Marquis Nanlong stared, dumbstruck.
The alms bowl, the jade talismans, and the three artifacts flickered once and vanished from the altar table as though they had never been there. Then the golden barrier, still overflowing with Buddhist runes, dissipated silently into nothingness as well.
What had just happened? When the barrier had first appeared, none of these objects had been visible. How was it that a single attack from the old man had caused all these things to suddenly manifest on the altar?
Marquis Nanlong pressed his lips tight, his gaze still flickering with doubt and apprehension even after the barrier had vanished.
The old man surnamed Lu, naturally, harbored no such questions. He too had fallen silent, contemplating the newly appeared alms bowl and its accompanying treasures.
Anyone with eyes could see that compared to these strange new objects, the spiritual herbs were merely decorative. What manner of treasure could possibly surpass the value of these heaven-defying artifacts?
Even the mere thought of it was enough to make the old man's heart pound with anticipation.
Whatever lingering reservations and unease he had felt upon first seeing the Blood Curse Gate were now swept clean from his mind.
"Brother Lu, it seems we really have come to the right place this time. If we can break through this Buddhist restriction, this trip will not have been in vain." Marquis Nanlong shared the same thought and suddenly broke into a smile.
"Indeed. I never expected to find such a trove of hidden treasures behind the Blood Curse Gate. But breaking this restriction will not be easy. Without dedicating a considerable amount of time and sacrificing a portion of our vital essence, it simply cannot be done." The old man forced a thin smile onto his face as he replied.