Once the silver runes had fully dissolved into scattered motes of spiritual light, the surrounding scenery along with the densely packed puppets vanished without a trace.
The void ahead blurred and warped, and a stretch of interconnected buildings immediately materialized.
"It's broken — wonderful! Brother Xiao, what magnificent skill!" Madame Wan exclaimed, overjoyed at the sight.
"This restriction is rather ingenious. Perhaps no one has truly been here before. If we weren't pressed for time, we really should scour the place thoroughly," Xiao Ming sighed.
"Heh heh, no need to feel regret, Brother Xiao. This is merely an outlying branch palace. Even if there are some treasures, none of it is essential for the likes of us. Once we reach the center and seize control of the restriction's nexus, every treasure in this palace will be ours to take as we please," Daoist Qingping said with a smile.
"I know that, of course. But seeing treasures within arm's reach and not being able to take them — it still stings a little," Xiao Ming replied with a faint smile.
The three of them then followed a narrow path alongside the buildings, shot into the sky on streaks of light, and flew straight toward the barrier of light on the other side of the area.
...
In another branch palace's restrictions on the outskirts of the Heavenly Cauldron, a brocade-robed giant stared coldly at a hundred-zhang-tall, two-headed ape before him. Over a hundred of his disciples had already formed an intricate formation array, trapping the monster firmly within.
As the disciples accelerated the activation of their magical artifacts, the formation's power was pushed to its absolute limit, tightening ever further. Waves of invisible, crushing force hammered against the ape's massive body, producing loud cracking sounds.
The moment the ape's body stiffened and it could no longer move under the combined pressure, the brocade-robed man flicked his sleeve. A streak of silver radiance shot out, spiraled around the ape's enormous frame, and cleaved it cleanly in two.
The seemingly gray, misty void around them fractured inch by inch and collapsed.
...
In a region resembling a swamp, a colossal centipede wreathed in blue lightning, a titanic scorpion shrouded in billowing black qi, and a giant serpent with an extraordinarily flat head were rampaging through a vast sea of beasts.
Perched atop each of the three giant insects sat an uglily-faced, gaunt old man.
The beast tide was filled not only with tigers, wolves, jackals, and leopards, but also all manner of bizarre mutant beasts — each one possessing strength no less than that of a mid- to low-rank cultivator. They threw themselves ceaselessly at the three giant insects, tearing and biting with reckless abandon.
Yet the three old men sat perfectly still upon their mounts, utterly indifferent to everything around them.
...
Outside the Five-Colored Seal, five identically dressed young men sat cross-legged in midair, their faces utterly expressionless, as though quietly awaiting something.
Suddenly, the air above rippled, and a pitch-black abyssal rift materialized from nothing.
A piercing sound of air splitting rang out, and a mass of blood-red light shot from the rift. After a single swirl, it coalesced into a faint, humanoid blood shadow. Its blurred face bore twin eyes that flickered with emerald light, and an indescribable aura of malevolent evil radiated from its form.
The five seated young men rose to their feet at once. Radiant light coiled around their bodies, and before each of them, twelve white-bone flying swords materialized, their surfaces faintly glimmering with ghostly green phosphorescent fire.
"The Blood Union Five — do you intend to fight me?" The vague blood shadow seemed surprised to find the five young men here.
"We arrived in haste and carry no key to break the seal. I'm afraid we'll have to take one from whatever traveler comes after us. Whoever you may be, hand over the key and we'll let you leave," the young man in the middle said flatly.
"Ha ha ha, what arrogance. Very well — I, the Blood Shadow, happen to need fresh essence blood to nourish this body of mine. So I'll simply take yours." The blood shadow let out a wild laugh, its form blurred, and five immensely long streaks of blood light materialized, sweeping toward the Blood Union Five.
"The Blood Shadow Art may be domineering, but it's far from invincible." The young man in the middle let out a cold laugh. A faint white glow flashed across his skin as he unleashed his treasure, which instantly transformed into rolling waves of brilliant light to meet the attack.
The other four young men flickered and vanished into the void simultaneously.
The next instant, the void erupted with booming crimson light — a battle nearly equal in strength had begun.
...
Outside the great gate, nearly a thousand high-level beings had already gathered, most of them Integration or Void Refining cultivators. Over thirty of them had pooled their treasures and combined them with countless thunderbolts and flames in a furious assault on the colossal gate.
But the gate's gold and silver runes simply flickered in alternation, while the gate itself remained utterly immovable.
The rest watched coldly from nearby, showing no intention of interfering.
"A bunch of trash — with this paltry skill you think you can enter the Heavenly Cauldron Palace? Get lost, all of you!"
At that moment, a thunderous boom erupted from the sky like a bolt from a clear blue firmament, so powerful that everyone present felt their ears ring. Those with weaker cultivation lost control of their bodies entirely and plummeted from the sky.
BOOM.
A mass of crimson thunder — easily an acre across — tore through the void and materialized overhead, then plummeted straight down, slamming into the great gate.
In the blink of an eye, arcs of crimson lightning as thick as bowl rims writhed across the gate's surface, and a terrifying wave of heat surged outward in all directions.