As soon as his voice trailed off, he issued an order, and all of the sect members around him immediately summoned formation treasures of different descriptions, then began to chant in unison.
All of a sudden, a yellow light formation began to take shape above their heads, and it released around a dozen pillars of white light, all of which instantly formed a straight line to strike the giant gate.
A burst of loud rumbling rang out as countless white runes were repelled by the gate, which remained completely still and displayed no sign of opening.
Everyone was quite stunned to see this, but as opposed to being alarmed, a faint smile appeared on the brocade-robed man's face.
"I didn't think that just this gate would be so difficult to open; it looks like I'll have to display some of my true power."
As soon as his voice trailed off, he made a hand seal while chanting something before pointing a finger up toward the light formation in the air.
The light formation immediately turned a silver color, and thousands of small silver swords surfaced within it amid flashes of spiritual light.
"Go!" the brocade-robed man commanded as he swept a sleeve toward the massive gate.
All of the small silver swords surged out of the light formation in a ferocious torrent, then combined as one mid-flight to form a giant silver sword that was over 10,000 feet in length before slashing toward the gate with devastating force.
A sharp ringing sound erupted as a silver line appeared on the surface of the gate.
The entire sky tremored violently, and the golden and silver runes on the gate's surface flashed as a gap slowly opened up where the silver line was.
The gap wasn't very wide, but it was enough to grant everyone access.
The brocade-robed man was ecstatic to see this, and he released a burst of light to sweep up all of his subordinates before flying into the gate in a flash as a streak of silver light.
At the same time, Fairy Hua Xi and Patriarch Wu Gou also sprang into action, flying toward the gap on the giant gate as a unified streak of azure light.
However, the streak of azure light was repelled by a burst of invisible force when it was still over 1,000 feet away from the gate.
Immediately thereafter, the gash that had been sliced onto the surface of the gate instantly vanished amid a flash of golden and silver light.
Meanwhile, the repelled streak of light faded to reveal Fairy Hua Xi and Patriarch Wu Gou again.
Fairy Hua Xi had a surprised look on her face, while Patriarch Wu Gou's expression was as wooden as ever.
"I had thought that we'd be able to save some energy and get into the gate on the back of Sect Master Feng's efforts, but it looks like I was too optimistic. Go ahead and open this gate for us, my dao companion," Fairy Hua Xi said with a faint smile.
Patriarch Wu Gou nodded in response before a burst of black light suddenly erupted all over his body, and he slowly thrust a palm toward the giant gate.
His ordinary-looking palm instantly swelled to around the size of a pavilion, then struck the giant gate with vicious force.
A dull thump rang out, and scintillating light radiated from the gate as a hole with a diameter of around 10 feet appeared on its surface.
Fairy Hua Xi was ecstatic to see this, and she immediately flew into the hole along with Patriarch Wu Gou, following which the giant gate instantly regenerated itself again.
"Looks like only one group will be able to enter at a time. We'll be going on ahead, fellow daoists," one of the thin elderly men cackled.
Immortal Heavenly Lord, all three of them appeared in front of the giant gate in a flash, then each thrust a palm toward it at the same time. Three bursts of tremendous power surged forth, and a burst of loud rumbling rang out as the gate was slowly pushed open, thereby granting the trio entry.
"Brother, would you like to go ahead?" Xiao Ming suddenly asked.
"Thank you for your kind offer, Fellow Daoist Xiao. Fellow Daoist Blood Soul, let's go in as well," Han Li said.
"Yes, Senior," the blood soul replied as she lowered her head slightly.
Thus, Han Li swept a sleeve through the air to release a burst of golden light, which swept up the blood soul before he took a step forward.
A faint burst of spatial fluctuations erupted, and both of them vanished in a flash.
In the next instant, spatial fluctuations emerged near the giant gate as well, and Han Li and the blood soul reappeared.
Han Li continued to stride casually toward the gate, and the blood soul naturally followed along closely behind him.
All of a sudden, a layer of silver flames instantly enshrouded Han Li's entire body, and he crashed directly into the giant gate in a flash.
A burst of barely audible sizzling rang out, and a human-shaped hole was melted into the gate, while Han Li had passed through it as if it didn't even exist.
The blood soul was already aware that Han Li's powers had reached an incredible level, but she still faltered slightly upon seeing the gate being opened so easily.
However, she quickly returned to her senses and rushed through the gate as well, following which the human-shaped hole slowly faded.
Almost at the exact same moment, the Five Xue He Clones also made their move…
Moments later, Xiao Ming's trio were the only ones left on the edge of the basin.
"Let's go in as well, Brother Xiao," Mistress Wan Hua urged.
"Don't be too eager, Fellow Daoist Wan Hua; do you really think that's all the people here? Someone else has arrived as well, but is simply unwilling to come out and meet us," Xiao Ming chuckled as he cast a meaningful gaze toward a certain direction.
"What? There's someone else hiding here?" Mistress Wan Hua and Daoist Qing Ping immediately turned toward the same direction upon hearing this.
"It doesn't matter; let them do as they please as long as they don't interfere with what we're doing. Besides, I'm not the only one who noticed; everyone else pretended to be oblivious, so why should we do anything? Let's go."Xiao Ming withdrew his gaze before sweeping a sleeve through the air to release a ball of silver light, which transformed into a giant halo with a diameter of over 100 feet, then crashed into the giant gate with ferocious might…
Around 15 minutes, spatial fluctuations erupted in the direction that Xiao Ming had cast his gaze toward earlier, and a crimson humanoid figure emerged.
The figure had a set of blurry facial features, and he cast a cold gaze toward the giant gate, seemingly contemplating something.
Right at this moment, several more streaks of light appeared in the distance.
The crimson figure immediately turned toward those oncoming streaks of light, and a hint of bloodlust appeared in his eyes as he twisted around and sped toward them as a streak of crimson light.
A few moments later, a string of anguished howls rang out in that direction, and all of the streaks of light vanished as a bloody odor wafted through the air.
……
"So this is a seal created by Daoist Tian Ding himself. As expected, it looks quite formidable." A hint of admiration appeared in Han Li's eyes as he appraised the light barrier up ahead, which was formed by countless five-colored spirit runes.
The seal was several hundred kilometers in length and blocked up the entire entrance.
Thus, as soon as everyone entered the murky grey space beyond the giant gate, they immediately split up, choosing sections of the seal that were extremely far away from one another to target.
As a result, Han Li and the blood soul were the only two people in this area.
"Apparently, this seal was created by Daoist Tian Ding only a year prior to his ascension, so it's virtually the most powerful seal-type restriction in our Spirit Realm. Even if a Grand Ascension Stage being were to try and break through it by force, they'd have to expend several centuries to slowly refine the seal with their Nascent Soul flame. Otherwise, access beyond the seal would be impossible. However, the palace only appears for about a month before it vanishes again, and the keys of the palace have only appeared in recent years.
"Prior to the emergence of those keys, even if one were to force their way in through this giant gate, they wouldn't be able to go beyond this seal and secure any treasures. After that, people began to create replica keys, and only then did the number of people able to venture into the palace increase slightly," the blood soul explained.
"Is this seal really that powerful? I'm very intrigued now," Han Li said as a hint of interest was sparked in his eyes.
The blood soul smiled upon hearing this, and she was just about to reply when a burst of energy fluctuations suddenly surged through this entire space from a certain direction.
Immediately thereafter, the entire seal tremored slightly, and all of the spirit runes within it began to flash erratically.
However, the disturbance quickly subsided mere moments later, and it was as if nothing had ever happened.
Han Li's expression changed slightly upon seeing this. "Someone's already broken the seal this quickly?"
"They must've used a true key; there's no way a replica would be able to break the seal so quickly," the blood soul said.
"In that case, there's no time to waste with experimentation. What's the shortcut you were referring to earlier? It's about time you revealed it, is it nor?" Han Li asked as his brows furrowed slightly.
"Please summon the Heavenvoid Cauldron, Senior Han," the blood soul requested.
"Sure," Han Li replied without any hesitation, then flipped a hand over to produce the Heavenvoid Cauldron, which was enshrouded within a ball of azure light.
The blood soul glanced at the cauldron before suddenly opening her mouth to release another ball of azure light, which also contained a small azure cauldron.
Han Li faltered slightly upon seeing this, while the blood soul explained, "This is known as the Emperorvoid Cauldron, and it's also a replica key. On top of that, it's the most successfully created replica and possesses 70% of the efficacy of a true key."
