Chapter 403: Seal
As the flying carriage continued onward, the rumbling up ahead grew louder and louder, and all of the nearby seawater was also churning incessantly.
At the same time, the rock tunnels were beginning to tremble, and chunks of rocks of different sizes were occasionally clattering down from above.
Lights of different colors were flashing through the space up ahead, and at the same time, bursts of spiritual sense were sweeping forth from all directions in a blatant fashion, making no attempt at subtlety and secrecy.
This was certainly not something that Han Li and the others had expected to see.
The flying carriage continued onward, reaching the end of the rock tunnel in the blink of an eye.
Up ahead was an enormous underground cave, the roof of which was riddled with countless blue stalactites, and it seemed that this was a naturally forming karst cave that was several dozen kilometers in size.
At this moment, there were also dozens of cultivators gathered in the cave, all of whom were viciously bombarding a certain part of the cave with attacks.
They were collectively attacking a dense black light barrier, beyond which one could just barely make out the entrance of a cave. There were some cultivators standing deep within the opening of the cave, but it was impossible to see them clearly due to the black light barrier in the way.
One spirit treasure after another crashed into the black light barrier, causing it to shudder incessantly, and it was unclear whether this cave had been artificially fortified or if it was this resilient to begin with, but it remained completely unscathed despite the powerful shockwaves released by the barrage of attacks.
"How dare you seal the entrance of the immortal manor!"
"The Infernal Frost Immortal Manor doesn't belong to your Northern Glacial Immortal Palace! Remove these restrictions right now!"
Some of the cultivators were yelling to vent their fury as they continued to rain down attacks upon the black light barrier.
Han Li and the others were ecstatic to see this, and Daoist Hu Yan flipped a hand over to produce the Infernal Frost Scenic Painting.
As soon as the painting was summoned, the blue light radiating from it instantly brightened before pointing in the direction of the black light barrier. Due to the restrictions, it seemed that the painting was only able to detect the entrance of the immortal manor from very close proximity.
"It looks like the entrance of the immortal manor really is here!" Daoist Hu Yan said as he stowed his Infernal Frost Scenic Painting away, then cast a fervent gaze toward the black light barrier, and Xu Yangzi and the others were also looking very excited.
Han Li was also quite elated, but not as much as the others, and he quickly calmed down before turning his attention to the other cultivators in the cave.
There were 34 cultivators present, all of whom were at or above the True Immortal Stage.
They were dressed in different attire and split up into three factions, the most eye-catching one of which was situated at the edge of the cave.
The group consisted of around a dozen blue-robed cultivators, led by a benevolent-looking middle-aged man.
This man was none other than the master of the Vast Flow Palace, Luo Qinghai.
As for the people standing beside Luo Qinghai, Han Li had no recollection of any of them aside from an effeminate young man.
The Vast Flow Palace cultivators were the most formidable faction of the three, with four mid-Golden Immortal cultivators alongside Luo Qinghai, who was at the late-Golden Immortal Stage.
In the face of such a formidable lineup, Han Li's group was completely outmatched.
On top of that, the majority of the rest of the Vast Flow Palace cultivators were at the late-True Immortal Stage.
After taking a brief glance at the Vast Flow Palace cultivators, Han Li turned his attention to the other two factions, one of which was dressed in black robes, each of which had a skull design embroidered onto the chest.
This group also consisted of around a dozen cultivators, led by an elderly man with pockmarks all over his face, a petite young woman whose features were concealed behind a veil, and two other men, one tall and one short.
The pockmark-faced elderly man wore a vicious expression as he glowered his surroundings, while the veiled young woman's entire body was enveloped within rings of translucent azure light.
As for the other two men, the taller one was over 20 feet in height and had an extremely imposing physique, giving him the appearance of an impregnable fortress on legs.
The shorter of the two was less than five feet tall with stubby arms and legs that gave him a rather comical appearance, but he possessed an extremely solid physique, much like an iron weight.
Despite the enormous disparity in the statures of the two men, their facial features were very similar in appearance, and it seemed that they were brothers.
All four of them were Golden Immortals, with the pockmark-faced elderly man at the mid-Golden Immortal Stage, while the other three were at the early-Golden Immortal Stage, and the rest of the group were naturally all True Immortals.
The final group had a similar number of people to the other two factions, and they were all dressed in very strange attire. Regardless of whether they were male or female, all of them were wearing short vests with black bandanas around their heads. Furthermore, it seemed that they were not of the human race.
There were four Golden Immortals among them as well, namely an elderly man with a dark complexion, an elderly woman with freckled skin, and a pair of physically-imposing men with blank and wooden expressions, as if they were puppets.
The four of them were holding a golden cane each, all of which were riddled with peculiar golden patterns while also giving off formidable auras that were resonating with one another.
At this moment, the latter two factions in the cave were attacking the black light barrier, while the Vast Flow Palace cultivators were merely observing as bystanders.
Meanwhile, Luo Qinghai was occasionally glancing down into the underground space beneath the cave entrance, seemingly waiting for something.
After their initial excitement, Daoist Hu Yan and the others gradually calmed down after assessing the situation.
Xu Yangzi hesitated momentarily, then asked in a quiet voice, "Should we reveal ourselves now or continue observing like this?"
"Seeing as there aren't any traps here, I think we should reveal ourselves. Otherwise, if we're somehow discovered, that would put us in a bad light. Having said that, this is not the right place to be revealing ourselves," Daoist Hu Yan replied, following which the blue flying carriage beneath his feet flew back a little through the rock tunnel at his behest.
Immediately thereafter, he made a hand seal, and the carriage rapidly shrank down before flying back up his sleeve, thereby revealing everyone.
"Let's go."
Daoist Hu Yan and Yun Ni led the way forward, and Xu Yangzi and the others immediately followed along.
As soon as they re-entered the cave, everyone's attention was immediately drawn to them, including several pairs of eyes in the underground space beneath the black light barrier.
Luo Qinghai took a glance at Han Li's group, following which a hint of disappointment flashed through his eyes, and he quickly averted his gaze.
The other two factions temporarily ceased in their attacks before turning to Han Li's group as well.
Meanwhile, Daoist Hu Yan and the others feigned surprised expressions and stopped not far away from everyone else.
The pockmark-faced man put on a hideous smile as he approached Han Li's group, and after taking a glance at Daoist Hu Yan and Yun Ni, he greeted, "I didn't expect to see you here, Fellow Daoist Xu Yangzi. Who are these two fellow daoists? I don't recall ever meeting them before."
As for Han Li, he was just a True Immortal, so he naturally didn't attract much attention from the elderly man.
All of the other black-robed cultivators also approached Han Li and the others behind the pockmark-faced elderly man.
"Long time no see, Fellow Daoist Chen. These two are good friends of our True Flame Sect, and they've come to explore this Infernal Frost Immortal Manor with us. Fellow Daoist Gu, this is Sect Master Chen Pi of the Ghost Wail Sect," Xu Yangzi introduced.
Han Li raised an eyebrow upon hearing this. The Ghost Wail Sect was a sect on the Ancient Cloud Continent that was comparable in power to the True Flame Sect.
Its members were proficient in all types of ghostly and devilish cultivation arts, and they had a notorious reputation, often killing others to take their souls for the sake of cultivating certain ghostly abilities and even going as far as to completely slaughter some smaller sects, for which they had always been frowned upon by the Blaze Dragon Dao.
However, the sect was situated very far away from the Blaze Dragon Dao, so as long as they didn't do anything to harm the Blaze Dragon Dao's interests, there was naturally no incentive for the Blaze Dragon Dao to target them.
"I've heard much about the Ghost Wail Sect. My name is Gu Yan, and this is my Junior Martial Sister, Gu Ni. Both of us are itinerant cultivators," Daoist Hu Yan said with a smile, while Yun Ni merely nodded at the Ghost Wail Sect cultivators in silence.
"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, fellow daoists," Chen Pi said.
He seemed to be eager to recruit Xu Yangzi, Daoist Hu Yan, and the others as allies, and the feeling was very much mutual, so the two sides quickly struck up a pleasant conversation.
As for the group of foreign race cultivators, they remained standing on the spot in silence, displaying no intention of approaching Han Li's group.
"Could it be that the entrance of the immortal manor is in there?" Xu Yangzi asked as he cast his gaze toward the cave beneath the black light barrier.
"That's right. The people from the Northern Glacial Immortal Palace are all in there, and they've set up a restriction to seal the entrance so that they can keep it to themselves! Other people may be scared of the Northern Glacial Immortal Palace, but I'm certainly not scared!
“You came at just the right time, Fellow Daoist Xu Yangzi. Our three factions should work together to blow this restriction open and give the Northern Glacial Immortal Palace what they deserve!" Chen Pi said with a cold smile.
"Three factions? Are you counting in those people over there?" Daoist Hu Yan asked as he cast his gaze toward the foreign race cultivators.
"Precisely. They're cultivators of the Southern Dawn Race from the westernmost border of the Northern Glacial Immortal Region. They don't mean any disrespect, they simply don't like to interact with people outside of their own race," Chen Pi explained.
Daoist Hu Yan wasn't bothered at all.
All races were generally quite apprehensive toward those of other races.
However, as long as there wasn't any animosity beyond that, Daoist Hu Yan certainly wasn't opposed to working with those Southern Dawn beings.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢