Yang Qing and the four judges who distinctively heard that sound, found their bodies trembling, as the black ball before them shattered instantly, while the five feathers dimmed out and phased out of existence.
In the place of the blackball now stood a red thorn tree that glimmered with a crystalline beauty surrounded with darkness and heavy stench of death, blood, and torment.
The tree despite being only 10 meters in height, seemed like it could extend to the heavens if it wanted, and the oceans and every other area around the continent if it so wished.
It stood there silently, radiating a gentle red glow, but it was that red tree that had one of its branches piercing through the blackfin ascendant-grade treasure. A loud mournful wail sounded as the blackfin despite releasing enough energy to obliterate the Ice Emerald Sect a million times over, and Yang Qing and the rest with it, couldn't block a single unassuming piercing attack from a frail-looking branch that brought with it the scent of death and apocalypse.
The branch smoothly and easily pierced through the treasure with black glyphs consuming the ascendant grade treasure out of existence. The only evidence that it had even been there was the mournful wail of desperation that still echoed even within the deepest recess of space and the terrifying energy it had released before its demise.
"MOVE! MOVE! MOVE! MOOOOOOOOOOOVE!!" Yang Qing roared at himself for his body to move but it couldn't.
He could barely breathe let alone move, all he could do was helplessly watch that red thorn tree gently extend one of its branches ready to rip their lives.
He roared, but his body had abandoned him, even his thoughts looked like they were well on their way, as his mind was slowly being corroded by an ancient-sounding alluring voice.
"Stop fighting..it will be okay..just close your eyes and all this will be over. Don't fight back. It's okay.."
Yang Qing felt his internal resistance whittle away, as a sense of slumber washed over his body, telling him he would have the best sleep he would ever have if he just closed his eyes.
His thoughts got sluggish, his vision got blurrier. His eyes had been focused on one place and it was Mo Liwei's location.
From the trajectory of the branch, Mo Liwei would be the first to be hit. The reason for Yang Qing's earlier desperation was Mo Liwei had placed himself there intentionally. If and when the branch connected, it would be all over for him.
Yang Qing couldn't let him die when this whole case was his responsibility. He urged his body to move, but try as he may, his body refused to budge an inch. Despite only being a few centimeters apart, that separation may as well have been the distance between the planet and the sun.
Thanks to the alluring voice, Yang Qing felt his spirit and resistance weaken.
"Is this it?" he thought, too weak to even feel despair as he hazily stared at Mo Liwei who seemed to be struggling to stay awake just as he was.
The other judges whether it was Dai Chen, Zhang Qingge, or Wei Ying, all seemed to face a similar struggle. They were moments away from closing their eyes.
But just as they were about to take their last blink, a complex rune in the shape of a bell appeared in their mind, and rung.
The bell's ring instantly cleared their mind from the foggy state they were in, however, their bodies were still locked but the dreadful fear they had when the tree appeared.
Yang Qing roared, trying to rouse up whatever power he had to move, even if only just for a step. In his crazed desperation, unbeknownst to him, the green pearl in his palace realm produced a sigh and then moved to the green flame tree at the center of his palace realm and merged with it.
Yang Qing instantly felt like some shackle had been broken for an instant and his movements restored. He was cloaked in green flames, and instantly made it to where Mo Liwei was, and at the nick of time.
He managed to drag him aside just as the branch was about to make contact. His left forearm got pierced through as a result. Yang Qing instantly exploded his arm, when he saw the black glyphs spreading from the wound.
Despite losing an arm, and whatever qi he had left, and most of his energy with it, Yang Qing had a relieved smile on his face, even when the red abyssal thorn tree had launched more branches on them and he was now too weak to even do anything.
Whatever burst of strength he had gained, seemed like it had all been expended.
....
Spirit Mountain
Deep within the territory of the Order, an area restricted even to their own members was a place shrouded with mist filled with mystical lights throughout the year.
To the unassuming eye, the mist wouldn't be any different than normal mist, but to those in the late stages of the domain realm, they could feel the profoundness of the origin dao within that mist.
A cultivator at the qi refinement realm could break through to the palace realm within three days if he/she cultivated there, provided they could last even a millisecond within that mist as even someone at the peak stage of the palace realm would explode within seconds from being exposed to it.
The area was filled with mountains and within the peak of one mountain, there was a large ancient golden grey bell that had the vicissitudes of time to it. It had the symbols of the four mythical beasts engraved on it; the white tiger, the azure dragon, the black turtle, and lastly, the phoenix.
The bell suddenly let out a radiant glow as it produced a gentle sound that seemed to draw the beauty of the heavens.
The moment it sounded three people with pure white robs instantly appeared and a mystical air about them, appeared before the bell that was towering over them like another mountain.
Of the three people, two were familiar. One of them was a handsome young man, whose eyebrows were as sharp as swords and the other was an elderly lady with a stern expression on her face. The former was Su Bai, while the latter was Zhou Huang, both members of the high council of the Spirit Council, who had appeared during Yang Qing's promotion ceremony.
As for the third one, it was an elderly man with a kind-looking face, while his eyes, had a jade tree in the place where he should have pupils.
"Fellow Daoist voyager, who is it?" the elderly man asked.
The bell shimmered and a middle-aged man with grey traveller robes and scarf appeared. He had black flowing hair, and a had a free unrestrained temperament to him.
"Five children, all in the palace realm, judges, each unique at that too. One with a dao bone, another with a peerless jade physique, two with a mythical bloodline, and another with a special physique related to the turtle dragon.
They seem to be trapped within a special domain created by a soul formation master with the ability to corrode the mind, which is how I was triggered.."
"Can you pull them out?" asked Zhou Huang.
"The tree there is insidious, I can but it will cost the kids something .."
"Buy me five seconds then... I'll go.." said the kindly-looking elderly man.
"No need for that, brother Zhu Qiu, let me instead. Having the chief inquisitor act is a little bit of an overkill, no?" said a young-looking man with scholarly air about him, snow-white hair, and eyes that looked like they had recorded tens of thousands of years.
"And a vice president acting, isn't?" said the kindly elderly man with a smile on his face.
"Considering the urgency, I have to. There's my spiritual imprint on a treasure I gave to them despite your speed, Igniting my imprint will be faster.." the scholarly man said as he raised his index finger and a wondrous dao light and rune appeared on it causing the mist around them to swirl.
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