The Way of The Dao

Quickly, Hao Zhentian began to search for solutions to get out of this problem.

Then, once everyone had retreated, a black-robed man approached alone, carrying a mysterious artifact in his hands. He had been among those who had been recovering without entering the battle.

"You will be food for my palace!" The black-robed man shouted excitedly as he watched them.

"Remember what I told you, if you harm the women I will kill you! However, you can do whatever you want to the men and the city!" Mo Leng reminded the man darkly.

The black-robed man nodded and soon began to pour his immortal essence over the object in his hand.

At once, a horrible pressure began to expand from his hand, covering everyone!

The image of a giant flag soon transformed into a huge castle covering the entire sky as a gray gas began to radiate from the image, increasing the pressure on everyone.

The gray gas quickly seemed to distort space, creating an illusion, as if trying to bend it! Increasing the pressure even more!

The image of the castle appeared in front of Yun Mengxin, Hao Zhentian and Ying Chen, who were in front.

* CRACK! *

* BOOM! *

The barrier created by Mu Shuiruo and Xuanyuan Ling couldn't resist for even a second as it was destroyed and the pressure increased to double!

Finally, these two girls couldn't take it anymore and felt their internal organs completely injured, breathing heavily while still feeling the crushing pressure coming from the floating castle.

Hao Zhentian finally exploited almost all of his power this time, sending a slash with his sword towards the image of the castle!

* Whoosh... *

As if falling in cotton wool, the powerful slash made by the sword disappeared instantly, barely creating some light, small ripples in space!

Hao Zhentian frowned at this.

Each one was beginning to breathe harder and harder!

The pressure was constantly increasing, crushing everyone's internal organs as time passed. Also, they felt as if something strange was trying to pull their consciousnesses into the image of the palace, as if their souls were being sucked out!

Mo Ling and Mo Leng looked on with a slight smirk as they watched them try to resist.

* BANG!!! *

Layers of power coming from Hao Zhentian, Ying Chen, Shin Wei and Sun Xiang instantly exploded out! Staggering the space around and slightly stopping the grey gas!

Everyone's power reached the limit of the Peak of the Great Ascension realm!

Still, this wasn't enough to be able to break through this powerful technique!

"It's useless! Even the strength of the Immortal Human realm might not be able to break this formation easily!" The black-robed man laughed sneeringly and said, "As long as I keep feeding it with my energy, then you'll never be able to come out alive!"

Mu Shuiruo tried to once again re-form the defending energy, pouring all the remaining of her cultivation essence into the Map of the Heavens, Earth, Rivers and Mountains.

But this was not enough as the energy that was about to form dissipated in less than a second!

Another mouthful of blood came out of her mouth again, with her face paling and feeling like her body was shattering from the inside.

* Purr! *

The little white fox extended its white tail and made it grow huge, preventing Mu Shuiruo from hitting the ground heavily!

* Crack... *

However, at the moment when the pressure was about to come and Hao Zhentian and the others were about to perform their secret techniques to attack, a faint but clear sound of a jade cracking was clearly heard, as if it reached everyone's soul!

Everyone was startled and quickly turned to see where the shattering sound had occurred.

Mu Shuiruo was the most stunned, as she felt a warm force enter her body and immediately realized something.

The bracelet Ling Tian had given her had broken!

The three jade beads that made up the bracelet were instantly destroyed for the first time, losing their color!

Mu Shuiruo was dumbfounded, remembering that Ling Tian had told her that this bracelet was going to help her before. But that was a long time ago, when she hadn't even started cultivating.

Furthermore, this bracelet would only be effective below the Chi Gathering Stage and obviously would not be effective against a power that even surpassed the Great Ascension realm. Therefore, it was rare for it to be destroyed at this time, as not even a single bead had been destroyed before, especially since she would not allow anything to happen to this bracelet.

And now, she had never taken it off, because rather than a defensive artifact, it was more of a cherished object of Ling Tian's love for her. But perhaps it was because she was really in a very bad and horrible situation at the moment that the bracelet detected her discomfort and current state.

The light, warm energy traveled through Mu Shuiruo's body in an instant, giving a comforting yet strange feeling at the same time, as if she felt something had disappeared in her.

The black-robed man frowned when he saw the bracelet Mu Shuiruo was holding, feeling as if something was not right at the moment.

Mo Ling, Mo Leng, Hong Zhong, Jung Du and the others also heard this sound and concentrated their gazes towards Mu Shuiruo.

They had all felt it, it was like a kind of chill that covered everyone for an instant before fading away.

"What's going on?" Long Yuyin stared dumbfoundedly at Mu Shuiruo's bracelet, forgetting the pressure they were feeling right now.

Zhang Xinya, Tang Wanying, Lan Yin, Qing Sha, Shan Qingwu, Tang Jingtian, Mu Shen and Chu Feng also stared dumbfoundedly at what was happening.

A strange feeling crossed their hearts.

Even Hao Zhentian and the others were shocked as they felt this strange sensation.

However, there was only one person who was much more shocked, as if she really didn't want to believe what was happening - Yun Mengxin.

Then, when everyone was wondering what was going on, a strange energy started to come out of Mu Shuiruo's bracelet!

As if it was a strange gas manifesting endlessly!

The energy began to condense to a point and, as it did so, it began to want to take a form!

Even this energy seemed to distort space, as if it was actually affecting the gray gas coming from the castle, stopping its advance and more.

The world seemed to grow darker, with the clouds filling the sky and the flowers and plants exuding a sad feeling.

The black robed man quickly felt a trace of fear, as if he was about to face something that could kill him in a matter of seconds!

Hesitating whether to continue pouring more of his immortal essence to combat the strange figure or retreat, the black-robed man had no more time to think when he felt that a pair of invisible eyes would have been marked on him, bringing the sensation that he was being watched by a divine existence!

"This is..." The black-robed man muttered dumbfounded, even though he wasn't exactly comprehending what was going on, he still couldn't help but feel quite afraid!

The artifact in his hand stopped working, stopping the immortal essence and stopping the action of the castle in the sky, finally dissipating the pressure being exerted on all of them.

At this moment, they all realized what was happening.

The energy had finally correctly formed a human form!

However, it was the appearance of this human form that silenced everyone in the place, stopping everyone's hearts and stopping everyone's breaths!

"...Husband?"

Mu Shuiruo murmured in astonishment, unable to comprehend what was happening.

The image that had clearly formed was Ling Tian's appearance!

Even though Mu Shuiruo could only see his back, she knew that this figure was Ling Tian!

She would never forget the image of her beloved man!

"Master..." Qing Sha looked without comprehension at Ling Tian's image, as well as Lan Yin beside her who was similarly stupefied.

The women were shocked to see Ling Tian's figure! Since Ling Tian should be far away from there still, being unconscious...

However, they could not help but feel that they had lost something.

Even Hao Zhentian and the others were stunned when they saw this manifestation, as if they could understand what this meant!

Ling Tian's ghost just stood there in the void, only looking indifferently towards the man who was previously attacking.

Ling Tian's figure did not speak, did not move, just stood there, as if trying to protect Mu Shuiruo.

But it was not only the women and men who were stupefied at the sight of Ling Tian's image, but also the Immortals who were watching this event!

All staring in shock at the figure in the sky!

"Venerable Inmortal Lord..."

Then, a voice filled with fear and extremely trembling, came from the man in the middle, holding the artifact in his hand but not daring to move an inch, clearly frozen with fear at the sight of Ling Tian's figure!

When they heard this voice, they soon realized that it wasn't just him who was stupefied, but the other Immortals as well.

They even murmured in surprise as well!

"Heavenly Lord..." 

"Void Lord..."

"Holy Lord..."

The murmurs carried a trace of fear and terror, as if these people were truly frightened at the sight of Ling Tian's figure.

Some of them even dropped their weapons, freezing as Ling Tian's image continued to appear.

Venerable Immortal? Heavenly Lord? Void Lord?

Shan Qingwu and the others wondered the meaning of these names. They couldn't even quickly comprehend why these arrogant and powerful Immortals were trembling in fear at the sight of Ling Tian's image, even to the point where their bodies trembled in terror!

"This can't be happening..."

However, the faint and stupefied trembling voice came from Yun Mengxin's lips.

Yun Mengxin stared blankly at the figure in the air!

Perhaps Long Yuyin and the others did not know about this kind of occurrence, but she really knew what the manifestation of this figure meant!

This was Ling Tian's remnant spirit!

But...

Why was Ling Tian's remnant spirit appearing?

This kind of manifestation would only happen when the person had already died and only a faint aura of that person remained in the existence of Heaven and Earth!

The bracelet had clearly been made by Ling Tian, so it had his trace of aura and force and it wouldn't be strange if this little artifact could do this.

But this made no sense, since Ling Tian was unconscious but alive...

So when Yun Mengxin desperately tried to feel her connection with Ling Tian, her heart was instantly filled with heartbreaking pain.

Yun Mengxin could not feel her connection with Ling Tian...