Bang!
Zi Kun's figure was blasted backward, while the bright yellow wall in front only trembled slightly, scattering a burst of dissipated golden starlight!
Li Yan and Zhao Min simultaneously waved a hand forward, and two walls of qi, one black and one blue, appeared in front of them.
A series of booming sounds echoed continuously for seven or eight breaths before silence returned.
Zi Kun, who had been sent flying, flew back again, his face somewhat pale. It was clear he had suffered a backlash from the restriction.
"The formation sealing the small door is very strong. I've never seen it before. Besides the superficial concealment restriction, there are at least one or two layers of offensive restrictions hidden inside!" he explained.
"Let me try!"
Zhao Min nodded. The moment she finished speaking, she had already walked forward. Her method of breaking the formation was different from Zi Kun's; she summoned a formation plate...
A few breaths later, the restriction on the small door erupted again.
Zhao Min swept up the formation plate in the air with one hand and retreated without hesitation. A ferocious ghost face instantly appeared on the door, letting out a silent roar at Zhao Min.
Fortunately, she was prepared. Still, she let out a muffled grunt as she retreated, a blue light circling her body a few times before she returned to normal. The ferocious ghost face roared a few more times before slowly fading away.
"A Pseudo-Nascent Soul Realm 'Soul Spirit'!" Zhao Min said in a low voice. It hadn't been easy for her to withstand the opponent's attack.
Moreover, the "Soul Spirit" was within the restriction, so Zhao Min couldn't kill it and could only defend passively. Her Sea of Consciousness was already in turmoil.
At this point, no one would hold back. They would certainly use their strongest means on the first try. If it didn't work once, it was basically hopeless.
Li Yan stood at the back, stroking his chin. He was wondering whether he should take out the Heaven-Stealing Kerchief.
His attainment in the Dao of formations was no better than Zi Kun's or Zhao Min's.
Just now, his Divine Sense had also been observing the small door, pondering a way to break it. It seemed that the methods he knew didn't match the results of his observations.
This meant that his formation-breaking methods would likely be of no use.
The moment Zhao Min flew back, she spoke immediately.
"I also sensed that the formation restriction on the door is somewhat special. This is a place for cultivating the soul. Should we perhaps try to break it with soul power!"
Li Yan's eyes couldn't help but light up.
"Of course!"
Li Yan had been hesitating whether to take out the Heaven-Stealing Kerchief, but Zhao Min's suggestion made more sense.
It wasn't that he didn't trust the two of them, but it was best to use a magical treasure whose workings he didn't fully understand as little as possible.
If news of it leaked, it could bring endless trouble to Zhao Min and the others.
Although Li Yan was not a Soul Cultivator, he still knew some arts to activate soul power.
Although his soul power was only a little more than twice as strong as it had been over a decade ago, the more significant change was that his soul was more condensed, making his soul power easier to control.
This time, Li Yan did not let Zhao Min and the other act. After some thought, he waved his hand, and a massive snow mosquito appeared before him.
The moment this snow mosquito appeared, it saw Li Yan and immediately showed a fawning expression.
This was one of the few snow mosquitoes in the Earthen Patch whose strength was second only to Qian Ji's. Its strength had also reached the second rank.
Projecting soul power outside the body could easily cause severe damage to one's own divine soul if not done carefully. Given Li Yan's caution, he naturally felt it was better to test with someone else's soul power.
Li Yan raised his hand and gently patted the snow mosquito's head, signaling it to calm down.
This snow mosquito had long since gained spiritual intelligence and was completely obedient to Li Yan.
Li Yan's right hand slid forward along the snow mosquito's head. The next moment, he pointed two fingers like a sword and tapped between the snow mosquito's eyebrows.
The snow mosquito's huge body trembled slightly, and a hint of pain appeared in its eyes, but it quickly turned into a dazed expression.
Li Yan's fingers then gently pulled and led. A small, soybean-sized ball of faint, jade-green light appeared at the tips of his two fingers.
He had not cultivated any Soul Cultivator techniques and could only use this crudest of methods.
Then, Li Yan extended his fingers forward, and the faint, jade-green ball of light shot directly onto the bright yellow small door.
As the three of them watched, the bright yellow small door surprisingly showed no change at all this time.
"Hmm?"
Li Yan also had a look of confusion. The expected outcome had not occurred.
But his hands did not stop. He controlled the small, jade-green ball to circle the bright yellow small door several times, but there was still no reaction.
After a moment, Li Yan's fingers pulled back the small, jade-green ball, which then flew into the spot between the snow mosquito's eyebrows.
The snow mosquito's body trembled slightly, and its eyes immediately cleared, but now they showed a look of fear.
Li Yan gently patted its head and took out a medicinal pill.
"Alright, I just had you test breaking the restriction. Eat this water-attribute pill; it will be of great help to your cultivation."
With that, he gently waved his hand, and the giant snow mosquito and the pill vanished.
"This is already a second-rank demonic beast; its soul power is not weak. If the method was correct, there should have been some reaction. The formation restriction on this door probably can't be broken with just soul power..."
As Li Yan spoke, before Zhao Min and the other could react, he suddenly slapped his own forehead.
"How foolish!"
Then, under the bewildered gazes of Zhao Min and Zi Kun, they saw a flash of light before them once again.
In the light, a broken earthen jar floated in front of Li Yan, and he then snatched it into his hand.
Zhao Min and Zi Kun instantly understood. They had, of course, already learned what had brought Li Yan into this place.
It was this very broken earthen jar imbued with soul power. This thing couldn't be used in the long alley before, perhaps because it was the wrong place.
Now that they had reached the end of the long alley, it was highly likely to be the way out.
Li Yan no longer hesitated. With a thought, he instantly channeled magical power from his palm into the broken earthen jar.
He had already tried this many times, so the familiar trace of soul power in its belly swelled up easily once more.
And the moment the soul power surged, the surrounding scenery changed abruptly. A sudden transformation occurred.
The three of them had somewhat anticipated this, but what happened next was beyond everyone's expectations.
Because the change did not happen at the bright yellow small door in front of them, but came from above their heads.
In the grey darkness above, a great tide of water suddenly gushed out. In an instant, the space here was filled with a damp, bone-chilling cold.
The moment the tide appeared, it rolled directly towards the three people below. It was so fast that even with their cultivation, the three of them couldn't react in time.
The three were alarmed, but in the next moment, Li Yan's voice, filled with pleasant surprise, came out.
"Don't panic! This is the way out!"
Li Yan clearly remembered that the scene had been the same when he first entered. His heart immediately settled, and joy arose.
Hearing Li Yan's words, Zhao Min and Zi Kun also gave up resisting. But the three of them still maintained the spirit power shields on their bodies; this had long been ingrained in a cultivator's instincts.
Soon, the bone-chilling tide from above produced a huge suction force. It wrapped them up, and Li Yan and the other two were carried away.
"So that small door was a fake!" Zi Kun muttered to himself.
The surroundings were pitch-black. A boundless solitude and coldness assailed the three of them. With Li Yan's reminder, the three of them let it all happen...
"Master, did it take this long for you to be teleported in last time?"
Zi Kun felt his body constantly shuttling through the darkness. At least a cup-of-tea's time had passed, but it was still the same.
At this point, Li Yan also felt that something was not right. He remembered that when he was teleported to the long alley trial ground, it seemed to have only taken a few breaths.
"No, it was very fast before... Let's be careful!"
"Could the exit not be near that statue anymore? The Hellsoul Clan's underground secret grotto is incredibly large. It takes us over ten days just to fly along the river."
Zhao Min's crisp voice, like the clinking of ice cubes, came over, still as calm as ever, with no hint of emotion.
They had already experienced too many twists and turns. As long as she could be with Li Yan, she viewed life and death with indifference.
What she said was actually very reasonable. There was no rule that the entrance and exit of a trial ground had to be in the same place.
After an unknown amount of time, Li Yan felt it might have been an hour, or perhaps longer.
The darkness before their eyes finally gave way to a hazy light.
With a pop, the three of them felt as if they had passed through a membrane.
Then, the suction of the surrounding tide suddenly disappeared. With a series of thuds, Li Yan and the other two landed at the bottom of a river.
Although there was light at the bottom of the river, it was still so faint as to be nearly invisible. But even this little bit of light was as bright as a luminous pearl in the eyes of the three.
The riverbed was overgrown with weeds, their long stems and leaves swaying constantly with the current. In this dimness, they looked like a host of countless demons dancing wildly.
The three of them stood in the water. Behind them was the base of a mountain. The membrane they had just broken through seemed to be the result of them bursting out of the mountain.
"Although the teleportation was a bit far, we're still near the mountain along the river. This might be a certain section of the river."
Li Yan looked back at the deeply rooted mountain at the bottom of the river. If he wasn't mistaken, it was the same large mountain that the river in the underground secret grotto had always wound around.
"So the trial ground was inside this mountain. This crater must be the exit!"
Zi Kun's voice came over. He pointed to a head-sized crater on the mountain and said.
In fact, such craters and cracks could be found on any mountain. It was just that this crater was the closest to them, right behind them.
From their position, it did seem rather conspicuous.
"It should be. This mountain is strange enough!"
Li Yan's Divine Sense also swept over, but unfortunately, there was nothing unusual about the entire mountain.
He wasn't surprised by this. It was likely due to a formation. If it were so easily discovered, it would have been occupied by the powerhouses of the Verdant Continent long ago.
"Let's go up. We need to get back to the Tianli Clan as soon as possible!"
Zhao Min looked up at the brighter light coming from above. Now that they were out, she naturally wanted to find Shuang Qingqing as soon as possible.
"Hehehe, alright! If we're fast, we can get back to the Tianli Clan in less than a month!"
Li Yan smiled slightly. In truth, he was also anxious.
After more than a decade, he didn't know if Shuang Qingqing and Bai Rou were still at the Tianli Clan.
The three of them said no more and quickly floated towards the river surface. Ten zhang, twenty zhang, thirty zhang... a hundred zhang... three hundred zhang... five hundred zhang...
With a gentle ripple of water, three figures emerged from the surface. Surprisingly, they hadn't encountered a single demonic beast on the way up; it was a very smooth journey.
But just before they emerged, the three of them did not rush out. That would have caused too much of a commotion. Instead, they used their magical power to contain the rippling water around them.
After breaking the surface, the three of them vigilantly looked around. The light before their eyes had suddenly become much brighter.
And then, the scene before them stunned the three of them. This was not any part of the underground secret grotto river they had seen before.
They were actually outside.
This should be a valley, sunny and bright, surrounded by high peaks, towering and straight, their tips piercing deep into the clouds.