Wanfa Daojun, starting from the Little Cloud and Rain Technique

Chapter 459 Breaking the Ban
The wind howled through the valley, whipping up layers of snow and forming white tornadoes that resembled menacing demons.

Yuan Hong pointed to the raging snowstorm in the distance and shouted:
"Fellow Daoist Pei, Fellow Daoist Liu, once you cross this wind belt, you will reach the entrance to the ruins."

Pei Xiu gazed into the distance, letting out a series of sighs.

"If it weren't for the two fellow Daoists leading the way, no one would have imagined that there would be ruins deep within Snow Dragon Ridge!"

A few days ago, the other party contacted him and told him about the ruins, showing him his previous discoveries, which aroused his strong interest.

After some negotiation, the other party agreed to his request, allowing his Daoist partner to participate as well, with the two of them taking 25% of the profits.

If a fierce battle occurs, this percentage can be increased further, up to a maximum of 30%.

Yuan Hong grinned and said, "It was also a coincidence. Fellow Daoist Zhang and I were chasing a moon fox and accidentally wandered into it, which is how we discovered its secret."

That was a fox demon with a pure demon core, a very high-quality medicinal material, comparable in value to a thousand-year-old spiritual herb, which could be used to refine pills for those at the Chaoyuan stage.

This kind of monster can devour moonlight, its pills can nourish the soul, and its flesh and blood have a unique taste.

The moon foxes made their nests at the edge of the ruins; otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to discover them.

Zhang Le, who was standing to the side, also smiled and said, "With the help of the virtuous couple this time, we will surely be able to break through the core area of ​​the ruins. I am looking forward to what we will gain."

He was initially unwilling to accept two cultivators joining, but there weren't many cultivators who met their requirements, and the others' demands were excessive, so he finally agreed.

Pei Xiu and his Daoist partner exchanged a smile and said:
"We are also looking forward to it."

If one can obtain a well-preserved magic weapon or a valuable elixir, the resources to purchase the Golden Core Elixir will be secured.

The couple were independent cultivators from Hongyan City, and it was no easy feat for them to get to where they are today.

"Lower the altitude, we're going through, keep up."

Yuan Hong shouted a reminder and flew in first, with Zhang Le following closely behind.

The four maintained a distance from each other, flew for about thirty miles, and landed beside a cliff shaped like a monkey's head, hovering in the wind.

Liu Ruyan looked around, her two slender eyebrows furrowed together:
"Fellow Daoist, could the entrance to the ruins be here?"

The area was covered in snow, and it didn't look like there were any ruins there at all.

Yuan Hong laughed heartily, "Fellow Daoist, please calm down."

With a flick of his sleeve, a cloud of blue fire flew out and landed at the foot of the cliff.

The snow melted quickly, and the water vapor evaporated, turning into tiny ice crystals that were blown away by the wind.

Soon, Liu Ruyan saw a square cave entrance that was two zhang wide and three zhang high.

On either side of the cave entrance stands a gray-white stone sculpture, with a sheep's head, wolf's hooves, and a dome—clearly a Qilin.

Pei Xiu was beaming with pride and laughed loudly:

"If you hadn't seen it with your own eyes, you would never have imagined that there was a hidden world hidden under the snow."

Such a cave entrance must have been built by cultivators.

Zhang Le chuckled and said:
"When we first discovered this place, we found it incredible. If it weren't for this coincidence, this cave would have remained hidden for who knows how many years."

Even if we don't talk about it for too long, after another thousand years, I'm afraid everything inside will decay.

Yuan Hong landed on the ground and called out:
"Everyone, let's go! The treasure is beckoning us!"

As he spoke, he transformed his magical artifact to protect his entire body, and then stepped inside.

Although he had been here several times, he still maintained a certain level of vigilance. It was precisely because of his usual caution that he and his senior brother Zhang became close partners.

He and Zhang Le came from the same sect, but their publicly known relationship was that of good friends who hunted demons.

"Let's go, there's no time to lose. We can leave sooner after we've explored the ruins."

The others summoned their magical artifacts for protection before entering the cave one by one.

After walking for a while, he summoned a snow-white lion. This was the Ice Crystal Lion, and from the dissipating demonic power, it could be discerned that it had reached the Chaoyuan stage.

Pei Xiu and his wife's expressions changed slightly; they hadn't expected their opponent to have such a powerful trump card.

If a conflict breaks out, they will inevitably be at a disadvantage.

Zhang Le noticed the subtle changes in their expressions, but pretended not to notice and gave the order:

"Stand here and immediately send a signal if any cultivator enters."

Although he didn't think it was possible for a cultivator to enter the ruins by chance, he still had to take precautions.

He didn't want to put himself in danger because of his negligence; that would seem too foolish.

The Ice Crystal Lion let out a low growl in response, then lazily lay on the ground, its enormous head facing the cave entrance.

Pei Xiu suppressed the unease rising in her heart and carefully smiled:

"Fellow Daoist Zhang actually possesses such a powerful beast taming ability; it's truly enviable."

At this moment, he realized something: the two people opposite him probably didn't mean them any harm. If they did, there would be no need for them to reveal such a powerful trump card.

"Thank you for your praise, fellow Daoist. Ah Bai is my closest companion."

Zhang Le pointed ahead, "Hurry up and catch up with Fellow Daoist Yuan."

The three quickly followed, and a moment later they truly entered the ruins, arriving at a huge underground cavern. Countless luminous pearls shimmered above the cave, like brilliant stars, illuminating the place as if it were daytime.

There was a huge black rock nearby. Pei Xiu saw that it was covered with claw marks as thick as a forearm and scattered traces of corrosion. It must have been left by a huge monster.

At the very center, a layer of crimson light flickered, shaped like an inverted bowl.

A moment later, the light screen turned yellow, and after a while, it turned silvery-white.

Around the light screen were several huge pillars, with golden light flowing on them, clearly indicating that they had been refined by cultivators.

As the group approached, Yuan Hong pointed to the light screen and said:

"That's the core area. The light barrier is a manifestation of the Three Talents Mysterious Array. We need to keep attacking the nodes of the array to break the spell."

This is the most foolish way to break the formation, because it relies on brute force and has no technique involved, but they have no other choice.

Finding a formation master would be a good choice, but formation masters are all prominent figures in local forces and wouldn't accompany these two outsiders on an adventure.

Liu Ruyan carefully observed the surroundings. She saw that the buildings here were very orderly, with two concentric circles of halls radiating out from the core area.

However, only ruins remain of the main hall, with white mycelium growing on the walls.

She looked away and asked:

"Have you two fellow Daoists thoroughly inspected the entire outer area?"

"Of course, this is basic operation. Do you want to search again, fellow Daoist?"

If you're looking for bargains, I think that's disrespectful to our thorough searching methods.

Yuan Hong joked that the area was not large, and they had spent half a month searching the perimeter three times, so theoretically there should be no omissions.

Liu Ruyan chuckled. Cultivators do indeed scour the ground when they encounter ruins, wanting nothing more than to pack up and take away anything of value.

She guessed that, if possible, the pillars supporting the cave would also have been destroyed.

"I wanted to ask if you two fellow Daoists have found anything that could prove the identity of the owner of the ruins? Based on your descriptions, we believe that this ruin is a resource point for collecting spiritual energy, and its value is immeasurable in the long run."

There must be something we don't know happening if we give up such resources.

There are too many possibilities for abandoning this site, and we can't guess the outcome by just guessing.

So much time has passed that when we arrived here, all that remained were decaying bones.

Zhang Le wasn't interested in why the ruins were abandoned; for him, breaking through the magic array in the core area to obtain more resources was the real priority.

He paused and then said:

“We are not local cultivators of Red Rock Immortal City, so we wouldn’t recognize any markings we find. You two could do a simple search.”

However, our time is precious, and we can only give you one hour to search.

Liu Ruyan looked at her Daoist partner and saw that he nodded slightly, so she said:

“Okay, let’s search for a while and see if we find anything else.”

The couple flew away on a cloud, and Yuan Hong gently shook his head:
"It's a complete waste of time."

They found no symbolic patterns or markings.

"Letting them wander around will put their minds at ease. Let's hurry up and recover our magic power. You go first or should I?"

Zhang Le said that after flying for two consecutive days, he had consumed a lot of his magical power.

After more than half an hour, Pei Xiu and his wife returned disappointed. They went back to the vicinity of the entrance and hurriedly tried to recover their magical power.

Once everyone's magical power reached its full potential, the four of them went together to the central magic array. The light barrier looked very thick, about two fingers wide.

Yuan Hong pointed to a large rock on the ground and said:
"After testing by me and Fellow Daoist Zhang, we found that the magic array has three weak points. If we continue to attack these points and make the energy consumption rate of the magic array exceed the energy accumulation rate, we can break through the magic array and enter it."

We have located these three nodes and marked their positions with stones.

Zhang Le added, "We must press on with all our might, otherwise there is no chance of breaking through the formation. Don't be stingy with high-grade spirit stones and other means of replenishing mana."

Pei Xiu activated the magic weapon's attack array, and the light screen rippled like water before quickly disappearing, its range limited to only a few feet in radius.

He smiled and said:
"My wife and I will be responsible for attacking one node, absolutely no problem, fellow Daoists, please don't worry."

Yuan Hong nodded and said solemnly:
"Let's begin. The attacks must be rhythmic. I will launch the first attack, Fellow Daoist Zhang will launch the second attack, and you and your wife will launch the third attack."

This process continues without pause, with each attack occurring within a single breath.

This will take a long time; everyone needs to be patient.

Zhang Le answered first, "No problem."

After finding their positions, Yuan Hong launched the first attack. The roar echoed through the cave, and the light screen trembled more and more violently.

Two hours later, only a thin layer of light remained, like a sheet of paper. Each time an attack landed, the ripples spread throughout the entire area.

Liu Ruyan activated her spiritual weapon, and the crimson flying sword crashed fiercely into the light barrier, causing countless streams of flame to rise, like blooming flowers.

The attack created a large hole in the area, and the light barrier was then torn into countless fragments and disappeared.

Pei Xiu burst into laughter:

"Haha, we did it!"

He saw that inside were three large halls, forming an equilateral triangle, with a golden ring painted on the outside.

Outside the outer ring was an even larger ring, with golden runes shimmering between them, exuding an aura of solemnity and majesty.

Yuan and Hong quickly gathered around, both with smiles on their faces.

Zhang Le laughed and said, "It's really not easy, but there seems to be a set of restrictions in here."

His face betrayed his exhaustion, but his eyes shone with a light.

Pei Xiu carefully examined the runes on the ground, scratched his head, and said:

"Fellow Daoists, do you recognize what kind of magical restriction this is?"

He and his Daoist partner had little understanding of formations and could not comprehend the meaning of the restrictions.

Yuan Hong observed for a moment, then said in a deep voice:

"I don't know much about legal prohibitions either, but based on my judgment, it should be a sealing or prohibition type of rune."

If I'm not mistaken, each of the three palaces contains a ley line node that generates spiritual energy.

It's quite reasonable that the spiritual energy from the sealed area's central veins overflowed.

He used his telekinesis to grab a stone and throw it into the magic barrier, where it traced an arc as it landed on the ground.

After the stone landed, it rolled forward without any incident, initially proving that the law prohibits aerial attacks and that there was no danger on the ground.

Others threw stones, but nothing happened.

"It can now be confirmed that non-living objects are safe."

As Zhang Le spoke, he took out a fat rat the size of a rabbit from his spirit beast bag. It was a Qi Refining Level 1 demon beast with black eyes that kept darting around.

He threw the demon rat into the magic barrier, and it immediately turned back and ran away, squeaking as it went.

"I'll give you your freedom," Zhang Le shouted, concluding, "There shouldn't be any problems."

Yuan Hong coughed lightly and said:
"We only need to search the three main halls now. To prevent any unknown dangers inside, let's restore our magic power before we go in to explore."

"Fellow Daoist is quite right. The formation may activate again at any time, so we must hurry."

Pei Xiu echoed, saying to his Daoist companion:
"You should recover your mana first."

Yuan Hong and his companion went to the other side and took out high-grade spirit stones to take turns absorbing spiritual energy.

Two hours later, the four met again.

Yuan Hong took out a top-grade Xuanjia Talisman and activated it, then activated the spiritual artifact to protect his entire body. He tentatively stepped into the restricted area and quickly withdrew his foot.

After several attempts, he finally dared to step inside, and said with a smile:
"Safety."

The four filed in and entered the inner ring area. A thick layer of dust covered the area, silently testifying to the passage of time.

They arrived at the first great hall, whose doors were crimson red, like a burning furnace.

Liu Ruyan urged her flying sword to pierce the gate, but a layer of crimson light barrier blocked her way, the barrier covered with runes.

"There are still legal prohibitions?"

Yuan Hong laughed and said, "This is just a very ordinary sealing formation, but it's strange, what exactly is the function of the sealing runes on the ground?"

He frowned. Using two sealing formations together was not very useful except for wasting materials.

Pei Xiu was excited and said:
"None of us are array masters, so we can't figure it out by thinking about it. We'll understand once we break through the array barrier."

Zhang Le took a half step back. "That's right, Fellow Daoist Liu, continue your attack. The rest of you, be on guard!"

We're about to witness the fruits of this trip; there's no need to hesitate.

(End of this chapter)