Chapter 1091: The Past of Sealing the Demon

"Now that things have come to this, I will no longer conceal anything from you all. Regarding the seventh floor of the Time Tower, Lei does indeed know something. As you must have realized along the way, this Time Tower is a prison holding many inmates, and the seventh floor is no different, suppressing a peerless demon." Lei Yuce withdrew his gaze from Xiong Shan and said slowly.

"A peerless demon?" Han Li raised an eyebrow.

"Indeed, this peerless demon is far beyond comparison with the prisoners we encountered earlier." Lei Yuce added.

"The prisoners we met earlier already included Great Luo existences. Could this peerless demon be a Dao Ancestor?" Lan Yan sneered, speaking dismissively.

"The founding patriarch of my Tongtian Sword Sect also participated in sealing this demon. According to the records left by the patriarch, that demon, even if not a Dao Ancestor, is not far off." Lei Yuce said gravely.

Seeing Lei Yuce's expression, Lan Yan also wiped the smile off her face.

"Did your sect's patriarch come here before? This Time Tower should have been built by Tai Sui Immortal Lord. Was your patriarch acquainted with him?" Han Li's gaze sharpened as he asked further.

"Regarding this, the sect's records do not mention it, and I am not clear." Lei Yuce glanced at Han Li and shook his head.

Han Li remained silent, but inwardly he doubted Lei Yuce's words, unsure whether he was deliberately withholding or truly ignorant.

"Fellow Daoist Lei, could the demon you speak of be the Black Heavenly God who once blood-sacrificed the entire Gold Origin Immortal Domain?" Su Qianxi suddenly interjected.

"Indeed, it is that demon. Fellow Daoist Su must have a deep impression of him, right?" Lei Yuce gave Su Qianxi a penetrating look.

"That great calamity is naturally recorded in the texts of my Tianshui Sect." Su Qianxi nodded, her face slightly pale.

"What are you two referring to? Could you let us know as well?" Han Li asked.

"None of you fellow Daoists are from the Gold Origin Immortal Domain, so you are unaware of this. Many tens of thousands of years ago, dating back to the time of the great war with the Demon Domain, our Gold Origin Immortal Domain once suffered a great calamity. A mighty demon named the Black Heavenly God descended upon the Gold Origin Immortal Domain, activated a peerless demonic array, and blood-sacrificed the entire domain. Over half the living beings in the Gold Origin Immortal Domain perished in that array. Later, a Dao Ancestor of the Heavenly Court intervened and broke the array. This event was a great catastrophe for the Gold Origin Immortal Domain, causing damage so severe that it has yet to recover. The name Black Heavenly God is also taboo in the Gold Origin Immortal Domain." Su Qianxi sighed and said.

"I see." Han Li nodded slowly, gazing ahead into the cave, his mind turning.

Could the demon here be related to the great war between immortals and demons back then? And what connection might it have with the people of the Night Sun Dynasty?

"Fairy Su is absolutely right. In fact, the emergence of the Tai Sui Immortal Mansion this time is no accident. According to the sect's records, it is likely that the demon is impacting the seal, causing the mansion to appear. Wen Zhong and I came here to reinforce the seal. The great array sealing that demon has five nodes, arranged according to the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Each node also seals some demonic beings from the Demon Domain. The golden altar here is the metal node." Lei Yuce continued.

"The golden altar has now collapsed, meaning one node has been destroyed?" Lan Yan said uneasily.

The others also looked grim.

"Exactly. Originally, as long as the five nodes remained intact, the Black Heavenly God could never break free. But now the metal node has been destroyed. If other nodes are also destroyed, the Black Heavenly God will likely break the seal. Then not only will we have no chance of survival, but the entire Gold Origin Immortal Domain will once again fall into catastrophe. Therefore, you all must act with utmost caution from now on and on no account damage any other nodes." Lei Yuce said with extreme gravity.

The others nodded in agreement.

"So what do we do next? Continue forward?" Lan Yan asked.

"Yes. But before we leave, I will try to repair this formation. This formation is key to the metal node. Although damaged, its spiritual energy has not completely dissipated. If it can be repaired, it might still serve some purpose." Lei Yuce pondered briefly and said.

With that, he bent down to examine the formation on the ground.

Wen Zhong also stepped forward to help. The two discussed briefly and soon began working, taking out various array tools to repair the formation.

Han Li and the others, unfamiliar with the formation on the ground, could not help and thus moved aside to continue meditating.

After about half a day, while Han Li and the others were cultivating, a strong fluctuation from the formation came, and everyone quickly stood up.

The golden formation on the ground had been repaired and was now humming as it operated. A thick beam of golden light rose from within the formation and vanished into the stone ceiling.

Lei Yuce continuously formed hand seals, and the golden formation gradually stopped, the golden beam soon dissipating.

"Fortunately, the damaged parts of the formation were not extensive, and I managed to repair it." Lei Yuce showed a faint smile and nodded.

"Will the repaired formation be effective?" Lan Yan, seemingly quite fearful of the Black Heavenly God, asked hastily.

"I am not sure about that either. I hope it helps." Lei Yuce paused for a moment before saying.

The others exchanged glances, and for a time, no one spoke.

"Let's go. We've lingered here too long. Let's move on quickly," Lei Yuce said, then waved his hand, sending a stream of golden light that rolled nearby rocks over to cover the golden formation.

By now, everyone's injuries had mostly healed, and they had long grown impatient with staying there. Soon, they continued forward.

……

Following the cave tunnel outward, they walked for a long time before finally emerging from the cave mouth.

Outside the cave was a platform only a few hundred zhang in area, with jagged rocks strewn across the ground. It seemed to be halfway up a massive mountain peak.

Han Li and the others came to the edge of the platform and looked around, but the void was shrouded in gray mist, making it impossible to see anything clearly.

Xiong Shan stared into the distance for a moment, then frowned. Suddenly, he raised the golden longsword in his hand and slashed at the distant void.

A sword cry rang out, and a huge golden sword light burst forth instantly.

Given the sword's strength and speed, it should have instantly split the void and traveled hundreds of li. Yet, to everyone's surprise, the sword light flew only a few hundred zhang before it seemed to hit a high wall, shuddered violently, and dissipated.

"There really is a restriction..." Xiong Shan murmured to himself upon seeing this.

"Everyone, no need to try. The restriction outside this peak is linked to the foundation of the entire Tower of Time. Unless someone has the power to destroy the whole tower, there's no breaking through by force," Lei Yuce said, reminding them.

Upon hearing this, Han Li immediately spread his divine sense, probing in all directions.

But soon, his brow furrowed. The suppression of divine sense in the surroundings was extremely severe; even with his powerful spiritual sense, he could not extend it very far.

Seeing this, the others had no choice but to leap off the cliff edge and fly upward, hugging the mountain.

After flying nearly a thousand zhang, Jiao San suddenly let out a soft exclamation and stopped first.

The others also stopped and followed her gaze up the mountain. There, they saw another cliff platform, on which seemed to be a man-made stone staircase winding upward along the mountain.

"Let's go take a look," Lei Yuce called out, flying over first.

Wen Zhong and Su Qianxi followed immediately, with Han Li and the others close behind.

Han Li landed on the cliff edge and swept his gaze around. He found no cave, only the stone staircase.

So, one by one, they stepped onto the stone staircase and climbed upward toward the summit.

The steep and winding stone steps led them upward for several hundred zhang until they reached another, larger platform. There stood a blue-tiled, double-eaved hall built against the mountain, with eaves curving like flying birds, looking very ancient.

In front of the hall was a plaza several hundred zhang in area. The ground looked like a lake, reflecting mirror-like light. It seemed to be steaming with water vapor, filled with a pale blue mist that made it hard to see clearly.

Lan Yuanzi glanced at the mist, frowned slightly, and a hint of doubt flashed in his eyes.

"Brother, what's wrong?" Lan Yan asked, puzzled.

"This place looks shimmering with water light, faintly rippling with water-attribute law power. But the water vapor is not as thick as it appears. I think... this is most likely a water-attribute illusion array," Lan Yuanzi said thoughtfully.

"A water-attribute illusion array?" Han Li's brow also tightened upon hearing this.

A purple light flickered in his eyes as he activated the Nine Nether Demon Pupil technique, carefully examining the area.

Under the demon pupil, he could see clusters of water vapor vortices swirling and flowing within the mist, both attracting and repelling each other, forming a very special field fluctuation.

After watching for a while, Han Li felt his eyes grow moist, as if water vapor had seeped in. Puzzled, he looked around and was shocked to find that Lei Yuce, Jiao San, and everyone else had vanished.

He smiled bitterly, feeling helpless. It turned out that as soon as they stepped onto the last stone step and arrived at the cliff edge, they had already entered the illusion array.

Han Li's gaze sharpened, and he began to fully activate his Divine Refining Art, trying to forcibly break through the illusion with his powerful divine sense.

However, the moment he activated it, the surroundings immediately changed.

The water vapor vortices he had seen seemed stimulated, each beginning to spin violently, colliding and pulling at each other, like a cluster of hurricanes crashing together.

No sooner had this thought crossed Han Li's mind than he heard the roar of waves all around, and his figure actually appeared over a pitch-black sea.