Chapter 661: A Single Palm

The stone door was pitch black. Luo Qiqi stepped forward and tossed in a few luminous pearls, illuminating the interior.

The two walked down the stone steps, the sound of water roaring from above, growing louder and louder.

Although they were beneath the river, it was not damp but rather very dry, and the air grew fresher, giving a sense of abundant spiritual energy.

"The spiritual energy is drawn in from the river above. There must be a special spirit-gathering array!"

Looking around, Luo Qiqi lowered her voice.

"Mm!" Zhang Xuan nodded.

He guessed that a massive spirit-gathering array had been set up in the river, drawing spiritual energy from the ground without attracting attention.

With this influx of spiritual energy, even though this was underground, it was definitely a treasure land for cultivation, making one feel no stuffiness.

Creak!

They had just walked a short while when they heard a rumble above. Looking up, they saw the portal they had entered through had closed and vanished.

"Damn..."

His face darkening, he hurried back to the starting point and found that a mechanism had sealed the passage they came from.

"It's a Dragon-Breaking Lock, which only a Six-Star Artisan can forge!" Luo Qiqi's face turned pale.

"Mm! It seems what the other party said about having only one chance to choose was true. Once the Dragon-Breaking Lock is engaged, even a Six-Star Artisan would find it hard to open. We probably can't get out, and no one else can get in either!"

Zhang Xuan's expression grew grave.

The voice from the stone bridge earlier had said only one could enter; he had thought it was just talk, but now it seemed to be true!

He had seen a Dragon-Breaking Lock before in the Witch Soul Tomb. Once locked, only brute force surpassing that of a Six-Star Artisan could break it; no other method would work.

In other words, with this thing down, the two of them were trapped here, unable to leave by the same path.

"Teacher, what do we do?"

Luo Qiqi looked at him.

In the academy, among her peers, she was formidable, but in front of this Teacher Zhang, she always felt as ignorant as a child, and had unknowingly developed a dependence on him, believing his ideas were always the best.

Otherwise, even though she clearly thought Yu Fei'er's words were correct, she would not have ultimately come along with this Teacher Zhang.

"Since only one passage could be chosen, it means Xing Yuan and the others must also be locked in by a Dragon-Breaking Lock. Let's keep going forward. Being sent down here doesn't necessarily mean a dead end..."

Frowning slightly, Zhang Xuan said.

"Mm!"

Luo Qiqi also understood and nodded.

The two continued downward. Before long, they arrived at a small room. Under the light of the luminous pearls, a stone table and two stone stools appeared, looking very simple.

The room had no windows or doors, like a dead end, the end of the road.

"So small?"

Luo Qiqi frowned.

The hall earlier was several hundred square meters. She had thought that since this was the real underground palace, it would be at least larger, but it was only about twenty or thirty square meters, with nothing in it. It didn't look like an underground palace but rather like a cage.

"A dead end? Could it be... we really chose wrong?"

Zhang Xuan's face also turned ugly.

Choosing this path wasn't random; it was based on some reasoning. But... looking at the current situation, the room was narrow, with no passage. Had he really chosen wrong?

Were they going to be trapped here to die?

"Whether right or wrong, building such a deep underground passage and setting a Dragon-Breaking Lock shouldn't be just for this small room. Maybe there's a mechanism here, like before."

Looking around, suppressing his anxiety, Zhang Xuan spoke.

A Dragon-Breaking Lock, even for a Six-Star Artisan, was extremely precious. Not to mention the mechanism's skill, just the defense that even ordinary Saints found hard to break was not something ordinary materials could achieve.

Using something so precious to seal off a passage just to hide such a small room was unreasonable and illogical.

"I'll search carefully!"

Luo Qiqi acknowledged and went to the stone table first. She reached out and touched it, then withdrew her finger, a look of surprise on her face: "No dust!"

Zhang Xuan also came over and touched it, his expression tightening.

This stone table and stools had been here for who knows how many years, yet there was not a speck of dust. They were clean and tidy, as if someone regularly cleaned them...

"Could it be... someone lives here?"

Luo Qiqi's pupils contracted.

If it were just a mechanism, that was acceptable, but if someone was alive... that was different!

The danger would increase dramatically!

This was the force that had captured even a Six-Star pinnacle artifact refiner like Wu Yangzi... its strength was beyond doubt!

If someone really was alive, with their strength, they would surely find it hard to escape!

"I pulled out the formation flags outside one by one. Based on my observations, those flags had been guarding this place for at least two thousand years without being touched... Two thousand years, staying in an underground palace without going out? No one has such a long lifespan!"

Zhang Xuan said gravely.

In the Mortal Transformation realm, after the body's transformation and the baptism of the Lifespan Extension realm, one's lifespan was only two to three hundred years, no more!

Even if one reached the Saint level, with another change in life level, a thousand years was the limit. He had never heard of any Saint living over two thousand years.

Even the Heavenly Man Master Kong had vanished into the river of history, not living forever.

The formation flags in the underground palace had not been moved for over two thousand years, meaning no one had come out. Being locked in a cave for so long and still alive... impossible!

Even Mo Hun Sheng back then, as the longest-lived witch soul master, without the protection of the Nine Heavens Lotus Fetus and constantly experiencing the Five Declines of Soul Power, could not have lived that long.

"Then... if no one is alive, why is there no dust here?"

Luo Qiqi knew this principle too, but the table before her was clean and tidy, as if frequently wiped.

This was a cave, with rocks and dust; dust accumulation was inevitable. If no one was alive... how could this be explained?

"This... I don't know either. Let's not dwell on that now. The urgent task is to find if there's a mechanism to get out of here. Otherwise, trapped here, even if we have plenty of food in our storage rings, it will eventually run out!"

Zhang Xuan interrupted her random thoughts.

The most important thing now was not to study whether someone had been here. The stone cave was this small; even if someone were here, they could be seen. There was no need to dwell on it.

What they should do now was to hurry and find a way out, escape first. Otherwise, as time passed, no one knew what might happen.

He didn't want to participate in a trial only to be trapped here to die.

"Mm!"

Luo Qiqi nodded and quickly began feeling the walls around.

Zhang Xuan also touched the wall with his fingers while softly calling out "Flaw!" in his mind.

Whoosh!

A book appeared in his mind, and he quickly opened it.

"Blue Steel Rock, hard texture, grows underground, formed by the collision of earth veins..."

After a glance, Zhang Xuan was speechless.

The Heaven's Path Library only revealed itself upon touch. He was touching the wall, not a mechanism, so naturally it displayed the properties of the stone.

He slid his fingers gently along the wall.

This place was rock, so there must be some spot that was a mechanism, but the other party's methods were too skillful, making the mechanism look exactly like the rock, indistinguishable.

Crack!

As he moved along the wall, he suddenly heard a crisp sound of a spring mechanism behind him, followed by Luo Qiqi's excited voice: "I found the mechanism!"

He quickly turned around and saw that the rock where Luo Qiqi's hand was had sunk in a few inches, as if she had pressed a mechanism down.

Creak! Creak!

The mechanism made a heavy sound, and a small stone door slowly opened in front of Luo Qiqi.

"Teacher, look..."

She called out, taking out another luminous pearl to throw into the stone door to see what was inside, when suddenly a palm "whoosh!" shot out from inside, straight grabbing her neck and lifting her up.

This palm was thick and huge, like a human thigh, with muscles and joints looking somewhat bloated, the skin a dark gray, not like that of a living person.

"Damn!"

The change was so fast that Zhang Xuan didn't even have time to react. His pupils involuntarily contracted, and he activated his Heaven's Path Movement Technique, charging forward.

Midway, the Ice Rain Sword appeared in his palm, and he slashed through the air, a sword light striking straight at it.

Seeing the sharp sword light, the palm released Luo Qiqi and flicked a finger.

Ding!

The dark nail met the sword tip. Zhang Xuan immediately felt a tremendous force hit him, as if struck by a meteor. His chest tightened, and he flew backward.

Bang!

His back slammed hard into the wall, creating a human-shaped pit. His throat turned sweet, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

He had recently greatly increased his strength, with qualitative leaps in both power and technique, even reaching a level comparable to the middle stage of Mortal Transformation Seventh Layer, Return to One Realm. Yet he couldn't even withstand one finger from the opponent!

"At least Mortal Transformation Eighth Layer, or even... higher!"

His face ashen, Zhang Xuan's fingers gripping the sword hilt turned white.

He had used all his strength, even his sword technique, and was sent flying by a single fingernail, spitting blood. The opponent's strength had likely already surpassed the Return to One Realm, reaching the Mortal Transformation Eighth Layer, Void Step Realm, or even higher!

Only such strength could give him this feeling of despair.

Whoosh!

As he was sent flying and injured, the huge palm reached for Luo Qiqi again.

"Damn it!"

Luo Qiqi came to her senses by now.

After all, she was a top student trained by the Master Teacher Academy, a peak Mortal Transformation Sixth Layer expert. Caught off guard earlier, she had been grabbed by the neck. Now recovered, she let out a sharp cry and thrust her sword as well.

Her sword light was like a white rainbow, dazzling and full of power, showing that her understanding and cultivation of swordsmanship were no less than Zhang Xuan's!

She had also reached the Lower Sword Heart realm.

Whoosh!

Seeing her resistance, the huge palm suddenly flicked.

Ding!

The long sword in Luo Qiqi's hand immediately flew out of her grip and lodged diagonally in the high wall, shaking incessantly.

"Fall back!"

Knowing that with their strength, they could not resist this huge hand, Zhang Xuan activated his Heaven's Path Movement Technique, appeared beside Luo Qiqi in an instant, wrapped her in his true qi, and retreated to a corner.