Chapter 2046, Breaking the Barrier

In the crowd, the face of the thin man, who was being stared at by Zong Qing, turned ugly.

However, despite his whereabouts being exposed, he stood his ground and simply cupped his fists, “Vice Temple Master Zong, please forgive me, it was just a slip of the tongue. Since the two Temple Masters have given their word, naturally I will believe you.”

In this situation, there really was no other choice. Zong Qing had already explained everything and given his word, and there was no way for the rest of the crowd to force him to swear an oath, not that they would believe that either, even if he did. More importantly, if they wanted to enter the cave mansion, they only had one choice, so agreeing to Zong Qing’s terms was inevitable.

The thin man had promptly judged the situation and hurriedly compromised.

Upon hearing him say so, Zong Qing smiled with satisfaction and nodded, “If any friend here has any doubts about this arrangement, speak now. This Zong will address your concerns one by one.”

Everyone remained silent.

Zong Qing nodded with satisfaction, “Good, it seems that everyone is ready to proceed. In that case, we should not delay. Before we move out though, let me forewarn you, if anyone dares to hide their strength while trying to fish in troubled waters, when we break this barrier, don’t blame this Zong for being ruthless.”

Everyone didn’t even dare to breathe loudly.

At this time, Lian Yu Ming, who had been standing next to Zong Qing all the while, spoke, “Now this old master will explain to you the characteristics of the barrier, so we can properly cooperate; be sure to listen carefully. This cave mansion was definitely left behind by an Emperor Realm master. The barriers outside it are divided into three layers. The first and second barriers aren’t difficult to break and my Raging Fire Temple is already quite familiar with the process. The real difficulty is the third barrier which requires a great deal of strength to break. If the amount of strength used is insufficient, it will not break, and if it remains unbroken for long enough, it and the other two barriers will quickly repair themselves. My Raging Fire Temple has been stuck at this third barrier for some time now. In the following action, my Raging Fire Temple’s disciples will break the repaired first and second barriers, while our external friends, Brother Zong, and I will jointly break the third. Does anyone have any objections?”

“We naturally don’t have any objection; however, Vice Temple Master Lian, what method will we be using to break the barrier? Is it enough for everyone to just attack it?” Someone among the crowd asked, raising the issue everyone cared about.

Lian Yu Ming nodded his acknowledgement when he heard this and said, “The barrier has a reflective property, so attacking it will only result in backlash, as such, scattered attacks will not work. Instead, we will be using a special artifact in this old master’s possession.”

Saying so, he summoned a dagger roughly two fingers long into his palm. The dagger was jet-black and its edge had a strange gleam to it. Just from one glance, it was quite apparent that it was a high-quality artifact.

“A Dao Source Grade artifact?” Someone cried out in shock as looks of admiration appeared on the faces of the crowd.

All the cultivators here were basically in the Origin Returning Realm or Origin King Realm, and most had never even seen a Dao Source Grade artifact before, so when they saw this dagger, they were naturally surprised.

“Good, this old master’s dagger isn’t just an ordinary Dao Source Grade artifact, but a Mid-Rank one that possesses a special ability. The greater the amount of energy infused into it, the more damage it can do. Even when this old master pours his full strength into this dagger, he is unable to bring out its full strength. Later, after Brother Zong and I, and everyone else will pour their Qi into this dagger. Once this dagger is saturated, leave the rest to this old master,” Lian Yu Ming said with a complacent yet smug look on his face as if he was very satisfied with his artifact.

“Vice Temple Master Lian has such a peculiar artifact! With it, it won’t be a problem to break the barrier then,” a cultivator in the crowd cheered.

“If there is a problem, it will be because individuals in the crowd held back their strength,” Lian Yu Ming put away the dagger with a flip of his wrist before shouting loudly, “If there are no other questions, we will take a quarter-hour break before executing the plan!”

After saying this, he closed his eyes to adjust his breathing.

Seeing this, everyone hurriedly sat down cross-legged to restore themselves to their peak state.

Zong Qing, on the other hand, didn’t close his eyes and instead began issuing instructions to the Raging Fire Temple disciples, making no attempt to hide his voice.

Seeing Zong Qing tell the Raging Fire Temple disciples the timing to break the barrier, everyone also felt reassured.

“Brother Yang, you must be careful later, I feel that something is off. Raging Fire Temple is never this hospitable,” Kang Si Ran suddenly sent a voice transmission straight into Yang Kai’s ears.

Yang Kai nodded without showing any visible change in his expression.

None of the cultivators present were fools, so naturally many had concerns and doubts in this regard; however, at present, no one would risk offending Raging Fire Temple by bringing these issues up. All everyone could do was secretly put their guards up and act according to the situation.

After fifteen minutes, Lian Yu Ming and Zong Qing gathered again as the former suddenly shouted, “It’s time, follow this old master.”

Saying so, he flew up.

Others hurriedly followed after him seeing this.

Soon after, everyone arrived halfway up Yuan Furnace Mountain and hovered above a stone platform. This platform was in no way small and could easily accommodate several dozen people and on the cliffside on this plateau, there was a flat stone wall.

After arriving here, Lian Yu Ming and Zong Qing had everyone else stop while they flew over to the stone wall and began inspecting it carefully.

“Is that the entrance?” Yang Kai secretly asked Kang Si Ran.

Kang Si Ran nodded without making it obvious or speaking a word.

After a while, the two Vice Temple Masters of Raging Fire Temple flew over and stood before everyone again where Zong Qing spoke, “Everyone, Brother Lian and this Zong have just checked and confirmed that the barrier has already been repaired. Please act according to how we just discussed. If we can really break this barrier in one fell swoop, we will gain access to this Emperor Realm master’s cave mansion where his Emperor Grade Secret Arts, pills, artifacts, and more lie waiting! All our efforts will not be in vain!”

Many people appeared to be tempted by his words, their blood beginning to boil.

Zong Qing’s face suddenly turned serious as he shouted, “Raging Fire Temple disciples, move out!”

As he issued the order, the dozens of elite Raging Fire Temple disciples split into two groups and began to assume two formations centred around the strongest cultivators in each while forming a series of hand seals.

Yang Kai caught sight of Zong Zi Jin’s figure among these people as he was one of the centre figures.

With the circulation of Raging Fire Temple disciples’ Qi, a surprising scene appeared before everyone.

The energy of these people seemed to become linked together and it became increasingly difficult to distinguish one aura from another. As for the auras of the two Raging Fire Temple disciples at the centre of each group, they both shot up from the Third-Order Origin King Realm to the Dao Source Realm.

Obviously, this was a Secret Technique Raging Fire Temple possessed to link together a group of individuals to dramatically boost the strength of a single person temporarily.

After a while, the leader of one of the groups let out a shout before a sharp sword suddenly appeared in his hand and he started pouring his energy into it. Moments later, he directly thrust this sword forward.

The sword struck the first barrier, which started shining brightly, blocking the thrust.

However, as the man continued pressing forward, the barrier was quickly split apart.

Immediately after, the second Raging Fire Temple group with Zong Zi Jin at its centre followed up. After having received everyone’s Qi, a bright flash appeared in Zong Zi Jin’s hand and he used some unknown artifact to shoot out a brilliant ball of light.

That ball of light passed through the broken first barrier and soon struck the second.

Judging from the intensity of the light on impact, the second barrier was much denser than the first, but it still couldn’t stop the Raging Fire Temple’s cultivators.

Not long after, the second barrier was also broken.

At this moment, the awaiting Lian Yu Ming shouted, “Begin!”

Just as his voice fell, he summoned his dagger artifact and began weaving a complex series of seals at an astonishing speed.

Zong Qing, who was beside him, instantly started pouring his own energy into the dagger without a moment of hesitation.

The next moment, the several dozen foreign cultivators also used their own techniques to pour their Qi into the dagger.

The dagger started humming as more and more Qi was poured into it and surprisingly, it also began to change shape, going from only two fingers in length to nearly a metre, from pitch black to multi-coloured.

Lian Yu Ming’s arms started fiercely shaking as a strained look appeared on his face, like he was struggling to control this immense energy.

He only persisted for less than ten breaths, though, before he shouted with no other alternative, “Go!”

As he pointed his hand, the metre-long danger whistled through the air, passing through the first and second barriers before striking something solid.

*Hong…*

The dagger shook slightly and Lian Yu Ming’s figure trembled along with all the other cultivators who had poured their energy into it. All of them seemed to have felt a powerful recoil at this moment, causing many people’s expressions to slightly change.

In front of the dagger, an even thicker barrier than the first two flickered, holding the dagger back, making it unable to advance at all.

Lian Yu Ming’s face couldn’t help turning ugly at this sight as he constantly formed more seals, but in the end, he was still unable to break the third barrier.

It was a deadlock.

What made the situation even worse was when Zong Zi Jin suddenly shouted, “Father, the second barrier has begun to repair itself!”

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As he spoke, the second barrier that he was responsible for breaking was flashing with white light as it began to fill in its various cracks at an extremely fast rate. Zong Ji Jin and the other Raging Fire Temple disciples were forced to push in even more energy just to maintain the status quo.

Zong Qing’s face immediately darkened at this sight and he promptly shouted, “Everyone, our success or failure depends on this moment! If we cannot break the third barrier now, we will never be able to enter this cave mansion! Are you still going to keep holding back even now? Do none of you want to see what wondrous treasures there are hiding here?”