In a certain open space within the Lingxu Ancient Realm.

"Xiangxiang, do you really want to try to break through again?" Fang Milu asked anxiously, clinging tightly to her sleeve.

“Nachin and the others are still in the sky. A while ago, she sent a message saying that she had discovered a loosening barrier, which might be a breakthrough. Can’t you wait a little longer?”

"And Poonana and the others haven't come back either."

Tu Longjian straightened his back and smiled as he pried her fingers apart. "Time waits for no one, how can we wait any longer?"

"Why delay when we can break through now?" A glint flashed in her eyes as she stood proudly on the high slope. The wind howled, but she remained unmoved, appearing from afar like an immortal floating in the air.

A trace of divine power was currently surging within her body, and it would disappear if she waited any longer. The Five Elements Mystic Scripture was somewhat weak at this moment, as if it had exhausted all its energy and had fallen into a deep sleep.

The strange phenomena in the Lingxu Ancient Realm were created by the Heavenly Dao to imprison her. As long as she uses her divine power to open the opening connecting the secret realm with the outside world, she can break through right under the Heavenly Dao's nose and shatter the curse that makes the Lingxu Ancient Realm a cage.

“However, you’ve reminded me,” Tu Longjian turned his head, “the barrier is about to break, we should inform everyone and prepare.”

Her hands conjured an array out of thin air, and her voice, like ethereal celestial music, resounded throughout every corner of the ancient realm.

[The barrier will break in three days. Fellow cultivators, please prepare yourselves.]

Upon receiving this message, some cultivators stopped fighting and hurriedly returned to safety, while others did not believe it. Nevertheless, they tacitly headed towards the direction from which the sound came from and met along the way.

"Tch, I've never heard of this before. It's too sudden. Who's been in this Lingxu Ancient Realm for too long and gone crazy from loneliness, resorting to pranks?"

"I recently got in touch with my master through a secret method. He said that there really are people outside who are persistently researching barriers. The leader even had an old injury relapse and was still giving instructions while lying in bed."

"It's been more than 20 years, and apart from that initial, endless tremor, there has been no sound since."

"Perhaps they're about to succeed now," the long-faced man said seriously.

"What?! You were able to contact the outside world? Why didn't you say so sooner? Let me speak with my husband. He doesn't have to be a widow anymore. Please don't remarry." The speaker was a tall female cultivator.

The long-faced male cultivator rolled his eyes at her: "Go away, stop joking around. This will burn your lifespan. My master just quickly picked out a few important words and didn't have time to chat."

"What other information is there? At this critical juncture, don't keep things to yourself!" the crowd lamented.

"Exactly, exactly, even the prophets have jumped off the stage."

Enjoying the gazes of the crowd, the long-faced male cultivator said with some excitement and seriousness, "I've heard that as long as someone breaks through to the Golden Core stage within the barrier, the Spirit Void Ancient Realm will open from the inside on its own."

He never expected to be met with a chorus of boos.

A female cultivator complained, "I've already reached the Foundation Establishment stage, but this wretched place just won't let me break through. What kind of contradictory rules are you talking about?"

Seeing that no one believed him, the long-faced male cultivator had no choice but to reveal his lineage: "What our Purple Cloud Sect elders say is true."

"Fellow Daoist is from the Zixiao Sect?" Upon hearing this, everyone couldn't help but pay more attention.

Indeed, such extraordinary communication techniques can only be mastered by top-tier sects.

“He’s right.” Wen Yeci slowly walked into the middle of the crowd from the back, his expression solemn.

"It's Fellow Daoist Lin."

Many cultivators knew him. Although Wen Yeci usually lived alone, many people had teamed up with his avatar Lin Fengmian because of his upright character and rich knowledge, and they had great faith in his character.

Wen Yeci, however, was in no mood to respond to their greetings. Instead, she gazed solemnly at the sky and slowly exhaled a sigh of frustration.

“Let’s go. We’ll see who issued this notice, whether they are truly capable or just playing a trick on you all. We’ll find out then.”

Wen Yeci was very frustrated. He had originally planned to leave this barrier, but he found that the special path he came from was blocked. The entire secret realm was as airtight as an iron barrel, as if someone was being imprisoned.

He tried to calculate it, but failed. The divination indicated that the matter concerned the way of heaven, but an anomaly appeared that disrupted the divination, making it impossible to calculate.

Wen Yeci sighed softly. After realizing he couldn't get out, he thought about going back to talk to Mingze and see if he could get any information out of him, but he was surprised to find that Mingze had vanished into thin air.

Has the successor of that great being already been born?

They actually took Mingze away right under his nose, and the divination results showed nothing about it.

Each message seemed to point to someone buried deep in his heart. He also couldn't get the divination results. Could it be related to her?

Just thinking about her made the veins on his forehead throb with unease; her resolute figure from the past was vivid in his mind, and his heart ached slightly.

Having been slinked away, Wen Yeci's pride wouldn't allow him to go looking for her again.

He silently prayed that when they met again, they would not be enemies.

The cultivators rushed over, and Tu Longjian began her actions.

Fang Milu couldn't stop her, so she could only watch helplessly as Tu Longjian unleashed an extremely powerful energy, seemingly blessed by divine power, which actually tore open a small hole in the sky.

As the opening was made, the Lingxu Ancient Realm began to tremble violently, and the secret realm became unstable.

Centered on Tu Longjian, a strong wind blew up. Because the barrier was broken, the evil curse of the Heavenly Dao was temporarily ineffective, and a dark mass of thunderclouds quickly gathered.

Fang Milu hugged a thick tree, her body swaying in the wind, trying to find Tu Longjian's figure, but in an instant she and the tree were teleported several miles away.

She remained suspended in mid-air, looking completely bewildered, before crashing to the ground with a thud.

"Ouch!" Rubbing her bottom as she got up, she realized that Tu Longjian must have brought her here for her safety.

However, Tu Longjian seemed exceptionally powerful after regaining consciousness; it was almost a miracle. She hadn't even had time to react.

Dark clouds loomed overhead, and eight bolts of lightning struck in succession. A large number of cultivators who had rushed over stared in disbelief, and many gathered together.

"Someone is actually undergoing tribulation?" The female cultivator from before was so excited that she burst into tears. She was also a Foundation Establishment cultivator at the peak of her cultivation, and her failure to break through to the Golden Core stage had left a knot in her heart.

"Eight tribulations already—who is this person undergoing tribulation here? So powerful! No, even breaking through from the Golden Core stage to the Nascent Soul stage only requires nine tribulations. Is he defying the heavens?"

"Wait, look, there are more than eight—"

As soon as he finished speaking, a small, bright yellow bolt of lightning nimbly struck the center, seemingly carrying anger.

"Ah!" From the center of the layers of tribulation clouds came a woman's painful cry, but she quickly rose again to continue facing the tribulation.

"Ah!" Everyone exclaimed in unison, speechless for a long time.