On a vast, desolate plain, a pair of white jade gates stood silently.

The doors are decorated with ancient patterns on both sides, but many parts are damaged, revealing a sense of vicissitude.

A swirling, distorted radiance filled the central gap of the portal, emanating intense spatial fluctuations.

With a sound like breaking through a membrane, Shen Qian and Ding Yi emerged from the void not far away and appeared above the plain.

"The collapse stopped here."

Shen Qian glanced back at the still-cracking Heavenly Realm, then at the plain below. Space was fractured here, but the plain was not affected by the collapse.

"The 'door' cannot be destroyed..."

Ding Yi stared at the bronze door and calmly pointed out the reason.

He nodded, which was consistent with his guess.

The "door" cannot be destroyed; at most, it can only be hidden or sealed, something that the king and nobles have already verified.

"I've been here before."

As he gazed at the plain, he found a sense of familiarity from his memories.

Although this place was a desert when he last set foot here, and the "gate" was dilapidated, Shen Qian still recognized it as the place where he had escaped from the Heavenly Realm.

As Shen Qian had predicted, Lin Qiaoyin had completely repaired the "door." Judging from the residual fluctuations in the air, Jiang Chengye had also left the Heavenly Realm through this "door."

But there was still one thing he couldn't understand before he went down.

Lin Qiaoyin's skill in array formations might be considered masterful by most people, but repairing a nearly destroyed "gate" would be virtually impossible...

Wait a minute!

Shen Qian suddenly turned his head, "When I came here last time, that 'door' was broken..."

Ding Yi was taken aback at first, then understood what Shen Qian was talking about, and a look of surprise and contemplation appeared in his eyes.

Assuming the "gate" cannot be damaged, then how was the "gate" of this Heavenly Realm destroyed?

This is clearly a contradiction, but I subconsciously overlooked it last time. I only realized it was wrong today after thinking about it again.

If even kings and nobles cannot destroy a "gate," it can only mean one thing: the person who destroys the "gate" must be someone who surpasses kings and nobles.

It's a pity that the Heavenly Emperor's remnant soul has been completely annihilated, otherwise perhaps we could have learned something from him...

Shen Qian shook his head and returned to his previous question.

Lin Qiaoyin has been in Tianjing for eleven years. If she really had the ability to repair this "door", she would have done so long ago. Why wait until now?

Shen Qian glanced at the lush green grass on the plain below, and his spiritual power was suddenly stirred. He glanced at a certain spot in the void, where a flame of mixed blue and red immediately shot out.

The flames appeared to be only the size of a palm, but when they landed on the plain, they instantly ignited a raging fire, burning all the plants that were obscuring the view to ashes in the blink of an eye, revealing the charred ground below and countless blood-red marks.

The marks crisscrossed and converged into an irregular pattern in six uneven areas, surrounding the central "gate," vaguely resembling the incomplete part of a large formation.

"This is……"

Ding Yi was instantly moved.

"Don't those six shapes look a little familiar?"

After finishing speaking, Shen Qian shook his head again, staring blankly at the several patterns formed by the convergence of blood. "I almost forgot that you've been in Beidu all this time and aren't familiar with Jiangzhong Province... But if you've ever seen a map of Jiangzhong Province, you'll find that these patterns correspond exactly to the administrative maps of the six cities of Jiangzhou, Lizhou, Shangzhou, and Xincheng."

"You mean..."

Although she hadn't experienced it firsthand, the collapse of the six cities had shaken China, and she had naturally learned about the whole story in detail. Now, looking at those bloody marks and the intact "door" standing before her, Ding Yi vaguely guessed what was going on.

"In the art of formations, there is actually a concept called 'dead formation'."

Shen Qian suddenly spoke up, “The so-called ‘dead formation’ is a formation that is set up halfway but finds itself in a dead end. Such formations are usually of a very high level or exceed the ability limit of the person who sets them up. In historical records, there are quite a few such formations.”

"Destroying a 'door' requires power far beyond imagination. Similarly, attempting to repair a 'door' also requires an equally powerful force. Trying to set up such a formation will most likely end in a 'death formation'..."

"At least as far as I know, probably no one in China today has that ability, unless..."

Before sinking, he thought of the system. In his opinion, if anyone really had this ability, there would be no other candidate besides the system.

In any case, Lin Qiaoyin could not possibly do it.

"But you know what? Actually, the 'death formation' isn't completely unsolvable."

After a pause, Chen Qian continued, his voice growing even lower, "Anyone who has studied formations knows that there is a method to forcibly induce the formation to take shape."

"This method involves gathering a force in a specific way, a force strong enough to even shake the rules, and injecting it into the 'death formation,' which can break through all obstacles and allow the formation to finally take shape."

"They used the blood sacrifice of the living beings from six cities to complete the final formation... Heh heh heh, that's hundreds of thousands of lives! They really dared to do that!"

At this moment, Shen Qian was somewhat outraged.

He had personally witnessed the sinkhole in Jiangzhou, and he watched as those bewildered and ignorant people were instantly killed by a large number of scavengers...

He never imagined that the instigator would be Lin Qiaoyin, who was in the Heavenly Realm, or at least that she was involved in the decision-making process.

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