Chapter 343: Chapter 328: Realm!
The power of an array, besides being related to its rank, is also dependent on whether someone is hosting the array.
If a Tier Four Array is unhosted, even a Foundation Establishment Cultivator can slowly break it over time.
Moreover, if an array is not maintained for a long period, its power will gradually diminish as time passes.
The reason why low-tier cultivators often stumble into the caves left by their elder high-tier predecessors and gain their legacies is because the high-tier cultivators have been gone for too long, causing the Guardian Arrays of their caves to lose their effectiveness over the years.
Of course, these situations have nothing to do with the cave mansion Zhouyang and the others are currently observing.
The owner of their observed cave mansion disappeared just over three hundred years ago, so even if it was assumed that they perished back then, the operation of the array in the cave shouldn’t have significant problems.
Moreover, if the array inside is truly a Tier Five Array, it would inevitably have a Tier Five Spiritual Artifact as a suppressing object to host it. To break the array, they would have to first retrieve the Tier Five Spiritual Artifact suppressing it.
However, the combination of a Tier Five Spiritual Artifact with a Tier Five Array generates sufficient lethality to pose a fatal threat to a Ninth-Layer Purple Mansion Cultivator.
Even though everyone in Zhouyang’s team is formidable, none of them are confident enough to undoubtedly withstand an attack from that suppressing Tier Five Spiritual Artifact.
Therefore, following the initial excitement of discovering the cave mansion, they have to find a solution to this deadly issue.
"I think we could leverage the power of the Barbaric Beasts to break the array!"
"Those Barbaric Beasts are massive, with tough skin and strong life force, excelling at breaking arrays through brute force."
Among the four, Li Zhengwei, the team initiator, was the first to voice his thought.
But his idea did not gain the approval of the others.
Xiao Feng, the one with the highest cultivation, immediately opposed, "That’s not possible. If we use Barbaric Beasts to break the array, at least half of the spiritual medicine and fruits inside will be destroyed in the process. Also, the commotion of the beasts breaking the array is too loud, easily attracting other Barbaric Beasts and Demon Beasts, or even the Barbaric Alien Race!"
"Most importantly, to lure the Barbaric Beasts into the array, someone must act as bait and enter the array with them. Who among you is willing to be this bait?"
If they adopted Li Zhengwei’s method, Xiao Feng, with the highest cultivation, would certainly be the best candidate for the bait. So when Xiao Feng posed this question, Li Zhengwei immediately dared not raise the issue again.
The atmosphere turned heavy for a while.
With the treasure of the cave mansion right in front of them, no one wanted to fall before dawn, becoming a stepping stone for others to advance.
After remaining silent for some time, Jiang Fengxian finally spoke, breaking the silence: "In my humble opinion, we should choose the most prudent approach and slowly wear it down over time. As long as we exhaust the spiritual energy accumulated in the Spirit Vein of the cave mansion, the array’s power will no longer pose a fatal threat to us!"
Zhouyang, hearing this, quickly nodded in agreement and said, "Fellow Daoist Jiang is right, Huang also thinks we could try this."
After saying that, he paused and looked at Li Zhengwei and Xiao Feng, saying, "Even if it doesn’t work after trying, it won’t be too late to change to other methods."
"Then let’s give it a try."
"Li has no objections either."
After determining this plan, aside from Li Zhengwei, who had yet to recover from his injuries, remaining outside the array to keep a lookout as a guardian, Zhouyang, Xiao Feng, and Jiang Fengxian cautiously stepped into the valley basin.
As soon as they stepped into the valley basin, the scenery before Zhouyang and the others changed. The original scene of the valley basin instantly transformed into a Snowfield Icefield, with such penetrating cold that the trio shivered, quickly mobilizing their magical power to resist and dispel the chill.
"This is troublesome. The array has already formed a Realm; we might have entered a Tier Five High-grade Array!"
Xiao Feng, the oldest and most knowledgeable among the three, immediately darkened his complexion upon seeing this scene, revealing a grim piece of information.
The so-called "Realm" refers to a special area forcibly created by the power of an array, changing the natural environment.
For instance, the Snowfield Icefield currently before Zhouyang and the others is not an illusion but a "Realm" constructed with the array’s power. The ice and snow here are formed from the array’s spiritual power, not from the natural world.
In such a "Realm," all cultivators except those practicing Ice Element Techniques will be suppressed by the array, making it difficult to exert their full strength.
Furthermore, the longer they stay in the "Realm," the stronger the array’s power will erode the cultivators.
The chill Zhouyang and the others felt earlier exemplifies the array’s power eroding them. As long as they remain in the "Realm" and the "Realm" remains unbroken, they must continuously expend part of their magical power to fend off the chilling erosion.
Arrays capable of forming a "Realm" are all above Tier Five, but not all Tier Five Arrays can form a "Realm."
As the saying goes, if you haven’t eaten pork, at least you’ve seen pigs walk.
Though Zhouyang and Jiang Fengxian are not Array Masters, they are not unfamiliar with basic array knowledge. After hearing Xiao Feng’s words, their faces turned grim as well.
"Let’s work together; we can’t let the power of the Realm continue to strengthen. Otherwise, it will be hard for us to even leave the array."
Xiao Feng glanced at the two silent individuals, waved his large sleeve, and had already summoned a crimson gourd spiritual artifact, releasing large swaths of flames to burn the ice and snow in sight.
This ice and snow were all transformed from array spiritual power; melting it equated to depleting the array’s power. Without knowing the array’s core and without understanding the correct way to break the array, this was the only thing they could do.
However, since the array had been activated, it certainly wouldn’t be as simple as just manifesting a snowy landscape to trap those breaking the array.
Therefore, as Zhouyang and the others began to break the array, they quickly invoked the array’s true attack power.
Suddenly, a blue-white icy light flashed in the sky, instantly sending countless sharp ice cones raining down on the three in the array.
A single ice cone’s attack power was only equivalent to a Tier Three Lower Grade Technique, but the sheer number was overwhelming!
The dense ice cones fell like raindrops, round after round; although they couldn’t break the defenses of Zhouyang and the others, they rapidly consumed their magical power.
At the same time, a white light flashed on the snowy plain, quickly condensing into hundreds of Frost Giant Wolves several meters long, pouncing at Zhouyang and the others.
Though these Frost Giant Wolves were formed by array power, each possessed the strength of battling a Tier Three High-Grade Demon Beast, and they feared neither death, fatigue, nor pain.
"I’ll deal with these Frost Giant Wolves, Fellow Daoist Huang; conserve your magical power for unexpected events."
Jiang Fengxian swept her beautiful eyes over the pouncing Frost Giant Wolves. With a flick of her jade hand, she summoned the Tier Four High-Grade Demon Beast, "Seven-Colored Cloud-Swallowing Python," again.
This time, Zhouyang saw clearly that Jiang Fengxian wore a silver-white Spirit Beast Ring on her right wrist, concealed by her sleeve, where the "Seven-Colored Cloud-Swallowing Python" was usually kept.
First a storage ring, now a spirit beast ring, and combined with the treasures Jiang Fengxian brought out at previous exchanges, this young and beautiful, yet highly cultivated female cultivator earned another tag in Zhouyang’s mind: "many treasures and gold."
After glancing a few times at the Spirit Beast Ring on the female cultivator’s fair wrist, he nodded and said, "Then I’ll trouble you, Fellow Daoist Jiang."
After speaking, he drew his hand into his sleeve and secretly took out his remaining defensive talisman, preparing for unforeseen situations.
The "Seven-Colored Cloud-Swallowing Python," worthy of its Jiao Dragon bloodline, showed strong corrosive toxin clouds and a vast attack range, quickly turning the array-formed Frost Giant Wolves into poison water upon contact.
Meanwhile, Jiang Fengxian herself struck fiercely.
First, she raised her jade hand, and a spiritual light flashed, producing a brown-yellow flower basket in her hand. She tossed the basket, releasing a mass of yellow spiritual light onto over a dozen nearby Frost Giant Wolves.
The Frost Giant Wolves, swept away by the yellow spiritual light like autumn leaves in the wind, instantly turned into a wisp of ice light and vanished.
Within that yellow spiritual light, Zhouyang sensed a peculiar withering power, reminding him of a renowned wood element divine technique, "Yearly Withering and Flourishing."
It’s said that any cultivator struck by the "Yearly Withering and Flourishing" divine technique would directly lose a portion of their lifespan.
What do cultivators pursue cultivation for?
Is it not for the quest of longevity?
Hence, cultivators possessing the "Yearly Withering and Flourishing" divine technique are deeply dreaded by others; no one wishes to provoke such an enemy.
If one did provoke such an enemy, even if they ultimately killed them, they wouldn’t know how much lifespan would be lost under their divine technique, which is far too disadvantageous.
Although Jiang Fengxian cleared the field quickly, the Frost Giant Wolves regenerated just as swiftly; she dispersed ten here, while seven or eight would soon reform and rise elsewhere, maintaining a pack scale of dozens to hundreds.
How similar it was to the ice cone rain falling every few dozen breaths from the sky!
On the other side, Xiao Feng unleashed full firepower, bombarding the snowy icefield with various spells and spiritual artifacts, trying to shatter this "realm" world.
About two ke afterward, the "realm" world remained unbroken, but the array underwent new changes.
A bright dragon roar suddenly echoed from within the array.
Soon after, the icefield before Zhouyang and others cracked open with a "rumbling" sound, quickly releasing a white ice dragon dozens of meters long, flying out.
"Not good, the power of that suppressive artifact has been triggered, retreat quickly!"
The three saw the white ice dragon charging at them, and hurriedly withdrew, trying to exit the array.
But since the array was activated, how could it let them escape easily?
The white ice dragon opened its mouth, a surge of blue-white ice light spewed out, instantly encasing the three and the python in thick ice.
Then, the white ice dragon swayed its tail, swiftly lunging at the strongest magical aura among the three, Xiao Feng.