“They’re here!”
Lin Xiao’s eyes lit up.
At that moment, more than two hundred figures were streaking toward him. When they saw Lin Xiao currently beating Ji Lian senseless, the entire group froze in stunned disbelief.
Lin Xiao… was pummelling a Martial Saint? What in the world was going on?
Everyone halted at the outer edge of the rock-wall layer, staring ahead in incredulity.
After the newcomers arrived, Ji Lian could not help roaring, “Hurry in and kill Lin Xiao! This place restrains anyone at the Martial Saint realm!”
At those words, the crowd instantly understood.
So the Martial Saints were bound, while Martial Emperors were unaffected. That was how Lin Xiao could still move and attack Martial Saints.
“Kill!”
Ji Shu, the Ji family half-step Martial Saint, bellowed and charged forward.
The rest of the Ji family followed, weapons raised. The Sacred Heaven Gate contingent also rushed toward Lin Xiao.
Not only had their own Martial Saint elder been beaten, they also had to kill Lin Xiao and seize the floating heavenly palace. Without hesitation, they all plunged in.
Only the several dozen unaffiliated cultivators who had followed remained where they were, unwilling to interfere.
Without a Martial Saint of their own, even if they seized the palace they could never keep it.
Moreover, their strength was far inferior to the two great powers.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Yet the moment the hundred-plus members of the two factions flew above the rock-wall zone, their speed dropped sharply. Some had only entered a few dozen zhang before they stopped completely and fell toward the stone ground.
Some managed a dozen zhang, others only a few zhang, before they too froze and plummeted.
Every single one felt as though they had sunk into quicksand; movement became excruciatingly difficult.
“Didn’t you say only Martial Saints would be restrained?!”
Ji Shu cried out in alarm.
The others were equally shocked. Elder Xi would never lie to them. Lin Xiao was clearly moving freely, and their own cultivation was only at the Martial Emperor realm. They should have been fine.
Yet every one of them was now bound?
Not only the newcomers, even the two Martial Saints were stunned.
They had not expected this either. Wasn’t Lin Xiao still leaping about energetically?
“Lin Xiao, how… how are you resisting this restraining force?” Ji Lian demanded, utterly baffled.
Lin Xiao did not answer. Instead he threw his head back and laughed. “Hahaha! Another batch of fools delivering themselves to death!”
This was exactly why he had not killed the two Martial Saints immediately. He had been waiting for the two great powers to send more people.
Deep down he understood perfectly: it was not that lower cultivation meant no restraint. It was the Heavenly Eye inside him that blocked the mysterious power of this region.
The ten colossal abominations had only shattered the stone up to this point. Whether they had been attacking something specific or simply stopped here was proof enough of how terrifying the restraining force became deeper inside.
Even Martial Saints could only advance ten li. These Martial Emperors and half-step Martial Saints would never get far at all.
The deeper one went, the stronger the binding became. Martial Saints were already immobilised; those below them would fare far worse.
As long as another group rushed in, they would certainly be trapped. And reality unfolded exactly as he had predicted.
Seeing the entire crowd restrained, Lin Xiao’s heart surged with joy. This time, the two great powers would lose a massive number of experts.
Including the two Martial Saints, both factions would suffer a devastating blow.
“As for the reason… you can ask King Yama when you reach the underworld.”
Lin Xiao roared and prepared to slaughter the Ji family group.
Hiss! Hiss!
Yet at that very moment, before he could strike, a bizarre change occurred.
Among the Ji family and Sacred Heaven Gate forces, some people’s faces suddenly aged rapidly.
Young disciples seemed to leap from their twenties to their thirties in an instant, features maturing, then to forty, fifty, until their hair turned snow-white and their faces became withered. They transformed into decrepit elders.
Then, they died of old age on the spot, collapsing to the ground.
Others experienced the opposite: an elder’s white hair turned black, wrinkles vanished, and he rapidly grew younger, from aged sage to vigorous youth, then to teenager, child, infant…
“What… what is happening?!”
The elder whose age was reversing cried out in horror.
By the time he spoke, his body had already become that of a small child, his voice turning childish.
Next came an infant’s babble, then only the shape of a fetus. He suffocated and perished.
“My body… my body!”
“How did I suddenly become so old?”
“I’m actually growing younger…”
Panicked cries rang out one after another. Some voices turned extremely aged, others became childish. Every single one of the two hundred-plus intruders underwent these changes.
The weaker one’s cultivation, the faster the change. The stronger slowed it slightly, but one by one they died amid ageing or rejuvenation.
The two Martial Saints laboriously twisted their heads. When they saw the scene, their faces drained of all colour. “This… this is the power of time!”
“The power of time?”
Lin Xiao’s heart shook violently.
Space and time were the most profound mysteries of the universe. The power they contained was beyond comprehension.
He had never imagined that such power existed here.
Time forced people either to rapid senescence or back to infancy, both paths leading to the origin and end of life, to nothingness and death.
At the same time, Lin Xiao silently marvelled once more at the Heavenly Eye’s extraordinariness. Even this power could be withstood by it.
“This place… this is one of the continent’s nine great forbidden zones: the Death White Rock! The Death White Rock has appeared!”
Ji Lian let out a trembling cry of utter terror. As a Martial Saint, he had read many ancient records of the Ji family, some of which vaguely mentioning the nine great forbidden zones.
The connection clicked instantly in his mind.
“One of the nine great forbidden zones?”
Lin Xiao’s heart jolted.
Some said the continent held nine great forbidden zones, others claimed seven. The exact number was uncertain.
One of them was the Divine Demon Cemetery, where the Heaven-Devouring Spirit Emperor had fallen.
Even a ninth-grade Spirit Controller had perished there. One could imagine how terrifying these forbidden zones were.
From fragments of Heaven-Devouring Spirit Emperor’s memories, Lin Xiao knew these zones seemed to appear roughly once every millennium.
The last time had been the Divine Demon Cemetery.
Each appearance shook the continent. Countless powers assaulted the zone, and the mysterious Destiny Divine Temple would manifest alongside it.
This time, after another thousand years, another forbidden zone had emerged.
Though Lin Xiao had never heard the specific name “Death White Rock,” the title alone revealed its horror: enter and die.
And the power within was the unfathomable power of time. It was almost certainly one of the continent’s supreme forbidden zones.
The legends about the Heavenly Eye included a claim that it could resist the power of the forbidden zones, allowing one to explore their secrets and perhaps reach the very pinnacle of the martial path.
Now it seemed that rumour appeared to be confirmed: the Heavenly Eye could indeed withstand a forbidden zone’s power.
Whether it would truly let him reach the martial peak would depend on fate and fortune.
Lin Xiao’s heart surged like a storm-tossed sea.
Ji Lian and Zhan Meng were equally overwhelmed with shock. Among the crowd outside, some experienced elders who recognised the signs cried out in horror, “A continental forbidden zone has appeared! The continent will be thrown into chaos! Quick, flee this place!”
