Their eyes flickered with eerie light, guarding the tower body like living creatures. The pressure they emitted slightly warped the surrounding space.
“It has appeared again, as expected!” Chen Ping’s gaze was sharp as an eagle’s. The golden dragon bloodline within him faintly boiled, resonating strongly with the dragon crystal. He could feel that Cen Biqing and Old Black were inside the tower; their anxious and hopeful auras reached him through the crystal.
This time, Chen Ping did not rush forward. He concealed his presence and observed from afar.
Ripples occasionally spread through the void around the Demon-Suppressing Tower, as though countless spatial faults were interwoven, making the area far more treacherous than the last time he had seen it.
The emergence of the tower was like a boulder dropped into a still lake. The ancient, vast spatial fluctuations it released quickly drew the attention of every major power in the Ninth Heaven.
In less than half a day, hundreds of cultivators had already gathered at the outskirts of the originally desolate and deathly silent Void Rift Valley.
They wore different attire and possessed varying levels of strength, belonging to diverse sects and clans, ranging from Human Immortal to Heavenly Immortal realm.
They encircled the tower at a distance, eyes burning as they stared at the majestic ancient pagoda and the faint treasure light that flickered across its surface. Low murmurs spread, and restless desire was plain to see.
“No mistake! This is the Demon-Suppressing Tower recorded in the ancient texts! It contains endless inner spaces and holds the legacies and treasures of primordial great demons!”
“I heard this tower drifts through myriad worlds, its whereabouts unpredictable. Who would have thought it would appear in the Ninth Heaven this time! What heavenly fortune!”
“Look at those four stone lions at the base! They are the core of the guardian formation. Unless that array is broken, no one can hope to enter!”
Soon, someone could no longer restrain themselves and attempted to force their way in.
A rogue cultivator at the early Heavenly Immortal realm, confident in his strength, turned into a streak of light and shot straight towards the tower gate.
“Hum—!”
The moment he came within a hundred zhang of the tower, the eerie light in the eyes of the four stone lions blazed. An invisible spatial barrier instantly materialised.
The rogue cultivator crashed into what felt like an indestructibly solid wall. He was hurled backwards even faster, blood spraying from his mouth, countless bones shattered. By the time he hit the ground, he was barely breathing.
This scene instantly cooled the ardour of many impulsive onlookers.
“What a powerful guardian formation! Brute force clearly will not work.”
“This array contains the laws of space, profound and mysterious. We must join forces to break it!”
An elder from the Blazing Yang Sect called out loudly, “Everyone! Fortune of this magnitude belongs to whoever encounters it! Why don’t we temporarily unite, break the guardian formation first, and then rely on our own abilities for whatever treasures lie inside?”
His proposal met with widespread agreement.
Yet the alliance, seemingly harmonious on the surface, was fragile in the extreme.
As they attacked the formation and searched for weak points in its eyes, disputes inevitably arose over positioning, how much strength each side contributed, and old grudges.
“Black Water Grotto scum, was that yin wind just now aimed at me?”
A burly, bearded man roared at a nearby group shrouded in black mist.
“Hmph. Accidents happen when breaking an array. If your skill is lacking and you can’t dodge, who’s to blame?”
The leader of the Black Water Grotto replied with a sinister sneer.
“Bullshit! I say you did it on purpose! New scores and old, we settle them all today!”
Before the words finished echoing, the bearded man already swung his enormous axe.
That single act was like lighting a powder keg.
The various factions, already wary of one another and nursing numerous past grievances, instantly found an excuse to explode.
“Blazing Yang Sect dogs, you robbed treasures from my sect’s disciples in the last secret realm. Pay with your lives!”
“Old bastard of the Mysterious Metal Gate, die!”
“Kill! Clear the field first, break the array later!”
Chaos spread like a plague.
The glow of spells, the clash of magical treasures, furious shouts, and screams of agony instantly filled the entire rift valley.
Most of the attacks originally meant for the Demon-Suppressing Tower ended up landing on “allies”.
Blood soaked the earth, severed limbs flew everywhere, the scene utterly gruesome.
At that very moment, Chen Ping had silently slipped into the shadow of a relatively secluded boulder, coldly watching the melee unfold.
