Mo Tiange stood in midair, looking down at the immortal palace shrouded in immortal aura.
In this independent space, there was no sunrise or sunset; there was only misty white light.
Although it was filled with immortal aura and was as beautiful as a fairyland, it was like a dream, unreal and unreal.
In the blink of an eye, she had been here for almost thirty years. She couldn't remember the feeling of sunlight anymore.
Sometimes, she vaguely felt that the mountain breeze, the sea waves, the blue sky, and the bright sunshine were all dreams.
If she went on like this, she almost suspected that she would forget the outside world.
However, these days were coming to an end soon.
She smiled faintly and turned her head. She saw a red light rising from the lonely peak below and approaching her.
In the blink of an eye, the red light was already in front of her.
"What's wrong?" Qin Xi asked her.
Mo Tiange shook her head. "Nothing. Let's go."
Seeing that she didn't look worried, Qin Xi didn't ask any more questions. The two of them turned around and flew side by side towards the underground palace.
Their speed wasn't fast. Although they had explored every possible place these years, there were still drifting restrictions in this immortal palace. It wouldn't be good if they ran into them.
When they arrived at the entrance of the underground palace, they walked along the tunnel until they stopped in front of a cave filled with devil aura.
Yang Chengji and Jing Xingzhi were already inside the cave.
The devil aura on Yang Chengji's body was faint, but the spiritual aura pressure was extremely heavy. He had successfully advanced to the Nascent Soul realm.
"You're finally here." Jing Xingzhi was in high spirits. "I thought you were having fun here and didn't want to leave."
Qin Xi glanced at him faintly and said, "Unlike you, I didn't have the chance to have fun even if I wanted to."
Seeing that Jing Xingzhi's face turned green, Mo Tiange said in time, "Fellow Daoists, are you ready?"
Being dragged back to the main topic, Jing Xingzhi and Yang Chengji both answered, "Of course."
Mo Tiange looked at Qin Xi. Qin Xi said, "Let's set the formation."
She nodded, took out magic weapons, formation flags, spirit stones, and other things from her Qiankun Ring, and began to set the formation in the cave.
It had been five years since she successfully advanced to the Nascent Soul realm. During these five years, everything went smoothly.
Yang Chengji went into seclusion to form his Nascent Soul. When he came out of seclusion on the third year, he successfully advanced to the Nascent Soul realm and joined their ranks.
Her study of the Xuanxu Cloud-Linking Formation was unexpectedly smooth. Perhaps it was because she had advanced to the Nascent Soul realm, many things that she couldn't understand before were easily solved. By the time Yang Chengji came out of his Closed Door Meditation, he had already understood the formation.
Qin Xi, Jing Xingzhi, and later, Yang Chengji — the three of them worked together and spent several years before they finally found the crack in the restriction between the Immortal Palace and the spiritual mountain. The result was unexpected. The crack was actually where the Primordial Devil Stele was, which was also the cave where Yang Chengji previously performed Closed Door Meditation.
In hindsight, it was only natural.
The leakage of Primordial Devil Qi was not only in the Immortal Palace, but also in the Spirited Mountain. There must be a crack in the restriction between the underground palace and the outside world.
The only thing that wasn't going well was the Jadebone Puppet Technique.
Except for the introductory mechanism book she found in the Qiankun Ring of the Deification ancient cultivator, Mo Tiange didn't have any other books related to mechanisms, so she could only explore it by herself. However, since the Jadebone Puppet Technique was a treasure in the storehouse, how could it be so easy to figure out?
As for the missing materials, she mobilized her three spiritual beasts and Qin Xi's Bright Bird to search everywhere in the Immortal Palace before she finally managed to gather them. After countless experiments, she finally made some headway.
But the so-called Deification realm couldn't be reached.
For this reason, they spent a lot of effort to enter the Scripture Depository and obtain some ancient books before they finally succeeded in making this Jadebone Puppet.
However, this puppet couldn't reach the Deification realm; it was only in the Nascent Soul realm.
This was something they couldn't do anything about.
No matter how talented he was, he couldn't reach the Great Master realm in just a few years. Moreover, according to the ancient books they found, mechanisms couldn't be used casually. If the cultivator didn't have enough cultivation level, some refining methods couldn't be used, so it was almost impossible for a Nascent Soul cultivator to make a puppet in the Deification realm.
After finding this point, Mo Tiange felt relieved.
For now, if they wanted to go out, the Nascent Soul puppet was enough. As for the Deification puppet, it wouldn't be too late to refine it again when her cultivation level and attainments in the Art of Mechanisms were high enough.
Yang Chengji had already put away the Primal Devil Stone Tablet. Mo Tiange used spirit stone powder to draw the embryonic form of the entire Cloudlink Formation in the cave. She then ordered the three of them to lay the formation together.
The Cloudlink Formation this time was much more complicated than the one they came in with.
First of all, they didn't have a holy object with the power of the Five Saints sealed inside, so they needed a lot of spiritual aura. Second, Mo Tiange made some changes to the Cloudlink Formation, so the passage she created should be much safer than when they came in. However, this also increased the complexity of the formation.
As the formation flags fell one after another, a complete star atlas gradually appeared on the ground.
Finally, she inserted the high grade spirit stones one by one. The formation suddenly shone with a white light, and the entire star atlas seemed to have come alive. It was like a real starry sky with twinkling stars and vibrant colors. Compared to the one they came in with before, this one was many times more exquisite.
Mo Tiange straightened up and heaved a sigh of relief.
The Cloudlink Formation was finally laid.
"Everyone, stand in your positions," she said.
Without needing any instructions, the other three people each stood in a corner of the star atlas. Mo Tiange placed the Jade-Bone Puppet in the last position.
This puppet was made from the crystal skeleton of a Deification cultivator who cultivated the Ice Heart Jadebone Technique, the Nephrite Holy Spirit Jade as its skin, and many other rare materials that only appeared in legends. The puppet was lifelike and extremely agile. Mo Tiange even dressed it in Han Ice Palace's uniform. At first glance, it looked no different from a living person.
The four of them had long understood the incantation to activate the Cloudlink Formation. At this moment, all of their expressions were solemn.
They had been trapped in the Immortal Palace for thirty years. Whether they could leave or not depended on this time.
The four of them, together with the Jade-Bone Puppet, began to chant the incantation. The five corners under their feet shone brighter and brighter, and the spiritual aura produced by the high grade spirit stones crazily rushed to where they stood.
"Open!" Mo Tiange shouted. Without hesitation, everyone poured their spiritual aura into the star atlas under their feet.
This process lasted for a long time. The star atlas was like an insatiable Taotie, swallowing their spiritual aura in big gulps.
The Jade-Bone Puppet couldn't hold on anymore. Mo Tiange pressed her Qiankun Ring, and several crystal jades appeared in her hand. She quickly stuffed them into the puppet's hand.
She and Yang Chengji had just advanced to the Nascent Soul realm, so they didn't have enough spiritual aura.
But they were prepared, so they swallowed medicinal pills and used crystal jades to replenish their spiritual aura.
Jing Xingzhi was next. Although he advanced to the Nascent Soul realm a long time ago, he was a sword cultivator, and this wasn't his specialty.
Qin Xi was the only one who wasn't affected.
He had refined the Yang Spiritual Bead all these years. The Yang Spiritual Bead had endless spiritual aura, so it would automatically replenish his spiritual aura whenever he lacked spiritual aura.
Just when Mo Tiange and Yang Chengji almost couldn't hold on any longer, with a buzzing sound, a ray of white light covered the entire Star Chart. This Mysterious Cloud-Connecting Formation, which had absorbed enough spiritual aura, emitted a sparkling light.
Then, a dark hole appeared in the center of the star atlas.
"Success!" Upon seeing this hole, Mo Tiange's body went limp and she almost fell to the ground.
The spiritual aura in her body had been sucked dry. If she hadn't obtained a lot of crystal jades in the Immortal Palace and had the support of high-quality panaceas, the spiritual aura in her body wouldn't have been enough to activate this formation even if she advanced to the Nascent Soul realm.
Yang Chengji and Jing Xingzhi weren't much better. Even the Jade-Bone Puppet lost its luster.
Looking at this dark hole, the four of them looked at each other and couldn't help but smile.
Thirty years! Almost thirty years!
They finally found the way out. The hard work of these thirty years wasn't in vain.
"Quickly meditate to restore your spiritual aura," Qin Xi reminded them first. "We can't say for sure how long this passage can last."
Upon hearing this, the other people's expressions became serious. Without delay, they sat down cross-legged to adjust their breaths.
If it was before, this kind of situation would absolutely not happen.
Not to mention Jing Xingzhi, Yang Chengji was very vigilant. How could he adjust his breath without any precaution under other people's eyes?
But this time, they were trapped in the Immortal Palace together and only found the way out after thirty years. They all felt sympathy for each other after going through trials and tribulations together, and they also trusted each other a little more.
Holding the crystal jades, Mo Tiange operated the Origin in her dantian with all her strength and quickly recovered her spiritual aura. Then, she replaced the crystal jades that had exhausted their spiritual aura in the Jade-Bone Puppet. She put the old ones into her bag and inserted the new ones into the puppet.
The puppet immediately regained its momentum.
This was the advantage of the puppet. If its spiritual aura was exhausted, it could immediately return to its peak state after replacing the crystal jades.
These crystal jades could automatically restore spiritual aura and were inexhaustible.
Before long, Jing Xingzhi and Yang Chengji also recovered their spiritual aura and stood up.
"Who's going first?" Jing Xingzhi looked at Yang Chengji then at them.
Yang Chengji was about to take a step forward, but Mo Tiange said, "Let the puppet go first."
The three of them thought this was a good idea.
The puppet could be repaired if it was broken, and it could explore the way in front.
Qin Xi said, "Okay, you drive the puppet first. I'll go with you."
Mo Tiange nodded. She took one last look at the cave and didn't waste any more time. She drove the puppet into the cave then went inside side by side with Jing Xingzhi.
After they went inside, Jing Xingzhi glanced at Yang Chengji and said, "Fellow Daoist Yang, please go first."
His attitude towards Yang Chengji couldn't be said to be contemptuous or warm, but it definitely wasn't as casual as when he faced Yang Chengji and Mo Tiange.
Yang Chengji smiled and didn't say anything. He took a step forward and entered the passage.
How could he not know what Jing Xingzhi was thinking?
In the end, he was a devil cultivator and came from Yunzhong, so he wasn't on the same path as them. Although they didn't reject him, they also couldn't trust him wholeheartedly!
However, after experiencing his master's possession and being trapped in the Immortal Palace for dozens of years, his mentality was much more mature than before, so he didn't care.
Jing Xingzhi waited until Yang Chengji's figure disappeared before he went inside.
The figures of the four people disappeared from the cave, and the underground palace returned to silence.
After a while, the cave suddenly shook, and the spiritual aura scattered little by little. In the end, the Vermilion Bird Sacrificial Temple, which had its Primordial Devil aura sucked dry and the Vermilion Bird Bow taken away, suddenly shook and gradually intensified until it finally collapsed into a pile of ruins.
This fluctuation was slowly transmitted to the Immortal Palace. The whole Immortal Palace began to shake, and the high grade spirit stones used to build the Immortal Palace collapsed piece by piece. The lofty Immortal Palace gradually changed beyond recognition. The mountains collapsed and the earth cracked, the sky darkened, and the spiritual aura became chaotic. In the end, it collapsed with a loud bang.
The four people who entered the passage were completely unaware of all this.