Chapter 1427: The Shifting Seal

Rumble! A deafening roar cut off their conversation. Everyone fell silent and turned as one toward the center where the two mountain ranges converged.

Crimson flames surged from the mountain pass. The crimson flame qi, condensed to its utmost, formed an enormous pillar of fire that shot toward the heavens.

Across the surface of the pass hung a swastika seal, like a golden character stamped upon the void, its faint golden light blanketing the entire opening. Within, everything burned a searing crimson.

Even with the seal in place, the crimson flame qi could still generate such an overwhelming display. It was impossible to imagine how terrifying the power pent up beneath it must have been. And that power was straining to burst free.

The entire Pure Sea Sect stood on the brink of catastrophe.

Rumble... The roars came without pause, and the earth trembled. The mountain pass and the seal were the source.

They saw it clearly. The swastika seal covering the pass had grown deeply unstable. Its body continued to rotate, but slower and slower, the sealing power visibly growing more sluggish.

The seal had already begun to bulge, and the golden light around it was steadily dispersing. Such a sight was an unmistakable omen that the seal was about to collapse.

Standing where they were, still some distance from the pass, they could feel the unbridled violence of the power beneath it, and their scalps prickled.

The expressions of the several Spiritual Infant cultivators all darkened. Even without knowing the origins and history of Pure Sea Sect, anyone looking at the scene before them could tell that once the seal collapsed, Pure Sea Sect would vanish from the world entirely.

They even suspected that the sect's abandonment of its own grounds, the disappearance of every last member, was connected to that place.

The Precept-Keeping Sage suppressed the excitement in his eyes and exclaimed, "The seal is about to collapse. How could the timing be so precise? We've only just entered and already... Could breaking the array have triggered the change?"

The Feathered Robe Primordial Lady's gaze had been flickering the whole while. At first the pillar of crimson fire and the seal over the pass had drawn her attention, but then, as though she had noticed something, she looked in turn toward the golden roof, the pagoda, and the spiritual array overhead that they had just passed through.

Hearing the Precept-Keeping Sage's words, she snorted. "Daoist Precept-Keeping still hasn't seen it? The golden swastika stamp is only one part of it. Every barrier within Pure Sea Sect, the golden roof and the pagoda included, along with the sect's protective array above, has been forcibly kneaded together by some great supernatural ability and fused into a single whole, forming one complete seal. Their qi is interlinked, each supporting the others. Damage any one point and the entire seal weakens, or even collapses..."

The Precept-Keeping Sage's face turned sheepish. What he knew of Pure Sea Sect had come from his master, and his master the Nine-Precept Sage had known only a little himself, ignorant of both the cause and the course of the sect's disappearance.

Just then, the Chaotic Devil Elder, who had held his black bamboo staff in silence the entire time, suddenly spoke, "It wasn't forcibly kneaded together. These barriers were connected from the start. Pure Sea Sect may have had a premonition from the very founding of the sect."

The others were all stunned by the words.

"Daoist, your judgment should be right." The Feathered Robe Primordial Lady's expression grew graver still as she stared at the pass. "Then what lies within isn't merely crimson flame qi? Is something else sealed in there as well?"

Her words made their blood run colder. The might displayed by Pure Sea Sect's protective array was proof enough of this Buddhist sect's strength. A Buddhist sect of such standing, and yet why had so few ever heard of it, and why had it vanished so abruptly?

The Precept-Keeping Sage laughed dryly. "Let's not speculate wildly. What's done is done and cannot be undone. Fairy Feathered Robe said just now that Old Ghost Huang gathered several old-timers half a month ago and plotted heaven knows what in his cave dwelling. Once they got word, they certainly wouldn't have passed it up.

"They've likely already come in and are breaking the array now. Let's secure the treasures first and worry about the rest later. After spending this much effort, we can hardly go home empty-handed..."

As he spoke, he stole glances at the Chaotic Devil Elder. With the Chaotic Devil Elder and the Feathered Robe Primordial Lady both standing still, he didn't dare act on his own and could only fret in silence.

The other two early-stage Spiritual Infant cultivators kept their peace, though their eyes moved constantly between the golden roof and the pagoda. Those two sites were far too distinctive, obviously the sanctums of the Buddhist sect.

"If anything goes wrong, I'll be counting on all of you. Do try not to release some devilish monster to wreak havoc across Boundless Sea. The beauties on my island are all delicate, gathered through no end of trouble, and they can't withstand that sort of upheaval," the Feathered Robe Primordial Lady said.

The Feathered Robe Primordial Lady drew her gaze back from the pass, her expression languid yet intensely bewitching. The corners of her lips curved. "This differs somewhat from what the two of you said earlier. We haven't much time left to claim the treasures. There's no chance of exploring inch by inch and slowly coming up with a method to break the barriers."

Then stop standing here running your mouth! They're nothing but trash. If they die, replace them. The Precept-Keeping Sage cursed inwardly.

The Chaotic Devil Elder tapped the black bamboo staff in his hand and said indifferently, "There should still be time to open the golden roof's grand hall and the thirteen-story pagoda. To keep the seal from collapsing midway, let's move together. Choose for yourselves."

The Precept-Keeping Sage and the other two said nothing.

The Feathered Robe Primordial Lady asked, "Daoist Chaotic Devil, which one are you choosing?"

"The golden roof!" the Chaotic Devil Elder spat out the two words lightly, his clouded eyes fixed on it. Paying the others no mind, his figure stirred and he flew through the air toward it.

The Feathered Robe Primordial Lady laughed sweetly and made an unexpected decision. "I trust your judgment. The treasures beneath the golden roof won't disappoint me."

That the two strongest among them had both chosen the grand hall beneath the golden roof was something the remaining three hadn't anticipated.

The Precept-Keeping Sage barely contained his delight and spoke in a steady voice, "With Senior and Fairy Feathered Robe taking action, it's as good as done. I'll take the pagoda. Its barriers appear somewhat weaker."

At that, the tall cultivator who had worn no expression at all and seemed detached from the rest twitched his ear slightly. He cast a subtle glance at the Feathered Robe Primordial Lady's retreating figure, deliberated for a moment, and said, "I'll go to the pagoda as well."

The two flew toward the pagoda nearly abreast.

The Precept-Keeping Sage glanced sideways and said with a smile, "Daoist Three-Yin, we'll need to cooperate in earnest, or we'll fall behind Senior and Fairy Feathered Robe and lose out on the Buddhist treasures."

The Spiritual Infant cultivator whose Dharma name was Three-Yin merely nodded.

That left only the last of them, still rooted in place and unable to decide. The worry on his face had eased somewhat as he watched the other four, unable for the moment to make sense of the relationships among them.

He knew full well that these people were nowhere near as harmonious as they appeared, and he wanted to stay clear of the center of the whirlpool. Yet in all Pure Sea Sect there was no third site to rival the golden roof and the pagoda. Even if treasures lay hidden elsewhere, by the time he found them the seal would probably have collapsed.

After a moment's hesitation, he stamped his foot and chased after the Precept-Keeping Sage and Three-Yin.

The five Spiritual Infant cultivators split into two parties.

The Feathered Robe Primordial Lady trailed Chaotic Devil Elder by half a body length and laughed sweetly. "Daoist, you can tell me now, surely. What exactly did you come for? I'd like to know so I can steer clear and avoid taking a treasure you have your heart set on, stirring up trouble for nothing. I've no desire to follow those old-timers into an untimely grave."

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