Insufficient balance

  Tang Hao came back to his senses and saw that the purple-robed woman was looking at him with a curious expression, saying: "Why have you been dazed all this time?"

  Tang Hao smiled awkwardly and said, "Nothing, just thinking about some things."

  The crowd surrounded the seal and turned around, only to find that apart from some immortal markets, it was just a place where ordinary people lived. What disappointed everyone was that although some shops left behind some precious herbs and treasures, they had all lost their original spirituality due to the erosion of time and were worthless.

  The fat man cast a fireball spell on the seal, without causing any ripples. The blue-clothed man saw this and hastily shouted: "What are you doing!"

  The fatty said with a bad temper: "It's not easy to get in, and it's really not worth it if we don't take some things out. I really want to go in and see what treasures are inside."

  The woman in purple said, "Brother, let's get out of here. I feel something is off about this place. No one would leave their home for no reason. Something must have happened here, maybe it has to do with the sealed thing."

  The man in blue nodded and bowed to Tang Hao and the others, saying: "Fellow Taoists, we'll take our leave first. If you're not satisfied with no harvest, you can stay behind, farewell."

  Tang Hao also felt that this city was no longer the city in his past life's memory, separated by nearly tens of thousands. Something must have happened here, and Tang Hao wouldn't take risks for some illusory treasures, so he followed the two siblings and left.

  The woman in yellow and the fat man saw that all three had left, and since two hours were almost up, they wouldn't keep waiting for a pie that was never going to be eaten, so they also followed.

  The crowd returned to the entrance, but found that those monsters were still guarding there, as if they didn't let Tang Hao and others leave.

  The man in blue clothes stamped his foot and cursed: "What's wrong with these monsters? This must not be an ordinary beast tide."

  Tang Hao knew that he wouldn't be able to return to the foot of the Feng Xuan Sect on time. Now, he only had two paths to take: one was to force his way through. Although Tang Hao's spiritual power had recovered somewhat, it wasn't enough to contend with this demonic beast army; forcing his way through would be no different from seeking death. The second path was to return to the Ling Xian Pavilion, although he didn't know what would happen in the end, at least there was a glimmer of hope for survival.

  Everyone tacitly returned to the Lingxian Pavilion, saw that a jewelry store's house was still relatively intact, and entered inside to rest. These monsters will want to eat and drink, wait for them to hold on no longer, they will naturally leave, at that time should be able to run out, otherwise can only starve to death here.

  The sky gradually darkened, and the thing that worried the five people happened. The originally solid seal also gradually dimmed. If I'm not mistaken, the energy of this ban should be provided by the sun. When the sun sets, the original seal loses its energy support and loses its effect.

  The seal gradually dissipated, allowing everyone to see the things inside clearly. The buildings and pavilions were arranged in a harmonious manner, but they had lost their original colors and only exuded an aura of death.

  The end of the main street is a magnificent grand hall. Above the main entrance of the grand hall, there is a large plaque with three big characters that can be vaguely seen: White Gold Hall.

  It seems this place is not the core area of the Lingxian Pavilion, but just a branch hall. Otherwise, Tang Hao wouldn't have been able to come in so easily.

  Everyone saw that the seal had disappeared, but they no longer dared to mention treasure hunting, because everything in the seal was so eerie and terrifying, like a ghost town, as if once inside, there would only be death.

  The man in blue found some dry firewood nearby, lit a fire, and it wasn't that everyone was afraid of the cold, but after lighting the fire, at least everyone felt a hint of warmth.

  Everyone stared blankly at the flames, their minds unsure of what to think, but Tang Hao knew they must be worried about something. What people fear most is not encountering danger, but knowing that danger is approaching, yet being unaware of what it is.

  The more everyone didn't speak, the more terrifying the atmosphere became. The blue-clothed man saw the purple-clothed woman curled up into a ball and couldn't bear it, so he thought of livening up the atmosphere.

  The man in blue suddenly said: "My name is Qin Guan, my sister's name is Qin Si Ruo, I don't know what to call you fellow Taoists."

  Tang Hao was taken aback, and the man in blue suddenly started making a ruckus at home. However, he desperately wanted to break this dull atmosphere, so he happily replied: "Tang Yuanyuan."

  Pangzi's face twitched and he immediately replied: "Wang Qiu."

  The woman in yellow nodded and said: "I am Jinglian."

  Fatso suddenly said: "Now the sky is about to darken, and noon has already passed. Why don't we break the jade tablet to ask for help?"

  Everyone was stunned, although the fat man's words were reasonable, but now that they hadn't truly encountered danger, besides if they were late and rushed back, perhaps the Ling Feng Sect would consider their special circumstances and show mercy, but if the Jade Token was broken, then there really wouldn't be any chance left.

  Everyone nodded in agreement, but there was no follow-up action. Even the fat guy who made the proposal just hoped someone else would break the jade stick.

  Qin Si Ru took out the jade tablet, but was stopped by Qin Huan. This made Wang Qiu and Jing Lian look at each other in dismay. Zeng Lian said with a bad temper: "Since Sister Si Ru has already decided, why are you still stopping her? Do you want to control her for the rest of her life?"

  Wang Qiu also nodded and said: "This is for our common interest, if you continue like this, we may really die here."

  Tang Hao really couldn't take it anymore, he hated those who didn't want to suffer losses for the collective but still stood on the side of collective righteousness, so he said in a bad tone: "Why don't you use it?"

  Jing Lian and Wang Qiu saw the situation was three to two, and they didn't say anything else. Qin Si Ruo looked at Tang Huang and gave him a grateful look.

  Qin Si Ruo shook off Qin Huan's hand and said, "Actually, I took out the jade slip just to verify my own guess. This jade slip should be a simple transmission array, only effective at a specific distance. Now that we have arrived at the foot of the Xuan Yin mountain range, we are no longer on the periphery, and the distance has exceeded the limit of the jade slip. Moreover, various arrays have been set up around the White Gold Temple, shielding this small transmission array is not a problem, so this jade slip is actually useless." After finishing speaking, she crushed the jade slip, and indeed nothing changed.

  Jing Lian and Wang Qun were shocked and lost their color, and they didn't even think about whether they could enter the foot of Fengzong anymore. They directly crushed the jade slip, but it still had no effect at all.

  "It seems we can only rely on ourselves." Tang Hao said in a low voice.

  Qin Han nodded and said: "We can only increase our chances of winning if we unite together, do you understand?" After finishing, he deliberately looked at Wang Qiu and Zeng Lian.

  Now among these five people, Qin Guang's cultivation is the strongest, with a six-layer Qi Refining stage. Jing Lian and Wang Qun are at the fifth layer of Qi Refining stage, while Qin Si Ruo is at the fourth layer.

  Qin Xuan's cultivation is the highest, so Jing Lian and Wang Qun can only temporarily yield. However, Tang Huang's cultivation is the lowest, and he had just offended them, so they naturally wouldn't give him a good look.

  The sky had already turned dark, and nothing had happened, but the monsters somehow knew to switch shifts. It seemed that the idea of exhausting them was unrealistic.

  Everyone's eyelids began to fight, but they didn't dare fall asleep. Qin said: "This won't work, let's take turns standing guard and the others rest to recharge their spirits."

  Everyone nodded in agreement, and Tang Hao was the first to stand guard. It wasn't because Tang Hao's cultivation was the lowest that he should be the first, but rather everyone knew that as night fell, it became increasingly dangerous. With Tang Hao having the lowest cultivation, standing guard at a time when danger was least likely to appear was the most suitable arrangement.

  Tang Hao saw that everyone had fallen asleep, and he stared at the torch in boredom until he heard a strange noise coming from outside. Tang Hao stuck his head out of the window and saw that the central part of the city suddenly began to emit blue light. This light seemed to want to escape, but was blocked by a five-colored light screen. It seems that there is still a second layer of seal here, but looking at the color of the light screen, it has already faded, and it should have a history of about ten thousand years.

  Before long, the blue light disappeared. Just as Tang Hao thought everything would calm down, he suddenly heard a creaking sound coming from underground. Tang Hao used his divine sense to investigate and discovered that the originally flat street began to show cracks. Suddenly, a withered hand stretched out from the crack, followed by an old man who looked like a dry corpse emerging from beneath the ground. His clothes were already tattered, but judging from his attire, he should be a mortal.

  More and more hands stretched out from the cracks, countless dry corpses drilled out from under the ground, men and women, old and young, their eyeballs had long been sunken, using those empty eyes to stare at Tang Huang, slowly walking towards the jewelry store.