Chapter 27: Breaking the Seal

  Feng Tao saw that everyone was waiting for him, so he didn't drag his feet and walked directly to the entrance of the cave mansion. Yuan Futong and the others followed him, arriving at the broken entrance of the cave mansion.

  The three large characters "Seeking Leisurely Abode" are written on the gate of this cave, and the font is quite elegant, but a bit too refined for a cultivator's taste. After all, they have good physical coordination and strong spiritual awareness, so with some practice, they can write beautiful characters. From this name alone, it's impossible to tell what the original owner was good at or what level of cultivation they had achieved - it's really too ordinary. No wonder Feng Tao didn't introduce us. It seems that this is a residence of a predecessor who likes to live a carefree life, somewhat like a retirement home. Unlike some "Sword Qi Hall", "Return Spring Residence", "Hundred Treasures Pavilion" and other names that are both majestic and show off one's abilities. Looking at it again, I still feel that these characters are a bit strange, but can't quite put my finger on what's special about them.

  Yuan Futong's footsteps didn't stop as he muttered to himself about the name of the cave. The others seemed to be more concerned with what was inside the cave, rather than its name. Following Feng Tao into the cave, it indeed looked like a passageway, and could also be considered a room, roughly two zhang square. At the far end, there was a door that should lead to the restricted area. The place had been thoroughly cleaned out, it seemed that Feng Tao's previous sweep had been very efficient, not leaving anything behind. Feng Tao walked up to the door and said: "This is the second layer of restrictions."

  Zhao Yan released the Flying Sky Centipede from his spiritual beast bag, "I'll take a look at how powerful this seal is, to be able to gather so many people for Brother Feng." As he spoke, he had already commanded the Flying Sky Centipede to spit out a mouthful of toxic gas onto the seal.

  This flying centipede is a rare, evolving spirit beast that Zhao Yan Zheng carefully cultivated. Born with the ability to fly and pounce on enemies, it develops strong toxic attacks after maturing. If trained properly, it can advance to acquire other attack methods. Senior masters have obtained this centipede before, painstakingly cultivating it into a 4th-stage, 6-winged Frostbite Centipede with incredibly fast flight speed and the special ability of frost spit, making its combat strength extremely powerful. When Zhao Yan Zheng first obtained the larva, it was only a 1st-stage spirit beast. After learning about its characteristics from ancient texts, he put in great effort to cultivate it. Although it has only grown to 2nd stage now, the power of its toxic gas is already not to be underestimated.

  Flying centipede spewed a mouthful of toxic gas onto the stone gate, and an ordinary stone gate should have been corroded clean. However, a brilliant light flashed on the gate, the toxic gas dissipated, as if nothing had happened. Zhao Yan's face was somewhat discomfited, revealing a look of embarrassment. Seeing this situation, Feng Tao spoke up: "Hehe, everyone can try whatever means they have, and if they can break the seal, the things inside will be theirs to choose first."

  After hearing Feng Tao's words, Zhao Yan Zheng's face looked a bit better. Knowing that Feng Tao was helping him out of the situation, he didn't dare to make another move, seeing how powerful the restriction was. Instead, he said to Yuan Fu Tong and the others: "Hehe, I've made my move, now it's your turn to try. Who knows, maybe there'll be a breakthrough."

  "I'd rather not, judging from the restricted display, my Qianyang Lei is no better than that." Yuan Futong was unwilling to use more tactics and hastily declined. Hu Xin also shook his head, indicating that he did not want to make a move.

  "I'll give it a try, don't laugh at me if I fail." The one who spoke up was Han Tianxing, the person everyone least expected. He took out a bottle from his乾坤袋 and aimed it at the stone door. A green smoke shot out of the bottle mouth, and Feng Tao and others quickly dispersed.

  "Drunken Willow Smoke!" Feng Tao shouted in shock as he retreated, his voice filled with astonishment. Yuan Fu Tong followed Feng Tao's retreat, and upon hearing the name of the green smoke, his face still showed some shock and great curiosity, but he restrained himself from asking questions and continued to observe the effect of the green smoke on the seal.

  Green smoke spewed onto the stone gate, and the stone gate's surface radiated a brilliant light. The five-colored lights of black, white, yellow, red, and green burst forth, enveloping the green smoke. After a moment, this wisp of green smoke dispersed, and the stone gate returned to its original state. Feng Tao saw that the stone gate's seal had completely dispelled the green smoke, and after circulating his spiritual energy without feeling any discomfort, he finally put his mind at ease, his expression turning calm.

  "It seems that intoxicating willow smoke is also ineffective, it looks like we must join forces and use Brother Feng's magic." Han Tian Xing put away the bottle, his face filled with pain, turned around and said to the four people.

  "Failing that, it seems we have no choice but to use the Five Elements Breaking Seal Technique. I didn't expect Brother Han to possess such a treasure," Feng Tao said.

  "What Master passed down, I don't have the skill to refine this thing. What a pity for this bottle of Drunken Willow Smoke." Han Tianxing said.

  "What is this Drunken Willow Smoke anyway? Brother Han is so particular about it." Yuan Futong asked aloud, seeing that the two were both very concerned about the bottle of green smoke.

  "This is a technique unique to Brother Han's 'Changchun Gong' after reaching the 12th layer of Qi, extremely powerful. Once hit, it can melt bones and souls, even top-grade artifacts may not be able to withstand it. However, condensing it is also extremely difficult, this time Brother Han suffered a great loss." Feng Tao explained.

  "I have only myself to blame, I shouldn't blame others." Han Tianxing said with some disappointment. Among the crowd, his cultivation was the lowest, and it seemed that this Drunken Willow Smoke should be his trump card. Now, a bottle had been wasted in vain, no wonder he was heartbroken. However, if they could break through the restriction, when it came to distributing the spoils, he would definitely get the first share, with huge benefits, making it worth a gamble, only that this time he had gambled and lost.

  Seeing that no one else had the intention of making a solo move, Feng Tao took out a Daoist scripture, which was precisely the "Five Elements Breaking Forbidden Technique".

  "If everyone doesn't make a move, then let's start learning the Five Elements Breaking Seal Technique now. However, if you learn the spell, be sure to abide by the agreement."

  "Don't worry, it's not the first time we've worked together. Since I promised, I'll definitely keep my word." Zhao Yan nodded in agreement, and Yuan Fu Tong and Han Tian Xing also nodded in consent.

  Everyone began to study the "Five Elements Breaking Forbidden Technique". This technique was not complicated, and the overall idea was to use the five elements' power to find the composition principle of the forbidden technique, and then gather the five elements' power at a weak point to break through. This technique had two effects: first, it allowed the five types of power to jointly resist the forbidden technique, while the host found the rules of the forbidden technique during the confrontation; second, it combined the five elements' power to form a powerful attack.

  Because the vast majority of seals are composed of five elements, this spell is effective against most seals. However, it is limited by the user's cultivation level. If the seal is too strong and the cultivation level is not enough, it cannot be broken. The difficulty of this spell lies in the coordination of the five elements' power, which requires very precise use of magic and high demands on the divine sense. No wonder the minimum requirement is to cultivate Qi to the seventh layer; if it's not up to seven layers, the divine sense can't meet the requirements.

  Five people have a cultivation base of seven layers or more, and their divine consciousness is very strong. After reading it twice, they basically memorized the spell. Within an hour, they all completed the cultivation of the spell. After Feng Tao and others finished cultivating the spell, he led the five to conduct coordinated training.

  The five of them found it easy to control their own magic, but when they tried to coordinate with each other, problems arose. Whenever they changed their spells, mistakes would occur. Feng Tao and Hu Xin were the most in sync, and after a while, Han Tianxing also became more proficient. Zhao Yanzheng and Yuan Futong were the slowest. After practicing for half a day, the five of them were finally able to adapt to the changes in the seal and coordinate their magic seamlessly, meeting the requirements for breaking the seal. Feng Tao stopped the practice session, allowing everyone to rest and prepare for the actual attempt to break the seal.

  When everything was ready, the five people placed their hands on the stone gate's seal and inputted their magic power together. The seal on the stone gate immediately appeared and started to counterattack, with black, white, yellow, red, and green lights bursting out to resist the five people's magic power. Feng Tao directed the five people to use the Five Elements Breaking Seal Technique, resisting the pressure of the seal while searching for its structure. Yuan Fu Tong and others also analyzed the subtleties of the seal through their divine sense, learning from it in hopes of gaining something useful for themselves.

  The Five Elements Breaking Seal Technique had been running for half a time, and finally figured out the structure of the seal. It was through the internal formation method that provided the power of the law, using the power of the five elements to change and grind away external attacks. The operation changed in many ways, although it was just right to be restrained by the Five Elements Breaking Seal Technique, but the five people could not immediately understand the operating rules of the seal, and break through at once. Now that I think about it, if it were a single attack, it would be easy to be absorbed and dispersed by the seal due to the five elements' restraint relationship, no wonder even Zui Liu Yan's strong technique was dispersed.

  In this half-hour, Yuan Fugong had a deep understanding of the magical power of the Forbidden Array. In recent years, he has been focusing on alchemy and has little knowledge of other Taoist practices. As for array methods, forbidden techniques, and other basic knowledge in the Taoist world, he knows very little. Many arrays he bought flags but didn't understand how to operate them. Now that he sees the magical power and great effect of the Forbidden Array, compared to his own knowledge, the gap is too big compared to others. "It seems that after returning, I need to find time to supplement my knowledge, my experience is too little, and the gap is huge." Yuan Fugong thought to himself.

  Yuan Futong was determined to study hard when Feng Tao had already figured out the operating rules of the seal and informed others with his divine sense. Everyone followed Feng Tao's prompt to check with their divine sense, and indeed it was accurate. The first step to break the seal has been completed.

  When the five of them nodded to indicate they were ready, Feng Tao let out a loud roar of "Begin!" The seal on the stone gate released a dazzling light before disappearing. The stone gate was shattered into pieces by a powerful magical force, and the grand hall of the cave appeared before the five of them.