The night sky, like a massive piece of black silk, weighed heavily over the Zaohua Sect. The stars, resembling jewels embedded in the fabric, gazed coldly down upon everything below. The surrounding mountains stood like silent giants in the gloom, looming indistinctly and imparting an invisible sense of oppression. Inside the Zaohua Sect, lanterns blazed brightly, yet that light appeared somewhat powerless against the thick nocturnal gloom.
"What? That is... the Soul-Suppressing Banner?" someone in the crowd exclaimed in shock, the voice dropping like a water droplet into a pan of hot oil, instantly setting off a frenzy. People all around stretched their necks, their eyes wide, gazing in the direction of Du Bufan. The breath they exhaled condensed into white wisps of mist in the cold air, then quickly dissipated.
"Is it fake? How could four of them appear all at once?" someone asked with a face full of doubt, brow tightly furrowed, shaking his head as he spoke as if unable to accept the defying of natural law unfolding before his eyes. The person next to him chimed in, and a cacophony of voices broke out, the noisy sounds echoing in the silent night sky and startling the birds roosting in the nearby woods, which beat their wings and flew frantically into the night.
Chapter 52