The morning mist in the mountains hung like fine gauze. Su Yao's fingertips brushed against the mottled stone tablet at the entrance of Qingyun Mountain, the icy touch winding its way up the weathered patterns. The four characters inscribed on the face of the tablet—"Qingming Barrier"—suddenly flickered with a faint light, countless tiny runes crawling across it like living creatures and casting a spray of golden motes into her pupils.
"Something isn't right." Zhao Ya gripped her jade flute, its red tassel swaying without wind. "The Ancient Tome records that Qingyun Mountain is an outpost of the Shangqing Sect, and ordinary cultivators can't even approach within three zhang of the barrier. Yet all the way here, we haven't encountered a single obstruction."
A flicker of lightning danced across Lin Yu's palm, illuminating the surrounding fog. "Could it have something to do with the upheaval in the Cangming Ruins?" Before his voice had even faded, the gravel beneath their feet suddenly levitated, forming an eerie divination hexagram in the air. Su Yao's pupils contracted sharply as she recognized the long-lost Nine Palaces Dragon-Trapping Array, the Array Core of which faintly exuded a dark purple aura sharing the same origin as the Jiuyou Blood Curse.
Chapter 210