1018: Chapter 1017 Jialan's Crisis: A Cave Suddenly Appears

The pouncing dusky fire snakes were first cut and swallowed by the ubiquitous minute spatial cracks, dissipating into nothingness.

The sky full of golden needles was even more like hitting an invisible sharp wall, snapping and flying off in all directions.

The shackles formed by Geomagnetic Elemental Force were also ground to pieces by the suddenly turbulent spatial fluctuations.

The expressions of the three pursuers changed drastically; they hadn't expected that the heavily injured Jia Lan could still erupt with such exquisite and powerful spatial sword techniques, and they hurriedly activated their protective Magic Treasures and retreated rapidly.

But Galan's target was not them.

Before the silver light of the blooming Sword Lotus could dissipate, the long saber in her left hand had already left its sheath once again.

This time, Wind Dao Marks surged wildly, and a cyan hurricane wrapped around the blade. Holding the saber and sword in each hand, she slashed crosswise toward the seemingly indestructible abyss cliff wall below, which was covered in cracks of age!

Combined Saber-Sword Strike: Wind Xun Void Sever!

The Blade-glow was biting, tearing through the fierce wind; the sword light condensed, slicing open space.

Two attacks with vastly different attributes, yet perfectly blending at this moment, slammed fiercely into a certain point on the cliff wall.

Due to the erosion of time or the characteristics of the abyss, that spot was already slightly dimmer than elsewhere.

"Crack—Boom!!!"

Amidst the deafening roar, the cliff wall was forcefully split open into a massive fissure. Behind it was not solid rock, but a deep cave entrance leading to who knows where!

The violent aftershocks of the saber and sword, along with the spatial turbulence, swept back, forcing the pursuers to retreat again and causing the flame of that copper lamp to flicker violently, its light wavering.

Galan did not hesitate for a moment; the instant the cave was split open, she threw herself into that deep darkness.

The moment before her figure disappeared, she even threw back several strands of Sword Qi containing residual Dao Marks of the Sword, shooting them toward the rock layer above the cave entrance. This triggered a small-scale collapse, and countless boulders fell with a crash, attempting to block the entrance.

"Damn it! Chase her!"

The sinister Cultivator turned pale with rage. He swept away the falling rocks with a wave of his sleeve and shone the copper lamp into the deep cave, but could only see a darkness that swallowed everything; even the range of the lamplight seemed to be further compressed.

In his perception, Jia Lan's aura rapidly receded and blurred.

"This cave... seems strange. The sensing of my 'Soul-Settling Lamp' has been weakened even more severely," another person said in a suspicious tone.

"No matter how strange it is, we must pursue! If she's alive, I want her person; if she's dead... we must bring her body back to give an account to the Immortal Lord!"

The sinister Cultivator gritted his teeth and was the first to rush into the cave. The other two exchanged glances and had no choice but to brace themselves and follow. Those behind with slower speeds had also just arrived at this moment.

Seeing the three strongest continue the pursuit, they could only follow closely behind.

Traveling forward for an unknown amount of time, Galan finally slowed her pace somewhat staggeringly. She had temporarily broken free from the pursuers' lock.

She clutched her shoulder, blood gushing from between her fingers. The price of over-activating the Dao marks was adding injury to injury.

She didn't dare to stay. Forcing herself to keep going, she staggered toward the depths of the cave, in a direction that felt like a void of silence even to her residual Divine Sense.

"This is?"

After advancing several more miles, Galan vaguely saw a faint light. She initially thought it was an exit, but upon approaching, she discovered that there was a hidden paradise within.

The space before her suddenly opened up, as if this were the true entrance to the cave.

And before her, it was covered by a layer of flowing deep-blue light membrane, looking like ripples of water or a silent barrier. Clearly, there was some little-known secret here.

Galan practically stumbled in. The moment she passed through the light membrane, the voices and auras of the pursuers behind her, along with that heart-palpitating sense of pressure, were suddenly cut off.

Inside the cave was dead silence, save for her own rapid breathing and the faint sound of blood dripping from her wound.

Outside the light membrane, several experts from the Hundred Flowers Immortal Domain who had chased her to the cave entrance suddenly stopped, their expressions filled with suspicion and uncertainty.

"The aura... has disappeared?"

"It was completely cut off right before this cave entrance, as if swallowed by something."

The man in the lead, wearing silver-patterned battle armor, was the same one who had ordered the pursuit earlier. His brow was furrowed as he took out a compass shaped like a petal that flickered with a faint light.

The compass needle, which had been pointing firmly toward the cave, now began to spin frantically. After a moment, with a soft "crack," a fine crack appeared on its surface, and its spiritual light vanished completely.

"The detection Magic Treasure is destroyed!"

A female Cultivator beside him whispered, "This cave is strange; it can swallow or even backlash against Divine Soul detection."

The silver-armored man's face was so gloomy it looked like it could drip water. He stared at the deep-blue light membrane; although it looked soft, it gave him a sense of unfathomable danger, as if it connected to the mouth of some ancient giant beast.

The Immortal Lord's command was certainly terrifying, but this unknown cave emitted an aura even more unsettling than the Sealed Abyss itself.

"Form the 'Hundred Flowers Void-Locking Formation' and Seal the cave entrance!"

He finally gritted his teeth and ordered, "If we can't get in, she shouldn't think of coming out easily either.

Send someone back to report to the Immortal Lord and send more experts who are skilled in Formations and abyss exploration.

She is heavily injured; she won't last long in this dead land!"

Light flared outside the cave as streaks of light containing the power of the Seal began to weave into a net.

Inside the cave, Galan leaned against the cold rock wall and slowly slid to the ground.

The puncture wound on her shoulder was still gruesome, and the skin beneath her light armor was cold from blood loss and intense pain.

She forced herself to stay alert, warily scanning her surroundings.

The interior of the cave was wider than expected. The walls were not natural rock but a material akin to ink jade—smooth, cold, yet warm to the touch.

Embedded in the walls at intervals were strange crystals that emitted their own faint light, casting a hazy, pale silver glow that barely illuminated the path ahead.

The air was filled with an ancient scent, as if no one had set foot there for millennia, yet it was strangely devoid of any mustiness, possessing only a profound, ultimate "emptiness."

What shocked her most was that the suppression of Divine Sense here had reached an unimaginable level.

Forget about sensing outside the cave; she couldn't even "see" clearly beyond ten meters into its depths. Her Divine Sense was like being stuck in the thickest mire, unable to move an inch.

Vision and hearing became her only reliable reliances, but this feeling of being completely "locked down" was even more unsettling than in other parts of the abyss.

She tore off a relatively intact piece of her hem to roughly bandage the wound on her shoulder, then took out two precious healing holy medicines and swallowed them. As the medicinal power dissolved, it barely stopped her injuries from worsening, but the intense pain and sense of weakness still hit her in waves like a tide.

She couldn't stay long.

The cave entrance was already sealed. Although the pursuers hadn't dared to enter yet, reinforcements would arrive sooner or later.

This cave was a dead land, but it might also be a glimmer of hope—if it had another exit or hid some turning point.

Galan propped herself against the rock wall, stood up with difficulty, and decided to explore deeper into the cave.

The path ahead, illuminated by the silver-light crystals, wound downward, seemingly leading to an even deeper underground.

She walked very slowly, every step pulling at her wound, cold sweat soaking the hair at her temples.

In the silence, only her own footsteps and breathing echoed, lonely and clear.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, the terrain gradually leveled off, and a corner appeared ahead.

Turning the corner, the view suddenly opened up.