We’ve all been tricked

After the dust settled, the cultivators who had attacked the gate’s restriction crawled out from all directions, their faces streaked with grime.

Seeing the light barrier on the gate still intact, their expressions turned to dejection.

“So many Divine Venerables attacking together couldn’t break it.”

“Does this mean we really have to wait for the ruin’s protective power to dissipate on its own?” Jin Mei’s face was filled with frustration.

The other Divine Venerable cultivators dared not continue their assault; it was clear they were just looking for trouble for themselves.

Yet, they still couldn’t understand why Yan Yun could get in while they couldn’t.

“Could it be that our cultivation is too high, and this place has a cultivation restriction?” one of the Divine Venerables proposed.

This statement served as a reminder to the old man surnamed Feng.

“That is a possibility.”

“Pavilion Master, why don’t we test it?”

They were out of options anyway, so there was no harm in trying.

The problem was, the lowest cultivation level among them was the Divine Soul Realm.

Who should they send to test it?

“Fellow Daoists of the Divine Soul Realm, who is willing to volunteer?”

“If you are willing to try, after you get in, our Qianjin Pavilion will allow you to choose three suitable treasures first,” Jin Mei said to the Divine Soul Realm cultivators.

However, the restriction had thoroughly frightened them.

Who knew what consequences would come from directly touching it? Having cultivated to the Divine Soul Realm, no one was willing to joke with their own life.

So, after Jin Mei finished speaking, the entire area fell silent.

No one was willing.

“Pavilion Master Jin, your Qianjin Pavilion is still too considerate.”

“You, boy, go give it a try,” the Ghost Soul Old Ancestor chuckled sinisterly, then suddenly grabbed a Divine Soul Realm cultivator.

Before the man could say anything, he was seized by the Ghost Soul Old Ancestor’s power and forcefully thrown towards the gate.

“Bastard, Ghost Soul Old Demon, I won’t let you go even as a ghost!”

The Divine Soul Realm cultivator, believing he was about to die, didn’t hold back, cursing the Ghost Soul Old Ancestor with all his might.

But to his surprise, he passed straight through the light barrier.

By the time he reached the other side of the gate, he hadn’t even realized he had made it through.

“Huh? Strange, why didn’t I feel anything?” The Divine Soul Realm cultivator opened his eyes in confusion.

When he did, he found that he had somehow arrived on the other side of the gate.

“I… I’m not dead, I’m through, hahaha?” After a moment of stunned silence, the Divine Soul Realm cultivator broke into a smile of someone who had survived a disaster.

Seeing this, Jin Mei and the others’ eyes lit up.

“Excellent!”

“I never thought it was truly a realm restriction.”

“Let’s go!” Jin Mei quickly led the branch managers towards the gate, passing through it with ease.

Since they could enter, the other Divine Soul Realm cultivators also flew over, leaving behind only the grim-faced Divine Venerable experts.

Many of them had rushed over ahead of their sects, and the other cultivators from their forces were still on the way.

“Damn it, if I had known, I would have brought some people with me.”

“Now, even if they arrive, they’ll have to wait outside.”

“By the time we can get in, all the good stuff will be gone!” some of the acquainted Divine Venerables lamented.

However, after Jin Mei and the others had entered, the old man surnamed Feng wore a puzzled expression.

Even if there was a realm restriction, it shouldn’t have restricted the Divine Soul Realm.

In the lower realms, the Divine Soul Realm was considered a very high level of cultivation.

For some reason, an idea that made his scalp tingle suddenly popped into his mind.

He walked slowly towards the gate, then reached out and tentatively touched the light barrier.

The moment he made contact, he closed his eyes and pushed forward.

As a result, his hand passed straight through.

When he opened his eyes again and saw his hand had gone through, his old face immediately turned red, as if he had suffered a great humiliation.

“A great humiliation, a great humiliation!”

“Damn it, this is a Five Elements Reversion Restriction.”

The old man surnamed Feng cursed in anger, then walked straight in.

The Divine Venerables outside, seeing him walk in directly, were all stunned.

When they came to their senses and recalled what he had just said about the Five Elements Reversion Restriction, they all understood.

“Five Elements Reversion Restriction?!”

“Is this damned Tianwu Gate playing with us?”

“To think we were fooled by this restriction for so long.”

“Fine, after this, this old man will raze this place to the ground.”

The other Divine Venerables from Qianjin Pavilion were furious.

The Five Elements Reversion Restriction, how to put it, wasn’t a particularly rare restriction.

In fact, it could be said to be quite common, used by many sects.

Its purpose was to protect buildings from being damaged by energy.

It couldn’t directly harm cultivators themselves.

As long as you didn’t carry any energy, you could pass through it without harm.

But if you attacked it violently, it would either directly nullify the energy or, if it couldn’t, convert it into harmless energy and repel it.

That was why, despite being blasted away by such a powerful force, they were at most just a little disheveled.

The reason the old man surnamed Feng hadn’t thought of this restriction at first was because he never imagined that the entrance restriction of this Tianwu Gate had absolutely no blocking effect and was purely a bluff.

Upon entering, Jin Mei saw Venerable Feng and began to tremble with anger.

Seeing Jin Mei’s furious expression, Venerable Feng couldn’t help but shrink back, because this was indeed his fault.

“Well, Pavilion Master, I should probably start breaking the internal defensive restrictions,” Venerable Feng quickly changed the subject, taking out his compass to investigate the internal array restrictions of Tianwu Gate.

Jin Mei was in no mood to argue with him.

At this point, blaming him was meaningless.

The other Divine Venerables also walked in with cold faces.

Since Jin Mei and her group didn’t advance, they naturally didn’t dare to proceed rashly either.

Venerable Feng had already begun to analyze the structure of the internal restrictions and arrays.

“The internal arrays and restrictions are layered and very complex, much more troublesome than what we’ve encountered before.”

“This was likely set up as a trial for later cultivators.”

“To completely break it would take at least half an hour.”

“Let’s just go through the trials directly.”

Jin Mei took a deep breath.

“Let’s go.”

This was the first time they had been thwarted in an ancient ruin; the ones they had encountered before weren’t this troublesome.

The people of Qianjin Pavilion took the lead.

The moment they stepped onto the stairs, they all felt an extremely heavy pressure.

The trials here were set according to each person’s realm.

It wasn’t that a stronger cultivation meant one could ignore the pressure; on the contrary, as long as your power hadn’t reached the limit of the array restriction, the pressure might only be greater.

Actually, this trial wasn’t much of a challenge for the experts present; at most, it would just waste some time.

How many who had cultivated to the Divine Soul Realm and Divine Venerable Realm had poor resistance to pressure?

As for Yan Yun, she had already arrived before the third trial.

This third trial was surprisingly a question.

In front of Yan Yun was a stone tablet with a question inscribed on it.

Perhaps this Leng Xinshuang was too bored after sealing her sect, so she left behind this question.

“O fated one of later generations, congratulations on reaching the third trial.”

“This third trial is very simple: just answer the question I have left.”

“If I am satisfied, then you will have passed.”

The cold voice of Leng Xinshuang once again echoed in Yan Yun’s ears.

“How do you view love?”

Yan Yun looked at the question, the corner of her mouth twitching.

‘What kind of question is this, a joke? Everyone’s view of love is different, how can there be a single correct answer?’ Yan Yun thought, wanting to complain.

But since she had reached this stage, she had to answer the question.

At the same time, she was analyzing why the other party would leave such a question.

‘Could it be that this Leng Xinshuang once had a romantic past?’

Yan Yun, after all, had been through it.

She quickly figured out what Leng Xinshuang was thinking.

Thus, she raised her hand, released her power, and carved her answer below the question.

“Love exists if you believe in it, and does not if you don’t.”

“The reason you have this question is because you ultimately chose the path of immortality over love.”

“That is why, at the final moment of your life, you posed such a question.”

“You regret giving up on love.”

Yan Yun wasn’t sure if her answer would pass, but it was the only one she could give.

Time ticked by, and the words on the stone tablet flickered.

Finally, a long, drawn-out sigh echoed in Yan Yun’s ears.

“Alas! Perhaps I do regret it.”

“Little one, you have passed.”

“Go in. The treasures of my Tianwu Gate are all in the hall ahead.”

“As for how much you can take, that depends on your fate with Tianwu Gate.”

With that, a gap opened in the light barrier protecting the palace.

Yan Yun immediately led Xiao Leng and Heiyue inside.

“I never thought that the last Sect Master of Tianwu Gate would be trapped by love in the end,” Xiao Leng said with a wry smile.

“To be precise, at the end of her life, she realized that the path of immortality she pursued was nothing but an illusion, and it would have been better to choose love, to grow old with the one she loved, and finally enter reincarnation together.”

“Choosing the path of immortality, in the end, she could only enter reincarnation alone,” Yan Yun answered.

Because if she had to choose, she would choose love without hesitation, to be with Jiang Yao.

But some would surely ask, if she chose love, why did she have to separate from Jiang Yao? That was a different matter entirely.

Because only by living well could one enjoy love; otherwise, one would simply be burdened by romance.

Yan Yun smiled as she pushed open the doors of the palace.

As the doors swung open, the sight within was dazzling, with rare treasures piled up like mountains.

“Haha, we’ve struck gold,” Yan Yun said excitedly.

Xiao Leng and Heiyue also had looks of shock.

“It’s hard to believe that Tianwu Gate had such a rich heritage.”

“Why did they still choose to seal the mountain and await their end?” Xiao Leng asked.

Yan Yun chuckled.

“Probably because the sect’s ancestors had passed away, and she herself could not advance further.”

“With no successors among the disciples, what use were so many treasures?”

Xiao Leng thought for a moment and realized it was true.

In the cultivation world, talent was the most important thing; no amount of cultivation resources could replace it.