“Dammit, try harder! If you can’t even move this away, how can we find anything?”

Uncle Tianshu was cursing, urging the white tigress he was riding to charge forward like lightning.

For some reason, the white tigress was unaffected by the changes in the power of the rules. She could move as freely as before, leaping between buildings and stone halls like a streak of white lightning. Uncle Tianshu rode on her back. They were moving so fast that they could still keep up with Ding Hao, who was advancing like a cannonball.

Now and then, Uncle Tianshu would take out his ancient black map and study it, readjusting their direction.

Thanks to this coarse-looking old man leading the way, Ding Hao and his companions did not trigger any killing formations or traps as they advanced.

Although they had moved 5,000 to 6,000 meters, they were still at the periphery of these opulent buildings. Most of the stone halls were empty, with only a few stone tables and chairs left. They were very ordinary, with nothing unusual at all.

In some of the larger stone halls and buildings, they would come across a few rusted swords, sabers or other weapons. These buildings might have once housed some Magical Weapons or Precious Weapons, but their spiritual Qi had long been depleted, eroded by time. They could only be classified as sharp weapons. None of these visiting experts would fancy them.

All except Uncle Tianshu, of course.

Wherever he went, this old man with a distinguished Taoist demeanor would store every weapon in the stone halls and buildings in his black pot.

“Hehe, these are all good gadgets. If you take them to a discerning buyer, you can sell them at a good price.” He smiled mysteriously.

Ding Hao snorted coldly.

Even thinking with his toes, Ding Hao could see that the old conman was up to his tricks again with these useless antiques. He was certainly not looking for discerning buyers, but gullible fools.

“We have to move faster. They say that there’s a Towering Buddha Pagoda deep within the Sea of Opulent Buildings. It used to be the city hub of Sacred Hall, a true storehouse for its treasures. The three divine treasures of Sacred Hall—the Sands of Time, the Heavenly Samsara Disc, and the God-suppressing Seal—are all rumored to be on the 99th floor of the Towering Buddha Pagoda…”

Uncle Tianshu could not help drooling as he looked into the distance.

“You seem to be very familiar with this place.” Ding Hao found it a little strange.

“But of course! It’s been decades since I left my hometown to roam the world. I’ve been on the road for most of my life. Isn’t this what I’ve been waiting for? Haha, no one knows the legends and historical background of Sacred Hall better than me!” Uncle Tianshu was very proud.

Alright then, Ding Hao shouldn’t have asked that.

So Ding Hao shut up.

Tianshu must have many undisclosed secrets. At least until now, Ding Hao still could not fathom his strength. He was as mysterious as the black pot he was holding.

The Sea of Opulent Buildings was like a lost complex, quiet and mysterious.

Nearly 10,000 powerful masters from the Central Region and Southern Wilderness were here. Yet they were like a speck of dust in the desert, or a raindrop falling into the sea, unable to set off any ripples. So far, Ding Hao and his companions only saw dead bodies, not anyone alive.

Occasionally, a flame would soar into the sky. On another occasion, a scream would be heard, indicating that an expert had accidentally triggered a killing formation, or met with a mishap.

In this seemingly tranquil Sea of Opulent Buildings, the experts were as weak and insignificant as ants in an ocean.

Just when Ding Hao gradually began to acclimatize to everything and was no longer surprised, there was a sudden boom over his head. The sky above the Sea of Opulent Buildings suddenly darkened. The originally fair sky suddenly loomed with dark clouds.

“This is…” Ding Hao’s acute sixth sense forewarned him, making him feel uneasy.

He sensed something terrible was about to happen.

The expression on Uncle Tianshu’s face also darkened, as if he had thought of something.

The next moment, the endless dark clouds in the sky suddenly began to eddy without warning. Countless vortexes of varying sizes appeared, like whirlpools in an ocean on a stormy night. They swirled faster and faster. In the end, even the naked eye could see how fast those vortexes were swirling.

Suddenly, just when Ding Hao began to feel most uneasy—

Boom!

The dark clouds in the sky suddenly stopped swirling, like a movie frame frozen by an invisible remote control.

Thousands of black cloud vortexes were still eddying madly at high speed. Then, a beam of light shot out from them. The vortexes began to disappear. A circular light portal, like a wormhole, appeared in the void. It was hundreds of meters in diameter. Horrible ear-splitting roars could be heard from it, like it were a space channel leading to the Devils’ realm.

As he gazed up, thousands of gigantic eyes seemed to have suddenly opened in the sky. They looked eerily sinister.

“Is this… the Divine Damnation Gate?!” Extreme shock appeared on Uncle Tianshu’s face. “Is the legend true? Was Sacred Hall really controlling the space portal to the Underworld?”

“The Divine Damnation Gate?”

Ding Hao was startled somewhat. It was quite a horrible-sounding name.

The next moment—

Something broke out of the circular light portal.

Four black chains, resembling four giant black pythons, emerged impatiently from the light portal. They whooshed through the air and crashed to the ground.

One of the circular light portals was just above Ding Hao and his companions.

These four black chains did not look alarming at first, but showed their great viciousness when they hit the ground. Even the thinnest parts of the chains were at least 20 or 30 meters in diameter. They crashed like black mountains. A black three-sectioned body was at the end of each chain, with a diameter of more than 50 meters, smashing down like a miniature steel mountain.

Rumble!

Ding Hao felt the earth beneath him shake violently. The four chains were like four three-sectioned mountains hitting the ground, perforating the four golden stone blocks paving the street, plunging several hundred meters into the earth.

He did not know what kind of material these black chains were made of, but they shone with a metallic luster. Surging with the aura of living creatures, they looked alive.

The four interlinking chains released black light. Slowly, a black prison cell about 100 meters in diameter materialized.

Ding Hao and the others were in the center of this slowly materializing black prison cell.

“Oh no…” Ding Hao condensed his strength in his right fist. The purple flame from his fist morphed into a dragon and hurtled out, roaring and ramming heavily against the light wall of the black prison.

Ripples appeared in this black prison of light.

The power of the purple fist flame instantly rebounded.

Ding Hao was shocked. He was afraid that this force would hurt Tianshu, Evil Moon, and his other companions. He immediately unleashed more than a dozen palms successively in a line, dispersing the Purple Heavenly Dragon Fist Flame. His body was thrown several dozen meters backward by the rebound.

In the blink of an eye, the black prison of light had completely materialized.

Ding Hao and the others were imprisoned in it.

What would happen next?

Ding Hao felt more and more uneasy.

He focused his eyes and looked through the light walls of this black prison. Thousands of similar black prisons were materializing at the same time. They were linked to that eddying light portal, as if thousands of black light pillars had suddenly appeared here.

“Be careful! Stay away from the center.” Uncle Tianshu shouted.

A warning sign of extreme danger appeared in the sky.

Ding Hao, together with white tigress and Evil Moon, instantly retreated to the edge of the light prison.

Boom!

Countless inky mists suddenly burst out from that light portal in the sky, bombarding downward like pillars of light. Soon, the black mists filled the entire black prison of light. Everything in front of him suddenly became pitch-black. Ding Hao could not see anything. The air became as thick as mucus, like clear water injected with black ink.

All the hair on Ding Hao’s body stood on end in that instant.

It was so dark that he could not see his fingers. Ding Hao did not know what had happened in this black prison. His intuition told him that while the black mists were bombarding and seeping into this prison, something must have appeared in front of him.

Ding Hao bellowed and stamped his foot.

A majestic energy emanated outward from him, driving the black mists in the air away.

A ray of light shone into the room. He could see the faint outlines of Tianshu and the others.

Ding Hao’s figure flashed and he blocked in front of them.

Almost at the same time, there was a strange shrill whistle, like air scraping and exploding suddenly. Ding Hao only felt an extremely horrific Qi hack at him in the front, like a blade.

A thought flashed across his mind, and the gigantic Tian Que Sword, dozens of meters long, appeared in his hand. It instantly slashed through the air.

Ding Hao felt the long sword slash horizontally. He did not encounter any hindrances.

Even the blade-like Qi current seemed to have disappeared.

However, Ding Hao’s intuition sensed extreme danger in that instant. He felt a shiver down his spine. In that split second, Ding Hao instinctively strode toward that streak of lightning on his right.

Rip!

A soft sound.

Ding Hao’s cheek felt numb, like he had been bitten by an ant.

Blood spurted out.

Ding Hao only felt that his face was wet. His black iron helmet had been noiselessly sliced into two, and dropped to the ground. Ding Hao raised his hand and touched his cheek. An inch-long gash was there, so deep that it almost reached his bone. His face had been almost cut into two instantaneously.

If he did not happen to dodge, Ding Hao was certain that his head would be severed into two.

“What was that?” Ding Hao was shocked.

Ever since he started progressing in martial arts, he had never encountered such a strange attack before. He released his Divine Senses, but could not detect the presence of any opponent at all.

The next moment—

Swoosh!

That shrill whistle rang out again.

He once again felt the piercing sensation of a Qi current being condensed. He felt he was slashed by a blade again.

Ding Hao was shocked and did not dare to underestimate his opponent. He wiggled his wrist. The huge Tian Que sword morphed into a brilliant impenetrable sword wall, blocking before him.

But—

Rip!

Another soft sound was heard.

Ding Hao was wounded again. A horrific gash appeared on his waist, almost slicing him into two.