Beneath a stone wall, Zhang Ling released a strand of tiny, yellow spiritual light from his hand, which flashed and disappeared into the ground. Immediately, his expression changed.
Then, with a flash of yellow light around him, his body began to sink into the ground. However, his feet only descended a few feet before a golden light flashed on the ground, and he was bounced back up by a powerful force.
Caught off guard, he almost fell.
"Looks like we're really in trouble. Even the Earth Tunneling Technique won't work."
Zhang Ling's face was somewhat bitter. He had spent a considerable amount of time mastering this Earth Tunneling Technique.
He didn't expect it to fail on his first attempt.
This was not a good sign. This situation clearly indicated that there was a powerful formation here, and they were now trapped within it.
If they couldn't find a way to escape, even without other dangers, they would all be stuck here.
He couldn't help but feel a little regret. Having just reached the Golden Core stage, coming to this ancient ruin for a cultivation technique seemed a bit reckless.
However, after a moment's thought, Zhang Ling dismissed the idea. Now was not the time to be discouraged. He then went to other places to investigate.
After more than an hour, everyone gathered again, their faces looking grim.
They had thoroughly searched the area. They were in a depression surrounded by mountains on all sides, with a space of only about a hundred yards.
For the divine sense of a Golden Core cultivator, they could reach the edge in the blink of an eye.
"The situation is not good. I have carefully investigated and found that apart from that mountain crevice, this place is completely a dead end, what we call a trapping formation."
At this time, Elder Long said in a deep voice. As a formation master, he naturally had the most say.
"Trapping formation."
Although everyone didn't know much about formations, they knew the basics.
The purpose of a trapping formation is naturally to trap enemies.
Although illusion formations could also trap enemies, they generally did not have substantial killing power.
Illusion formations confuse enemies by interfering with their five senses and divine sense.
But the core of a trapping formation is not to confuse, but to use the formation to create a dead end, trapping cultivators alive. If one doesn't know the trick, it's difficult to escape.
Many cultivators who explore ancient ruins have died in trapping formations.
It is said that even Nascent Soul cultivators cannot escape from powerful trapping formations.
Cultivators trapped in formations often die in despair.
In the cultivation world, trapping formations rarely exist alone, and most of them hide powerful killing formations.
Once a killing formation is triggered, it's not a joke.
To find a way out of a trapping formation, one must find the core of the formation, the place where the 'life gate' is located.
In the words of some formation masters, no matter how powerful a formation created by humans is, it will have inherent flaws.
There is always a glimmer of hope to be found.
Ding Ruozhao frowned and looked at Elder Long, asking, "Then what should we do now?"
"Yes, Fellow Daoist Long, I don't want to be trapped to death here."
Everyone looked at Elder Long, placing their hopes on him.
"There is a way," Elder Long hesitated for a moment before saying, "That might be the exit."
As he spoke, he pointed to the mountain crevice.
Seeing this, everyone remained silent, waiting for him to continue.
"During my investigation, I discovered that the surrounding mountain walls and the ground all have formation power, which is too strong to be easily broken. Forcibly breaking it would likely trigger the killing formations here."
"Also, this place's formation is not controlled by anyone, otherwise the killing formations above would have already been activated. The only exit is that mountain crevice, but the formation is full of illusions and realities, and I dare not predict the danger within."
After he finished speaking, everyone fell silent.
They had all observed the mountain crevice, but such an obvious exit was often the most dangerous.
The surrounding mountain walls and ground all had formation power, making it impossible to pass through with Earth Tunneling or other escape techniques.
The sky above was clearly filled with killing formations, and no one dared to charge through.
It seemed that apart from that mountain crevice, there was no other way out.
Then Elder Long spoke again.
"According to my observation, that crevice definitely has some risks, but you don't want to be trapped here, do you? If we stay here for too long, some unnecessary changes might occur."
Elder Long looked at the sky. He had just stated the most optimistic scenario. If the killing formations here could operate on their own, staying in one place would also be risky.
Then he withdrew his gaze, patted his storage bag, and five different colored formation disks appeared in his hand.
"Fellow Daoist Long, what is this?" Qing Mang Daoist asked, his eyes lighting up.
"I happen to have a set of 'Guardian Spirit Formation'. This formation is a defensive type, and the more cultivators participate, the stronger the defense becomes."
"This formation can stack the cultivators' defensive shields together, forming a powerful defensive barrier that can serve as our shield. What do you think?"
Looking at the five formation disks in his hand, everyone looked at each other.
After hesitating for a while, they finally nodded in agreement with Elder Long's suggestion.
"Alright, since Elder Long has some confidence, let's take a chance. What's the harm in an ancient battle? Isn't that why we came here?"
Ding Ruozhao was decisive and made the decision on behalf of everyone.
After she finished speaking, she looked at everyone, and they all agreed. Not only was she the strongest among them, but there was also no other way out.
They were all Golden Core cultivators and naturally not cowards. Otherwise, they wouldn't have come here.
Then Elder Long distributed the shields to everyone. Zhang Ling received a round formation disk that looked like a compass.
It had strange patterns and mysterious writing on it.
Next, Elder Long explained the key points of using the Guardian Spirit Formation.
This set of formations was quite simple to use. With the assistance of the formation disks, they only needed to inject spiritual power to merge their own spiritual power together through the disks, forming a powerful protective formation.
Elder Long said that he had accidentally obtained this formation from a damaged formation diagram. It was said that this formation was originally a group formation used among disciples of a large sect.
Although this formation had a single effect, it could be quite useful in group battles.
If cultivators who practiced the same cultivation technique set it up together, its power would be greatly enhanced.
Fortunately, this technique had been improved by a master, so cultivators who practiced different cultivation techniques could also set it up, but its power was only about 30% of the original.
Over the next hour or so, everyone memorized the key points of the Interconnected Formation and practiced it several times. When the five of them used it together, they could form a thick spiritual light shield, which was more than three times more defensive than their individual spiritual power shields.
Such a defensive shield was already very good, no less than a defensive magic weapon.
Then, they didn't immediately enter the mountain crevice.
Instead, they each found a place to sit cross-legged and meditate, as they naturally needed to restore their consumed spiritual power before entering the unknown land within the mountain.
