Zhang Ling and the other two stood at the edge of the dark cloud, not daring to go any further, marveling at the realistic small village before them.
Their divine senses were suppressed for the most part in this area, but they could still tell at a glance that this village was not real, but an illusion.
This was easy to determine because the crowd on the street ahead and the old man at the village entrance showed no signs of life.
At that moment, the white-haired old man was looking at them, showing a kind smile as he said,
"The three of you must be visiting Divine Light Town for the first time. Please come in quickly! Today is the day Lord Divine Light bestows blessings. Many people have come to Divine Light Town for this reason. If you're late and miss the blessing, you'll have to wait more than ten years for the next one."
Hearing this, Zhang Ling and the others didn't move, exchanging glances.
"The scene before us is clearly an illusion, but this old man is talking to us as if he were a real person. This is at least an extremely sophisticated illusion," Little Phoenix Fairy said in a low voice, her eyes narrowed as she stared at the old man.
"Hey, why aren't you coming in?" The old man, seeing them unmoved, quickly waved them in.
Suddenly, the sound of bells rang out from not far away. The old man's expression changed anxiously upon hearing the bells. He immediately stopped paying attention to the three of them and turned to run towards the street behind him.
"Chen'er, hurry up and come out! The time for prayer is almost here. Delaying the time will anger Lord Divine Light!"
The old man ran towards a teahouse on the side of the street, shouting inside. A boy of twelve or thirteen years old in linen clothes rushed out.
The old man immediately grabbed the boy's hand and followed the crowd on the street, quickly moving away.
The crowd on the street was noisy, and soon they all gathered in an open square in the center of the town. At first glance, there were thousands of people.
These people were men and women, old and young. Each of them sat cross-legged on the ground, and before long, the scene became quiet.
Most of them looked devout, staring at a misty mountain in the distance, as if waiting for something.
One chime after another came from the mountain. The bell sound was melodious and loud.
Suddenly, Zhang Ling keenly noticed that there were several flashes of light in those misty peaks.
He narrowed his eyes and saw clearly that the flashes of light were several cultivators flying in the sky. In a moment, they all arrived above the town.
There were three cultivators in total, wearing the same white Taoist robes. The leader was an old man with a child's face and white hair. He was also holding a white light orb in his hand.
"According to the decree of Lord Divine Light, you have faithfully believed, and therefore, divine light is bestowed upon you to protect you from disasters and drive away diseases."
The white orb emitted a dazzling white light, and at the same time, a cloud of colorful mist emerged, gathering overhead. As the mist rolled, drops of water fell.
It was as if it was raining.
"Lord Divine Light has bestowed blessings!"
"Thank you, Lord Divine Light, for the blessings!"
...
The people sitting on the ground shouted excitedly. The falling water droplets did not fall directly to the ground, but all merged into the bodies of these people with great spirituality.
For a time, these people's faces flushed, and they were full of energy, as if they had eaten some great tonic.
"Hehe, what a pretense. These water droplets just seem to be ordinary spiritual liquid transformed from spiritual power, yet they make these people so excited," Little Phoenix Fairy couldn't help but snort when she saw this.
"These people seem to be mortals. Although it's just ordinary spiritual liquid, absorbing a little can improve their physique to a certain extent," Dongfang Ya said with a smile.
Zhang Ling didn't speak, just silently watching the illusion before him.
This scene was quite common in the cultivation world. Some sects and forces would often protect a group of mortals and occasionally show miracles in front of people.
This scene lasted for a while. Finally, the three white-robed cultivators also selected several children and teenagers from the crowd.
Among them was the boy named Chen'er, whom the old man had called out from the teahouse earlier.
As the white-robed cultivators left, the small village before them began to change rapidly.
The movements of the people in it sped up a lot. Some people seemed to be born, grow old, get sick, and die in an instant. Some people grew from children to youths and then to old age.
Time seemed to be passing quickly.
In just over ten breaths of time, the entire small village seemed to have gone through hundreds of years. Many houses became dilapidated, and the population continued to decline.
Until finally, it became a deserted village. The entire village was uninhabited, and weeds grew everywhere.
Only the giant stone at the village entrance, engraved with the three characters "Divine Light Town," remained unchanged, standing quietly in its original position.
At this time, all three noticed the giant stone, their eyes falling on it, carefully examining it.
Little Phoenix Fairy gently shook her hand, and a small flame shot out. With a crisp bang, it directly shattered a part of the upper right corner of the giant stone.
"This stone is not an illusion," Dongfang Ya's eyes lit up.
Encountering something real in this dark cloud might be the way out.
Dongfang Ya immediately walked over, wanting to examine it carefully.
"Wait," Zhang Ling suddenly reminded, his expression sinking as if he had discovered something.
"What's wrong, Fellow Daoist Zhang?"
Zhang Ling didn't reply, lightly tapping one of the flying swords in front of him. The flying sword trembled and slashed out a sword light, striking the giant stone.
The rock was instantly split in two, seemingly without any abnormality.
Zhang Ling frowned slightly. Could it be that he had sensed wrong? Was this really just an ordinary rock?
When Little Phoenix Fairy attacked this rock earlier, he felt that it seemed to contain a special earth spiritual power.
This earth spiritual power was extremely well hidden, but he cultivated earth-attribute techniques and was most sensitive to earth spiritual power. Therefore, he discovered a slight fluctuation of earth spiritual power.
But now it doesn't seem to be anything unusual. Zhang Ling felt puzzled and frowned slightly.
The two women also looked at him, seemingly waiting for his explanation.
Just then, the giant stone that had been split in two floated up without warning and exploded with a bang. Countless shattered stones, flashing with black light, attacked them like shooting stars.
Dongfang Ya's expression changed slightly upon seeing this. She lightly tapped her jade pen, instantly drawing a cyan talisman that condensed into a whirlwind in front of her.
The stones that hit it were bounced away.
However, the deflected stones all stuck together with a bang, forming a human figure.
Upon closer inspection, it was a young boy, but his whole body was black and cyan, composed of rocks.
Moreover, the boy's appearance was exactly the same as the boy named Chen'er in the illusion just now. However, the spiritual power fluctuations he emitted were extremely strong, reaching the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm.
This boy was completely composed of rocks, obviously not a real person. His lightless stone eyes glanced at the three of them and actually spoke.
"Outsiders, if you want to enter the Hall of Illusions, you must first pass my test."
As he spoke, the rock boy flashed and flew into the high sky, his body rapidly growing larger, turning into a rock giant more than ten feet tall, with bright yellow crystals growing on his back, and the spiritual power fluctuations he emitted rose another three points.
Two huge rock hands slapped down without any politeness.
Zhang Ling and the others acted quickly, instantly scattering in all directions, dodging the blow, surrounding the rock giant in the middle.
With a loud bang, two huge rocks slapped on the ground, raising gusts of strong wind that dispersed the surrounding dark clouds.
Little Phoenix Fairy snorted coldly, and the floating crimson orb on one side rotated, releasing a mass of black flames.
With the urging of the magic, these flames condensed into fire spears and shot over.
The rock boy slapped his palms together, holding a more than ten-foot-long, crystal-clear yellow stone jade sword in his hand. With a quick wave, he formed yellow sword lights, blocking the attack.
Little Phoenix Fairy's attack was naturally more than that. While releasing black flames, she also threw out two identical crimson orbs.
The three orbs rotated rapidly around her body, releasing circles of crimson flames, all wrapping towards the rock boy.
The rock boy, transformed into a rock giant, did not defend at all, only focusing on waving the yellow great sword in his hand, releasing sharp sword lights.
Although he scattered a lot of black flames, he was also trapped in place by circles of flames.
Immediately afterward, Zhang Ling and Dongfang Ya also released various attacks.
Dongfang Ya's jade pen quickly drew in the air, writing colorful talismans, which transformed into wind blades, water swords, fireballs, and other attacks.
They didn't seem to be very powerful, just ordinary five-element spells, but densely packed, they released hundreds of attacks in an instant.
Zhang Ling's three flying swords quickly overlapped into a giant sword about two feet long. The sword technique hit it, and it turned into a golden-cyan sword light and slashed over, directly hitting the rock giant's arm.
The rock giant's arm broke in response and crashed to the ground with a bang.
But then Zhang Ling saw a flash of yellow light in the rock giant's severed arm. The severed arm turned back into rocks and condensed into a new rock arm.
The rock giant roared angrily, and the bright yellow crystals on his back shot out, all rushing into the sky and then exploding, forming a yellow cloud.
As the yellow light flashed, strange yellow runes fell above the three's heads.
Some of these runes turned into boulders, some turned into stone cones, and other earth-attribute attacks.
The attack was swift and fast, and the coverage area was large. The three's expressions changed slightly.
Zhang Ling raised his hand expressionlessly, and the Yellow Luo Umbrella was sacrificed, protecting himself. At the same time, the Earth Yuan Gourd also appeared in his hand, flowing out a piece of yellow sand.
He opened his mouth and spat out a cloud of essence, which merged into it. The yellow sand then inherited a wall of earth, blocking many attacks.
Dongfang Ya threw out a blue spirit talisman, forming a condensed blue light shield, protecting her whole body.
This didn't seem to be an ordinary captive. Any attack that approached her within two feet seemed to encounter some kind of obstacle and was bounced away.
Little Phoenix Fairy waved her hand with icy eyes, and the three red orbs floating outside her body released dazzling firelight. Circles of black flames radiated around her very quickly like waves.
The boulders and other attacks that fell into it all turned into powder.
The woman roared angrily, and the crimson spear was thrown out. The spear flashed in the air and turned into a black-red giant snake. It was extremely flexible and wrapped around the rock giant's hands.
The giant snake's head raised up and opened its mouth to spray a flame light several feet wide, directly hitting the rock giant's head.
With a loud bang, the rock giant's head exploded.
However, the rock giant was not killed, and the aura it emitted did not weaken much. Its entire body shook, and the yellow cloud flashing with runes in the sky quickly pressed down, forming a yellow tornado that engulfed its body.
Instantly, strange yellow spiritual patterns lit up on the rock-like body. The entire body decomposed at once, re-decomposing into pieces of earth and stone, spreading in all directions.
Countless stones, with gusts of wind and whistling sounds, pierced through the air and collided.
Under this impact, the three had no time to attack and quickly defended.
For a time, loud bangs continued, causing the three to retreat constantly.
Moreover, the stones that rushed past did not disappear, but flashed with yellow light and turned back, constantly attacking the three.
From a distance, Zhang Ling and the others were surrounded by countless stones.
"Eh, this seems to be a very high-level earth-type spell, Earth Imprisonment Stone Prison. It has a very strong trapping effect. Once trapped in it, Nascent Soul cultivators like us can't escape for a while and can only waste mana in vain," Dongfang Ya suddenly called out.
Hearing this woman's voice, Zhang Ling's eyes sank. At this time, their situation did look like they were trapped in an Earth Imprisonment Stone Prison.
He had not mastered this spell because it was not an ordinary high-level spell. It was an extremely profound earth-type spell.
Not only was it difficult to cultivate, but it also consumed a lot of spiritual power to cast. According to some records, even a Nascent Soul cultivator like him who practiced earth-attribute techniques would consume most of his spiritual power to cast it once.
Earth Imprisonment Stone Prison, although called a spell, was more like a powerful formation.
"So it's a high-level spell, scared me. Since my sister recognized it, is there a way to break it?" Little Phoenix Fairy's laughter came from the other side.
Zhang Ling glanced over there and saw Little Phoenix Fairy looking calm, with circles of black flames blocking countless earth and stone attacks.
It seemed that although they were trapped in these stones for a while, constantly enduring attacks, the three were not too worried about danger.
The greatest effect of this high-level spell was to trap the enemy. There seemed to be no other enemies here. Naturally, there was no need to worry too much.
"It's actually simple for us to escape. As long as the spiritual power of this spell is exhausted, these earth and stones will lose their spiritual power, and we will naturally escape. But to escape quickly, my little sister still knows a wood-type spell that can just restrain this spell. It's just that it's also a high-level spell, and it takes a certain amount of time to cast," Dongfang Ya said quickly.
"Haha, my sister can release the spell without worry. We can't be trapped for too long," Little Phoenix Fairy, wrapped in flames, quickly approached Dongfang Ya.
Zhang Ling did the same, approaching Dongfang Ya.
