Three days later.
A group of people arrived before a tall building.
"Based on past experience, this is the final part," Zhao Hao said, looking utterly dishevelled, having lost an arm. "It's just that a formation blocks the way, and we always get stuck here..."
Ye Fan listened and began to wander around the palace.
Indeed, the main hall was quite peculiar.
The walls were engraved with a mass of complex runes, and scattered around were some seemingly useless broken pillars.
A quarter of an hour later, Ye Fan finally understood.
No wonder Zhao Hao and the others had been stuck here.
This was clearly an eleventh-tier formation – the Nightmare Staircase!
For a continent like the Duan Ceng Continent, where eight-tier inheritances were already considered rare, eleventh-tier items were far beyond what was expected.
"Senior, this seems to be an illusion formation..." Bai Hua Xiu sidled closer, nervously saying, "We always get lost in it, and those with bad luck never come out..."
At this point, his appearance was even more dishevelled than Zhao Hao's.
His goose-yellow long skirt was tattered beyond recognition, his left arm was severed from the elbow, and a large chunk of flesh had been gnawed from the outer side of his thigh!
Even so, the chest hair fluttering in the wind remained as dazzling and eye-catching as ever...
Well...
It was truly dazzling.
Ye Fan felt that if he looked any longer, he might go blind...
Ye Fan glanced at him strangely.
He mistook the Nightmare Staircase for an illusion formation, and yet he had survived it more than once?
One could only say that this brother had incredible luck!
Was he the chosen one?
The Nightmare Staircase was a genuine killing formation; any cultivator in the Integration stage who emerged alive would consider it lucky!
"Ye Fan, do you have a chance?" Little Demoness sidled closer, worriedly asking, "If not, let's just give up."
This was the first time Little Demoness had seen Ye Fan look so serious when facing a formation.
Her intuition told her that this formation was very dangerous, and she didn't want Ye Fan to be in danger.
"I can't guarantee it," Ye Fan narrowed his eyes. "But I think I can try."
Saying this, Ye Fan glanced at Bai Hua Xiu.
"However, the process of breaking it will require your help."
Bai Hua Xiu and the others quickly cupped their fists, "Senior, please command us!"
"No rush, let me see if I have enough materials first," Ye Fan said, rummaging through his spatial ring.
Two minutes later...
"We're in trouble!" Ye Fan's expression changed. "I'm missing a few key materials!"
"What materials are they?" Zhao Hao quickly asked. "Perhaps we have them on us...?"
"Lingxi Horn, Shuiyuan Vine, Void Sand, Qifeng Feather..."
Ye Fan listed the required materials one by one, and Zhao Hao and the others frantically searched their own rings.
"I'll search too."
Little Demoness had looted all the dead bodies, and now all their belongings were in his ring.
"Ye Fan, what do these things you mentioned roughly look like?"
"The Lingxi Horn is a foot-long, jade-green beast horn, the Shuiyuan Vine..."
Ye Fan explained as he secretly gestured with his hand behind his back to Little Demoness.
Little Demoness immediately understood!
Ye Fan was planning to trick them!
So, she just needed to play along with the act.
Zhao Hao and the others searched for a long time and frustratingly found they had none of the items.
"I don't have them either," Little Demoness put on a dejected expression and sighed.
"This makes things difficult..." Ye Fan spread his hands helplessly. "A clever cook cannot cook without rice. It seems we have no choice but to return."
Zhao Hao and the others had no objections to this.
They even wished they could leave this accursed place immediately and get far away from Ye Fan...
"Senior, I found it!" Bai Hua Xiu suddenly shouted excitedly and immediately took out the items Ye Fan needed from his ring.
"Brother Bai Hua, you are truly our lucky star!" Ye Fan said with a chuckle. "Thank you for your trouble!"
"It's nothing, it's nothing..."
Bai Hua Xiu politely replied nervously, his chest hair fluttering again...
Next, Ye Fan began directing them to break the formation.
After all, Ye Fan currently had no True Qi and couldn't perform many techniques.
Although Zhao Hao and the others were not professionals, Ye Fan's attainments in formations were far superior.
The formation-breaking techniques he improved were not only simpler but also greatly reduced the risk!
Even so, there was a minor accident midway.
Zhao Hao's True Qi faltered, and he immediately lost an eye from an explosion...
If he hadn't dodged quickly, his head might have been gone...
The entire process took about ten hours.
Ye Fan even had time to take a nap...
Actually, breaking the formation with his method shouldn't have taken so long, but these guys were just too amateurish...
Finally!
As the last step was completed, a blinding light flashed around the main hall!
The runes on the walls of the hall peeled off one by one, and the scattered pillars around them collapsed...
In less than three minutes, the formation that had blocked Zhao Hao and the others for hundreds of years vanished!
And the grand doors of the hall silently opened!
"It's... solved?"
Zhao Hao muttered in disbelief.
"It's finally solved..." Bai Hua Xiu sighed. "We can finally go in..."
Having said this, Bai Hua Xiu suddenly turned around!
"Thank you for your hard work before."
Bai Hua Xiu gave them a sinister smile.
"Now, you can all die!"
As these words were spoken, Bai Hua Xiu's aura suddenly changed!
A powerful pressure erupted, and the gales caused everyone to stagger!
Even more terrifying, his injuries were recovering at an insane rate!
No, that wasn't right!
It wasn't recovery!
Rather, the surface skin was splitting open!
It was as if someone was wearing a skin suit, and now that person was breaking free from it!
"Whoosh—!"
In just a blink of an eye, Bai Hua Xiu's original skin completely shed!
A middle-aged man in black appeared before everyone!
The most striking feature was the right half of his face.
His entire face seemed to have turned metallic, emitting a faint glow.
"You... you're not Bai Hua Xiu..." Zhao Hao stared wide-eyed, pointing at the middle-aged man. "Who are you... and where is Bai Hua Xiu?"
"I am Bai Hua Xiu, and I am not Bai Hua Xiu."
The middle-aged man's voice was somewhat jarring, like fingernails scratching on glass.
"Or perhaps we can call you by another name?" Ye Fan suddenly spoke. "For example... the mysterious master of Ge City?"
"Oh?" The middle-aged man looked at Ye Fan with interest. "How did you guess?"
"Someone this powerful, after all considerations, there doesn't seem to be anyone else," Ye Fan rubbed his nose. "Actually, I was just guessing. At first, I thought it was the previous gatekeeper."
As for how Ye Fan knew he was powerful?
The wind he conjured just now was far stronger than the others...
Ye Fan's standard for judging strength was this simple and unpretentious...
"There's just one thing I don't understand," Ye Fan said curiously. "Since you wanted to kill them so badly, why did you let them come and go here?"
"Speaking of which, it's all because of the Nightmare Staircase."
The big boss of Ge City didn't seem eager to make a move, but rather chatted with Ye Fan with great interest.
"In fact, it's not just them; even I am interested in what is hidden within."
"It's just that I'm always blocked by this damned Nightmare Staircase, so I had to see if they could accidentally solve it for me."
"After they failed a few times, I was about to give up, but then you arrived."
"Back when I saw you breaking those formations in the Xie Yan ruins, I knew my chance had come!"
"So..." Ye Fan glanced at him. "I've been used by you?"
"If you want to understand it that way, it's not impossible," the big boss said with an air of confidence. "Of course, I'm also very interested in you, a congenital Dao body."
"Oh? You figured it out?" Ye Fan feigned surprise. "That's strange, I thought I was disguised very well?"
"I can only say that your disguise methods are not very sophisticated," the big boss teased. "Compared to your formation skills, they are still far too inferior."
"Alright, enough small talk," the big boss twisted his neck. "It's time to send you on your way!"