CHAPTER 533: 532

"Elder, you must stay calm, Elder."

Gongyang Han said urgently, "Have you forgotten? We are the descendants of friends with whom you once were on good terms, and you just said you would let us leave this place."

"Hmm? Did I say that?"

Miss Chai tilted her head in confusion and asked, "I can’t remember many things in my old age. What’s your name again?"

The White Lotus Young Master let out a sigh of relief. "This junior is named Gongyang Han."

Miss Chai asked, "Gongyang what?"

"Gongyang Han."

Miss Chai nodded, then quickly asked again, "What Yanghan?"

"Gongyang Han."

"Gong what Han?"

The White Lotus Young Master’s eye twitched. He took a deep breath and, not daring to dismiss this forgetful fiend casually, said politely and patiently, "This junior is named Gong... Yang... Han."

"Oh, now I remember."

Miss Chai nodded and said, "Since you are a descendant of my friend, then you can go."

"As you command."

Gongyang Han bowed deeply, elated inside, and cast a triumphant glance at Yu Qingqiu and the others across from him.

Yu Qingqiu’s expression was gloomy, but he said nothing to stop it, just watched coldly.

As Gongyang Han turned around, he was shocked to find that the stone doors of the Underground Palace had somehow closed on their own and were covered with a thick layer of ice.

A feeling of unease rose within him. He pushed through the White Lotus Sect Members and hurried forward, pushing against the stone doors with his sleeved arm, only to find the doors frozen solid by ice, completely fused with the wall, immovable despite his considerable strength.

Gongyang Han turned back. "Elder, this is..."

"Oh, didn’t I say?"

Miss Chai said indifferently, "In life, I ventured into the Demonic Path after being consumed by obsession and madness. After killing my enemies, my Mana spiraled out of control, and I had to enter a long sleep.

This Underground Palace was built as a tomb by my three Disciples.

It was to allow me to recuperate and hopefully regain my sanity, and also to imprison me here, preventing me from wreaking havoc on the world while in a state of frenzied madness.

Thus, the doors can only be opened from the outside."

"Ah?"

Gongyang Han’s eyes widened. "What should we do then?"

"Hmm... Before, my Disciples would take advantage of my dormant periods or clear-headed moments to send people for maintenance and repairs of the Underground Palace. A group would enter to perform the repairs, and when they needed to leave, another group would open the door from the outside, taking advantage of the brief interval as the stone doors closed to withdraw all personnel."

Miss Chai rubbed her chin and said indifferently, "But looking at the state of disrepair of this place, it seems my Disciples have also met with untimely deaths. Why don’t you all sit here for a while? I feel that in another four or five hundred years, my Mana will return to its peak state, and I’ll be able to open the doors for you."

Four or five hundred years... By that time, we will have all turned into dried jerky, Elder...

Gongyang Han managed to suppress the urge to cough up blood. Seeing a faint sneer emerging at the corner of Yu Qingqiu’s mouth, he felt infuriated.

By now, Lvzhou City must be filled with people from the Martial Virtue Guards and the West Factory. Even if his father, the Guangmu Protector, wanted to send someone for rescue, he had no idea when that might be. If the door could only be opened from the outside, then the next people to open it would likely still be from the Martial Virtue Guards... Damn it! I’ll have to use a Spell to force my way out.

Gongyang Han stepped back half a step, raised his hands toward the sky, and two blossoms of red flame rose in his palms, turning into two columns of fire that he hurled at the door.

SSS—

As soon as the flames touched the layer of ice, dense water vapor arose like a thick fog, spreading and pervading the air.

As the White Lotus Young Master, Gongyang Han had access to the finest heavenly materials and earthly treasures, learned the best cultivation methods, and cast the most powerful Spells. Among his peers, very few could surpass him in the art of spellcasting.

Unfortunately, there were simply too many Special Effect Worms. They lurked within the stone walls, continuously spewing out a low-temperature liquid, countering the flame that was burning and corroding the icy layer.

In Gongyang Han’s view, for every centimeter of frost he managed to remove, the ice layer on the door would automatically thicken by two centimeters amidst the pervasive mist.

As a result, instead of thinning, the layer of ice on the door became even thicker.

Moreover, he failed to detect any Spell fluctuations, as if the stone door was generating frost on its own.

Human strength eventually reaches its limits, and before long, Gongyang Han turned pale, staggered in his steps, and started to fall backward, only to be caught and steadied by an elder with white eyebrows.

"Let’s all try together."

The elder with white eyebrows helped Gongyang Han up and nodded to the other White Lotus Sect Members.

The disciples of the White Lotus Door advanced together, employing various methods: knocking, striking, slamming, burning, hammering, corroding...

Until, exhausted and out of breath, they all stopped, and the layer of ice on the stone door appeared no less substantial.

"This subordinate knows a Wall-Penetration Technique. Allow me to try. I’ll see if I can pass through the stone door and open the passage from the outside," said a White Lotus Sect Member through gritted teeth, cupping his hands respectfully toward the elder with white eyebrows.

He removed his upper garment, bit his fingertips, and used the blood to draw talismans on his forehead, face, and body.

After a brief rest, he resolutely approached the stone door and touched the icy layer.

The White Lotus Sect Member involuntarily shivered from the cold but steeled himself and pressed against it, his body slowly merging with the ice layer.

Among the vast and diverse Spells in the world, the Wall-Penetration Technique was one of the most well-known categories.

The principles of the Wall-Penetration Technique vary among different schools and sects, with some being more profound than others.

There were high-end techniques that resembled the Teleportation Technique, such as opening a door on a wall here and stepping through to arrive at a location thousands of miles away, and there were low-end techniques commonly used by those who resort to petty tricks, involving the contraction of bones and flesh to squeeze through narrow crevices.

The Wall-Penetration Technique used by this White Lotus Sect Member essentially involved eroding his own physical form, allowing his body to merge with the material he touched, thereby passing through otherwise impassable material barriers.

When used to its extreme, it could even allow one to traverse an entire mountain range or earthly vein.

But this technique also had irreparable flaws: if disturbed even slightly during casting, at best the caster’s Mana would become disrupted, forcing him to exit the wall; at worst, his internal organs would turn to mud, resulting in instant death.

The White Lotus Sect Members present watched anxiously as the man slowly melted into the stone door and disappeared from sight.