The Sealing Barrier

The dark tunnel resembled the intestines of a giant beast, filled with a damp, bone-chilling cold. Water seeped through cracks in the rock overhead and dripped to the ground, its crisp patter echoing through the passage.

Chen Chuan and the two Madison sisters walked side by side, their footsteps echoing dully in the narrow space. Each step seemed to land on solidified darkness, and the scrape of their soles against the ground resounded through the passage.

"We've been walking for about an hour, haven't we? Where the hell does this tunnel lead?" Vera's voice rang especially clear in the tunnel, her impatience plain to hear. She couldn't help quickening her pace, the hem of her dress swaying gently.

As she spoke, she tapped the head of her staff with her fingers, making soft clicking sounds, her knuckles turning slightly white from the force. Some color had returned to her face. As a Wizard Apprentice, Vera was naturally much hardier than an ordinary person.

Before they came down, her older sister Alia had used three more advanced purification scrolls on her. The pure magic they released had washed away the lingering effects of the Soul-Devouring Flower's pollen in her body like a clear spring. Her mental fatigue, however, could not be dispelled immediately, and her eyelids still fluttered from time to time.

"Stop complaining and pay attention. It isn't safe here." Alia's voice was low and wary. Her right hand remained tightly wrapped around her staff, her fingertips pressing into it. The gem at its tip gave off a faint glow in the darkness, like a firefly.

She tried to extend her spiritual power ahead, but it was as though she had run into an invisible wall. The unseen resistance made her brow furrow deeply.

As an elite First-Class Wizard Apprentice, Alia should have been able to cover dozens of meters with her spiritual power, but in this strange tunnel, she could barely extend it three meters around herself, as if she were trapped under a glass dome.

The rock in the tunnel walls seemed to contain some kind of special magical field that strongly suppressed spiritual power. She had never encountered anything like it, nor had she found any similar accounts in her family's ancient records.

"This tunnel... something's wrong." Alia stopped abruptly, the toe of her left foot striking the cold stone floor with a faint click.

She reached out and slowly ran her fingertips over the rough wall, feeling its peculiar texture. It was neither as hard as rock nor as slick as an ore vein, but something strange in between, as if the wall itself were alive.

"Starting here, the patterns in these stones... something's wrong."

Her voice was low, tinged with confusion. "I've never seen a material like this."

She raised a finger and pointed to the faint purple patterns on the wall. The runes glowed softly in the darkness like living things, brightening and dimming in time with a person's breathing, as if they had lives of their own.

Chen Chuan held his breath and leaned closer to examine them. They were indeed very different from what he had seen before, and there was also a faint, strange smell.

"These runes are..." Before Alia could finish, Chen Chuan had already narrowed his eyes.

His brow creased slightly, and his right hand unconsciously settled on the Magic Mushroom on his shoulder. He could feel it trembling faintly.

Just then, the barely perceptible trace of sacred elemental aura had suddenly grown clear. Like a stream flowing into a river, it had become several times stronger, lifting his spirits.

"Looks like we're almost there." There was a barely perceptible note of tension in Chen Chuan's voice. "There's more to this place than meets the eye." His fingers gently stroked the little green Magic Mushroom's cap, and he felt a sense of reassurance coming from it.

"Be ready," Vera replied briefly, her right hand already closing quietly around her staff. The gem at its tip seemed a little brighter than before.

For the next ten minutes, the three walked in silence, with only the soft sound of their boots on stone and their breathing echoing through the tunnel.

Every step felt as though it took them into unknown territory. The temperature around them gradually rose, the initial chill giving way to warmth, while an unsettling fluctuation of energy filled the air.

They rounded a bend and came to a stop almost simultaneously.

A stone archway three times a person's height appeared abruptly before them, as though it had grown out of the mountain itself. Purple light flowed over its frame, resonating in time with the runes on the surrounding walls and weaving into a vast energy net. It gave off a low hum, like some ancient call.

Chen Chuan could sense that the doorway was not merely an entrance, but also a barrier—one sealing away some mysterious power.

"This is..." Vera's voice was filled with shock. She took an involuntary step back. "A runic barrier?"

Alia studied it carefully for a moment, then nodded. "It should be a sealing-type runic barrier. A barrier of this level, appearing somewhere so well hidden underground... it's worth a fortune."

The three exchanged glances, seeing the same mixture of shock and doubt in one another's eyes.

Who would go to such enormous expense to build a barrier like this deep underground?

Chen Chuan shook his head, unable to imagine how many resources it would take.

But Alia frowned immediately afterward. "Wait. If the sealing barrier were intact, the aura should be completely contained. There's no way it could leak out."

No sooner had she spoken than a rich, holy aura swept over them, invigorating their spirits.

They moved closer to examine it and found a tiny crack in the barrier's surface, appearing and disappearing as the runes flowed. A rich sacred elemental aura poured from that very crack, spreading like incense and carrying a soothing power through the chilly tunnel.

"The barrier has cracked." Chen Chuan gazed thoughtfully through the crack. He could faintly make out the swaying silhouettes of a great many flowers, but the runes obscured their exact shapes, leaving him unable to see them clearly. He could only sense the powerful vitality within.

"It's most likely Sunflower of Holy Light," Alia said, breaking the silence.

After watching for a while, Chen Chuan nodded, the unease in his heart giving way to anticipation. "The crack opens to its widest every three minutes and sixteen seconds, just enough for one person to pass through. We'll go in one at a time."

Vera glanced at the barrier, gritted her teeth, and tightened her grip on her staff. "I haven't fully recovered yet, so I'll wait outside. If anything happens, I can still provide support." Her eyes held both reluctance and reason.

Alia gave her a searching look but said nothing more, silently accepting her decision.

"I'll go in first, Chen Chuan. You follow second. I'll wait for you inside. If there's danger, I'll raise my hand to signal you."

Alia took her place at the front without hesitation, her figure looking especially resolute in the dim tunnel.

Chen Chuan considered it for a moment and did not object.

In this unknown environment, Alia, the strongest of them, really should scout ahead.

His goal had always been the Sunflower of Holy Light. Judging from outside the barrier, there should be plenty of it inside. As for any other treasures, he would do what he could.

Time waited for no one. When the first three minutes and sixteen seconds had passed, Alia activated Blessing of the Wind. Her figure became a blur as she shot through the crack and vanished inside the barrier.