Apart from the Celestial Thearch far away on the horizon, the Celestial Master, Holy Monk, Master of the Shadow Cottage, and Haoli Sect Master had already arrived at the Dragon Locking Well. Each took a position and sat cross-legged on the damp ground beside it.
Behind the Master of the Shadow Cottage, whose temples were graying and whose smiling expression had grown even more deranged after accepting Farbauti's avatar, indistinct darkness rapidly spread, engulfing the entire Dragon Locking Tower;
Behind the head of the Holy Monk, who wore a red kasaya over yellow robes and whose white beard reached his chest, a pure halo emerged, radiating a transcendent light that shone upon the Dao Integrators present;
Before the Haoli Sect Master, who wore black robes and had a bloodless face, a broad, straight river appeared out of thin air. It carried a sense of darkness and nothingness as it flowed into the ancient well;
Beneath the feet of the Celestial Master, who wore blue robes and a tall crown and held a dust whisk, a boundless wilderness seemingly filled with countless wandering figures replaced the damp earth and spread toward the others;
From the Thirty-Three Heavens, where the distant Celestial Thearch stood with his face obscured by his crown's hanging beads and his figure indistinct, an azure-white streak of light pierced the wooden Lock-Dragon Tower and shone directly upon the ancient well.
These were the powers of the Tenebrous World, Key of Light, River of Eternal Darkness, Knowledge Moor, and Nation of Disorder, sealed within the Western Continent by the Celestial Worthy. They did not belong entirely to the Dao Integrators, but under the influence of generations of cultivators' mental imprints and lingering wills, the Celestial Master and the others could use them briefly to wield power beyond Sequence 0.