Gu Ding and the others stopped in the void. Since they already knew there was a problem with the direction ahead, there was no point continuing along the wrong route. They might as well wait for Gu Kong's scouting results before deciding what to do.
About twenty minutes later, Gu Kong finally appeared again.
"What's the situation?" Gu Ding hurriedly asked.
"Your previous guess was correct. This area is indeed covered by a spatial secret art. This secret art distorted space, turning the route you should have traveled in a straight line into one that circled around that city. You weren't circling in place, either. It was more like a vortex, slowly spiraling closer and closer to the city, stretching your journey to dozens of times its original distance. By my estimate, at your speed, it would take at least eight days to reach that city." The news Gu Kong brought was undoubtedly bad.
"Eight days... The number of guards doubles every day. Starting from one million, by the eighth day there would be over one hundred million... and they'd all be Saint-level powerhouses..." Miko reminded them.
"No, we can't wait that long! More than a hundred million Saint-level guards could wear us to death. We wouldn't even be able to enter the city." Gu Ding shook his head and looked at Gu Kong. "Can you break that secret art?"
"That secret art is incredibly powerful. I doubt even a Seven-Star Lord-level powerhouse could set it up. With my strength, I'm nowhere near capable of breaking it." Gu Kong shook his head. "However, I can see through the route arrangement. That should be a flaw deliberately left behind by its creator. He probably didn't want to stop everyone here."
"I'll lead the way from the front in a moment. Just