Restrictions

Chapter 22: Restrictions

Taiyi stood still in the plaza, in no hurry to charge inside.

He first crouched and slipped into the shadow of a stone pillar, pressing his back against its icy surface as he let out a long breath. Passing through the outermost light barrier had left every bone in his body feeling as though it had been torn apart and reassembled. But he had no time to regulate his breathing—he needed to figure out the situation before him first.

The plaza was terrifyingly vast. Black stone slabs lay tightly packed one after another, dark green moss growing from their seams. Twelve stone pillars stood crookedly about, yet a closer look revealed something strange—each pillar's position secretly conformed to some ancient formation, surrounding Pangu Hall at the center like an iron barrel.

The hall was still a hundred zhang away from him.

Within those hundred zhang, Taiyi could sense at least seven or eight invisible "walls." A suffocating pressure stood ahead, layer upon layer, wrapping the entire hall so tightly that not even air could pass through. That dark-red light barrier on the outside was merely the first curtain; the real challenge lay within.

He narrowed his eyes and examined the stone hall.

The hall itself was built from the roughest black stone. The chisel marks had barely been polished away, leaving the surface uneven and pitted, as if the stones had simply been broken off a mountainside and piled together. Yet the rougher it looked, the more it exuded a savage dominance—the imprint left behind by the purest form of "power" from the time the heavens and earth had first been split apart.

The entire hall had no windows and no decorations. There were only two half-open stone doors at the front, revealing a pitch-black gap.

Nothing could be seen beyond them.

Yet Taiyi could feel something "drawing" him in.

It was not a sound, but a more direct pull. The Chaos Bell within his dantian trembled faintly, the Blood Fiend Power in his meridians churned, and even that crooked gray-black Chaos Lotus was giving off a slight heat.

Heaven-Opening Axe Imprint.

The system's voice rang out.

But how was he supposed to get inside?

Taiyi lowered his head and looked at his hands. The dark-red patterns beneath his skin were more conspicuous than before, having been triggered when he passed through the restriction. The Witch Blood Powder was still effective, but not for much longer—at most, he had an hour and a half left.

Within that time, he had to accomplish four things: break through the remaining restrictions outside the hall, enter the hall and check in, leave behind a little "souvenir," and retreat in one piece.

"This is really cutting it close..." he muttered under his breath as his consciousness sank into his sea of consciousness.

"Scan the restrictions outside the hall."

[Scanning...]

[Warning: The restrictions contain Great Dao laws and remnants of Pangu's will]

[A deep scan may trigger backlash]

"Scan."

A faint ripple spread from his body, silently probing toward the stone hall. This scan took longer—Taiyi could feel the resistance growing heavier with every inch it advanced. Sweat began to bead on his forehead, and the clothes on his back clung to his skin.

At last, the results came out.

[Scan complete]

[Restriction structure analysis: 58%]

[Nine-layer composite restriction identified]

[First layer: Outer Heavenly Gods and Fiends Barrier (breached)]

[Second layer: Earth Vein Tainted Qi Barrier (requires Witch Race bloodline or Chaos attribute passage)]

[Third layer: Fiend Spirit Guard Array (thirty-six guardians, each approximately equal in combat strength to a peak Great Witch)]

[Fourth layer: Time-Space Stasis Barrier (reduces entrant speed by 90%)]

[Fifth layer: Bloodline Verification Restriction (non-direct bloodlines of Ancestral Witches trigger an alarm)]

[Sixth layer: Inner Demon Illusion Trial (directly tests the Dao Heart)]

[Seventh layer: Karma Tracing Imprint (records all information about intruders)]

[Eighth layer: Pangu Pressure Field (one hundred times the strength of the outside world)]

[Ninth layer: Hall Door Seal (requires a specific sacrificial text or brute force to break)]

Taiyi stared at the long list, his teeth itching.

Nine layers.

Not one of them sounded easy to deal with.

"How do I break them?"

[Calculating...]

[Calculation complete]

[Recommended plan: Break through layer by layer, relying primarily on the host's own abilities]

[Specific steps...]

The system laid out the plan piece by piece. After hearing it, calculations began crackling through Taiyi's mind.

No exchanges, no outside help—he would force his way through time-space with the Chaos Bell, imitate a bloodline with Blood Fiend Power, risk his life disrupting karma with the Chaos Bell, and muddle through the sacrificial text using those fragmented remnants he had.

Harder, but more solid.

This was the kind of path Eastern Emperor Taiyi should take.

"Fine." He nodded.

He stood and rolled his wrists. His joints cracked loudly, painfully sharp in the deathly silent plaza.

The first step was passing through the second restriction.

The Earth Vein Turbid Qi wall was invisible, but he could sense it—it was like a wall of sticky gelatin blocking the way. Taiyi extended his hand and pressed his palm against empty air. Dark-red Blood Fiend Power seeped from his fingertips and slowly "penetrated" inward.

The wall reacted. The tainted qi began to churn like water disturbed at its surface. Taiyi controlled it with extreme precision, keeping his strength dancing along the edge of mere "probing."

A faint wave of feedback returned—the restriction had been lightly disturbed, but not enough to trigger the alarm. Taiyi understood. He continued, teasing it again and again at the threshold without crossing the line, like scratching with the tip of a feather.

The tainted qi fluctuated more and more visibly, yet no alarm sounded.

He narrowed his eyes and increased his strength slightly.

The Blood Fiend Power condensed into an invisible fine needle and lightly pierced the weakest point of the barrier.

"Buzz—"

The barrier let out a deep, muffled hum, and the tainted qi within a ten-zhang radius suddenly shuddered!

Taiyi immediately withdrew his power.

That strike had inflicted slight damage on the restriction. Though he had stopped in time, the ripple of "defiance" had already spread out, and the system silently recorded the debt—his Taboo Points rose by another small amount.

His total reached ninety-five points.

Taiyi looked toward the third restriction—the thirty-six Fiend Spirit guards.

They lurked in the darkness like silent stone statues. Each one contained terrifying fiendish qi, the perfect nourishment for the Chaos Bell.

He crept closer.

When he was still three zhang away from the nearest Fiend Spirit, he stopped.

It was a humanoid statue over three zhang tall, entirely gray-black, its weathered surface pocked with pits. The statue's eyes were closed, both hands resting atop a stone axe as it stood at the edge of the plaza like a loyal night watchman.

Taiyi could sense that something was "sleeping" deep within the statue.

Once awakened, it would come alive and swing its axe—and if one woke, the other thirty-five would wake with it.

He had to siphon away part of its fiendish qi before it awakened, then stop immediately.

This was more dangerous than licking blood from a blade's edge.

Taiyi held his breath and extended his right index finger. A speck of dark-red light appeared at its tip, fine as a strand of silk, slowly reaching toward the Fiend Spirit's chest—the core where its fiendish qi gathered.

The distance steadily shrank.

Two chi.

One chi.

Half a chi.

Just as his fingertip was about to touch the stone surface—

The statue's eyelid suddenly twitched!

Taiyi's heart tightened, but his hand moved even faster!

"Hiss."

His fingertip sank half an inch into the stone.

A surge of pure, icy fiendish qi rushed wildly through his fingertip, carrying a violent will that wished to destroy everything. Taiyi immediately activated the Chaos Bell's devouring power and began extracting it frantically!

The statue's eyes opened.

Its gray-white stone eyeballs slowly turned toward Taiyi.

Its hand tightened around the stone axe.

But Taiyi did not stop! He knew that stopping now meant death! While crazily drawing in the fiendish qi, he activated all his Blood Fiend Power to form a Chaos barrier before him—not for defense, but to conceal his aura and delay the transmission of the alarm!

One breath.

Two breaths.

Three breaths.

The statue raised its arm, gray-black fiendish light flickering from the stone axe!

Just as the axe was about to fall—

Taiyi abruptly pulled back his finger and retreated at full speed!

At the same time, the Chaos Bell rang out within his sea of consciousness with a clang, and a wave of Chaos rippled outward, throwing the newly awakened Fiend Spirit's senses into utter confusion!

In that instant, Taiyi had already retreated more than ten zhang away and slipped back into the shadow of a stone pillar.

The Fiend Spirit held up its stone axe and looked around blankly. It glanced left and right, found no target, then lowered its head to inspect its chest—there was a tiny hole there, and roughly a tenth of its fiendish qi was gone.

It tilted its head. Its stone face seemed to hold a trace of confusion.

But in the end, it slowly lowered its stone axe, closed its eyes, and sank back into slumber.

The other thirty-five remained utterly motionless.

Taiyi leaned against the stone pillar, breathing heavily, his forehead covered in fine cold sweat.

That stunt had truly been a dance on the edge of the gates of hell.

But the gains were real—he had stolen restriction energy and glimpsed part of the principles behind the Fiend Spirits' construction. The system silently recorded both accounts, and his Taboo Points rose sharply again.

His total reached one hundred and sixty-two points.

Taiyi straightened and turned his gaze toward the fourth restriction—the Time-Space Stasis Barrier.

Even standing at the edge of the barrier, he could feel that suffocating "viscosity." The air ahead resembled solidified amber; even light slowed and warped as it passed through.

There was nothing external he could borrow. He could only rely on himself.

Taiyi took a deep breath and connected his divine sense with the Chaos Bell in his sea of consciousness.

"Old friend, lend me a hand."

The Chaos Bell gave him a vague response—its artifact spirit had yet to fully awaken, but its instincts remained.

Taiyi poured a continuous stream of mana into the bell. Ancient patterns representing "time" and "space" lit up one after another across its surface, their radiance flowing.

He lifted his foot and stepped into the barrier.

In an instant, the surrounding time-space became a swamp. Every movement turned heavy and slow; even his thoughts seemed to have been stretched out.

But then—

"Clang—"

A deep, resounding bell chime rippled out from within Taiyi.

It was not an attack, but a vibration. The Chaos Bell's power spread like ripples, forcibly shaking loose the frozen time-space within three chi around Taiyi!

It was like smashing a hole into a frozen river. Though solid ice still surrounded it, the hole itself could be crossed.

Taiyi seized the moment and hurried through.

He could clearly feel the Chaos Bell's expenditure—each step dimmed its glow a little further. This method consumed too much of its essence. With his current cultivation, he could sustain it for at most twenty breaths.

Ten zhang, twenty zhang, thirty zhang...

When he crossed the entire barrier and stepped before the fifth restriction—the Bloodline Verification Restriction—the Chaos Bell's light had dimmed like a candle flame in the wind.

Nineteen breaths.

Just barely enough.

The fifth restriction was an invisible wall covered in countless tiny "feelers" that would scan the bloodline origin of anyone passing through.

Taiyi stood still, took a deep breath, and activated the Blood Fiend Power within him with all his strength!

Dark-red patterns emerged beneath his skin and spread rapidly until they covered his entire body. The patterns were twisted and ancient, emanating the barbaric, primordial aura unique to Chaos Demon Gods—neither Witch nor demon, but closer to Chaos itself before heaven and earth had been opened.

He pushed that aura to its limit, then stepped forward.

The "feelers" swept across his entire body.

One second, two seconds, three seconds...

No alarm.

He had passed.

The sixth restriction—the Inner Demon Illusion Trial—followed immediately.

Taiyi felt his vision blur, and the scene around him suddenly changed.

The black stone plaza was gone, replaced by endless nothingness. Gray Chaos currents filled every direction, with no sky or earth, no beginning and no end.

A grand, indifferent voice echoed within the Chaos, as though it were the combined will of countless living beings:

"Why have you come here?"

Taiyi remained silent.

This illusion directly tested the true nature of his Dao Heart. Falsehood was impossible.

After pondering for a moment, he slowly spoke, his voice calm.

"To seek a chance at survival."

"To change a predetermined fate."

"To... see whether this Great Wilderness, planned out by the Heavenly Dao, still has another path."

As his words fell, the illusion rippled slightly.

The voice asked again:

"Living by deceit, changing fate through fraud—can such conduct be called the righteous path?"

Taiyi actually laughed softly upon hearing that.

"What is the righteous path?"

"Obeying heaven and accepting fate, watching friends and loved ones perish while all living beings suffer ruin—is that the righteous path?"

"I only know that I want to live, and the people I care about want to live. If the Heavenly Dao will not grant us a path to survival, then I will carve one out myself—righteous path or crooked path, I do not care. If I can walk it through, then it is my path!"

The illusion shook violently!

The gray chaos currents began to spin and collapse, then shattered with a bang, dispersing into countless streaks of light.

The scene before him returned, still that black stone plaza.

He had passed the trial of inner demons.

The seventh restriction—Karma Tracing Imprint—had activated.

An invisible force of law descended like the most precise heavenly net, seeking to record and imprint everything about him—his origins, background, purpose, even every stray thought.

Taiyi's hair stood on end!

He possessed no abilities related to karma. He could neither interfere nor conceal himself.

But just as the imprint was about to touch his soul—

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

The Chaos Bell rang three times within his sea of consciousness!

It was neither an attack nor a defense, but a more fundamental declaration of existence. The bell's chimes carried fluctuations of the laws of chaos. Their essence of disorder, confusion, and unpredictability naturally clashed with the ordered, certain, and measurable laws of karmic tracing.

It was like pouring a bucket of ink into clear water. That precise heavenly net lost its bearings within the chaos, and the information it recorded became fragmented and riddled with contradictions—as though it were viewing someone through a shattered mirror, their true appearance impossible to discern.

Taiyi could feel the Chaos Bell's pained hum. Those three chimes had consumed the chaotic origin stored deep within the bell, the very foundation of its existence as an Innate Supreme Treasure.

But he had no time to feel distressed.

Three breaths!

The Chaos Bell could only interfere for three breaths!

Taiyi shot forward like lightning!

The instant he rushed out of the imprint's range, the bell chimes ceased as well.

The Chaos Bell's radiance completely dimmed. Even maintaining its floating posture seemed difficult as it slowly sank into the depths of his sea of consciousness, as though it had exhausted all its strength and fallen into slumber.

Taiyi had no time to inspect the Chaos Bell's condition, because he had already stepped into the eighth restriction—the Pangu Pressure Field.

The instant he entered, his bones erupted with unbearable cracking sounds!

A hundredfold pressure!

It was as though countless ancient divine mountains weighed upon him, making every inch of flesh cry out in agony. The True Sun Fire within him was utterly suppressed, the Blood Fiend Power flowed sluggishly, and even his thoughts slowed.

He gritted his teeth, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth as he inched forward, step by step.

Every step felt like climbing a mountain of blades.

Ten steps, twenty steps, thirty steps...

Only the last ten zhang remained between him and the hall doors.

Yet those ten zhang were like an uncrossable chasm.

His skin split, beads of blood seeping out; his meridians screamed in agony, as though they were being torn apart; his soul trembled, nearly leaving his body—this was the instinctive rejection and crushing of all "anomalies" by the will of the one who had created heaven and earth.

But the ferocity in Taiyi's eyes did not diminish.

He stared fixedly at the two half-closed stone doors.

Five zhang remained.

Three zhang.

One zhang.

At last, he stepped onto the stone stairs before the hall doors.

The ninth restriction—the Hall Door Seal—was right before him.

Taiyi extended his trembling right hand and pressed his palm against the cold, rough stone door.

He activated the last remnants of Blood Fiend Power in his meridians, doing everything he could to imitate that "heaven-opening baleful aura" from the dawn of creation, when three thousand demon gods had been slain—violent, primal, filled with the contradictory air of destruction and rebirth intertwined.

At the same time, his consciousness sank into his sea of consciousness, drawing upon the sole Fragment of Chaotic Incantation he had recorded (1/12).

Incomplete runes surfaced in his mind, twisted and ancient. He could not understand all their meaning, only grasp a trace of their most primitive rhythm—the cadence used in the age of chaos to worship heaven and earth and commune with the origin.

His lips moved as he used Blood Fiend Power to vibrate the air, producing broken, hoarse syllables that nevertheless carried an inexplicably ancient cadence:

"...Chaos... power... return..."

Every incomplete syllable he forced out was like burning his soul. The restrictions etched upon the stone doors flickered unsteadily, and the signs of loosening became increasingly apparent.

When the final syllable faded into the cold air—

"Creak... creak... creak..."

The incomparably heavy stone doors slowly moved inward, revealing a gap barely wide enough for one person to pass through sideways.

Taiyi did not hesitate in the slightest. Using the last of his strength, he slipped through the gap.

Behind him, the stone doors slowly closed, sealing off the inside from the outside.

He leaned against the icy stone door, his body sliding down until he sat on the ground. He panted heavily, each breath carrying the taste of blood.

Before him lay profound darkness, with only a faint glimmer seemingly visible in the distance.

But within that darkness, the system prompt sounded clearly in his mind:

[You have arrived at the sign-in location: Pangu Hall Core Restriction Zone]

[Sign in immediately?]

Taiyi bared his teeth, blood staining them and making them especially conspicuous in the darkness.

He laughed.

"Sign in."