Song Wen disguised himself and suppressed the aura of his cultivation, taking on the appearance of a Void Refinement cultivator.
Ying Wu, meanwhile, wore a black cloak that concealed all traces of her cultivation aura as she flew unhurriedly toward Qilin Transformation City.
Song Wen planned to slip quietly into Qilin Transformation City, investigate why the Phantom Illusion Sect had remained inactive, and seize an opportunity to destroy the city's protective formation.
Although Qilin Transformation City's protective formation and the Phantom Illusion Sect's sect-protecting formation were both the Five Extremes Illusion-Annihilation Formation, there were vast differences between them.
The former remained deactivated year-round and would not be activated except in emergencies, allowing cultivators to freely enter and leave the city.
The latter remained active year-round; outsiders could not trespass unless invited.
With the intelligence and formation diagram obtained from Li Chen, destroying Qilin Transformation City's protective formation would not be difficult for Song Wen. It would also count as cutting away a major source of the Phantom Illusion Sect's strength.
As Qilin Transformation City on the distant horizon grew ever clearer, both Song Wen and Ying Wu secretly heightened their vigilance.
However, cultivators flowed back and forth all around them like an endless stream, making the two of them inconspicuous.
Yet when they were only one or two thousand li from the city, an abrupt change occurred.
A blue-black barrier suddenly rose, like a gigantic bowl turned upside down, enveloping Song Wen, Ying Wu, and several hundred cultivators within a radius of a thousand li.
Song Wen and Ying Wu's expressions turned grave as they looked around.
The several hundred people likewise trapped within the barrier wore expressions of panic and bewilderment.
Outside the barrier, the passing cultivators were also horrified and hurriedly fled into the distance.
Yet one figure