Zhang Yu paid no heed to the Motion-and-Stillness Seal behind him and strode deeper into the metal passageway. After the two of them passed through, the doors behind them descended one after another.
Once they had crossed the corridor, the final door sealed shut. The two entered an immense domed hall, surrounded by broad stairways that spiraled upward, retreating layer by layer as they rose. Each level contained a circular inner hall.
Xu Chengtong said, "There are seven levels in all. I only ever visited the first six. Only Zhan Ziji has been to the final level, and I do not know what exactly is hidden there. But there must be good things within, and the formation hub is there as well."
Zhang Yu swept his gaze across the hall before him. Glass chambers stood throughout this level, and within them lay haggard Daoists, more than thirty in all.
He said, "Dao Soldiers?"
Xu Chengtong replied, "Yes. These are Dao Soldiers refined within Nether City. We seized this technique from Upper Firmament Heaven cultivators, but it was incomplete. Thus, each refinement consumes a great many precious medicines, and they must be nurtured and refined for a period before they can be used."
Zhang Yu watched for a while. Though these Dao Soldiers retained their former consciousness, they could not disobey the commands of their master. They had been forcibly refined into this state, and the torment they had endured before was beyond ordinary imagination.
More than that, he could sense that these Dao Soldiers suffered some pain every moment even now, their minds already on the verge of madness.
He shook his head and lightly flicked his sleeve. A stream of Heartlight Seal surged forth, and every glass chamber and Dao Soldier within dissolved together, leaving not the slightest trace