"Fellow Daoist Zhu, what is the situation here?"
Lin Chen nodded in greeting, then asked.
"This black astral wind is astonishingly destructive. We tried several times, but we were forced back after venturing only a few hundred zhang."
"Even you couldn't get inside, Fellow Daoist Zhu Yan?"
Lin Chen looked toward the black wind pillar that spanned heaven and earth.
"The black astral wind isn't naturally formed. It's created by a formation. We must break the formation to get inside."
Just then, a gentle voice sounded beside them.
The woman in dark robes had approached at some point. She stopped five zhang away and cupped her hands.
"I am Marquis Xuanyuan. Greetings, Fellow Daoist Lin."
"Fellow Daoist Xuanyuan, did you just say this was a formation?" Lin Chen looked at her.
Marquis Xuanyuan nodded. A golden Compass flew from her sleeve and hovered in midair, projecting four beams toward the four differently colored pillars of light faintly visible deep within the black astral wind.
"This is the Four Symbols Wind-Locking Formation."
"It uses the earth veins as its foundation, gathering four kinds of astral wind: green wood, separation fire, seventh heavenly stem metal, and profound water."
"To break this formation, we must enter all four ancient temples at the same time and pass their trials. Only then can we destroy the formation cores."
Zhu Yan nodded as well. "Fellow Daoist Xuanyuan is right. There were only two of us before, so all we could do was wait. Now that you're here, perhaps we can give it a try."
Lin Chen nodded slightly. Looking toward the gorge, he suddenly said,
"Please wait a moment, both of you. I'll go test the power of this astral wind myself."
With that, Lin Chen unleashed his true essence, forming a barrier around himself before