Beneath the colossal bronze gate, the crowd kept growing.
For several days straight, the gate in the sky simply hung amid the radiant clouds, utterly motionless.
Wave after wave of Soul Masters came and went below. They exhausted every method, yet the gate did not open so much as a crack.
At first, some stubborn Soul Masters used their flying abilities to ram it.
Later, even those hardheaded Soul Masters learned their lesson. There was no helping it-if they kept ramming it like that, they would give themselves concussions.
Several more days passed before Sword Douluo Chen Xin suggested, "Since brute force won't work, perhaps there is another way. Support-type Soul Masters might prove useful."
Sword Douluo's proposal seemed promising, so every faction began gathering support-type Soul Masters with unusual talents.
One Soul Master troupe from the south consisted of seven people. They lined up in two rows beneath the colossal gate, singing and dancing.
Their leader's Martial Soul was a bronze drum, and behind him were two suonas. Once the drumbeat began and the suonas sounded, their piercing tune drifted over a mile on the wind.
They danced outside the gate for half a day, drawing an ever-growing crowd.
Several Spirit Hall stewards squeezed through. Their eyes went wide at the spectacle.
"Who invited these people? Who told you to dance?" One steward grabbed the suona player at the edge of the group.
"A-an important person said ancient secret realms can only be opened with sacrificial songs and dances..."
"Bullshit! Where we come from, you only play suonas like that when someone dies. Get lost!"
At some point, Yue Guan had emerged.
He stood on the raised platform, that same faint smile lingering at the corners of his mouth, though his eyes held a little more weariness.
"What dreadful