In silence, everyone passed through the open gates and went straight inside. The hall, as vast as a plaza, was shaped like a bird's nest. No one knew what material its enormous stones were made of, but they emitted a deathly white fluorescence like ghost fire in the pitch darkness. The glimmers joined together, dispelling the profound darkness and casting everything around them in a gray haze.
Lin Qi and the others grew thoughtful. If absolute darkness represented death and ending, these glimmers seemed to carry the breath of life.
The terror they had felt while crossing the wilderness outside had faded considerably. Only an inexplicable solemnity remained, still lingering in their hearts.
"What is that?"
Suddenly, someone gave a low cry of surprise.
Lin Qi looked in the direction everyone had turned toward and saw a mass of pitch-black objects resembling stone tablets suspended in the air. Beneath the faint fluorescence, one end of each black object seemed to be tethered by a cord.
No one knew what those cords were made of either. They gave off a dim red glow in the darkness, flickering in and out of sight against the gray background.
"Those are projections of the Black Coffins... All right, you may move freely within this hall. The dark curtain outside will not affect you," Lianshan instructed gravely. "Find the positions corresponding to the Black and Yellow Venerables, the Seven-Star Holy Envoys, and the Rogue Persons as quickly as possible and mark them. Only then can we use our sect's secret art to summon their true bodies here!"
Lin Qi glanced around. Dark shadows densely filled the air above the entire hall, prompting him to ask curiously, "Grand Elder, why are there so many?"
He had read the secret records. Over countless years, the Two Sects