Over ten days later, enormous flying vessels slowly descended from the sky and landed on a vast platform on Heaven-Pillar Mountain.
Disciples of the Four Symbols Sect stepped down from the vessels one after another.
Everyone looked relaxed. Some of the more impatient disciples even formed hand seals and took directly to the air, eager to leave.
But a moment later, with a soft pop, strands of white light appeared in midair. Every Four Symbols Sect disciple who had taken flight was bounced back by those white threads of light, forcing them to land on the ground again.
Some kind of large restrictive seal had actually been activated over the platform, trapping everyone there.
The sight startled quite a few Four Symbols Sect disciples, and some of the more hotheaded ones immediately began cursing.
After all, they had only just returned from risking life and limb for the sect in the Jialan Trial, yet this was how the sect treated them. How could some of them not fly into a rage?
"Silence!"
Just then, an icy voice rang out from the largest flying vessel.
The voice seemed to contain some kind of secret art. Like a great basin of cold water poured over every disciple's head, it instantly jolted them back to their senses.
Then a black-armored man flew out with an enormous shield on his back. He stopped in midair and spoke expressionlessly to the disciples below.
"A White Bone Avatar of a Demonic Path ancestor appeared in the Jialan Secret Realm. To ensure that no disciples have had restrictive seals secretly planted in them by the Demonic Path without their knowledge, everyone returning from the secret realm must undergo an examination before returning to their quarters.
"Patriarch Heavenly Toad issued this order personally. There will be no exceptions."