They stepped through the gate of light as though passing through a thin film of water, and the noise outside abruptly vanished.
In its place came a strange silence.
Lu Changfeng's vision first darkened. Then, all at once, something extraordinary happened!
Puff, puff, puff...
Around the edge of this Barrier, which measured several dozen zhang across, dozens of ancient bronze lamps embedded in the stone walls seemed to awaken under an invisible force. Pale flames sprang to life in them one after another, instantly illuminating the entire chamber as brightly as day!
In that light, the sight before them made everyone's breath catch.
This was no natural cavern, but a carefully constructed octagonal stone platform, ancient and solemn in design, roughly a zhang high, with steps leading up to it.
There were no elaborate decorations atop the platform. Only a white jade altar stood majestically at its center.
The altar consisted of three circular tiers, its surface paved with black and white jade forming an enormous yin-yang fish pattern. Eight stone pillars stood around it in the positions of the eight trigrams, covered in carvings of wind, clouds, thunder, and lightning. Its design and bearing bore a striking resemblance to the legendary Seven-Star Altar Zhuge Liang had built to borrow the east wind, yet it was even more profound and mysterious!
Above the altar, at the positions of the yin-yang fishes' eyes, hovered two treasures.
At the yang eye on the left was a bronze Hexagram Talisman about the size of a palm, with an exceedingly unusual ancient design. Its edges bore natural curves and fracture marks, as though it had been broken off some far larger artifact.
Its main body resembled two overlapping "☴" symbols-the wind trigram-set back to back, but its patterns were far more intricate and mysterious.