The lotus basin grew as it caught the wind. By the time it flew above Elder Liu and the other cultivators, it had blotted out the sky.
An enormous shadow blanketed the cultivators of the Fengle Merchant Alliance.
"This is bad! Hurry!"
Though none of them knew what was strange about the basin of lotuses overhead, they reacted swiftly, bringing out their magic treasures. Some tried to smash the lotuses above them, while others turned into streaks of light and tried to escape the area beneath the basin.
But just as their magic treasures rose and their streaks of light took flight, the enormous lotus basin flashed with five-colored radiance and abruptly vanished.
The next instant, the Fengle Merchant Alliance cultivators felt their vision blur, and an entirely different world appeared before them. They instinctively released their spiritual senses to investigate, but those senses sank like clay oxen into the sea, producing no response at all.
Looking at the towering pink walls layered all around him, Elder Liu knew something was wrong. He hastily flew toward the sky in a streak of light, but just as he reached the height of the pink walls, a barrier of swirling five-colored light appeared overhead, blocking his path. A chill suddenly gripped his heart, and he hurried back to the ground.
Yet that fleeting glimpse from the air struck him as utterly absurd. He had actually been trapped inside a pink lotus!
Like Elder Liu, the cultivator surnamed Chen immediately flew into the sky in a streak of light. Unlike Elder Liu, when the five-colored barrier appeared overhead, he brought out his ancient treasure, the Soul-Shaking Bell, intending to break through by force. But the five-colored radiance on the barrier merely flickered, and the Soul-Shaking Bell's attack dissolved into nothing.
The cultivator surnamed