Chapter 122: What kind of spectacle is this, two men clinging to each other!

It was called a palace, but it looked more like a massive gate. As for what lay beyond once it was opened, no one could say.

Xuan Yuanji had been standing there for quite some time, his gaze fixed intently on a pattern carved into the stone wall.

Ji Yin looked up, examining it carefully. A casual glance downward suddenly made her walk forward in excitement. Xuan Yuanji followed her lead. Ji Yin stopped and reached out to touch the pattern on the wall.

"Little Mo, I've found a teleportation array! Though it’s only a fragment, not a complete one."

"Really?" The Demon Cauldron was also stirred with excitement, though it wondered why it hadn't sensed any energy fluctuations from a teleportation array.

Ji Yin ran her hand over the stone, her heart racing. While what she saw was merely a mural—an incomplete one at that, rather than a functional teleportation array—it was enough to prove that such arrays did indeed exist.

Xuan Yuanji stared at the pattern, a strange sense of familiarity washing over him. This was clearly a remnant of a teleportation array, and the method used to construct it was uncannily similar to his own habits. However, he had only just gained the ability to create such arrays himself, and even then, they were only sufficient for his own use.

"Do you think the Seal of Mountains and Rivers is truly hidden within Zhiyun Mountain?" Ji Yin asked, looking up at him.

"I do not know," Xuan Yuanji replied, unable to say for certain.

"What exactly does the Seal of Mountains and Rivers look like?"

Xuan Yuanji shook his head slightly. "I have never seen it either."

"I thought you knew what it looked like! How are you supposed to find it if you don't even know what you're looking for? If we find it and you don't recognize it, it would all be for nothing!"

"No, there will be no mistake. According to the revelations of the Divine Temple, the emergence of the Seal of Mountains and Rivers is always accompanied by portents."

Ji Yin nodded. Fair enough. Revelations were likely not to be trifled with, and for an object of such importance, it stood to reason that they wouldn't be mistaken. Xuan Yuanji had mentioned before that such things were long since predestined. That meant that since Xuan Yuanji had come to seek the Seal, he was surely fated to possess it in the end.

"The palace gate is opening!" someone shouted from a distance.

In her excitement, Ji Yin forgot about the restrictive barrier Xuan Yuanji had placed around her and dashed forward. She had only taken a few steps when she felt an ominous premonition. A force yanked her backward, and she lost her balance. She was certain she was about to land hard on her rear and bruise it badly.

Xuan Yuanji reached out to catch her, sweeping her into his arms before soaring toward the palace. In the blink of an eye, they stood before the palace gates. Ji Yin quickly wriggled out of his hold. Two grown men embracing like that was a scandalous sight! She could already feel some of the onlookers casting strange glances at her and Xuan Yuanji.

When the palace gates finally swung open, the sight revealed left her utterly astonished.

"Is this... another world?"

The others were similarly stunned, unable to collect their thoughts. Before them lay what appeared to be an entire city, complete with mountains, forests, and grand architecture. Had people once lived here? To the naked eye, the world before them seemed even more vast than the imperial capital of Chiyu.

"Good heavens!" someone gasped in awe.

"It’s an illusion," Ji Yin said, looking up at Xuan Yuanji. "Everything we see is false! I understand now—we have been under the influence of an illusion ever since we crossed that suspension bridge!"

"If that is the case, the only way to break it is to venture inside," Xuan Yuanji replied softly.

Mo Chuan nodded. "Young Master Xuan is right. We must enter if we are to have any hope of breaking the spell."