Starting as dockworkers, they swept through Chongqing.

"It seems that this is the defensive field that the ancient powerful being used to protect the Tranquil Snow Lotus." Deford wiped away his cold sweat with lingering fear.

Dean stared at the dark silver pattern for a moment, and to confirm his guess, he picked up a fist-sized, extremely hard piece of bronze from the ground.

With a flick of his wrist, he hurled the stone hard at the soil where the tranquil snow lotus was planted.

next moment!

Snapped!

Just as that hard bronze fragment crossed an invisible boundary in the air and approached the three-foot radius around the Tranquil Snow Lotus.

It was as if a pair of invisible, towering hands suddenly closed in the void.

The bronze fragment didn't even have a chance to hit the ground before it was crushed into dust in mid-air by some unimaginable, terrifying pressure, completely vanishing without a trace.

Seeing this, Deeford swallowed hard in horror, his legs starting to go weak.

Dean remained calm and analyzed the situation rationally: "If we had specialized tools for breaking formations, based on my experience, we could try to slowly unravel the formation's core. But right now, the Qi-breaking cone is useless, and we have nothing on us."

He paused, a ruthless glint in his eyes: "The only way is to use occult knowledge to break it through brute force."

He crouched down, scrutinizing the patterns on the floor tiles around him, his mind racing as he recalled the knowledge from his family's collection of books.

"This field... its pressure form and force exertion method are the ancient 'foundation crushing field'."

Hundreds of years ago, this kind of formation, which evenly distributes heavy pressure, was an extremely difficult and perfect defense to break.

"But now, hundreds of years have passed, and the mysticism of the times has progressed."

There are already many clever ways to break this deadlock.

Dean stared at the patterns, muttering to himself. He frantically tried to pinpoint the locations of the life-or-death gates in his mind.

After a long while, his tightly furrowed brows suddenly relaxed, he let out a long sigh, and a confident light shone in his eyes.

"Got it!"

He stood up and said to Deeford with utmost seriousness, "Listen carefully to every word from now on; this concerns the lives of my son and me."

"I will use my lifeblood to inscribe a 'reversal pattern' on the mystical rune nodes outside this shattered field."

"The purpose of this reversal pattern is to tear a rift in this ancient field, transferring all the terrifying pressure—enough to crush bronze—to me in a short time!"

Dean's expression was resolute: "With my physique and foundation as a second-tier extraordinary being, I won't die anytime soon after withstanding this pressure. And the instant I withstand the pressure, you must rush in as fast as you can and immediately take the Tranquil Snow Lotus!"

"After you succeed and withdraw, I will use my Qi and blood to destroy this reversal pattern and transfer the power of my field back to its original position."

That way, we can take the treasure and leave unscathed!

Dean pondered that although he could not enter the field, he could forcibly take away the Tranquil Snow Lotus.

However, if one uses their internal energy to withstand the field suppression for a few minutes in a defensive posture, there shouldn't be much of a problem.

After hearing this crazy plan, Deeford clenched his fists nervously and nodded vigorously.

Just do it.

Without hesitation, Dean took out the last of his life-saving potions, blood-enhancing drugs, special metal powder, and several faintly glowing crystals from his close-fitting leather pouch.

He stood at the edge of the area, pondered for a moment, and found his bearings.

He then drank the potion in one gulp and bit his index finger without hesitation to force out the purest second-tier essence blood.

Dean sat cross-legged, his fingertips darting across the floor, using blood and powder to outline extremely complex and twisted reverse patterns.

As the last line of blood slowly merged together.

Om-!

The air inside the stone hall emitted a mournful buzzing sound.

In an instant, Dean's body, which had been sitting cross-legged, was struck as if by lightning, and he let out a muffled groan.

boom!

Dean's shoulders suddenly felt heavy, as if he were carrying an invisible mountain.

His bones creaked under the strain, his skin flushed red, and fine beads of blood even seeped from his pores.

The terrifying crushing pressure pinned him to the spot, making it extremely difficult for him to even move a finger.

"quick……!"

Dean clenched his teeth, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, and with difficulty forced out a furious roar from his throat:

"I've temporarily transferred the power of this field... You brat, hurry up and get the Tranquil Snow Lotus!"

"Yes...yes, Father! I'll go right away!"

Deeford was shocked by his father's horrific appearance, but he quickly realized that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Without hesitation, he strode into the previously deadly muddy ground.

Sure enough, without the heavy pressure, the area became incredibly safe.

Deford strode to the platform, took out two prepared jade bottles from his bosom, and with trembling hands carefully uprooted the two crystal-clear Tranquil Snow Lotuses, put them into the jade bottles, and then held them tightly to his bosom.

"Got it!" Deeford turned around in ecstasy.

Seeing his son successfully obtain the treasure, Dean, who was enduring inhuman torture, breathed a slight sigh of relief.

But just as his tense nerves relaxed, he suddenly froze.

An unprecedented, chilling sense of life-or-death crisis instantly enveloped Dean.

His bloodshot eyes, filled with pain, moved with difficulty.

Out of the corner of his eye, Dean caught a glimpse of a tall, slender black figure standing silently at the deep entrance to the stone hall.

The figure held a heavy alloy spear in his hand, silently watching everything around him like the Grim Reaper.

The moment their eyes met, a cold, murderous glint flashed across the figure's face.

The man's face was covered with a cloth, only his eyes were visible, and his two narrow gazes were like those of an eagle, staring intently into the room.

"Who...who is it?!"

Although Dean did not recognize the person, he sensed that the atmosphere was abnormal. His expression instantly turned horrified, even more so than when he had just experienced the heavy pressure of the field.

"No--!!!"

Ignoring the risk of his meridians ruptured, Dean roared furiously at his son, who was still inside the field, his eyes bloodshot: "Deeford! Run! Get out here!!!"

Deford is now standing in a vacuum of field power.

If that suddenly appearing Xiren gently swung his gun, destroying that fragile inverted pattern.

Then, the field pressure that has lost its pull will instantly return to its original position.

That terrifying power, enough to crush bronze, would undoubtedly turn Deeford into a bloody mess in an instant!

Dean himself, though barely able to withstand the power of the field with his second-tier physique, could only manage so much.

He can barely move his body now, let alone make any extra movements to stop Xilun.

Otherwise, he would have directly withstood the power of the field and gone to pick the Tranquil Snow Lotus himself.

He is now a living, breathing, immobile target!

Xilun, who was hiding in the shadows and heard and saw everything clearly, hesitated almost without hesitation.

"Perfect timing."

Xilun thought to himself, his eyes flashing with absolute coldness.

boom!

No nonsense, no hesitation.

The bronze floor tiles beneath Xilun's feet shattered with a deafening roar.

He transformed into a raging black lightning bolt, driven by the "Great Sea Whale Guiding Technique," carrying the terrifying power of a peak first-tier extreme realm, and instantly approached.

Deeford, who was still on the platform, heard his father's roar and belatedly turned around to look.

What entered his pupils was not the smile of his father being saved.

Instead, it was a rapidly approaching afterimage, and a deadly spear that grew larger in sight, carrying the power of thunder, mercilessly piercing towards the core of the reversal array and his own head!

"Die."

A cold whisper echoed in the stone hall.

The spear thrust out fiercely!

Deeford had never seen such a fast gun, and he could hardly have predicted the terrifying killing intent that would descend with such ferocity.

That chilling aura was no longer an invisible pressure, but transformed into a tangible winter storm, like towering waves crashing against the hard shore with the violent kinetic energy to crush everything.

The next moment, in Deeford's wide, horrified pupils, the blinding glint of the gun suddenly magnified, like a blazing sun falling from the sky.

The intense blood and qi, like an ancient beast awakened from the abyss, pressed down on his waist with the force of Mount Tai.

Even the surrounding air was forced out by this brute force, producing a violent sonic boom.

"boom--"

A dull, grating bang exploded inside the bronze door.

Before Deeford could even let out a scream, his entire body was struck hard by that terrifying force.

His sternum collapsed and shattered in an instant, and his body flew backward like a tattered kite with a broken string, crashing heavily onto the cold stone wall.

The immense impact caused the hard stone wall to crack like a spiderweb, and Deeford was half-embedded in the wall, blood gushing from his mouth and nose like a fountain.

Xilun's face was as cold and aloof as he strode closer without the slightest hesitation.

He glanced coldly at Deford, who was embedded in the wall and barely alive. His long, strong fingers reached out like iron pincers and precisely pulled the two tranquil snow lotuses that emitted a faint blue glow from the other's arms.

A cool sensation travels through your fingertips.

After carefully tucking the snow lotus into his arms, Xilun suddenly flipped his wrist, and the heavy alloy spear transformed into a black lightning bolt, stabbing forward mercilessly.

"Pfft!"

The spear tip pierced Deeford's heart without any obstruction.

A muffled gurgling sound came from Deeford's throat, and the last glimmer of life in his eyes quickly dissipated, turning him into a cold corpse.

Xilun withdrew his spear expressionlessly, but his gaze suddenly froze on the spear shaft.

A bizarre scene was unfolding—the blood gushing from Deeford's wound did not drip to the ground, but instead seemed to be drawn by some inexplicable force, as if it had come to life, and meandered along the cold alloy gun barrel.

The dark red blood quickly condensed into a solid line, running silently down the gun barrel and along Xilen's fingers as he gripped it, penetrating his body.

Xilun's body trembled slightly. He clearly felt as if a cold flame had been ignited instantly in the center of his spine.

Beneath the skin and flesh, something seemed to be slowly wriggling, accompanied by a slight stinging sensation. Ancient and ferocious patterns were quietly taking shape in the bones and blood.

Is this the talent I just plundered from the Earth Bloodbat Dragon? Bloody Slaughter...

As the blood was completely drained, Deeford on the wall visibly transformed into a withered shell.

The once plump flesh withered instantly, the skin clinging tightly to the bones, lying on the ground like a skeleton weathered for a hundred years, exuding a chilling stillness.

Xilun slowly squeezed his empty left hand, the knuckles making a crisp cracking sound.

He felt an extremely strange yet incredibly powerful sense of control within his body, as if he could release the special power he had just absorbed, filled with resentment and death, at will, with just a thought.

Gathering her scattered thoughts, Xiren slowly turned her head, casting her cold gaze at Dean, the patriarch of the Shudark family, not far away.

At this moment, Dean's eyes were wide open like copper bells, and his eyeballs were covered with dense, scarlet blood vessels.

He witnessed firsthand the horrific process of his son being shot through the skin, drained of blood, and reduced to a skeleton. The extreme grief and violent rage nearly destroyed his reason.

If it weren't for the strange energy field within the bronze gate suppressing him, this dignified second-tier extraordinary being would have already pounced on him like a mad dog and torn Xilun to pieces.

However, no matter how furious he became, or how frantically he squeezed out the immense power within his body, the irresistible power of the rules of this domain was like a mountain of immense weight, crushing him without any temper.

Dean's original plan was perfect—to use his son Deford to obtain the Tranquil Snow Lotus, while he would buy time, and then use a special potion to destroy the reverse patterns on the ground after obtaining the item, thereby removing the suppression of the field.

But now, everything has vanished.

Xilun calmly sized up the middle-aged man.

Dean's face was gloomy and ruthless, and he exuded a chilling murderous aura, but his movements at this moment were quite comical and slow.

He was trying his best to press his palms to the ground, trying to wipe away the lines that imprisoned him, but this movement, which would normally only take a moment, was now like struggling in thick deep-sea silt, slow to an absurd degree, and every movement was extremely difficult.

"This person is completely suppressed by the power of the field and has not yet broken free... Can I take this opportunity to kill him and eliminate any future trouble?"

The thought flashed through Xiren's mind, but his reason, as precise as a machine, quickly made a judgment—and he immediately shook his head.

I'm afraid not.

While the other party is indeed trapped within the field, this field force provides a two-way isolation.

Since he was not trapped inside, it meant that it would be difficult to harm the second-tier extraordinary beings inside by going through this extremely advanced layer of mystical rules.

To confirm his suspicions, Xiren did not hesitate to draw the "Revolver of Hatred" from his waist.

"Bang!"

The deafening gunshots echoed through the stone chamber, the muzzles spitting out blinding tongues of fire and sparks.

The large-caliber bullet tore through the air like a fiery serpent, carrying immense kinetic energy straight toward Dean's forehead.