Chapter 220: A Hundred Palaces

The eagle demon pressed its palm against the golden door, shoved several times, but the door didn’t budge; it then slammed its shoulder against the partially open portal’s barrier, drenched in sweat, yet still failed to enter the sealed grounds.

“Commander Pan! I truly can’t get in.”

The eagle demon turned back, looking wounded.

Pan muttered under his breath, face grim: “How is this possible? The door to the sealed grounds is open—why can’t we enter? This shouldn’t happen. The mist hasn’t consumed flesh either—where is the problem?”

Zheng Xu also stared at the golden door at the heart of the mist, his expression bewildered.

He thought long and hard but couldn’t figure out why.

At that moment, Song Ce, who had remained silent until now, stepped forward and volunteered: “I’ll enter the mist and try to push open the golden door of the sealed grounds.”

Zheng Xu glanced at Song Ce in surprise; after a moment’s thought, he nodded: “If you’re willing to go, I won’t stop you.”

Song Ce nodded and walked resolutely into the mist, his face expressionless. Lu Fang, though puzzled why Song Ce dared take such a risk, could read nothing from his demeanor.

Yet Lu Fang had a premonition: Song Ce’s action would drastically alter this stalemate.

“He really isn’t afraid of death!”

Pan sneered, glancing at Song Ce in the mist.

“Huh?” Lu Fang let out a soft exclamation, watching Song Ce’s actions. As Song Ce neared the golden door, he didn’t push it—he reached his hand into the door.

Most importantly, the move succeeded.

Unlike the eagle demon before, who met a barrier, Song Ce’s hand slipped effortlessly into the door, encountering no resistance whatsoever.

Before Lu Fang could fully process it, Song Ce had already slipped entirely through the door.

After waiting a long while and seeing no sign of Song Ce emerging, Pan frowned: “It seems once you enter, getting out won’t be easy.”

Zheng Xu nodded in agreement: “This golden door to the sealed grounds doesn’t seem open to just anyone—it’s like there’s some kind of threshold.”

Even after witnessing Song Ce enter the sealed grounds unharmed, Pan remained extremely cautious. He scanned his surroundings, then fixed his gaze on several of his stronger subordinates nearby.

“You—go try.”

Pan pointed at a bear demon.

The bear demon stood three meters tall, its fur gray, muscles bulging like those of a stallion. Without hesitation, it strode into the mist at the command.

As if showing off its strength, it didn’t immediately reach its paw into the door—instead, it pressed both paws hard against the door, roared loudly, and unleashed all its power, trying to shove the golden door open completely.

The golden door of the sealed grounds didn’t move.

The gray bear demon had used all its strength; the ground beneath its paws had collapsed into two deep pits, and its gray fur stood on end.

“Stop wasting energy—just try to get inside the sealed grounds!”

Pan growled impatiently.

The gray bear demon chuckled awkwardly, leapt out of the pits with a small hop, took several deep breaths, then extended its paw into the golden door.

It succeeded!

The gray bear demon could enter the sealed grounds.

In the blink of an eye, it vanished from sight.

Seeing this, Zheng Xu and Pan exchanged a glance and simultaneously charged toward the golden door at the heart of the mist—now certain there was no danger, whoever entered first would gain the advantage.

As expected, Pan and Zheng Xu slipped into the sealed grounds one after the other.

More demonic beasts entered the sealed grounds, yet a large portion remained blocked outside.

Based on which demonic beasts entered and which didn’t, Lu Fang deduced a conclusion: only fourth-rank demonic beasts with strong cultivation could pass through the golden door of the sealed grounds.

It wasn’t only elite fourth-rank demonic beasts who could enter—there were also a few rare fifth- and sixth-rank demonic beasts who had entered as well.

The only commonality among them was that they were all elites within their respective ranks.

Thus Lu Fang believed: entry into the sealed grounds’ golden door wasn’t restricted by rank—it was reserved only for those who were exceptionally strong within their own realm.

The fourth-rank horse demon, once the eagle demon’s lackey, had failed to enter. Before Lu Fang stepped into the mist, he warned:

“Watch over my three human servants. If they lose even a single hair by the time I return, I’ll kill you.”

The horse demon neighed loudly, gave Lu Fang a strange salute, and said solemnly: “Commander Xie, rest assured—unless I die here, not one of your servants will suffer a scratch.”

Lu Fang nodded, glanced back at Jiang Yuan and the other two, unsure what to say. Their cultivation was far too weak—they were nothing but cannon fodder here.

Had there been no sealed grounds, he might have used his disguise to rescue them.

But now he couldn’t— he needed to enter the sealed grounds and do what he could to prevent ancient alien races from pouring out.

To be honest, he himself wasn’t certain he’d return safely, let alone protect Jiang Yuan and the others. Everything must now be left to fate.

Sensing Lu Fang’s helpless gaze, Jiang Yuan sent a mental message: “Master, don’t worry—if we see danger, we’ll find a way to handle it ourselves. You’ve already done more than enough for us.”

Lu Fang smiled warmly. Jiang Yuan was a woman who inspired in him an inexplicable trust—he always felt at ease with her.

He didn’t reply, but strode resolutely into the mist.

As expected, when he reached his hand into the door of the sealed grounds, he felt no barrier—instead, he sensed a powerful pull, as if the door was trying to suck him in.

This pull had little effect on him.

After several attempts to resist, he finally gave in. In that instant, he felt weightless, his body light as if floating upward.

In an instant, Lu Fang opened his eyes. Before he could even take in his surroundings, his body—falling from above—suddenly halted.

“This is…”

Lu Fang looked down from above, his eyes wide with astonishment. The sealed grounds consisted of countless palaces; their roof ridges weren’t adorned with conventional upturned eaves, but with grotesque, monstrous statues of strange beasts.

Merely glancing at them induced a chilling, nauseating unease.

Each of these palace structures stood bathed in golden light, their corners barely visible—counting them, there were over a hundred palaces of varying sizes and scales.