Hours later, Dyon and the three three-facet Overlords of the Mist Clan had entered a deep segment of the dark ocean waters that maybe only a handful of cultivators in all of history had ever stepped foot into.
The water pressure at this level was so fierce that even Dyon didn't dare to take it lightly. If it was just the weight of the water itself, maybe it wouldn't have been a big deal, but the reality was that these black waters of the Ancient Battlefield had the capacity to absorb and store qi, causing their overall weight to skyrocket exponentially.
To make matters worse, the deeper one entered these waters, the denser the qi to water ratio became. The reality was that the domes that protected the Mist Clan's underwater city were constructed to diffuse this pressure. Yet, even in such a state, only three facet Overlords could fly freely.
If one extrapolated this reality to the situation outside their domes… The devastation could be imagined.
Using this as an excuse, Dyon faced the glares of his wives as he shuttled them into his Inner World. This sight caused the three Mist Clan ancestors to narrow their eyes, but they didn't ask much. Everyone had their own secrets.
It took an entire day of trudging through the bottom soil of these harsh waters to finally make it to their destination. Almost depressingly, their goal had only been a kilometer away from the underwater city, something that should have been a blink of an eye with their strength.
On the bright side, due to the outrageous pressure of the oceans, its seafloor was as hard as diamonds. If they had to trudge through mud, who knows how long it would have taken them.
"Here it is…" Ancestor Mist spoke solemnly. Her happy demeanor had completely vanished. These next few months would decide whether her efforts and that of her ancestors bore fruit.
What was odd though was that this stretch of ocean was completely bland. The waters were still, completely devoid of the savage currents Dyon had come to know. There wasn't a single beast in sight… And it almost seemed peaceful.
However, it was exactly this that made Dyon hair stand on end. Looking toward the seemingly unmoving plot of black diamond just a few meters before him, his senses screamed at him. His soul almost inadvertently began to burn once more.
Unlike the fear the three elders expected, though, Dyon sneered.
'It's been a long time since I've felt so threatened… I was beginning to get bored…'
Seeing Dyon overflowing with confidence, Ancestor Mist's expression flickered continuously.
"Why weren't there any youths like this when I was young, maybe then I wouldn't be unmarried and childless even after having a single foot in the grave…"
It sounded especially weird hearing such a young, beautiful woman say such words. However, Ancestor Mist seemed to mean them.
Dyon looked over and laughed. "Well, now you're young. You have plenty of time to find yourself a husband."
Ancestor Mist pouted. "Does that mean you don't want me?"
Elianora and her golden scaled counterpart nearly fainted at the sight of this interaction. This was their esteemed Ancestor. How had she become no different from a little girl?
Dyon smiled at these words. "You may be beautiful, but you're still lacking in comparison to my wives."
Without an ounce of hesitation, Dyon exploded forward, diving toward the seemingly empty space and vanishing.
The three Mist Clan elders fell into silence for a long while, staring toward the blank space with cool expressions.
"Are we really going to allow this, esteemed Ancestor?" The middle-aged man with golden scales beneath his eyes spoke for the first time.
"We don't have much of a choice, Jesper."
"How can that be so? Ancestor already knows that he is not one of us. Isn't trusting him like this as good as ruining trillions of years of planning?"
"You understand nothing." Ancestor Mist said coldly. "Do you think that this trial is a joke? He has the strength of a three facet Overlord even while within the Dao Formation Realm, a feat that should be next to impossible. Yet, his likelihood of success is not even 1%.
"If even he is so likely to fail, what do you think of the fools we've nurtured who didn't even manage to make it here?"
"What?!" Elianora and Jesper were taken aback.
"Why…" Elianora whispered. "… Why would the Heavens place such an impossible trial here…?"
"Look at where this place is? Do you think a normal Invader could make it here?"
"But even so, Ancestor… Even if by some miracle he passes… Why would he help us?"
Ancestor Mist's gaze flashed with a resolute light. "I have my ways."
Silence fell over the ocean floor once more. Elianora and Jesper didn't dare to press onward and ask more questions about their Ancestor's thoughts. They had already pushed her far more than they would have dared to do so in the past. The outside world saw an amiable old woman, but they knew well how savage this 'old lady' could be.
"Then Ancestor… What is it that makes this trial so difficult to pass…?"
After several moments, Jesper couldn't help but curiously ask. If this trial was really for mortals, what made it so difficult that even someone with the strength of a three facet Overlord couldn't overcome it?
"… There's only one answer…" Ancestor Mist said slowly. "… World Suppression."
Maybe it was ironically the very moment Ancestor Mist said those words that Dyon felt as though a boulder had fallen from the skies to crush him.
The moment he exited that weird, warped space, he felt like he had travelled back in time to the very first moment he entered his constitution world for the first time. The only differences between then and now was that Dyon's weight wasn't currently the problem, and, this time, he managed to stay on his feet.
Still, 'stay on his feet' was kind of a poor qualifier because his knees were bent to nearly 90 degrees and his back was rounded much like Ancestor Mist's had been in her old age.
All Dyon could see were the black tiles etched in ancient silver runes beneath his feet. Well, that was all he could see until he made full use of his vision.
