In just a breath's time, the vibrating speed of the five-colored butterfly's antennae slowed down.
Finally, the green light connected to its back also quickly dimmed, becoming faint and indistinct, as if it would disconnect from the butterfly at any moment.
When this green light was about to disappear, the female cultivator surnamed Yang raised her hand and formed another hand seal, and another inch-long green light shot out from the compass, extending.
This beam of green light instantly connected to the back of the five-colored butterfly, which immediately became active again.
With a flutter of its wings, it flew away from its previous spot. After a very small turn, it stopped at another place in the mountain wall's depression.
Then, its pair of antennae once again made contact with the mountain wall and vibrated rapidly.
Also in a breath's time, the green light on its back quickly faded and disappeared, and the five-colored butterfly's movements became sluggish again.
A beam of green light shot out from the compass in the female cultivator surnamed Yang's hand again, but this time it hit the butterfly's abdomen...
The three people standing on the tip of the middle finger of the palm-shaped rock above were all Golden Core cultivators. Although they were not proficient in formations, they had some knowledge of them.
Soon, they all saw a pattern. The female cultivator surnamed Yang was using the compass to control the five-colored butterfly for some kind of detection.
As for what was being detected, whether it was the distribution of the restriction's strength or its operational rules, they did not know.
The forty-nine beams of green light emitted from the compass should correspond to positions like the Two-fundamentals Four-symbols, the Nine-palaces Eight-trigrams.
Each beam of green light struck a different part of the five-colored butterfly's body. Even if two beams hit the back like at the beginning, their precise locations were different.
The green light controlled the butterfly's constant movement within the depression, and these positions, when connected, slowly revealed a hidden pattern.
It could be seen that it belonged to the Two-fundamentals Four-symbols, the Nine-palaces Eight-trigrams positions, but it had already undergone various changes. The other three only felt that there was a great mystery in it, but they couldn't comprehend it at all.
The five-colored butterfly seemed to be sensing the inside of the mountain body through its pair of antennae at each position.
"Could this be the 'Connected Mountains Changing Formation' technique recorded in some ancient texts? If it is, then it's really possible to successfully break the restriction before us."
Song Rongdao's actual experience far surpassed everyone else here. Watching the female cultivator surnamed Yang's technique of manipulating the compass, a very rare school of formation arts suddenly flashed through his mind.
This school was very proficient in formation mechanisms. They specialized in using a compass to control positions to break restrictions.
It was said that by sensing the scattering of spiritual energy between each position, as well as the direction of air flow, they could determine the location of the formation's Gate of Life and Gate of Death.
Then, by finding the attack route to break the restriction through the Gate of Life, they could interrupt the formation's operation with a clever force, achieving the goal of breaking the formation restriction.
"I remember it saying that this method can control sixty-four positions through the compass. When seventy percent of the sixty-four positions are connected, even a grand formation refined by a Nascent Soul cultivator can be broken."
"But there are only forty-nine green lights here. Is her magic power not strong enough, or is the 'Connected Mountains Changing Formation' cultivation method she practices incomplete? Or did I misjudge her restriction-breaking technique?"
Song Rongdao quickly recalled the records he had seen about the "Connected Mountains Changing Formation" and compared them with the female cultivator surnamed Yang's actions. He became more and more convinced that his guess was correct.
At the same time, a strong sense of greed had unconsciously risen in his heart.
In the past, he only knew that the female cultivator surnamed Yang was a loner with very impressive attainments in formations.
They had cooperated before, but he had never seen her cast a spell like this.
He thought that today, after her repeated attempts to break the restriction failed, and at the same time, she also became greedy for a secret grotto with such a protective formation, knowing that there might be a great opportunity inside, she finally revealed her trump card.
But she never would have thought that his experience could almost match that of some Nascent Soul cultivators. Thinking about the use of the "Connected Mountains Changing Formation" technique, if he could possess it, even if this trip was in vain, as long as he killed these few people and obtained this technique, it would be worth it.
Then, whether it was fighting against enemies or exploring secret realms in the future, there would be endless benefits.
A keen light flashed in Song Rongdao's eyes, but no one noticed his abnormality.
On the surface, he still looked down with a solemn expression, with little change in his expression.
As time passed quickly, the green lights on the compass in the female cultivator surnamed Yang's hand were decreasing at a rate of one per breath.
With each disappearing green light, the female cultivator surnamed Yang's eyes would dim a little, clearly indicating that this consumption was huge for her.
Watching the changes in the depression on the mountain wall, just when the three above thought that the female cultivator surnamed Yang would bring them a surprise this time, only the last three green lights remained on her compass. Her entire body was as if it had been washed with water.
In the eyes of the three, the last three green lights disappeared one by one in the span of a breath, but the depression on the mountain wall remained unchanged.
And this time, not even a trace of restriction fluctuation was produced in the end, as if everything that had just happened was just a dream.
After the three exchanged glances, Song Rongdao asked with a puzzled expression.
"Fellow Daoist Yang..."
At this moment, the female cultivator surnamed Yang was reaching out to recall the five-colored butterfly. Hearing his words, she raised her pretty face and waved her hand wearily.
Her action made the hearts of the others sink.
The cultivator surnamed Yan was about to speak out of dissatisfaction. He had been waiting up here for so long, only to find out this woman couldn't do anything.
But then, the female cultivator surnamed Yang's tired voice came up.
"Give me three hours to recover. I should be able to break the restriction here!"
With that, her spirit power shield, already dim, flickered as she sat down cross-legged in front of the mountain wall.
Then, holding a spirit stone in each hand, she began to meditate, completely ignoring everything else.
The words of the cultivator surnamed Yan were stuck in his throat, while Song Rongdao and the youth surnamed Bai showed joy on their faces.
The youth surnamed Bai immediately said loudly.
"Fellow Daoist Yang is truly formidable. Very good, very good... very good indeed!!! Hahaha...
"Fellow Daoist, please rest assured and recover. I will guard you and ensure you are not disturbed in the slightest!"
As he spoke, the youth surnamed Bai even glanced at the cultivator surnamed Yan, the warning in his eyes particularly obvious.
At this point, whoever disturbed her quiet cultivation would be obstructing his path to immortality, even Song Rongdao would not be an exception.
So the youth surnamed Bai deliberately stated his attitude.
After being glanced at by him, the cultivator surnamed Yan snorted coldly and moved a few steps to the side, but his face showed no objection or dissatisfaction.
"Then let's wait patiently for a while. Fellow Daoist Yang has tried so hard. Later, we will still need everyone's continued cooperation. This time, there will definitely be a great harvest, hahaha..."
Song Rongdao smiled slightly and said to everyone. But at this time, his heart was already full of doubt.
'Did I misjudge? The formation-breaking method she used is not the 'Connected Mountains Changing Formation,' or is it that she lacks the stamina and needs to recover before casting the 'Connected Mountains Changing Formation' method again?'
Song Rongdao remembered the introduction to the "Connected Mountains Changing Formation" technique he had seen before, which said that this technique could directly break formation restrictions.
Why did everything the female cultivator surnamed Yang did just now seem more like constant probing, without breaking even a trace of the restriction? For a moment, Song Rongdao was full of suspicion.
He didn't know that, for one, what he had seen about the "Connected Mountains Changing Formation" only introduced its main function, and the specific details could not be described in detail.
The "Connected Mountains Changing Formation" should be used to enter through the Gate of Life by using the power of the compass while probing the formation's layout, rather than breaking the formation's operation.
Another point was that since the female cultivator surnamed Yang wanted to hide the "Connected Mountains Changing Formation" technique, she had developed her own method over many years.
She would not directly use the "Connected Mountains Changing Formation" to open the Gate of Life.
Instead, she would often only use the "Connected Mountains Changing Formation" to probe the formation's layout points, memorize them one by one, and finally use a set, or even several sets, of other arts to open the Gate of Life.
This would draw others' attention to the final arts she cast, thus ignoring her previous actions.
This would make others think at most that she was just trying different methods to break it.
They were all rogue cultivators who had walked on the edge of life and death for years. They wouldn't trust anyone and certainly wouldn't easily reveal their trump cards.
Three hours later, as the female cultivator surnamed Yang slowly stood up, a similar scene to before appeared again.
Once again, she cast spells to attack the depression on the mountain wall, which made Song Rongdao begin to seriously doubt his own guess.
Of course, this was exactly the result the female cultivator surnamed Yang wanted to see.
Finally, a quarter of an hour later, a yellow light suddenly bloomed from the depression in the mountain wall, followed by purple, red, blue, and so on. Beams of light shot out from the mountain body.
And the mountain body in the middle of the light beams began to crack. Under the reflection of the light beams, the cracked pieces of the mountain body appeared translucent, like a colorful scale, with brilliant colors around it.
Subsequently, this scale-like piece of mountain body began to shatter and fall, and the surrounding rocks also collapsed, slowly revealing an opening about half a person's height.
Rays of rosy light surged out from the opening, preventing even a single drop of the surrounding seawater from entering. The water could only churn and roll outside the opening, as if trying to break in.
"Fellow Daoist Yang, is it broken?"
The three of them, Song Rongdao and the others, did not go down immediately but stared at the glowing opening and observed it carefully.
As for Song Rongdao, the current situation was very different from when he had broken the restriction last time.
He remembered that when he broke the restriction last time, light also came out of the opening, but it was not a rosy light, but a surge of red light. This also basically confirmed that the other party had indeed broken the restriction.
At the same time, the three of them had already cautiously extended their Divine Sense towards the opening.
"It's fine now, you can enter!"
The female cultivator surnamed Yang withdrew her hand seals. She was also cautiously probing the situation inside with her Divine Sense.
To her relief, she did not find any danger. She had opened the Gate of Life, so logically, there should not be immediate danger.
As her voice fell, the figures of the three, Song Rongdao and the others, appeared beside her. Song Rongdao looked at the rosy light at the opening and frowned.
"Will these rosy lights always be like this? Although this is ten thousand fathoms under the sea, and Divine Sense is also affected, this is too conspicuous."
As he spoke, he turned his head and looked around. The originally pitch-black seabed, under the reflection of the rosy light, was like a blazing sun emerging in the night, exceptionally eye-catching.
Even without using Divine Sense, one could clearly see the scene within a few dozen feet. If a cultivator or demonic beast passed by, even a blind person would know that something unusual had happened here.
"It's nothing. This is just the initial leakage of spiritual energy from the formation being opened by an external force. It will probably disappear after a hundred breaths."
"If you're worried, Fellow Daoist, you can set up some simple concealment formations around the perimeter to cover it up."
The female cultivator surnamed Yang said faintly.
"Then let's do that!"
Before Song Rongdao could think it through, the youth surnamed Bai on the other side had already readily agreed.
Of course, he didn't want the ruins they had discovered to be spied on or known by others.
Subsequently, several formation flags flew out from his sleeves and silently submerged into the surrounding rocks in the next moment.