"Venerable Duanmu" and another Spirit Transformation cultivator had to go out to assist in the battle. They couldn't even wait for someone from the rear to come and take over their guard duties here. Therefore, Meng Zhiyuan's return would be delayed for some time.
It should be that "Venerable Duanmu" had some premonition about the future at that time, plus the Dark Spirit Demon Bats had been dutifully serving here for hundreds of years.
At the same time, during his time guarding this place, the Dark Spirit Demon Bats had been very respectful to him, and all military orders had been carried out perfectly.
Thus, "Venerable Duanmu" decided to help the Dark Spirit Demon Bats one last time before he left. He let the few experts of the clan choose for themselves.
One option was for them to wait for his return, and then he would take Meng Zhiyuan back across the realm.
The other was for him to use his great divine ability to seal the Dark Spirit Demon Bat clan in the Forbidden Land.
"Venerable Duanmu" cultivated the Law of Life, and he could control the flow of time.
However, even at his Spirit Transformation stage, his grasp of the Law of Life was only rudimentary. If it was just to extend a life by a few days, he could certainly do it immediately.
But this time he was leaving, and it was very possible he would be gone for months, or even years. To truly seal the flow of time, he had to borrow some kind of grand power.
At the same time, he needed to inscribe runes into the bloodline of the Dark Spirit Demon Bat clan, connecting their bloodline to this power. As long as this power did not die, they would not perish.
And the place they were guarding happened to have this kind of power. But what this power was, "Venerable Duanmu" would not say.
However, in this way, the Dark Spirit Demon Bat clan would be unable to leave a fifty-li radius of this place. Otherwise, the time that had been sealed would be inflicted upon them in double measure.
It would cause a Dark Spirit Demon Bat to age rapidly in a very short time, and even die directly.
After consideration, the few six-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats, also due to the scarcity of cultivation resources here, had already consumed hundreds of years of their lifespan without much improvement in their realm.
If this continued, they themselves would be living one day less at a time, so they were certainly unwilling to do so.
At that time, out of their great trust in "Venerable Duanmu," they chose to have their clan sealed in the Forbidden Land.
In their minds, "Venerable Duanmu" and the other Spirit Transformation expert were both existences with boundless and formidable Spirit Power. Even if they went to provide support, it was impossible for both of them to have an accident at the same time.
They thought that at most, they would return here in five or six years.
But to their surprise, they waited for a hundred years, a thousand years, ten thousand years...
They never saw "Venerable Duanmu" or any other expert from the Verdant Continent return.
Later, they even began to believe that "Venerable Duanmu" might have just used this as an excuse to seal them here, just to make their clan guard this nameless cave residence forever.
Because they couldn't believe that even if "Venerable Duanmu" had perished, what about the other Spirit Transformation cultivator?
For two Spirit Transformation experts to perish at the same time was an extremely rare event in itself, especially since they were both guarding this place together. The probability was so small that they were unwilling to believe it.
Slowly, their emotions turned from anticipation to torment, then to unease and anger, and finally, they became numb...
It wasn't that they hadn't thought of going out. Some Dark Spirit Demon Bats who couldn't bear the torment left in groups. They felt that even if they were pursued and killed by the Demon Clan outside, it was a thousand times better than living in such darkness.
The six-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats did not stop them. They knew even better what the laws were. They themselves were unwilling to test it lightly, so they were also watching.
When groups of Dark Spirit Demon Bats flew just beyond the fifty-li radius, a thousand years, ten thousand years, a hundred thousand years... of the Law of Life instantly descended upon them.
They didn't even realize what had happened before they had turned into puffs of dust, dissolving into the seawater.
That scene made all the Dark Spirit Demon Bats' hair stand on end. In their Divine Sense, they watched as a large group of Dark Spirit Demon Bats rapidly moved away in the seabed.
Then, the moment they reached the fifty-li range, a large cloud of grey dust was kicked up. As the seawater flowed gently, they vanished without a trace...
In the end, not a single Dark Spirit Demon Bat dared to fly out of the restricted area again.
But at this time, they had long since lost their reverence for the three sub-cave residences they were guarding, and placed all their anger on them.
Thus, one of the six-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats, unwilling to accept this, directly launched an attack on one of the cave residences.
He was an expert who was extremely proficient in the Dao of formations, and his ability to break restrictions was also quite impressive.
The cave residence he attacked was the mysterious one that they and the two Spirit Transformation experts had been guarding all along.
He shrieked madly, wanting to destroy everything here, to see what it was they had been guarding.
The other four six-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats were terrified. For hundreds of years, they had never dared to approach these three cave residences. It was a reverence for the strong that came from the bottom of their hearts.
The strong would appear in everyone's mind, but usually that was just a legend. The strong would not always appear in the world.
But these Dark Spirit Demon Bats were different. One after another, strong experts had lived with them for hundreds of years, so close together.
Even if the other party just breathed, it could cause several of the strongest Dark Spirit Demon Bats to die instantly without any resistance. This was a real and tangible feeling.
Now, one of their own clansmen was attacking madly, and attacking the most mysterious cave residence at that.
They didn't know what was inside. If it was some peerless treasure, they would want it at this time, but what if the cave residence held a trapped enemy expert?
The other four six-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats, unable to persuade him, and with a sliver of luck in their hearts, ended up just watching as that six-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat attacked the restriction day after day...
Until one day, with a loud "boom," a pitch-black hole the size of a fist was broken in the gate of that most mysterious cave residence.
And the moment the hole appeared, that six-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat let out an extremely shrill scream. No one saw what happened clearly. He had already turned into a rain of blood.
Not even his Nascent Soul could escape. His soul was instantly scattered, so clean that it was as if he had never come into this world.
Then, in the terrified eyes of all the Dark Spirit Demon Bat clansmen, the black hole rapidly shrank and disappeared.
This scene was deeply imprinted in the minds of every Dark Spirit Demon Bat who saw it, like a lingering nightmare in the years to come.
After that, no one dared to try to break the formations on these three cave residences again.
They could only retreat back into the Forbidden Land, continuing to wait for "Venerable Duanmu's" return.
It was just that at this time, they had completely cut off their cultivation resources and could only rely on the meager Spiritual Energy here to cultivate and procreate...
They had originally thought that waiting endlessly like this was the most reliable way.
Then one day, the first death of a Dark Spirit Demon Bat occurred among them. This was very surprising, even to the remaining four six-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats.
Because their current bloodline, including the bloodline of their offspring, was linked to the Law of Life here, this should have been impossible.
The four top experts studied the corpse of the dead six-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat for a long time. In the end, they concluded that there was likely a problem with this one's bloodline, which led to this result.
Because for a period of time after that, this situation did not occur again.
Soon this matter was dropped. But after more than half a year, another two-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat died in the Forbidden Land.
Subsequently, every few months, or about a year, Dark Spirit Demon Bats would die one after another.
This matter caused the four six-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats to become highly vigilant. They constantly studied the corpses of their clansmen, but still could not find the root of the problem.
After finally reaching a consensus, they came to another conclusion. The cultivation of these dead Dark Spirit Demon Bats was very low, some were even at the Qi Condensation stage.
But they had one thing in common: they had all existed for a very, very long time. They were not the descendants who had procreated here later.
It was just why these Dark Spirit Demon Bats, under the protection of the Law of Life, could live for so long without any problems before, and were now starting to have problems.
Driven by this line of thought, the four six-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats finally remembered a sentence that "Venerable Duanmu" had said. Due to the long passage of time, they had long since ignored this matter.
From this, they finally discovered the problem. The Art of Life had been cast on them. "Venerable Duanmu" seemed to have said that he had to borrow a power from this place to complete the spell.
The four six-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats, after verifying with each other, confirmed that "Venerable Duanmu" had indeed said this.
In that case, it was likely that the power that sustained their lives had a problem, and the biggest possibility was that it had weakened. It should be in a process of slow decay.
Next, as more and more Dark Spirit Demon Bats died one after another in the Forbidden Land over the years, their speculation was also verified.
The dead were all ancient Dark Spirit Demon Bats, and their order of death also started from the lowest cultivation level.
And this group of Dark Spirit Demon Bats, according to their lifespan, should have died off by more than ninety-five percent, leaving only the youngest batch.
Of course, without their existence, there would not have been generations of young Dark Spirit Demon Bats later.
This was also enough to show that that power was still there, still corresponding with their bloodline.
Thus, the four six-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats told all their clansmen this news.
Although this was very cruel, they were no longer like eternally living beings and would all die one after another. But it was still a hundred times better than letting all their clansmen live in panic every day.
Next, the four six-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats began to search for that mysterious power. After sixty years of continuous attempts, and after the deaths of a large number of their clansmen, they finally discovered the source of this power. It should be the power that supported the operation of the Forbidden Land.
This power decayed very slowly. They were only able to discover it in these sixty years because they were constantly probing for that power everywhere every day.
When the power of the Forbidden Land was constantly decaying, the restriction power on the three sub-cave residences was also decaying, but the restriction on the three sub-cave residences decayed even more slowly.
It would only decay a little about every fifteen years. This did not match the speed of the clansmen's deaths, and at the same time, it could also be confirmed that the restrictions on the three sub-cave residences were independent and had nothing to do with the formation of the Forbidden Land.
Then the solution, in a manner of speaking, was very simple: strengthen the power of the Forbidden Land.
However, although their clan had lived in the Forbidden Land for so long, they really didn't know where the core of the grand formation that operated the Forbidden Land was.
Because the grand formation had always been operating well, the imprint of following orders had long been carved into their bones.
This time, the four six-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats had all their clansmen start searching separately.
In fact, what they were most worried about was that the core of the formation was in the three sub-cave residences. If that were the case, what would they do?
However, fortunately, these worries were unnecessary. In the end, it was the four six-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats who discovered three sealed tunnels at the end of the Forbidden Land.