All was silent within Crushed Stone River. The sky was gloomy, and the entire earth was dark.
"It's already been two days since everyone went in, why hasn't anyone come out yet? Is there no Extreme King Pills in there?"
An elder in dark green robes spoke from his perch on top of a nearby mountain. He was an elder from the Wood School. From the very beginning, he had been watching the entrances of the portal, but no person of importance had yet to come out.
Three other elders stood by his side, they were elders from the Metal and the Fire School. There was also a rather tall elder in orange robes. He looked unusually older than the others, but his physique made him seem a great more robust than his peers. It was like his body was brimming with a great deal of energy.
This was one of the elders from the Earth School, a person who came later than the others.
"I wonder if Feng Yan has met up with Lin Zihao and Zhong Liyan yet." The elder spoke, his voice sounding relatively concerned.
"There's no need to be concerned," Spoke the elder from the Fire School, "we know from the images before that the area inside the pocket is extremely vast. It'll take time to find one another. We of the Five Elements School will naturally be more willing to form alliances with each other. Very few would try to fight them then. Our chances of getting the Extreme King Pills is very likely."
A few people had already come out from the pocket, though they were grievously injured from their attempts to get the Extreme King Pills. They were people of relatively low importance and backgrounds, and were people that decided it was in their best interest to give up on the Extreme King Pills. It was from these people that those people waiting outside were able to find out about the situation inside and the massacre taking place. Most of the people had expected something like that though. And neither were they surprised to hear that those from the lesser backgrounds were already 'washed out' from the competition.
"What?! What's happening, something's changing!!"
The elder from the Metal School pointed a surprised finger at the pocket then.
The other elders followed his finger to stare with raised eyebrows. Off in a distance, it looked as though the space was twisting in on itself as if something was pulling at it. It slowly expanded in size and in intensity before showing a hazy image.
Like a fuse going off, the distortion in the area exploded in size. The surrounding area was devoured by the distortion and soon caught the attention of everyone there.
In a matter of seconds, everyone in the area was staring at it. This wasn't just a distortion of 'space', the entire surrounding area was being fed into it!
"What's going on?! Why are things like this happening?!"
"This…no! It looks like the pocket's about to collapse!"
Being Soul Kings, their understanding of spatial energy was deeper than the average person. Realizing at once what was going on, everyone had a pale look on their faces—if the pocket was collapsing, what would that mean for their youngers inside of it?!
What every Soul King didn't expect to see was that after several moments of the distortion expanding, another development would quickly follow it!
"Pop…"
There was a near inaudible popping sound before everyone realized that the distortion had collapsed in on itself. In less than two seconds, the distortion was gone from sight!
Sensing something above their heads, they all snapped their heads up to look. Up there several kilometers in the sky, over a hundred people had suddenly appeared out of nowhere!
Of these hundred or so people, a small portion of them were trying their best to run away from the area. But a decent portion was still ascending even higher into the sky or using elemental energy to grab hold of a miniature ball of multi-colored light.
Absolutely none of the Soul Kings in the area expected for this to happen. Not even a single one of them made a move for a while as their minds raced to keep up with what was going on. They watched as several of the people above their heads try to fight over something. A few of the faster Soul Kings were quick to realize what it was the rest were fighting for and lit up with glee at the sight!
"Those are…the Extreme King Pills!!"
None of the Soul Kings were even sure of what was going on, but they knew what they saw. In a split-second, the entire area was flooded with light as everyone took off into the skies!!
Now that the Extreme King Pills were right here in the real world, the Soul Exalts weren't the only ones fighting for them. The Soul Kings were now here and more than willing to take part in the fight for it!!
But…even as fast as the Soul Kings were going to fly up to where the Soul Exalts were, not a single one of them were even close to reaching the cauldron before…
About three kilometers up high in the air where dozens of Soul Exalts were fighting over the Extreme King Pills, the cauldron holding the Extreme King Pills twenty to thirty meters above them was shining with all sorts of color. Arms made of every type of elemental energy were trying their best to grab hold of the cauldron and hold it tight in place.
But what happened a moment after that would cause everyone to look on in a mixture of horror and panic!
Just a second before, when everything looked grim and serious with everyone fighting for the pills, the cauldron was held tightly in place with everyone trying their best to pull it towards themselves!
Since everyone was pulling tightly onto the cauldron from every direction, it was little wonder why the cauldron wasn't moving anywhere!
"Bastards!! Let go or I'll make you!!"
Lin Dongxiao snarled furiously. Stamping on the head of the class seven soulbeast, he had the soulbeast send a pulse of elemental water from its body through Lin Dongxiao and into his arm!
There was a pained look on Lin Dongxiao's face as he tried to weather it, but then as if he had powered up, Lin Dongxiao tugged heavily with his arm to pull the cauldron back!
"Pcht! Pcht! Pcht…"
When Lin Dongxiao's arm pulled the cauldron back, the immense force of his elemental arm had managed to dispel several of the other ones. Down below, the owners of those dispersed arms shuddered as they felt the force of Lin Dongxiao's arm and were sent flying back down to the ground with blood pouring out from their mouths!
"Crack…"
A cracking sound made itself known to everyone else, Lin Dongxiao included. Alarmed, they all stared at the center of the ball of light where the cauldron was in!
A single crack had appeared on the old-looking cauldron. Increasing in size with each passing moment, the crack started to run through the cauldron in its entirety!
"No!!"
Lin Dongxiao howled in fear, but it was too late!
"Boom!!!"
The cauldron exploded!
Light of every color exploded into the air as the ball of light detonated in on itself. People were sent flying in every direction, and even the Soul Kings coming up were forced to stop in the air where they were.
The explosion had taken placed right in the aggregation of everyone's elemental energy where the cauldron was!
As unordinary the cauldron was, the tensile force acting upon the cauldron from every single direction was far beyond what it could handle and was torn apart!
An explosion of elemental energy following the destruction of the cauldron was to be expected. But what would happen to the pills that had been inside the cauldron?
Would the cauldron be done just like that?!"