A faint glow bloomed in their palms, rising like mist, swirling toward their swords. The sea around them remained deathly quiet, but the air above shifted.
A thin ring of light formed at their feet.
It expanded.
Swords of pure qi shot upward from the ring's edge - one after another, rising like pillars around them.
Each sword shimmered translucent, shaped from qi alone, and hundreds of them pierced the air like a heavenly cage.
The formation expanded outward, stretching kilometers across the surface of the Pale Lotus Foggy Sea.
"Floating Sword Isolation Field." they spoke in unison.
The swords around the boundary pulsed. An invisible pressure swept across the area, giving the feeling that space itself had been severed from everything beyond.
Nothing could leave now.
And nothing could enter… unless allowed.
This was a high-level isolation formation, known only to Sect Master and the Pillars of the Drifting Sword Sect.
