Inside the Grand Arbiter Council Chamber, the mortal universe had ceased to exist.
With a series of nine heavy impacts that shook the northern land-wide shelf, the Nine-Fold Continental Iron Vault locked into place.
THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!
Nine nested slabs of deep-sea star-iron, each fifty feet thick and heavy with ancient formations, cut the chamber from the outer world. The air within the room tightly packed instantly, turning dry and cold. Outside the high arched windows, the view of the northern mountains was replaced by an iron-hard wall of matte-black sky iron. It hummed with spatial-squeezing wards.
Chief Arbiter Yan Baichuan stepped back to the table, a grim smile on his face. He adjusted the front of his stitched robes and addressed the eleven Domain Saint elders.
“It’s done,” Yan Baichuan declared. “The Nine-Fold Vault is sealed. The spatial map points of this chamber have shifted forty thousand miles into a private pocket dimension of frozen stillness.”
Elder Ouyang remained in his seat, rubbing his chest where Frank’s earlier knocks had shook through the floor. “Chief Judge... Is it truly secure? That metal percussion rang through my spirit veins.”
“The Nine-Fold Iron Vault was erected during the First Epoch,” Yan Baichuan replied. He poured sky pear wine into a golden cup. “It was built to withstand ancient void-beasts. Not even a 9-Star Great Saint could breach this barrier without days of nonstop bombardment.”
