A thick yellow haze of sand settled heavily, making even breathing painful. The mages struggled through the dust, desperately searching for something.

“Cough…!”  
“I found it, Captain!”  
“Where is it?”

At a subordinate’s shout, the mage called captain summoned a gust of wind, clearing a partial view and revealing fragments of a massive fallen monolith.

“This… this can’t be…”

The *Heaven’s Ninefold Seal Formation* (*天下九築防鎭*) was one of the most powerful sealing formations in existence, created to subdue even the mightiest beings. The nine great seal stones, each forged under the hand of a ninth-class archmage, …