“This performance is truly pathetic.”
“Are you really putting your hopes on these children who have never faced a real crisis? Did we get the wrong people, or what? If they could do everything perfectly, why would they even need us?”
“Isn’t it because your methods were too harsh? You even went as far as creating fake corpses…”
The Venerables sighed in disappointment as they watched the two major factions, which had been fighting fiercely just moments ago, collapse with unbelievable speed.
They had initially hoped to see someone pull themselves together and offer a bit of resistance, but to their dismay, the combined efforts of both sides didn’t even put up a decent fight.
If they had to name someone, Ji Caiyue’s performance was acceptable; at least she had the presence of mind to pull her companions along as she fled.
As for the other side, the slow runners were essentially being used as human shields for those in front of them.
But could they really blame these low-level cultivators? To be fair, one couldn’t be too harsh on them. Before entering the Secret Realm, they never imagined a situation like this would arise.
They were told this was a Secret Realm where no one would die, but now it had suddenly become lethal.
That sudden shift in reality was more than these sixteen or seventeen-year-old boys and girls could handle.
Without even thinking, everyone made the most instinctive choice: to run.
In reality, the forces of the Demonic Path attacking the main camp were not particularly strong.
If these cultivators could have remained calm and united, the current total collapse certainly wouldn’t have happened.
However, in the face of death, almost no one had the courage to resist. Even those who did were forced to join the retreat when everyone else started running.
When the mass trend was to flee, sporadic resistance became meaningless.
If they turned back to fight the villains while everyone else fled without looking back, wouldn’t they just be throwing their lives away?
“It looks like we can only count on Hua Jian’s side…”
“She just said she was going to surrender to Wanhuagu. You’re still counting on her?” the Venerable from the Tiandao Sect scoffed.
They had heard Hua Jian’s words loud and clear just now.
At least others were just running; Hua Jian was already thinking about surrendering before she even met the enemy.
“The little girl was just joking. You old geezer actually took her seriously?” Venerable Fenghua rolled her eyes, quite dissatisfied with the other Venerable’s nitpicking.
How could she not know Hua Jian’s personality? That girl had no filter and would say anything.
But when it came to getting things done, Hua Jian wouldn’t hesitate. Hadn’t she already gone to explain the situation to the Wanling Sect disciple in the Forbidden Land?
‘Tch, I didn’t notice it before, but that Wanling Sect is definitely up to no good. They actually let the Lingcaifeng disciple Hua Jian knows enter the Secret Realm.’
‘They’re probably trying to play the emotional card, aiming to get the jump on Hua Jian right inside the Secret Realm.’
Thinking of this, Venerable Fenghua glared at the Lingcaifeng Master. She was certain this must have been her idea.
The Lingcaifeng Master returned a look that said, ‘We’re even.’ Your Jade Pool isn’t exactly innocent either, throwing in a disciple of the Saintess rank.
Our Lingcaifeng only lost a disciple who just entered the Neimen.
Besides, everything was perfectly within the rules. On the contrary, Jade Pool letting Linglong participate was a bit irregular.
Everyone else sent a Ling King—why did you only send a Spirit Master?
“Hey, stop flirting with your eyes, you two. Think about how to let those little rascals turn defeat into victory.” Seeing the two of them about to start bickering again, Venerable Penglai quickly stepped in to mediate.
The Demonic Path invasion was a major event for the mid-to-late stages of the Secret Realm, but they couldn’t actually let the Demonic Path wipe out all these geniuses.
That would be too embarrassing and wouldn’t fit the original intention of the Saint Sect for organizing this event.
The Saint Sect wanted to teach these young men and women that as long as they were united, they didn’t need to fear any enemy.
Even the most atrocious Demonic Path would fall at the hands of justice.
The remaining combat power in the Secret Realm was clearly insufficient to defeat the invading Demonic Path.
Therefore, the Saint Sect had to send supplies to the cultivators and confirm their suspicions by officially defining this event as a Demonic Path invasion.
Furthermore, they had to make the act even more realistic by cutting off communication with the Secret Realm, leaving the cultivators in complete isolation.
As for the reason, they would simply claim that a Demonic Path powerhouse had interfered with the transmissions.
“Let’s stick to the plan. Send them the diagrams for the Spirit Suppressing Grand Array. Use the five Spiritual Pillars as the core to release the array, capping the cultivation level in the central region of the Secret Realm at the peak of the Spirit Master Realm.”
Venerable Baihua retracted his gaze, indicating the original plan was fine.
At that point, the invaders’ strength would drop significantly, becoming roughly the same level as the young cultivators.
As long as the boys and girls in the Secret Realm performed normally, defeating the invaders wouldn’t be difficult.
No matter how one looked at it, there were still more good people in the Secret Realm. Once the power gap was leveled, the advantage would surely be on the side of justice.
“Who should we send it to? One for each of the three sides?”
“If you ask me, just sending it to Hua Jian is enough,” the Lingcaifeng Master muttered under her breath, pinching her fingers.
Sending a copy to Ji Caiyue would be fine too, as Hua Jian and Ji Caiyue should be able to cooperate. But if they also sent one to the Justice Swordsman’s side, the moment those three factions met, things would probably explode.
Before they could even cooperate, the internal factions of the allied forces would clash. That would be quite something to see.
“I say we should give a copy to each of the three sides, but it must be the complete version to prevent anyone from hoarding it or trying to extort others.” The Jian Sect Venerable proposed his idea.
This suggestion was quickly met with approval from the other Venerables.
They were also looking forward to seeing how the low-level cultivators in the Secret Realm would handle things after receiving such a game-changing artifact.
‘I hope they don’t do something as frustrating as starting a civil war while a great enemy is at the gates.’
……
“Is there really such a thing? You’re not lying to me, are you?”
While the Venerables were discussing how to make the Secret Realm even more exciting, Hua Jian was trying to convince Senior Sister Xiao Qi to help her.
However, her persuasion was progressing slowly. Xiao Qi didn’t dare act recklessly without clear orders.
Even when Linglong and the Yaochi Maiden joined in, Xiao Qi didn’t budge, stating she wouldn’t change her stance until she received orders.
“The Senior Sister who saved me said I shouldn’t believe anything I see, unless I receive an order from the outside,” Xiao Qi explained very seriously.
She was like a well-trained dog—very friendly, but incredibly rigid when it came to executing a mission.
“Hua Jian, you have so many bad ideas. Maybe you’re just tricking me.”
As she spoke, she inadvertently took a jab at Hua Jian.
“No matter how many bad ideas I have, I wouldn’t joke about something like this, would I?” Hua Jian held her forehead.
She couldn’t even imagine what kind of image she had in Xiao Qi’s eyes.
How much guts would she need to tell such a lie!
“It’s not that I don’t believe you, Hua Jian, but without orders from the seniors, I really can’t leave this place,” Xiao Qi quickly added.
“What if the Demonic Path attacks? You still won’t come out?”
“Of course I’ll come out! If I see the Demonic Path with my own eyes, that constitutes an emergency. Then I’d have a reason to leave!”
Hua Jian finally understood. Xiao Qi needed absolute proof before she would help.
But by the time the villains actually broke in here, Xiao Qi probably wouldn’t be able to hold them off alone.
‘Great, now it’s a dead end.’
“But I can temporarily withdraw the poisonous Flower Fragrance here. You and the others can hide here for a bit…”
“That doesn’t seem very useful… Huh? Is something falling from the sky?”
Hua Jian wanted to try persuading her a bit more, but out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly saw a giant fireball approaching in the sky.
After a quick calculation of the fireball’s trajectory, Hua Jian gasped. ‘Oh no, this thing is coming for me!’
“Run! If we don’t run, we’re going to get crushed!” she shouted, grabbing Linglong beside her and quickly scurrying away.
As for the other two, she believed they wouldn’t have any trouble given their strength.
Not long after they fled, the fireball falling from the sky landed precisely where Hua Jian had just been standing.
The massive shockwave even blew the giant flower beneath Xiao Qi’s feet askew.
After avoiding this surprise from the heavens, Hua Jian cautiously walked back and carefully observed the object that had fallen.
As she got closer, Hua Jian realized it wasn’t a meteorite but a large crate used for storage.
The crate wasn’t locked. After opening it, she pulled a palm-sized Token out of the large box, which was nearly as tall as she was.
In the other parts of the box were some Alchemy Pills and Spirit Tools, all of very fine craftsmanship.
Picking up the Token and sensing its contents, Hua Jian’s expression gradually shifted from strange to stunned, and then from stunned to helpless.
It felt like a sense of destiny—like it had found its way to her after all.
“Senior Sister, the proof you wanted is here.”
The good news was that she no longer had to think of ways to convince Xiao Qi.
The information stored within this jade plate had already informed her of the situation in the Secret Realm.
Similarly, she could use the information within to convince Xiao Qi.
“Really? Let me see.” Xiao Qi leaped down from the flower and ran to Hua Jian to take the jade plate.
The moment Hua Jian spoke those words, she had already believed her. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have jumped straight down from the flower.
While Xiao Qi was looking at the jade plate, Hua Jian briefly summarized the news for Linglong.
“Good news. The Saint Sect knows what’s happening in the Secret Realm, and the things inside are the support they’ve sent us.”
Hua Jian pointed at the large crate. The resources inside were incredibly abundant.
Evenly distributed among the cultivators under her command, they would be enough to sustain several high-intensity battles.
“However, due to interference from the Demonic Path, the Saint Sect is unable to send reinforcements into the Secret Realm to help us. We must rely on our own strength to fight the Demonic Path.”
Hua Jian felt this was ridiculous. The Saint Sect had created this Secret Realm themselves, yet they had somehow let the Demonic Path mess it up like this.
The fact that even the Saint Sect’s people couldn’t get in was just speechless.
Even more frustrating was that the jade plate mentioned they had to hold out until the end of the Ascension Gathering.
Only then would the Saint Sect be able to use the Underlying Code to teleport everyone out of the Secret Realm together.
This made even less sense. If they could use the Underlying Code, why couldn’t they use it now? Why did they have to wait until the gathering ended?
‘It can’t be that this thing has some kind of activation time limit, can it?’
“Also, the jade plate provided an Array Formation. It can use the five Spiritual Pillars in the central region of the Secret Realm to set up a grand array that affects the entire area. It will suppress the cultivators within its range, preventing anyone’s power from exceeding the peak of the Spirit Master Realm.”
This Array Formation was the most useful thing in Hua Jian’s eyes. If the enemies were a bunch of Ling Kings, she really felt it would be impossible to fight.
But if the enemy’s strength dropped to the peak of the Spirit Master Realm, it would be different. They had quite a few people on their side who could fight someone at that level.
If all else failed, they could rely on numbers. If ten or so decently strong Spirit Masters attacked together, they could certainly trade blows with a peak Spirit Master Realm opponent.
“I didn’t expect such a thing to happen. Is there anything I can do to help?” Xiao Qi had finished reading the contents of the jade plate. After returning it to Hua Jian, she asked very seriously.
A jade plate like this couldn’t be forged; it had to come from the High Echelon of the Saint Sect.
Moreover, the voice inside sounded very familiar—it was the voice of the teacher who had trained her.
Previously, she hadn’t believed because there was no proof. Now that there was proof, she naturally changed her stance and began to help.
“Hmm… let me think. The construction of the grand array doesn’t require your help, Senior Sister…” Hua Jian thought for a moment and lightly tapped her palm.
“I’ll have my followers come over to build the Array Formation. Senior Sister, you take me to the other Forbidden Lands so I can convince the seniors there to help us!”
Knowing there was a Demonic Path invasion, she certainly couldn’t be so reckless anymore.
If she ran around alone and encountered a Ling King from the Demonic Path pulling a highway robbery, what would she do?
She couldn’t really pretend to be from Wanhuagu to bluff her way through, right?
Ultimately, she needed to bring a powerful bodyguard. At this moment, the only one in Hua Jian’s camp capable of protecting her from a Ling King enemy was Xiao Qi.
At this moment, Hua Jian truly felt it was a good thing she hadn’t cleared this Forbidden Land. If she had conquered it, wouldn’t she have lost Xiao Qi, this Ling King bodyguard?
This gave her a very strange feeling. If she were super powerful and had conquered all the Forbidden Lands before the Demonic Path invasion began, wouldn’t she be unable to find even a single Ling King bodyguard?
If she hadn’t conquered any, wouldn’t she have five Ling King bodyguards right now?
‘What kind of Elo mechanism is this? It’s as if the better I am, the harder it will be to fight the Demonic Path later.’ Thinking of this, Hua Jian was momentarily at a loss for words regarding this setup.
It felt too much like déjà vu, and it gave her a very awkward feeling.
“Linglong, you and this Senior Sister stay here to oversee the construction of the array. Senior Sister Xiao and I will go check on the other two Forbidden Lands.”
Suppressing those strange feelings, Hua Jian handed the jade plate to Linglong. After Linglong memorized the array from the plate, Hua Jian spoke to her.
This time, Linglong didn’t insist on following Hua Jian. At a time like this, they both had their own tasks to do and couldn’t afford to be childish.
After agreeing on their respective roles, Hua Jian followed Xiao Qi and set off for the other Forbidden Lands without delay.