The situation was urgent, and there was no time left for them to handle things slowly.
They had to race against the clock on both ends, being as fast as possible. The sooner they got the work started, the sooner they could secure a slightly safer area.
Compared to Hua Jian flying on her own, the speed of being carried by the Senior Sister was much faster. A journey that would have originally taken half a day only took less than two hours this time.
Right next to Xiao Qi’s Flower Sea Forbidden Zone was a terrifying region where metal spikes grew everywhere. As soon as she stepped in, Hua Jian immediately guessed which Sect the cultivators stationed here belonged to.
With this aura, who else could it be but the seniors of the Jian Sect?
By the time they reached the center of the Forbidden Land, Hua Jian was somewhat surprised to find that someone was already negotiating with the Jian Sect Senior Brother on the stage.
The girl negotiating with the Senior Brother was wearing beautiful clothes, but her body and face were covered in dusty marks, making her look like a fallen young lady.
Hua Jian rubbed her eyes before recognizing that this girl was her plastic sister, Ji Caiyue.
One couldn’t even really call them plastic sisters; they had only met once, and there hadn’t been much interaction after that.
At the base of the stage, a group of cultivators was sitting or lying down, radiating an aura of despair. They were all more or less injured, and their condition was visibly terrible.
However, there were quite a few of them. Even though only a few defeated remnants remained, their numbers were still significantly higher than the people under Hua Jian’s command.
Hua Jian noticed these people, and naturally, they noticed her too. After their initial wariness, they recognized that Hua Jian was not the one hunting them, and the cultivators sank back into their despondency.
The two on the stage had different expressions. The Jian Sect disciple’s face was clearly full of joy; it was great to have a cultivator of the same rank come to help and offer ideas at a time like this.
Ji Caiyue, on the other hand, felt a bit ashamed to be seen. Her image of Hua Jian was quite complex, and she didn’t want to show her most pathetic side in front of her.
But this time, she had truly shown her most wretched self.
“You’re quite fast, Maiden. Oh? You got a Token too?” Hua Jian hopped onto the massive arena that should have been a battlefield. At a glance, she saw the small jade plate held in the Jian Sect disciple’s hand—it was exactly like the one she had.
As she spoke, she also took out the jade plate from her waist. “It seems the Saint Sect didn’t choose to place all their hopes on just one person.”
While the Senior Brothers and Sisters began to exchange information in low voices, Hua Jian very familiarly approached Ji Caiyue and entered social mode.
She also had to take this chance to ask Ji Caiyue what exactly had happened.
The answer made her eyelids twitch. Those Demonic Path people could actually interfere with the Saint Sect’s teleportation tokens. The nature of the game had completely changed.
Who could have imagined that one day Hua Jian would end up playing an other-world version of Sword Art Online?
“I see. Then your luck is pretty bad, actually getting caught in the first wave of attacks.”
However, Hua Jian felt this was quite normal. With so many cultivators gathered in the west, if the Demonic Path wanted to stir up trouble, they would certainly start from there to achieve the maximum destructive effect in the shortest amount of time.
If you stepped down in that place, you’d likely step on ten or so people. Wasn’t that much more convenient than playing hide-and-seek elsewhere?
The Demonic Path came in to sabotage the Ascension Gathering and slap the Saint Sect in the face, right? What better way to do that than by causing heavy casualties among the participating cultivators?
This time, Ji Caiyue’s side had brought this upon themselves.
“There are a lot of enemies, and they are very strong. There are no fewer than ten Ling Kings! The Spirit Masters are even more numerous…” Ji Caiyue continued.
“Stop. You saw that many Ling Kings with your own eyes?” Hua Jian gasped upon hearing the number “no fewer than ten.”
That number was a bit too high, wasn’t it?
There were even countless Spirit Masters. Just how many people did the Demonic Path send into the Secret Realm?
And how on earth did the Saint Sect let all these people slip in?
Just as Linglong said, it was impossible to completely monitor two or three, but with this many Demonic Path members, there was definitely a problem at the top.
‘Could there really be a major mole helping the Demonic Path stir up trouble?’
“I didn’t see them with my own eyes, but when our camp was attacked, Zhao Ming’s side suffered the same kind of assault. The offensive was even more intense than on our side.”
Zhao Ming was the name of Ji Caiyue’s fiancé, and the offensive on the other side was something Ji Caiyue had witnessed herself.
Their camp didn’t have the luxury of being directly crushed by a palace in the sky.
On the path of being hunted, the cultivators she gathered provided four different descriptions, proving that at least four Demonic Path Ling Kings were involved in this attack.
As for how many Spirit Masters were working under the Ling Kings, no one really knew.
“Based on what we’ve seen, the number is well over several dozen.”
“To be honest, I really don’t want to believe what you’re saying. If everything you said is true, there are at least over a hundred Demonic Path members and more than ten Demonic Ling Kings in the Secret Realm right now. This is definitely an unprecedented super-crisis.”
Hua Jian wasn’t quite sure exactly how many cultivators were participating in this Ascension Gathering, but according to her estimates, it was a very frightening number.
This world was vast, but the cultivators with the talent to enter this Secret Realm to compete for a spot as a Waimen Disciple were definitely the top of their generation.
Each of them possessed at least mid-stage Spirit Master Realm strength.
Ordinary people at this age would probably still be playing in the mud at the Spirit Practitioner Realm.
Talent was just the threshold to enter the Secret Realm. To successfully enter the Saint Sect, one had to be a genius among geniuses.
And yet, in such a gathering of Right Path geniuses, so many Demonic Path cultivators had suddenly mixed in. Wasn’t that terrifying?
How exactly did the Demonic Path get in? Which part of the Ascension Gathering process went wrong?
Everything was covered by a thick veil, making it impossible to see clearly.
“Even if it’s all true, don’t worry about whatever conspiracy is behind it. Survival is what matters now.” Ji Caiyue sighed.
How could she not have felt the same way when she saw so many Demonic Path cultivators?
But what was the use of surprise or suspicion? Could suspicion alone kill those Demonic Path members?
Now, they had no other choice but to gather their remaining strength to fight against the Demonic Path.
If they didn’t, what awaited them was death.
“By the way, when I got the jade plate, I saw another streak of fire falling from the sky. It might have landed near Zhao Ming.”
‘One Token for Ji Caiyue and one for her fiancé? Is the Saint Sect actually being impartial at a time like this?’
Hua Jian scratched her head and didn’t think too deeply about it. It was probably because both of them were surrounded by many people, so the Saint Sect gave them the Tokens.
In any case, the two most powerful forces in the Secret Realm were still these two large groups.
There was strength in numbers, and letting their leaders know the truth was certainly the right move.
As for why Hua Jian also got a Token… No joke. While those two had the numbers, in terms of strength, Hua Jian was the number one person in the Secret Realm. It would be strange if she didn’t get one!
“That guy should have reached the Tiandao Sect Forbidden Land by now. Those two groups will probably be two of a kind.”
Hua Jian muttered softly. Without realizing it, she seemed to have been influenced by the Saint Sect disciples around her and had started to instinctively look down on the Tiandao Sect.
“Since you’re here, I can be at ease. I’m still a bit worried about that side, so I have to go over there.”
Although she knew the Tiandao Sect’s Forbidden Land would likely become the new base for Ji Caiyue’s fiancé, she couldn’t just assume things would go smoothly.
What if the guy was intercepted by the Demonic Path on his way and didn’t deliver the news?
If the other four places had set up their arrays and only the Tiandao Sect’s Forbidden Land remained inactive, wouldn’t that be incredibly conspicuous?
Therefore, Hua Jian had to confirm that all the Forbidden Lands knew the news, and to do that, she had to go there personally.
“You’re certainly enthusiastic. Are you going to go through all five Forbidden Lands one by one?”
“No need. The Tiandao Sect one is the last. The Forbidden Lands for Jade Pool and Penglai have already been cleared by me. Sigh, if I had known, I wouldn’t have cleared them. Now I have fewer helpers.” Hua Jian sighed.
Hearing this sigh, a flash of shock passed over Ji Caiyue’s face. What did she just hear?
How much time had it been? Hua Jian had already cleared two Forbidden Lands and kicked out the Ling Kings guarding them?
“You cleared two Forbidden Lands? But… those are Ling Kings!”
“They were restricted Ling Kings, so the difficulty wasn’t that high. Besides, there were ways to weaken those Senior Brothers and Sisters. The Saint Sect wouldn’t give us an impossible task.”
Hua Jian spoke and then asked Xiao Qi and the Jian Sect Senior Brother, who had finished their conversation, “Senior Brother, Senior Sister, am I right?”
“That’s right. The restriction I received was that I couldn’t use my Ling Sword to hit you. As for the way to weaken me, it should be the same as the other Forbidden Lands—just plug that Stone Pillar back into the ground.” The Jian Sect Senior Brother nodded, a hint of admiration appearing in his gaze as he looked at Hua Jian.
Excluding the time it took to get familiar with the situation, Hua Jian’s speed in conquering the Forbidden Lands could be described as light speed. Her strength was far superior to the cultivators here.
For example, this Maiden who claimed to be number one on the Genius List seemed completely inferior to Hua Jian in this Senior Brother’s eyes.
What was the use of a title? Hua Jian’s track record of conquering two Forbidden Lands was true power.
“For geniuses like us, the points we get from fighting each other are very few. If we want to improve our evaluation, we can only conquer these high-difficulty Forbidden Lands.” Hua Jian voiced her thoughts.
The logic was simple. Everyone could swim brilliantly in shallow water; at most, it was just a matter of who was better at bullying weaker opponents.
Only by entering deep water could one know who was a true genius.
Hua Jian, who could conquer two Forbidden Lands, was undoubtedly a true genius.
“I see…” Ji Caiyue sighed. She actually understood this logic, but a mad dog had been chasing and biting her, so she couldn’t just ignore it.
Only after the threat behind her was removed would she have the energy to do other things.
But to her dismay, before the threat was even removed, a greater threat had arrived. She was now completely cut off from the idea of conquering Forbidden Lands.
“Junior Sister Xiao, you stay here to protect them. I’ll take Junior Sister Hua Jian to find the one from the Tiandao Sect.” The Jian Sect Senior Brother didn’t offer any commentary; he directly pulled out a Ling Sword, preparing to leave with Hua Jian.
“Wait, if someone’s taking her, it should be me! Is your Jian Sect trying to steal from us as well…”
Before Xiao Qi could finish her protective outburst, the Jian Sect Senior Brother had already grabbed Hua Jian by the back of her collar, lifting her like a little chick.
“I fly faster than you, and that person will also give me more face.” After saying that, he took Hua Jian and disappeared into the distance in a flash.
“You…” Xiao Qi stomped her foot in frustration. She really couldn’t refute the two reasons given by the sword cultivator.
Among Ling Kings, Xiao Qi was indeed a relatively slow flyer, and sword cultivators generally flew very fast.
After all, when they looked for someone to fight, they had to chase them down. If they were too slow, they couldn’t catch up.
As for the second half of his sentence, it was even simpler. Who would dare not give the Jian Sect a bit of face? If you didn’t, the Jian Sect people would probably slash you right in the face.
Please believe in the straightforward nature of sword cultivators. In the current situation, he was indeed the one most likely to reach an agreement with someone from the Tiandao Sect.
After all, putting a sword to someone’s throat and forcing them to agree was also a way to reach an agreement.
The feeling of being carried by a sword cultivator was terrible. Hua Jian found that this Senior Brother didn’t care at all about how much the wind in the sky would hurt a delicate young girl like her.
She was forced to use her own Spiritual Power to condense a windbreak barrier.
“Your Spiritual Power is a bit strange.” After Hua Jian released the barrier, the Senior Brother looked at her Spiritual Power thoughtfully.
He could sense a somewhat familiar flavor from Hua Jian’s Spiritual Power, but he couldn’t put his finger on exactly where he had seen it before.
Like Xiao Qi, he had only recently entered the Neimen of the Jian Sect, but before that, he had gone out for Training with the Senior Brothers of the sect.
Hua Jian’s Spiritual Power was somewhat similar to an opponent he had encountered during that trip.
“What’s strange about it?” Hua Jian was puzzled.
This was her Ancestor’s Cultivation Technique. Even the Venerables hadn’t said anything, so why did this Senior Brother find it strange?
“It’s a bit like a flower-thief I encountered before.”
Um… Hua Jian didn’t know if this Senior Brother was being serious. No matter how you looked at her, she looked like the flower being picked, not the thief picking it.
Fortunately, this Senior Brother didn’t delve deeper into the topic, but instead turned his gaze forward. “We’re almost there.”
“Huh?” Hua Jian marveled in her heart at how fast it was. The speed of a sword cultivator was indeed ridiculously fast.
Compared to Xiao Qi’s speed, the time spent on the road this time was reduced by nearly half.
The experience, however, was truly not great. If she had to choose, she would rather pick the slower but gentler Xiao Qi.
“There’s no aura of anyone else. It seems we’ve arrived just in time.”
There was no aura of other cultivators here, which meant the holder of the last jade plate had not yet arrived.
Hua Jian had come to the right place!