The spawn point she chose was neither too deep nor too shallow, right in the middle of the secret realm, which was better than being near the outermost edges.
And this spot was unavailable to ordinary cultivators. It was a privilege exclusive to her as an insider.
“Why choose this spot? Well, it’s because Huajian has a big plan. Right at the very start of the Secret Realm, she’s going to destroy one of the two Gate Bells!”
That way, only one team would have a chance to pull the lever and leave the Secret Realm later.
And to fight for that final spot to escape, the cultivators would naturally clash fiercely, turning the Secret Realm into a bloodbath.
Compared to certain maps where extraction was difficult, Huajian’s design was clearly more deadly.
After all, those maps still had other ways to escape, but Huajian’s Secret Realm had virtually no other options.
For the cultivators of Tianmomen, they might have a mission-based escape route, which was to obtain the Demon Corpse Crystal, then wait for their sect’s seniors to fish them out after the Secret Realm was destroyed.
For other cultivators to leave the Secret Realm, they had no choice but to use the two Space Teleportation Arrays.
“This Gate point is out in the wild, the easiest one to pull. We could pull it first, then slowly go for the remaining Gates.”
The other Gate points were set up in the center of some resource-rich areas. To activate them, the only path was to fight your way in.
“But those places will probably have a lot of people.”
“Right. Consider it a test for myself. I want to see if I can fight my way in, pull the lever, and fight my way back out.”
“I can’t help you. Demon cultivators have very distinctive traits. If I use any techniques, they’ll definitely sense something’s wrong.”
This time, Linglong wouldn’t lift a finger to fight unless absolutely necessary.
She was here to observe the progress inside the Secret Realm, not to kill the people within it.
If she did act, the thunderclaps from her power would directly expose her identity.
Soon, the demon cultivators in the Secret Realm would know a Righteous Path cultivator had infiltrated.
And that might make Tianmomen more cautious, causing unnecessary trouble for their plan.
Compared to Linglong’s identity being exposed, Huajian’s identity as someone from Wanhuagu was a much smaller problem.
After all, Wanhuagu had never said they wouldn’t send people into the Secret Realm to fight.
Their cultivators also wanted to join in the fun. Was there anything wrong with killing a few people to practice?
Of course not!
“Don’t worry, I’m no reckless fool. I know when to fight and when to back off.” Huajian made it clear she was never the kind of player who just rushed in blindly.
Even if her gear and strength were overwhelming, she wouldn’t let her guard down and get ambushed.
Her specialty wasn’t head-on assaults, but secretly picking people off from the shadows. She had come up with plenty of ideas over the past few days.
“Too bad the Spirit Tool I wanted isn’t ready yet. Otherwise, I could have killed people from across mountains and rivers.”
Hadn’t Huajian been tinkering with her big sniper rifle these past few days?
She realized she had underestimated the difficulty of crafting tools. The little she had learned before was completely useless.
But her research on bullets was going smoothly. She had already developed several bullets with different effects.
Now she just needed to test them out on actual people.
In terms of crafting, Huajian had no talent. But she found some alternatives, like using the plants she summoned as projectile launchers.
In this area, Huajian’s talent was quite strong. With just a little guidance from Linglong, she learned in two days how to make her summoned branches achieve the functions she wanted.
She also learned to store these branches with specific functions as seeds.
When needed, she could just bury the seeds in the ground.
They would sprout and grow on their own, attacking cultivators within their range.
Under normal circumstances, these plants fired ordinary Lianqi Bullets, which weren’t very powerful.
But Huajian could place some special bullets next to them when burying them.
That way, the plants would gain the ability to fire special bullets.
Enemies who had been hit a couple of times by normal bullets would suddenly encounter special ones, catching them off guard.
“Ah, now I can only hope these Pea Shooters will do their job.”
“So what do they have to do with peas at all…” Hearing that name, Qian Feixue couldn’t help but complain.
She had also seen those little plants Huajian had made. They clearly had nothing to do with peas!
Those things even had a round mouth and big dark eyes. How were they like peas at all!
Sure, they were a bit cute when spitting bullets, but the name was obviously wrong.
“You don’t understand. This is a tribute.” Huajian insisted that if she said they were Pea Shooters, then they were Pea Shooters. Couldn’t she have an alias like Crazy Dave?
Anyway, as long as you understood what these little guys were used for.
Huajian was still slowly thinking about more advanced plants, like the Machine Gun, the Ice…
By the way, she had already created the Charm Mushroom. That thing was no challenge for her at all.
Anything she dropped off her body had an incredibly strong charming effect.
“I really don’t understand what you’re thinking. So when are you leaving?”
“Let me think… Six days from now. The Secret Realm will open at dawn that day. Linglong and I will teleport in after everyone else has entered.”
Huajian counted on her fingers and was surprised to realize how little time was left before the Secret Realm opened.
Since there was a short distance between each new spawn point, and no one would respawn around their designated spawn point, entering a little later wasn’t a problem.
They didn’t need to rush to grab advantageous positions anyway.
“Only six days left…” Qian Feixue suddenly became a bit melancholic, as if she was reluctant to see Huajian and Linglong go.
Thinking about how they would leave in a few days, and that even if they met again after the Secret Realm, it wouldn’t be the same, Qian Feixue couldn’t help but feel down.
Was she more reluctant to part with Huajian, or with Linglong?
Intuition told Qian Feixue that she might not see Linglong again, but she would definitely see Huajian often.
After all, Linglong was the Saintess of Yaochi. Once the matters in Beijing were done, she would return to Yaochi.
Then she’d be back in Central Continent. How could they meet then?
But Huajian was different. Even though she chatted happily with Linglong, she didn’t seem intent on following her back to Central Continent.
That meant Huajian would most likely stay in Beijing and continue being the Wanhua Saintess.
And being the Wanhua Saintess in Beijing meant she’d inevitably have to deal with the local power player, the Qian Family.
Given the personality Huajian had shown, Qian Feixue felt sure Huajian wouldn’t forget her, an easy-to-bully little sister.
So her story with Huajian was still long. There was no need to be sad.
Besides, was her relationship with Huajian really that good? Huajian only ever bullied her!
She couldn’t wait for Huajian to leave right now and never come back.
“Why are you sighing? It’s not like I’m leaving forever. Are you worried I’ll die in there?” Huajian reached out and pinched Qian Feixue’s cheek hard, making her yelp.
“Even Linglong isn’t going back just yet. She’ll probably stay in Beijing for a while longer.”
And Huajian’s next words shocked Qian Feixue even more.
Linglong would stay in Beijing for a while? But once the Secret Realm business was over, didn’t Linglong have no more missions?
“Little fool, you really think she came here for this Secret Realm?”
Qian Feixue was even more confused. If not for this Secret Realm, then what?
Seeing the confused look on Qian Feixue’s face, Huajian sighed softly, released her grip on Qian Feixue’s cheek, stepped back a little, with a hint of pride and pity for the ignorant child.
Then, she raised her finger and pointed at herself.
“She came for me! Otherwise, would such a small Secret Realm warrant the personal appearance of the Saintess of Yaochi?”
Huajian had said something similar before, but Qian Feixue had always taken it as bragging. Now that Huajian said it so confidently, Qian Feixue couldn’t believe it.
Was Huajian telling the truth? Was this lofty Saintess of Yaochi really in Beijing because of Huajian?
And what’s more, the other party involved was right there, and she didn’t show any objection to Huajian’s self-praise.
No objection meant tacit agreement!
“So the two of you don’t need to look like we’re never coming back. We’ll be seeing each other every day for quite a while.”
Thinking about how she had arranged to meet Linglong near Frozen Winter City for exchanges, Huajian realized that she herself was less likely to stay after the Secret Realm event ended.
She had come out on a mission, and once the Secret Realm closed, her mission would be over. She’d have to obediently return to Wanhuagu and stay put.
Although forcing herself to stay was possible, Huajian felt she probably couldn’t do it.
“Linglong, how long can you stay in Beijing?”
“Until the five years are up.” Linglong said casually.
This answer made Huajian’s heart skip a beat. She hadn’t yet told Linglong about her plans for the future.
If Linglong found out she was eyeing the next bowl while eating from the current one, would she fly into a rage and kick her out?
Thinking about it, Huajian shrank her neck. “Won’t there be problems being away from Yaochi for so long?”
Linglong looked at Huajian with a strange expression. She found that Huajian still hadn’t adapted to the cultivators’ sense of time.
For her, this entire trip added up to only a year. For cultivators, a year was at most a short business trip.
Those long-duration missions were measured in decades or centuries!
A mere year wasn’t even enough to fill a gap between teeth.
“It’s only a year. For many people, that’s less than a single closed-door session.” Linglong said calmly.
She was born a Longevity Species and grew up in the holy sect of Yaochi. Her sense of time was vastly different from Huajian’s.
In her eyes, a year really wasn’t a long time.
“Ah, I can’t talk to you Longevity Species types.” Huajian sat back down, propping her cheek on her hand and muttering gloomily.
Theoretically, she was also a Longevity Species now, but her old habits were hard to break.
Even though she had experienced the feeling of time flying by during cultivation, it had only happened once.
That feeling of secluding oneself for cultivation and then the world changing was still too distant for her.
“Little Feixue, what do you think?”
Huajian wanted to find some common ground with Qian Feixue.
But unfortunately, Qian Feixue also had the typical cultivator mindset. A year wasn’t a long time in her eyes either.
Although the Qian Family was a large clan, it also had some traits of a cultivation sect.
As the young miss of the Qian Family, Qian Feixue naturally didn’t have a concrete impression of many things, just like the children of a sect’s leader.
With her talent, becoming a strong cultivator wasn’t too hard. At the very least, she’d reach the Ling Emperor level, with a lifespan of several hundred years.
If she got lucky and ate some powerful Spirit Item to attain the Spirit Lord rank, she’d have a thousand years of life.
“One year, it really isn’t long.”
“So I’m the only one who thinks a year is long?” Huajian clutched her head and let out a mournful cry.
“Many cultivators who have just started their training feel this way. We also have some new disciples at Yaochi who misunderstand the time concept of the real cultivation world.” Linglong seemed to recall something amusing and spoke with a smile.
“They made friends with senior sisters from earlier batches, and then after not seeing them for a year or two, they’d cry bitterly when they met again.”
“And those senior sisters would be very confused. It hadn’t been that long, so why was the little one crying like that?”
Hearing this story, Huajian was momentarily speechless. She felt she might be that crying shimei.
And Linglong might be the confused shijie.
“So to you, these four years are just a blink of an eye?” she couldn’t help but ask.
Linglong tilted her head slightly. “No, I think about you every day, so I feel time passes slowly.”
“And after seeing you, time feels like it’s speeding up. It feels like our reunion was just a moment ago, yet we have to part again.”
Linglong’s direct attack caught Huajian off guard. Even Huajian, who was used to handling all kinds of situations with a playful attitude, blushed.
“You… why did you suddenly say that!”
Extremely rare, Huajian showed her most genuine side.
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