“Or you first set up your favorite Array of Bewilderment, trapping them inside, and then they have no chance to escape.”
“Indeed, but I won’t know until I actually encounter an opponent.” Hua Jian nodded, putting the crystal ball back into her Storage Pouch. “Let’s go. We’ll head to the nearby Gate first.”
Her plan wouldn’t change because of these small problems. She had to try to destroy this first Gate.
All the problems she encountered along the way would be taken as tests for herself. If she could solve them smoothly, then all would be well.
If you get the short end of the stick, it doesn’t matter—learn from your mistakes. Getting humbled in a simulation is better than getting humbled in a real crisis later.
Getting humbled now just means losing face. Getting humbled later could mean losing your life.
The nearby gate point wasn’t hidden. In fact, it was located in a rather conspicuous valley.
Surrounded by mountains on all sides, only a narrow path led to the center of the valley, where the mechanism to activate the transmission array was located.
There were no plants or buildings in the valley to provide cover—just pure flat ground.
If anyone ambushed from the mountains, the cultivator trying to activate the mechanism would face certain disaster.
After all, pulling the gate required time and a fixed action. During the process, one cultivator had to remain immobile, hard-stunned for a long period.
Interrupting the pull also took time, and being hit with a first strike, the side pulling the gate would inevitably be at a disadvantage.
“Go pull the gate. I’ll guard here.” Upon reaching the gate point, Hua Jian quickly urged Linglong to go and pull it.
Linglong didn’t hesitate. She flew to the mechanism and started studying the complex contraption before her.
This thing wasn’t something brute force could solve. She needed to think before figuring out a way.
“Hua Jian, is there a faster method?” Linglong turned to ask.
“Just swipe a card. Oh, right, you don’t have one.” Hua Jian replied instinctively, then remembered that Linglong hadn’t bought any of those strange permission cards.
Well, that’s the consequence of not buying the card—she’d have to use her brain to unlock this gate.
“It’s simple. Just find the ones that are different among these blocks. Pass five stages in a row, and the mechanism unlocks.”
As she spoke, Hua Jian pulled a token from her storage pouch and tossed it to Linglong. “This token can unlock all mechanisms in the secret realm. Take it for now.”
Linglong caught the token but didn’t immediately use the cheat method to unlock the mechanism.
Instead, she seriously began solving it through normal means.
Seeing this, Hua Jian knew she’d have to wait. She knew exactly how difficult the mechanism she’d set up was.
Even if Linglong was a fairly clever cultivator, cracking it would take at least half an hour.
If it took that long, how could she sell those key cards?
But half an hour was plenty of time for cultivators from other places to make a long-distance transfer.
“Guests are coming. Take your time cracking it; I’ll go greet them.”
The seeds Hua Jian had left along the path sensed the arrival of unfamiliar auras. Calculating from the timing, she quickly pinpointed their spawn point.
Even counting the initial observation time, she and Linglong had only been in the secret realm for a little over an hour.
The gate point had no nearby spawn points, so these cultivators must have come from elsewhere.
To reach here within an hour, only the first spawn point could manage it.
Hua Jian’s mind quickly mapped out the team that had chosen that spawn point.
It was a demonic cultivator squad of modest strength—three demonic cultivators who were good friends and had come to explore the secret realm together.
Compared to the temporary teams of demonic cultivators, this squad was more like a team, likely with some coordination.
But they were no match for the demonic sect teams at the top of the secret realm’s food chain, so they’d chosen to head straight for the gate point.
After all, no matter what, the Gu King in the secret realm would definitely try to pull the gate and retreat.
If they ambushed here, they could wait at ease and gain the upper hand.
It was a no-lose choice. Besides, they knew the distribution of spawn points in the secret realm intimately.
No one could reach this gate faster than them!
That would make them careless. They never imagined someone had arrived before them and was quietly waiting at their destination.
……
“Ahead is the location of Mechanism No. 1. Follow the plan—each take a position on the mountain and hide.” The cultivator in the earth-yellow robe said to his companions.
All three of them wore the same outfit. After deciding to ambush the gate, they’d prepared extensively.
This earth-yellow outfit was a spiritual garment that could completely merge their aura with the ground.
Wearing it and hiding underground, even a Ling Emperor would need considerable effort to find them.
Besides that, they’d also prepared many one-time offensive tools.
The power of these magical tools was not to be underestimated against cultivators at the Essential Lord Realm.
If hit by one of their spirit tools, the struck cultivator could say goodbye to this world.
“Isn’t there fog ahead?” Another cultivator squinted, noticing changes at their destination.
“Did Wanhuagu mention fog at this gate point?”
“It’s probably a trap set by Wanhuagu. We have their tokens anyway, so these poison mists won’t harm us.”
The last cultivator reached into his storage pouch and pulled out a token from a pile of various ones, the one meant to counter the poison mist.
As soon as he took out the token, the nearby poison mist retreated from them, no longer obstructing their advance.
The other two let out sighs of relief. “So it’s just a trap Wanhuagu set here. I thought someone had gotten here before us.”
“Hmph, Wanhuagu actually hid things from us. What a shameless bunch.”
The first speaker said discontentedly, taking out his own token and hanging it on his waist, driving away the poison mist around him.
“Well, they’re Wanhuagu. It’s normal for them to keep things from us.” Another cultivator picked up the thread. “Isn’t Wanhuagu best at only telling half the truth?”
They had indeed said that several resource points in the center of the secret realm were surrounded by poison mist, but they hadn’t mentioned that other places weren’t surrounded by mist too.
So it was perfectly normal for poison mist to appear at this gate point. They couldn’t let people come and go freely while pulling or ambushing the gate, could they?
“Good thing we came prepared, or we’d really have been caught off guard by Wanhuagu.”
The cultivator with a leadership role muttered.
“Let’s go to our positions. Once we sense someone cracking the mechanism, we’ll blast them with spirit tools.”
“Alright, but with this thick fog, how do we know if anyone’s working on it?”
“Hmph, I asked Wanhuagu’s people. They said the mechanism gives off strong spiritual power fluctuations during the cracking process. Even if we can’t see, we can sense that fluctuation. When that happens, we’ll all act together and unleash our spirit tools into the valley.”
The leading cultivator laughed loudly, indicating it was simple.
He’d done plenty of homework beforehand. Poor visibility? No problem at all!
If they couldn’t see the enemy, the enemy couldn’t see them either, right?
Thinking that way, it was actually them who had the advantage, wasn’t it?
They didn’t need to see the enemy—just sense their aura. Meanwhile, their enemy could neither sense their aura nor see them.
Comparing the two, who had the edge needed no further thought?
“Let’s go. After this job, we’ll be set!”
He stepped into the mist first and disappeared within moments.
The remaining two cultivators exchanged glances, convinced by this reasoning, and began moving toward their planned positions.
The three ambush points were different, so they had to split up in the fog.
And that sent them straight into an abyss.
Shortly after leaving his teammates, one cultivator sensed something wrong.
The poison mist grew thicker and slowly pressed in on him.
Even when he held his token above his head, the mist still enveloped him completely.
A sweet, cloying fragrance harshly invaded his nostrils, making his movements feel sluggish.
No, the poison mist was off!
He quickly circulated his spiritual power, intending to turn back and find his teammates, but the mist had become so thick he couldn’t see his hand in front of his face.
He couldn’t even tell which direction he’d come from.
A faint stinging pain spread across his body. Looking down, he was horrified to see his spiritual garment’s light dimming—a sign of heavy attack.
This poison mist was highly aggressive, even corrosive to his spiritual garment!
Forget about hiding their plan now. He frantically pulled a protective spirit tool from his storage pouch, trying to activate it for self-defense.
But just as he pulled out the tool, a cold, slender object grew from the soil beneath his feet and coiled around his ankle.
whoosh!
A faint sound came from deep within the fog. A dark light shot through the mist, striking the cultivator’s wrist precisely.
But he had already activated his spirit tool. A black spiritual barrier emerged, protecting him.
The attack from the mist hit the barrier with a crisp sound and fell to the ground.
The cultivator looked down. The projectile was just a withered branch. Hard to believe someone would use such a thing as a weapon.
Even without activating his spirit tool, that dry twig probably couldn’t have hurt him.
crack, crack Just as he thought the danger wasn’t serious, a chilling breaking sound came from his ankle.
He hurriedly looked down. The vine wrapped around his foot hadn’t been pushed away by the barrier.
Instead, it clung tightly, growing countless tiny roots. The cracking sound came from those roots destroying his protective barrier.
“Damn it, what is this thing!”
Without a second thought, he channeled his spiritual power and slammed a palm strike onto the vine.
Black spiritual power transformed into flames, covering the vine.
But the vine, which should have feared fire, was completely unaffected and continued methodically shattering his barrier.
Seeing that his strike failed, the demonic cultivator quickly pulled another spirit tool from his pouch and slashed at the vine.
This time, the sword-shaped spirit tool finally worked, cutting shallow notches into the vine.
But it was only a scratch—nowhere near enough to free him.
“You leave me no choice!” Realizing his opponent’s strength, the cultivator’s eyes hardened.
The spirit tool in his hand blazed with light, a layer of sword qi forming solidly on the blade.
This sword was one of his one-time spirit tools. Once activated, it could unleash a blow equivalent to a full-force attack from a peak Ling King Jianxiu.
Even a high-level Ling King who was prepared would be sent flying, coughing up blood. Let alone a vine thinner than his arm.
The cultivator knew it was a waste, but he didn’t have time to worry about that.
Let it be wasted—better than dying!
The sword fell. At such close range, the released power of the spirit tool triggered a massive explosion.
The vine binding his leg finally snapped under the blow. But the cultivator was sent flying by his own attack, his barrier completely shattered.
The attack didn’t discriminate; the vine took as much damage as he did.
“Cough, cough… What the hell is this? A monster in the secret realm?”
Getting up from the ground, wiping blood from his mouth, he recalled the violent spirit beasts they’d encountered on the way here.
The spirit beasts in this secret realm were all off. Maybe he’d run into one?
Thinking that, he quickly activated his remaining protective spirit tools, intending to flee this cursed place.
“I can’t stay here. I need to leave right now…” Just as he began to take off, the ground beneath him exploded again.
This time, it wasn’t just one vine. Four whole vines shot out.
With lightning speed, they grabbed his limbs and pulled him toward the ground with immense force.
“Ah!” The cultivator screamed in pain.
Before he could process what was happening, countless vines emerged from below, like a gaping maw from the abyss, coiling around his body and dragging him into endless darkness.
His terrified cries faded into the thick fog. A brief, faint crunching sound followed, and then the mist returned to silence.
……
“Who the hell are you! My helpers will be here soon. Don’t get too cocky!”
The once-confident leading cultivator staggered to his feet, propping himself up with a greatsword, threatening the black-robed figure before him with a bluster that betrayed his fear.
His left arm was gone—cleanly severed by a bizarre sword strike during their exchange.
Now, his severed arm was in the black-robed person’s hand, drained of life by the twisted vines growing from her grip.
“Do you think they’re still alive?” The black-robed figure tossed the withered arm to the ground, a hint of amusement in her voice. “You lasted a little longer than them. But that’s as far as you go.”
She pointed the withered wood sword at the cultivator. This same wooden sword had effortlessly cut through his barrier and sliced off his arm.
“Bastard…” The cultivator’s eyes turned bloodshot. “I’ll take you with me!”
He let go of his spirit tool, and with a flash of light in his hand, several scroll-like spirit tools appeared from his storage pouch.
“Let’s see if you can handle these attacks!”