A month passed in the blink of an eye. Hua Jian had barely felt the time go by when the day of the Ascension Gathering finally arrived.
That morning, she was still wondering why Linglong hadn’t come to find her for an entire month.
By the afternoon, when Shiqi returned, she reminded Hua Jian to prepare to enter the Secret Realm for battle.
“Ah, is it already starting?”
“Yes. The examination will begin promptly at 8:00 AM tomorrow. The Secret Realm will be open for fifteen days. I believe I mentioned this to you?”
Hua Jian tilted her head toward the other girl in the room. Xia Hui, who was buried in her luggage and organizing her belongings, felt Hua Jian’s gaze and looked up.
Well, it seemed she was the only one who hadn’t taken this matter to heart.
“Lately, the Cultivators in the city have basically split into two major factions. They will be gathering at two specific locations. Are we still sticking to the original plan of avoiding them?”
Shiqi confirmed the movement strategy within the Secret Realm with Hua Jian.
After a month of alliances and negotiations, the distribution of power within the Ascension Gathering had gradually become clear.
A large number of ordinary Cultivators had been recruited by the various geniuses, forming several factions.
The two most powerful factions were led by Ji Caiyue and her fiancé, a pair of rivals.
Ji Caiyue’s fiancé had boldly declared that he would utterly defeat her within the Secret Realm.
To that end, he had used his personal charisma to assemble a massive team.
To counter him, Ji Caiyue had no choice but to enter the fray and recruit people herself.
Using the reputation she had built over the years, she quickly gathered a group of followers.
These two major factions would likely engage in a fierce battle as soon as they entered the Secret Realm.
Hua Jian wanted to play the role of the fisherman waiting to profit from the struggle between the snipe and the clam.
“That’s right. But our landing locations in the Secret Realm are random. I don’t know if we’ll be able to meet at the designated spot…”
Hua Jian nodded, though she wasn’t particularly optimistic about the plan’s prospects.
Everyone would be scattered and sent into the Secret Realm randomly.
With so many people, it was impossible for her to be placed right next to Shiqi and Xia Hui.
Before reaching the rendezvous point, each of them would have to rely on their own strength to navigate various obstacles and avoid being hunted by other Cultivators.
Hua Jian wasn’t worried about herself, but she was very concerned about Xia Hui.
She and Shiqi both possessed decent strength. If attacked by other Cultivators, they would at least have a chance to escape.
Xia Hui was different. Her strength wasn’t considered top-tier among her peers. If she truly encountered a group attack, the outcome would be hard to predict.
“Xia Hui, as soon as you enter the Secret Realm, you must get to the meeting point immediately and hide. Do not try to fight opponents you can’t beat. You only have a future if you stay alive. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I understand!” Xia Hui nodded vigorously. She knew her own strength well and wouldn’t do anything irrational.
Moreover, her goal had always been simply to follow Hua Jian. Whether she could fight off multiple enemies at once didn’t really matter.
The meeting point Hua Jian had chosen was an area slightly deeper into the Secret Realm.
The distance from the various starting points in the Outer Region of the Secret Realm wouldn’t vary too much—at most, a day’s difference.
Even accounting for detours and various accidents, the time difference shouldn’t exceed three days.
Ideally, by the third or fourth day after the Secret Realm began, the three of them would be able to reunite.
The other factions of Cultivators would likely have finished assembling around the same time and begun their true war.
That would be Hua Jian’s golden opportunity to fish in troubled waters and claim some points.
“Good. Then I wish us all a reunion in the Saint Sect’s Neimen!”
……
Hua Jian felt as if she were naturally incompatible with Secret Realms.
Every time she was transported into one, it felt as if she had been shoved into a roller washing machine, tumbling through the space passage.
When others entered the map, it was like rappelling from a helicopter. For her, it was a straight-up plane crash. Starting the game with injuries was truly hard to endure.
Thud!
Tumbling, Hua Jian slammed into a massive tree. The impact knocked the wind out of her.
She crawled up and coughed for a long while before she finally regained her strength to observe her surroundings.
She had hit a tree, and the surrounding area was lush and green. It appeared she was in a forest.
Taking the Token hanging from her waist, Hua Jian opened the map.
Sure enough, the glowing dot representing herself was located in the great forest in the eastern part of the Secret Realm.
This Secret Realm concentrated the characteristics of the Central Continent and the Four Regions.
The eastern part symbolized the East Region, a vast, lush forest.
Compared to the volcanoes in the south and the ice plains in the north, the forests of the east and the grasslands of the west were quite decent combat environments.
As for the center, it was covered by Shielding Zones of various sizes.
No one knew what kind of surprises awaited them there. Unless they were fully prepared, no Cultivator would be bold enough to enter.
‘The meeting point is here. If I travel this way, I should be able to arrive within four days.’
Hua Jian glanced at the rendezvous point again.
Her luck wasn’t great; she had spawned quite far from it and would need more time to reach it.
There wasn’t much she could do about it. The jungle was her preferred combat environment, so spawning here wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
As she thought this, Hua Jian’s ears twitched. She heard a rustling sound coming from the brush behind her.
Without leaving a trace, she glanced toward the source of the sound. Her hand lightly pressed against the Ling Sword at her waist.
‘Was the spawn point really this close to someone else?’
Pretending she hadn’t noticed anything unusual, Hua Jian began wandering through the forest like a headless fly. As she moved, the rustling behind her grew louder.
‘There’s malice,’ Hua Jian thought, her eyes narrowing as she confirmed the visitor didn’t come in peace.
In that case, she would do some fishing and see just how strong this bad guy was.
After walking next to a patch of flowers, she crouched down as if she had found something valuable.
She started digging in the dirt, completely exposing her back to the stalker.
Once she revealed her weakness, the person hiding in the shadows could no longer hold back.
He lunged directly at Hua Jian’s back.
“Meow!“
Unfortunately, before he could even get close to Hua Jian, a small, snow-white figure appeared before him.
A single claw swipe knocked his sword blade off course.
Having succeeded with its strike, the Spiritual Civet didn’t press the attack. Instead, it quickly leaped to the side, exiting the Cultivator’s reach.
This was the combat style Hua Jian had discussed with it over the past month.
The Spiritual Civet didn’t need to be the primary attacker; it only needed to cause distractions at the right moments.
After all, when it came to a real fight, Hua Jian was far more formidable.
‘You struck first, so don’t blame me for being ruthless!’
Hua Jian already held her Ling Sword. This was her first real combat with this sword, and she couldn’t help but feel a bit excited.
Swish!
Clang!
Crack!
The Ling Sword slammed heavily against the opponent’s sword, actually snapping it into two pieces with a single blow.
Watching the sword break so cleanly, both Hua Jian and the Cultivator who had ambushed her were stunned.
“Is your Ling Sword some kind of counterfeit or low-quality product?” Hua Jian couldn’t help but ask.
The Cultivator holding the broken sword turned beet-red with anger.
He had realized he had provoked a very powerful opponent, but hearing her mock his sword made him feel completely humiliated.
He had bought this Ling Sword in Ascension City! How could it be a fake?
“You… It’s clearly because your Spirit Tool is too powerful! If you have the guts, fight me empty-handed!”
“You really lack a sense of crisis. On a real battlefield, would your opponent ever give you the chance to say that?” Hua Jian curled her lip, utterly speechless at the ambusher’s request.
‘Fight you empty-handed? The enemy would have cut you down the moment you opened your mouth.’
However, Hua Jian was willing to give this ambusher a tiny shred of hope. Since he claimed she only won because of her Spirit Tool, she simply wouldn’t use it.
Returning the sword to her Storage Pouch, Hua Jian beckoned him with her finger. “Come.”
“Hmph! Without your Spirit Tool, how could I lose to a shorty like you? Take this!”
The ambusher clenched his fists and circulated his Spiritual Power, throwing a punch at Hua Jian.
“Nice momentum. Unfortunately, the speed is lacking. It’s too easy to predict! Small fry!” Hua Jian ducked, easily dodging the punch.
Using the momentum of her dodge, she lashed out with a kick that landed squarely on the ambusher’s chest, sending him flying.
Although Hua Jian’s strength couldn’t compare to Linglong’s, she had reached the average level of Cultivators her age through her recent training.
Combined with the assistance of Spiritual Power, the damage from her kick was quite high.
The ambusher was in the middle of throwing another punch when all his power hit empty air.
His Spirit Shield hadn’t even had time to recover before Hua Jian’s foot connected with his chest.
He lost his combat effectiveness almost instantly.
The bones in his chest throbbed with intense pain.
As he clutched his chest and struggled to crawl up, hoping to continue the fight, the Token at his waist emitted a white light.
He was instantly transported out of the Secret Realm.
If the fight continued, his heart and lungs might have been completely ruined.
To save his life, the Token naturally kicked him out of the Secret Realm.
From entering the Secret Realm to being sent out by Hua Jian’s kick, this Cultivator had survived for less than fifteen minutes.
He was likely destined to have no relationship with the Saint Sect.
If he had managed to fight Hua Jian for hundreds of rounds and only narrowly lost, his score might have been decent.
But losing so pathetically without putting up a fight meant his score was bound to be hideous.
“This is way too weak. Since when can people like this participate in the Ascension Gathering?”
Watching the Cultivator get decommissioned by one kick, Hua Jian wondered if she had misunderstood the quality of this year’s contestants.
This person had at least passed the preliminary selection. Was being this weak really normal?
If the other Cultivators in the Secret Realm were at this level, could she afford to be a bit more aggressive?
Hua Jian scratched her head. She felt she needed to fight a few more rounds to see what the average strength of the Cultivators was this time.
If they were all this ridiculously weak, she could simply fight her way through to the meeting point.
“Whew. Let’s give it a try then. Let’s see how long it takes to meet a stronger opponent.”
……
The Secret Realm was vast, but it was also small.
Because the participants’ spawn points were restricted to the Outer Region, those taking the exam had a high probability of encountering others after walking for just a short while.
Upon meeting, two Cultivators almost certainly fought. However, those with a bit more strength wouldn’t be kicked out of the Secret Realm so easily.
If you can’t win, you run. As long as you don’t get reckless and cut off your own retreat, a battle between Spirit Masters usually isn’t so one-sided that escape is impossible.
Even if fleeing meant defeat and a loss of points, it was still better than being kicked out directly. Perhaps there would even be a chance for revenge later?
Only a very small number of unlucky Cultivators were knocked out in their first battle.
However, once that first wave of fighting ended, the entire Secret Realm fell into a state of chaotic warfare.
Most Cultivators had a destination in mind, and they would inevitably encounter others on the way.
Even if some wanted to mind their own business, there were always those whose brains lacked the concept of peaceful coexistence.
‘What peaceful coexistence? All I know is that everyone I see is an enemy, and killing enemies is only natural!’
This caused great suffering for many Cultivators who didn’t want to waste too much energy before meeting their teams.
Some even considered teaming up with other suffering individuals to fend off the battle maniacs.
However, no one was cursing Hua Jian, because without exception, everyone who saw her was sent out of the Secret Realm.
The Cultivators in the Secret Realm had no idea that such a terrifying existence was wandering among them.
Once they encountered Hua Jian, their journey would come to an end…
Even if they were geniuses ranked high on the Genius List, the result was the same.
The good news was that, so far, no genius had encountered this “truck” that crushed everyone it saw.
The bad news was that many of their teammates had already been “hit” by this truck and sent out of the realm.
Colored Mist drifted through the forest. It was a warning, telling any Cultivator who saw it that there was great danger ahead.
If they left immediately upon seeing the mist, Hua Jian wouldn’t waste time hunting them down.
But most Cultivators who saw the Magic Mist would boldly enter to take a look.
Some thought there might be treasure inside the mist that could grant extra points.
Others assumed it was a trial set by the Saint Sect and that they had to enter to succeed.
That line of thinking wasn’t entirely wrong.
If someone could encounter Hua Jian and escape in one piece, that would definitely earn a huge amount of points.
After all, throughout the entire day, not a single Cultivator who entered the Magic Mist had left it alive.
As the sky in the Secret Realm gradually darkened, Hua Jian—who had just sent a bold young girl out of the realm—stretched her limbs and decided to find a place nearby to rest.
She had “serviced” a double-digit number of “guests” today.
Most Cultivators became disoriented almost immediately after entering the mist, and she didn’t have to exert much effort to take them out.
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