In a basic secret realm, if some cultivators weren’t discovered in time, wouldn’t all the little ones get lost?
A complete secret realm is just an empty shell. If you want various functions, you have to add them yourself.
The simplest method is manual teleportation. Once they rush in and kill everyone inside, but that’s a bit impulsive.
There’s a certain violent beauty in killing the invader as if you’ve infiltrated.
Furthermore, if those cultivators who failed to escape end up playing hide-and-seek in the secret realm while merging into the monsters within, and even the cultivators come to love that demonic aura, it’s troublesome and exhausting to clean the secret realm.
On top of that, the Flower Valley’s claim that the secret realm is about to collapse and is therefore open to the outside world doesn’t match the window of opportunity.
Still, Ten Thousand Flowers Valley has confidence in the secret realm’s reputation… If they really blow it up, cutting corners in the process, they can easily take care of the remaining monsters inside.
If someone can survive the collapse, so be it—if you can withstand such a crisis, there’s nothing more to say. Go talk to the girls from Jade Pool.
But the current problem is that she wants to destroy this secret realm but can’t find a suitable way to do it.
When she asked Qian Feixue and Linglong, the answers were disappointing. The force required to break a secret realm from the Qian family and Jade Pool is enormous.
“Of course, there’s an even simpler method. The control of this secret realm is still in your Ten Thousand Flowers Valley’s hands. If you take control, you can control the secret realm’s life and death.” Qian Feixue showed Hua Jian a clear path.
Hua Jian didn’t need to bother with all the extra stuff—she could simply take control of the secret realm and be done with it.
When the time came, she could make the secret realm collapse whenever she wanted. Simple.
“Is it that simple?”
Of course, but once the process starts, it can’t be stopped, and it’s not as fast as you think.
Without external force, it takes about half a month for it to completely extinguish.
Hua Jian had experienced a few secret realm collapses before.
The Ascension Gathering’s secret realm was broken in just a few days, and some were even devoured on their own.
That gave her a poor impression of how sturdy secret realms are.
Now Qian Feixue tells her that secret realms are actually very durable, which is hard for her to accept.
When she voiced her doubts, Linglong explained the difference helplessly.
The two previous secret realm collapses were more like storage spaces, so of course they broke quickly.
As for the Ascension Gathering’s secret realm, Ten Thousand Flowers Valley actually provided a top-tier spirit item specifically for that kind of secret realm. It’s normal to conquer it in a few days.
After all, the Ascension Gathering’s secret realm was just a repurposed small secret realm. It’s not comparable to large ones.
Even with that method, it took Ten Thousand Flowers Valley several days to clear the Ascension Gathering’s secret realm. Did that count as clearing it?
This was just a hint for Hua Jian to change her perspective—a few days really isn’t long.
“Sigh, I’ll give it a try. I wonder if Huaxin will hand over control of the secret realm to me…”
…
Soon, Huaxin gave her answer.
Of course not!
Cough, Huaxin had her reasons. The control she held wasn’t complete—she could only make superficial adjustments.
She couldn’t give Hua Jian what she wanted. She’d have to ask the Valley Master.
Ten Thousand Flowers Valley wasn’t stupid enough to hand something so important to a mere disciple. If the disciple died, would they lose a secret realm too?
So the Valley always kept the most complete control, not letting it flow freely.
After hitting a wall with Huaxin, Hua Jian sent a message to Ten Thousand Flowers Valley with her idea.
This time, the Valley that had always complied with her requests refused.
They said the Valley couldn’t let her develop such a habit—relying on adults for everything.
Taking shortcuts was wrong. Hua Jian had to figure out how to destroy this secret realm herself.
In the Valley Master’s reply, it was clearly stated that Hua Jian had the ability to destroy this small secret realm. She just needed to stimulate her potential.
God knows what Hua Jian thought when she saw that reply.
She just felt the Valley Master had too much confidence in her—actually believing she could destroy this small secret realm!
Damn, this was a problem even Qian Feixue, a powerful Ling Emperor, was helpless against!
What virtue did she have? If she could destroy this secret realm, would that mean she was stronger than Qian Feixue?
Hua Jian didn’t want to believe the Valley Master didn’t realize that.
But if the Valley Master said she could destroy the secret realm, it meant the so-called method had little to do with pure strength.
Not related to strength… so it must be related to talent.
Following that line of thought, Hua Jian roughly guessed what Ten Thousand Flowers Valley wanted her to do.
She possessed that giant spirit object that the Valley found so painful. In her multiple contacts with the Valley, she had demonstrated the ability to devour secret realms.
So the Valley Master probably wanted her to use that ability to swallow this small secret realm whole!
This guess was well-founded. Hua Jian was certain that was the Valley’s intention.
But she had no idea how to use that ability!
Logically, it should be her instinct, her talent, but she couldn’t find a way to trigger it.
With no other choice, Hua Jian decided to enter the secret realm and see if she could gain new insights by being there in person.
Conveniently, the small secret realm was undergoing the modifications Hua Jian wanted at full speed. She could calibrate those changes anytime.
Especially the various little tricks meant to ambush people—she checked each one to make sure they matched her ideas.
After all, the secret realm wasn’t far from Frozen Winter City. It was still within her and Huaxin’s sensory range. Contacting Frozen Winter City was instantaneous.
Outside the secret realm, everything was proceeding in an orderly manner.
The news that the Qian family and Ten Thousand Flowers Valley planned to repurpose the secret realm had spread.
Many cultivators interested in the idea had already set off for Frozen Winter City.
After being toyed with by the Qian family, the Demonic Sect, with the Demon King inside the secret realm, figured it was worth a try and sent experts to meddle.
But the Demonic Sect hadn’t made any major moves yet. Perhaps they were still deliberating whether to take the bait.
If they did, Hua Jian could show them a small piece of the Demon Corpse, and they’d enthusiastically rush into the secret realm.
Inside the secret realm, it was like a huge construction site, full of tense preparations.
The bewildering arrays in the core region and the spatial arrays used to guide cultivators to evacuate—these required a lot of effort.
In comparison, the Demon Corpses were simpler. Dig a deep pit, stuff them in, and done!
Jade Pool had already designed a series of devices that operated like modular units.
Just carry them to the designated spot, place them on the ground, and they’d deliver the Demon Corpses to proper hiding places.
Given the current progress, the secret realm would be transformed into the desired form within five days. Huaxin stood beside Hua Jian and briefed her on the situation.
Ten Thousand Flowers Valley hadn’t invested too many resources at once; more would probably come from the valley later. After all, such a large project took time.
The Qian family was also helping, but due to historical conflicts, even if temporarily allied, they operated independently, not interfering with the Ten Thousand Flowers Valley.
After all, the Qian family didn’t want their people to be seduced by the Fox girls of Ten Thousand Flowers Valley.
“So why are you here? According to the plan, no one should be coming to these places, right?” Huaxin looked around and couldn’t help asking.
They were now at the edge of the secret realm, where the spiritual power was unimaginably thin. Even plants were absent.
Hua Jian called these places the Wasteland, where only the poorest cultivators would be born.
Those cultivators wouldn’t venture toward the core region, so almost no one came here.
Even Hua Jian hadn’t set up any little tricks here.
“I have some experiments to do.” Hua Jian didn’t explain in detail.
She walked to the edge. Further ahead, the sky and ground of the secret realm began to slowly merge.
Unlike large secret realms, this small one didn’t have complete rules. In these border areas, various things mixing together was common.
For weaker cultivators, these areas were very dangerous. Once they strayed in, they might never escape.
Under Huaxin’s tense gaze, Hua Jian reached out toward the chaotic area ahead, as if sensing something.
Tiny tentacles extended from her body. Some plunged into the ground, while others reached toward the chaos.
This looked eerie. The aura slowly emanating from Hua Jian made Huaxin step back twice.
That aura reminded her of some unpleasant memories. Hua Jian didn’t care about Huaxin’s emotional turmoil.
She was recalling the feeling of being connected with that giant plant during the Ascension Gathering.
That plant had told her it was what she needed to find.
Decomposition, absorption—this should be her instinct.
What she needed to do was trigger that instinct.
As the desire to devour this space grew intensely in her heart, vague impulses gradually surfaced from deep within her body.
Some were the instinctual urges that had seeped into her consciousness when she connected with the giant plant. Others seemed to be instincts she was born with.
“Is it… like this?” Hua Jian opened her eyes abruptly. The vines she summoned swelled in an instant, filling the chaotic space before her in moments.
The vines had changed form. Now they looked almost exactly like the colored foliage she had seen in the Ascension Gathering’s secret realm.
But their destructive power wasn’t as great. If it were the real thing, this chaotic space would have already been shattered by those leaves.
The vines she had summoned were still struggling to take root in the chaos, drawing its power to strengthen themselves.
At this rate, it would take a long time for them to devour this secret realm.
“Isn’t this a bit slow?” She turned to ask Huaxin.
Huaxin’s reaction at that moment surprised Hua Jian. The Ling Emperor of Ten Thousand Flowers Valley, who usually wasn’t friendly to her, was now staring at her in terror.
As if she had just done something extremely frightening.
It was just sending out some branches to decompose and eat the secret realm. Was that so scary?
“What exactly are you?!”
“Hey, don’t think I don’t know you’re cursing me!”
Huaxin took a deep breath. She would never be wrong—those colored branches were exactly the ones she had seen before.
But… why were they appearing in Hua Jian’s hands?
Wasn’t that the power of that thing?
“Do you know what you’re doing?”
“I do. The Valley Master told me to do this. She said to stimulate my potential…” Hua Jian spread her hands, indicating she hadn’t intended to do this originally.
But the Valley Master had spoken. Could she refuse?
This answer made Huaxin think a lot. A bold, yet undeniably realistic guess surged in her mind.
If Hua Jian had such an ability, regardless of how she obtained it, she could indeed live up to the title of Ten Thousand Flowers Saint.
No matter what happened later—whether it was Huaxinhu or anyone else—they simply couldn’t compete with Hua Jian!
No wonder, no wonder Huaxinhu had so readily given up the position of Saintess and become Hua Jian’s dog.
It was because Huaxinhu had known Hua Jian’s identity all along. Meanwhile, Huaxin had been kept in the dark, playing the fool without realizing it.
Upon learning Hua Jian’s true identity, all the resentment in Huaxin’s heart vanished, replaced only by reverence.
Even if Hua Jian now looked so weak that a pinch could crush her.
But who knew if that was just a protective color Hua Jian deliberately showed?
If a real crisis came, she couldn’t say whether Hua Jian would suddenly revert to that form and… eat everything.
As an old veteran who had survived several wars, Huaxin had a keen sense for death.
The cultivators of Ten Thousand Flowers Valley were the same. Their relationships were neither good nor bad. They’d chat and laugh like close friends, maybe even exchange secret techniques.
But if someone died, the other wouldn’t seek revenge for that friend.
What’s more, the murderer was now the Saintess of Ten Thousand Flowers Valley.
“I see. Then I won’t disturb the Saintess’s work…” Huaxin said, turning to leave.
She was truly afraid. She remembered vividly how those fellow disciples were devoured.
So she thought it best to let those who didn’t know the past serve Hua Jian. Sometimes ignorance is indeed a blessing.