Rumble…
From afar came a faint but enormous sound, like a thunderclap in a clear sky, drawing everyone’s attention.
Linglong, however, showed no reaction, still earnestly deciphering the mechanism designed by Hua Jian.
There was only one step left to successfully crack the mechanism.
She felt she had spent quite a bit of time on this, which showed just how ruthless Hua Jian’s setup was.
If a cultivator who came to crack the mechanism didn’t have the token sold by Hua Jian, the process of deciphering the mechanism alone would consume a massive amount of time, making it far more troublesome and dangerous than simply swiping a card.
With the final small block pressed down, the mechanism before Linglong was finally unlocked.
A wooden board shaped like a beast’s head was spit out from the mechanism.
Following the method Hua Jian had taught her earlier, Linglong reached her hand into the beast-head mechanism and slowly began to infuse it with spiritual power.
The beast head’s eyes gradually lit up, showing a dangerous red color.
This indicated that the beast head had not yet been fully activated.
Once it was successfully activated, the color of the eyes would change to green.
However, if all the mechanisms were not fully activated within the specified time, the energy within this beast head would be exhausted, requiring cultivators to come and unlock it again.
This was quite reasonable; after all, you couldn’t expect that once you charged the mechanism, it would run forever, could you?
There is always a time when the charge runs out, and the same goes for the spiritual power within the mechanism.
Whoosh…
Just as Linglong reached her hand into the mechanism, countless flying petals drifted from the direction of the rumbling sound and formed into a cute girl behind her.
“A perfect opportunity!”
“Pew pew pew!”
Linglong turned around helplessly to look at Hua Jian, who seemed to be losing her mind.
‘Has she been hit on the head and gone crazy? She’s getting more and more childish.’
“Hmph, if I were a bad person, your legs would already be chopped off by now!”
“Are you satisfied with those opponents?” Linglong couldn’t respond to Hua Jian’s remark at all. She had no idea what Hua Jian meant by that.
Helpless, she could only awkwardly change the subject.
This question was satisfactory enough for Hua Jian. She couldn’t wait to show off her achievements to Linglong.
“They were very weak. I used just a little of my power and took them out.”
Furthermore, she didn’t pick them off one by one; at the same time, she was manipulating different abilities to take down the three cultivators, who were scattered in different locations, all at once.
To Hua Jian, this was just a small challenge. Fortunately, the outcome was good—the three bad guys who wanted to ambush at the gate were easily dealt with by her.
“They had quite a few disposable spirit tools on them, and their power was decent.” Hua Jian patted her slightly dusty clothes.
The dust on her clothes came from when she was dodging the spirit tool attacks.
Her black clothes were merely disguise garments, with the most basic effect of hiding her aura, and they did not have the ability to remain spotless.
After all, cultivators wearing such clothes sometimes needed to deliberately look dirty.
If they had the ability to stay dust-free, it would cause problems instead.
The scroll attack that the cultivator she personally dealt with finally launched was not to be underestimated. Even Hua Jian didn’t dare to stand still and take it head-on.
If there was some big move hidden inside, then her first battle in the Secret Realm would end in failure, which would be really embarrassing.
So she chose a safer approach: dodge.
She dodged those scroll attacks, then quickly counterattacked with a scroll attack at the fleeing, arm-severed cultivator, sending him off to meet his two teammates with a single sword strike.
“These spirit tools require special caution. Getting hit by one would make it very difficult to turn the situation around.”
After watching a few battles and personally participating in one, Hua Jian realized that no cultivator in this Secret Realm should be underestimated.
Their combat abilities might not be good, but their Storage Pouches definitely held some powerful items.
Those disposable spirit tools that could unleash a peak Lingwang Boundary strike were probably an essential item for every cultivator.
No, most likely each person had more than one. The three demonic cultivators she just dealt with were only mid-to-lower tier in terms of strength within the Secret Realm, and even they had more than one such spirit tool.
Then those powerful demonic cultivators at the top of the Secret Realm’s food chain must have even more stockpiles than these few.
“Alas, it’s a pity there isn’t much intelligence on this part. I have no idea how many such spirit tools these people actually have.” Hua Jian sighed regretfully.
Wanhuagu’s intelligence capabilities were limited. Information like this was beyond what Wanhuagu could investigate.
After all, cultivators wouldn’t open their Storage Pouches for Wanhuagu to inspect; no one knew how many such things each person had.
Those demonic cultivators from Demonic Sects might even have higher-grade spirit tools that could unleash Imperial-grade power.
“Expect the worst. I think you should be more careful. Don’t treat them like lambs to be slaughtered.” Linglong said to Hua Jian while watching the mechanism gradually turning green.
She wasn’t making any judgment about Hua Jian’s actions, even though she knew full well what the final fate would be for those who died at Hua Jian’s hands.
Those living pillars hung outside Frozen Winter City were already a silent declaration, declaring that Hua Jian was no longer the little girl who needed to be kept at arm’s length.
“Mhm, I’m not arrogant.” Hua Jian nodded seriously.
She was the type to talk down to her enemies verbally but was more cautious than anyone when actually fighting.
If she were facing those truly powerful cultivators, she wouldn’t have taken on three at once like that.
Instead, she would have chosen the right moment to quickly finish off one of the three, striking before the other two could react.
After that, she wouldn’t linger but would immediately retreat, waiting for the next chance to catch someone alone.
The technique for fighting one against three is to break the situation into multiple one-on-one fights, then use your superior strength to win each duel.
“After this mechanism is activated, we need to go to this resource point on the edge. Calculating the time, by the time we arrive, the cultivators at that resource point should be battling with the cultivators who followed them.”
Hua Jian glanced at Linglong’s progress in activating the mechanism and mentally calculated the next time node.
The only Secret Realm events she could predict were the events at the very beginning.
Once this day ended, it would be difficult for her to foresee what the demonic cultivators in the Secret Realm would do.
After all, humans are changeable creatures. Any small disturbance would cause these cultivators in the Secret Realm to make unpredictable choices.
With so many cultivators in the Secret Realm, all of them treacherous demonic cultivators, it would be a wonder if Hua Jian could guess their movements.
Although Hua Jian seemed to be doing rather bad things, her current mindset wasn’t that of the demonic path.
So it was normal that she couldn’t guess what demonic cultivators were thinking.
Even the demonic cultivators themselves didn’t necessarily know what other demonic cultivators were thinking.
A bunch of madmen being able to understand each other—that would be strange and unrealistic.
After the initial fights were over, Hua Jian could only rely on her eyes distributed throughout the Secret Realm to judge the situation.
Although this was still half-open, compared to the full map at the beginning, it was weakened.
So she needed to be even more careful now.
“By the way, don’t we need to check where the Demon Corpse Crystal is?”
“Not now. Tianmomen’s spawn point is in the Outer Region of the Secret Realm. It should take them several days to gather their forces and break into the center of the Secret Realm.”
Hua Jian shook her head, took out the map of the Secret Realm, and explained the reason to Linglong.
On the map, she marked their own positions, the Tianmomen group, and the unknown location of the Demon Corpse Crystal.
Tianmomen spawned at the outermost edge of the Secret Realm, basically a place of exile.
The Demon Corpse Crystal was located underground at the deepest resource point.
For Tianmomen to obtain this treasure, they would need to fight their way through the entire Secret Realm.
The Demon Corpse Crystal also had a strong attraction effect on the Spirit Beasts in this Secret Realm, so now that area was crowded with numerous Spirit Beasts.
They fought day and night, and the victor would devour the flesh and power of the defeated.
By the time Tianmomen arrived, they would likely face a monster so powerful that even a Ling Emperor would find it troublesome.
“That place is also the only path from the last gate point to the Secret Realm’s Exit Point. It is extremely easy to defend and difficult to attack. If they want to dig three feet underground to find the Demon Corpse Crystal there, it’s no different from declaring war on the entire Secret Realm.”
“Perhaps Tianmomen’s original intention wasn’t to block this necessary path, but who would believe such nonsense?”
You’re standing on a bridge, holding a sniper rifle, playing as Urulu— who would believe you’re not here to block the bridge?
Whether you are or not, they’ll team up and rush you first.
“I had Wanhuagu warn these cultivators that once this place was controlled, the entire Secret Realm’s evacuation route would be cut off. So once Tianmomen starts searching for the Demon Corpse Crystal here, it will immediately alert everyone.”
“Then, they’ll get rushed by everyone.”
It’s very hard for demonic cultivators to reach mutual trust, but if not allying means death, then they are willing to trust the demonic cultivators around them who share the same interests.
After all, Tianmomen has numbers and strength. Once they occupy that area, other demonic cultivators will have almost no chance of forcing their way through.
To leave the Secret Realm alive, they have no choice but to gather a larger group like Tianmomen did.
Rush Tianmomen down with superior numbers!
So we don’t need to camp there too early. The actors in this big show haven’t taken their positions yet.
According to my estimation, Tianmomen will arrive at their worksite around the seventh day, battling the Gu King among the Spirit Beasts.
The sound of their fight will be heard by nearby cultivators.
Soon, the news that Tianmomen wants to block the only way out of the Secret Realm will spread throughout the entire Secret Realm.
Then what happens next should be self-explanatory without Hua Jian needing to say it, right?
The Hundred-Tower Army versus the Hundred-Tower Alliance, and in the end both sides die together in the Secret Realm. Truly a pair of star-crossed lovers.
“Before that happens, let’s just wander around doing our own thing. Anyway, the longest distance to this place is just an hour.”