Chapter 55: Truly Admirable Courage

“The outskirts of the Secret Realm actually have Lingcao of this quality growing— this Secret Realm really is overflowing with wealth…”

On the second day after entering the Secret Realm, Miss Hua Jian discovered a radiant Lingcao growing in the forest. Carefully digging it up, she was thrilled to find that this single sprout could be sold for a high price of fifty to sixty Spirit Stones.

And this was just in the outskirts of the Secret Realm!

In the other Secret Realm she had been in before, which was further from the Core Region, it was even difficult to find Lingcao infused with Spirit Energy.

Here, she could casually dig up such a precious Lingcao. It felt almost like a dream.

Suddenly leaping from a low-yield zone to a high-yield zone, Hua Jian felt somewhat dazed, like a player who experienced a secret mode would never want to return to the ordinary mode of the game.

Not good, she thought. She was about to get addicted to the secret mode!

“Calm down, calm down, don’t get carried away. This place is fraught with danger; one wrong move and you could be kicked out of the Secret Realm by others or Spirit Beasts,” Hua Jian took several deep breaths, controlling her excitement, and headed in another direction.

Along the way, she encountered many Spirit Beasts, but out of caution, she did not attack any of them.

Compared to the Spirit Beasts that could run, jump, and fight back, motionless Spirit Items and Lingcao were her true targets.

During the rest of the day, she gathered quite a few items nearby, including a piece of Dragonblood Patterned Wood, which was considered quite precious in the outside world.

This was the legendary spirit wood that had absorbed Dragon Blood. Even though the piece Hua Jian found wasn’t of the best quality, it was still enough to fetch a high price.

She could even sell it directly to Saintess Linglong; Hua Jian was sure the Little Dragon Girl would love this.

Aside from the Dragonblood Patterned Wood, the rest of her haul was rather scattered.

There were many Spirit Tool remnants lying around, a testament to how fierce the battle that took place here a thousand years ago must have been, shattering so many Spirit Tools.

High-grade Spirit Tool debris also had value. Though broken, they lost their original power, but Artifact Refiners could extract ancient forging techniques from them.

These remnants could be repurposed as raw materials for new Spirit Tools, making them fairly popular on the market.

However, the price wasn’t very high. Artifact Refiners only bought these debris at raw material prices, and cultivators with any pride generally wouldn’t bother picking them up.

But Hua Jian was thrifty. She had previously been picky because a certain chunk of debris was too large and plain.

The debris she found this time wasn’t that big, and the quality was decent, so she happily stuffed them all into her storage bag.

As night fell once again, Hua Jian stopped moving forward.

Spirit Masters needed sufficient rest every day to maintain their energy. Of course, rest here referred to Meditation, a more efficient way to recover energy than sleeping.

After meditating the night before, Hua Jian also realized that the Wood Spirit Energy within this Secret Realm was quite abundant. She could just stay put and cultivate intensely, which was essentially like getting a free high-level Cultivation Chamber.

Having lived on a Lingqi Branch before, Hua Jian had never experienced such a favorable cultivation environment. If it weren’t for the time limit on exploring the Secret Realm, she truly wanted to stay here forever.

Another night passed, and when Hua Jian opened her eyes, she once again found herself surrounded by small animals.

This time, she even saw a rabbit on the verge of reaching the Spirit Beast realm lying by her feet among the other little creatures.

How strange, she thought. Why do I always attract so many little creatures when I cultivate?

Once could be a coincidence, twice could be luck, but no matter how carefree she was, it was impossible to ignore it happening again.

Could it be that I have a Special Constitution that attracts Spirit Beasts? Hua Jian scratched her head.

After the experiences of the past few days, she was already convinced she had a Special Constitution. It was just that she didn’t know what kind it was.

Physiques were varied and strange, and even Saint Level cultivators couldn’t always identify them.

Only those with very distinctive traits were easily recognized. Most others had to be explored bit by bit by cultivators and eventually recorded as unique cases in the Saint Sect’s Sacred Library Pavilion.

Hua Jian’s constitution characteristic was that she smelled nice. Beyond that, she didn’t seem to have any special traits.

As for attracting the little animals, it might be due to her scent.

“I should add an Aura Concealment function to my Protective Formation next time I cultivate…”

There was nothing she could do about her constitution, so she could only try a different approach— not letting her aura leak out.

But as long as it worked, it was fine. She wouldn’t stay in one place for long anyway.

The outskirts of the Secret Realm were vast, and she still had to thoroughly search them.

“It’s already the third day. Those geniuses should be fighting in the Core Region by now, right?” Hua Jian looked toward the direction of the city ruins and muttered softly.

She wondered if she’d have a chance to scavenge leftovers in the Core Region later.

–

“Hahaha, I recognize you— Yaoci’s Half-Dragon Saintess, right? A lowly half-dragon actually becoming a Saintess of a prestigious Saint Sect? Has Yaoci no one else left!”

Though already in ruins, the city ruins at the center of the Secret Realm still radiated a solemn and imposing aura.

But right now, there was something even more captivating than the city ruins.

For reasons unknown, a Neimen Disciple of the Tiandao Sect was publicly provoking the Yaoci Saintess, speaking words that drew furrowed brows.

It was common knowledge that the Tiandao Sect looked down on all non-human races, but to say such provocative things in front of a Saintess was truly brainless.

“Yao,” or “demon,” referred to high-level Spirit Beasts that had cultivated to the point of being able to speak human language and interact. Among Spirit Beasts, the Dragon Race held a supreme position.

In the battle thousands of years ago, the Dragon Race had sacrificed greatly to protect the world. Even the Dragon Ancestor was severely injured fighting Outer Demons and had to ascend to the higher realm.

This earned the Dragon Race great respect in today’s cultivation world; no one would casually compare them with other Spirit Beasts or demons.

For this Tiandao Sect disciple to speak like this was clearly intended to anger Linglong.

“This is an internal matter of my sect. None of your concern.” The white-haired, golden-eyed Saintess stood in the air, dark clouds gathering above her head.

“What you just said is a provocation against me, against Yaoci, and against the Dragon Race.”

“So what? Are you afraid I’ll lay a hand on you?” The cultivator was completely fearless.

Linglong tilted her head, suddenly baffled by this person’s logic: You provoke me, so why wouldn’t I dare to fight back?

“Hmph, I am from the Wang Family…”

Boom!

Thunder would not wait for someone to finish their nonsense.