Does Miss Hua Jian have any advantages in this Secret Realm?
She does, brother, she does!
She looks far more beautiful here than she does outside!
“I’ve basically become a decorative vase!” Realizing her role had taken a wrong turn, Hua Jian clutched her head and wailed in despair.
Linglong frowned deeply from the side. Hua Jian’s current appearance really wasn’t suited for fooling around—it gave off a feeling of a completely shattered character.
After all, at first glance, Hua Jian now was an undisputed, super stunning beauty; when she put on a cold face, she seemed like an icy queen.
But once she opened her mouth, the ice queen turned into a clown. Who could handle that?
“Let’s think about what to do next.” Linglong cleared her throat, cutting off Hua Jian’s lament.
This Secret Realm was quite strange; they needed to solve their problems and leave as soon as possible.
“Good question. I see something strange in the sky over there; let’s head directly that way.”
In this unfamiliar place, Hua Jian had no better idea than to rely on the simplest method.
Everything else seemed ordinary, but the sky over there appeared to have something unusual. Logically, that should be where the treasure would appear, right?
Where treasures appear, there’s usually a heavenly phenomenon. And here, the only strange phenomenon in the Secret Realm was in that direction. They had to check it out.
“All right… be careful!” Linglong had just nodded when a chill ran down her spine. Reflexively, she pressed Hua Jian’s head down onto the ground.
The next moment, a massive boulder fell from the sky, grazing their heads before crashing down nearby.
“Ah!!!”
A towering figure, about ten meters tall, charged at them like a war chariot. There was no doubt—this thing’s intent was to kill Hua Jian and Linglong.
Linglong immediately dodged to the side, while Hua Jian exploded into a flurry of petals, vanishing from the spot.
“What the hell is that? A Rock Giant?”
Using Feihua Dun instinctively in the Secret Realm, Hua Jian felt even more drained after just being struck.
But more than exhaustion, she wanted to know what had attacked them.
The creature looked humanoid but was entirely made of rough stone. It was hard to believe such a thing could exist—did it even count as a living being?
“No idea, but it’s definitely hostile,” Linglong said, gripping her Ling Sword tightly as she charged at the Rock Giant, engaging it in battle.
Lightning crashed against the giant’s body but was less effective than expected. Maybe the earth element here also resisted lightning?
After a few clashes, Linglong’s expression grew serious. The giant’s body was incredibly tough, and her Ling Sword couldn’t deal much damage.
And its huge size didn’t slow its agility—it was a nimble heavyweight, a balanced hexagonal warrior in offense and defense.
As the fight wore on, Linglong found herself somewhat pressed by the giant, making Hua Jian increasingly anxious.
What could she do to help Linglong?
“Rooar!” The giant continued to roar incoherently.
It didn’t seem truly alive, and Hua Jian’s skills were mostly designed for dealing with living foes. She wasn’t cut out for smashing pits.
But in this situation, she had no choice but to try something desperate—hoping the Rock Giant was essentially a living being and might be affected by her Mist Breath.
“Hmm, using breath here probably won’t consume my spiritual energy; after all, it’s all imagined…” Hua Jian clenched her hand into a fist, and countless colorful mists appeared out of thin air, condensing into a thick bullet in her palm.
Her head was slightly dizzy, but gritting her teeth, she loaded the bullet and aimed it at the Rock Giant’s head, pulling the trigger.
Bang!
Strangely, this shot did not drain Hua Jian’s spiritual power at all—she felt the same before and after firing.
The rock giant, its body wrapped in mist, staggered into confusion as chunks of stone fell off it, eventually revealing its true form.
It was a person?!
Linglong had no time to be surprised. Regardless of whether it was a person, the situation allowed no hesitation.
Hua Jian clearly couldn’t launch another attack in this state. Linglong had to take advantage of the moment to eliminate this threat.
“Sorry!” Without hesitation, she swung her sword down, cleaving the person inside the stone giant cleanly in two.
Even after being cut in half, the Rock Giant showed no sign of waking. Its death was strange—Linglong wasn’t even sure it was truly dead.
No blood or anything else appeared; the two severed halves silently vanished into thin air, as if everything that had happened was just a nightmare.
Even the rock that had attacked them disappeared like a mirage.
It was incredibly eerie…
Thud!
Linglong, alert for any sign of the Rock Giant’s return, heard a soft sound behind her.
Turning around, she saw Hua Jian collapsed on the ground. That last strike had overexerted her soul, and she wouldn’t recover anytime soon.
They couldn’t stay here any longer. Linglong made a quick decision to take Hua Jian to a safer place.
She hurried over, scooped up the lifeless Hua Jian, and without hesitation, ran away from the area where the heavenly phenomenon was visible.
Linglong remembered what Hua Jian had said earlier—in this kind of situation, the farther from the Secret Realm’s core region, the safer it was.
Everyone gathered in the core, so the outer region was the safest place.
She would let the others rush ahead; her priority was protecting Hua Jian.
Carrying the feather-light girl, Linglong ran, but something felt off.
She realized that the faint, distinctive Dreamlike Fragrance on Hua Jian was gone. Normally, it was obvious as soon as she got close, but now, even pressing her nose to Hua Jian’s face revealed no scent.
This Secret Realm really was strange…
But thinking back, since Hua Jian had never noticed her own unusual fragrance before, this absence here made sense.
In Hua Jian’s mind, she was just an ordinary person without any body scent.
So in this Secret Realm, Hua Jian had no fragrance and was correspondingly weak.
If making Hua Jian believe she was strong could actually increase her power… Linglong entertained a bold idea.
But all that had to wait until Hua Jian woke up.
……
Hua Jian felt like she was trapped in a nightmare she couldn’t wake from.
This was fake—all around her was fake. This wasn’t reality; it was a dream.
But she couldn’t open her eyes. Her whole body felt drunk and unresponsive—even the simplest act of opening her eyes was impossible.
Amid the chaos of her mind, she saw a faint seven-colored glow deep in the blackness.
Just as she wondered what it was, a strong pull came from behind her, as if she were free-falling from tens of thousands of meters.
The intense weightlessness jolted her awake—honestly, this was the best wake-up method.
“Wow!”
Hua Jian suddenly sat up, bumping foreheads with Linglong, who was leaning over her.
The dizzy Hua Jian rolled back down, seeing many tiny golden stars dancing before her eyes.
Linglong rubbed her aching forehead, which Hua Jian had just headbutted, and it took a while to recover.
“What about that giant? Is it dead?” Hua Jian asked as she shook off the dizziness.
Before losing consciousness, she’d seen the Rock Giant freeze after being hit but didn’t know what happened next.
At least they were both alive, so Linglong must have helped her escape, right?
“I don’t know. I cut it in two, but the way it disappeared makes me unsure if it’s dead.” Linglong shook her head.
If there had been blood and gore, she would’ve thought so, but disappearing like a phantom didn’t convince her.
Maybe the giant was an illusion, and they hadn’t really defeated anything.
“I feel this Secret Realm is so strange. Everything seems unreal, like we’re trapped in a dream.”
“I feel that too… but can you wake yourself from a dream?” Hua Jian perked up hearing Linglong shared her feeling.
If she were alone in thinking this, she might suspect it was her imagination. But now, since Linglong agreed, it seemed more real.
“Yes, but I’ve tried. No effect.” Linglong shook her head.
“Then it’s probably part of the Secret Realm’s mechanics. If we don’t follow the Realm’s rules to complete the task, we can’t wake up from the dream.”
That answer didn’t surprise Hua Jian. If it were that easy to clear, would it really be a Main Quest?
Main Quests were long, requiring various conditions to clear—never simple.
Trying to skip out? That’s when you realize you’re missing a key item at the final boss fight.
“Speaking of which, I think you fainted because you lack confidence.”
Linglong shared her thoughts.
Hua Jian’s endurance was terrible—worse than an average Ling Shi-level cultivator. That was abnormal.
After much thought, Linglong believed the problem lay within Hua Jian herself. She was too insecure and underestimated her own strength.
“I think I’m confident enough…”
“Not enough. You need to be more confident.” Linglong shook her head firmly.
“If I get more confident, I’ll be arrogant.”
“That’s exactly the sign of not enough confidence.”
The two looked at each other, but Hua Jian broke first and looked away.
She realized Linglong might be right—she really wasn’t confident. But did that explain her poor endurance here?
“Then what should I do?”
“I don’t know. Maybe find some easy opponents to build your confidence?” Linglong knew the issue but couldn’t fix it.
Little Dragon Girl was a combat-type character, not a mom-type; she couldn’t play therapist.
This kind of personality came from childhood—it wasn’t something fixed with a few words.
“But… you can imagine your attacks as low-energy consumption. That might indirectly solve your problem.”
This was a different approach. Hua Jian thought she was weak, so her soul output was insufficient.
On top of that, she instinctively believed her attacks were powerful, making things worse. After a few big attacks, she’d overexert her soul and faint.
Linglong’s advice was to change perspective: just accept that your soul output is low for now; it’s not something to fix overnight.
Hua Jian needed to imagine her attacks as weaker, so the energy cost would be small.
“That makes sense. I have been blindly chasing big numbers,” Hua Jian scratched her head, feeling Linglong’s words were reasonable.
She’d been obsessed with hitting big damage even against stronger opponents—a tough goal.
In this imagination-based damage Secret Realm, that habit led to situations where she couldn’t kill enemies with one shot and ended up fainting from exhaustion.
So she’d change her approach—not chasing one-shot kills!
A mouse should have a mouse’s way of fighting—no big moves, just waist-level Heel Shot Gun!
With that change in mindset, a compact, efficient small firearm appeared before Hua Jian.
She grabbed the gun and fired at a nearby stone wall.
The muzzle erupted in flames, sending stone chips flying. She fired continuously for over ten seconds, showing no sign of strain.
“This works! The energy consumption is way lower!” She looked happily at the pockmarked stone wall.
The wall had many dents, but anyone could tell her attacks hadn’t done much real damage.
But Hua Jian didn’t care—Heel Shot Gun wasn’t for armor-piercing; hitting the foot? No one could save that person, not even a god descending!
Confidence poured from her heart.
Linglong rubbed her eyes, feeling like she’d misjudged things.