Right now, the two of them had no way to leave this space anyway.
Since A Meng was willing to share a method on her own initiative, there was no reason to butt heads with her.
Ultimately, it was better to leave this bizarre place as soon as possible.
As for whether A Meng might be deceiving them…trust always comes with risks.
Hua Jian felt that while A Meng was a bit sly, she probably wasn’t that bad.
She could be trusted—at least a little.
If they doubted everything A Meng said and tried to find a way out on their own, in the end, they’d probably still have to check out the very center of the Heaven and Earth Phenomenon.
Wasn’t that exactly what A Meng had suggested?
“Let’s go. There’s still a tough battle ahead. Look, they’ve already started fighting up ahead.”
When Hua Jian and Linglong were chasing after A Meng, A Meng had already started fighting the monsters.
These monsters were even more terrifying than the ones they’d seen before—every one of them was at least as strong as that giant spider Hua Jian had faced not long ago.
These monsters indiscriminately attacked any life form that got close to the center of the Heaven and Earth Phenomenon.
Even A Meng was attacked by them as soon as she approached.
But her counterattack wasn’t as sharp as Hua Jian had imagined.
She simply used her wings to send out a few very ordinary energy strikes at the monsters.
Although the effect seemed pretty good, it was nothing like the overwhelming, world-crushing might Hua Jian had pictured.
“Thunderbolt Subdues Evil!” Linglong also joined the battle, but when her lightning struck, the damage was honestly rather pitiful.
It seemed like these monsters weren’t really afraid of her lightning at all.
Instead, it was Hua Jian, who focused her attacks on the monsters’ legs, who got good results. Before long, she broke one of the monsters’ legs.
The leg that Hua Jian knocked off turned into shattered motes of light and was sucked into the Heaven and Earth Phenomenon above.
In this place, it seemed that whenever something detached from the main body, it was deemed a “dead part” and then absorbed by the phenomenon overhead.
“All attacks are just on the surface! The essence is the collision of soulforce against soulforce. No matter how fancy your attack style, it’s useless!”
A Meng shouted back at Linglong in the midst of her busy fighting.
Why couldn’t Linglong deal any real damage? The answer was simple: her soulforce strength wasn’t much different from these monsters’. In fact, these monsters might even have stronger soulforce than hers.
So her lightning attacks didn’t do a thing.
Then why could Hua Jian so easily deal damage? Good question—A Meng didn’t know, either.
Maybe it was because Hua Jian’s soulforce was even more refined and much higher in quality than Linglong’s.
In terms of total amount, Hua Jian’s soulforce really wasn’t as great as Linglong’s, but in terms of quality, for some strange reason, hers was much stronger.
That manifested here: Hua Jian could easily inflict massive damage to the monsters’ limbs, quickly breaking them and weakening their strength.
Because she truly believed she could do damage in these places, and her soulforce supported her, so she was able to do it.
Linglong also believed in herself, but her soulforce simply wasn’t as high as Hua Jian’s.
What’s more, she kept attacking the monsters’ core bodies, so it was only natural that she couldn’t do much damage.
“If it really doesn’t work, just give her some cover—help her control the monsters!”
Of the three, the strongest in battle was undoubtedly A Meng.
For her, it was usually one slap to send a monster reeling, two slaps to send it flying, and three slaps to send it straight to the afterlife.
But after flipping a monster, she’d need to catch her breath for a moment; even taking down one was a big drain for her.
“By the way, if we’re wrecking their soulforce here, won’t those cultivators in reality just shatter their soulforce and die?”
Hua Jian shouted as she kept hammering at the monster’s leg bound by Lightning Chain.
“Do you think if you don’t act, they won’t die anyway?” A Meng dodged a stream of filthy black liquid a monster spewed at her and shot Hua Jian a counter-question.
The monster whose leg Hua Jian had just broken was already being torn to pieces by the others around it.
This battle was never a three-on-a-bunch fight. It was three-on-one-on-one-on-one… The monsters weren’t allies—they attacked each other too.
Below the Heaven and Earth Phenomenon, a dozen monsters were locked in chaotic battle, every one of them an immensely powerful presence.
Now, Hua Jian had a suspicion: Could these monsters—so powerful even Linglong had trouble dealing with them—actually be Spirit Kings from outside?
Linglong had said earlier her soulforce here was no weaker than a Ling King, so if she had trouble fighting them, that would make sense.
Those stone giants and giant spiders earlier must have been similar to Ling Kings, while that little blue snake who ambushed them last was probably a Spirit Master, since Linglong took it down with ease.
It fit perfectly—Linglong had a tough time with Ling Kings, but could deal with Spirit Masters easily.
“Can’t we just avoid them and go straight through?”
“No way. To leave here, we need to trigger the Guide Phenomenon and borrow its power to get out. But as soon as these guys see us approach, they’ll swarm us like mad—we have to deal with them first.”
This back-and-forth finally made Hua Jian understand their current predicament. So, escaping the Secret Realm meant they’d have to hold out for some time?
They had to fight their way through these monsters into the heart of the phenomenon, then the strongest in their group, A Meng, would trigger the Guide Phenomenon.
She and Linglong would need to protect A Meng for a certain period. Only then could they finish the task and leave the Secret Realm.
Honestly, it really felt like a big quest from some massive event.
“The Secret Realm Entrance is still open. People are constantly entering. Won’t they just come straight in here and become our enemies?”
“Normally, they’d kill each other off, and only the strong would gather here. Look—there’s another one coming now, isn’t there?”
A Meng thrust her hand into the head of a monster that looked just like a Black Tiger, tearing it in half with brute force, then nodded in a certain direction.
From that way, a dark red Six-Eyed Crimson Eagle flew in and joined the chaotic brawl.
“Isn’t this quest a little too difficult…” Hua Jian suddenly felt a headache.
Before entering the Secret Realm, she never thought she’d have to fight her way out from the soulforce of a horde of Ling Kings.
But it was what it was. What else could she do but stick with A Meng?
“Linglong, help me zap that Three-Legged Black Goat—I’m taking it down.”
“Alright!”
Now that she had changed her battle approach, Linglong finally displayed the suppressive power befitting a Saintess of the Saint Sect.
Concentrated thunderlight turned into cords that bound the huge monster, leaving it unable to move for a while.
Hua Jian seized the chance, rushed up to the monster, and unleashed a barrage of attacks at its leg joints with multicolored beams, quickly severing half of one leg.
And as everyone knew, something with three legs has a hard time staying upright after losing one.
Especially when someone gives it a good hard push from behind—it becomes even harder to stay up.
That pusher was Linglong. As a Saintess, her attacks didn’t deal much damage, but the impact of her lightning could send a monster tumbling with no problem.
As thunder struck the monster’s head and knocked it toward its missing leg, this unnaturally massive beast toppled with a crash.
The other monsters, seeing this, immediately pounced on the fallen and wounded one.
Blinded by greed, they made the most advantageous choice for themselves—gang up and take out a rival.
“There’s no need to kill all of them. If we injure them and toss them into the pack, it’ll delay the others even longer!” Hua Jian reminded A Meng.
With just the three of them, it would be hard to finish off this group in a short time.
It was better to let these guys fight each other while they secretly carried out their escape plan.
As for how to hold out afterward, Hua Jian could only say—cross that bridge when you get there. Take it one step at a time.
Better than sinking deeper into this quagmire.
A Meng hesitated, but finally accepted Hua Jian’s suggestion, injuring her opponents and then throwing them into the midst of the other monsters, letting monsters attack monsters.
There were no “kill rewards” here anyway—giving the kill to the monsters cost them nothing.
After doing this, the trio’s pace picked up considerably. Before long, they broke through the monsters’ lines and reached the center of the Heaven and Earth Phenomenon.
The environment here was a world apart from the foul, chaotic battlefield outside—one side was the filthiest arena of desires, the other was a tranquil, otherworldly paradise.
Even Hua Jian was stunned by the beauty here. She never would have thought that the heart of the Heaven and Earth Phenomenon would look like this.
It was a grassland in full bloom, with seven-colored light streaming down from the phenomenon above, turning into a misty rain that nourished everything within.
Hua Jian felt her spent soulforce being restored in just a few breaths.
In fact… maybe even a bit too much was restored.
“I’m going to begin the ceremony—help me hold off those monsters… Eh?” A Meng reached up toward the sky to begin, but suddenly realized something was wrong.
The energy she needed for the ceremony seemed to be getting absorbed by something else?
Her gaze instantly locked onto Hua Jian, who was standing there with hands raised and a blank look. “What are you doing?!”
There was no mystery here at all—because the misty rain falling from the sky had formed a vortex above Hua Jian’s head, condensing into a stream of shimmering, rainbow-colored water.
“I don’t know!” Hua Jian was almost in tears—she wanted to know why this was happening, too.
“That’s supposed to be for that thing—how could you… Ugh, whatever! I can’t worry about this now. I’ll continue the ceremony. Just don’t get overloaded and explode!”
Normally, A Meng would never have let this slide, but now, with time running out, she could only ignore Hua Jian’s ‘snacking’ behavior.
What else could she do? She still needed Hua Jian and Linglong to help hold back the monsters.
“I don’t want to absorb it either! What’s with all this energy?” Hua Jian was starting to feel her head swell—her consciousness was filling with chaotic information, and it felt like her brain was about to burst.
She couldn’t keep this up—she had to find a way to burn off all this energy!
Behind her, A Meng was already performing the ceremony.
Under her guidance, the multicolored stream transformed into a square formation, gradually breaking down the surrounding space.
The monsters locked in bitter battle outside finally noticed what was happening here.
Seeing that someone had beaten them to this fairyland, their rage boiled over.
Kill those guys, and the treasure should belong to us!
The monsters stopped fighting each other and rushed straight for the trio.
Watching the end-of-the-world scene, Hua Jian suddenly started to laugh.
She’d just been worrying about how to burn off the excess energy—and here came a whole string of targets delivered to her door!
“Hua Jian, we…” Linglong stared gravely at the oncoming monsters and was about to ask what battle plan they should use, when she suddenly heard a strange voice from Hua Jian’s side.
“Fall back. Leave it to me.”
“What?”
Linglong didn’t get a reply. She only saw Hua Jian slowly float up into the sky, rainbow light gathering at her side to form a giant, strangely-shaped sword.
On closer look, Linglong realized this wasn’t a sword, but rather the weapon Hua Jian had imagined earlier, only to give up on due to its high energy consumption.
But now, Hua Jian had summoned it again—and made it several sizes bigger.
“Let’s see if I can burn off all this energy with this…”
Bang!
A streak of light burst from the weapon’s barrel, piercing straight through a monster.
But the monster didn’t die immediately—Hua Jian had to fire again to finish it off.
The death of one monster couldn’t stop the others—they didn’t know the meaning of retreat.
Hua Jian couldn’t help but purse her lips. Even though her resources were now limitless, these monsters were so tough that even two shots weren’t enough to kill one.
Her damage output had a hard cap. The monsters’ health bars were simply above her kill line, so even with infinite energy, she’d have to take them out one by one.
For the current situation, her output efficiency was just a bit too low.
“A Meng, is there any way to let Linglong use this power too?” Since she couldn’t handle it alone, Hua Jian had to look for another way.
The most obvious solution was to put to use the only one among the three who was currently just spectating.
Saintess, it’s your turn to shine!
“How should I know!” A Meng shouted back in frustration.
She didn’t even know how Hua Jian was using this power herself, let alone how to share it with Linglong.
These things didn’t belong to them to begin with—A Meng could only use a little because of her innate connection to that thing. Who knew what the principle was?
“Useless! Fine, I’ll figure it out myself.” Hua Jian grumbled at A Meng, then started thinking hard.
Since she drew her power from the misty rain above, maybe she could share the energy she absorbed in the same way and let Linglong use it too?
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