Chapter 44: Secret Realm Strategy

Because of the Little Paper Man’s deterrence, no one fought for the next half quarter-hour, and no one had the attention to pick any more spiritual herbs. Each of them chose a different direction and headed toward the edge of the cave abode.

They had already gathered enough spiritual herbs. Their little lives mattered more.

Soon, several cultivators with little ambition and insufficient strength flew away one after another. Among them, one or two followed behind others, likely harboring malicious intent and planning to kill and seize treasure.

Several cultivators had been surrounding Ma Mingyuan the whole time. When the moment arrived, all the blood essence in Ma Mingyuan’s body began to burn, transforming him into a streak of blood-shadow that vanished from everyone’s sight.

His speed far exceeded the expectations of those cultivators. Amid curses and grumbling, they rode their flying swords and chased in the direction Ma Mingyuan had left.

At this point, everyone had left the cave abode, and the cave abode returned to silence.

The final Sword-Nurturing Gourd had landed on Ma Mingyuan’s head, naturally, because Lu Yuan had deliberately arranged it.

All the grand prizes had already been decided by fate.

The main reason was that Ma Mingyuan’s second entry into the cave abode had still brought the cave abode quite a generous reward.

In addition, Lu Yuan still needed Ma Mingyuan to do something for him. On the Sword-Nurturing Gourd, several thin paper slips were stacked together.

Lu Yuan needed Ma Mingyuan to continue selling the paper slips. Only this time, given how good the advertisement for entering the cave abode would probably be, he planned to raise the price of the paper slips. The price would double from one hundred low-grade spirit stones to two hundred low-grade spirit stones, doubling the ticket revenue.

He also provided Ma Mingyuan with a shopping list. After the spirit stones were obtained, Ma Mingyuan would help buy some spirit seeds and ritual implements to enrich the resources inside the cave abode.

Because of these two reasons, the Sword-Nurturing Gourd was given to Ma Mingyuan as a natural favor, so he could continue bringing Lu Yuan rewards and spirit stones.

All the gifts secretly bestowed by fate had long since had their prices marked in secret...

Lu Yuan looked over the entire cave abode. The two main places where fighting had broken out were the Snow Condensing Fruit area and the Sword-Nurturing Gourd planting area.

Especially near the Sword-Nurturing Gourd, flesh, eyeballs, white bones... had burst everywhere.

Lu Yuan controlled the Ghost-Faced Spider and had it absorb the remnant souls left behind in those two places into its back.

Over by the Snow Condensing Fruit, the Silver-Thread Mantis moved out. Its pair of forelimbs were like two rapidly dancing cleavers, chopping up the corpses and tossing them into the pond to feed the big-headed strange fish.

Here at the Sword-Nurturing Gourd, the Blood-Devouring Vine went into action. It ate both meat and vegetation without discrimination, drilling its vines into chunks of flesh, damaged eyeballs, and broken white bones to suck with all its might. It even had to draw out a bit of marrow from the bones.

After absorbing the essence of three extraordinary high-level Qi Refining cultivators, several of the vines split off by the Blood-Devouring Vine grew stronger by thirty percent, further narrowing the gap between them and the main vine.

The sharp barbs also grew a little longer, and they looked much tougher than before. Presumably, that was thanks to those bone spikes.

“There really are still more good people than bad in the cultivation world... While alive, they brought me light orb rewards. Even after dying, they still stood their final post with devotion and gave everything they had to this cave abode.”

“He really... I’m crying...”

Looking at the cultivator corpses that had been squeezed dry of their last bit of utility, Lu Yuan was deeply moved.

He casually touched a white light orb, and tears of spirit energy streamed down.

…

In the wilderness, a cultivator stepped on a flying sword and shot swiftly through the air.

After a while, the cultivator put away the flying sword and stopped in a stretch of woods.

After confirming that there were no pursuers behind him and no dangerous circumstances in the woods, the cultivator let out a breath of relief.

Then he took a sheet of white paper from his storage bag and unfolded it.

The white paper hovered in midair. On its surface, many tiny black tadpoles swam about without pattern. On closer inspection, the black tadpoles were actually formed from ink.

The cultivator attached his spiritual sense to the ink, and one tiny black character after another quickly took shape on the white paper.

He belonged to a powerful intelligence organization. He was usually stationed in Cangxing City, and his main task was to keep watch on the various secret realms in the wilderness outside Cangxing City, especially secret realms newly appearing in the public eye, or even spirit realms.

When a new secret realm appeared, he needed to explore it, personally observe everything inside, and assess the secret realm’s value.

Then he would upload the information to the organization. After the organization confirmed the secret realm’s value, it would dispatch people to explore it again. If they gained substantial harvests within the secret realm, he would receive a generous reward.

This time, he had entered the secret realm with something of a gambler’s mindset, spending one hundred low-grade spirit stones to obtain entry qualification. Unexpectedly, he had discovered a treasure trove of a secret realm.

As soon as he came out, he could not wait to pass the news of the secret realm to his organization.

On the white paper, the tiny ink tadpoles formed tiny black characters under the influence of his spirit energy.

Secret realm location: Southeast of Cangxing City, approximately three days’ journey. The specific location requires further exploration.

Entry method: Guided by a mysterious paper slip. At a certain point in time, the paper slip takes effect and leads the cultivator holding it into the secret realm. Other entry methods are not yet known.

Defensive force: The outer perimeter of the secret realm is protected by an array. The fog generated by the array covers the entire secret realm, mainly functioning in concealment and maze-confusion. The defensive force is judged to be low-to-mid level.

Secret realm value: The secret realm exceeds one hundred zhang in both length and width, and its area is quite large. Time was limited, and the degree of exploration was around sixty to seventy percent.

The outer perimeter of the secret realm contains ungraded spiritual herbs, including Mind-Bewildering Flower, Peach Blossom Miasma, Spirit Firefly Grass, and others. Their growth is good, and their quantity is extremely large.

Farther inside, first-rank spiritual herbs such as Blood Spirit Leaf and Snow Condensing Fruit were discovered. Their quantity is relatively reduced.

Aside from this, a pond was also discovered. The spirit energy inside is dense, and it is predicted that it can serve as a spiritual spring, usable for brewing spirit wine and refining spirit pills.

At the central position, second-rank Purple Bone Bamboo was discovered, around seven or eight stalks. They are about to enter maturity. Two stalks were harvested by others, leaving only their rootstalks.

Finally, third-rank Sword-Nurturing Gourds were discovered! Both gourds were seized. The gourd vine remains and can continue to be cultivated to nurture new Sword-Nurturing Gourds.

Secret realm danger level: Hidden within the peach grove is a Silver-Thread Mantis, a first-rank demonic beast in its juvenile stage. Its strength approaches that of two ordinary mid-level Qi Refining cultivators.

A Blood-Devouring Vine is hidden on the outer perimeter. It has successfully evolved once and is now a first-rank demonic beast. Its strength is estimated to be equivalent to that of an ordinary high-level Qi Refining cultivator.

There is a Yinfire Ant nest. Because the number cannot be known, its threat level cannot be predicted.

Inside the pond is a second-rank Python-Sparrow Eel in its juvenile stage. Its strength is equivalent to that of one to two ordinary high-level Qi Refining cultivators.

Aside from this, there are also two big-headed strange fish. Strength... negligible.

There are two weird entities. One is an Aberrant Grade Ghost-Faced Spider, with strength equivalent to two to three ordinary high-level Qi Refining cultivators.

The other is an Aberrant Grade mysterious Paper Figure. Its status within the secret realm is extremely high, and it is suspected to be the master of the secret realm. Its strength is formidable, its intelligence is quite high, and it may not harbor much hostility toward human cultivators. Its strength is estimated to be no lower than that of an ordinary early Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Note: It is worth noting that a stone cave exists within the secret realm. Entry into it is impossible. There may be treasure hidden inside, or there may be immense danger. The mysterious Paper Figure emerged from the stone cave.

Dense black characters almost occupied the entire sheet of white paper. The cultivator dripped a drop of blood essence onto the paper. The blood essence quickly seeped into the white paper and vanished.

Following the connection of his blood essence, he formed a hand seal. The white paper transformed into a small bird with a white body and black markings, then shot straight into the clouds.

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