Chapter 65: Did You Bring What I Wanted?

The restriction that had enveloped the entire secret realm silently dispersed, and the many cultivators could clearly sense it with their spiritual senses.

The cultivators exchanged glances, their expressions full of wariness. Carefully and slowly, they stepped into the secret realm, then scattered in every direction, either alone or in small groups of three to five.

Inside the cave abode, under the attention of Lu Yuan’s special divine sense, the spiritual power of every cultivator had nowhere to hide, and their cultivation levels were revealed with perfect clarity.

“Tsk, tsk. Three Foundation Establishment cultivators, more than ten high-level Qi Refining cultivators. The leek harvest has gotten much bigger than before…”

Lu Yuan sighed inwardly, both delighted that the cave abode was about to receive a large number of light-orb rewards and faintly worried for the cave abode’s little ones, as well as the few precious spiritual herbs.

“Of the three Foundation Establishment cultivators, one is the sword cultivator I observed last time through the Illusory Yin Eye’s avatar. One is that strange female cultivator with wings, and the last is an old schemer who actually disguised himself as a mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator.”

“Among the other Qi Refining cultivators, there are a few repeat visitors. Aside from Ma Mingyuan, their rewards are nothing special. No freshness at all.”

Lu Yuan’s divine sense watched the cultivators who had entered the cave abode two or even three times before, and he found them somewhat boring.

Their targets were only the ungraded spiritual herbs around the outskirts. They were all fairly cautious, which was why they had been able to enter the cave abode repeatedly.

But their fortune was only average, and their innate treasures had nothing distinctive about them. Lu Yuan was considering whether he should add a little difficulty for them.

“Hm? Isn’t that the little boy from Cangxing City whose parents were flayed? I didn’t expect him to reach the mid-stage Qi Refining so quickly. Not bad, not bad.”

When Lu Yuan saw the little boy to whom he had once taught the Paper-Crafting Art, a fair bit of fondness arose in his heart.

After all, inside the cave abode, the one who had accompanied him the longest and shared the deepest bond with him was the Little Paper Man.

With the help of the Illusory Yin Eye’s eyeball avatars, combined with the coverage of his own divine sense, Lu Yuan had an unobstructed view of every cultivator who entered the cave abode.

Inside the cave abode, mist filled the air, and most cultivators could only see a fixed area around themselves.

This made it much more difficult for cultivators to obtain the spiritual herbs on the outskirts.

The original Mist-Concealing Confusion Array had mainly been meant to guard against cultivators outside the cave abode. Now that he had the Primordial Taiyin Restriction, the mist had shifted from outside the cave abode to within it.

Some cultivators flew into the air, but everything within their field of vision was thick white mist. They had no idea what was hidden beneath it.

In addition, the Primordial Taiyin Restriction had a certain flight-suppressing effect inside the cave abode, causing cultivators in the air to consume spirit energy more than ten times faster.

Very soon, the cultivators who had tried to fly over the white mist landed again and obediently began exploring the cave abode.

Inside the cave abode, a mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator was exploring the secret realm alone.

His cultivation level was the lowest among all the cultivators who had entered the secret realm, and he had come in alone. The mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator looked tense as he moved through the secret realm with extreme caution.

When Lu Yuan saw this scene through the Illusory Yin Eye, he sneered inwardly.

This man was the Foundation Establishment cultivator whose disguised cultivation level Lu Yuan had discovered. His acting was quite decent; his movements and expression were both very convincing.

Above the mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator’s head, a crack quietly opened on a tree branch. A scarlet eyeball rotated slightly, its gaze following his footsteps closely.

The cultivator carefully observed his surroundings. Seeing that there were no other cultivators or demonic beasts nearby, a speck of green light lit up between his fingers.

Before the scarlet eyeball could react, a point of green light appeared on its pupil. Many green lines grew out both horizontally and vertically, instantly forming what looked like a green prison that firmly bound the entire scarlet eyeball.

The mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator lightly flicked the green light on his finger. The green lines imprisoning the eyeball instantly contracted, slicing the scarlet eyeball into countless scraps of flesh and blood.

“Ah?! My eye!”

The camera broke, and one section of the screen before Lu Yuan instantly went black. Lu Yuan felt as though he had gone partially blind.

Beside him, the Illusory Yin Eye’s main pupil slightly raised its scarlet eyeball and stared at a certain direction in midair.

A tiny eyeball, a huge confusion.

What do you mean, your eye?

Lu Yuan hurriedly soothed it with his divine sense.

“You are my eyes…”

In just that brief moment, several more sections of the screen successively went black, leaving him unable to see anything.

This meant the eyeball avatars placed in those locations had already been destroyed.

Based on their positions, Lu Yuan determined that all the screens that had gone dark had done so because they had been observing the three Foundation Establishment cultivators. After discovering that they were being spied on, the cultivators had casually destroyed the eyeballs.

As for the Qi Refining cultivators, even those whose spiritual sense differed from ordinary people could at most sense that they were being watched in secret. They could not locate the exact positions of the eyeball avatars.

“They entered the master’s home, so is the master not even allowed to look a few more times?

“Sneaking around, and even deliberately hiding his cultivation level. In a bit, I’ll expose your true cultivation.”

Lu Yuan cursed and grumbled as he ordered all the eyeball avatars observing the Foundation Establishment cultivators to enter a dormant state, lest they be discovered.

Inside the cave abode, dense mist filled the entire secret realm. Spiritual sense could only function within a limited range. Ma Mingyuan remained cautious as he walked slowly through the secret realm.

He had already brought everything the Paper Figure had instructed him to bring into the secret realm, but after entering, how to hand it over had become a problem.

It had always been the Paper Figure who contacted him unilaterally. He had no way to contact the Paper Figure himself.

There were many cultivators inside the secret realm, and among them were some with profound cultivation levels that he could not detect. Ma Mingyuan did not dare make the slightest unusual move, afraid that he would fail to draw out the Paper Figure and instead bring disaster upon himself.

He was carrying a large number of spirit seeds and materials, yet the Paper Figure still had not appeared. This left Ma Mingyuan with little interest even in picking the spiritual herbs he discovered.

Seeing Ma Mingyuan like this, Lu Yuan suddenly understood. He had almost forgotten the matter he had once entrusted to him.

He controlled the Little Paper Man and had it drift into the thick mist.

“Heehee…”

A familiar soft laugh sounded beside Ma Mingyuan’s ear.

He immediately let out a breath of relief and looked toward the sound.

Sure enough, a Paper Figure about two feet tall drifted in front of him.

The Paper Figure stretched its body longer and pulled out one small hand. Afraid that Ma Mingyuan would be unable to read the writing clearly through the thick mist, it even specially switched to a medium-grade fluorescent ore.

Holding the unknown ore in its small hand, it rapidly wrote across its own body.

“Did you bring what I wanted?”

“I brought it. The five paper slips from last time sold for a very high price.”

As Ma Mingyuan told the Paper Figure about his experience consigning the paper slips for sale, he quickly took the spirit seeds and materials out of his storage bag.

“Very good. Goods and payment settled. You and I owe each other nothing now.”

The Paper Figure wrote with one hand while using the other to take the goods into its back.

Ma Mingyuan watched as the Paper Figure was about to finish putting away all the materials. Thinking of the many hardships he had endured since he began cultivating, and then thinking of how the Paper Figure had casually given him a third-rank Sword-Nurturing Gourd, while a single thin paper slip had easily sold for several hundred low-grade spirit stones, a trace of hesitation flashed across his face. Then Ma Mingyuan made his decision.

“Senior, please give me a chance.”

“Oh? And how should I give you a chance?”

“Before, I didn’t have a choice. Now, I want to work for you, Senior, and help you solve your worries.”

Ma Mingyuan’s tone was decisive, his expression firm.

“Sure. Go tell the master of the secret realm and see whether he’ll allow you to work for him.”

The Paper Figure left behind a sentence that made Ma Mingyuan unable to make sense of it no matter how hard he thought, then drifted away.

Now that I’ve had a relatively good writing environment for a while, updates should become a bit more stable going forward. Please keep reading~

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