"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
Qin Yang waved his hand grandly, ready to plunge into the glowing portal.
Lou Mengyu and Jin Wanshan hastily grabbed him.
"Are you suicidal? Even the lowest-level secret realm is a Zongshi-level realm. Who without Zongshi Realm cultivation would dare enter?" Jin Wanshan demanded.
Lou Mengyu added, "If it were merely a Zongshi-level realm, our Qi Sea Realm strength might suffice. But what if this realm is teetering on the brink of collapse...?"
"What then? The Treasure Rat's already inside!" Qin Yang countered.
"What?"
"But..."
The Treasure Rat was priceless. After such effort to capture it, were they to let it slip away now?
Each secret realm was an independent miniature world. Qin Yang had already lost contact with the Treasure Rat and had no means to retrieve it.
"If the Treasure Rat dared enter, that means the interior isn't truly dangerous. Are we less capable than a mere rodent?" Qin Yang chuckled, stepping directly into the light portal.
With no choice, Lou Mengyu and Jin Wanshan cautiously followed.
Not long after the trio entered, Gongsun Ming and Lou Qinru approached. The two exchanged glances, their excitement palpable.
"We actually found the secret realm!" Gongsun Ming clenched his fists, his heart pounding with the enormity of the opportunity.
Lou Qinru was so excited she could have jumped up and down. "Once we're all here, we'll go straight in. Whatever Qin Yang found, we'll take it all!"
"Gongsun Ming? Lou Qinru?"
A questioning voice suddenly called out, followed by an exclamation: "Heavens! The secret realm's gate!"
Nangong Ling, Wei Yu, and their group had come to search for Qin Yang. After searching the Qinling Mountains for so long without finding a trace of him, they'd unexpectedly stumbled upon this treasure.
"Nangong Ling... Wei Yu..." Gongsun Ming's expression darkened.
If they'd joined forces with others, the Eight Divine Clans' might would have deterred any rivals. But Nangong Ling and Wei Yu also hailed from divine clans...
The two groups faced each other in tense silence.
"It seems you don't welcome us?" Nangong Ling chuckled.
Wei Yu joined in with a laugh.
What did it matter if they weren't welcome? Their strength far surpassed Gongsun Ming and Lou Qinru's.
Gongsun Ming considered the situation. With Nangong Ling's group here too, he wondered what new schemes Qin Yang could possibly devise.
"What did you say? Qin Yang stole your Treasure Rat and found this secret realm that way?" Nangong Ling asked.
Gongsun Ming nodded. "Exactly. Li Mingyang went to find others, and I was just about to settle things with Qin Yang. But with you all here, we don't need to wait. Oh, your assessment area was supposed to be in the Qin River Forest, right? How did you end up in the Qinling Mountains?"
Wei Yu explained, "Qin Yang provoked us first by going to the Qin River Forest. Then he bet with Nangong Ling that whoever had the most points after the assessment would win. The stakes were sixteen thousand low-grade spirit stones."
Nangong Ling cleared her throat. "The spirit stones aren't important. The real joke is someone actually daring to compete with me in hunting demonic beasts! Qin Yang's leading now, so he must be cheating. We're here to confirm that."
Gongsun Ming's heart swelled with joy. So Nangong Ling and the others had a beef with Qin Yang too. Perfect!
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go! This secret realm is full of treasures. Once we find Qin Yang, we'll teach him a lesson and split the loot! He'll just have to watch from the sidelines!"
Gongsun Ming burst into hearty laughter.
One by one, the group entered the luminous portal.
Before long, Li Mingyang had gathered a substantial crowd. Through his embellished accounts, Qin Yang had been branded a bandit, stirring righteous indignation among the people who clamored for retribution.
As more individuals poured into the secret realm, the portal began to distort. The glowing gateway gradually shrank, showing signs of imminent collapse!
A figure suddenly flashed through the crowd, materializing before the portal.
Martial Heaven stared in astonishment at the vanishing gateway. Noticing the chaotic footprints surrounding it, his expression darkened.
"These brats! How dare they be so reckless!" Martial Heaven ground his teeth in fury. "Have they all gone mad? Do they not value their lives?"
He produced the Celestial Token and channeled divine energy into it. Attempting to transmit information, he discovered that communication had been severed across dozens of Celestial Tokens spanning the Qinling Mountains and Qin River Forest.
"Too late..." Martial Heaven's heart skipped a beat. He had merely been conducting routine inspections of the examination area, never expecting to stumble upon such a critical situation - and now he'd arrived too late to prevent it.
Martial Heaven burned with anxiety as the secret realm's gate slowly vanished, leaving him powerless to act.
"This has already degraded to a Zongshi-level secret realm," he thought bitterly. "If I enter now, the entire structure might collapse..." All he could do was pray for the safety of those inside.
"The God Dao Clan sent five members in... What if they perish?"
No, this must be reported immediately!
Martial Heaven produced another token and transmitted an urgent message to Celestial Academy.
Within the secret realm, Qin Yang and his companions felt the world spin violently before everything transformed around them.
They gasped as they realized the spiritual energy here was several times stronger than outside! Cultivation here would be twice as efficient!
Lou Mengyu's eyes lit up. "The God Dao Clan's secret realm normally uses formations to lock spiritual energy for their cultivation chambers. Now that the main formation is gone, the entire realm becomes one vast cultivation chamber!"
Their eyes took in the lush surroundings - mountains, rocks, and vegetation stretching out like a paradise beyond the mortal world.
The Treasure Rat circled excitedly in place, its enthusiasm palpable. The sheer abundance of treasures left it uncertain where to begin!
"We should remain cautious," Qin Yang said, his brow furrowed. "Something about this place gives me an uneasy feeling."
The secret realm's tranquility and beauty felt unnatural. Such serenity shouldn't exist in a dangerous hidden realm.
Jin Wanshan and Lou Mengyu nodded in agreement, their movements becoming more cautious.
The Treasure Rat began leading the way, and the trio hurried to follow.
"A sixth-order spirit medicine! The Wan Ling Flower!"
Near a mountain rock, a pure white flower bloomed unexpectedly. Visible spiritual energy swirled around it, creating a vortex. The Wan Ling Flower seemed almost sentient, its delicate petals gently fluttering as if consuming the swirling spiritual energy.
"This is a sixth-order spirit medicine!" Jin Wanshan's heart raced. Spirit medicines required for pill refinement in the Qi Sea Realm typically only reached third-order. But a sixth-order spirit medicine could be used to refine sixth-order pills—those corresponding to the Divine King Realm!
Even without refining pills, consuming just a single leaf of the Wan Ling Flower would be enough to elevate their current cultivation realm by a minor stage!
The crux of the matter was that the Wan Ling Flower had gone extinct on the Celestial Continent! Such a spirit medicine could only be found within secret realms!
"Be careful," Qin Yang cautioned. "Even second and third-tier spirit medicines are guarded by beasts. There's no reason for a sixth-tier spirit medicine to be any different..." Before he could finish his sentence, a surge of anger welled up within him.
The Treasure Rat had somehow slipped away and was now circling the Wan Ling Flower. In a flash, it bit off several petals!
"I'll damn well skin you alive!" Qin Yang roared, lunging forward and grabbing the Treasure Rat by its tail. He nearly smashed the wretched creature against the ground.
The Treasure Rat narrowed its eyes, basking in the experience as it processed the Wan Ling Flower's medicinal power. The dense spiritual energy permeating its body suggested the creature might even be on the verge of advancing to a higher stage!