Xu Huayi's brain remained offline for a full five seconds before it finally rebooted.
Then, she slowly shifted her gaze back from the massive mountain hovering behind Gu Chengming and fixed it on the man himself.
Xu Huayi opened her mouth to say something, but found herself unable to organize a single word.
"Fellow Daoist Gu," she finally spoke: "Did you... refine this entire mountain?"
Gu Chengming nodded.
Xu Huayi took a deep breath: "What about the swords inside?"
"I suppose they were included as a bonus?"
Xu Huayi: "..."
She glanced at the mountain once more.
The iron-gray body, the vertical cliffs, and the messy silhouette of spikes at the peak were partially hidden in the clouds, the entire mass floating serenely in mid-air.
Xu Huayi felt that the three skills she had cultivated during her years at the Imperial Observatory—reading people, remaining calm in danger, and staying unruffled by surprises—should be given top marks at this moment.
Truth be told, when Gu Chengming encountered that broken ancient sword inside the Burial Sword Tomb, he hadn't expected this outcome either.
The moment his divine sense touched that sword, the sword intent of the entire mountain surged toward him; at that time, only one thought had time to surface in Gu Chengming's mind: It's over, I'll have to play galgames in my next life.
Then, Hundred Bones Resonating began to speak incoherently with excitement in the dialogue box.
【Hundred Bones Resonating is profoundly shaken and cries out: Emperor Gu, this is Heavenly Emperor Luck!!】
Wrapped in that surging sword intent, Gu Chengming thought to himself: Emperor Bai, can you wait a moment to cheer? I'm currently experiencing a life-and-death crisis.
Fortunately, that sword intent had no intention of tearing him apart; instead, it seemed to finally recognize something, and then the entire Burial Sword Tomb was refined by him just like that.
The two stood in place for a while, jointly examining this headache-inducing situation.
"First, the most urgent matter."
Xu Huayi spun her judge's pen half a turn in her palm, being the first to return to the task at hand: "A storage pouch definitely won't fit it; we can rule that out."
Gu Chengming thought to himself: Haha, Fellow Daoist Xu, you actually have quite a sense of humor.
"Fellow Daoist Gu, have you considered that we are likely currently in a secret realm where multiple forces are mixed? If you walk around with a mountain like this, it's almost like..."
Xu Huayi struggled to find the right words, but for a long time, she couldn't come up with a better metaphor.
—It's almost like having "You are the new King of Opportunity" written over your head, right?
Gu Chengming mentally completed her sentence.
A massive iron-gray mountain floating behind someone was impossible to hide; as long as anyone in the secret realm had eyes, they couldn't pretend not to see it.
The two looked at each other in silence, then looked at the mountain together.
The mountain remained silent, hovering steadily in place, projecting a subtle sense of innocence.
"Make it fly upward, to a height where it can't be seen?" Gu Chengming suddenly suggested.
Xu Huayi's eyes flickered slightly, then she shook her head: "There are restrictions within the secret realm; you cannot fly above a certain height, nor can you—"
Before she could finish, Gu Chengming had already formed the thought, and the mountain began to move slowly upward: ten feet, twenty feet, fifty feet...
Xu Huayi looked up at the shrinking mountain and swallowed the rest of her words.
—This works too?
The mountain flew higher and higher, its silhouette becoming increasingly blurred, gradually merging into the low-hanging clouds until it vanished completely. The sky looked no different than usual, as if nothing had happened.
Gu Chengming tilted his head and felt for a moment.
"I can still sense it."
Xu Huayi: "Yes, the connection between a dharma artifact and its master won't be severed by distance; that is normal."
She paused, mentally reviewing her next sentence to ensure the phrasing was correct before continuing: "But others cannot sense it. This secret realm has shielding restrictions; once a certain height is exceeded, any aura will be blocked. Now that your Burial Sword Tomb has flown in, people outside will no longer be able to perceive it."
As she spoke, she felt that the five words "your Burial Sword Tomb" ranked among the top three most absurd descriptions she had ever uttered in her life.
Gu Chengming didn't notice her momentary lapse; he was just staring at the empty sky, thinking: So, how exactly am I supposed to take this thing back?
It could be hidden in the secret realm, but what about after leaving it?
He could imagine the scene—emerging from Tianque under everyone's watchful eyes, a massive mountain silently descending behind him, the entire field falling into a dead silence, and then some elder finally speaking up to ask: Gu Chengming, what is that thing you brought out?
Gu Chengming ran through this scenario in his head and felt it would be quite difficult to handle.
【Huiyuan Sword Manual dizzily senses that majestic sword intent from afar and says: Chengming, there are so many, many swords in there!】
【They are all yours now, Chengming is so amazing!】
They are all mine, Gu Chengming thought, but the problem is where I'm supposed to put them.
"Fellow Daoist Gu." Xu Huayi's voice pulled him back: "Let me ask first, is the spiritual energy consumption high?"
Logically, flying a mountain so high should consume a staggering amount of energy.
She was actually somewhat worried that Gu Chengming was just forcing himself to look fine.
"I have about... seventy or eighty percent of my spiritual energy left." Gu Chengming estimated: "It's much less than I thought; it's not too difficult."
Xu Huayi was somewhat surprised. After thinking for a moment, she analyzed: "So many dharma swords have accumulated in there over the years; that itself is a massive reservoir of spiritual energy. It might not rely entirely on you to drive it..."
Gu Chengming nodded in agreement.
Xu Huayi tucked her judge's pen back into her sleeve and organized her thoughts.
"Then the most urgent thing now," she finally said, "is to find the main force first, regroup with everyone, and confirm the safety of all parties. As for the matter of the Burial Sword Tomb, we can slowly think of a strategy later. Since it's currently hidden in the restrictions, there's no need to be too anxious."
The two looked at each other for a moment and by unspoken agreement set the topic aside for now.
The snow crunched under their feet, the sky remained grayish-white, and in the distance between the clouds, those few spiritual lights were still flowing, unhurriedly.
...
Meanwhile, on the other side of the secret realm, in the temporary camp where the Daqian cultivators were stationed, the atmosphere was far from as quiet as the snowfield.
Gu Chengming and Xu Huayi had yet to return, and everyone had their own thoughts.
Among the crowd, one person was more uneasy than anyone else: Fellow Daoist Jiang.
On the surface, he looked calm, even showing a hint of worry, blending in perfectly with the other Daqian cultivators who were waiting for news with long faces.
In reality, his mind was currently reviewing everything that had happened from the moment they entered the secret realm until now.
The conclusion he reached was depressing.
—Gu Chengming very likely already knew his identity.
And now, the only way out seemed to be running away.
Jiang Yun quietly moved his fingers, shifting the dharma artifacts in his sleeve to a more accessible position while his peripheral vision began to unobtrusively scan the surrounding terrain.
Flying was forbidden within the secret realm, which was a problem.
However, the internal spatial structure of Tianque was complex with turbulence everywhere, providing plenty of natural barriers to exploit. As long as he ran fast enough and had a good sense of direction, it wasn't impossible to shake off pursuers.
Furthermore, he had his own people inside the secret realm.
He just needed to find the right moment to quietly slip away from Daqian's sight, regroup with his own people, and then—
"Fellow Daoist Jiang."
Jiang Yun's heart skipped half a beat.
He maintained that indifferent expression on his face and slowly turned around, a proper smile already prepared on his lips.
Then he saw Shen Jinghong. This Daqian Third Realm Senior Banner had appeared three paces behind him at some unknown time, just standing there in a casual posture with her hands tucked in her sleeves. Her eyes were curved, and a faint, unreadable smile played on her lips as she watched him with great interest.
"Fellow Daoist Jiang," Shen Jinghong's voice was unhurried, carrying a leisurely tone that was inexplicably hair-raising: "Where are you planning to go?"
Jiang Yun: "..."
He quickly ran through various response plans in his head and ultimately chose the safest one—playing it off.
"Fellow Daoist Shen must be joking." He smiled, his tone light: "It's just that because Fellow Daoist Gu and Fellow Daoist Xu have yet to return to the team, I was worried and thought I should go check on the situation."
"Oh?" Shen Jinghong dragged out the word meaningfully. The smile on her face didn't change at all, but her gaze slowly moved from his face down to his toes, then back up to his face.
"But just now, I saw that the direction of Fellow Daoist Jiang's steps seemed to be toward the deeper parts of the secret realm."
"Perhaps my sense of direction is a bit poor." Jiang Yun continued to smile: "The space inside the secret realm is distorted; it's normal to stray off course for a moment."
"True." Shen Jinghong nodded as if she deeply agreed: "It is indeed easy to get lost in the secret realm."
She looked at Jiang Yun with a beaming smile, showing no intention of starting another topic nor any sign of leaving. Jiang Yun met her gaze for a moment, only feeling that for some reason, the expression of this Senior Banner who was clearly only in the Third Realm was particularly creepy.
Jiang Yun quietly suppressed this judgment in his heart, the smile on his face not changing one bit. He exchanged a few more meaningless pleasantries with Shen Jinghong, eventually using "waiting here for news of Fellow Daoist Gu" as an excuse to unobtrusively walk a few steps elsewhere, putting on an innocent posture of "I really just went the wrong way."
Shen Jinghong didn't stop him, only watching him walk a few steps before suddenly saying: "By the way, Fellow Daoist Jiang."
Jiang Yun stopped and looked back: "Yes?"
"That sensing artifact at your waist." Shen Jinghong's gaze rested on his side for a moment: "Everyone turned theirs in once when entering the secret realm. I recall that during registration, the one on Fellow Daoist Jiang's side was... a different model?"
The air went silent for half a breath.
"Oh, this..." Jiang Yun heard his own voice speak steadily, his tone as usual: "I swapped it for a temporary one before entering the secret realm and forgot to update the registration. It was my oversight."
"I see." Shen Jinghong nodded, her expression unchanged: "Then remember to update the record another day. We still need to pay attention to the management of dharma artifacts within the secret realm."
"Thank you for the reminder."
"You're welcome."
With that, the two had nothing more to say to each other. Jiang Yun made an excuse that he had other things to do.
It wasn't until he was completely out of Shen Jinghong's sight that he suddenly realized his back was completely drenched.
Without a doubt, besides that Emperor Gu, Gu Chengming, this Shen Jinghong—a Senior Banner of unknown origin in the Third Realm—was also far from as simple as she appeared on the surface.
"Have I really stumbled into some high-end life-and-death game?" This thought slowly rose from the bottom of his heart.
Standing in the cold wind of the secret realm with his back to the direction where Shen Jinghong might still be, Jiang Yun felt as if the sky were about to fall.
...
The wind on the snowfield was steady as Gu Chengming and Xu Huayi walked side by side, their footsteps uneven.
Overall, the situation was still under control, but Gu Chengming always felt like something was slightly off.
Just then, Xu Huayi suddenly whispered: "Someone's there."
Gu Chengming looked up.
About fifty feet ahead, at the junction of the snowfield and the basalt ground, a figure was walking unhurriedly toward them.
The person walked very slowly with a leisurely pace, as if strolling in their own backyard. They were holding a hand warmer, occasionally breathing a puff of air onto it.
If the cold wind in this secret realm weren't so biting, this behavior could even be called pleasant.
The two slowed their pace and tacitly stopped in place, waiting for the figure to approach.
At about twenty feet away, the newcomer stopped, looked up, and gave them a very friendly smile.
It was a middle-aged man with a rounded face and slightly fleshy cheeks. His eyes weren't large but were exceptionally bright. Combined with his somewhat faded blue-gray Daoist robe, he looked like a retired old sect leader from some small sect—kind-hearted and harmless.
"Fellow Daoists," he tucked the hand warmer into his sleeve and cupped his hands, his voice warm: "To meet fellow cultivators in this secret realm is truly fate. I am Yu Bao, a rogue cultivator. May I ask how to address you two?"
Both Gu Chengming and Xu Huayi felt a stir in their hearts.
As expected, many cultivators had already arrived here long before Tianque opened.
Gu Chengming remained outwardly indifferent, giving his name as usual, and Xu Huayi also returned the greeting politely.
Yu Bao's smile became even more sincere. He walked a few steps forward and looked the two over, his eyes full of emotion: "You are both young talents. To be able to walk in Tianque, your cultivation must be extraordinary. I, Yu, am impressed."
Xu Huayi said politely: "You overpraise us. We have only just entered Tianque and are completely in the dark. We hope you can offer us some guidance."
"Not at all, not at all..." Yu Bao waved his hand: "Inside Tianque, everyone is just feeling their way across the river. There's no such thing as guidance."
As they spoke, the three naturally began to walk side by side. Gu Chengming walked on the outermost side, Yu Bao was in the middle, and Xu Huayi was on the other side.
With their steps moving, the conversation also picked up.
As he walked, Gu Chengming quietly activated a thread of Red Dust Technique, spreading his divine sense like a thin mist to gently cover Yu Bao.
Upon contact, his eyes narrowed slightly.
He smiles so sincerely, but the things packed inside aren't very clean.
He didn't show it, only making his pace even more leisurely as he turned his head to exchange a look with Xu Huayi.
Xu Huayi's eyes moved slightly, then she nonchalantly continued her conversation with Yu Bao.
On the other side, Yu Bao was also secretly evaluating them.
His arrival in this area was a long story.
He had sensed it as soon as the commotion started at the Burial Sword Tomb.
That aura had come suddenly and strongly; the overwhelming sword intent had been reined in within a very short time, and the energy of the entire Burial Sword Tomb had undergone some unspeakable change. Yu Bao had been in Tianque for nearly two years, and he had never seen a second occurrence of an anomaly of this magnitude.
At that moment, only one thought was in his mind: someone has obtained a great fortune.
So he followed the aura, guessing all the way, wondering what kind of figure had obtained such a massive creation.
A Fourth Realm? Fifth Realm? Or perhaps some Grand Senior who had been sealed for years and had entered the world for experience?
Then he saw Gu Chengming and Xu Huayi.
A young male cultivator and a young female cultivator. The cultivation auras on both were quite restrained; at first glance, they seemed like two young people around the Third Realm, even carrying that cautious sense of novelty from just entering the secret realm.
Yu Bao was silent for about two breaths at that time.
Then he thought, perhaps the fortune fell into the hands of these two, and they don't even know it themselves?
He hadn't never seen this situation before; the opportunities in Tianque were of all kinds, and some were hidden very deep. Those who got them only knew they had picked up a treasure, but didn't realize how heavy that treasure actually was.
Yu Bao weighed this possibility in his heart and felt it was highly credible.
—If these two young cultivators really understood what the Burial Sword Tomb meant, their expressions right now should be much more arrogant or panicked; in any case, they shouldn't have this nonchalant appearance.
He suppressed the greed in his heart, tucked his sleeves, and decided to test the waters first.
What's the rush? It's not like robbery is the only way.
If the two were ignorant and easy to talk to, then he would use the slow-boil method, coaxing them into handing over the fortune obediently.
If the two were shrewd... Yu Bao glanced down at the dharma artifact in his sleeve that could be activated at any time, and the corners of his mouth moved slightly.
"Fellow Daoists..." He turned the hand warmer in his palm, his tone casual: "You're from Daqian, aren't you?"
Gu Chengming: "Yes."
"As I thought."
Yu Bao let out a sigh and said with emotion: "I heard earlier that Daqian had also stuck its hand into Tianque, but I didn't quite believe it. I didn't expect it to be true. When did Daqian's side enter?"
"Not long ago."
Xu Huayi said calmly: "We entered only after the secret realm opened."
Yu Bao silently calculated the time in his head, then nodded with realization: "No wonder. Daqian's hands and feet... cough, there are many rules; it's normal to be a step slower, quite normal."
Gu Chengming: "..."
He was silent for a moment, thinking that while this person's words were subtle, it wasn't hard to guess what he had originally intended to say after that stalled "hands and feet."
A bureaucratic system—slow is slow, then; he felt the same way.
Seeing that the two didn't respond, Yu Bao took the opportunity to lead the conversation toward the situation inside Tianque, saying as they walked:
"This place, Tianque, is far more complex than the rumors outside say."
His tone was flat, as if he were talking about a trivial matter that had nothing to do with him: "I entered two years early. Back then, the situation was still okay; everyone came and went, and while there were some hidden agendas, on the surface, we could still cooperate to explore. It could be called harmonious."
"And later?" Xu Huayi asked at the right time.
Yu Bao paused.
"Later, the rules of Tianque changed."
As he dropped those six words, his tone carried a slight, indistinct meaning.
Gu Chengming's gaze tightened slightly, but he kept his pace steady and listened closely.
"One day, a Dao Throne Decree descended from the heavens."
Yu Bao's voice was steady, his tone that of someone stating facts: "The decree said: Whoever obtains a fortune within Tianque, if they are killed by another, all the fortune they obtained shall belong to the killer."
Xu Huayi's footsteps faltered slightly, but she immediately continued walking as if nothing had happened.
"All..."
Yu Bao glanced at her, meaningfully emphasizing those words: "Including inheritances, including Dao Throne insights... and even, including karma."
The snowfield went quiet for a moment, leaving only the sound of footsteps.
Gu Chengming: "Even karma can be transferred?"
"The rules of Tianque."
Yu Bao shrugged with an air of someone who had seen it all: "Things in Tianque are different from the outside. The rules here are ancient rules that no one can explain clearly; they don't care about logic, only results."
As he said this, he slowed down half a step and turned his gaze from the snowfield toward Gu Chengming.
That smile was still there—kind, warm, and carrying a bit of world-weary maturity. He looked like a senior who was sincerely reminding a junior to stay safe.
"So..." he spoke slowly, his voice carrying a long-drawn sigh: "It's normal that you two don't know some things since you just entered Tianque. Since the rules of Tianque... have been set by those above—"
"That's perfect."
Gu Chengming interrupted him and spoke with a smile:
"Fellow Daoist, hand over your fortune."
"?"
A question mark appeared over Yu Bao's head as he thought: That's my line.
The moment this thought landed in his brain, the sky suddenly went dark.
It wasn't clouds blocking the sun; there was no sun in Tianque to begin with. It was something extremely massive blocking the light from above.
Yu Bao instinctively looked up.
Then he saw that mountain. The iron-gray body, the cliffs as straight as if they were sliced, and the dense silhouette of spikes at the peak were exceptionally clear in the low clouds. The entire mountain was descending from the sky with a silent yet inescapable pressure.
Yu Bao's brain completely stalled at that moment.
He didn't even have time to think "what is this," didn't have time to think "how to run," didn't have time to think of anything at all. He just looked up in a near-daze, watching as the mountain grew closer and larger, completely blanking out the entire sky.
At the moment the mountain landed, there was no roar.
An iron-gray mountain large enough to blot out the sun fell with such an unstoppable momentum, yet when it landed on the snowfield, it was as quiet as a leaf touching the surface of the water.
There was only a "poof."
It was very light and muffled, like a boot stepping on a piece of overripe fruit.
The patch of snow where Yu Bao had been standing no longer existed.
To be precise, that patch of snow was still there, but where a person should have been beneath it, there was now only a thin layer of something squeezed out from the bottom edge of the mountain—the colors were mottled, reds and whites and grays mixed together like someone had overturned a plate of paint on the snow and then had it smeared by a giant rock into a trail no more than three feet wide and half an inch thick.
The trail meandered out from the foot of the mountain, dragging for about ten feet across the snow, with a few streaks of dark red liquid that hadn't yet solidified slowly seeping into the snow at the end.
The hand warmer had been squeezed away to who-knows-where, finally landing on the snow about seventy or eighty feet away. It rolled twice, the lid fell off, and the embers inside spilled out, burning a few tiny black spots into the white snow and sending up a few pathetic wisps of white smoke.
That dharma artifact he had hidden in his sleeve, ready to be activated at any time, was now shattered into three pieces and embedded in a crack at the foot of the mountain, stained with a bit of blurred residue that was no longer distinguishable as cloth or flesh.
The wind blew over, picking up a few fragments of crushed bone mixed with snow, swirling around the foot of the mountain before falling back down and silently merging into that trail.
From beginning to end, Yu Bao hadn't made a single sound.
It wasn't that he didn't want to; he didn't have time.
The speed at which the mountain fell was far faster than his reactions, his divine sense, or his survival instincts. Before his brain could even issue the command to "run," his body had already been compressed into a flat plane devoid of any human characteristics.
The physical strength of a Third Realm cultivator didn't even have the right to make the mountain pause for a second.
Gu Chengming looked down at the trail at the foot of the mountain and remained silent for a moment.
Until the moment he was completely crushed into meat paste, that sentence "what the hell is this" never got out.
【Red Dust Phantom Step praises: Fellow Daoist Gu is indeed my soulmate; this behavior is very much to my liking!】
【Daoist Connection CG unlock progress +10】
—So it's not just making friends; killing them can also unlock CGs, right?
Thinking this, Gu Chengming suddenly felt a strand of karma land on him from the void.
Before he could examine it closely, he saw Xu Huayi looking at him with a subtle expression.
—What kind of look is that, Fellow Daoist Xu?
Xu Huayi weighed her words before speaking: "Fellow Daoist Gu... could it be that you actually really enjoy killing people?"
"?"
Rate on N.U.
