The points of light dissipated, and the wasteland returned to silence.
Gu Chengming sat cross-legged on a still-intact bluestone slab, his eyes slightly closed, as he digested the sword dao insights he had just obtained from the Bone-Withered Sword Immortal.
After about fifteen minutes, Gu Chengming slowly opened his eyes.
Although the sword dao insights of the Bone-Withered Sword Immortal were completely different from his current path, the underlying logic regarding the operation of a sword domain was indeed very beneficial to him.
—This time, getting beaten up wasn't for nothing.
Having finished his digestion, Gu Chengming stood up and turned to look at Emperor Bai.
The white-haired girl was sitting on the shoulder blade of a massive beast carcass not far away, her legs dangling, while she aimlessly threw a piece of rubble she had picked up somewhere.
"How is Emperor Bai's digestion?"
Clearly, Emperor Bai had gained even more, as she had put in more effort in the battle just now.
However, she didn't seem to care much about the harvest.
"This Emperor just had a serious realization."
Emperor Bai jumped down from the beast bone and put her hands on her hips. "The conclusion is that the old man's sword dao was purely for show."
"If one punch doesn't kill it, use two. If two don't work, use three. Why go through so many twists and turns? Isn't that just looking for trouble?" She lifted her chin, looking perfectly justified.
"Proving the dao through strength; the Great Dao is simple. This is the path a Heavenly Emperor should take."
Gu Chengming opened his mouth, but seeing Emperor Bai's face, which was so sincere it didn't look like she was joking, he swallowed his words.
—Fine, the mental logic of a body-tempering technique was indeed not something he could correct. After all, if you don't temper your body, you won't understand.
Moreover, as a body-tempering technique herself, even if Emperor Bai obtained some sword dao insights, they probably wouldn't be of much use.
However, just as he was about to change the subject, on the ground where the Bone-Withered Sword Immortal had dissipated, those originally grey-black and parched lands actually sprouted one spirit flower after another in a very short time.
The flowers were dark silver throughout, with petals as thin as a cicada's wing, and the edges faintly flowed with patterns of sword intent. they emerged from the cracks and clustered together, emitting a faint cold light under the dark red sky.
Emperor Bai's eyes lit up instantly. She rushed over in three steps, squatted down, and reached her right hand toward the nearest flower without hesitation.
The moment her fingertips touched the petals, the spirit flower withered at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The silver petals faded to grey-white in a single breath, curling, shriveling, and turning into a pile of debris that scattered in the breeze.
Emperor Bai's hand froze in mid-air.
The girl slowly turned her head toward Gu Chengming, her expression practically screaming "Why?"
Gu Chengming, however, reacted quickly.
The sect master had previously mentioned something about this. For instance, the historical projections in the secret realm weren't created out of thin air; they were based on the memories of the secret realm's spiritual veins, using the dao remnants of ancient great cultivators as templates.
When a projection was defeated, besides the remaining dao essence turning into points of light for the victor, a portion would seep into the ground, nurturing companion spiritual items related to the projection's original will.
When harvesting, one must use a will from the same source as the projection to envelop it; otherwise, the spiritual item would view the toucher as an "alien" and instantly wither and self-destruct.
In other words, you have to first understand the Bone-Withered Sword Immortal's dao to pick his flowers.
Gu Chengming didn't say much. He simply stepped forward, using the Unfettered Freedom Art to mobilize the wisp of Bone-Withered sword intent he had just absorbed to envelop his right palm, then reached toward a still-intact spirit flower.
The moment his fingertips touched the petals, the spirit flower didn't wither. Instead, it bloomed slightly, and silver light surged from the stamens, tamely flowing into Gu Chengming's palm.
Then he plucked the spirit flower by the root. There were no signs of decay at the break of the stem.
Emperor Bai was quite shocked to see this. She then shuffled over to Gu Chengming's side and squatted down, her eyes wandering.
"Emperor Gu, This Emperor just thought back carefully and feels that the previous evaluation might have been slightly biased."
After saying that, she followed his example and closed her eyes, trying to simulate that decaying sword intent.
The silver light hesitated for a moment but eventually flowed into her palm.
"It worked!"
Emperor Bai jumped up, holding the spirit flower, a brilliant smile on her face.
Gu Chengming looked at her and couldn't help but smile.
—You just called it a show earlier.
The two of them gathered all the remaining spirit flowers into their bags, which could be considered an extra harvest.
...
The Mohist Sect main hall.
Although they weren't clear about the specific origins of these two disciples who were suspected to be from the Wenjian Sect, and this matter indeed seemed suspicious, the focus of the crowd was still on whether outsiders would cause trouble in the secret realm.
After all, Gu Chengming and Emperor Bai had defeated the Bone-Withered Sword Immortal within the permitted rules, and they both had tokens to enter the secret realm, meaning their identities had been registered.
Although the fact that third realm cultivators appeared in the core area of the fourth realm and defeated a fourth realm projection was very much worth investigating.
But another matter before them was clearly more worthy of their attention.
That was the area on the right side of the water mirror, where a frame began to show abnormalities shortly after the Bone-Withered Sword Immortal was shattered.
At first, the image only dimmed slightly, as if there was a small fluctuation in the power supply of the spiritual vein node. This wasn't rare during the operation of a secret realm; occasional ebbs and flows of spiritual energy tides would cause brief distortions in the monitoring image, which usually recovered within a few breaths.
But this time, the image did not recover. That frame, corresponding to an outer area of the fourth realm, gradually darkened after dimming, turning from grey to black, and finally falling into a dead silence of pitch black, as if that area itself had been carved out of the secret realm.
"Reporting to Grand Elder, the spiritual vein node of Division 7 of Sector A has completely lost connection." Deacon Zhao stared at the array plate in front of him, his brow furrowed into a knot. "It's as if the node itself no longer exists."
Liu Chongji set down his teacup, his gaze darkening.
"Has anyone been sent?"
"A person was sent to check half a quarter-hour ago." Deacon Zhao paused, his voice lowering. "They have yet to return."
The hall fell silent for a moment.
Half a quarter-hour was more than enough for a Mohist Sect disciple performing a routine check. The rules of the secret realm were clear: the true body does not enter; only a soul projection is deployed. Even if one suffers heavy injuries, they would merely be expelled from the secret realm.
Even if they encountered a situation they couldn't handle at all, they could force an exit by striking themselves.
But that disciple had neither returned nor been ejected by the secret realm.
Liu Chongji stood before the water mirror for a moment and was about to give a new order—
"Grand Elder!"
The voice of another deacon suddenly rose.
Liu Chongji followed the sound. The deacon was staring fixedly at the bottom left of the water mirror.
Another frame had gone black. Its position was far from the previous one, belonging to a completely different spiritual vein branch within the secret realm. This meant it wasn't a problem with a single spiritual vein, but that multiple areas of the secret realm were being eroded simultaneously.
"Division 3 has also started to dim."
Several reports rose one after another in the hall, the anxiety in their tones already difficult to hide.
Liu Chongji stepped quickly to the front of the water mirror and pressed his hands on the control console. Spiritual energy poured in, switching the water mirror's view to the global overview mode.
In the overview mode, the spiritual vein network of the entire secret realm was presented on the mirror surface in the form of a massive light net. Every node was a bright spot, and the nodes were connected by spiritual vein light lines.
Under normal operation, this light net should be a uniform, complete pattern flowing with faint blue light.
But at this moment, several black holes had abruptly appeared on that light net.
The holes weren't large, but each was expanding at a slow but relentless speed, swallowing the surrounding light and nodes. It was as if someone had dripped a few drops of ink onto a white sheet of paper, and the ink was silently spreading.
Something was eating away at the foundation of the secret realm.
Just as he was about to order the full activation of the secret realm's emergency lockdown mechanism, the image on the water mirror suddenly changed drastically again.
The black holes suddenly accelerated their expansion.
The ink marks that were still slowly spreading seemed to have been splashed with a bucket of water. In less than three breaths, they swallowed more than half of the light net. Nodes were extinguished one by one, and spiritual vein light lines snapped one after another. The bright areas on the entire water mirror shrank rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.
In the end—
Only one bright spot remained on the entire light net.
The water mirror's view was forced toward that sole surviving area. The image showed a space within the secret realm whose specific location could not be determined; the background was blurry, and the terrain was indistinguishable.
But in the very center of the image stood a person.
Moon-white brocade robe, a jade belt around his waist, and a folding fan in his hand.
The young man stood with his hands behind his back, his face handsome and his bearing composed.
He turned his head slightly, as if he were looking through the secret realm's law barriers, through the transmission array patterns of the spiritual vein nodes, through the imaging techniques of the water mirror—through all of it, straight at the Mohist Sect main hall behind the water mirror.
He looked at Liu Chongji and everyone present.
Then he smiled, his lips moving—
The water mirror did not transmit sound. But the five Mohist Sect elders present all clearly read his lip movements.
"Everyone, I shall be taking over this place for the time being."
Liu Chongji's pupils shrank suddenly.
In the next instant, the last point of light on the water mirror also went out.
The entire water mirror was pitch black.
Liu Chongji stared at the pitch-black water mirror, his palms already seeping with cold sweat.
—This kind of thing is not something a fifth realm cultivator can achieve.
Before he could even speak, the entire Floating Islet City suddenly jolted.
"Outer realm sky demons!"
A deacon stood up abruptly, a startling crimson alarm lighting up on the array plate in his hand.
"Massive heart demon fluctuations detected outside the city! The Floating Islet City's protection array is under impact!"
Liu Chongji's expression turned ugly in an instant. The interior of the secret realm was being taken over, and the exterior was being invaded by outer realm sky demons. This was clearly a long-premeditated pincer attack.
"Pass down the order." Liu Chongji's voice regained its calm within a breath. "Activate Floating Islet City's Grade A defense array. All Mohist Sect cultivators are to take their positions according to wartime formation."
He paused. "At the same time, immediately report the secret realm abnormality and the outer realm sky demon invasion to the sect masters and elders currently in the city."
"Yes!"
Several sound transmission talismans shot out of the main hall almost at the same time, turning into streaks of light that vanished in various directions of Floating Islet City.
...
An event of the magnitude of an outer realm sky demon invasion of Floating Islet City didn't even need sound transmission talismans for notification. When the first wave of the heart demon tide surged over the array walls into the city, any cultivator above the third realm could clearly sense that nauseating, alien spiritual pressure.
The sect masters and elders of the various major sects, who had not yet dispersed after the opening ceremony, urgently gathered in the assembly hall of Guanlan Pavilion in less than the time it took to finish a cup of tea.
The atmosphere was solemn to the extreme.
Shen Qianqiu was the first to speak, his tone concise. "We can't worry about the situation in the secret realm for now. The sky demons in the city are the top priority. The disciples' true bodies are all in the city."
His meaning was clear: the participating disciples in the secret realm had only deployed soul projections; no one would die.
But the physical bodies in Floating Islet City were real. If the erosion of the soul by the outer realm sky demons reached the physical body, it would be a true death of the dao.
The other sect masters present nodded one after another; there was no disagreement on this point.
No matter how big the competition, it wasn't as important as the disciples' lives.
"Defend the city first, then discuss the secret realm." In the end, they reached a consensus.
The sect masters and elders of each sect quickly moved in different directions. The fifth realm great cultivators stayed in the core area to suppress the main sky demon force, fourth realm cultivators dispersed to various blocks to clear out the remaining infiltrating heart demons, and all disciples below the third realm were withdrawn to their respective stations under special guard.
In fifteen minutes, Floating Islet City switched from the festive atmosphere of the sect grand competition to a state of war.
Spirit lamps were extinguished, restrictions were fully opened, and the roar of the city's protection array echoed endlessly above the sea of clouds.
...
Deep within the secret realm.
In that space that had completely broken free from the Mohist Sect's control, the young man in the moon-white brocade robe folded his fan.
He stood in a void. There was neither sky nor earth around him, only endless darkness spreading quietly like a deep pool.
"Alright."
He said softly, as if talking to himself.
"The audience has all dispersed, and the idle people each have their own places to go." The folding fan spun half a turn between his fingers.
"It's time to perform the next act seriously."
The change in the secret realm came without any warning.
The first to notice the abnormality were the participating disciples scattered at the periphery of various areas, observing historical projections.
They all knew the rules of the secret realm by heart. Historical projections were replicated from the dao remnants of ancient great cultivators and would normally only stay in fixed positions, repeatedly demonstrating the moves and sword intent from their lives.
If you didn't provoke it, it wouldn't bother you. This was a consensus shared by all participants.
However, just now, about fifteen minutes after the secret realm's monitoring water mirrors completely lost connection, this consensus was thoroughly shattered.
These projections scattered throughout the secret realm began to move, as if someone had instantly infused them with some kind of will.
It was as if they had truly come back to life.
The secret realm was instantly thrown into chaos.
...
Fourth realm area, a certain canyon.
Yu Wenqiu was running at full speed through the canyon in a state of dishevelment unprecedented in her cultivation career.
The left sleeve of her dao robe was gone, her hair was mostly undone, and the stray hairs at her temples were stuck to her cheeks with sweat. The distance between her current image and the words "Wenjian Sect Elder" was about as wide as the entire canyon.
About twenty yards behind her, a projection completely enveloped in dark green spiritual light was following her at an unhurried pace.
It was a fourth realm projection. It seemed to have been an ancient cultivator skilled in trapping arrays during his life. His methods were extremely annoying; he didn't fight you head-on but just laid out arrays, locked paths, and forced you to run into dead ends.
Yu Wenqiu had been chased by it for over ten minutes.
At first, she tried to fight it head-on. After all, she was a fourth realm early stage cultivator, and in terms of cultivation, she wasn't much worse than this projection. But the problem was that this projection didn't play by the rules at all.
Normal projections would only mechanically perform the famous ultimate techniques from their lives, which had patterns to follow and openings to exploit.
But this projection's behavior was as if someone were controlling it in real-time. Whenever Yu Wenqiu found a flaw and prepared to counterattack, it would change the array in advance, plugging the flaw tightly.
And what made her even more furious was that this thing didn't even intend to kill her.
Yu Wenqiu grew angrier as she ran.
She was angry not just because of the humiliation of being chased through a canyon by a projection, but even more so because she, a dignified Wenjian Sect elder, had actually been reduced to being kited by an NPC.
She vaguely remembered that before the grand competition, she had vowed to perform well in the secret realm and make Little Gu look at her in a new light.
Perform my foot.
If Little Gu saw her like this, he would probably wonder if her elder title was bought.
Another trapping array lit up from the side. Yu Wenqiu was forced to make a sharp turn, and the gravel beneath her feet slipped, nearly sending her headfirst into a nearby gorge.
She barely stabilized herself, her peach-blossom eyes already sparking with fury.
"Enough—!"
Yu Wenqiu slammed to a halt. She held her dharma sword horizontally, and her spiritual energy surged. She directly used a full-power sword move saturated with her fourth realm cultivation to slash at the persistent projection behind her.
The sword qi tore through three trapping arrays and plowed a gorge over ten yards long into the ground. The projection at the end of the gorge was hit directly, and its dark green spiritual light flickered a few times.
But it didn't dissipate.
It only paused for a single breath.
Then it laid out a new round of trapping arrays at an even faster speed than before.
Yu Wenqiu took a deep breath and turned around to run again.
—What the hell is wrong with this broken secret realm?!
...
In contrast to Yu Wenqiu's dishevelment.
At this moment, Gu Chengming and Emperor Bai were in a state that could be described as leisurely.
On the wasteland of the Fallen Immortal Abyss, where the Bone-Withered Sword Immortal had dissipated, those silver spirit flowers had been completely gathered by the two of them.
Emperor Bai sat cross-legged on a flat rock, holding a spirit flower, processing it according to the method Gu Chengming had taught her.
The method wasn't complicated: crush the spirit flower, use a specific technique to guide the essence within to seep into the meridians, and finally transform it into pure blood qi to temper the physical body.
Such spiritual items were extremely rare outside the secret realm, and their prices were absurdly high.
But in the secret realm, they were just byproducts of a projection's dissipation, available on a first-come, first-served basis.
For Gu Chengming, the blood qi boost from these spirit flowers was negligible.
His cultivation path centered on sword dao and his technique system. While blood qi enhancement was useful, the marginal return was already very low. But for Emperor Bai, it was a completely different matter.
Emperor Bai crushed the spirit flower in her hand, and the silver essence turned into a wisp of light that merged into her palm, the effect being immediate.
Although the boost from a single spirit flower wasn't exaggerated, she couldn't resist the large quantity.
After finishing more than ten spirit flowers one by one, Emperor Bai clenched her fist, feeling the much-fuller blood qi within her body. The satisfaction on her face was almost overflowing.
"Not bad!" She clapped her hands, her eyes curving into crescents with her smile. "It's not even inferior to dragon blood grass."
Why are you still thinking about that dragon blood grass?
Gu Chengming complained inwardly as he looked at her satisfied appearance, habitually glancing at the system panel.
【Emperor Bai Favorability: 410 / Until Death Do Us Part】
Eh? It went up by ten points again.
Emperor Bai has materialized now, and the technique panel has been locked by the system. In this state, the favorability can still continue to grow?
Gu Chengming silently digested this information.
In other words, although Emperor Bai had left her technique form, the favorability system itself hadn't failed along with it.
Her attribute as a "capture target" was still functioning, but the conditions for triggering favorability growth had changed from "compatibility and use at the technique level" to "interaction and coexistence at the reality level."
Picking spirit flowers can increase favorability, fighting together can increase favorability, and making her happy can also increase favorability.
Looking at it this way, it's actually no different from a normal galgame strategy.
It's just that the capture target has jumped from the screen to his side.
Does that mean changing outfits is equivalent to changing CGs?
Gu Chengming's thoughts wandered.
—I kind of want to see Emperor Bai's maid CG.
...
Deep within the secret realm.
Beneath the boundary of light and shadow, all rules were being rewritten.
The young man in the moon-white brocade robe walked in an endless void. Only the thick darkness spread quietly like abyss water, and wherever he stepped, the darkness would recede on its own, condensing into a solid ground just large enough for one step.
In the void ahead, a figure was suspended in mid-air.
It was a projection, its entire body shrouded in dark gold spiritual light. It was tall, clad in armor and holding a halberd. The pressure surrounding it weighed heavily on this space. Even as a projection, that aura belonging to the peak of the fourth realm still caused the space within dozens of yards to distort slightly.
But this projection's current state was not normal.
There was no spiritual light in its eye sockets, and its limbs were stiff, like a clay sculpture whose soul had been extracted.
The young man stopped before it.
"King Jiangluo, born in the twenty-third year of Xuanyuan, from a humble family on the northern border. He single-handedly repelled three southern invasions of outer realm sky demons and was enfeoffed as a king for his merits."
"Fifth realm peak, ended at half-step sixth realm. Died in the fourth southern invasion of sky demons, falling after exhausting his strength."
He tilted his head slightly, observing the silent projection. "In the final battle of his life, he used his broken body to hold the rear for three days, covering the southern retreat of 170,000 soldiers and civilians. The enemy broke his array, snapped his halberd, and shattered his armor, but he still didn't retreat a single step... until his breath failed."
At this point, he smiled. "It is indeed quite suitable as a toy."
As he finished speaking, the dark gold spiritual light surged, and the pressure of the peak fourth realm spread out like a tide. The halberd was held across its chest, and with a flash, it vanished into the depths of the void.
The young man watched it leave, the smile on his face undiminished.
Then he turned and continued walking forward.
In the void ahead, even more projections were suspended, each one a famous great cultivator from ancient times.
The young man walked among these projections with a composed pace.
Each time he passed one, he would stop, whisper the person's name and deeds from their life, and then send that point of light from his fingertip into their forehead.
Spiritual lights lit up in the darkness one by one, like lamps being ignited.
Dozens of fourth realm pressures existed simultaneously in this space, overlapping and intertwining, gathering into a terrifying oppression that could make even a fifth realm cultivator's heart tremble.
The young man stood alone in the empty darkness, unfolded his fan, and shook it twice.
The landscape painting on the fan, where heaven and earth were inverted, shimmered with a faint light in the darkness.
"In life, each served their own master; in death, each returned to the dust."
He said softly, his tone without sentiment or sighing, only a nearly indifferent statement.
"Now being sealed in this tiny place for people to watch, it is indeed another kind of unrest."
The fan closed and tapped lightly against his palm.
"Better to be used by me."
...
Fallen Immortal Abyss.
Gu Chengming and Emperor Bai encountered a second projection on the wasteland. This one's strength was slightly weaker than the Bone-Withered Sword Immortal, at the middle of the fourth realm. He was skilled at using a heavy hammer to split mountains and rocks, following a path of pure power.
This opponent was practically tailor-made for Emperor Bai.
She fought extremely joyfully.
There was no sword domain to counter, no sinister corrosion or trapping arrays; it was just fist against hammer, power against power—whoever was harder won.
During this round, Gu Chengming hardly intervened—not that he didn't want to help, but from the very first punch, Emperor Bai had entered a state of excitement. By the time the Tenfold Sword Array was set up, she had already rushed into the opponent's face, and the array's suppression function didn't even have time to take effect.
Gu Chengming had no choice but to withdraw the sword array and silently play the role of spectator and safety officer in the back.
The result was even faster than the first round. The projection's heavy hammer swung for less than twenty breaths before she blasted it, hammer and all, into a sky full of light points with an uppercut.
There were fewer spirit flowers after the battle than the last time, but Emperor Bai still happily squatted on the ground, picking them one by one, crushing them, and consuming them.
Blood qi surged into her body once more, and her physical strength rose another small step.
Emperor Bai stood up and flexed her wrists, her joints making crisp popping sounds.
She turned to Gu Chengming, her golden eyes shining brightly.
"Emperor Gu! This place is truly a blessed land!"
She put her hands on her hips, the joy in her tone impossible to hide.
"Even if ten opponents like that one came, This Emperor would still feel it's not enough to fight."
Seeing her joyful appearance, Gu Chengming was about to say a few words like "Emperor Bai is mighty."
But before the words could leave his mouth, a sudden palpitation came over him. He looked up sharply toward the edge of the wasteland.
Under the dark red sky, on the distant horizon, the void began to distort densely.
A figure emerged from the distortion.
Then a second, a third, a seventh.
Figures became more and more numerous and dense, emerging simultaneously from all directions of the wasteland, each carrying the heavy pressure belonging to a fourth realm cultivator.
【Red Dust Phantom Step said solemnly: Fellow Daoist Gu, at least ten people.】
Emperor Bai also sensed these auras. Her smile was still on her face, but she blinked.
Gu Chengming opened his mouth and sighed inwardly. "Emperor Bai, that jinxing mouth of yours is truly..."
Emperor Bai felt a bit guilty. "Emperor Gu, what do we do now?"
"We run!"
After saying that, he grabbed Emperor Bai and used the Red Dust Phantom Step to flee for his life.
Rate on N.U.
