Su Yi paid no heed to the surrounding chatter, his mind busy calculating their next moves.
Originally, he had only planned to lead his own junior martial brothers and sisters, but now he had suddenly gained the starter trio. Add to that his own pseudo-Late Foundation Establishment prowess and Tantai Yunzhi’s Five Elements Dao Physique...
Ordinary threats were hardly worth worrying about.
Moreover, he could not be more familiar with the mechanics of this Foundation Establishment secret realm; after all, he had farmed it countless times in the game.
Essentially, this was a massive "loot, upgrade, and extract" game.
Disciples needed to search throughout this pocket dimension to seize "spirit sources" compatible with their own spirit root attributes, using them as the core to build their Dao foundations.
Finally, they had to successfully reach the designated extraction point for their Foundation Establishment to be truly complete, allowing them to return with their cultivation fully solidified.
In the game, failing to extract merely meant the character was heavily injured and had to reload the save, losing a bit of experience and cultivation.
Here, however, Su Yi knew full well that if they were intercepted by the demonic races during extraction or failed to reach the extraction point in time, failing Foundation Establishment and derailing their Dao path would be the best-case scenario; at worst, they would perish completely, body and Dao extinguished, leaving their lives behind in this secret realm!
Fortunately, thanks to the tireless exploration of countless players—or rather, the developers’ sheer laziness—the spawn locations and patterns of spirit sources within this secret realm, along with various hidden traps and shortcuts, had long since been thoroughly mapped out into a fixed rotation.
The last time Su Yi led the disciples of Divine Might Manor out unscathed, it had been entirely thanks to this foresight.
This time, he was equally confident. Moreover, to him, the most critical objective was not Foundation Establishment, but rather the legacy triggered by Tantai Yunzhi.
He had been here before, but likely because he was not the protagonist, it had failed to trigger. That was precisely why he had chosen to cultivate anew and placed so much value on Tantai Yunzhi.
Back then, he had only arranged a top-tier Foundation Establishment for Gongsun Lin without having her reshape her Dao physique along with it. This time, he had to bring out the Stalactite Body Tempering Fluid no matter what.
“Everyone, stay close to me. Watch your footing and pay attention to spiritual energy fluctuations around you. Do not touch any seemingly unclaimed spiritual objects recklessly!” Su Yi ordered in a low voice. The group followed him into the light portal in an orderly fashion.
The remaining rogue cultivators hesitated repeatedly; some followed behind them, while others chose different passages.
Following a brief bout of dizziness and spatial distortion, everyone emerged in a bizarre realm.
The sky was a somber, dusky red, and the earth took on an eerie purple-brown hue. The air was permeated with pure yet violent heaven and earth spiritual energy, as well as demonic qi.
No one knew where this pure spiritual energy and demonic qi originated; Su Yi could only chalk it up to an oversight left by the developers.
“Young Manor Lord Su, our sects are by no means weak, but we often exhaust ourselves just running around searching for source beasts. Do you have a better way?” Ling Qingyu spoke up.
Many cultivators were halted on the path to Foundation Establishment not due to a lack of strength, but because they could not find source beasts and thus failed to obtain spirit sources.
In their eyes, the appearance of source beasts followed no discernible pattern, making them naturally difficult to locate.
Su Yi waved his hand with supreme confidence. “Rest assured, since I promised, I will naturally see you all well-fed. Head in that direction!” He pointed toward a jagged stone forest in the distance.
Though his words were brimming with confidence, Ling Qingyu felt his phrasing was a bit improper. She turned her face away rather self-consciously, unsure of how to respond, and merely let out a soft “Mm.”
Su Yi had no intention of wasting time either; the sooner they finished, the better.
Sure enough, shortly after they set out, over a dozen creatures appeared on a relatively open patch of gravel ahead. Shaped like giant worms, encased in rocky carapaces, and exuding dense earth-element spiritual energy, they were none other than the Earth Vein Source Worms commonly found within the secret realm.
Though they squirmed along rather clumsily, they were the guardians and producers of earth-attribute spirit sources.
“It’s Earth Vein Source Worms! Watch this!” Shi Yan’s eyes lit up.
Without waiting for detailed instructions from Su Yi, he let out a thunderous roar. Flames erupted around his body, and he shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow. As he threw his fists, blazing fiery fist silhouettes rained down upon the swarm like a meteor shower.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Fierce explosions resounded as raging flames swallowed the area.
Shi Yan possessed formidable combat power; these low-tier source worms were no match for him at all. They were quickly wiped out, leaving behind several glowing orbs radiating pure earth-element spiritual energy—earth-attribute spirit sources.
A proud grin surfaced on Shi Yan’s face, and he reached out to snatch the spirit source nearest to him.
“Get back!” Su Yi’s sharp shout suddenly rang out.
Shi Yan froze. Though bewildered, his instinctive trust in Su Yi made him comply without thinking, and he leaped backward with all his might.
Almost the instant he sprang away, the ground where he had just stood caved in violently, and several sharp stone spikes gleaming with eerie light shot up from beneath!
Simultaneously, the seemingly placid rock face beside him split open, spewing a dense, foul, corrosive yellow mist!
Having anticipated this all along, Su Yi swung his sword and shattered an inconspicuous protruding rock in the distance.
With a crisp click, the shooting stone spikes and spewing poisonous mist came to an abrupt halt.
“T-this... Young Manor Lord Su, how did you know...?” Lingering dread gripped Shi Yan as cold sweat broke out across his forehead, watching the dissipating toxic mist and the stone spikes retracting into the ground.
As a commander, he had almost ended up injured right off the bat.
Su Yi walked up beside him, patted his shoulder, and pointed at the cleared corpses of the source worms and the spirit sources. “Earth Vein Source Worms are social creatures that possess rudimentary hunting instincts.”
“They accumulate earth-element spiritual power and store toxins, which they usually employ for hunting. Once they die, the earth spirit balance of their habitat collapses, automatically triggering these traps.”
“Didn’t your elders tell you about the habits of spiritual beasts in this secret realm before you entered?”
Looking at Su Yi’s look that seemed to say are you an idiot?, and noticing that not a single other person had budged an inch, Shi Yan finally realized that he was seemingly the only one present who was clueless.
‘Hey, come on, you’ve got to be kidding me?! Didn't everyone say that textbook knowledge was useless in real combat? Was I the only sucker who actually believed that?!’
At that moment, the earth veins suddenly began to churn in violent upheaval.
“What’s going on?” a disciple from Return to Origin Sect cried out in alarm.
“Alright, relax. Didn’t I just say it? Earth Vein Source Worms are social creatures.” Su Yi waved his hand. Spiritual energy surged as hundreds of talismans flew out, plastering themselves onto everyone present.
Golden radiant patterns surfaced across their bodies.
“It’s Divine Might Manor’s Golden Body Mantra!” someone shouted.
Ling Qingyu and Shang Shuyi wore solemn expressions. This was the first time they had ever witnessed someone in the Qi Condensation realm capable of activating and casting over a hundred talismans simultaneously.
“Wait, Senior Brother Su, you used the wrong one! You put a Demon-Cleansing Talisman on Senior Sister Zhao Qian!”
At that moment, a disciple shouted, pointing at the talisman glowing with a faint green light on Zhao Qian’s forehead.
“Oh? It doesn’t matter. There are demonic races in this secret realm as well; having it on will keep Junior Sister Zhao Qian safe,” Su Yi replied casually.
With that, Su Yi belatedly slapped a Golden Body Mantra onto Zhao Qian, completely ignoring the venomous glare she was directing at him.
Seeing this, the surrounding disciples began whispering among themselves once more.
“Senior Brother Su still cares about Senior Sister Zhao Qian after all—granting her double talisman protection.”
The murmurs around her pushed Zhao Qian even closer to a breakdown. She truly could not comprehend why Su Yi always had to make life difficult for her.
Naturally, those words also reached the ears of Ling Qingyu and Shang Shuyi. Both racked their brains, searching through the list of notable figures their elders had instructed them to keep an eye on, trying to find the name Zhao Qian.
The result:
‘Zhao Qian? Who the hell is she?!’
Rate on N.U.
