Seeing Xiang Han appear, their expressions changed and they quickly got up and greeted him.
"Greetings, Shizun."
Xiang Han waved his hand to indicate for them to get up. Then he glanced at Chen Shu Ze out of the corner of his eye and asked again, "What were you talking about?"
"No, it was Shijie who misunderstood." Chen Shu Ze hurriedly explained, but after taking a cautious look in Xiang Han's direction, he added, "Shijie mistakenly thought…this disciple was going to propose marriage to the person he likes."
The corners of Xiang Han's mouth twitched slightly. He had a feeling that since last night, a certain someone had become more daring. Now, with Liu Meng'err still there, he dared to tease him, disregarding the respect he should have for his master. Could they really be together in the future?
Liu Meng'er also piped up at the same time, "That's right, Shizun. I had mistakenly thought you were going to help Junior Brother propose marriage. Actually, the thing with… Junior Brother and Xiao Yue was my incorrect assumption. He should have explained it to you, right? "
Xiang Han: "Hehe." Why the hell didn't you say it earlier?
Liu Meng'er shrunk back while Xiang Han gave a cold laugh and swept a glance over them. "What are you all huddling here for?"
Chen Shu Ze naturally had something to say, but with Liu Meng'er around, he remained silent.
Liu Meng'er recalled her original intention and hurriedly spoke up, "Shizun, I seem to have become stuck at a bottleneck. I'm thinking of going into seclusion to see if I am able to break through."
Xiang Han instantly understood. "You want to borrow Shizun's cave to try and build your foundation?"
If it were a regular seclusion, the sect had plenty of caverns abundant with spiritual energy that she could use so she needn't go through all this trouble. For her to make a trip specially to inform him meant there was a high chance she wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to rush straight into the foundation building stage and had her sights set on Xiang Han's cave.
With how sparse spiritual energy was in the lower world, the Qing Xuan Sect could be considered pretty well off. But most of the spiritual veins had been occupied by sect elders. If disciples wanted to cultivate in a cave with decent spiritual energy, it was impossible to do so without connections.
The spiritual energy was so thin that it was normal for disciples to borrow their master's cave for cultivation.
After sending Liu Meng'er away, he turned to look at Chen Shu Ze, who had been standing beside him, and asked with a stern face, "Do you still have anything?"
"Answering Master, yes." Chen Shu Ze stepped forward and said.
"What is it?" Xiang Han asked.
Chen Shu Ze hesitated for a bit. "In fact, Shijie's words weren't completely false."
"Hmm?" Xiang Han had a bad feeling.
Sure enough, Chen Shu Ze glanced at him and shuffled forward. "Shizun, tell me… can I propose to that person?"
Xiang Han's expression turned dark. "Is this the only thing you thought of all day?"
"Uh, this disciple…"
"Did you practise yesterday? What stage of the
"This, disciple…"
"Your head is full of nonsense everyday! Look at your senior sister, she's about to reach the foundation building stage, but what about you?"
"Shizun, I already practised yesterday. I'm at the third stage of the
Xiang Han was instantly speechless. "Are you saying that I've not given you enough?"
"This wasn't what I meant…"
"It seems there is not enough." Xiang Han interrupted him. "The secret realm of Yuan Kong is about to open, and the Qing Xuan Sect will send its disciples there. If you have nothing else to do, you can go in and dig some herbs for your master."
The Yuan Kong secret realm was a special place that only appeared once a decade at a random place each time. In the novel, it was a treasure trove as well as a portal.
After the human realm was split into the upper, middle, and lower realm, they were separated. Apart from the wandering immortals and cultivators in their tribulation period, almost no one could travel between them. The reason for Chen Shu Ze's appearance in the lower realm was because when fighting for the spiritual treasure, the short-lived cultivator realised that he was about to die and simply inserted the spiritual treasure he managed to obtain into Shu Ze's body.
That spiritual treasure happened to be a godly artifact, able to pass through worlds, which was the only reason why Chen Shu Ze didn't die from the blast and successfully appeared in the lower realm. It was also the reason why his father could never find him. No one expected a child without any cultivation base to safely pass through the three realms.
Although the separation happened a long time ago, it wasn't impossible to travel through them. Apart from using a godly artifact or a tribulation-based cultivation, the next best method was the Yuan Kong Secret Realm.
Where the secret realm appeared was based on luck – it could be the upper, middle, or even the lower realm. To pass through to another realm, all someone needed to do was enter the secret realm and wait until the realm reopened.
Cultivators in the upper realm typically wouldn't care to enter the secret realm. With plenty of resources, they had no need for it, much less visit the middle or lower realm. On the other hand, the middle realm was constantly racking their brains for ways to pass through into the upper realm. Unfortunately, the secret realm was extremely dangerous and because the lower realm was the largest, there was an extremely high chance of appearing in the lower realm. If they found that they had actually reached the lower realm after decades of waiting, they had no choice but to continue waiting.
As for the lower realm with its scarce resources and fluctuating spiritual energy, there were also few cultivators. After decades, there would hardly be any cultivators who remembered the existence of the other two realms. This was also why most cultivators in the lower realm only saw the secret realm as a treasure trove, hoping to make a quick profit before leaving. None of them knew that through the secret realm, they could travel to a land hailed as sacred by all.
Chen Shu Ze didn't know either, but he knew that the secret realm would appear.
With so little resources in the lower realm, the majority of the spiritual herbs came from this secret realm. After deducing the possible location of the secret realm, the Sect Head ordered that all the disciples of Qing Xuan Sect should enter.
Knowing that Xiang Han was coming out of seclusion, Chen Shu Ze decided against going but now that Xiang Han had brought it up again, he immediately changed his mind. "Shizun, please speak. Whatever spiritual herbs you need, this disciple will look for them."
Unexpectedly, Xiang Han shook his head. "It's okay. We'll talk about it again. Your master will go with you."
Chen Shu Ze's eyes lit up. "Understood."
"You can go back first. Remember to train hard." Xiang Han waved a hand and thought of the higher realm cultivator who had been fighting for the godly artifact and felt a headache.
In fact, wanting Chen Shu Ze to go to the secret realm wasn't so much for looking for spiritual herbs, but to hide from those people.
For such a godly artifact to only appear once in so many millennia, many cultivators in the upper realm had fought over it to the point of death only for it to have been accidentally brought to the lower realm by Chen Shu Ze who did not have a cultivation base. It was easy to imagine their rage.
Yet they could not travel through the realms nor make it public, for fear that those great elders would directly rush down to their lower realm and snatch it from them.
It has to be said that, to a certain extent, their selfishness had saved Chen Shu Ze. However, they also wanted to retrieve the artifact, so the only way was to use the Yuan Kong secret realm.
In order to prevent Chen Shu Ze from being chased and killed, Xiang Han thought about it and felt that the best way was to let him hide in the secret realm, just in time to miss the group of people from the upper realm.
Chen Shu Ze wouldn't know these things. He only knew that Xiang Han was also going to the secret realm and subconsciously thought that the other person was worried for his safety. He couldn't help but feel a burst of joy in his heart. "T-Then… Shizun, do you think I can propose to him?"
Xiang Han's face darkened and he did not hesitate to refuse while gritting his teeth. "Wait till you reach your master's level of cultivation. Now, get out." He should be the one proposing instead!
Chen Shu Ze heard this and his eyes were instantly filled with wild ecstasy. He staggered around outside in disbelief. "S-Shizun, do… do you mean that once this disciple reaches the Jin Dan stage, I can…"
Xiang Han sent him flying with a palm before rearranging his collar. "He's finally gone."
However, just as his words fell, Chen Shu Ze came soaring back on his sword as he clung onto the door of the courtyard. "Shizun, do your words from earlier mean what I think it means?"
"Then, this disciple will go train right now." Chen Shu Ze immediately got on his sword and left.
When he got back, he replayed Xiang Han's words in his mind over and over again, deeply engrossed as he hugged his sword for an entire afternoon.
Many days passed before the Yuan Kong Secret Realm appeared. The Qing Xuan Sect disciples were all in positions led by the sect elders, leaving only two elders and several chiefs to guard the entrance.
Chu Ming was also taking part in this mission. However, his aim wasn't the spiritual herbs but to clear the middle realm's dungeon. As a transmigrator, he was extremely clear on the uses of the secret realm as well as where it would appear ten years later.
Seeing Chen Shu Ze once more, Chu Ming only felt a deep sense of complication. On one hand, he couldn't bear to give up this golden finger, on the other hand, he knew that the rift between them was too deep. It was practically impossible to fix it.
He originally wanted to bring Chen Shu Ze with him to the middle realm to try and repair their relationship. But thinking of the group of murderers looking for him, he hesitated.
The cultivators from the upper realm had not only come to the lower realm to search for their godly artifact, some had even gone to the middle realm. In the novel, the original male protagonist and Chen Shu Ze accidentally overstayed in the secret realm and arrived in the middle realm ten years later. Their time could be described as extremely precarious. Chu Ming was different from the original male protagonist. He had come to the secret realm to avoid trouble and did not want to mess with those people in the world.
Furthermore, since the artifact was on Chen Shu Ze's body, it would be impossible to retrieve it without killing him, unless another artifact appeared in the world. The two divine weapons were a pair of male and female swords. Only when the female sword is in the world, will the male sword in Chen Shu Ze's body come out.
It was only decades later that the female sword came into existence. Chu Ming thought about it again and again, and finally decided not to take Chen Shu Ze to the Middle Realm for now. But their relationship still had to be repaired, so he talked to Chen Shu Ze on the way.
Apart from Chu Ming, Elder Gu had also come. Due to Chu Ming, the relationship between Qing Jing Peak and Qing Wu Peak was extremely tense. When he saw Xiang Han, he snorted coldly and left without a word.
Xiang Han couldn't be bothered with him either since Elder Gu's motives weren't that pure. After accepting Chu Ming as his disciple, he tried for two years, from patient coaxing to warnings to stay away from the other peak. This time, the secret realm was meant to be their final face off and to shred all pretense of cordiality. In any case, this was no longer the outside world, he wasn't afraid of others finding out that he had killed his own disciple.
Having guessed this, Chu Ming decided to hide in the middle realm as he was not Elder Gu's opponent.
After entering the secret realm, the two of them quickly fell behind. Seeing that they were about to tear each other apart, Xiang Han expressed his delight as it had saved him a lot of trouble. In the next few days, he only needed to wander around with everyone, occasionally take action and protect the others, then accidentally fall behind just as the secret realm was about to close. Of course, along with Chen Shu Ze.
Seven days later, he could see that the secret realm was about to close. Xiang Han was still taking his time to battle a fourth grade spiritual beast. On the other hand, Chen Shu Ze was extremely frantic, pulling out his sword and joining the battle. He attacked the beast from behind and solved it in one strike.
When the other disciples saw that their troubles had been solved, their expressions turned to relief as they hollered, "Elder Liu, hurry! We're almost out of time."
Chen Shu Ze also rushed forward, pulling Xiang Han along on his sword anxiously. "Hurry, we're almost…"
Seeing that they were almost out, Xiang Han frowned. In the next moment, he steeled his heart and suddenly shoved Chen Shu Ze off the sword with a palm then dived down right after him while shouting 'in a panic', "Shuze, what's wrong?!"
Chen Shu Ze fell to the ground and looked at Xiang Han who was 'anxiously' chasing after him in shock. What happened? Why did his Shizun suddenly push him?
"Elder Liu, hurry!"
From behind, several disciples continued to shout. But soon, their voices disappeared and peace returned.