The News The common technique for transferring messages mainly uses Origin Qi or Will-spirit to wrap the voice and deliver it into the listener's ears, whereas the technique employed by the Saint's Remnant Soul and Xu Yuan was more advanced, involving a Will-spirit link where the sound arises directly in the recesses of the heart; with most people, unless they deeply probe with their Will-spirit, they can at best detect unusual fluctuations of Will-spirit.
Could the Yantian Art truly ignore this and directly hear the conversation between the two?
Xu Yuan's gaze immediately swept toward Tianyan who was beside him.
The empty bamboo strip lay next to her bare feet, and Tianyan had resumed her original posture of hugging her legs, her golden eyes fixed on Xu Yuan.
Even after discovering the Saint's Remnant Soul and overhearing the conversation between Xu Yuan and the Saint's Remnant Soul, she showed no intention of intervening.
She seemed like an observer, quietly watching his every move.
Xu Yuan did not feel this was a good thing.
This kind of observation seemed more like an evaluation, an assessment of the benefits and risks of eliminating him, the butterfly that brought unpredictability to the future.
Moreover, what was more critical was that Tianyan had made her presence known on her initiative.
With her strength, she could have remained concealed and observed secretly the entire time.
Her emergence without engagement, did it signify that her observation had reached its conclusion?
Upon this thought, Xu Yuan lowered his head and glanced at the Soul Ring on his index finger.
This riddle-man, truly deserves to die.
Breaking out of the future she had extrapolated and coming to find him, what exactly was she going to do to him?
After taking a deep breath and slowly exhaling, he heard the voice of Zhou Xiaohe, that woman, drifting lightly to him,
"Ah…
truly delicious, thank you, Young Master Zhou.
The last time I had this White Fierce Bird meat was thanks to the good fortune of the fourth miss from the Prime Minister's Mansion."
"…."
Xu Yuan gave her a glance.
How carefree it must be, he no longer had any appetite for the night snack he had meticulously prepared.
However, Xu Yuan's expression soon became focused.
Wait a minute.
Just now Zhou Xiaohe mentioned the fourth miss from the Prime Minister's Mansion, right?
Isn't that his sister?
After glancing at Zhou Xiaohe who was wiping the grease from the corners of her mouth with a brocade handkerchief, Xu Yuan concentrated on her slightly and asked,
"Xu Xinrou?"
Zhou Xiaohe saw that the mysterious and handsome Young Master Zhou was finally not just responding with "Oh," "Oh," "Interesting," and her beautiful eyes sparkled as she said,
"Young Master Zhou knows Sister Xinrou?"
Xu Yuan's eyes flickered momentarily, and he shook his head,
"I've heard of this reputation of the Prime Minister's Mansion's fourth miss?
I'm a bit curious, is she also in Wanxiang City now?"
Zhou Xiaohe shook her head with a slight regret,
"No, Sister Xinrou left for Jingjiang Prefecture City a month and a half ago."
"Jingjiang Prefecture City?" Xu Yuan's eyes lifted slightly.
Zhou Xiaohe hesitated slightly and then said,
"It seems that her third brother had an accident, and she left right after receiving the news."
Timing this with the incident in Jingjiang Prefecture City, had his younger sister gone there to find him?
Xu Yuan shook his head and spoke softly,
"That is indeed regrettable; if she had not gone, I would have hoped to meet the fourth miss, who bears such a good reputation."
Zhou Xiaohe also expressed her regret, saying, "Sister Xinrou is really a good person, Young Master Zhou.
You would definitely like her.
She previously helped set up an Illusion Array in Shengshan County."
Xu Yuan raised an eyebrow, he knew that his younger sister specialized in the Formation Path.
He paused for a moment and asked with some curiosity,
"Shengshan County?
Illusion Array?"
"Young Master Zhou, you might not be aware since you are from another place, but Shengshan County lies adjacent to the Wanxing Mountain Range, which is often attacked by massive groups of Demonic Beasts.
The Protective City Formation inscribed by the Imperial Court has deteriorated over the years, almost entirely breached, and every year many people die in battle,"
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Speaking of this, Zhou Xiaohe's eyes revealed a touch of admiration as she said,
"Sister Xinrou came to us, Myriad Manifestation Sect, because of this matter.
She provided the Formation diagrams and the respective operation routes, and our Myriad Manifestation Sect supplied the materials.
Together, we set up a huge Illusion Array near Shengshan County."
"Sister Xinrou is really amazing!
Once the outer formation was activated, the entire county was obscured by thick fog, and the attacking Demonic Beasts were completely held back outside!"
Xu Yuan had not expected to hear information about his younger sister once again.
He paused, then suddenly chuckled and nodded, saying,
"She is indeed very impressive."
Both her actions and her methods are impressive.
Setting up formations to protect the common people is an action.
Being able to make the sects pay on behalf of the imperial court is a method.
Unlike the paper figures created with scant information in Cang Yuan, this fourth sister became a living, breathing person.
Helping the world, this fourth sister has always been practicing her ideals in her own ways.
Of course, he would still never approve of her method of stabbing family members in the back.
If there's any sign of this, even if Xu Changge is reluctant to act, he would let her feel what a brother's loving slap is like.
Well, if he could overpower her, that is.
Zhou Xiaohe seemed to be utterly infatuated with Xu Xinrou, her ample chest shaking with laughter as she said in a low voice, "Hehe, Shengshan County is even preparing to build a temple for Sister Xinyao."
Upon hearing this, Xu Yuan shook his head.
He was about to speak when the "creak creak" sound of footsteps on snow suddenly came from outside.
This time, it should be Big Ice Lump.
It's much later than usual.
Xu Yuan wasn't the only one who heard the footsteps; Zhou Xiaohe instinctively looked outside with a puzzled expression and whispered,
"Why are so many people coming to Li Family's village tonight?"
As soon as she finished speaking,
a stunning woman in black robes walked slowly into the still warm dilapidated house.
Seeing her, Xu Yuan immediately waved and called out,
"Ying'er, come here."
"…"
Hearing this name, Ran Qingmo glanced at Xu Yuan with a hint of confusion, then her gaze locked onto Tianyan behind him.
Her black gown stirred without wind, and a Black Sword silently appeared in the palm of her hand.
In an instant, time in the room seemed to freeze.
Zhou Xiaohe was staring blankly at Ran Qingmo's beauty.
Li Erzhu, sitting in the corner like facing a formidable enemy, clutched the scabbard unstrapped from his back.
Xu Yuan opened his mouth to speak.
Tianyan was still in the same posture as before, glancing at Ran Qingmo and then returning his gaze back to Xu Yuan.
Time continued,
Ran Qingmo sheathed her sword and walked up to Xu Yuan, saying briefly,
"Let's go."
The moment he heard her, Xu Yuan's eyes shot up,
If Ran Qingmo said she had found it, then she surely had found the entrance to the secret realm.
He confirmed, "You found it?"
"Yeah," Ran Qingmo nodded.
Upon hearing this, Xu Yuan squinted his eyes and glanced back at Tianyan.
The appearance of Tianyan tonight, could it be related to Ran Qingmo finding the entrance to the secret realm?
"…."
Zhou Xiaohe sat in the corner, glancing at Xu Yuan and then at Ran Qingmo, her eyes filled with a touch of loss but also shock.
The Sumeru Ring…
These two people, Zhou and Ying'er, each have a Sumeru Ring…
And the next moment, she saw Zhou, with a casual gesture, stored everything except the portable Inscription Lamp on the wall, the barbecue rack on the floor, and the heating stove into his Sumeru Ring.
Then, he addressed her with his voice as smooth and gentle as jade,
"Zhou has some pressing matters, so I must take my leave first.
Consider this White Fierce Bird meat as an apology for any impropriety."
With that, the handsome Zhou, along with the woman in black and the cute little girl, exited the broken house and gradually disappeared into the dark snowy night…
///111///
The mountain forest on a snowy night was an endless expanse of pitch darkness, where only the ice-cold touch of snowflakes like willow catkins could be felt incessantly brushing against one's cheeks.
As he circulated his cultivation technique to fend off the cold, streaks of blood-red light quietly appeared in Xu Yuan's eyes, making the surrounding mountains hidden in the dark clearly visible.
Hurrying along, the howling cold wind passed by his ears, and within his field of vision was the graceful figure of Ran Qingmo moving through the darkness of the woods as if out for a stroll.
She was intentionally maintaining a speed that he could keep up with.
Compared to Ran Qingmo's ethereal grace, Xu Yuan's manner of traveling was very unrefined, like the ninjas he had seen in his previous life who swung their arms while running through the woods.
About an hour later, the trees thinned out, and a frozen river appeared before their eyes, with Ran Qingmo coming to a stop alongside this river valley.
Xu Yuan halted a few meters behind her, instinctively looking back.
Tianyan was still there, trailing about three meters behind them.
A pair of pupils gleaming with golden light was particularly conspicuous in the dark snowy night, although they were somewhat short.
Xu Yuan glanced down with eyes shimmering with blood-red light.
She was still barefoot, the slightly oversized palace dress dragging across the snowy ground, leaving a rippled trail as she walked.
Such a cold snowy night and still barefoot, she didn't seem to mind the cold.
With high cultivation, one really could do as they pleased.
Ran Qingmo continued to lead the way, and Xu Yuan consequently withdrew his gaze.
This silent atmosphere lasted for roughly fifteen minutes until someone among the three finally spoke.
It wasn't Xu Yuan but Ran Qingmo, who was leading the way at the front, her voice very soft:
"Tianyan, why did you come?"
During her questioning, she stopped leading the way and quietly turned to look at the little loli at the end of the group.
In the midst of darkness, the wind and snow were heavy, yet the voice seemed very calm at that moment.
Xu Yuan also stopped walking as he felt that Ran Qingmo and Tianyan should be acquainted with each other, to the extent that they wouldn't remain utterly silent.
Tianyan did indeed react to Ran Qingmo's words, giving Ran Qingmo a calm glance with those conspicuous golden eyes in the night, then redirected her gaze back to watching Xu Yuan.
Great, now there was a loli who spoke even less than Ran Qingmo.
From now on, I'll call you Little Ice Lump.
Of course, if a fight broke out, Xu Yuan still hoped she would turn into a Dead Ice Lump.
Ran Qingmo's clear eyes flickered slightly as she looked at Xu Yuan with care, whispering through mental transmission:
"Xu Yuan, why is she here?"
Xu Yuan sighed, shrugging:
"Don't know, Old Man Luo said it was because I slipped out of her predictions, so she came looking for me.
Guess she's been following us for a while now."
He paused, then reminded:
"Also, no need for mental transmission, Tianyan can hear everything."
Ran Qingmo glanced at Tianyan again.
Tianyan also glanced at Ran Qingmo.
Ran Qingmo was the first to look away; after pondering for a moment, she asked softly:
"Will her following us pose a danger?"
Xu Yuan shrugged:
"Not sure, very likely.
I ruined the future she foresaw, and her taking so much trouble to find me probably isn't just to take a look."
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Dressed in broad daylight, the world is vast and searching for one person is really difficult.
Upon hearing this, Ran Qingmo drew her sword, holding it in her palm and staring at Tianyan as waves of Origin Qi fluctuated around her:
"I'll hold her off, and you escape with Mr.
Luo?"
This time, Ran Qingmo didn't use mental transmission.
An unabashed face-to-face conspiracy.
Xu Yuan immediately glanced at Tianyan.
The loli still had no reaction, playing the part of an indifferent bystander.
Xu Yuan shook his head:
"Old Man Luo said she might be a Second Grade…"
"Origin Initial Realm, I might be able to escape," Ran Qingmo said softly.
Xu Yuan raised his eyebrows, quite surprised.
The gap between a Second Grade Origin Initial and a Third Grade Great Grandmaster was enormous, with many talents stuck at this point for life, so the disparity in combat strength should also be quite significant.
Back in Jingjiang above the Xu Residence, faced with the attack from the mysterious Origin Initial, Zhou Chen and Sizi Yu were instantly depleted of their Qi.
But Xu Yuan did believe that Ran Qingmo could escape from someone in the Origin Initial Realm.
Both Old Man Luo and Xu Changge held Ran Qingmo in high esteem, roughly equivalent to being amongst that group of people who were invincible within their level.
Invincible within their level, although not to the extent that they could fight above their grade as when they were weaker in cultivation, but escaping should still be feasible.
However, this Tianyan before them, even if just a Second Grade, could not possibly be an ordinary one.
The cultivation technique passed down from the Heaven's Watchtower Master was no joke.
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With this thought, Xu Yuan glanced at her and continued:
"She might be a Second Grade, or perhaps a First Grade."
On hearing this, Ran Qingmo grew silent, and after a long pause, she suddenly asked:
"That..
is your brother still around, Xu Yuan?"
"…."
Xu Yuan rolled his eyes and directly turned back to ask Tianyan:
"Hey, Tianyan, is Xu Changge around?"
"…."
Tianyan quietly stared at him.
"Heh…
seems like he's not."
Xu Yuan chuckled, then turned to ask Ran Qingmo:
"Back when you saved her, did she also stay this quiet all the time?"
Ran Qingmo recalled for a moment and nodded:
"Yeah, more or less."
Xu Yuan looked puzzled and asked:
"Ran Qingmo, didn't you find it strange to encounter such a silent little girl in a dangerous place like Jiuyuan Gorge and still decide to bring her with you?"
Ran Qingmo quieted for a moment, tilted her head, and asked:
"Hmm…
strange in what way?"
"….."
Xu Yuan fell silent, looking at Ran Qingmo and then at Tianyan.
Different appearances, the same expression, belonged to the same world, different you.
///112///
He suddenly became curious about the scene of Ran Qingmo taking Tianyan on a journey through Jiuyuan Gorge.
One big and one small, two icy lumps, probably couldn't squeeze out a single word half the day.
Xu Yuan gathered his thoughts and said,
"Hmm, indeed there's nothing strange.
By the way, how much longer until we reach the entrance to the Secret Realm?"
Upon hearing this, Ran Qingmo showed a slight hesitation:
"Are you going to take her with you?"
"If I could defeat her easily, I naturally wouldn't take her along."
"We've already arrived."
As he spoke, Ran Qingmo raised his hand and pointed ahead.
Xu Yuan followed the direction of Ran Qingmo's delicate jade-like finger, but the snow-filled night in the mountains was so dark that even with Origin Qi aiding his vision, with his current cultivation level, he could only see a hundred meters around him.
After walking a bit further, Xu Yuan slowed his pace slightly.
In the darkness of the night, large snowflakes, like goose feathers, continued to tirelessly fall from the sky.
This was a lake beneath a waterfall, surrounded by withered trees.
The waterfall had run dry, and the lake's surface, twenty zhang in diameter, had frozen over.
And in the middle of the frozen lake's surface, a hundred meters away, lay a giant tiger with two-zhang flesh wings, quietly lying on the ice.
Even as they approached within a hundred meters, this Qiong Qi-like giant beast still showed no sign of stirring.
After walking a bit further, Xu Yuan finally understood.
The reason it was so quiet was probably that a giant ice spike had pierced through the tiger's head, and web-like cracks spread from beneath its body on the solid ice.
Xu Yuan also roughly recognized the breed of this large cat through its features.
Cloud Wing Tiger.
It looked terrifying, but it was just a showpiece, its strength nowhere near that of the White Fierce Bird they had encountered earlier.
Of course, saying the Cloud Wing Tiger wasn't strong was relative to cultivators; to ordinary mountain villagers, this would be a mountain lord capable of turning humans into blood food.
No wonder all the mountain villages in this Guanyin Mountain range had been abandoned.
Counting the White Fierce Bird they ate tonight and the Bloodfang Boar from the day before yesterday, that made three powerful Demonic Beasts.
The other fierce creatures lurking in the forest were surely too numerous to count; this Guanyin Mountain range was almost becoming a Demonic Beast's nest.
Gathering his thoughts, Xu Yuan looked around and, not finding an entrance behind the dried-up waterfall, turned his head and asked,
"Is the entrance on the lakebed?"
"Hmm."
"How do we get in?" Xu Yuan asked.
As his voice fell, he suddenly caught sight of Ran Qingmo taking out the Black Sword from the corner of his eye and then swinging it down towards the frozen lake surface.
A flash of sword light passed, streaking a blue glow across the snowy night of the mountain forest.
After a moment of silence, the pressure of the wind swept over, the snow that had settled all night flew about, turning the place into a fairyland.
Brandishing the sword to cut through the water, the entire lake was neatly split open, and the bone-chilling sword intent quickly spread down, freezing the surface before the water on both sides could surge back to the center.
An entrance made of lake water appeared before Xu Yuan's eyes, a small ice gorge.
Ran Qingmo turned back, calmly and softly speaking,
"Let's go, the entrance is at the bottom of the lake."
Reigning in his amazed gaze, Xu Yuan walked to the edge of the lake and peered down, his brow furrowing slightly.
The little lake was only twenty zhang in diameter, but its depth was almost a bottomless black hole.
"Do you need me to carry you?" Ran Qingmo walked over to Xu Yuan and asked.
Xu Yuan shook his head: "No need."
Who would be foolish enough to jump straight down from such a height, which was at least a hundred meters?
Swoosh—
The wind rustled his clothes, and Ran Qingmo jumped straight down.
"…"
Xu Yuan smacked his lips, looked back at Tianyan, and said,
"Tianyan, if you don't kill me, I'm going into the Secret Realm."
"…" Tianyan stared at Xu Yuan, her golden pupils swirling with light, yet still not speaking a word.
Xu Yuan sighed, operated his cultivation technique, and leapt forward, moving back and forth between the ice layers.
He eventually landed safely at the bottom of the lake.
Once he reached the bottom of the lake, Xu Yuan's attention was immediately drawn to a dark purple gateway of light.
The gateway, nestled in the sand and stones at the lakebed, swirled with light, emitting a faint pulse of Origin Qi.
"Is this the place?" Xu Yuan walked up to Ran Qingmo and asked.
"Hmm." Ran Qingmo nodded: "The Secret Realm's entrance overseen by Sword Sect, which my master took me to, looked like this."
Xu Yuan hesitated slightly: "Is there anything I need to be cautious about before entering?"
Although he had entered countless Secret Realms in the game of Cang Yuan, this was his first time in reality.
Ran Qingmo shook her head:
"No, just go straight in."
Xu Yuan hesitated for a moment, then began to search his mind again for information related to this Secret Realm.
About half a minute later, Xu Yuan was ready and reached out to grab Ran Qingmo's hand.
If they didn't go together, the Secret Realm's entrance would randomly transport people to different places within the Secret Realm.
But just as Xu Yuan took a step forward, he felt his hand being held by someone else.
It wasn't Ran Qingmo, because the hand was very small.
Glancing to the side, Tianyan had also jumped down at some point, silently appearing beside him and taking hold of his hand.
Xu Yuan tried to pull his hand out, but couldn't.
With a bit more force, Cang Yuan's petite body was directly flung by him in the lake bottom, turning a circle in mid-air.
She landed softly on the ground, still staring at him with the same expression as before.
Xu Yuan looked at Cang Yuan's eyes as if looking at a lunatic, but his heart sank slightly.
He had originally intended to use the teleportation mechanism to shake off Cang Yuan, but it seemed that the other party knew about the oddities of this Secret Realm's entrance!
As he was thinking,
A cold gleam flashed without warning at the pitch-black bottom of the lake!
Ran Qingmo had drawn her sword.
With a speed Xu Yuan couldn't see clearly, her sword chopped towards Cang Yuan's slender arm.
In the blink of an eye,
"Stop."
A child's naive voice murmured in the silent lake bottom.
In an instant,
As if time had frozen, the Black Sword was instantly fixed in place about a foot from Cang Yuan, unable to advance an inch.
Ran Qingmo held the sword, her brow slightly furrowed.
After a second of silence,
Threads of blue cold light started to emerge on the edge of the sword blade, and the suspended Black Sword began to tremble.
Cang Yuan's gaze was calm, and she opened her small mouth slightly:
"Seal."
The blue cold light on the sword blade vanished instantly.
Seeing Cang Yuan's eerie method, Xu Yuan didn't think twice and immediately spoke out:
"Ran Qingmo!"
"…"
Ran Qingmo didn't turn back, her gaze fixed on Cang Yuan; she had discovered something from her prior probing.
Xu Yuan exhaled slowly and said softly:
"Ran Qingmo, if she wants to pull me, just let her.
If there were any real danger, Old Man Luo would have already made his move.
He probably knows something about the Yantian Art."
This old man, is most likely peeking right now.
The Thought Imprint hasn't been released; he's still somewhat one of our own.
Ran Qingmo hesitated slightly but still sheathed her sword.
Cang Yuan then lowered her eyes.
Xu Yuan smiled faintly and reached out his hand to Cang Yuan:
"Let's go."
Ran Qingmo looked hesitantly at Xu Yuan's extended hand, but still placed her own hand onto it.
Maybe it was because of the Cultivation Technique, her hand was very cold, yet her skin was as clear and delicate as snow.
"Ordinary Secret Realms have teleportation platforms within them.
This Secret Realm's teleportation platform is destroyed, and the location is uncertain.
Not holding together might end up being teleported to different places."
After a brief hesitation, Xu Yuan still gave an explanation.
Having said that, he then pulled Ran Qingmo and Cang Yuan into the dark purple light gate of the Secret Realm.
…
…
The sky within the Secret Realm was a clear blue, devoid of the bitter cold of the snow-capped mountains from the outside world.
Amidst the bird songs and fragrant flowers, the lush jungle swayed gently in the breeze, creating overlapping waves across the lawn.
Xu Yuan slowly came to his senses and instantly became alert as he looked around.
This vast grassy slope stretched to the end of the plain, where a great mountain loomed and what seemed like jade towers and pavilions could be glimpsed hidden amongst the cloud-wreathed mountaintop.
Xu Yuan frowned slightly, looking around, but he only saw a strange young lady in a light red palace dress sitting quietly beside him, hugging her knees.
Her face was untouched by makeup, naturally beautiful, with deep, golden eyes like clear mirrors or mysterious lakes, a flat chest, and from beneath her palace dress, a pair of snow-white, crystal-clear feet, with ten snowy white toes.
No, she's not a stranger.
This is Cang Yuan!
Xu Yuan's eyes shifted slightly and he took a step back:
"Are you…
Cang Yuan?"
"Giggle~"
The moment the strange young lady saw Xu Yuan wake up, she laughed crisply like a silver bell, her golden eyes curving into crescents, and she slowly stood up, dusting off the dirt from her palace dress before approaching Xu Yuan:
"Guess?
If you guess right, I'll tell you.
"Ah~ no, you've already guessed right.
I am indeed Cang Yuan."
Xu Yuan stared at this woman: "Where's Ran Qingmo?"
The young lady Cang Yuan raised a slender jade finger and lightly tapped it on her chin, tilting her head:
"She was probably teleported elsewhere."
Xu Yuan frowned.
Cang Yuan giggled like a sprite, her golden eyes gleaming enchantingly in the sunlight:
"Don't look at me like that.
I'm serious.
For now, there's no need to kill you or Ran Qingmo."
////113///
Temporarily?
Xu Yuan let out a sigh of relief and said softly,
"It seems you want to verify some things about me."
He used a declarative sentence.
Loli Tianyan stared at Xu Yuan for two seconds and smirked,
"Of course, if you want to ask me what exactly I'm trying to verify, I can't tell you that.
But, if you beg me, it's not like it's impossible."
She moved close to Xu Yuan's face and blinked.
"Well, do you want to beg me to try?"
"…"
Xu Yuan looked at the charming golden-eyed girl in front of him and shook his head,
"Actually, more than that, I'm really more curious about you."
"…."
Quiet for a second,
Loli Tianyan pointed at herself, a weird look in her eyes, "Me?"
Xu Yuan didn't speak and with his hand outstretched, he compared her current height and then the height of Loli Tianyan.
Loli Tianyan was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter "huhuhuhu",
"This is due to the cultivation technique~"
Speaking, her beautiful eyes curved into two sparkling crescents as she smiled and gazed at Xu Yuan,
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"Do you prefer the other me?"
"…"
Xu Yuan felt that the woman in front of him was slightly crazy in the head.
But he couldn't beat her at all, so he was helpless.
He sighed, shook his head, and turned to walk away.
Loli Tianyan quickly followed behind Xu Yuan, her crystal clear bare feet stepping on the soft grass, leaning in with a smile and asked,
"Hey, did I guess right?
That version of me is quite cute…"
"No, I think the current you is much cuter," Xu Yuan glanced at her.
Loli Tianyan blinked, "Why?"
"You guess?"
Xu Yuan didn't answer and continued walking ahead.
Loli Tianyan is even more aloof than Ran Qingmo, almost impossible to tell what she's thinking.
So he really preferred this Loli Tianyan more.
Because she talks a lot.
Talking a lot means you can find out some things.
However, the world's cultivation techniques do seem more complex than he thought.
He once believed that cultivation was merely the movement of Origin Qi between the meridians, but the Yantian Art turned out to shatter this fixed way of thinking.
There were even cultivation techniques that could control age and personality.
Thinking this, Xu Yuan looked again at the flat-chested girl who kept chattering by his side.
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If this flat-chested girl represented the second stage of a boss, he wondered if there would be a third mature lady stage?
Loli Tianyan noticed Xu Yuan's gaze, suddenly stopped talking, covered her chest, and stepped back, saying,
"I feel like you're thinking some very impolite things."
"Indeed, they're not very polite."
Xu Yuan frankly nodded and retorted, "Do you expect me, a profligate, to be as courteous as those refined gentlemen?
Isn't that slightly disrespectful to me?"
Loli Tianyan rolled her eyes at him.
…
…
The Secret Realm space was vast.
The Guanyin mountain range only spanned horizontally across four maps within Cang Yuan, and the actual distance is already a thousand miles; based on this scale, the area of this Secret Realm would be at least one million square kilometers.
It's a mystery how such immense space was created in the first place.
After traveling westward for five days, Ran Qingmo was still lost somewhere, and Loli Tianyan, at first, kept chattering incessantly by his ear, but as Xu Yuan responded less, so did she gradually speak less.
After five days of travel, the Cloud Top Immortal Palace, where they had entered the Secret Realm, had completely disappeared from view, yet the endless grasslands still lay before Xu Yuan.
In the noontime sunlight,
Xu Yuan squatted on the grass, methodically processing the corpse of a wolf Demonic Beast with his uncle's gift, the Qingyu Sword—skinning, gutting, deboning, washing, and marinating with spices.
After finishing the process, Xu Yuan took out a grill from his Sumeru Ring, threaded the prepared wolf meat onto it, lit a fire, used Origin Qi as fuel, and joyfully started to roast the whole wolf.
Likewise, in Cang Yuan, this grassland was home to rodents and wolf Demonic Beasts.
Their strength was not very significant, so with Xu Yuan's current Seventh Grade cultivation, he was more than capable of handling them, ensuring that the journey wasn't miserable enough to resort to consuming military ration Fasting Pills.
As time passed, the aroma of the roasted wolf quickly spread.
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Using his Qingyu Sword that could cut through iron like mud, Xu Yuan sliced off a wolf leg and began to feast on it with a crunch.
Loli Tianyan squatted next to him, stared at Xu Yuan for a long while, then suddenly spoke,
"Hey."
"…"
Xu Yuan turned back.
Tianyan extended a fair, jade-like finger, pointing in the direction of Cloud Top Immortal Palace,
"Where are you heading?
Isn't the entrance to the place over there?
Walk a hundred meters further and you'll reach the boundary of the Secret Realm."
Xu Yuan put down the wolf leg, thought for a moment, and said,
"Ahem, first, I…"
"Stop the nonsense, I know you're called Xu Changtian," Loli Tianyan rolled her eyes, cutting him off.
"…"
Xu Yuan instinctively wanted to laugh but then he hesitated.
This world shouldn't have that meme, right?
Narrowing his eyes, he then laughed softly and asked,
"If you can predict the future, why don't you figure it out yourself?"
Without hesitation, Tianyan replied,
"It would be very troublesome."
Xu Yuan, neither affirming nor denying, stared into Tianyan's eyes and smirked,
"Little Sister Tianyan, even if it's troublesome, you'll probably have to do it yourself, as we are now enemies.
Do you expect an enemy to solve your mysteries?"
As they looked at each other, Tianyan's golden eyes glinted and she sighed,
"Well, you have a point.
"But I'm older than you, so you should call me 'sister.'"
///114///
Xu Yuan looked at her slightly immature face and smiled:
"At least you look younger than me now.
If you become an older sister, how about I call you 'sister'?"
Tianyan let out a light snort from her delicate nose:
"Don't want to."
"Can you really change?" Xu Yuan was surprised.
Physically alterable.
In this vast world, truly nothing is impossible.
Tianyan, upon hearing this, didn't seem to refuse answering.
She thought for a moment and then suddenly smiled, showing her teeth, and crawled in front of Xu Yuan:
"Are you, very curious?"
"Mhm." Maintaining eye contact at close range, Xu Yuan nodded.
With a smile suggesting mischief, Tianyan suggested like a devil tempting someone:
"I'll ask you a question, then you ask me one, and we can ask about anything.
How about it?"
Hearing this, Xu Yuan raised an eyebrow but didn't immediately refuse, saying:
"Not a bad proposal."
The girl Tianyan's eyes once again had a golden gleam in them:
"Good, I'll go first.
Why do you want to go outside?"
Xu Yuan, having got the information he wanted to know, sighed and said:
"What was your previous question?"
"Hm?"
Tianyan voiced her slight doubt: "Isn't this only the first question?"
"Indeed, it's the first." Xu Yuan nodded.
"So what was your previous question?"
The girl Tianyan furrowed her brows and said in a low voice, "I'll ask you a question, then you ask me one, how about…
that one?""
"Right, that's the one."
Xu Yuan nodded and replied, "I don't think so much of it."
Having said that, Xu Yuan continued gnawing on the wolf's leg.
"…."
After pausing for several seconds, Tianyan puffed up her cheeks and said discontentedly:
"Xu Changtian, aren't you curious about why I came to find you?"
Xu Yuan turned to look back, nodding earnestly:
"Of course I am."
"Then why don't you agree?" Tianyan asked.
Xu Yuan gave her a look one might give to a fool:
"Although it's quite enjoyable spending time together, I think it's highly likely that we are enemies right now.
Whatever an enemy wants to do, naturally I want to disrupt it.
"Asking such a question, are you stupid or what?"
Standing in place, Tianyan froze for several seconds, clenched her fists, and asked:
"Xu Changtian, are you not afraid of dying?"
Xu Yuan shrugged, spread his hands, and stared back at her, counter-asking:
"If I say I'm not scared, would you believe me?"
After a moment of thought, Tianyan shook her head: "No."
Hearing this, Xu Yuan laughed, a bright smile on his face: "I am indeed very afraid of death.
Terrified."
Tianyan stood up and, standing on tiptoe, raised her hand to a very high position:
"My cultivation is so much higher than yours, you're not afraid I'll kill you?"
Xu Yuan glanced at her tiptoeing bare feet, looked up, and shook his head with a laugh:
"Have said that I'm scared, haven't I?"
"Why do I feel like you are fearless?
Is it because of that remnant soul inside you?"
Xu Yuan thought about it:
"No, it's more about my personality, I suppose.
Plus, didn't you say you won't kill me for now?
"Look, how much I trust you~"
"…."
Tianyan panted for a few breaths, but unfortunately, her chest didn't rise and fall much.
She looked down at Xu Yuan from a height:
"I'm thinking of changing my mind."
The gentle breeze swirled around her three thousand strands of hair, backlighting her figure and making those golden eyes particularly bright.
Xu Yuan replied very seriously:
"You won't change your mind."
At that, Tianyan let out a laugh, her bright golden eyes turning eerie and dark:
"You, are that sure?
Maybe…."
"No maybes."
Xu Yuan slowly got up, preparing to place his hand on the little head of Tianyan: "We've been together for so many days, I'm completely certain."
Tianyan subtly dodged out of the way.
Xu Yuan smiled slightly:
"How cold.
But I know why you came to find me."
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Tianyan stared at Xu Yuan, smiling as well, neither confirming nor denying:
"And why is that?"
Xu Yuan said calmly:
"You…
can't see the future clearly anymore, right?"
…
…
This secret realm space could truly be considered a place where birds sang and flowers fragranced, as the warm yet cool breeze of spring meeting summer, carrying a trace of earthiness, made people feel very comfortable.
In the distance, across the boundless grasslands, two figures walked leisurely, one clad in white, the other in a light red palace dress, one after the other, looking not so much like seekers exploring the secret realm, but rather like a brother and sister on a picnic.
Ever since Xu Yuan uttered those words, the girl Tianyan fell into silence, as if reverting to the self-isolated stance of Loli Tianyan.
She followed behind, not uttering a single word.
After walking for a while, Xu Yuan suddenly stopped in his tracks, waved his hand in front of her eyes:
"Are you still there?"
Tianyan glared at him fiercely.
Savage yet cute.
Considering the other's cultivation, Xu Yuan felt he should be scared.
After holding back a laugh for several seconds, he coughed lightly and pointed to the Soul Ring on the index finger of his right hand:
"Don't look at me like that, you should know that inside this is a Saint's Remnant Soul, right?"
Tianyan's expression didn't change much as she waited for Xu Yuan's next words.
Xu Yuan casually remarked:
"Back in that shabby house, you heard the conversation we had before, didn't you?
Don't tell me you lost your memory as you grew up."
"…." Tianyan continued glaring at Xu Yuan without speaking.
Seeing this, Xu Yuan continued:
"This Saint's Remnant Soul knows the Yantian Art and also knows about Jiatiange.
And from the way he talks, you should be able to guess that he knows quite a lot about the Yantian Art."
"What are you trying to imply?" Finally, Tianyan spoke.
"It's simple.
He told me your purpose," Xu Yuan responded.
"Naive," Tianyan sighed, her eyes showing a hint of pity.
Xu Yuan shook his head, his voice low:
"Tianyan, it's blind confidence that's truly naive.
"The Yantian Art may be powerful, but the world is vast, not to mention the methods of a Saint who lived for tens of thousands of years."
"….." This time, Tianyan didn't respond.
Xu Yuan sighed softly, and continued in a low voice:
"He used a special technique of the Saint to tell me all about your purpose."
"…." Old Man Luo.
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"…." Tianyan.
Seeing that the Saint didn't argue, Xu Yuan knew he was on the right track.
The thought stamp branded by Guiqi with his own life prevented the Saint's Remnant Soul from doing anything that would harm his interests.
During the earlier conversation, revealing the heart demon oath was both a warning to him, Xu Yuan, and to Tianyan.
With the heart demon oath, if Xu Yuan faced danger, he would have to risk his life.
Thinking to this point, Xu Yuan said softly:
"How about it, Old Man Luo, why not come out and say a few words?"
After a moment of silence,
"Xu kid, why are you talking to her about this?"
See, peeking as expected.
And claiming to study the heart demon oath, a hypocritical old man.
Xu Yuan smiled when he heard this booming voice in the depths of his heart.
Their will-spirit link activated, he suddenly transmitted through will-spirit:
"Old Man Luo, take me to the boundary!"
Big Ice Lump's probing of Tianyan's strength at the bottom of the lake was valuable, as it at least let Xu Yuan know that this Tianyan wasn't a Saint nor First Grade.
Otherwise, even if Tianyan hadn't exerted her full strength, Ran Qingmo would not have had any chance to resist.
Of course, there was another more important piece of corroborating evidence.
The Saint's Remnant Soul was too calm.
Due to the thought stamp, if Xu Yuan were to be in trouble, the Saint was bound to die before him.
As Xu Yuan's words ended, Old Man Luo didn't ask why.
A massive surge of Soul Power rushed out and, with its empowerment, Xu Yuan turned and ran.
This place was known as Dome Palace, a standard two-tier map.
The outer prairies were accessible to players even in their novice stages, where they could level up by killing wolves and slaughtering rats, but the Cloud Top Immortal Palace ensconced in the mists at the very core was meant for the much later phases of the game.
Of course,
you could also enter in the early stages, if you weren't afraid of dying.
And the condition to enter was quite simple, to cross the boundary of the secret realm.
The boundary of a typical secret realm was bordered by the likes of spatial turbulence, a kind of death zone.
One wrong step could wipe out your health bar instantly, but the boundary of this realm could directly transport you into the Cloud Top Immortal Palace you had seen initially.
It was a random teleportation.
A hundred meters away, crossed in an instant.
"Stop."
The girl's voice came from behind, and an overwhelming sense of oppression instantly converged from all directions, causing Xu Yuan's body, which he was controlling to flee, to suddenly hang suspended in midair.
And at the same moment,
Old Man Luo cursed out loud:
"Xu kid, I've really jinxed myself by crossing paths with you!"
All the while cursing, the Saint's Remnant Soul controlled Xu Yuan's body and made a hand gesture:
"Release!"
As the word was uttered, the tidal wave-like pressure vanished instantly.
Watching the scene, Xu Yuan's pupils shrank sharply.
This remnant soul,
could it also perform the Yantian Art?!!
But as the thought crossed his mind, the Saint's Remnant Soul had already controlled his body to cross the boundary of the secret realm….
///115///
Awakening from the tremors of the transmission, his eyes met the near crimson eaves of an overhead canopy.
Xu Yuan didn't immediately get up, but instead sat there stunned, thinking about what he had just seen.
Saint's Remnant Soul…
Yantian Art…
Cang Yuan's description of Old Man Luo wasn't very detailed.
Following the usual narrative trope, when the protagonist asked this Saint's Remnant Soul about his former identity or the level of his strength, Old Luo would start playing the enigma.
"I was but a Third Grade Great Master."
"Knowing too much is no good for you at this stage."
"Back in the day, the way those Sects' Saintesses would carry themselves, so spirited…"
Every word he avoided speaking of his own greatness, yet every word implied it nonetheless.
Heaven's Watchtower Master.
No wonder Old Man Luo seemed so familiar with Jiatiange.
Xu Yuan asked softly.
"Old Man Luo, were you once the Pavilion Master of Heaven's Watchtower?"
"Bullshit Pavilion Master, I was just a Saint."
At this, Xu Yuan was momentarily stunned.
Heaven's Watchtower Saint?
It sounded even scarier than Pavilion Master.
But before he could ponder it further, he heard the voice of the Saint's Remnant Soul once again.
"Xu lad, how did you know the boundary of this secret realm was a Transmission Formation?"
After thinking for a moment, Xu Yuan replied softly.
"I once read an ancient text that mentioned it."
"…"
After a few moments of silence,
Saint's Remnant Soul spoke in a ghostly tone.
"Xu lad, you…
don't think I'm a fool, do you?"
Hearing this, Xu Yuan smiled and slowly stood up, then retorted.
"Old Man Luo, didn't you say earlier that even a Saint isn't permitted to study the Yantian Art?
So, how did you manage to learn it?"
At this, the Saint's Remnant Soul chuckled.
"A Saint is indeed not permitted to study it, but the reason for that…
why should I tell you?"
The old man was playing the enigma again.
Xu Yuan chuckled lightly, unfazed.
"In that case, why should I answer your earlier question?
Old Man Luo, sometimes knowing too much is actually not good for you."
"…" The Saint's Remnant Soul.
Xu Yuan didn't stop talking, sitting on the ground with his knee propped up, hand supporting his forehead.
"I have a guess as to how you learned the Yantian Art.
The rules prohibit studying it, but rules are made to be broken, and the living can adapt—especially since you were an exceptional Saint.
You either stole it or seized it, one of the two."
He paused,
Xu Yuan lifted his gaze and spoke to himself.
"However, if that's the case, we might actually be able to strike a deal.
You, as a Saint, would have been guarding what you stole, the Pavilion Master's legacy.
Since Jiatiange hasn't been completely destroyed, that must be a capital offense, right?"
After listening carefully, the Saint's Remnant Soul laughed softly.
"Heh…
don't try to weasel information out of me."
"…"
Seeing that his ploy had failed, Xu Yuan sighed lightly, stood up from the ground, and said no more.
He looked around.
This was a very large lake area, with red walkways built over the water stretching in all directions, leading to the boundless distance.
Lush lotus leaves accompanied by pink lotus flowers dotted the pond, and at the center of the vast lake, a majestic cherry tree was in the midst of blossoming its magnificent flowers.
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With every gentle breeze, the petals shimmered with an unusual light as they drifted down.
A beauty and tranquility unchanging for ten thousand years.
After a glance at his surroundings, Xu Yuan roughly understood which map he was in.
Not bad luck.
He had been directly transported to the hub of the Dome Palace.
The intricate walkways built over the lake's surface could lead to any location within this palatial fairyland.
And as Xu Yuan's gaze settled, the Saint's Remnant Soul drifted out from the realm of souls, lightly saying.
"There are Chaotic Inheritance Formations around here…"
The Chaotic Inheritance Formation disrupts the Will-spirit or Origin Qi of an area to shield any and all perception.
In other words, it's a full-spectrum jamming interference.
Xu Yuan glanced at him and chuckled lowly,
"This Dome Palace is still in decent shape, naturally including its formations."
"The Dome Palace…
Is this Secret Realm the Tao Palace of the Qionghua Sect from ten thousand years ago?" the Saint's Remnant Soul eyed Xu Yuan with a somewhat strange look.
Xu Yuan shrugged noncommittally with a chuckle,
"Never mind what it's called, Old Man Luo, with your Soul Power, you can't break through the prohibitions either?"
The Saint's Remnant Soul snorted coldly,
"This place is a bit eerie, blindly breaking formations—who knows if it will trigger other formations?"
"Fair enough," Xu Yuan nodded and continued walking down the corridor.
With the gentle breeze brushing by, the environment of the lake was serene and beautiful, resembling the water towns of Jiangnan, with the intricate vermillion corridors and the endless lake surface dotted with lotus leaves and flowers complementing the massive cherry tree in the center.
Water and sky shared one color in the vast expanse.
After some distance, the Saint's Remnant Soul suddenly spoke again,
"Kid Xu, where do you think you're going?"
Xu Yuan pointed to the hundred-meter cherry tree a kilometer away,
"Naturally, I'm headed there."
"There?
Do you need me to fly you over?" teased the Saint's Remnant Soul with a low chuckle.
Xu Yuan merely smiled slightly, saying nothing.
He took a wolf demon's corpse, meant to be reserve rations, out of the Sumeru Ring and tossed it toward the calm waters of the pool.
The Saint concentrated his spirit.
While the wolf demon's corpse was still soaring through the air,
After a moment of silence,
Suddenly, numerous creatures resembling leeches, but a hundred times larger than ordinary leeches, shot out from under the surface of the lake.
In midair, they extended their proboscises to pierce the wolf demon's body, and within a few breaths, the wolf's body swiftly shriveled and, clinging to the carcass, heavily plunged back into the water.
"What are these things?"
The Saint's Remnant Soul spoke with a hint of uncertainty, "They resemble Huang water leeches, yet also seem like Blood Spirit leeches…"
After pausing, he shook his head and continued, "But these leeches are roughly equivalent in strength to an Eighth Grade…"
"What's the rush?" said Xu Yuan.
"Oh?"
Interrupted, the Saint's Remnant Soul was not the least bit annoyed, querying softly as he kept his gaze on the lake surface.
A temporary silence fell over the corridor, the ripples created by the wolf's carcass entering the water gradually diminishing.
But just as the water was about to settle completely,
From a distance, the entire lake surface began to boil as if it had been set aflame.
In a moment,
Countless enormous leeches surfaced, swarming densely toward the surface, their repugnant, massive proboscises covering all that could be seen of the lake.
Once surfacing, these leeches ceased to move; the sightless monsters surround the two on all sides with their quiet proboscises.
Eerie and silent.
The scenes from Cang Yuan emerging into reality before Xu Yuan truly sent a shiver down his spine.
To reach the side of that cherry tree, there were two methods.
The first was to navigate the maze by following these corridors.
The second was to fly straight there.
However, flying directly would mean encountering monsters called "leeches" in the pool.
They didn't have cool names—the monsters in this pool were simply called leeches.
But that wasn't the main issue,
The key point was that these creatures didn't show a health bar.
Flying across, one could only passively endure hits relying on one's health until nearing the giant cherry tree, at which point, a giant leech occupying half the screen would emerge to start the real BOSS battle.
The name of that BOSS was also casual, merely called the Leech King.
But although peril lurked beneath the lake, the corridors above were extremely safe,
As long as players retreated back to the corridors, the leeches would automatically stop attacking.
Now transformed into reality, it was quite unchanged from how it was in Cang Yuan.
///116///
Xu Yuan continued to stride forward, teasing as he spoke:
"So, Old Man Luo, do you still want to fly over there?"
The Saint's Remnant Soul pondered for a moment:
"Such a scale of locusts does pose some trouble to deal with, but Xu boy, how did you come to know?
If your Prime Minister's Mansion is aware of this Dome Palace, it doesn't make sense for you to stand idly by."
"Oh?
You want to know?"
"Of course."
"Even if you want to know, I won't tell you."
"….."
Xu Yuan chuckled lightly and shook his head.
Like making riddles, huh?
Let's all do it together then, keep on baffling each other.
Along the way through the corridor, the huge leeches, seeing that Xu Yuan was no longer feeding them, all dove back into the water.
For a moment, the lake's surface was as picturesque as before, with the autumn waters once again blending seamlessly with Changtian.
…
…
The corridor was silent, with only Xu Yuan's footsteps gently echoing, while the Saint's Remnant Soul floated beside him.
The farther they walked, the more solemn the Saint's Remnant Soul's gaze became.
He had realized that this redwood-built waterfront corridor was arranged with some kind of bewildering and tricky formation.
With their perceptions sealed by the Chaotic Inheritance Formation, one would easily get lost in this illusory formation and never find a way out; yet, this young man seemed as if he was returning home, turning corners without a glance at crossroads.
After half a quarter of an hour more,
The enormous sakura tree that was previously in the center of the pool was now less than a hundred meters in diameter away from them, with the crystalline cherry blossoms upon the azure water clearly visible.
After reorganizing his thoughts, the Saint's Remnant Soul suddenly said:
"Xu boy, I think we need to talk."
Xu Yuan knew what was on his mind, kept walking without stopping, and while discerning the direction, he replied with a light chuckle:
"Talk about what?"
"Actually, I think there's no need for us to be on such bad terms."
The Saint's Remnant Soul's voice didn't bear the slightest hint of awkwardness, still in a cheery tone: "If it hadn't been for your elder brother tripping me up, I genuinely intended to cooperate sincerely with you."
"I know."
Xu Yuan shrugged.
He had no doubt about the genuineness of these words, because he knew what kind of person this remnant soul was.
However, seen from Xu Changge's perspective, what was done was also entirely correct.
Because of the asymmetry of information, Xu Changge didn't know the things Xu Yuan did.
Despite the Saint's Remnant Soul claiming not to dwell on his apprentice's death, who would believe just one side of an enemy's story?
All he knew was that the Prime Minister's Mansion had slain Old Man Luo's treasured apprentice, even at the cost of depleting his source soul.
What if Xu Yuan, this third brother, went out traveling and Old Man Luo, disregarding backlash from restrictions, sought revenge for his apprentice?
After a brief moment of contemplation, Xu Yuan continued:
"How do you propose we cooperate?"
The Saint's soul body grinned broadly:
"Simple.
I'll tell you about the Yantian Art, and you'll tell me about this secret realm."
Xu Yuan frowned slightly and glanced at the Saint's Remnant Soul:
"What do you mean by that?"
Information related to the Yantian Art was undoubtedly a timely aid for the present Xu Yuan, especially since Tianyan was hot on his heels.
But information on this Dome Palace was practically of no help to the Saint's Remnant Soul.
It was a completely unfair trade.
The Saint's Remnant Soul stared into Xu Yuan's eyes, still with a cheerful voice:
"You could consider it, goodwill."
Xu Yuan pondered briefly, then chuckled softly:
"Goodwill?
You mean a probe, right?
But since you're offering your goodwill, it would be impolite if I didn't accept.
Ask whatever you want; if I know, I'll tell you."
In this kind of dialogue, Xu Yuan felt he was the one who seemed like an old man.
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The Saint's Remnant Soul thought for a moment, glanced at the huge sakura tree a hundred meters away, and asked in a low voice:
"What are you going to that sakura tree for?"
"Because there is a transmission formation there, you can go to any location within this Dome Palace."
Xu Yuan pointed at the area beneath the cherry tree, paused for a moment, then suddenly cracked a smile, "And you wouldn't be unaware of what this Enchantress Divine Sakura Tree can produce, right?"
The Saint's Remnant Soul's voice seemed slightly surprised, "Is this tree an Enchantress Sakura?"
Xu Yuan was equally surprised, "You can't tell?"
The Saint's Remnant Soul shook his head slightly, "Although I have perused relevant literature in the annals, I have never seen this tree in this life, and my will-spirit is constrained here, unable to sense it.
However, that such a divine tree could be planted here, tsk tsk….."
Upon hearing this, Xu Yuan nodded and said in a low voice,
"The relationship between Qionghua Sect and the once supremely prosperous Hehuan Sect is not a shallow one – to describe it as lineage inheritance wouldn't be an exaggeration.
Old Man Luo, you didn't know this either?"
The Saint's Remnant Soul was slightly silent, his gaze towards Xu Yuan became a few degrees more solemn, and he shook his head,
"I do not know; both Qionghua Sect and Hehuan Sect had long perished in my days."
"Is that so?" Xu Yuan was noncommittal.
As they talked, Xu Yuan and the Saint's Remnant Soul had already arrived at a crossroad.
Turning left, one could see an open-air waterside walkway leading to the towering cherry tree.
Yet without a second thought, Xu Yuan went straight to the right.
The Saint's Remnant Soul frowned slightly at this, but said nothing.
Xu Yuan quietly explained,
"This is the final section of the Enchanted Corridor.
If we go left, we will get lost.
Trying to come back again would be as hard as ascending to the heavens."
"…."
The Saint's Remnant Soul then sighed,
"It seems that I am the one who is ignorant."
"It's just a tricky formation," Xu Yuan replied with a smile.
The Saint's Remnant Soul suddenly used his soul power to stop Xu Yuan's figure;
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"Young man, wait a moment."
Xu Yuan was not flustered and asked,
"What is it?"
"I remember the Enchantress Divine Sakura Tree requires a blood sacrifice, doesn't it?"
"Of course."
"With such an old Enchantress Divine Sakura, I might not be able to fully protect you."
"Don't worry, I'm confident in myself."
The Saint's Remnant Soul gave Xu Yuan a profound look and then let him go.
Xu Yuan stepped through a thin layer of light, and the scene before him suddenly opened up.
A towering cherry tree came into view, with humans standing before it as insignificant as ants.
Before he had a chance to look more,
A voice, ethereal as a nightingale's, suddenly rang out beside the two,
"Who…
are you?"
The Saint's Remnant Soul's eyes sharpened upon hearing this voice.
Tree spirit…
He retreated into the Soul Ring, ready to flee with Xu Yuan at any moment.
Xu Yuan just took a deep breath, did not speak, but quietly walked to a mound beneath the cherry tree and softly replied,
"You've been waiting a long time….."
"Jing…
He?"
Cherry blossoms fell like a cascade from the towering cherry tree, the voice sounding somewhat surprised, "You…
have returned?"
Xu Yuan said nothing, and took out a jar of fine flower-carved wine from the Sumeru Ring.
Sitting down, he took out two porcelain cups, filled them to the brim, and poured one over the mound.
"I'm sorry."
He drank the other cup in one gulp and said in a low voice,
"Yuchu..
I have returned."
"….."
The towering cherry tree swayed as if telling a tale, but the final obsession had already dispersed and the voice disappeared amid the "whoosh" of the falling blossoms…..
As the flowers fell in profusion, a cherry blossom quietly landed on Xu Yuan's forehead and vanished without a trace.
That year, when the flowers bloomed, a fair lady was buried, her soul merged with the divine Sakura.
///117///
Xu Yuan let out a long breath.
The Leech Lake was the core of the Dome Palace, and aside from the Soul-Luring Corridor within this map, there were only two bosses.
The Leech King and the Enchantress Divine Sakura Tree.
The way to pass the level retained Cang Yuan's usual multi-route style.
Players could ignore any dialog boxes, force their way through, kill the Leech King, kill the Sakura Tree.
They could also bypass this map, reach the furthest end, kill a crazed demoness, and obtain a dropped token.
Equipping this token and then coming back to this map would trigger a dialog box, allowing them to directly control the Leech King with it.
Besides these two methods, one could also try verbal healing.
This mode of passing the level was the most complex, yet the simplest, since one could look up a guide and speedrun through it unorthodoxly.
Like a certain soul series game, many pieces of information in Cang Yuan were fragmented and hidden in each map; after piecing them all together, players could probably guess what to input into the dialog box that popped up.
Three keywords and one item.
Have waited long, sorry, Yuchu,
and,
a bottle of Huadiao wine promising an eternity of companionship.
Placing the fine Huadiao wine in front of a mound of earth, Xu Yuan propped himself up on his knees to stand, and looked back again…
Only to see that the Divine Sakura, which had bloomed for ten thousand years, had withered away unknowingly, leaving only a few petals glowing with a pink light lying quietly beneath the withered tree….
The Enchantress Divine Flower, the sole main ingredient in the nefarious treasure Joyful Powder.
The Saint's Remnant Soul clicked its tongue:
"Kid, this thing's a real treasure.
With these Enchantress Divine Flowers, you could at least refine three batches of Joyful Powder, tsk tsk…"
One batch equals one bottle, one bottle is about three doses.
Hearing this, Xu Yuan smiled faintly, and asked in a low voice:
"Joyful Powder must be used in conjunction with the Great Yin-Yang Joyful Cultivation Technique."
"Heh heh…
Kid, I know where that Joyful Technique is.
That girl with the surname Su, she's an Enchantress Divine Physique, right?"
"Heh heh…." Xu Yuan chuckled and said nothing.
Seeing this, the Saint's Remnant Soul shook its head and whispered:
"You don't have to change your cultivation technique with the one you have now, but such a stunning technique shouldn't be unknown in this world."
"Picked it up at the entrance." Xu Yuan casually made up.
"If you don't want to say, then let it be.
But why aren't you picking up that Enchantress Divine Flower?"
"No rush, it's not time yet."
Xu Yuan stared at the lake surface, then whispered again, "By the way, don't make a move no matter what you see later."
There's another boss here.
The Saint's Remnant Soul's mind tensed, glanced at the withered and shriveled sakura tree, took another look at the calm lake, and then fell silent.
As time passed by, second by second,
Five minutes,
A quarter of an hour,
Half an hour,
Suddenly,
An abnormality soared!
"Whirl ——!!"
The originally calm lake water abruptly stirred into a surging wave, as a sightless, huge-mouthed behemoth exposed its head above the lake surface.
It was a leech as large as the Enchantress Divine Sakura Tree!
The sudden appearance of its massive form,
The suffocating pressure,
Almost forcing Xu Yuan to kneel down on the spot!
But at the same time, a powerful Soul Power surged out from the Soul Ring.
"Don't panic!"
Xu Yuan stared down the pressure, whispering loudly.
The Saint's Remnant Soul, confused in spirit, but with the intent to strike, the Will-spirit wavered and instinctively stopped.
Xu Yuan exhaled a long breath, softly saying:
"It won't make a move."
And just as Xu Yuan had said, after showing itself above the surface, the giant leech made no other moves, and the pressure covering Xu Yuan gradually dissipated.
With its ghastly and horrifying mouthparts, the creature stared at Xu Yuan for a long while, ultimately turning its attention towards the small bottle of fine Huadiao wine set in front of the mound.
It stood dazedly for quite some time,
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The giant leech then slowly sank back into the depths of the lake….
The Saint's Remnant Soul spoke with slight amazement:
"There's such a Strange Beast hidden at the bottom of this lake.
The aura just now could match a normal Primordial, it's just strange why it…."
"Shh."
Xu Yuan lifted his index finger to his lips to interrupt, staring unblinkingly at the spot where the leech had vanished.
"….."
The Saint's Remnant Soul's eyes twitched, and his gaze towards Xu Yuan became even more solemn.
A quarter of an hour later,
the storm surged again, and the giant leech reemerged from the water surface, although eyeless, it seemed to possess an almost tangible line of sight.
During the gaze,
the leech opened its massive mouth, stacked with layers of sharp teeth, and extended a long tongue that at its tip curled around a blue pearl.
"..A Meteoric Ice Pearl?"
The deep voice of Saint's Soul Body sounded somewhat puzzled.
He didn't understand why such a beast with low spiritual intelligence would come forward to offer a treasure.
Xu Yuan ignored him, raising his palm, holding it flat with the palm facing upwards.
Seeing this, the giant leech carefully placed the blue pearl onto Xu Yuan's palm.
After doing so,
the giant leech glanced at the withered giant tree that had already wilted, and a violent fluctuation of Origin Qi emanated from its body!
Then,
its immense body fell back powerlessly, crashing onto the lake and creating huge waves!
"…."
The Saint's Remnant Soul slowly floated out, watching as the lake turned red with the bright crimson blood oozing from the giant leech:
"It…
took its own life?"
"Yes," Xu Yuan stared at the giant leech.
After a long silence, the Saint's Remnant Soul murmured to himself:
"With the death of the Enchantress Divine Sakura Tree, its guardian beast alsonaturally has no reason to live alone.
But the question is why it chose to offer you a treasure…."
Speaking,
the Saint stared at Xu Yuan, asking with a heavy tone:
"Xu Yuan, are you Jing He?"
Xu Yuan gazed back at the Saint's Remnant Soul, his eyes deep and distant:
"What do you think?"
"..." The Saint's Remnant Soul stared at Xu Yuan.
During the mutual gaze,
Xu Yuan suddenly raised his hand in a mock salute, a grin spreading across his face:
"Just kidding, don't take it seriously.
Of course, I am not Jing He."
He paused,
then Xu Yuan pointed at the monster-like giant leech, his voice slightly lowered:
"Because it is."
Thousands of years ago, the Qionghua Sect planted the Enchantress Divine Sakura Tree here through a blood ritual.
Beautiful ladies and gentlemen, one transformed into a sakura, one into a leech.
The sakura falls to nourish the leech, and the Leech King protects the sakura.
So close, yet worlds apart.
The sect was destroyed, the people gone, and a myriad of years passed just as in the beginning.
This is one of the hidden plots within Cang Yuan's complex storyline.
"I fulfilled their wishes, and they offered their gratitude, that's all."
After storing away the Meteoric Ice Pearl, Xu Yuan picked up a few Enchantress Divine Flowers placed at the foot of the sakura tree, tucked them into a jade box, and threw it into the Sumeru Ring.
Just as he was about to enter the inside of the withered sakura tree through the hollow, the Saint's Remnant Soul suddenly coughed lightly:
"Ahem, may I ask how you came to know this information?"
Even the archives wouldn't record such things, so it was impossible for this young man to have learned them from the archives.
Xu Yuan raised an eyebrow, his gaze shifting amusingly towards the Saint's Soul Body:
"Old Man Luo, you're calling me young friend?"
"…."
The Saint's Soul Body frowned slightly, hesitating:
"…old friend?"
"Pfft…
old friend?"
Xu Yuan chuckled, shaking his head as he said:
"Old Man Luo, why don't you just call me Senior Xu?"