Lake Island, Beiluo.
The cloth satchel Ni Yu was carrying at the waist was bulging. Humming in a great mood, she was heating green plum wine for Lu Fan. From time to time, she would take a sugar-coated Gathering Qi Elixir out of the cloth satchel and then happily put it into her mouth.
As long as the satchel was filled to capacity, nothing would disturb her mood.
At that moment, Lu Fan was not looking at the Spirit Pressure Chessboard.
The Dragon Gate in the Secret Realm was open. Compared to the imperfect Secret Realm of the Hidden Dragon Ridge, the new Secret Realm Lu Fan created was more comprehensive.
These cultivators were improving, and so was Lu Fan.
If he was just trying his hand at the Secret Realm of the Hidden Dragon Ridge, then the Dragon Gate was the product of Lu Fan’s progress after he made up for the weaknesses in his first piece of work and took its essence.
The eight Dragon Gates were eight enhanced versions of the Secret Realm of the Hidden Dragon Ridge.
The eight Dragon Gates were in different parts of Great Zhou so that more people could be qualified for Qi cultivation and refining.
Like the Overlord’s elite soldiers, they could become cultivators by killing the terracotta warriors and taking wisps of Spirit Qi into their Qi Cores, while Lu Fan would get a cut of the Spirit Qi.
More than that, the Spirit Qi from the dead terracotta warriors could also be used to accelerate the transformation when breeding the dragon descendants at the Dragon Gates.
This was only one piece of the big picture. Besides training cultivators, the second Secret Realm was also supposed to help cultivators who had hit the bottleneck of the Qi Core Realm—like the Overlord—realize a breakthrough.
The biggest reason Lu Fan combined Dragon Raising Sites with this second Secret Realm was because of the Spirit Qi storm that would surge once a cultivator breaks through to the Internal Organs Realm.
The Spirit Qi storm could accelerate the growth of the dragon descendants at Dragon Raising Sites so that they could eventually become heavenly dragon descendants.
For these reasons, Lu Fan set three phases in the Dragon Gates in the Secret Realm.
The ninety-nine warriors in phase one aimed to train cultivators.
The palace on the floating sky island was phase two. The two figures shaped by elixir mists in the peak of the Qi Core Realm were guards of this phase. They could force the Overlord and other cultivators to reach the required pressure so they could break through to the Internal Organs Realm. Other than that, there were elixir prizes on the floating sky island too.
Besides the Gathering Qi Elixir that Ni Yu was consuming like candies, Lu Fan had also refined Body Building Elixir based on the instruction from the Dao Impartment Platform. This particular elixir could help its users break barriers in the Internal Organs Realm.
Of course, this elixir was for those cultivators who could not break through to the Internal Organs Realm on their own.
For cultivators who had great strengths, Lu Fan actually did not want them to consume elixirs.
It was for that reason that Lu Fan set phase three.
If even the two guards in the peak of the Qi Core Realm could not help cultivators break through to the Internal Organs Realm…
Then it was all right…
Because waiting in the grand palace was the sleeping Great Ruler of the instance dungeon.
******
The Big Marsh, South County.
His fear of death forced Tang Xiansheng not to step one foot inside the Dragon Gate.
Instead, he sent his eldest son Tang Baiyun and Tang Yimo to lead 5,000 South County soldiers into the Dragon Gate in the Secret Realm.
Although Tang Yimo got an Immortal encounter, this was his first time to enter a Secret Realm.
It was the same for Tang Baiyun.
However, compared to the Secret Realm in Dongyan River, the situation was more dreadful here.
When the spooky terracotta warriors had suddenly opened their eyes wide, the soldiers from South County were all freaked out. And then when the warriors unsheathed their terracotta knives to cut a soldier in half, complete and utter chaos descended upon the 5,000 soldiers led by Tang Baiyun.
Tang Baiyun turned pale due to intense fear.
Suddenly, one of the lifeless terracotta warriors stabbed and killed one of Tang Baiyun’s soldiers. To everyone who was there, this was definitely a very frightening situation, and of course, they were scared out of their wits.
The 5,000 soldiers were in such utter chaos that they couldn’t launch a counterattack together against the terracotta warriors. As a result, they suffered a significant number of casualties.
Tang Xiansheng, who was waiting outside, turned extremely pale when he saw the panic in the soldiers’ faces as they tried to escape out of the Dragon Gate one after another, their armor stained with blood.
“Third Brother, what shall we do?”
In the Secret Realm, Tang Baiyun, wearing full armor, looked panicked. He tried to get on Tang Yimo’s good side right away.
He did look down on Tang Yimo because he was envious and jealous of his half-brother. On top of that, he hated Tang Yimo’s Immortal encounter.
However, at this moment, only Tang Yimo—a cultivator—could make him feel safe.
Tang Yimo looked at Tang Baiyun.
He activated his First Meridian Escaping Demonic Technique and instantly rushed out to fight a terracotta warrior.
After exchanging a few blows, he punched the terracotta warrior into pieces, and then a wisp of Spirit Qi flowed into his body. Tang Yimo was slightly astonished.
“These warriors are Immortal encounters. Kill them, and you’ll have wisps of Spirit Qi flowing into your body,” Tang Yimo said in a cold voice.
Then he rushed into the crowd of terracotta warriors like a fearsome tiger.
And he started killing the warriors and gathering wisps of Spirit Qi.
If he wanted to open up his second meridian, then he would need to gather enough wisps of Spirit Qi to achieve that.
Tang Baiyun hesitated after hearing Tang Yimo.
He waved his hand to calm down the 5,000 South County soldiers. Then they strategically moved into a tactical formation to deal with the terracotta warriors.
As Tang Xiansheng’s eldest son and the future successor of Tang Manor, Tang Baiyun did possess boldness.
When a terracotta warrior was broken, Tang Baiyun seized the chance to unsheathe his sword and cut the warrior’s head off with a deft swipe of his blade.
Wisps of Spirit Qi flowed into his body.
Tang Baiyun’s eyes instantly lit up!
Immortal encounter?!
It was an Immortal encounter indeed!
Tang Baiyun was elated, and an idea popped in his head. He commanded his soldiers to attack the terracotta warriors first, while he hid and waited behind the South County soldiers to give the fatal strike so that he could take in wisps of Spirit Qi.
Behind the Dragon Gate, blood had gathered into a river. A significant number of the 5,000 South County soldiers had perished. The blood there was so thick that it even stopped flowing.
******
After a night of undisturbed sleep…
When the first lights of the day had shown in the east, Nie Changqing opened his eyes.
He did not want to go back to sleep anymore. He felt his mind was as clear as the rain-washed, cloudless blue sky.
Nie Changqing was not in a hurry. He got up and packed his things after washing his face and rinsing his mouth.
He took a cloth to wipe the butcher knife with care. Not until the blade had been wiped clean did he put on his white robe. Afterward, he walked out of the room with his bundle and closed the door.
The butcher knife he was carrying at the waist did not go with his outfit.
Except for the knife, Nie Changqing really looked like a scholar with courtly manners who had experienced a lot and was going to make a long trip.
The servant at the inn was cleaning while still yawning.
His eyes lit up as soon as he saw Nie Changqing going downstairs. He greeted the latter warmly.
“Young Master, I sent your letters to Daoist School yesterday,” The servant said.
“Young Master, are you going to Daoist School on Tiandang Mountain?” the servant asked with a smile, with a piece of white cloth hanging on his shoulder.
Nie Changqing nodded without speaking.
On the long street of Nanjiang City, the sky was still gray, and everything was hazy without sufficient light.
“Young Master, why are you going to Daoist School? To look for some relative?”
“It’s still dark. Take care…” the servant said.
Nie Changqing, already out of the inn, slightly bowed at the servant as a way of saying goodbye. He smiled but said nothing.
Under the gray sky…
The servant saw Nie Changqing walking slowly and gradually disappearing on the still, dark street of Nanjiang City.
When the sun had finally jumped above the horizon and started to slowly rise in the sky…
At the foot of Tiandang Mountain…
Nie Changqing, in his white robe and holding the butcher knife, stopped.
Lifting his head, he gazed at the ancient stone steps leading to the peak from the foot of Tiandang Mountain. He slowly closed his eyes as a slight breeze blew by.
His hair was blowing in the wind.
He vaguely recalled the picture of him running on these ancient stone steps five years ago.
At the end of the stone steps, a few Daoist priests seemed to be chanting a prayer. Their voices traveled down from the top of the mountain, like the tinkling sound of a small stream echoing throughout the forest.
Opening his eyes, Nie Changqing seemed to see teenage boys and girls playing on the stone steps.
That year, he and Ru’er, his wife, left the mountain together to execute tasks assigned by Daoist School.
A year later, in the midst of a thunderstorm, Nie Changqing rolled and crawled down Tiandang Mountain in a disgraceful manner while cradling a baby in his arms. When the Daoist School’s main gate shut behind him, it took away the hope of the second half of his life.
Five years later…
He had been living a hopeless life ever since then, hiding here and there. As unbridled as he was, he worked as a farmer, a fisherman, and a woodworker deep in the mountains. He was also homeless once.
However, from time to time, people from Daoist School would appear, intending to take away Nie Shuang, his last hope.
So he never stopped running away and hiding.
Nie Changqing felt heartbroken whenever Nie Shuang cried for his mother, as if a knife was stabbing his heart multiple times.
Five years had passed. The passing of time had left some traces on his face. His hand that used to hold just a knife now held a butcher knife to kill people.
At the moment, he was back to this place where everything beautiful in his life once happened.
A five-year ordeal, he, Nie Changing…
Was back to Daoist School once more.
He walked onto the first stone step.
The Spirit Qi in Nie Changqing’s Qi Core instantly surged. With intense emotion, he blew it out of his mouth, raising the dust and fallen leaves on the stone steps.
He felt like he had been holding back that breath for five years, and now, he could finally let it all out.
One step after another, unhurriedly, he started climbing the stone steps…
From the foot of the mountain to the top.
Finally, beyond the leaves and branches of some big trees, he saw the tightly shut main gate of Daoist School.
It was as cold and as emotionless as five years ago when he was driven away.
Nie Changqing did not look sad nor happy.
He just stood there on the stone step, with his white robe fluttering in the wind.
Nie Changqing slowly unsheathed his butcher knife, which was slightly shaking as wisps of Spirit Qi surrounded the blade.
In the end, he failed to knock the Daoist School’s main gate open with his letters.
If that was the case…
Suddenly, the butcher knife flew out like a flash of black lightning. It whizzed across the blue sky and cut across the tightly shut main gate of the Daoist School.
A giant shadow cast by the butcher knife emerged.
The main gate of the Daoist School was cut in half, and with a resounding thud, it collapsed to the ground.
When the cloud of dust began to thin…
Deep and low footsteps echoed on the flagstone pavement.
A worn-out figure in a white robe, with a butcher knife suspended in the air before him, walked out of the dust and the smoke.
He said in a clear voice, “Nie Changqing, a disciple of White Jade City…”
“Is here.”