Chapter 112 – The Secret Realm
“Junior Bai, I know how powerful your mental strength is compared to a normal person. Have you felt anything abnormal from the disciples of the Fusion Sect?” Jia Lan had her brows knit and asked a vague question.
“Senior, have you found something? I have not felt anything weird here.” Hearing her question, Liu Ming was slightly flabbergasted.
“I might have sensed wrong but when you enter the secret realm, if you meet any disciples from the Fusion Sect, you must be careful. It seems that there are some people that are unaffected by the power of my Aphrodite Body. Instead, they seem to be able to somewhat restrain me. It should be due to the fact that there is the existence of a person with strong mental strength.” Jia Lan’s expression changed multiple times before speaking bluntly.
“The Fusion Sect has such a disciple.” Hearing what was said, Liu Ming could not help but gaze at the floating reef to that side. Unfortunately, it was far away and he could only vaguely see the blurry shadow of people without being able to clearly see anything.
At this moment, Jia Lan did not continue to speak. With a nod, she left just like how she arrived, without a sound.
“Junior Bai, what did you speak about with Junior Jia Lan just now?” When Liu Ming was thinking about what Jia Lan had said about the Fusion Sect, a person suddenly walked up to him, and asked him coldly.
“Senior Min! Senior Jia and I only had idle gossip!” Liu Ming looked at the person who walked over with his eyebrows knit before replying plainly.
The person asked the question was actually Min Shou, the disciple ranked third on the Lunar Monument. His face was pale and he had two small yet long eyes. He was a disciple from the Poisonous Spirit Faction. Although he had not fought in the Large Competition, it was said that his poison techniques have already been cultivated to a level of perfection — able to defeat his opponent with poison without anyone noticing.
“Since it is only idle gossip, it is best for Junior to be further away from Junior Jia Lan, to save you from doing things that might make Senior misunderstand.” Min Shou spoke with a serious expression.
After hearing such, Liu Ming stared blankly at first before carefully looking at the green-robed young man. He then gave out a snicker and did not say anything.
Seeing this scene, Min Shou became enraged and spoke again with a sliver of killing intent, “It seems Junior Bai still does not know, my Min family has already proposed the idea of marriage to Jia Lan’s clan. I believe Junior Jia Lan will be mine not long after. Junior better stay discreet! Otherwise, you will end up like the rock beside you!”
As soon as Min Shou finished saying his threat-like warning, he suddenly pointed a finger at the gray rock beside Liu Ming. Then he immediately turned around and left.
Liu Ming shot a glance at the rock and saw it become extremely black before exploding apart with a bang.
Liu Ming used his hand to stroke his chin and an excited light vaguely flashed in his eyes. However, he placed this matter at the back of his mind, no longer paying any attention to it.
Time slowly passed and after around half a day, two people finally flew from the faraway volcano. They shot toward the floating reefs on this side of the lake.
A while later, and after a flash, two people immediately appeared mid air. It was the Nun Leng Yue and Chi Yang.
“The entrance to the secret realm has already stabilized. All the people should first go down below and prepare to enter the secret realm.” Nun Leng Yue spoke coldly.
“Fusion Sect disciples listen up, after the discussion between us, ten people from the group are allowed to enter the secret realm. As for the remaining people, they are to quietly wait outside for news.” Chi Yang spoke to the group of disciples from the Fusion Sect with a plain smile.
“Yes, we will closely follow the elder’s orders!” In the group of Fusion Sect disciples, a lanky young man immediately bowed and stood up when he spoke.
“Since there are no problems, we can start moving now.” Nun Leng Yue gave out another order before turning around again with Chi Yang to fly back to the mouth of the volcano.
Under the guide of the Spirit Masters of the different sects, the disciples also flew in the direction of the volcano in groups.
After a short amount of time, Liu Ming and the other people arrived directly above the mouth of the volcano. Looking down, they could see the black and red lava as well as the hot, black air that was rising up.
“Be careful! With your current cultivation level, you are unable to withstand such temperatures. I will personally guard you to allow you to go down.”
The Barbarian Ghost Sect Leader spoke seriously before shaking his sleeve. A layer of red light shielding was immediately released. After flashing a little, it spread in all four directions and immediately encased Yang Qian, Feng Chan, and the other three inside. It then transformed into a ball of red light, shooting downward. After a flash, it disappeared into the lava without a trace to be seen.
Seeing this sight, Liu Ming was slightly startled at heart.
However, just at this moment, the Martial Uncle Zhang who was beside also used the same technique, encasing Lei Zhen, Shi Chuan, and Liu Ming in the same red light before they shot down.
Liu Ming only felt the red light in front of him waver in brightness before he also went inside the scarlet red lava. However, with the protection of the red light shield, he did not feel any heat and flew deeper quickly due to a certain power.
After flying for about the amount of time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, the red light all around Liu Ming weakened and the surrounding view changed again into blackish dirt.
This time, however, they only flew downward for a while before entering a humongous, bright cavern.
Looking around, the entire cavern was hundreds of acres large and the surrounding black stone walls were abnormally smooth. It was as if someone had used a sharp axe to forcefully chop out these walls.
In the center of the cavern, there was a five colored formation that was at least a few acres in size with countless black Spatial Crystals embedded within. With a glance, one could see a frightening number of several hundred and every crystal was the size of a chicken egg.
Around the formation were also six stone platforms of several tens of feet tall and a person stood on each one of them. They were Martial Ancestor Yan, Nun Leng Yue, and the other powerful cultivators at the Crystal Level.
All five of the people each had a flat, disc-like Emblem floating in front of them. From within the Emblem, white light spewed out. The white light then gathered into the huge gray ball of light in the air above the formation.
The ball of light had a diameter of about seventy to eighty feet and spun without stopping in mid air or making a single sound or disturbance.
In the center of the formation was a huge golden cauldron which constantly spat out lines of golden inscription. These inscriptions were also all sucked into the gray ball of light.
Just when Liu Ming was looking around, the disciples of each sect all appeared in the cavern, and under the instructions of their sect, they all gathered into one group together.
After sweeping his gaze, he suddenly saw that there was a disciple on the side of the Nine Enlightenment Mountain looking at him very fiercely.
“It’s him.”
After seeing the appearance of the Nine Enlightenment Mountain disciple clearly, Liu Ming could not help but laugh involuntarily.
This person was Jin Yu, the genius disciple that he had competed with before on Suppressing Dragon Island. He was now taller than two years ago and his shoulders were also thicker, but other than that, there was not much of a change overall.
As for Liu Ming, due to the fact that he used the Marrow Washing Spirit Liquid, his change in appearance could not be counted as small. Thus, it was quite impressive for Jin Yu to recognize him with a single glance.
Thinking up to here, Liu Ming smiled at the opposition before retracting his gaze. Then, due to the words that Jia Lan had spoke to him earlier, he looked toward the Fusion Sect again.
Liu Ming only saw that out of the ten disciples the Fusion Sect had sent, three were female and seven were male. The three females were somewhat good looking and the seven young men could be said to have out of the ordinary auras. However, after looking at them hastily, he did not see any abnormalities.
It seemed that if Jia Lan had not felt wrong, then Jia Lan was very used to lying.
Liu Ming did not dare to look more, so he retracted his gaze and gave the other few sects a rough sweep.
The disciples from the Heavenly Moon Sect wore white all over and all carried swords on their back. The Hall of Blood disciples mainly wore blood red clothes in contrast and had an undiscribable reek of blood. Although the Nine Enlightenment Mountain disciples had messy apparel, most of them had bulging full leather bags on their waists.
At this moment, a male with skin that was almost transparent finally began to speak.
“Very well, since the people have all gather, after the length of time it takes to burn one incense stick, we will start entering the secret realm.
As soon as he finished speaking, he shook his sleeve and a woosh could be heard. A stick of already-lit incense shot out, slightly inserting itself into the ground nearby.
“However, before this, let’s first go over the rules of the Life and Death Trials. After all, the Fusion Sect is a guest and may not be too clear about the rules of the Life and Death Trials.” A tall and skinny male in long, blood red robes, after glancing at the stick of incense, spoke with a serious smile.
“Hmph, this trial is different from other trials, why would rules be needed. The only rule is that there is no need for rules! The disciples that enter the secret realm can use whatever methods and whatever ways to collect all sorts of resources without limitation. They themselves are responsible for the lives and deaths that occur in this period of time. Once all the disciples have emerged, we will follow what we have decided before. The rankings will be based off how much resources each sect receives!” Nun Leng Yue spoke without an expression.
“Hehe, it seems that Fellow Leng Yue has a great amount of confidence this time in the disciples you have brought. Sure, let’s do it like this.” The male who had almost transparent skin gave a weird smile when speaking.
“I do not have any opinions!”
“It cannot be better than this!”
……
The other Crystal Level existences all either agreed verbally or nodded.
Mu Rong Xuan, the Crystal Level cultivator of the Fusion Sect instead squinted a little and controlled the round disc in front of him. From the start to the end, he did not speak at all.
“Very well, since everybody has no other opinions, let the younger generation begin preparing.” Master Ling Yu glanced at the small remainder of the burning incense and spoke calmly.
“According to the old rules, all the sects send one person in at a time.” Master Ling Yu spoke plainly.
The other people seemed to have no comment to this method.
Therefore, when the stick of incense finally finished burning, the first disciples of each sect began walking into the formation in the center one by one. Under the suction power, they were forcefully pulled into the gray ball of light one after the other before disappearing completely with a whirling flash.
On the side of the Barbarian Ghost Sect, the first to enter was Yang Qian, the strongest Spirit Apostle from the previous Large Competition.
As for the other sects, the first wave of disciples to enter was obviously also the ones with extremely great strength. After all, if some accident really happened on the other end, they could at least handle it slightly by themselves.
Liu Ming was put into the seventh wave of disciples to be delivered. After a series of crazy spins, he appeared half-kneeling in a field of tall, random grass.
He forced himself to stand up and after looking around in all direction, he immediately saw the other disciples that first entered. They all stood together in groups nearby.
As for a few hundred feet in the sky, there was the same humongous gray ball of light, constantly spinning without stopping.
In the sky was a sun that was hung high up, higher than the light. Not far from where they were, to one side, was an extremely dense and lush forest. On the other side, there was a huge, endless, grassy plain.
They seemed to be right in the middle of an intersection of the two areas.
Liu Ming thought with lightning speed and waited for himself to recover slightly. He then walked toward where Yang Qian and the others were.