Entering the Secret Realm

In the following days, Zhang Tie received visits from several fellow disciples, much like Jiang Yun.

Their primary intention for coming was to get acquainted beforehand, to familiarize themselves with each other, so that if they encountered one another within the unknown and dangerous Secret Realm, they could offer mutual assistance and overcome difficulties together.

One day, Zhang Tie was meditating and resting in his room. Without warning, the earth suddenly trembled violently, as if an earth dragon was thrashing wildly underground. Immediately after, a hurricane of extremely dense spiritual energy roared past. Even from within the room on the flying ship, Zhang Tie could clearly feel the surging and majestic power of this spiritual energy.

Almost at the same instant, True Man Zhao's powerful and resonant voice called out, "Everyone, quickly gather outside. The Secret Realm has opened."

Hearing this, Zhang Tie abruptly stood up, hurriedly opened his room door, and strode onto the deck.

In just a dozen breaths, all the disciples had assembled. True Man Miao and True Man Zhao scanned everyone with sharp gazes. True Man Zhao spoke, "Each of you must immediately drip a drop of blood onto your Secret Realm token. Only by activating the token this way will you be qualified to enter the Secret Realm. Remember to hold the token in your hand when entering. After one year, when the Secret Realm closes, you will be teleported back to the entrance. Now, everyone follow me."

With that said, True Man Zhao waved his sleeve, and an incomparably powerful magical force surged out, sweeping everyone up and onto the massive green flying sword beneath his feet.

In an instant, they were tens of meters above the ground, flying at breakneck speed towards the front. After only a few dozen breaths, they arrived in mid-air. Before them, a black opening several yards wide appeared, with countless spiritual energies churning within, like a ferocious giant mouth seemingly poised to devour them mercilessly.

Around the black hole, seventeen teams were already suspended in the air. Without a doubt, these were the disciples from various Sects participating in the Secret Realm Grand Competition and their leaders.

"Esteemed fellow cultivators, the order of entry will be determined by the rankings from the previous Grand Competition," a rough and bold voice came from the direction of the Crimson Sun Sect. It was the red-faced old man. He continued, "Sects participating for the first time this year will enter last. Please do not be impatient; orderly entry is best."

As he finished speaking, under the powerful spiritual energy manipulation of the red-faced elder, the twenty Crimson Sun Sect disciples behind him moved like lightning, instantly flying into the Secret Realm.

Following them, disciples from the Fire Cloud Sect, Beast Taming Sect, and Thousand Puppet Sect entered in an orderly fashion. Soon, it was the Hundred Blossoms Sect's turn. A vast magical force tightly enveloped everyone, and their figures, like shooting stars across the sky, flew towards the Secret Realm's entrance at lightning speed.

Zhang Tie and the others flickered, and in an instant, they entered the deep, dark opening. Zhang Tie felt the silver token in his hand grow slightly warm, followed by a wave of dizziness, but all discomfort vanished without a trace. Zhang Tie slowly opened his eyes and found himself in an extremely lush forest.

Each tree towered into the clouds, rising from the ground and piercing the sky. Any single tree was a hundred feet tall. Compared to them, Zhang Tie appeared as small as an ant.

Zhang Tie sensed the concentration of spiritual energy in this place and felt a surge of joy in his heart. The concentration here was more than ten times that of the outside world. With such dense spiritual energy, it was countless times better than low-grade spirit stones.

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Without any further hesitation, Zhang Tie decisively chose a direction. With a few leaps, his figure instantly disappeared into the distance. Zhang Tie knew clearly that he needed to find a suitable place for secluded cultivation as soon as possible. Soon, Zhang Tie discovered a majestic and enormous mountain peak. With a few leaps, he reached the mountainside and then found a very ideal spot. He put on his gloves, circulated his spiritual power to its fullest, and began to vigorously carve out his own cave dwelling.

Two hours slowly passed, and Zhang Tie finally dug out two rather rudimentary cave dwellings with his bare hands. The two cave dwellings were separated by over a thousand feet. The main cave dwelling was quickly and meticulously set up by Zhang Tie with concealment formations and isolation formations, while the other cave dwelling was specifically used to store the silver token. Outside the cave dwellings, at appropriate intervals, Zhang Tie ingeniously set up warning formations.

This way, if anyone approached, he would be able to sense it keenly at the first moment and then make corresponding decisions based on the number of people and their cultivation levels. As for what would happen if the token were accidentally lost, that was not within Zhang Tie's current scope of consideration. Survival was the most crucial matter.

Zhang Tie took out his meditation cushion and sat down cross-legged. He had already reached the perfected ninth layer of Qi Refining. With anticipation, he wanted to try and see if he could break through to Foundation Establishment. Large amounts of dense spiritual energy slowly gathered towards Zhang Tie. The biggest hurdle to successfully establishing a foundation was to powerfully compress the spiritual power within his body, transforming it from a gaseous state to a liquid state.

At this time, a large amount of spiritual energy was continuously refined and absorbed by Zhang Tie. The spiritual energy in his dantian grew more and more abundant, and its concentration became higher and higher. Two hours passed quickly, and Zhang Tie's dantian and meridians were filled with spiritual energy, its concentration astonishing.

It was precisely because Zhang Tie, with his current astonishing late-stage Meridian Casting realm strength, dared to attempt a breakthrough to Foundation Establishment without using a Foundation Establishment Pill.

Most cultivators, when breaking through to Foundation Establishment, would decisively take a Foundation Establishment Pill upon reaching the perfected ninth layer of Qi Refining. Relying on the powerful medicinal effects that instantly erupted from the Foundation Establishment Pill, they would convert the spiritual power in their dantian into liquid spiritual power under immense pressure. Once the first drop was successfully converted, the rest was just a matter of time.

However, Zhang Tie's bold approach, if attempted by others, would likely result in ruptured meridians and immediate death. As time quietly passed, Zhang Tie slowly became like an inflating balloon, his body becoming increasingly swollen. At this moment, even with his indestructible and powerful physique, Zhang Tie finally truly felt the soul-tearing pain.

Zhang Tie, with no other recourse, stopped cultivating and fell into deep thought. It seemed his talent and aptitude were indeed too poor, and the matter of Foundation Establishment would have to be postponed for later.

Zhang Tie shook his head helplessly. Since he could not continue cultivating at the moment, Zhang Tie immediately decided to go out and search for heavenly treasures, ferocious demonic beasts, and precious spirit stone veins. Without delay, Zhang Tie quickly put away the concealment and isolation formations, then put away the token and warning formations. His figure flickered, and he leaped away like a gust of wind.

Deep within a secluded swamp, Zhang Tie stood motionless on a thick tree branch. In the swamp ahead, a peculiar and extraordinary spirit medicine was growing. This spirit medicine had one stem with two flowers and no leaves. One flower was pure white like snow, and the other was as black as ink, appearing strange yet alluringly eye-catching.

Zhang Tie accurately judged from the spirit medicine's spiritual energy content, color, and other aspects that this spirit medicine was at least a third-tier spirit medicine. Zhang Tie intended to finish quickly and fly over to pick it. However, he suddenly recalled the records in a spirit medicine manual he had recently finished reading, which stated that most heavenly treasures were often guarded by treasure-guarding demonic beasts; otherwise, they would have long been wantonly devoured by other demonic beasts.

However, Zhang Tie observed for a full fifteen minutes, and there was no movement around him. Therefore, Zhang Tie decided to use his flying sword to test the situation first. Zhang Tie concentrated his mind and controlled his flying sword to head directly for the spirit medicine. Just as the flying sword was about to touch the spirit medicine, a sharp gust of wind suddenly came from above the tree trunk. Zhang Tie's heart suddenly startled, and he quickly looked up, simultaneously activating his spiritual power shield without hesitation.

He saw an emerald green long snake swinging its thick tail and striking fiercely. The tail was as thick as Zhang Tie's thigh and covered with dense green scales.

Just as Zhang Tie quickly gathered all the power of his qi and blood to his arms and crossed them to block the incoming snake tail, he heard a deafening roar of "bang." The protective spiritual power shield shattered like paper in an instant. Zhang Tie was directly sent flying to the ground by a tremendous force.

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