Black Mark City

Having received Xiao Ming's command, Ling, who had been happily hopping about in his palm, stopped moving. Then Ling slowly floated upward until Ling was level with Xiao Ming's face.

Perhaps to avoid hurting Xiao Ming, Ling felt that distance was too close and moved several meters farther away, only stopping when Ling was a meter from the enormous boulder.

After waiting quietly for several seconds, Ling suddenly expanded several times in size. A green beam of energy mixed with Blue-Pink Flame shot out, slamming directly into the nearby boulder.

Under the green energy beam, which was only around ten centimeters in diameter, the hard rock seemed like a pile of crumbling tofu.

The enormous boulder was pierced clean through by that strike without the slightest resistance.

Strands of pale morning light entered the cave through the cylindrical wound, more than ten centimeters wide, in the middle of the stone.

Looking out through that hole, it seemed that time had already reached the morning of the next day.

"Is it already the next morning? Time really flies."

Xiao Ming merely glanced at the scenery outside before no longer paying it any attention. Instead, he focused on the attack Ling had left on the boulder.

"This power is rather astonishing. It pierced through this kind of rock effortlessly. A Dou Shi definitely couldn't do that, and even an ordinary unarmed Da Dou Shi couldn't achieve this. This probably isn't even the energy beam's limit. Hehe, and this attack is corrosive too. Interesting. It must be because Green Rock Profound Water's properties have been integrated into it."

Xiao Ming looked at the hole, more than ten centimeters wide, in the boulder.

The passage was not smooth as imagined, but pitted and uneven. Clusters of Blue-Pink Flame burned within those small pits.

The wound Ling had inflicted on the boulder had actually been smooth at first. However, Ling's attack seemed to leave behind some green liquid around it, and the flame Xiao Ming had once had Ling absorb would ignite atop that liquid.

Those things would continuously damage the wound.

Under that ongoing damage, the originally smooth wound had gradually become uneven.

"Speaking of which, this energy beam counts as unlocking a long-range attack, doesn't it? I can let Ling out to fight enemies in the future."

Ling was so small that Ling would be very difficult to notice.

Xiao Ming could already imagine releasing Ling and having Ling fire an energy beam right into someone's face at close range.

That scene... tsk, tsk, tsk.

In any case, it would be much easier than Xiao Ming personally using the Three Flame Ethereal Seal to ambush someone.

But as that thought reached its end, Xiao Ming suddenly laughed.

"Hahaha, what's with me lately? Why do I keep thinking about ambushing people?"

Come to think of it, in his last two battles, Xiao Ming had attacked first, ambushed and eliminated the enemy's important combat strength, then slowly fought the rest.

It was not as though Xiao Ming was being despicable. The people he ambushed were all stronger than him, and every one of them had even less martial virtue than he did. It was only natural for him to ambush them. It also made things easier in the end, didn't it?

Besides, where in a fantasy world was there so much benevolence and morality to speak of?

Especially here in the Black Corner Region, Xiao Ming understood that talking about such things here was foolish.

He did not feel any psychological burden when ambushing others.

After laughing at himself, Xiao Ming stopped thinking about it. Since it was already light outside, it was time for him to leave Green Rock Town.

He stood up and gave Ling a mental command.

"Blow up the boulder."

The moment his voice fell, a tremendous boom rang out through the space, making Xiao Ming frown at the deafening noise.

Outside, at the cliff.

Boom!

An enormous boulder fell from the sky and smashed into the ground, breaking into pieces and kicking up clouds of dust. Threads of Blue-Pink Flame flickered within the gray haze.

A black-robed figure followed immediately after, descending from the sky and landing on the ground. The gust of wind accompanying the figure's landing blew away the dust.

Xiao Ming looked at his legs. He had jumped down from such a height without using any Dou Qi for protection, yet they felt no discomfort at all.

He could not help nodding in satisfaction at the strength of his physical body once more.

He took out a new set of black robes from his Na Ring and put them on.

First, he raised his head to look at the sun and confirm the exact time.

Then he scanned the surroundings and found the direction from which he had come yesterday.

Energy surged beneath Xiao Ming's feet as he shot into the distance.

That very day, Xiao Ming left Green Rock Town and headed for his next destination.

Fourteen days later, atop a mountain ridge, a black-robed figure stood at a high point and gazed into the distance.

"This should be Black Mark City, right?"

The black-robed figure looked toward the foot of the mountain and spoke softly.

There stood an enormous city built from piled black boulders. Its vague outline flickered in and out of sight. At the four city gates, one could faintly see densely packed black dots, like ants, gathering and pouring into the city's enormous dark maw.

The person atop the mountain was Xiao Ming. After leaving Green Rock Town, he had made his way toward Black Mark City.

Though calling it hurrying was not quite right. Because he wanted to temper himself, Xiao Ming had not traveled particularly fast. It would be more accurate to call it a leisurely stroll.

The Black Corner Region was also incomparably chaotic, and Xiao Ming frequently encountered bandits. That was why it had taken him more than ten days to reach Black Mark City. Otherwise, it would not have taken so long.

Over those ten-plus days, Xiao Ming felt that he had improved greatly. Not only had his Dou Qi become more solid through tempering, but his various methods of dealing with enemies had also become sharper, and his realm had stabilized.

Moreover, after witnessing all kinds of disgusting incidents in the Black Corner Region, Xiao Ming even felt that his mental resilience had noticeably improved.

Having crossed mountains and rivers to reach Black Mark City near the edge of the Black Corner Region, Xiao Ming naturally had a purpose. Aside from the annual large-scale auction that would be held in Black Mark City several days later,

Xiao Ming's real goal was naturally the Secret Realm mentioned by the Simulator.

Xiao Ming knew the specific location of this Secret Realm.

One of his previous simulations had mentioned the exact location. It was within the Black Region Great Plains outside Black Mark City.

That was why Xiao Ming had come to Black Mark City.

"Black Mark City is under the jurisdiction of the Eight Gates. The Eight Gates can be considered an old-established force in the Black Corner Region, and they are extremely powerful. Their leader, Yuan Yi, is one of the top ten experts on the Black Rankings in the Black Corner Region. Every auction convention in Black Mark City is hosted by the Eight Gates."

"This Secret Realm will open before Black Mark City's large auction. It will probably attract quite a few forces of roughly the same level to participate. That will be somewhat troublesome."

Every time Black Mark City held an auction, there would be valuable finale items, such as Earth Tier Dou Techniques and Grade Seven Medicinal Pills.

Every force in the Black Corner would send representatives to attend, and sometimes even forces from outside the Black Corner Region would be drawn in.

The Black Corner Region was incomparably chaotic, with murder and plunder commonplace. Naturally, everyone who came would be strong.

Under such circumstances, if those experts discovered signs of a Secret Realm opening, would they let it go?

The answer was obviously no.

Aside from those major forces, some Rogue Cultivators would also gather in Black Mark City.

One had to know that Dou Lings were not uncommon among those people, and there were even Dou Wangs.

Rogue Cultivators were the most frantic over opportunities like Secret Realms. Even if all kinds of major forces joined hands, they still could not drive away Rogue Cultivators who had spotted a Secret Realm.

People died for wealth, birds died for food. Rogue Cultivators had pitifully few ways to improve themselves, so they would seize every opportunity.

"Thinking about it this way, this trip to the Secret Realm will be quite dangerous. But hadn't I anticipated this long ago? Why was I hesitating again now that it was right before me?"

Xiao Ming shook his head, circulated his Dou Qi, and sped down the mountain ridge.

As long as he was careful, experts above the Dou Wang realm would not pay attention to someone like him, who was merely a Da Dou Shi.

As for Dou Lings, he was not afraid of them.

If he could not win, couldn't he run?

Besides, this was only training. It would naturally be good if he obtained something, but there was no need to force it if he did not.

During these fourteen days, he had carried out Life Simulation twice more. Though the results differed and his luck had been rather poor, leaving him without any good finds, the processes of those two simulations also showed that as long as he was careful, nothing would happen.