Eerie Secret Realm

"Convinced... convinced, sir. You're right—we're nothing but lowlifes!"

Though they were all rough men, mercenaries, they cherished their lives too. They had never imagined that a Deity Transformation Realm cultivator, normally perched high above the clouds, would wade into the muddy waters of such a tiny secret realm.

Xiang Tian looked at the few of them and, in the end, said only one word: "Scram."

The men dragged Scarface away, secretly rejoicing and terrified that Xiang Tian might change his mind. In the blink of an eye, they vanished without a trace. This secret realm opportunity—forget it, forget it. They no longer dared entertain any thoughts about it.

Xiang Tian had already been driven to his wits' end by the trouble over at Jade Pool and had no desire to stir up further complications, so he let them go. Yet in the shadows, after discovering that he was a Deity Transformation Realm cultivator, someone had already begun making calculations.

Inside a canopy tent, a lean old man with a goatee leaned over the table and whispered to the young man drinking and making merry, "Young Master, this is bad. A Deity Transformation Realm cultivator just appeared outside!"

The youth, who was feeding wine to the beauty in his arms, froze and looked at him. "Are you certain he's in the Deity Transformation Realm?"

"Absolutely certain!"

After receiving confirmation, the youth pushed away the flamboyantly dressed woman and frowned as he muttered to himself, "Impossible. The news absolutely couldn't have leaked. Why would some Deity Transformation Realm fellow take an interest in a low-grade secret realm like this?"

"Young Master, shall we send someone to investigate his background?"

The old man offered the suggestion, but the youth rejected it.

"No. Don't alert the snake in the grass. Pass down the order: send a few men to keep an eye on him. The secret realm is about to open. I'll immediately request instructions from the clan and have more powerful experts sent over."

Having received his orders, the old man left.

Outside, once they learned that Xiang Tian was in the Deity Transformation Realm, no one dared so much as cast another glance his way. Even their conversations grew much quieter as they deliberately kept their distance from him.

Some of the smarter ones even chose to withdraw from the fight over this opportunity. A Deity Transformation Realm cultivator had shown up—what were a few Golden Core cultivators joining in for? Before they could even get a sip of the soup, they might get themselves killed here.

Night fell, and the rain gradually grew heavier. Faint, muffled thunder rumbled in the distance.

Everyone sharpened their focus and looked up at the sky. With such an unusual phenomenon, the secret realm might be about to open!

Though it was already night, everyone could clearly see dark clouds churning overhead. Accompanied by thunder, they were as terrifying as a lightning tribulation descending upon the world.

Inside the tent, the youth from earlier stared at the sky with a shocked expression and muttered, "Damn it, why is the secret realm opening at such a critical moment?"

In midair, amid everyone's astonishment, the phantom image of a magnificent palace slowly emerged. Dragons could even be seen roaming within it, drawing cries of surprise from the crowd.

Standing among the crowd, Xiang Tian raised his head to the sky, equally stunned. This secret realm did not appear simple. No wonder the Changning Immortal King had told him to come here—there must be something inside.

"Charge!"

No one knew who shouted it, but someone immediately flew into the air and shot straight toward the palace phantom, disappearing into it without a trace.

"Damn, someone beat us to it!"

Others immediately followed. For a moment, magical treasures filled the sky as everyone scrambled forward, afraid that if they were even a step too slow, the opportunity would be snatched away.

Most of these people were in the Golden Core Realm or Nascent Soul Realm. Xiang Tian saw no Deity Transformation Realm cultivators. He did not release his divine sense to inspect them, because there was no point.

He simply flew into the air and entered with the crowd.

After passing through the phantom, Xiang Tian arrived before a dilapidated palace. Everyone who entered was randomly teleported to a different location. Xiang Tian had no idea where he was and would need to explore further.

Secret realms were not uncommon in the cultivation world. Most were created when factions whose strength had waned—or who had even been annihilated—used divine abilities to conceal their sects, allowing them to open only when certain conditions were met.

The purpose was to ensure that their techniques and divine abilities would have a legacy. The path of cultivation valued the inheritance of one's teachings; no one wished for their own knowledge to vanish into the long river of history.

Thus, cultivators truly were selfish—but they could also truly be selfless.

Seeing no one around, Xiang Tian entered the main hall. It was already in ruins, yet it was filled with gourds of every kind.

The air carried the decayed scent unique to ages of dust and time, yet there was also the faintest trace of fragrance.

Xiang Tian knew this sort of setup well. Wasn't this just like the stories, where the protagonist entered a secret realm and stumbled upon a treasure vault full of pills?

That scent had to be medicinal pills.

Although Xiang Tian had no real need for such things, they were still valuable items. Bringing them back to use as dog food would not be bad either.

Thus, full of anticipation, Xiang Tian reached for the gourds. But the instant he picked one up, he sensed that something was wrong.

He shook it beside his ear. There was none of the clinking sound of pills colliding that he had expected, leaving him puzzled. Then his gaze suddenly stopped on a pattern carved onto the gourd.

It was obscure and intricate. Xiang Tian had never seen such a pattern before. Out of curiosity, he pulled out the stopper.

"Whoosh—whoosh—"

A bone-piercing yin wind suddenly swept past, and a black shadow burst straight out of the gourd, startling Xiang Tian.

Well, damn. These were not pills—the gourds were filled with Yin Spirits!

Put simply, these were the souls of the dead. After being seized by someone, they had escaped the capture of the Ghost Messengers and underworld envoys of the Yellow Springs, only to be sealed inside these gourds. As for their purpose, that was impossible to know.

The Yin Spirit took the form of a cloud of black mist, with two blood-red hollows serving as eyes, bobbing up and down within it.

It wanted to smash apart the wooden rack holding the gourds and release all the remaining Yin Spirits.

Xiang Tian quickly saw through its intentions. With a casual slap, he erased it from this world completely.

A fragrant scent once again spread through the air, and Xiang Tian understood.

They said that when humans died, they became ghosts; when ghosts died, they became shades. Perhaps this was the scent of shades. Some Yin Spirits in these gourds had likely already been worn away and destroyed by time.

A ball of flame rose in Xiang Tian's hand. He walked out of the hall and hurled it directly inside.

The flames instantly surged up. Amid the crackling sounds came faint, resentful howls, so low and heavy that they made one feel oppressed.

Watching a great hall slowly collapse into the sea of flames, Xiang Tian suddenly realized something. This place was very likely an evil land. If he could run into something like this, others might encounter it too!

It was not that Xiang Tian was being conceited. He simply knew that when people's hearts were consumed by greed, there was nothing too frenzied or insane for them to do.

If someone else were to release one of these wicked things, what would happen afterward was truly too dreadful to imagine.

At the same time, he understood that any evil land harboring Yin Spirits would inevitably have a treasure of utmost hardness and pure yang suppressing that stretch of heaven and earth. Such an item's rank and power would certainly not be low—at the very least, it would be an Immortal Artifact!

Xiang Tian was suddenly intrigued. Immortal Artifacts were good, but not exceptionally so; however, he had always loved collecting artifacts from the ancient and even primordial eras. After all, objects from those ages not only carried lingering echoes of the Great Dao, but their craftsmanship and forging methods also differed somewhat from those of the modern age, making them immensely valuable for research.

He began to grow curious about this secret realm, eerie in every corner. He wanted to see exactly which force, submerged beneath the river of history, this had once belonged to.