First Entering the Secret Realm! Bloody Hunt!

When Chu Tianxing's final syllable, brimming with supreme majesty, crashed down over the martial arts field, the epic ceremony that had long been pushed to its climax finally welcomed its wildest and most stirring grand opening!

"—Enter the secret realm!"

"Roar!"

"Charge!"

The hundred thousand students who had long gathered before that blood-red gateway, steeped in endless mystery and desolation, erupted the instant they heard the order. Their fervor and fighting spirit, suppressed to the limit, exploded like a fully detonated billion-ton volcano!

No longer caring about formations or order, they howled madly with boundless excitement and greed, like a swarm of locusts passing through the land. They became a black torrent of steel and swept wildly toward that illusory gateway leading to supreme opportunities and glory!

Yet amid that terrifying crowd, so packed it seemed ready to crush space itself, one team alone seemed utterly out of place, standing out like a crane among chickens.

It was Defy the Ordinary!

Faced with the enormous temptation of ascending to the heavens in a single step, Lin Xiao and the twenty-nine members of the Defy the Ordinary class behind him showed not the slightest excitement or fervor.

They were merely absolute spectators, detached from it all!

Calmly watching the absurd and frenzied spectacle of human nature unfold before them.

Only when the packed crowd finally began to thin out did Lin Xiao slowly rise from his seated position.

He calmly brushed his spotless black combat outfit, then slowly issued the first—and final—command before entering the secret realm to the companions behind him, who had already risen and stood ready for battle.

"Remember."

"After entering, do not panic or hesitate."

"Immediately activate the Breath Concealment Art I taught you and completely hide every trace of your aura."

"Then gather at full speed to the east, guided by the spiritual marks I have already planted within you!"

"Within half an hour, I want to see every one of you at the designated coordinates!"

"Do you understand?!"

"Understood!"

Twenty-nine uniform low roars, filled with absolute trust and obedience, rose quietly.

"Very good."

Lin Xiao nodded in satisfaction.

"Then..."

"Our hunt..."

He paused. His deep eyes, as still as ancient wells, narrowed slightly, and a cold killing intent devoid of emotion flashed through them!

"—Begins now!"

With that, he did not linger for even a moment. Leading the twenty-nine companions behind him, whose faces were equally calm and grave, he transformed into a black arrow and silently disappeared into the blood-red gateway that was about to close completely!

A violent wave of dizziness, as though he had fallen into an endless torrent of chaotic space-time, suddenly assailed Lin Xiao's mind.

It was as if both his body and soul had been forcibly torn apart and reassembled countless times in that instant by an invincible power of space!

This horrifying torment, enough to make any ordinary person with even slightly weak willpower suffer a complete collapse of body and soul, continued for an unknown length of time.

When Lin Xiao regained consciousness, he found himself in an unknown world filled with endless bloodshed and death!

The sky was dark red.

A huge blood moon, as though thoroughly soaked in fresh blood, hung high in the gray and eerie firmament, radiating an ominous glow that made one's heart tremble.

The ground was scorched black.

Not a blade of grass grew upon the cracked earth! Only dark-red rivers of Molten Rock, winding like the veins of giant dragons, flowed slowly through enormous bottomless ravines, exuding terrifying heat capable of instantly melting steel and a pungent sulfurous stench.

The air was permeated by such a dense smell of blood that it seemed almost impossible to disperse!

It was as though this boundless unknown world was the ultimate Asura battlefield, built from the corpses and resentment of countless living beings!

This was the Bloody Secret Realm!

"So it truly is random teleportation."

Lin Xiao showed no reaction whatsoever to the horrifying scene before him, which resembled a hell on earth.

He merely swept his gaze across the empty, desolate wilderness around him and immediately understood.

At once, he activated the Turtle Breath Art, which he had long cultivated to the point of consummate mastery, completely drawing his powerful aura—slightly disturbed by the spatial teleportation—back into his body.

In an instant, he became like an inconspicuous roadside stone, completely blending into the terrifying environment filled with death and silence!

Only after doing all this did he slowly close his eyes.

He immersed his consciousness completely into the thirty spiritual marks that he had planted deep within the souls of every Defy the Ordinary class member, marks that possessed faint mutual resonance!

Very quickly, he "saw" them.

Twenty-nine faint points of light representing his companions were scattered throughout the area within less than ten miles of him, like fireflies in the night!

The nearest was less than five hundred meters away!

Even the farthest had not gone beyond ten miles!

"It seems this so-called 'random teleportation' is not entirely without patterns."

A confident smile, as though everything lay within his grasp, slowly curved Lin Xiao's lips.

Without further hesitation, he fixed his sights on the gathering coordinates in the east that he had set long ago!

With a flicker of his body!

He shot silently toward that dark wilderness filled with unknown dangers like a true midnight ghost!

At the same time.

Within a rocky valley filled with jagged strange stones, less than five miles from Lin Xiao.

"Pfft!"

A dull sound of a blade piercing flesh rang out without warning!

An elite student clad in the attire of the Wind and Cloud Alliance, whose cultivation had already reached the peak of the Body Refinement Sixth Level, froze instantly. The relief of having survived disaster still lingered on his face!

He lowered his head with difficulty, staring in horrified disbelief at the half of a black dagger, stained crimson with blood, that slowly protruded from his chest!

"Urgh..."

He opened his mouth as if wanting to say something.

But an extremely cold and destructive force transmitted through the dagger had already shredded every trace of his vitality in an instant!

His body crashed to the ground.

The final sight reflected in his pupils, which had long lost all light, was a young face devoid of expression—but whose eyes were as cold as ten thousand years of black ice!

It was Monkey!

"The third."

Expressionless, Monkey slowly pulled his Profound Grade Lower Tier dagger, already completely dyed red with blood, from the corpse that had gone cold long ago.

Then, with practiced ease, he took from the man's robes a bronze token representing identity and points.

As well as an exquisite Storage Bag filled with various healing pills and cultivation resources.

After finishing, he did not even spare another glance for the three corpses that had died with their eyes still open.

Like the coldest ghost on a battlefield, he flickered and silently melted once more into the jagged rocks behind him, filled with endless darkness and killing intent.

It was as though he had been born to belong here.

And brutal hunts filled with bloodshed and death like this were playing out frantically in every corner of the vast Bloody Secret Realm!

There were pitiful unlucky souls who had only just recovered from the tremendous dizziness of spatial teleportation before being torn alive into pieces by savage Bloody Demonic Beasts that had long lurked nearby!

There were also cautious trial-takers, traveling in temporary groups of three or five as they carefully explored this unknown world!

And there were cold solitary hunters like Monkey, who had long cast aside all so-called fellowship between disciples!

They were like venomous insects thrown into the same enormous gu vessel!

To still survive ten days later!

To seize the supreme glory capable of changing the fate of their entire lives!

They had long shed every disguise and shred of kindness!

They displayed the most primal and cruel law of the jungle hidden in the deepest parts of human nature to its fullest extent!

—The weak were prey to the strong!

—The victor was king!

Half an hour later.

When that demonic blood moon finally climbed slowly to the very zenith of the sky.

Inside an extremely concealed wind-eroded cave.

Thirty black figures, their auras somewhat unsteady but their eyes still filled with endless calm and vigilance, finally completed their gathering!

—Every member of Defy the Ordinary had arrived!

Not one had fallen behind!

Not one had been injured!

In fact, nearly every one of them, like Monkey, had "casually" dealt with several blind fools on the way to the gathering point!

Watching these companions, who had just experienced a brutal teleportation and bloody hunt enough to make anyone lose their composure, yet showed neither panic nor fear on their faces—instead even carrying a faint trace of bloodthirsty excitement.

A genuinely satisfied smile finally appeared on Lin Xiao's face, which had remained as still as an ancient well.

He knew it.

This pack of wolves that he had personally forged from hell had finally come fully into maturity!

"Very good."

Lin Xiao spoke calmly. Though his voice was not loud, it was like a needle that steadied the sea, instantly soothing the last trace of unease and agitation that had arisen within everyone after entering this unknown world.

"It seems none of you have forgotten what I taught you before."

"But this is only the beginning."

Lin Xiao's gaze slowly swept over the twenty-nine young faces before him, filled with endless fervor and trust. His voice suddenly became incomparably solemn!

"The danger of this Bloody Secret Realm far exceeds your imagination!"

"Here, what you must face is not only those endless Bloody Demonic Beasts that fear neither death nor pain!"

"You must also guard against those even more sinister and cunning than demonic beasts..."

He paused. His deep eyes narrowed slightly, and a cold killing intent devoid of emotion flashed through them!

"—Your fellow disciples!"

"So from now on, I want you to completely throw away that laughable 'mercy' and 'naivety' belonging to the weak!"

"Here, aside from the companions at your side, anyone—any living creature that approaches you—is your..."

"—Enemy!"

"Your only task is to use the blades in your hands, already thirsting for blood, to tear them apart! Crush them! Turn them into heaps of white bones beneath your feet as you climb toward the summit of glory!"

"Do you understand?!"

"Understood!"

Twenty-nine uniform furious roars, filled with endless bloodlust and violent killing intent, shook the ears like thunder!

"Very good."

Lin Xiao nodded in satisfaction.

"Now, everyone, rest where you are and bring yourselves to your peak condition!"

"One hour later..."

He slowly unfolded an ancient beast-hide map that had appeared in his hand at some unknown time!

It was the very blood-red map marked with three strange locations that he had found in Zhao Wuji's storage ring!

Only, the map was no longer a terrain map of Cloud Creek Academy!

Instead, it showed the detailed layout of this Bloody Secret Realm, filled with endless bloodshed and death!

At the center of the map stood an ancient altar symbol, heavily marked in blood-red cinnabar and steeped in mystery and ominousness!

"This is our target!"

Lin Xiao extended a finger and pressed it heavily against that strange blood-red altar. The deepness in his eyes was instantly replaced by endless chill, cold enough to freeze heaven and earth!

"—The Blood Soul Altar!"