Great Female Lead

"Could this really be the secret of my spiritual embryo?" Chu Huai Xu fell into deep thought.

Han Shuangjiang saw that the illusionary realm had already shattered, but he was still frowning in contemplation, so she didn't disturb him.

For her, as long as he didn't look back at that puddle of water she had left behind, he could do whatever he wanted.

At that moment, she was a bit curious and glanced behind her.

Ten paths all led to this open space paved with bluestone slabs.

"Was it really a maze before the illusionary realm?" she wondered.

"Everyone else is still trapped inside, and I just got lucky, picking the right path at all ten forks?" She still couldn't quite believe it.

Beyond that, Han Shuangjiang had another doubt.

"Where's the next stage?"

There was nothing here, and no road ahead.

Could it be that this secret realm was just messing with people, and this was the end—that the deceased senior had left nothing inside?

New to the Dao Sect, she didn't know that such cases actually existed; some old pranksters deliberately tricked their juniors for fun.

Of course, that was a rare minority.

Chu Huai Xu still couldn't figure out the little black sword in his Sea of Consciousness, so he began to look around, searching for the next step.

Ahead was a stone wall. He walked over, carefully examined it, and casually patted around until he actually found a mechanism.

He pressed hard on a protruding spot, and a stone door swung open.

Clearly, the focus of this stage was the illusionary realm ahead; the mechanism wasn't the main point and wasn't hidden deeply.

The two exchanged a glance and then walked forward together.

The stone door closed again, as if it had never opened.

Along the way, Chu Huai Xu muttered under his breath, "The illusionary realm from before should still be usable, right? It wasn't destroyed, was it?"

"What's wrong?" Han Shuangjiang asked, puzzled.

"When Liu Chengqi and the others get out of the maze, we can trap them with it!" Chu Huai Xu said matter-of-factly.

Big Ice Block let out a soft "uh," not having thought of that at all.

The two chatted as they walked and soon exited the stone passage.

What greeted their eyes was an underground river.

It was about fifty meters wide.

On the other side of the underground river stood a stone pillar over a meter tall.

On top of the pillar seemed to be something like a compass.

Further back, there was another stone door.

"What's that?" Han Shuangjiang also spotted the compass.

"That's a Spirit Disk." Chu Huai Xu was far more knowledgeable than her.

He explained, "It's used to measure the grade of a spiritual embryo."

He hadn't expected a Spirit Disk to be placed in front of the stone door here.

Normally, to check someone's spiritual embryo grade, blood alone would suffice.

For a Seventh Realm Great Cultivator like Li Chunsong, who was well-traveled and experienced, a single drop of blood could reveal that Han Shuangjiang had a Profound Yin Physique.

But ordinary cultivators weren't that powerful. Someone like Liu Tianfeng, even if given a drop of Han Shuangjiang's blood, could at most misidentify it as a High-grade Spiritual Embryo!

In reality, spiritual embryos were divided into ten levels: the lower three were low-grade, the middle three were mid-grade, the upper three were high-grade, and beyond that was the Super Grade Spiritual Embryo, rare as a century's passing!

Without being above the Fifth Realm, even if someone with a high-grade spiritual embryo stood before them, they couldn't distinguish which of the three upper levels it was, let alone a Super Grade Spiritual Embryo.

A Spirit Disk could make that fine distinction.

But this thing was expensive to make, and basically only medium-to-large sects used it.

For a low-tier sect like the Joyful Sect, which lacked a Great Cultivator, they still relied on the most primitive method—blood-dropping embryo testing.

A Profound Yin Physique like Han Shuangjiang's, rare as a hundred years, was like a pearl buried in dust wherever she went.

Seeing the Spirit Disk, a smile spread across Chu Huai Xu's face.

"This thing costs a lot to make. We can sell it to the sect for Contribution Points," Chu Huai Xu said.

Hearing the word "expensive," the poor wretch beside him started staring at it intently.

Chu Huai Xu turned his head to look at her and said, "My choice was right. I should keep you by my side—you're my lucky star."

Han Shuangjiang felt a bit embarrassed hearing him emphasize that again, but she still kept her small face stern and asked, "Why do you say that?"

He pointed forward and said, "Obviously, this senior had Spiritual Embryo Discrimination."

"Look, he placed a Spirit Disk here, with the stone door behind it."

"I reckon if the tested grade isn't high enough, that stone door won't open at all!"

Chu Huai Xu couldn't help but recall an ancient webnovel he'd read back on Earth, whose first chapter was titled "The Fallen Genius."

But at least Xiao Yan had tested out as "Dou Qi, Third Stage!"

When he placed his hand on the Spirit Disk, he'd ranked as the lowest of the low—a pitiful Level 1 Spirit Fetus.

Of course, with this Big Ice Block's talent, opening the Stone door was nothing more than a trivial matter.

With that thought, Chu Huai Xu smiled at Han Shuangjiang and said, "So, you're my key."

"What's yours or mine?" she replied, a faint blush creeping across her cheeks.

One moment a Lucky Star, the next a key—utter nonsense!

But deep down, she mostly agreed with his reasoning; otherwise, why would they have placed a Spirit Disk here?

She looked ahead at the Underground River and asked, "So we just need to cross the river?"

"It can't be that simple." Chu Huai Xu stared at the river.

He walked toward the Underground River, crouched down, and examined it closely.

The river's water was clear but flowed very slowly.

On the stone wall beneath the river, there were four holes, suggesting some kind of mechanism.

At both ends, two massive stone walls hung suspended in the air, as if they might fall and block the water's flow.

"This Secret Realm only allows mortals or those at the Aperture Opening Stage to enter."

"For us, we'll have to swim across," Chu Huai Xu said.

If their cultivation were higher, they could just leap over, but they couldn't manage that.

"Besides, since this is part of the trial, I suspect using other means to cross the river would trigger obstacles." He analyzed based on his experience.

Chu Huai Xu looked around, picked up a small stone, and hurled it toward the opposite bank.

As expected, the stone hit a Transparent Barrier, sending a translucent ripple through the air, unable to penetrate.

The stone fell into the river without causing any unusual reaction.

He kept trying, tossing a few more stones into the river, even picking an especially large one.

Still, nothing happened.

"I'm guessing there's a Formation that only activates when someone enters the water," Chu Huai Xu said.

His mind was quite associative; he looked around and added, "I wonder if there are any rats or something—to test if a living creature entering the water triggers the Formation."

Han Shuangjiang watched him, seriously suspecting that if Liu Chengqi and the others were standing by the river right now, this Dead Fox would kick him in to test the waters.

The Big Ice Block thought to herself, "Since Liu Chengqi isn't here, does that mean... it's just me?"

"Should I try entering the water first?" she suddenly said.

Chu Huai Xu was taken aback: "Huh? Don't act up!"

Han Shuangjiang's pitch-black, beautiful eyes stared straight at him, and she said seriously, "I mean it."

Seeing he still hadn't nodded, she pointed toward the opposite bank.

"And didn't you say that Stone door can probably only be opened by me? So I'll have to go into the water anyway," she said.

"I don't know what type of Formation this is," Chu Huai Xu stated, looking at her.

Though he had plenty of experience running dungeons, he wasn't omniscient.

"No matter. This Secret Realm was prepared for Aperture Opening Stage disciples; it shouldn't be too difficult," Han Shuangjiang said, quite nonchalant.

"If I don't even dare to make such an attempt, how can I seek the Supreme Dao?" she countered Chu Huai Xu.

Han Shuangjiang, young as she was, inexplicably carried an air of a Mature older sister type, and speaking like this made her seem even more assertive.

Chu Huai Xu looked at her and muttered inwardly, "No wonder she's the one holding the Great Female Lead script in 'Borrowed Sword.'"

Among the player base, her female fans outnumbered the male ones.

Because a fully developed Han Shuangjiang was truly impressive, perfectly fitting the "Sister Slays Me" standard.

"Let me try first," he insisted one last time. "After all, I've already opened five apertures, and you've only opened four, right?"

Yes, after a night of cultivation, Han Shuangjiang had swiftly opened another aperture—terrifyingly fast!

Hearing this, she glanced back and asked, "Do we have enough time now?"

"If the Illusionary realm outside is still active, then plenty—they won't break it anytime soon," Chu Huai Xu shrugged and continued:

"Of course, if they do come in, I'll just kick Liu Chengqi into the water."

Han Shuangjiang: "..."

—So this Dead Fox really was thinking that!

The Profound Yin Physique cultivator looked at him and said, "If time is sufficient, that's fine."

With that, she sat cross-legged right beside Chu Huai Xu and began cultivating the Ice Purity Art.

After smoothly cycling her energy through one full circuit, she opened her beautiful eyes.

"Now, I've also opened five apertures," she said.