Red Moon Secret Realm

The gray mist had partially blocked Divine Sense, but once they passed through the passage, their vision soon cleared again.

Red!

As far as the eye could see, everything was scarlet. Dense patches of red, sword-leafed Mystic Profound Grass grew across an endless plain.

A scarlet full moon hung in the sky, cold and eerie.

Thick chains jutted out from who knew where, stretching into the distance and winding around a mountain.

The mountain looked like a long sword thrust into the ground. Its dark-red form stood out sharply against the plain covered in Mystic Profound Grass.

The grass swayed in the breeze, stretching as far as the eye could see like a churning sea of blood. Even the air carried a faint, fishy smell.

"So much Mystic Profound Grass..." Jiang Jing murmured, her eyes filled with shock.

Mystic Profound Grass was a spirit plant that could be influenced by "intent." If sword cultivators swallowed pills refined primarily from Mystic Profound Grass with sword intent, they could temper their magical power and hone their souls.

A single sword-attribute Mystic Profound Grass could be exchanged for quite a few contribution points in the Sword Sect. And before them lay an entire plain of it!

But Jiang Jing and Li Fengping both suppressed the urge to start picking.

If some uninformed cultivator had entered the Secret Realm, they would probably have started gathering the grass at once. But they were different.

The records mentioned that the team led by the elder had nearly been wiped out because they had done exactly that.

This Secret Realm was exceptionally strange. For every stalk of Mystic Profound Grass picked, its picker had to withstand a Sword Qi strike as powerful as a full-force attack from someone at their current cultivation level.

The elder had been very cautious back then. He'd only dared to pick a dozen or so stalks to observe what would happen.

But that alone had summoned a dozen Sword Qi strikes at once. He'd barely managed to block them, while the scattered Sword Qi had cut down a large swath of Mystic Profound Grass. If he hadn't used his trump card, he would have died in the Secret Realm.

The records didn't mention what happened afterward, but they did leave a warning: anyone taking on the mission must not touch the Mystic Profound Grass.

The elder's goal was to subdue the sword in this Sword Nurturing Ground. That could only mean...

Jiang Jing looked toward the distant, sword-shaped mountain. "Is that the sword the elder wants?"

"That's right. Senior Brother Lin told me that once we've handed in the mission results, the elder will come in person."

To prevent the news from leaking, the elder had only issued this mission once.

He'd chosen to issue it now because of the Spirit Net.

He'd learned that a Sword Sect senior had emerged from seclusion in Mystic Sword City. Taking that together with some rumors circulating within the sect, he'd surmised that the senior was at least at Dao Integration.

He himself was only at Void Return. Subduing a sword that was at least at Dao Integration was no easy task.

But if a Sword Sect senior were present, surely they wouldn't stand by if they saw a junior in danger?

After reaching Dao Integration, a sword cultivator's spirit and sword became one. No matter how good another sword was, they wouldn't abandon their own, so the chance they'd covet it was much lower.

What better support could there be?

There would never be a better opportunity than this.

Some factions within the sect also wanted to find out which Sword Sect senior had emerged from seclusion near Mystic Sword City, so they could plan their next move. They'd therefore arranged for a disciple from one of their factions to join the mission.

So, aside from Lin Qiuxian, who had a clear purpose, the swordsman surnamed Feng had come to Mystic Sword City with his own agenda. Li Fengping, on the other hand, genuinely knew nothing and had simply come along to make up the numbers.

In the end, the other two were detained, while he was fine.

"Looking at this Secret Realm, I'd say some demonic cultivator of monstrous power created it." Jiang Jing shook her head. "The elder may not have thought this through."

She wasn't optimistic about the elder's plan to subdue the sword.

Li Fengping shook his head. "Not necessarily a demonic sword cultivator. Plenty of righteous sword cultivators follow the path of slaughter. They could have created a Secret Realm like this, too."

"Enough. Let's not waste time. We'll go take a look beneath that mountain now," Xu Xing interrupted.

Without waiting for their reply, he strode forward.

As he walked, the Mystic Profound Grass bent this way and that. Its hard, sword-shaped leaves clashed against one another, ringing crisply.

Li Fengping froze for a moment, then hurried after him.

Senior Brother Sandao... was far too calm. He wasn't nervous at all.

A thought drifted through Jiang Jing's mind.

Then she cautiously made her way through the plain of Mystic Profound Grass and caught up with them.

They walked in silence. Jiang Jing and Li Fengping kept watch on their surroundings, but aside from the endless plain of Mystic Profound Grass and the chains whose origins were unknown, there was nothing else.

They were also very careful where they stepped.

By comparison, Xu Xing was much more casual. The leaves clashed and rang wherever he went. Li Fengping, following behind him, was on tenterhooks, afraid that one wrong step would earn him a face full of Sword Qi.

"You don't need to be so careful. The stems and leaves of Mystic Profound Grass are tough. They won't break that easily."

Xu Xing's words did nothing to reassure them. They remained just as cautious.

And so, it took the three of them quite a while to reach the foot of the mountain.

Phew~

At last, they were out of the plain of Mystic Profound Grass. Jiang Jing and Li Fengping both breathed a sigh of relief.

There wasn't a single stalk of Mystic Profound Grass within dozens of meters of the mountain—not even a weed. The dark-red earth felt somewhat soft beneath their feet.

"The mission only asks us to investigate, so let's start recording."

With that, Xu Xing prepared to cast a Mysterious Light Technique to record the scene.

Click!

A flash of white light burst forth. Li Fengping was holding a camera; the flash had come from it.

Jiang Jing hadn't brought a camera, so she was taking pictures with her phone.

Quietly abandoning his idea of using the Mysterious Light Technique, Xu Xing took out the phone he'd bought not long ago and began taking pictures, too.

"..."

Xu Xing felt a pang of emotion. So many of his instinctive habits had been shaped by this world.

Compared with the cultivators of the present, he seemed somewhat inflexible.

He hadn't forgotten the memories of his past, but unless something stirred them, he no longer thought of them.

For a moment, he couldn't help remembering the mess he'd caused back then.

What a tangled mess...

"Senior Brother Sandao, how are things on your end? We've finished taking pictures. Come over and compare notes." Li Fengping's voice interrupted his thoughts.

Xu Xing smiled faintly. "I'm done, too."

"Too bad recording treasures are so expensive, and I never learned the Mysterious Light Technique. Otherwise, we could've earned more contribution points."

Li Fengping grumbled as he fiddled with the camera.

Cameras were much more affordable by comparison. If the photos they took could record divine resonance and "intent," recording treasures would have been obsolete long ago.

But this mission only offered a few contribution points. Buying a recording treasure for it would've been a losing proposition.

Xu Xing then handed his phone to Li Fengping for him to check. Once they'd confirmed nothing was missing, they collected some soil samples as well.

Jiang Jing walked up to the mountain and prepared to cut off a small piece of rock to take back as a sample.

She raised her sword and swung down hard, its blade gleaming coldly.

Clang!

The sound of metal striking metal rang out. Sparks flew, and the force rebounding through her arm numbed her palm.

She hadn't cut through it. The mountain's stone was unexpectedly hard.

"Move!" Xu Xing's warning suddenly rang in her ear.

An invisible Sword Qi shot out, hissing through the air.

Jiang Jing's pupils contracted sharply. With no time to think, she instinctively twisted aside just as the Sword Qi was about to hit her.

The Sword Qi, as powerful as a full-force strike from someone at the Nascent Soul Middle Stage, roared past. The pressure it carried bent a large swath of Mystic Profound Grass.

Shit!

Li Fengping's scalp prickled. If the Sword Qi swept out through the grass, what then?

He gripped his sword and prepared to rush forward to block it by force.

But a figure moved even faster than he did. Before he'd taken a single step, Xu Xing had already appeared in the Sword Qi's path. He pointed two fingers forward.

Without a sound, the Sword Qi—which could have split a river or parted the sea in the outside world—was like a mud cow plunging into the ocean. It raised not even the slightest ripple before Xu Xing shattered it with a simple touch, and it vanished without a trace.

Both of them stared, stunned. The same thought crossed their minds.

How the hell could he be at Nascent Soul?

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