There Are Still Experts?

Chu Yuan looked at Li Ji with icy eyes, as if he might strike at any moment.

In truth, he didn't have any particular feelings toward Li Ji;

If it were convenient, killing him would be fine, but if it were inconvenient, not killing him was also acceptable.

And right now, with everyone watching, it fell into the category of being not very convenient...

Li Ji, however, was even more furious. Having been a favored son of heaven since childhood, when had he ever suffered such an insult?

He fed a medicinal pill to the girl in his arms and gently laid her on the ground;

Then, he drew his long saber...

"What the hell time is it, and you're still bickering here!" At this moment, the long-haired man and the fatty whom Chu Yuan had encountered earlier leaped onto the Stone Platform from out of nowhere;

Both of them looked disheveled and were covered in bloodstains, appearing as if they had just gone through a bitter struggle.

After grumbling a curse, they couldn't be bothered to deal with the dispute between Chu Yuan and Li Ji, and impatiently jumped toward the Secret Realm No. 7 passage!

The next moment, they landed back on the ground...

The long-haired man stood there, stunned;

"What the hell? What's going on?"

"Xiang Ning, the Secret Realm passage is malfunctioning. We've tried many times, but we can't get out!" someone who recognized him spoke up.

"Can't get out!!?" Xiang Ning's eyes nearly popped out of his head. Refusing to believe it, he leaped again, passed through the Vortex, and then landed back on the Stone Platform...

"Fatty, what do we do?"

The fatty didn't care about the dirt; he just sat down on the ground, dejected, and said, "How should I know what to do... just wait for death."

"Xiang Ning, what exactly did you and Mao Rui encounter inside? Is the Secret Realm in danger?"

"No kidding, can't you see we've been beaten into this state?"

The fatty also shook his head: "Nothing much, just ran into seven or eight Blood Beasts of the Air-Traversing Realm on the outskirts of the Blood Abyss, and there seems to be a big guy inside the Blood Abyss..."

"Hiss~!"

As soon as the fatty finished his sentence, the area erupted in chaos;

"Mao Rui! Is what you're saying true?

That's impossible! The military clears out Secret Realm No. 7 every year; how could there be so many high-level Blood Beasts!?"

"Maybe the Blood Beasts had an epiphany too..."

"They shouldn't come to attack us, right?"

"Shouldn't? Wasn't it said that the Stone Platform is absolutely safe?"

"Buddy, the Secret Realm passage is malfunctioning! Are you sure the Stone Platform is still safe?"

"Damn... then what do we do? Should we run for it?"

"Run? Where can you run to? What if the Secret Realm passage returns to normal while you're running?"

"..."

The Stone Platform was filled with noise, heavy with an atmosphere of anxiety and pessimism.

Chu Yuan saw that some people had already quietly left the Stone Platform and were fleeing into the distance, and he couldn't help but feel a sense of helplessness.

He had previously instructed Tian Tian not to leak the relevant information precisely because he was worried this situation would arise;

He hadn't expected that group of top-talented Internal Breath Realm trial-takers to return so quickly, nor had he expected that fatty named Mao Rui to have such a loose tongue.

Hide first, hide somewhere the Blood Beasts can't find... once the Secret Realm passage returns to normal, the experts from the outside world will naturally enter to clean up and rescue them.

Actually, if it were just the Secret Realm itself undergoing a mutation, this line of thinking would be sound;

The pity is that this time, there was clearly external interference...

At this moment, Li Ji could no longer concern himself with Chu Yuan. He looked up at the Secret Realm passage, his expression grave.

His condition was not good. It had taken a great deal of effort to escape from the jaws of a fourth-tier Blood Beast, and he had sprinted all the way here... Qi Ying had also taken a hit from Chu Yuan, adding injury to injury.

If they couldn't get out, wouldn't they be in big trouble once those clearly abnormal Blood Beasts launched an attack!?

"He... he knew about this... information long ago!

Could it be that he didn't... tell you anything at all?" As the medicinal effect gradually took hold, Qi Ying's condition recovered slightly. She managed to sit up, pointed at Chu Yuan, and wore a mocking expression;

Sure enough, many people subconsciously looked at Chu Yuan, their eyes filled with suspicion;

Except for Tian Tian.

She wanted to say that Chu Yuan had actually already made preparations;

But given the current situation, she didn't know how many people would listen to her and go search for materials... saying it would be useless; others wouldn't believe her.

You're just a student with no prominent background; how could you possibly produce such a powerful formation?

Who knows if you're lying, just to take advantage of the situation for your own ulterior motives...

Even Tian Tian herself didn't know why she chose to believe Chu Yuan.

Perhaps it was because he was the first to tell her the truth, creating a preconceived filter of trust?

"Um... Chu Yuan, did you really know all along that there were powerful Blood Beasts in the Blood Abyss?" a trial-taker also from Chenyang City asked.

"He definitely knew! I saw him trying to jump into the passage the moment he arrived!"

"How selfish! Why couldn't you have warned us?"

Qi Ying continued, her breathing much smoother this time: "Not only that, but when he returned from exploring earlier, he tricked us into thinking there were treasures in the Blood Abyss, wanting us to go to our deaths on purpose! With the Secret Realm undergoing such mutations, we should be forming a united front; every bit of combat power is precious..."

"Alright, alright, stop being so nauseating." Xiang Ning interrupted her long-winded speech impatiently.

"You're all cut from the same cloth, so why put on this act of righteous indignation? Can't you just let me have some peace and quiet!"

Qi Ying's face turned even paler, but she knew that Xiang Ning and Mao Rui were both bastards, so she didn't dare provoke them at a time like this.

In Xiang Ning's view, Qi Ying was simply stupid. At a time like this, what was the point of fanning the flames here?

Even if some fools were incited by her, what threat could a few martial artists at the Blood-Qi Realm, or at most the Impermeable Realm, possibly pose to Chu Yuan?

It was nothing more than an annoyance to everyone else.

Chu Yuan watched coldly for a long time. It wasn't that he lacked a rebuttal, but rather that he was pondering a question.

That is, did family disciples like Li Ji... possess cultivation techniques other than the Essence Tempering Technique?

Even if they hadn't cultivated them, they surely knew of them...

In times of emergency, one must be flexible; he didn't necessarily have to wait for the Martial God Record!

Could he just grab any random technique to cultivate and force a breakthrough? Switching techniques later... that didn't seem impossible, did it?

"Xiang Ning, do even you have no solution?" someone asked.

Xiang Ning looked indifferent: "I don't have a damn solution..."

"However..."

"However what?"

"This Secret Realm trial was said to have no guardians, but based on my understanding of those old fogies; there is at least one high-level martial artist hidden within the Secret Realm! Their strength should be enough to suppress the strongest non-human creature in the Secret Realm at the very least!"

For a moment, everyone was overjoyed: "What? There's such a thing?"

"Given Xiang Ning's background, what he says must be true!"

"That's great... so where is this expert? Why haven't they appeared yet?"

"Maybe they've already gone to clear out the Blood Beasts?"

"I knew it, the authorities wouldn't do things so sloppily..."