Secret Realm

After leaving the Pill Tower, Lin Yu and Han Shanshan wasted no time and headed straight for the Godfall Icefield.

However, while they were traveling, Lin Yu suddenly felt a stir in his heart. Ever since refining the Spatial Ancestral Talisman, his sensitivity to spatial fluctuations had far surpassed that of ordinary people, even exceeding that of some Battle Venerable experts.

At that moment, a faint spatial fluctuation was drifting in from a certain direction, like an almost imperceptible ripple spreading across a still lake. If he had not possessed the Spatial Ancestral Talisman, he would never have noticed it.

Lin Yu immediately stopped, his brow faintly furrowed as his sharp gaze swept toward the depths of the rocky wasteland.

"What is it?" Han Shanshan halted as well when she saw him suddenly stop.

Following Lin Yu's gaze, she saw nothing but jagged boulders and surging heat waves. Even after spreading out her soul power, she detected no abnormalities and could not help raising a puzzled brow.

Lin Yu did not answer at once. Instead, he focused and sensed the area carefully for a moment.

That spatial fluctuation was weak, yet remarkably stable. It did not seem like a naturally occurring geological disturbance, but rather like a spatial restriction laid down by someone long ago that had finally developed a tiny crack after countless years of erosion.

A secret realm. There was a secret realm hidden here. If he had not possessed the Spatial Ancestral Talisman, he could have walked over this rocky wasteland a hundred times without discovering anything amiss.

He rapidly weighed his options.

Han Shanshan was a genuine Dou Zong; while he himself was only a five-star Dou Emperor, with his many trump cards, he could still hold his own against a Dou Zong in a real fight.

Moreover, with the Spatial Ancestral Talisman in hand, even if they encountered an enemy they could not defeat, he was confident he could bring Han Shanshan out safely.

This was a gamble worth taking.

"There seems to be a secret realm here!" Lin Yu said, flipping his palm as the Spatial Ancestral Talisman appeared above it.

Han Shanshan's pupils contracted slightly. She did not recognize the object, but the powerful spatial fluctuations emanating from it told her that it was no ordinary treasure.

Lin Yu drew upon the power of the Spatial Ancestral Talisman with his fingertips. Silvery-white light rapidly gathered there, compressing into a Spatial Blade as thin as a cicada's wing.

The blade was barely an inch long, yet it radiated a razor-sharp aura that made one's heart tremble.

His eyes narrowed as his soul power spread out like a tide, catching the faintest spatial crack. Then he flicked his finger, and the Spatial Blade became a silver streak that struck precisely at the weak point.

Ssslash—

A crisp, strange tearing sound rang out, as if an invisible sheet of silk had been sliced open by a sharp blade.

The space before Lin Yu suddenly split apart, opening a gap as tall as a person. Silver light flowed along its edges, and a glimpse of the scene within could be seen.

Inside was a lush, verdant world, forming a stark, almost eerie contrast with the barren rocky wasteland outside.

An incomparably rich medicinal fragrance surged from the opening. A single breath of it refreshed their spirits and dispelled some of the fatigue from their days of travel.

The spatial passage was extremely unstable. Once torn open, it began shrinking and healing inward at a visible rate.

Lin Yu did not dare delay. His left hand continued releasing the energy of the Spatial Ancestral Talisman, pouring it continuously into the edges of the opening and forcibly keeping the passage from closing.

Lin Yu controlled the talisman to cast a layer of spatial barrier around both himself and Han Shanshan.

After doing all that, he nodded to Han Shanshan, and the two stepped into the spatial fissure one after the other.

The instant they entered the secret realm, an almost tangible medicinal fragrance rushed toward them, flooding their lungs through their noses and spreading through their meridians to every limb and bone, making their entire bodies feel at ease.

Lin Yu took a deep breath and felt the battle qi in his dantian stir restlessly under the nourishment of that medicinal fragrance.

Yet something else drew his attention even more: the entire space was filled with pure Light Force.

This Light Force was everywhere, intertwined with the medicinal fragrance to form the unique aura of this secret realm.

When their gazes truly fell upon the sight before them, even Lin Yu, despite being mentally prepared, could not help drawing in a sharp breath.

What met their eyes was medicinal herbs growing wildly across the ground.

Seventh-grade medicinal herbs covered the land beneath their feet in scattered clumps like weeds, densely packed together until there was almost nowhere to step.

Eighth-grade medicinal herbs were somewhat sparser than the seventh-grade ones, but they still covered the field as far as the eye could see, radiating multicolored spiritual light and competing in splendor.

And at the deepest part of the herb field, Lin Yu even caught sight of several ninth-grade medicinal herbs radiating powerful auras.

Han Shanshan stood beside Lin Yu, utterly stunned.

Her phoenix eyes were wide open, and her parted lips moved several times before she finally forced out a trembling sentence. "Th-this... could this be the remains of a ninth-grade alchemist?"

No ordinary alchemist could possibly cultivate an herb field of such scale.

Every medicinal herb here had been meticulously cultivated. The arrangement of the herb field looked random, yet it secretly followed some profound formation, gathering the Light Force throughout the secret realm to nourish the herbs' growth.

Such a grand undertaking could only have been achieved by an alchemist of at least the ninth grade!

"Senior Sister, let's gather the herbs first," Lin Yu said, recovering from his shock before Han Shanshan did.

His voice remained relatively calm, but the flickering light in his eyes exposed his excitement. "With this many herbs, we'll have enough to use until we reach the peak of the eighth grade."

"Alright." Han Shanshan answered with only one word, not because she had nothing more to say, but because she was too excited to speak.

She was a complete herb fanatic. Not only were there mountains of seventh- and eighth-grade medicinal herbs here, there were even several ancient varieties that had long vanished from the outside world, ones she had only seen in illustrations from ancient texts!

Han Shanshan no longer cared about appearances. Rolling up her sleeves, she pounced into the herb field.

Her herb-gathering technique was exceedingly skilled. From excavation to preservation, every step for each medicinal herb was textbook-perfect.

Lin Yu was not about to fall behind. One went left and the other right, beginning this exhilarating harvest.

They gathered herbs for several hours.

When Lin Yu carefully sealed the final ninth-grade medicinal herb into a jade box and placed it in his Storage Ring, the two let out long breaths at the same time. They looked at each other and saw the lingering excitement and shock in one another's eyes.

"This is the first time in my life I've gathered herbs until my hands went numb." Han Shanshan rubbed her sore wrist, her voice carrying a dazed sense of unreality.

"Perhaps there'll be a second time." Lin Yu smiled, his gaze passing over the herb field and turning toward the deeper reaches of the secret realm.

This secret realm was far more than just an herb field. In the distance, they could vaguely see the outlines of a magnificent cluster of buildings. That was where the secret realm's true core lay.