Mu Qingluan: Go challenge someone else, the Myriad Sword Pavilion or the Yellow Springs Pavilion will do. Our pavilion master isn't here...

Xiao Yan shook his head. This old rat clearly hadn't taken his words to heart, but that was none of his concern. He would respect the fate others chose for themselves.

"When does the Blood Pool open?"

"Ah, this memory of mine! Please, follow me." Having only just purged the fire poison from his body, Jin Shi was weak and exhausted. He forced himself upright and cupped his hands apologetically toward Xiao Yan before leaving to enter seclusion, while Jin Gu respectfully led Xiao Yan's group to the Blood Pool.

A complicated expression crossed Nalan Yanran's lovely face. She had thought Xiao Yan was merely powerful enough to reign supreme in the Northwest Region, yet after coming to the Central Region, his prestige had only soared higher.

He truly was a dragon. Only now had the true dragon entered the sea, as at home as a fish in water...

Elsewhere, atop the stone platform.

Some of the young humans were growing impatient. They had fought their way through the trials, and only one final challenge stood between them and a place in the Blood Pool. Yet the Gold-Devouring Rat Clan kept delaying it, leaving them unable to help suspecting something.

Were they planning to pocket all the places themselves?

Only a few among them wore strange expressions. They scanned their surroundings but saw no sign of Xiao Yan, whose prestige in the Central Plains was now considerable and whose name resounded among the younger generation. He had clearly entered this Secret Realm too, yet there was still no trace of him.

As for being stopped by an earlier trial, how could that be possible...?

He was an eighth-tier alchemist, after all, with soul perception so monstrous it defied belief. He could turn the entire Secret Realm upside down, so