The carriage rumbled toward Lu Prefecture.
Inside, Snow Robe chattered away, asking about Lu Prefecture's local delicacies. Qing Dai answered softly, occasionally casting a worried glance at Lu Changfeng, who rested with his eyes closed.
Lu Changfeng was reviewing the information Li Longji had sent about the Secret Realm.
Perhaps it had only just been discovered, or perhaps nothing significant had emerged yet.
The report contained little of value. It said only that the Secret Realm lay within Hu Pass, in a cavern inside a mountain newly exposed by a collapse. Li Longji had stumbled upon it while hunting.
An exotic beast called Suan Yu inhabited the cave. Whenever anyone tried to enter, Suan Yu would cry out.
Combined with the cavern's unusual structure, the sound waves echoed and overlapped, multiplying their power!
It sounded as though anyone with a sufficiently resilient soul could withstand the sound waves and enter. Apart from its sonic attack, Suan Yu had no other unusual abilities; even ordinary bows and crossbows could kill it.
But...
His instincts told him it was not that simple.
Because Hu Pass-and indeed Lu Prefecture itself-was no ordinary place!
In military terms, Lu Prefecture had been known in ancient times as Shangdang, giving rise to the saying, "Gain Shangdang, and set your sights on the Central Plains." Hu Pass was the very throat of the Eight Passes of the Taihang Mountains, where one man could hold the gate against ten thousand. It had always been a battleground where armies fought for life or death.
Who knew how many bones and secrets lay buried beneath such a strategic stronghold?
In the martial world, too, Lu Prefecture harbored crouching tigers and hidden dragons.
When rival heroes rose at the end of the Sui dynasty, this region had been home to Shan