After leaving Shihan Town, Shadow One rented a carriage and an ox cart at the post station.
He originally wanted to buy horses directly, but the post station could not produce that many horses all at once, so he had no choice but to drop the idea.
On the road to Moonview Mountain, they would stop for a while whenever they saw a town, and set off again after buying things.
After passing through several towns in succession, they had accumulated quite a few talismans in their hands.
"Your Highness, these talismans should be enough for us to use, right?" said Ying Jiu.
Looking at these talismans, Xue Fuyao nodded and said, "You can divide them amongst yourselves. You probably wouldn't be able to carry too many anyway."
Because they had no cultivation, Shadow One and the others could not use storage spaces, and there was only one Storage Bag. They were also not like Xue Fuyao who, although she did not cultivate, could still mobilize spiritual qi by virtue of her experience from a past life; thus, the talismans assigned to them could only be kept close to their bodies.
The Cultivation Realm was unlike the Mortal Realm.
With the strength of Shadow One and the others, they could walk sideways in the Mortal Realm, but in the Cultivation Realm, they could only tuck their tails between their legs and walk.
If they were unlucky enough to run into demonic cultivators or powerful spirit beasts, they would probably be wiped out in no time.
Because she wanted to fuse the Heavenly Eye, Xue Fuyao still did not cultivate during this period, maintaining the state of an ordinary person. As for Shadow One and the others, although they had talent, their cultivation talent was too poor.
During this time, Xue Fuyao had also taught them some Qi-gathering cultivation techniques, but they had repeatedly failed to succeed.
Xue Fuyao knew this was not only because the talent of Shadow One and the others was poor, but also because they had consumed ordinary grains in the Mortal Realm over the years, accumulating a large amount of impurities in their bodies, as well as the injuries they had sustained during training and missions.
Although these injuries were healed on the surface, they had left hidden ailments.
Therefore, for the sake of safety, they disguised themselves as ordinary merchants all the way and walked along the official road.
Although this was the Cultivation Realm, in reality, the number of mortals far exceeded that of cultivators.
Along the way, although they ran into a few minor troubles, fortunately they were harmless and did not cause too much of a stir.
Two months later, they finally arrived at the foot of Moonview Mountain.
There were quite a few Monster Beasts within Moonview Mountain, so ordinary people usually only operated in the outer periphery, gathering firewood, digging up some wild vegetables, and the like.
Even so, quite a few people still died in the mouths of Monster Beasts every year.
Xue Fuyao took out a Concealment Talisman and stuck it on herself. This kind of talisman could eliminate one's aura, preventing Monster Beasts from discovering them.
Although it was only a lowest-grade talisman, having one was better than nothing.
Seeing this, Shadow One and the others also successively took out Concealment Talismans and stuck them on themselves.
Upon entering Moonview Mountain, Xue Fuyao did not delay at all and immediately walked toward the location where the Secret Realm was.
In fact, she was not clear on the specific location of the Moonview Mountain Secret Realm either, but clear or not, she knew how the adventurer squad that originally discovered the Secret Realm had found it.
She thanked her gossiping self from her past life.
Along the way, Xue Fuyao discovered quite a few spirit medicines.
If it were her past life, she definitely would have rushed to collect them impatiently, since these spirit medicines could sell for quite a few Spirit Stones and those were all cultivation resources after all; but now, Xue Fuyao directly ignored these spirit medicines.
Just like that, the group walked cautiously within Moonview Mountain, hiding immediately at any sign of movement.
Because of their caution, they avoided the attacks of Monster Beasts and evaded the aftermath of cultivators' battles.
Finally, three days later, Xue Fuyao arrived at her destination.
She looked around to confirm that this was indeed near the entrance of the Moonview Mountain Secret Realm from her past life.
Then she turned and said to Shadow One and the others behind her, "You all look for a tree around here."
"Look for a tree?"
Shadow One and the others looked around; there were trees everywhere here.
"Your Highness, what does that tree specifically look like?" asked Shadow Three.
"I don't know what it specifically looks like, anyway it's different from ordinary trees. It should be right around here; report back immediately once you find it."
"Yes!"
The action speed of the Shadow Guards was fast, and the fifty Shadow Guards quickly dispersed.
Before coming, they knew this trip was to resolve their cultivation talent, so they searched with extra effort.
Not long after, Ying Sishi Jiu trotted over and said excitedly, "Your Highness, I found a strangely shaped tree."
Hearing this, Xue Fuyao's heart surged with joy, not expecting to find it so quickly.
"Quick, take me to see it."
Under the guidance of Ying Sishi Jiu, the two quickly arrived in front of a towering tree.
Just as Ying Sishi Jiu had said, this tree was extremely bizarre. Not only was its body much larger than the surrounding trees, but the trunk was also twisted in a corkscrew shape, looking as though several trees had intertwined with each other to form it, which was very eerie.
If it had been meticulously pruned by a gardener from youth, a tree might have been able to grow into this appearance, but a tree that grew into this shape naturally...
Xue Fuyao circled the tree, recalling the gossip she had overheard in her past life.
That Pioneer Squad had accidentally discovered the Secret Realm entrance when one of the squad members discovered this uniquely shaped tree and wanted to take it back to plant at the entrance of his cave abode. Unexpectedly, when digging, he accidentally triggered some mechanism, causing their entire squad to be sucked into the Secret Realm.
Thinking this, Xue Fuyao had Ying Sishi Jiu gather all the remaining people over.
A quarter of an hour later, Shadow One and the others had all been found by Ying Sishi Jiu.
Then Xue Fuyao took out a shovel she had prepared long ago from the Storage Bag. "Dig and see."
Shadow Eleven and Ying Shi'er took the shovel and began digging around the base of the strange tree.
Xue Fuyao did not just stand by and watch either; she took out two Spirit Stones and a defensive magical artifact, using the spiritual qi within the Spirit Stones to drive this defensive magical artifact.
As a beam of light flashed, a layer of transparent protective cover surrounded everyone's bodies, and then faded.
This protective cover could withstand a fatal blow at a critical moment.
After digging for about half an hour, the roots of the strange tree gradually became exposed. Shadow Eleven was not paying attention for a moment and directly shoveled into the root of the strange tree.
The next second, the entire tree began to shake slightly. The next second, everyone including Xue Fuyao disappeared from the spot, while on the ground, the deep pit just dug out by Shadow Eleven and Ying Shi'er had already disappeared.
Not knowing how much time had passed, when Xue Fuyao opened her eyes again, the surrounding environment had completely changed.
Dense spiritual qi, an azure sky, lush green grass beneath her feet, and rolling mountain ranges in the distance-everything around was as fairylike as the mortal world.
Looking around, Shadow One and the others were still there. It seemed it was not a random teleportation, which made Xue Fuyao heave a sigh of relief.
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