Chapter 2420

He needed to borrow the mouse's senses, so he had to share perception with it. The stone giant's trampling made him uncomfortable too.

So the monsters of Yujing City were right—this place has guards!

"It's actually an earth mother avatar personally on guard—looks like we found the right place." They had come all this way, passing through multiple forbidden zones in Yujing City, where at most a few monsters kept watch; only this unassuming Duzhi Mountain was personally guarded by an earth mother avatar.

What does that mean? An avatar is the main body's eyes—the earth mother herself must be monitoring this place in real time.

Immortal Mingke then said: "Just now, the mouse glanced hastily and saw on the mountain a stone gate—three large stones stacked together forming a natural archway—but it was flashing in the mist."

"The earth mother just used this mist to probe for the existence of the Panlong Secret Realm." He Lingchuan's eyes flickered, "It can likewise mark secret realms in Yujing City."

"This Duzhi Mountain actually has a secret realm too?" What an unexpected piece of information.

"The avian monster you captured from Yujing City mentioned that Duzhi Mountain is shrouded in clouds and mist year-round, only revealing its true form for a few days occasionally each year, right?" Immortal Mingke explained, "That matches the traits of a secret realm. A secret realm hovers between existence and the mundane, but sometimes it opens to intersect with reality, allowing outsiders to see what's inside—sometimes even walk in."

Ling Jinbao nodded repeatedly: "Exactly, exactly—I accidentally entered the Panlong Secret Realm that way back then, and even saw the Panlong City army slaughtering bandits."

He Lingchuan glanced sideways.

There's no one in the Panlong Secret Realm—if Ling Jinbao saw the army's battle, then he must have accidentally entered……

Of course he wouldn't correct it, only saying: "We have no intelligence on this secret realm, so we don't know if it has a guardian spirit. If not, then this secret realm is directly controlled by the earth mother."

"Which means, as soon as we enter, Shangguan Biao will know!" Immortal Mingke said solemnly, "Are we betting on this secret realm? Whether right or wrong, it will likely alarm the earth mother, leaving us no chance to explore other places in Yujing City."

The four fell silent—now was the time to decide.

Ling Jinbao thought for a moment, then said in a deep voice: "Even if the Stone Heart isn't hidden here, the earth mother sending an avatar to guard Duzhi Mountain means this place holds important secrets. Uncovering such secrets might help us deal with the earth mother later."

Other secret realms are unguarded—only Duzhi Mountain and the white house underground are known to be personally guarded by the earth mother.

This importance, this priority.

The existence of the Duzhi Mountain Secret Realm is unknown even to the monsters of Yujing City.

Given the lack of reliable intelligence and the inability to truly pinpoint the earth mother's Stone Heart, this is probably the best option for everyone.

"Anyway, we have nowhere else to go—this is it!" Zhu Xiuer said in a muffled tone, "Worst case, we go head-on!"

When a superior strategy exists, choose it—minimize conflict, maximize adventure; when no superior strategy exists, even the worst option can be reluctantly accepted.

It then continued:

"Mingyao and the others have also found the white house and are discussing how to break in."

It gave Mingyao the Venerable One an eyeball spider, using the earth cave spider queen's talent for mutual communication, so there would be no magic power disturbance, no alarming the earth mother.

Now both groups face the same problem:

We've found the destination—but how do we explore it?

No matter how we explore, it seems we'll alarm the earth mother/Shangguan Biao.

Zhu Xiuer continued: "The earlier intelligence was wrong—this white house, though underground, has a shifting location. Mingyao and the others spent considerable effort, even risking capture of two underground monsters for interrogation, before finding it. But I see Mingyao the Immortal is still quite pleased."

"The white house can also move? Sounds somewhat reliable." Immortal Mingke asked He Lingchuan, "What do you think?"

Unconsciously, he had already begun to value He Lingchuan's opinion.

Though the earth cave spider queen appears stronger, this team secretly relies on He Lingchuan to make decisions.

"I agree with Mr. Ling's view—let's give it a try." He Lingchuan said seriously, "First, follow the original plan to infiltrate Duzhi Mountain, then jump into the secret realm and see."

Having entered Yujing City, how could we possibly avoid all risk?

"The timing is also about right."

They had long known Duzhi Mountain had guards, so of course they prepared a contingency for sneaking through.

Immortal Mingke nodded: "Leave it to me."

After a few dozen breaths, a one-eyed giant appeared, holding a jar, wading through a knee-deep stream, and walking openly into Duzhi Mountain via the main path.

Boldly and openly.

It stepped with one foot on the ground beside the boundary marker, but did not go further inside.

It could go no further.

Just a few breaths later, a stone giant emerged from underground, over half a zhang tall, directly blocking the one-eyed giant's path without a word.

It was the earth mother avatar that had crushed the mouse. Since it was on guard here, it refused all suspicious objects from entering.

The one-eyed giant bowed to it, lifted the jar's lid, and a bloody stench shot up into the sky.

It was the smell of monster blood, and not weak in cultivation.

Then it closed the lid again and respectfully offered it up.

The stone giant reached out and took it.

The one-eyed giant first stepped back, retreating all the way to the opposite bank of the stream, then turned and walked away.

Seeing it fully withdraw beyond the boundary, the stone giant's body sank and sank into the ground.

When it reappeared, it was already outside the glowing three-stone secret realm gate.

Then it gently placed the jar of monster blood inside the gate.

Obviously, the monsters of Yujing City are not qualified to enter—they can only leave things outside Duzhi Mountain, after which the earth mother avatar personally carries them into the secret realm.

A faint light flashed, the blood jar vanished, and here it seemed as if nothing had happened.

Inside the secret realm, behind the three stones, there was a smooth white stone table.

The blood jar the stone giant had placed inside now appeared on this stone table.

The surroundings were very quiet, only insect chirps and bird calls.

Not long after, the jar's lid suddenly opened on its own, a small spider poked its head out, crawled around the rim, saw no one, then jumped back into the jar, fished out a die from the blood, and threw it onto the ground.

Before the die even hit the ground, two people appeared out of nowhere.

He Lingchuan and Immortal Mingke.

Immortal Mingke reached out, caught the die, and put it away—this was the mustard-seed space that can hold living beings, the Garden of Cardamom.

The small spider shook off the blood on its body, jumped onto He Lingchuan's shoulder.

This is of course Zhu Xiuer.

The prisoners they captured from Yujing City had previously confessed that every few days, monsters would transport fresh blood here, but if it couldn't be delivered to Duzhi Mountain, the stone men would take over. After their long discussion at the Changfeng Valley garrison with Liu Yisheng, everyone could infer that this was mostly supplying nutrients to the Wind Dew Golden Lotus.

Thus, the three of them jumped into Mingke Xianren's Doukou Garden, which could indeed hold living creatures, and transporting just three people was no problem.

Then, the one-eyed giant disguised by Ling Jinbao delivered the prepared monster blood to the foot of Duzhi Mountain.