Chapter 14

This Brother Sandao absolutely cannot be just at the Nascent Soul realm!

Even a Nascent Soul late-stage cultivator couldn't block that sword qi so effortlessly.

For a moment he even suspected that Brother Sandao had caught the recent trend of cautious cultivation favored by the Supreme Dao Sect?

But that didn't make sense either—his current behavior showed no sign of deliberately hiding his cultivation realm.

"Brother, are you really just at the Nascent Soul realm?" he couldn't help asking.

But the moment the words left his mouth, he felt a pang of regret.

Had he not asked that?

"What, do you think a Nascent Soul cultivator can't do this?" Xu Xing lowered his hand. "You're from the Xiang Jianzong—broaden your horizons a bit."

"... You're right, Brother."

That was true—there were indeed prodigies who could slay Foundation Establishment cultivators while still at Qi Gathering, hold their own against Jin Dan while at Foundation Establishment, and even spar with Nascent Soul cultivators once they reached Jin Dan.

Thinking of it that way, a Nascent Soul cultivator casually blocking a Nascent Soul-level sword qi didn't seem so unreasonable...

Unreasonable as hell! Brother Sandao, aren't you an outer sect steward?

Everyone knows "prodigy" is a term—when did "prodigy" ever get mixed up with "outer sect steward"? If every outer sect steward in the Xiang Jianzong were this powerful, the Xiang Jianzong would've already ruled the entire Xuan Realm! Still, he didn't press further—Brother Sandao had given an explanation; pushing further would be pushing his luck.

"Keep going."

The three continued collecting samples, but avoided touching the Jianfeng entirely.

Soon, they had gathered nearly all the samples within the Secret Realm, even extracting a few strands of spiritual energy from the air.

This was more than enough for the mission.

As for the Jianfeng itself, let the elders investigate it themselves.

"Since the mission is complete, let's leave this Secret Realm quickly—I get a weird feeling about it," Li Fengping said bluntly.

Aside from that sword qi, the mission had gone smoothly, but he kept feeling watched.

Add to that the bad luck he'd had these past two days, and his nerves were on edge.

Contribution points matter, but safety matters more.

"Mm." Jiang Jing felt the same way. "What does Brother Sandao think?"

"I'm fine with anything." Xu Xing remained his usual casual self.

One of his goals this trip was to observe how the new generation of disciples handled themselves—so far, they'd done well enough.

Seeing both agree, Li Fengping swiftly pulled out a talisman identical to the one they'd used to enter.

After channeling magic power to ignite it, the elliptical vortex of swirling gray mist reappeared—but this time, no eerie red light flickered.

Jiang Jing and Li Fengping didn't want to linger; as soon as the passage opened, they stepped inside quickly.

Xu Xing reached the passage entrance, then suddenly turned to look up at the red moon.

Hoo~ A gentle breeze blew, and concentric ripples, visible to the naked eye, rippled around the crimson moon hanging high in the sky.

"Don't stir. It's not time yet."

With a soft murmur, the red moon calmed. Xu Xing turned, stepped forward, and vanished into the churning gray mist.

…………

Outside the Secret Realm, they saw Li Fengping holding his phone—likely sending photos from inside to the elder.

Jiang Jing leaned against a large tree, giving Xu Xing a slight nod as he emerged.

Two minutes later, Li Fengping put down his phone: "Done. I've sent the Secret Realm photos to the elder. I'll also mail the samples back to the Xiang Jianzong. Keep an eye on your accounts over the next two days—the contribution points will be deposited directly."

"Since the mission's done, Brother Sandao, Brother Li, I've got things to attend to—I'll take my leave. Hope we can work together again."

This mission had been easy, and Brother Li was a sincere guy—worth cooperating with.

With that, Jiang Jing bowed, merged with sword light, and flew off into the distance.

"I'm leaving too." Another sword-light streak shot from the forest and vanished from sight in an instant.

In an instant, only Li Fengping remained. He was used to it—sword cultivators were always like this: free-spirited and unrestrained.

Too bad—he'd wanted to add Brother Sandao as a friend, but he'd left too fast. He'd have to wait for next time.

As Li Fengping thought this, he soared upward on his sword, confirmed his direction, and soon became a tiny speck on the horizon.

Mission complete—he needed to meet Brother Lin and return the family jade tablet, then discuss the next steps.

The day wasn't even over yet—Brother Lin and the others were locked up for ten days! …………

Sha~ sha~ Shortly after the three left, a giant serpent slithered to the spot they'd just occupied.

Suddenly, space twisted, faint red light seeping out—as it had when Li Fengping opened the passage.

Puff! Blood splattered—the serpent's upper half vanished into thin air, its blood splashing onto the protruding rock, its remaining lower half writhing violently.

But as its life ebbed away, the broken body lost the strength to thrash, rolled downward, and finally hung between two trees.

Several beasts, drawn by the scent of blood, arrived one by one. After fierce competition, a brown bear emerged victorious, driving off the others and settling down to devour the lifeless half of the serpent.

"Sigh~ Things have gotten worse lately. How did this tiny Xuanjian City suddenly turn so chaotic?"

"Who could've expected a great cultivator would break seal nearby?"

Two figures—one tall, one short—wore black robes embroidered with demonic ghost patterns, radiating a sinister aura, as if they'd painted "I'm the villain" across their faces.

The brown bear, devouring the serpent, sensed danger and spun around, glaring at the two, growling lowly to scare them off.

"What about the Zhang siblings? If someone gets to them first, all our years of effort will be wasted."

To find the Zhang siblings, they'd spent so long and risked their lives killing so many.

They hadn't even done anything before fleeing in disgrace.

"No choice—we'll have to lie low for now. Even a Void Return Grand Master perished. Our two bodies can't handle this."

The two didn't even glance at the brown bear. The bear watched them walk past, its eyes flickering with confusion.

Next second.

Bang! His entire head exploded outright, his massive body suddenly collapsing, rumbling as it rolled down the mountain, crushing a few small trees along the way.

Just a bear with no spiritual intelligence — to the two of them, killing it was no different from pinching an ant to death.

Soon, the two arrived at the place where the Previous Secret Realm's passage had opened.

"Bro, are we really not going to bother with the young master's side?"

The tall one licked the blood clinging to the back of his hand, an expression of enjoyment on his face — paired with his sinister air and features, he looked utterly perverse.

The short one sighed inwardly at the sight.

He was well aware that the two brothers' outward bearing was highly problematic, and his own younger brother in particular had some rather perverse little quirks — during the pursuit of the Zhang family siblings, he had tortured and killed quite a number of people.

That was precisely why he had abandoned everything and left Profound Sword City, to avoid being discovered later and getting purged in the name of slaying demons and upholding the Dao.

These days, demonic cultivators like the two of them — looking like 'villains' from the inside out — were already very rare.

"I've already warned the young master's side. He doesn't want to leave, and there's nothing we can do about it. We can't exactly sell our lives to him."

The young master has backing, so he might be able to tough it out, but the two of us brothers can't.

Speaking of which, who knows which great cultivator coming out of seclusion chose Profound Sword City of all places — couldn't you have gone somewhere else?

Damn it, I curse you to be bor—

Before the curse could even be finished, a flash of red light suddenly swept before his eyes, followed immediately by an irresistible pulling force.

In the blink of an eye, the world had changed completely — a crimson moon hung high in the sky, and everything Mo Ruyan saw was a sheet of blood-red, clearly not a pleasant place.

"……"

No way, I was only cursing in my head, and I hadn't even finished — does karma really need to come this fast?

Begging for data, begging for support!! (End of chapter)