Chapter 627: Abyss or Pedantry

After some time had passed, Xu Xing and Bie Xuening left the mountaintop and descended to the halfway point of the mountain.

A massive boulder jutted outward — this was precisely where the passage that had once been the only way into the Shadow Secret Realm's interior was located, back when it was nearby.

But the Shadow Secret Realm itself had long since been given away by him to Chi Jiuyu as a meeting gift, so the passage here had naturally ceased to function as well.

However…

He saw Xu Xing raise his hand and give a light tap, and the space before them began to ripple outward in concentric rings like water.

Gradually, those endlessly spreading rings of ripples began to turn hazy and chaotic, as if the other end connected to a world still in the process of gestation, where primordial chaos had yet to be divided.

And indeed, that was exactly the case.

"Back when I extracted the secret realm used for nurturing swords and gave it to Jiuyu, I noticed that within the 'void' left behind by the secret realm's sudden disappearance, there were again signs of a secret realm gestating," Xu Xing explained.

Although its scale and the completeness of its internal rules could not compare to the Shadow Secret Realm.

But that did not mean this nascent secret realm was entirely without merit.

On the contrary, influenced by the Shadow Secret Realm back then, once the nascent secret realm stabilized, many cultivation resources leaning toward sword-attribute — spirit iron, spirit plants, and the like — would appear within it.

"However, this kind of nascent secret realm is rather dangerous inside, so I sealed it off."

At the time, his thought had been to give it some time to evolve on its own, and wait many years until the sealing methods he had left failed — perhaps then some juniors in need of cultivation resources might stumble into the secret realm by accident?

Bie Xuening, standing to one side, gave a slight nod upon hearing this, but did not say much.

After all, her junior brother had done far too many similar things over the years; there really was nothing to be surprised about.

Throughout history, among those cultivators in the Xuan Realm who obtained 'fortuitous encounters,' not to mention half, at the very least around thirty percent of those lucky ones were connected to her junior brother.

She recalled that back when she had just broken through the immortal gate and proven herself a true immortal of the Dao, she had imitated her junior brother and arranged quite a few inheritance grotto-heavens, spirit-medicine secret realms, and the like.

As a result, the very first 'lucky one' to obtain the spirit-medicine secret realm she had left had been hunted down nearly twenty times within a single month due to the fierce, baleful nature of the Supreme Slaughter Sword Dao, teetering on the brink of death dozens of times.

In the end, Ning Ruo took that person as a disciple and, leveraging the standing of a true immortal to sever the influence, finally managed to shield them from the baleful nature of the Supreme Slaughter Sword Dao.

After that, she silently recalled all the 'fortuitous encounters' she had left behind, and afterward never gave such a matter another thought.

Looking at the nascent secret realm still in its gestation phase before her:

"What does junior brother plan to do?"

"I had originally intended to wait for it to evolve on its own, but since both senior sister and I happen to be here today, let's accelerate the process a bit."

Having said that, Xu Xing stepped into it.

Bie Xuening did not hesitate in the slightest and followed him in.

The two thus crossed the boundary between the present world and the secret realm, arriving within it.

Looking around, all that met the eye was a vast expanse of primordial chaos — no distinction of up and down, no division of the four directions, and even the very concept of 'space' had not yet fully formed.

In this state, even if one were to bring in the most professional 'Return-to-Void grade' secret-realm development team in the Xuan Realm today, it would probably still take over a month to stabilize this nascent secret realm.

Of course, for Xu Xing, it was very simple.

He raised his hand and drew it forward in a level stroke.

Boom!

Accompanied by a deafening roar, a single thread of light suddenly blazed to life within the murky, chaotic secret realm.

Pure, bright, yet carrying an irrefutable, irresistible absolute power.

Rumble rumble rumble!

The originally murky and chaotic nascent secret realm, because of the appearance of that single thread of light, was directly split into two clearly distinct parts.

As the concept of 'space' was completed.

The clear, yang qi rose upward, transforming into the heavens.

The turbid, yin qi sank downward, condensing into the earth.

All of this took place in the span of a single breath.

He saw Xu Xing raise his hand and tap once more — as casually as if daubing paint on rice paper — and a single dazzling point of light appeared abruptly in the sky above.

Soft and brilliant light poured down, blanketing the entire world, illuminating this newly born heaven and earth.

After finishing everything, Xu Xing withdrew his hand:

"All done."

Bie Xuening glanced at the barren secret realm.

Because it had only just stabilized, the earth at this moment was a desolate wasteland, with not the slightest vegetation covering it.

"Not continuing?"

"Accelerating it to this extent is about right," Xu Xing said with a smile. "From here on, let's just let it evolve on its own."

Ding-dong!

A notification chime suddenly rang out.

Bie Xuening paused, took out her phone to look, and discovered the signal was full bars.

One had to understand that her current phone had not undergone any special modification; by all rights, a secret realm cut off from the present world like this should not have any spirit-net signal.

Then there was only one possibility —

While accelerating the secret realm's gestation, junior brother had conveniently hooked up the spirit net as well…

She wondered what thoughts the 'lucky one' who was fated to enter this secret realm in the future might have upon discovering this.

With such a thought drifting through her mind, she looked at the popped-up message.

Unfilial Disciple: "Master, didn't you and Uncle-Master take Little Yunlu out / angry"

Unfilial Disciple: "If I hadn't asked Little Yunlu, I wouldn't have known!!! / flustered little shark"

After the two messages, a pleasant ringtone followed.

'The other party is inviting you to a video call'

Seeing this, Bie Xuening casually tapped reject, then exited the chat interface and put away her phone.

She turned her head to look at Xu Xing beside her, only to find that he had also just looked away from his phone screen and met her gaze.

"Jiuyu seems to be rushing over too. What do you think, Ye Shijie?"

"Nothing much. If she wants to come, let her come."

……

……

Evening. Xuanjian City No. 3 Middle School.

The distant evening clouds were brilliant.

Zhang Yunlu sat alone on a bench beside the school playground, watching the school gate not far away where one laughing, chatting figure after another walked out in pairs and groups.

The familiar yet unfamiliar scene left her somewhat dazed.

Honestly, her time at Xuanjian City No. 3 Middle School—especially the two-plus years of high school—had not been very pleasant.

After all, her personality was rather "loner"—not only did she have barely any friends, she had also offended her homeroom teacher over tutoring-class matters.

But after walking around the school today, a trace of sentiment welled up in her heart beyond her control.

Just then……

Whoosh—!

Amid a sharp boom of air being torn apart, a streak of sword-light crashed to the ground, the shockwave surging outward in all directions, sweeping up the fallen leaves on the ground.

"Phew~! Finally made it!"

The familiar voice made Zhang Yunlu startle.

After the air currents dispersed, Chi Jiuyu's figure appeared right where the sword-light had just landed.

"Ye Shijie? You really rushed over?!"

"Of course!" Chi Jiuyu's expression carried a hint of grievance. "Master and Uncle going out to play together and only bringing you without telling me!"

This was Master's first time leaving the Sword Sect!

And he didn't even bring her, his most loyal chief disciple!

It's really too unfair!

"I'm sorry, Ye Shijie. Master and Uncle said you've been very busy lately, so they didn't bring you…" Zhang Yunlu said, a little guilty.

"Very busy?! I…"

Chi Jiuyu had just been about to retort, but the next instant she suddenly recalled that the matter of "being very busy" was something she had told Master herself.

At that time, the buff of "deep master-disciple affection" had just worn off.