Chapter 195: Secret Realm

The island where the Beidou Seven Star Sect Ruins are located.

When I came here before, it looked like just an ordinary mountain gate ruin, with only the Secret Realm at the mountain peak being strange and dangerous.

At this moment, this entire island has been obscured by black mist.

I wonder if it was the Old Ancestor of the Artifact Heart Sect who destroyed certain Seals within the Secret Realm, leading to this catastrophe.

Since the other party left in such a panic with their main force without even wiping their own backside.

Su Ping highly suspects that the Artifact Heart Sect Old Ancestor also suffered a great loss at the hands of the great terror within the mausoleum.

But what does any of this have to do with me?

I just want to try and see if I can obtain some more Beidou-related techniques from inside.

Even if, as that Old Ancestor said, there is nothing of value left in the Secret Realm following the eruption of Evil Qi.

That would still count as resolving a knot in my heart.

Su Ping piloted the High-Altitude Reconnaissance Balloon, and after being able to see the North Dipper Seven Stars Island from afar, he fixed the balloon at a high altitude.

This distance is even further away from the island than those Tall Ships on the sea.

Considering the existence of the great terror, suspected to be an evil god, within the Secret Realm.

Su Ping summoned the Memory Illusion of his partner, Fire Knight Alwin, who possesses an Indomitable Will.

He also did not skimp on handing over a Storage Bag filled with various supplies to this partner.

Under Su Ping's personal control, Fire Knight Alwin leaped directly from the high altitude.

When the altitude dropped from twenty thousand meters to five thousand meters, he then circulated his Dharma Power to transform into a fireball, adjusted his direction, and flew toward the North Dipper Seven Stars Island.

"Look at the sky!"

"That is... it's a Foundation Establishment Cultivator flying through the air!"

"Which sect is that Foundation Establishment cultivator from? Don't they know the island ahead has become a Forbidden Land?"

On the decks of the Tall Ships, those arranged to be here were all low-level sect Cultivators who were not valued.

The leader of these Tall Ships was only at the Foundation Establishment Early Stage, and was even in a state of being exiled.

Seeing a Foundation Establishment cultivator crossing the Dahai, besides jealousy and envy, no one intended to stop them, nor did they dare to.

They simply used a Dharma Artifact to record it, then honestly reported it according to procedure.

After finishing all this, they watched the firelight disappear into the black mist of the island.

Some jealous Cultivators couldn't help but mutter in low voices that this Cultivator was dead for sure!

Inside the black mist of the island.

The Fire Knight transformed into a fireball, broke through the black mist, and immediately blasted open a clearing upon landing.

After these black mists were pushed aside by the flames to create a gap, they surged back to fill this void as soon as the flames flashed and vanished.

Within the black mist, Evil Qi similar to that of the Secret Realm continuously attacked the Fire Knight.

Yet they were all annihilated by the blessing of the Cheng'e Pixie Stone Lion before they could even touch him.

According to the memory of having been here twice.

The Fire Knight found the mountain gate, which no longer had any traces left, and began to ascend the mountain.

At the mountainside, the original plaza and the sprawling complex of buildings had already vanished without a trace.

However, that hundred-meter-tall Giant Wolf Stone Statue was surprisingly still standing on the mountainside.

It became the only remaining relic of the original Beidou Qixing Sect on this mountain road.

It seemed to have sensed something.

The blue light emitted from the eyes of this lifelike giant wolf remained dazzling under the black mist, and it actually looked toward the Fire Knight.

Su Ping's heart also stirred, recalling the biggest difference between before and now.

He immediately circulated his Divine Sense.

As a Memory Illusion possessed and controlled by Su Ping.

Although the strength of his Divine Sense was only half of what it used to be, he still successfully summoned a phantom Greedy Wolf formed by his Greedy Wolf Divine Sense.

Hum!

As soon as the Greedy Wolf Divine Sense appeared.

The blue light emitted from the eyes of the Giant Wolf Stone Statue became even brighter!

So much so that the Cultivators on the decks of the distant Tall Ships exclaimed repeatedly, making various guesses about the blue light phenomenon within the island's black mist.

"Inheritance... the timing... is lost..."

"Immortal Body... you have come too late..."

The giant stone wolf emitted a fragmented, sorrowful voice.

Immediately after, Su Ping saw the eyes of this giant wolf shatter with a crack.

Then, from the opened eye sockets, two ice-blue precious orbs rolled out.

Su Ping had the Fire Knight take these two orbs into his palm, feeling only that these two orbs were ice-cold.

The ice-blue light they emitted simultaneously seemed to have a certain restraining ability against the surrounding black mist and Evil Qi.

Perhaps this Giant Wolf Stone Statue had relied on this to hold on until now!

Thinking this, Su Ping looked at the stone statue and found that it was indeed so.

After releasing the orbs, the hundred-meter-tall Greedy Wolf stone statue was already instantly covered in ten million cracks.

And the number of these cracks was still rising rapidly.

Until the Greedy Wolf stone statue had almost no intact body left.

With a boom, it collapsed onto the ground in its entirety, turning into billions of grains of lime, gradually seeping into the earth.

"The Immortal Body has come too late?"

"That's true, the difficulty of cultivating this North Star Divine Art is truly too high. If one cannot encounter a related Spirit Body, wouldn't the inheritance easily suffer a generational gap?"

"It's a pity these two precious pearls are not inheritance items; they look more like keys to open certain objects and items to ward off Evil Spirits."

He put the precious pearls away and placed them in his Storage Bag.

The Fire Knight walked toward the mountaintop.

The Main Hall on the mountaintop had likewise disappeared.

However, the Bronze Gate that housed the Secret Realm was still sitting quietly on the bare mountaintop.

It was just that several strange, monster-like people suspected to be Evil Spirits had appeared all around, surrounding this Bronze Gate and chanting scriptures filled with frantic content.

Some of these monsters had tiger heads and human bodies, while others had pig heads and human bodies.

They were draped in tattered Daoist robes or monk robes.

Su Ping scanned these clothes and, after comparing them one by one with his memories, made a discovery.

The style of the Daoist robes looked like those of the Artifact Heart Sect.

And those monk robes were related to certain Fomen in the Nanhuang.

The aura of these monsters seemed to fluctuate around the Foundation Establishment Early Stage.

They did not pay any heed to the Fire Knight's approach, only continuing to chant scriptures toward the Bronze Gate.

"Are these Foundation Establishment Cultivators who followed the Artifact Heart Sect Old Ancestor to guard the Secret Realm?"

"To think they have turned into such neither-human-nor-ghost appearances."

"Even these Elite disciples could not be saved; the level of wretchedness with which that Old Ancestor fled the Secret Realm must be even more miserable than I imagined."

While Su Ping thought this to himself, he had the Fire Knight raise his guard to the highest level.

The greatsword was gripped in his hands, and exorcism flames erupted from his body.

As he stepped into the area of the original Main Hall.

White light suddenly emerged above the Bronze Gate.

A benevolent-looking, translucent face appeared within the white light and began chanting scriptures toward the Fire Knight.

The sound of these scriptures twisted the black light like a physical entity and rushed toward the Fire Knight.

Yet, it kept disappearing into nothingness amidst a series of crackling sounds.

This caused the benevolent-looking face in the white light to suddenly twist, and then it shrieked:

"Why do you refuse to listen to the teachings of the Fo?"

"Blasphemy, this is blasphemy!"

"Quickly abandon everything and join us; all your desires will be satisfied here!"

The face within the white light became increasingly blurry, and the voice became increasingly piercing.

Normally, it would absorb the thing the person before it desired most, thereby simulating it to break through the opponent's mental defenses.

As long as there was even a sliver of a gap, it would be enough for this white light to seep in, thereby making them his puppet.

Unfortunately, the person before it was an anomaly.

Making its divine ability, which had been strengthened by Evil Spirits, remain ineffective!

Frustrated and exasperated, it was no longer benevolent, but instead transformed into a glowing, giant jellyfish shape over ten meters tall.

At the same time, this jellyfish had many tiny light tentacles, connecting to those praying tiger-headed and pig-headed people.

As the divine ability failed to take effect, these monsters rose and charged toward the Fire Knight.

However, Su Ping had long been prepared for this.

The Fire Knight unleashed the fully charged Fire Phoenix Prairie Fire strike.

In an instant, it turned the mountaintop into a sea of fire and caused a Fire Phoenix with a wingspan of over a hundred meters to soar into the sky and face the white light jellyfish directly.

At the same time, the Fire Knight bit through the capsule in his mouth and consumed a Life Potion and a Mana Potion.

Furthermore, five purple-light foxes were summoned, but before they could release lightning to assist the attack.

Under the Fire Knight's flames that restrained Evil Spirits, those tiger-headed and pig-headed monsters were merely puppets with Foundation Establishment cultivation; facing the flames, they—not being Body Cultivators—were burned to nothingness directly!

And the white light jellyfish, which was clearly the behind-the-scenes small boss, had already had its body size shrunk by more than half under the flames brought by the Fire Phoenix, and it let out a cry for help.

This sound was mixed with dozens of different male and female voices.

As Su Ping listened, he faintly discovered that he should have heard several of these voices before.

They were Foundation Establishment Cultivators from the Artifact Heart Sect whom he had met once at the exchange meeting.

Yet he did not expect that upon this second meeting, he would discover that even their Divine Soul had been turned into an Evil Spirit.

"Sigh, I cannot help much."

"But I will still do my best to help everyone be liberated from the control of the Evil Spirits!"

"Consider it accumulating a little merit; I hope to have the chance to meet with everyone's Storage Bag."

Su Ping sighed.

The next instant, the soaring Fire Phoenix turned its head and spat out tongues of fire.

It directly sent this white light jellyfish away.

Only then did the Fire Phoenix let out a cry and slowly dissipate in the sky.

Incidentally, this caused an airspace free of black mist to appear above the island's mountaintop.

This left the Cultivators on the decks of those Tall Ships on the sea staring in a daze.

"Where did such a heaven-gifted talent come from!"

"Was that Fire Phoenix summoned by using a Spirit Tool bestowed by a Golden Core Great Ability?"

"It's one thing for the power to be so great, but why do I feel that this flame strongly restrains those black mists? Look, the black mist at the mountaintop is recovering so slowly!"

"Quick, immediately, report the record at once! Use the fastest method!"

"Such a heaven-gifted Cultivator coming to this place must have some ulterior motive!"

"Perhaps that Secret Realm is not truly devoid of value?"

The Foundation Establishment Cultivator at the bow of the ship thought of this, his expression shifted slightly, and he secretly warned himself never to speak the wrong words.

Questioning the claims of his own sect's Old Ancestor—was that something a mere Foundation Establishment Cultivator could do?

He suppressed a certain craving in his heart, hoping only that this anomaly would allow him to perform a meritorious deed and thereby return to the mainland smoothly.

In this godforsaken stretch of sea, where Spirit Qi was so scarce it was practically non-existent, these short ten-odd days had already been enough for him!

Just then!

Following Su Ping using his Divine Sense to scan the surroundings with the Fire Knight and stepping into the Bronze Gate Secret Realm with some regret at not finding a Storage Bag.

The Secret Realm inside the Bronze Gate suddenly emitted a faint white light.

In an instant.

The Cultivators on the Tall Ships within a hundred-mile radius of the sea, and even the fish in the ocean.

All felt an unbearable sense of hunger and thirst welling up from the depths of their souls.

Accompanying this hunger and thirst, various desires for the depths of the Secret Realm followed one after another.

It was as if they instinctively knew that as long as they went ashore and entered that Secret Realm.

They could find a heaven-sent opportunity to change their unremarkable lives and satisfy the hunger and thirst arising from the depths of their souls.

"Go... go ashore!"

"That's right, there must be treasures on that island, good things!"

"Can't let others get there first!"

The sailors on the Tall Ships were the first to lose control and began to sail the ships.

The Cultivators wanted to stop them, but they soon fell as well, starting to think that perhaps it wouldn't be so bad to go and take a look, being careful?

"No! You can't!"

The Foundation Establishment Cultivator at the bow was the first to sense that something was wrong.

He even retreated violently, leaving the Tall Ship and plunging into the seabed to continue moving away.

Yet, after only a few breaths, this Foundation Establishment Cultivator rushed out from the seabed with an even more crazed expression.

Moving faster than the Tall Ships sailing at full speed, he rushed toward the mountaintop.

He became the second Cultivator to enter the Bronze Gate today.

At the same time, Su Ping, who saw this scene from the High-Altitude Balloon, secretly muttered "good grief," summoned Exorcist Mage Yunkong to stay behind as support, and began to retreat in the opposite direction while piloting the High-Altitude Balloon.

Whether there's trouble or not, get away from this sea area first!

Boom!

Inside the Secret Realm.

Su Ping discovered that the scenery along the way did not seem to have changed.

The black swamp, the small hillside covered in stone tablets.

It was just that there should have been no Cultivators falling in this Secret Realm during this time; Su Ping scanned with his Divine Sense and found no trace of a Storage Bag.

Just as he was feeling a bit nostalgic for the past.

Su Ping suddenly discovered an anomaly in the swamp.

It was a Foundation Establishment Cultivator who appeared there, then flew out piloting a Green Wood Flying Boat.

Afterward, he only glanced at the Fire Knight.

Then he rushed to the hillside and found the stone tablet at the top of the mountain.

This Foundation Establishment Cultivator put away his Dharma Artifact, and his legs went limp, kneeling on the stone tablet and beginning to kowtow incessantly.

His Essence, Spirit, and Qi began to sink into the stone tablet.

Causing the Golden Chain trapping the stone tablet to vibrate at an imperceptibly faster frequency.

Su Ping appeared before this Foundation Establishment Cultivator with the Thunder Light Fox and struck out with a sword, blocking a certain frequency of this Foundation Establishment Cultivator's strange ritual.

"Redemption... redemption..."

The Foundation Establishment Cultivator's eyes were dull; he did not resist, only staring blankly at the stone tablet.

Su Ping looked at this guy and knew that he was beyond saving.

At the same time, Su Ping, realizing he should be the Foundation Establishment Cultivator from the Tall Ship, felt a secret tremor of fear: could the great terror in this Secret Realm already affect the sea outside the island?

Su Ping skillfully searched out the Storage Bag that this Cultivator no longer needed and placed it on himself.

Afterward, he applied the Flame of Purification to prevent this poor Cultivator's Divine Soul from being used by Evil Spirits after death.

Having finished all this, Su Ping looked toward the tomb in the distance.

The black Qi released from the tomb seemed to have substance, constantly emerging from its location and lingering in the air, refusing to dissipate for a long time.

After thinking about it, Su Ping curiously let the Fire Knight walk over.

The tomb was certainly fraught with danger.

But there was great terror as well as great opportunity.

Since he was immortal, was he really afraid of dying once?

Dozens of seconds later.

The Fire Knight pushed open the gate of the tomb's surface structure with both hands.

Here, Su Ping did not find a coffin, but rather what looked like a large Altar.

The four walls were carved with various colorful stone statues.

It looked as if it were telling a story.

Thousands of years ago, a giant black egg fell from beyond the heavens, and was then discovered by the predecessors of the Beidou Qixing Sect and brought back to the sect's Secret Realm.