Chapter 191: Forbidden Area

Composing her expression and demeanor, Ruan Xing stepped into the hall at the peak.

The moment Qinghong Zhenjun saw her, a hint of displeasure surfaced in her eyes. She said indifferently, "You have reached Golden Core?"

"Yes, Peak Master. It was only thanks to Senior Brother protecting the formation for me while we were in Xizhou that I was lucky enough to form a Golden Core," Ruan Xing replied with her head lowered.

"Are you saying that the cultivation method for your Golden Core stage was given to you by Qintai He?"

This question was not easy to answer. If she answered yes, although she could temporarily pass this hurdle, the lie would be exposed the moment Qinghong Zhenjun and Qintai He met in the future.

Qintai He had a rather straightforward temperament; he would likely not cooperate with Ruan Xing to patch up this lie, and it was also unlikely she could deceive Qinghong Zhenjun, who had watched him grow up.

After much thought, it was better to let a dead person take the blame.

Ruan Xing put on a look of shame and said, "It was given to me by Elder Wen when we were in Nanzhou. At that time, Elder Wen intended to take me as a disciple after the Jin Tai Secret Realm, but later, when the incident at the Jin Tai Secret Realm occurred, Elder Wen knew he would certainly be punished and did not want to delay or implicate me, so the Sect Master sent me to Central Province."

As for what the truth actually was, both Elder Wen and the Sect Master had already died in the space-time rift in Nanzhou; no one could come to expose it now.

"Junior Brother Wen..." Qinghong Zhenjun sighed slightly, her expression softening a little.

Now that the person was gone, his image had become more pleasant in the hearts of the living.

She and Elder Wen had once shared a bond in their youth, and although they had parted ways later, Elder Wen had never used the favor she had promised him to make things difficult for her.

Remembering that the young girl before her had once come to find her holding that bamboo leaf, and recalling Elder Wen's understated instructions regarding her, the faint annoyance in Qinghong Zhenjun's eyes gradually faded.

She thought for a moment, "What made you think of coming back? How is Qintai He doing now?"

"I hadn't heard of any punishment from the sect for Senior Brother and me over these years, so I knew the Peak Master was soft-hearted and cherished her disciples, which is why I thought of coming back to see. As for Senior Brother... he still has a few relatives in Xizhou who are quite sincere toward him. Now, Senior Brother has also reached the Golden Core Late Stage and can attempt to break through to the Nascent Soul Stage."

"So he still has a shred of conscience." Qinghong Zhenjun let out a cold snort from her nose. "Then how could there be no news at all for so many years, leaving Qintai He to grow up lonely and helpless in Central Province?"

"It is because... his branch of the family declined after his grandfather passed away. They had no say or authority within the clan, which is why it was delayed for so many years."

Ruan Xing explained cautiously.

After a long silence, Qinghong Zhenjun continued, "Will he come back?"

Ruan Xing hurriedly said, "Of course he will come back. Senior Brother had no elders to guide him in Xizhou; once his cultivation is stabilized, he will certainly return to meet the Peak Master."

Upon hearing this, Qinghong Zhenjun's expression became visibly gentler. She did not chat further, but instead said to Ruan Xing in a pleasant tone, "You haven't gone to collect your monthly stipend; find some time to go get it. The Lotus Pond Secret Realm, which the sect recently acquired three years ago, currently has no time limit. Every month, there are twenty spots available to enter. My Yaoguang Peak has never had a Golden Core disciple, so since you have returned, I will ask for one of this month's spots for you."

A new secret realm has three stages: the pioneering stage, the logging stage, and the collapse stage.

The Lotus Pond Secret Realm had just been developed and was rich in resources. Initially, cultivators with profound cultivation entered to investigate the dangers within, gaining a rough understanding of the various conditions and reducing the risks to a controllable range.

However, the Lotus Pond Secret Realm was not very dangerous to begin with, so once the realm stabilized, the first batch of Golden Core disciples had already entered.

Thinking that three years had passed, the Lotus Pond Secret Realm was not very vast; the map was likely mostly charted. After a few more batches of disciples entered, it would be sealed to allow it to recuperate internally, waiting ten or twenty years before being opened again.

That would be the logging stage.

And the collapse stage was like the Hanshan Secret Realm, where no matter how it was sealed and recuperated, it would no longer produce powerful Monster Beasts or high-value spiritual materials. Only some low-grade items could catch the eye of Qi Refining cultivators, and there was always a risk of the entire realm collapsing.

This was an unexpected gain.

Ruan Xing was stunned, then said joyfully, "Thank you, Peak Master!"

She had been worrying about how to enter the Lotus Pond Secret Realm to see if she could find other inheritances of Guangyou Xianjun.

If there were cultivation methods, that would be even better.

But looking at Qinghong Zhenjun's demeanor, it was unlikely there were any cultivation methods inside the realm.

Qinghong Zhenjun was unwilling to let her strengthen her cultivation. Although she had been stirred by the matter of Qintai He and the old affairs of Elder Wen, which had evoked her guilt and a desire to compensate Ruan Xing, she likely would not use a cultivation method as compensation.

But that didn't matter; she still had the *Record of Nourishing the Spirit* in her hands. She had only understood a superficial layer of it, and perhaps learning more about Guangyou Xianjun by entering the secret realm would help her practice the *Record of Nourishing the Spirit*.

After the Nascent Soul Stage, one could begin to cultivate the Divine Soul, allowing the Divine Sense and the soul to merge into one and perfectly integrate into the Nascent Soul, until the mind and spirit were perfectly unified, at which point one could reach the Spirit Severing stage.

Yet, Ruan Xing was already at the Nascent Soul Late Stage, and her Divine Soul fusion progress was less than one-third; the progress was slow.

This made her wonder whether it was because this body was not her original one, or because the cultivation gained through the Simulator could not allow her to fuse her Divine Soul quickly, or perhaps, cultivating the Divine Soul was a slow, grinding process and she had not been practicing for long enough, hence the slow efficiency.

The first reason could likely be ruled out, because when she broke through to the Nascent Soul Stage, she reshaped her physical body. Every single hair on her current body was controlled, changed, and shaped by her personally, as were her flesh, bones, and appearance; it shouldn't be like this.

As for the latter two, she could not judge.

From ancient times until now, there had never been anyone like her who had gone from Spirit Refining to Soul Sea Spirit Fusion in less than seven years!

There wasn't even a reference point from predecessors! Ruan Xing could only take it one step at a time.

At the very least, her current Nascent Soul Late Stage cultivation already qualified her as a powerhouse in the world of Cultivation. Across the entire Xianyuan Continent, there was no Gui Xu Xianjun on the surface, and Spirit Severing and Nascent Soul were the current peak combat powers.

She had no talent for direct combat; her mind was full of how to use underhanded tricks. The two sets of Sword Techniques she had upgraded to the highest level through the Simulator could only fight to a draw against cultivators of the same realm.

Even her most powerful move, the Myriad Swords Return to Origin, had its power limited not by its grade, but by the user. The higher the user's cultivation, the more Spiritual Power it required, and the greater its power.

However, the drawback was also obvious: it easily drained her body.

But fortunately, Ruan Xing's reliance was not on these. Her most powerful aspects were still Puppetry and Divine Ability.

Back then, killing a Golden Core while at Foundation Establishment, and killing a Nascent Soul while at Golden Core, all relied on her own improved Puppetry refining techniques and the development of the Self-destruct Puppet. At the Six Suns Study, she killed three Nascent Soul cultivators with higher cultivation than her by her own strength, all because she had mastered the Divine Ability to control all Puppets simultaneously, which reduced the burden on her Soul Sea.

Even the initial Puppetry had not been recorded by the Simulator! It was only after she created the Self-destruct Puppet that she added the words "Puppetry Level 1" to the Simulator! This was a skill she had truly researched herself, not one gained through the experience provided by the Simulator, and it gave her more sense of security than anything else.

Now that she had Spirit Tools by her side, Ruan Xing was even less afraid. As long as she didn't provoke any powerful figures, she could walk sideways through the world of Cultivation by showing her cultivation.

Disguising herself within the Xuanbing Sect now was merely for the sake of cultivation methods.

Qinghong Zhenjun gave her a few more instructions before letting her leave the peak.

The matter of asking for a spot was not particularly difficult, because, counting carefully, this month's batch was already the thirteenth since the Lotus Pond Secret Realm opened.

With twenty people per batch, those with backgrounds, those with strength, and those with luck had all been in once; the rest was just the turn of ordinary disciples.

It just had to be organized by the Sect Affairs Hall; at the very least, after three days, once the list was finalized, they could enter the Lotus Pond Secret Realm together.

Ruan Xing already had the experience from one simulation, so she was not in a hurry. However, Qinghong Zhenjun seemed not to be at ease and even arranged for a Registered Disciple from Tianyan Peak who was also entering the secret realm to look after her. That disciple very understandingly expressed that she would share the information about the secret realm she had compiled with Ruan Xing and that they would look after and help each other in the secret realm.

This disciple from Tianyan Peak looked somewhat familiar; Ruan Xing found her in her memories—it was Zhou Miaoyu, whom she had met twice before.

She was also a friend of Senior Sister Meng Hui, who had unfortunately failed her tribulation. Like Meng Hui, she was a Registered Disciple of Tianyan Peak, but she had formed her core a few years earlier than Meng Hui and was currently at the Golden Core Mid-stage.

She did not know that Meng Hui's death was due to Xu Shengping using a small trick under the instruction of Qingyuan Daojun; she just thought Meng Hui had bad luck and couldn't withstand the heavenly tribulation.

At this moment, seeing Ruan Xing, she also felt a sense of closeness. She remembered that on the day Meng Hui underwent her tribulation, this little junior sister had also come, but the crowd was chaotic that day and she was too heartbroken to pay much attention to others, let alone know when this little junior sister had left.

Zhou Miaoyu took a Jade Slip out of her Storage Bag and handed it to Ruan Xing, introducing it: "This records some information and maps of the Lotus Pond Secret Realm. You should prepare more water-avoidance talismans and Dharma Artifacts, as well as a compass. I heard from senior sisters who have been in before that it is a vast, boundless ocean inside. If your sense of direction is poor, it is very easy to get lost. Moreover, most of the opportunities and treasures are underwater. There are several forbidden areas underwater; I have marked them all on the map. If you encounter them, do not approach them; just go around."

Ruan Xing became interested as soon as she heard this, "What kind of place is a forbidden zone? Is it very dangerous?"

"It can't be called dangerous." Zhou Miaoyu frowned, looking somewhat at a loss for words, "There are strange air currents swirling around the forbidden zones. If you are accidentally swept into one, you won't be able to get out; you can only wait until the time in the Secret Realm ends and crush your Jade Slip to forcibly leave the Secret Realm. The strangest thing is that things inside the forbidden zone cannot be brought out. At the very beginning, a senior brother mistakenly entered a forbidden zone. There was a Golden Core Stage fish Monster Beast inside. After he exhausted all his strength to kill the fish Monster Beast, he peeled off its scales and took its inner core, but after he left the Secret Realm, they were all gone."

"We all guessed that he had encountered an illusion, but he insisted that it was absolutely impossible. After several Dao Lords learned of this matter, they didn't say anything, and since no one was injured, they could only resign themselves to bad luck and consider it a lack of opportunity. The Jade Slips that allow one to enter the Secret Realm are hard to come by; ordinary disciples like us can probably only enter the Lotus Pond Secret Realm once in a lifetime. If one is trapped in a forbidden zone and gains nothing, wouldn't it be a wasted trip? Therefore, we privately call such places forbidden zones."

"So that's how it is." Ruan Xing nodded, planning to study the forbidden zones on the map after returning.

Her thoughts were different from Zhou Miaoyu's; they entered the Secret Realm to seek opportunities and high-value Spirit Herbs and treasures, while she was there to search for cultivation techniques or to understand information about Guangyou Xianjun regarding the Record of Nourishing the Spirit.

Therefore, she should actually go to the forbidden zones to take a look.

The Record of Nourishing the Spirit was not a cultivation technique of the Xuanbing Sect, but an opportunity that Guangyou Xianjun had found himself, so there would not be any insights or notes regarding this cultivation technique within the Xuanbing Sect.

After parting ways with Zhou Miaoyu, Ruan Xing returned to her residence on Yaoguang Peak.

Neither her dwelling nor that of Qintai He had been occupied by new disciples; it seemed that to other disciples, the two of them had just gone out to travel and would return sooner or later.

Her tree house stood on the cliff wall, and because no one had passed by for a long time, large patches of weeds had grown wildly in the crevices of the rock wall.

With a gentle wave of her hand to brush them away, removing the weeds, Ruan Xing entered the tree house; the branches and vines above were already somewhat withered and aged, swaying slightly.

It seemed it was still sturdy; when Ruan Xing built the tree house, she hadn't intended to live there for too long, and she hadn't expected to be able to return after more than three years.

She used the Dust-Gathering Technique to clean the furnishings in the room, took a quilt out from her Storage Bag to spread it out, and lay down to begin studying the Jade Slip that Zhou Miaoyu had given her.

Her Divine Sense sank into it, skipping over the long passages at the beginning regarding the growth and distribution of various Spirit Herbs, the characteristics and habits of Monster Beasts, and other messy parts, and she pulled directly to the very bottom to look at the markings on the map.

The map was semi-panoramic; in the middle of a vast ocean stood a towering stone peak.

Sinking deeper, the map turned into the appearance of the underwater world.

It was uneven with varying heights, and various different markings also became more numerous.

Ruan Xing had good luck during the Simulation; she had only entered the Secret Realm once and found what she wanted, so she was not familiar with other parts of the Secret Realm and only thought to use that abandoned large ship as a coordinate point to extend to other places.

She just flipped through it once, but did not see anything similar to a ship.

Could it be that the ship had completely rotted and crumbled after three years? That shouldn't be; it had only been three years, and when she entered the ship's cabin, most of the structures and room layouts inside were intact.

Or perhaps, some disciples had fought inside and destroyed the ship?

She could go find Zhou Miaoyu tomorrow to ask about this.

Suddenly, a thought flashed through her mind.

Was that ship... in a forbidden zone?

She had never truly entered the Secret Realm; after getting things from the Secret Realm, she brought them out through the Simulator. She did not know if she could bring out the key and the seed if she left the Secret Realm within the Simulator.

Ruan Xing fell into deep thought.

Her gaze could not help but move toward the few places marked with large crosses.

Thanks to Qiu Dahua'er for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to _Panda Jun_ for the monthly ticket~