Chapter 242 - 241: First Glimpse of the Secret Realm, Cheating Exploration

As reported by Mu Yun and his team members, the interior of the Secret Realm is entirely a lush green world.

The entire Heavenly King Group entered the Secret Realm.

What they first saw was a vast thriving jungle.

In the forest, one could occasionally see the fleeting figures of living beings.

In the distance.

There were mountains, lakes, even large grasslands.

The entire Secret Realm was vibrant and picturesque.

At first glance, all they could see was beauty.

However, the Heavenly King Group did not let their guard down.

Not to mention that this was a completely unfamiliar space filled with unknowns.

The dangers could often be hidden behind the most beautiful things.

Whether in the real world or in the Secret Realm, this is the most basic common sense.

The real world isn’t without its exotic jungles, where venomous insects, wild beasts, and marsh miasmas are rampant.

All of these factors could easily be fatal to ordinary people.

Even the scholars from the Research Institute, who only had research on their minds, stayed rather calm at this moment.

Despite their first time in the Secret Realm, they not only saw many indigenous beings in the Secret Realm, but the vegetation they saw was also all an unseen species in the real world, holding high research value.

But they were all aware.

Only God knew how many lifethreading things were hidden behind this totally pristine scenery.

Everyone remained vigilant in their Sky Control stance, looking around.

Li Jing stood hovering at the front of the team, his eyes slightly narrowed as he looked down at the green earth.

This big secret realm did not disappoint him.

Blood bars could be seen above the heads of the indigenous beings flitting through the forest below.

Some bars were long, others short.

Most were at the level of the First or Second Realm, with a good few in the Third Realm.

No beings were seen beyond the Third Realm yet.

Whether these various forms of beings, which are not known in the real world, can be specifically classified as Spiritual Beasts or Monsters, is hard to tell.

Monster Transformation is a unique "feature" of Monsters in the real world.

Human form is indeed the most suitable form for cultivation.

But the reason why monsters transform into human form is fundamentally because human footprints are all over the world.

Monsters take human form not only to adapt to the environment, but also to assume the optimal survival shape through validation in the evolutionary history of species.

And in fact, not all Monsters in the real world choose to transform into human form after reaching the Third Realm.

Whether or not to assume human form has no impact on the survival of Monsters who live far from the tumultuous world, it only loses a bit of efficiency in Cultivation and cannot enjoy the various benefits that human society can provide.

Looking down at the earth, Li Jing was eager to act.

Health Bars everywhere.

To him, this Secret Realm was nothing short of heaven!

But reason told him that these were just symbols of being natural.

If not necessary, he should not wantonly commit killings.

Compared to the completely dead land of Secret Realm No. 107, this Big Secret Realm can be truly called a secret realm.

All things thrive, creating a vibrant world.

As foreigners, as thinking people, neither he nor anyone else should wantonly destroy it.

Li Jing himself is not a monster killer.

Just like how he treats those well-behaved monsters in the real world, these indigenous beings of the Secret Realm are merely living in their own worlds, he could not possibly disturb or slaughter them for his own benefit.

This is a principle.

And this is the rationality that should be possessed when being human.

He casually glanced at a few streaks of light flickering in the distant sky, then turned his eyes back from the suspicious foreign explorers nearby and looked back at the densely packed Heavenly King Group behind him. He waved his hand to summon the Linglong Tower.

Upon seeing this, everyone present, including Chen Yuran, Yulian, and Jiu Li, was taken aback.

Strictly speaking, among those present only Chen Yuran had seen the Linglong Tower.

But as the Linglong Tower was embroidered on the fleet flag of the Heavenly King Group, everyone present could recognize it.

They had no choice.

This tower was just too iconic.

Looking at the Linglong Tower, no one present could keep the color off their face.

It was also a Lifebound Magic Instrument.

It was also a Seventh-Level Spirit Instrument.

The might of the Linglong Tower far exceeded that of the Flying Sword Blue Edge.

Its transformation was also greater than that of the Flying Sword Blue Edge.

The Linglong Tower had not only transformed into a Spirit Instrument earlier than the Blue Edge Flying Sword, but it had also received its feeding from Li Jing.

Because of its "indiscriminate eating" habit, the last time Li Jing used the corpses of Master Zhang and Mister Long to exchange for spiritual materials for feeding, Linglong received almost twice the "snack" that Blue Edge did.

More than two hundred high quality spiritual materials were used, creating a large impact.

Now, the Linglong Tower not only had many more golden patterns on its body, but its powerful aura also carried a strong ambiance of slaughter.

Among the five attributes of Instruments, the gold property of the Linglong Tower naturally stood for killing.

However, due to the nature of Linglong Tower being a stable type among Tower-type Lingqi, the inherent killing nature of the gold attribute was inwardly restrained to a certain extent, only to be overshadowed by the unique traits of the Tower type Lingqi.

But now, things were completely different.

Under Li Jing’s generous feeding, the attribute strength of the Linglong Tower had skyrocketed.

Such that the inherent traits of tower-type artifacts could not conceal the solemn and deadly aura brought about by its golden attribute.

If the Linglong Tower was understated and restrained before, making it look like a powerful object.

The current Linglong Tower has truly transformed into a weapon!

A weapon that seemed to fear others would not know of its destructive power...

In the face of the solemn and deadly aura released by the Linglong Tower, everyone present, including Chen Yuran, Yulian, and Jiu Li, felt their scalps numb.

This tower was terrifying beyond average.

In the crowd, Chen Yuran was stunned.

The Linglong Tower was a gift from her father to Li Jing.

When was it cultivated to this state?

Not to mention reaching the seventh level of a spirit weapon, its power had reached such a level...

How much resources did he invest in feeding it?

Yulian and Jiu Li looked at the Linglong Tower in Li Jing’s hand, feeling all sorts of relief.

Damn!

Lucky that they chose to befriend Li Jing when they first met him, otherwise...

No wonder Li Jing, with his Fifth Boundary cultivation, was able to kill Six Realm...

With such a terrifying weapon in hand, and the very sharp Flying Sword Blue Edge.

For a Great Demon who relied on physical strength, even if it was higher by one realm, it could not make any waves in front of him.

With these two treasures in hand, what’s a higher realm?

Understanding how to perform magic skills and borrowing power from external things was the advantage of human cultivation.

When the external object becomes powerful to a certain extent, the difference in the realm could easily be filled, and even be overcome.

The most terrifying aspect of human cultivators was just this.

Both had no doubt that the Linglong Tower, which was suspended in Li Jing’s hand at this moment, could smash a Six Realm Great Demon to death.

Yulian and Jiu Li did not know that Linglong Tower and Flying Sword Blue Edge had only recently transformed to this extent, which was largely due to the death of Mister Zhang and Mister Long in succession, but the direction was basically correct.

Ignoring the three women, all the members of the Heavenly King Group and the Research Institute were a bit stunned at Li Jing at the moment.

Li Jing was highly valued by Jiang Yini, so he was appointed as an acting counselor instead of being in charge of anything, and he was allowed to lead the team to participate in the initial exploration of the Big Secret Realm on behalf of the Jianghai Management Bureau; there was no doubt about his ability and strength.

For this exploration, he even invited a pair of Six Realm Great Demons to "help".

No one present was foolish enough to not see through this.

Li Jing’s control of the sword shadow of over three hundred meters above the Daohe Fleet has fully illustrated this point.

Just that no one on the scene had a close experience with the might of the Flying Sword Blue Edge, they could only peek at the terrible sword shadow, without any practical concept.

Seeing Li Jing take out the Linglong Tower, everyone finally became aware.

The strongest leg in this journey was not Yulian and Jiu Li, who were invited to assist in the exploration, but their seemingly unreliable leader himself!

For a time, all the members of the Heavenly King Group had a look of astonishment when they looked at Li Jing.

What is the cultivation level of our leader?

Just this one tower, it seems to be many times more powerful than the head and deputy head.

Being able to carry such a high-level spirit weapon in his hand, and controlling a sword shadow more than three hundred meters long, his own cultivation level is probably not weaker than the head level!

Li Jing, under everyone’s gaze, waved his hand and threw the Linglong Tower out.

With a move of his mind, the Linglong Tower soon expanded into a golden tower thousand feet tall.

Then, he raised his hand to press the communication earpiece.

"All members, follow orders, enter the tower and set up camp."

At this command, everyone present was stunned for a moment.

Enter the tower and set up camp?

Everyone looked at the Linglong Tower suspended in mid-air, estimated to be at least two to three thousand meters high, all present were stunned momentarily, subsequently collectively casting their awed eyes towards Li Jing.

To set up camp, is for what?

A safe environment, a place to settle down.

In this completely unfamiliar Big Secret Realm, where can be truly safe, where can people rest at ease?

However, Li Jing’s move perfectly solved this problem.

With a tower-type high-grade spirit weapon that has a property strength that breaks through the sky as shelter, what could be safer than that?

With the protection of the Linglong Tower, they wouldn’t even need to allocate personnel for vigilance!

As a spirit weapon, under Li Jing’s control, it was even more capable of vanishing speedily, and even crushing anything, among other characteristics.

Not only the Heavenly King Group and those from the Research Institute, but also Chen Yuran, Yulian, and Jiu Li were shocked.

This move by Li Jing, was not ordinarily smooth.

To take out a spirit weapon and use it as a place for the exploration team to rest.

It could provide a safe environment, and also move quickly and even have offensive capabilities.

This...

It was simply impeccable!

Li Jing looked at everyone who was stunned and hadn’t moved, all staring at him with admiration on their faces, and he had no choice but to speak out.

"Don’t just stand there, hurry up and enter the tower, we will start exploring immediately, looking for suitable places for preliminary exploration. We risked coming in early, not to waste time near the entrance."

Everyone regained their senses at his words, and immediately began to take action to fly into the Linglong Tower in batches.

The leader was right!

Staying here amazed and surprised was purely a waste of time.

Enter the tower quickly, settle down soon and start the exploration early.

With such a spirit weapon pagoda as a high mobility air fortress, with guaranteed safety, they need to strive for more gains, otherwise, wouldn’t Counselor Li’s efforts be in vain?

Seeing the Heavenly King Group members start to take action, Li Jing turned his head to look at Chen Yuran by his side.

"The Linglong Tower can accommodate ten thousand people with no problem, the space inside is ample enough. However, there are only nine floors in the tower, Yuran you arrange it, the Heavenly King Group members will be on the fourth floor of the tower, the Research Institute members will be on the top two floors, and the bottom three floors of the tower will be reserved for placing various harvests that are not suitable for storage in the storage space."

Upon hearing this, Chen Yuran nodded, pressed her communication earpiece to give the instructions, while following the crowd into the Linglong Tower.

Having promised Li Jing that she would take on the role of operational command in advance, she had to take on all kinds of arrangements.

With Chen Yuran entering the tower to help with the arrangements, Li Jing looked at Yulian and Jiu Li who stayed beside him and said,

"Xiaoyu, you stay with me for now. Our actions outside the tower will facilitate your sensing of the surroundings. Brother Jiu, you go find Tong Gaojie and ask him to get someone to set up a tent for you at the base of the tower. Once that’s done, you can start drawing inside."

Upon hearing this, Yulian obediently nodded in agreement.

Jiu Li, however, was not pleased.

She had just entered the Secret Realm and was already being asked to set up a tent and start drawing drafts?

Just as she was about to express her discontent, Li Jing said,

"Brother Jiu, you’ll have to finish your drafts sooner or later. Since we’ve just entered the Secret Realm and nothing will happen for now, you’d better draw fast to save time for your cooperation with Xiaoyu. Once your work is done, you can do whatever you want, and no one will stop you."

Hearing this, Jiu Li simmered down, albeit reluctantly, and stepped into the Linglong Tower, her mouth puckered in discontent.

She had no choice.

Even though she had the idea of "retiring" and letting go of herself, she still had to complete the work that needed to be done, otherwise, Yulian wouldn’t let her off.

Yulian watched as Jiu Li obediently headed into the tower after a few words from Li Jing. Turning back to look at the latter, she said,

"Your strategy is quite peculiar, using a spiritual weapon as a shelter. I’m afraid the Hua Country Administration Bureau has never thought of doing this. Even if they did, they probably wouldn’t be able to produce a spiritual weapon pagoda like yours."

Li Jing smiled upon hearing this.

Whether the Management Bureau had ever thought of doing this or whether anyone had a tower-like spiritual weapon like him, he wasn’t sure.

However, he was sure about one thing.

The Management Bureau, those above the Fifth Boundary, would not easily act as vanguards to explore the Secret Realm.

Being cautious in the face of an unknown Secret Realm is never wrong.

However, at the same time, this caution could also limit the exploration mission.

Of course.

This was just from his personal perspective.

From the point of view of a large collective, there is no problem with the Management Bureau’s approach.

As a country with abundant resources and a large territory, Hua Country has quite a few people who have surpassed the Fifth Boundary. However, the number of surpassers who are willing to serve Hua Country and can shoulder heavy responsibilities are limited and most of them hold positions at the director and deputy director level.

These types of personnel are invaluable. One lost is one too many.

If they were sacrificed, the corresponding Management Bureau would be like a dragon without a head, with no control on a large scale.

Such losses are hard to replenish.

Without engaging Yulian in this meaningless topic, Li Jing said,

"Let’s go. First, we’ll look around for a suitable exploration site. Later, we’ll have people from the Research Institute survey the geology and water quality of the Secret Realm. These are compulsory procedures in the initial stages of exploration."

With that, he conjured a large Spirit Soldier Flying Sword with a wave of his hand and gently pulled Yulian onto it. They then began to hover in the air and slowly move forward.

Without needing his instruction, the Linglong Tower turned transparent and followed behind them.

The Heavenly King Group and members of the Research Institute, who had already started setting up camp within the tower, observed this spectacle and found that the tower had the ability to turn transparent, making them even more efficient in their task, while allowing them to observe the environment of the Secret Realm through the tower.

Chen Yuran was in control of the entire situation from the middle of the Linglong Tower, and upon seeing the tower turn transparent, he couldn’t help but admire.

Li Jing’s way of handling things was truly beyond his imagination.

It was unthinkable that he could come up with such an approach!

While he was admiring this, a childish voice rang out beside him.

"Um, Master asked me to see if there is anything I can help you with."

?

Chen Yuran paused and looked around.

Unbeknownst to him, Linglong, a jade-like figure, had appeared by his side.

Seeing Linglong, a figure draped with the word "punishment", Chen Yuran was slightly taken aback.

Her spiritual weapon, Qiushui, informed her that the person in front of her was a Spirit Weapon.

But looking at Linglong, she felt something was different.

With Li Jing, there are countless anomalies, so Chen Yuran gave up on thinking and just picked up the obedient and pleasing Linglong and hugged her in her arms.

?

Linglong.

...

With Li Jing taking the lead, the Heavenly King Group and the members of the Research Institute collectively entered the Linglong Tower, and the exploration team immediately started their mission.

This scene was witnessed by almost all of the initial explorers from different camps in the Secret Realm.

A large pagoda that was a thousand feet high suddenly appeared at the entrance of the Secret Realm - anyone who wasn’t blind could see it.

Moreover, the nearly fourteen thousand members of the Heavenly King Group who entered the Secret Realm created a grand scene which garnered the attention of the twenty-four city Management Bureau from the same Hua Country camp as well as initial explorers from other countries.

Seeing the Heavenly King Group release a pagoda and enter it one after the other before leaving, all the initial explorers were left with a question mark on their faces.

An entire exploration team entered the Secret Realm not long after it opened.

This was their first time seeing such a thing.

Watching the exploration team setting up an "air fortress", getting personnel in place, and immediately embarking on exploration mission absolutely refreshed their understanding.

Although they were far away and couldn’t feel the power of the Linglong Tower.

But a thousand-feet high pagoda that could fly, no matter how you looked at it, seemed like a spiritual weapon of decent quality...

This is insane...

Who knew you could play like this when exploring a Secret Realm?

After a moment of stagnation, all the initial explorers in the Secret Realm quickly dispersed.

Originally, they had to carefully confirm the threat level around the entrance of the Secret Realm.

As initial explorers, this was their duty and responsibility.

But now, they didn’t have time to care about that anymore!

Although the exploration teams sent by the various factions to explore the Secret Realm were all relying on their own capabilities, the initial stages were very "fair".

The Secret Realm had just opened, and many things couldn’t be rushed.

Everyone was proceeding with the set order.

After the initial probe, everyone entered to regroup and plan exploration activities.

To some extent, everyone was starting from the same point.

But the Heavenly King Group wasn’t playing by the rules; they all stormed into the Secret Realm at once and even started hacking!

Wouldn’t all the early exploration benefits fall into the hands of the Heavenly King Group if they continued dilly-dallying?

Impossible!

They had to call in their teams or else they might not even get a sip of the soup later!

...

Li Jing had no idea that his own actions would result in all the exploration teams entering the Secret Realm ahead of schedule.

Of course.

Even if he knew, he wouldn’t care.

He came to the Big Secret Realm not to compete with the other exploration teams, but to level up and gain benefits.

As for the rest, he couldn’t be bothered to deal with it.

Driving the Spirit Weapon around the Secret Realm’s entrance, Li Jing rubbed his Heavenly Eye, which was veiled in a slight discomfort.

Truth be told, the Heavenly Eye Technique wasn’t very useful in this Big Secret Realm.

The atmosphere here was too good.

Overflowing spiritual energy was everywhere, and the ground was densely packed with spiritual Qi conglomerates. Even trees, flowers, and grass were entirely composed of spiritual energy.

Trees, flowers, and grass composed entirely of spiritual energy could not be ordinary.

But if they were everywhere, it wasn’t worth it for him to stay put, was it?

In an environment full of spiritual energy, the Heavenly Eye Technique couldn’t play a big role. At most, he could only discern where the spiritual energy was more abundant and head toward these positions, in the hope of discovering something special.

Under the observation of the Heavenly Eye Technique, the only thing he learned was that all living beings in the Secret Realm, which were filled with Qi, could be classified as Spiritual Beasts.

The multitude of Spiritual Beasts spread throughout the terrain put him in a tough spot.

Living in nature, Spiritual Beasts couldn’t be said to be friendly with humans.

However, the fact that Spiritual Beasts could communicate with nature wouldn’t change.

Under normal circumstances, unless it was for survival, Spiritual Beasts would not attack other beings, including humans.

Exhaling a breath of annoyance, Li Jing dispelled his Heavenly Eye Technique and turned his gaze to Yulian.

"Xiaoyu, have you found anything here?"

"Not yet."

Yulian shook her head helplessly.

"The environment of this secret realm is remarkably good, with every bird and beast being rare Spiritual Beasts in the present world. There doesn’t seem to be any dangerous existence."

As she said this, a somewhat odd expression crossed her face.

"There are Spiritual Beasts everywhere here, don’t you plan to catch one or two?"

"Bringing them back would only mean I have to take care of them, wouldn’t it be too troublesome?"

Li Jing made a face.

"Moreover, these Spiritual Beasts are all native species of the Secret Realm. Bringing them back to the present world, they might not be able to adapt to the current environment. It’s hard to ensure they wouldn’t die prematurely or hurt people due to environmental factors. There’s no need to disturb them."

Yulian nodded lightly in agreement with his words.

"You are indeed quite open-minded in this regard, but it’s a pity that there are numerous exploration teams from all parties bound to disturb them."

"I can’t do anything about that."

Li Jing shrugged.

"I can only control the Heavenly King Group, not the other teams."

Upon hearing this, Yulian blinked her beautiful eyes and said.

"I was only sighing, I didn’t mean anything by it."

"I know, you don’t have to explain."

Li Jing smiled.

As a monster, Yulian wasn’t exactly kind-hearted; she just refrained from doing evil.

Speaking of which, it was indeed a pity about this place.

With human involvement, the beauty of this place would inevitably be destroyed.

In this matter, it could be said that different people held different views.

All the exploration teams came for survival, seeking better resources.

Not letting the conversation linger, Li Jing looked at the prairie in the east where a big river flowed and said.

"We’ve pretty much made a circle around the entrance to the Secret Realm and haven’t found much of meaningful value. Let’s head to that prairie in the east first and have the Research Institute survey it."

As he spoke, he manipulated the Spirit Soldier to change direction and head towards the grasslands.

Not long after adjusting the direction and moving forward, Yulian suddenly reached out and stopped him.

"Wait!"

?

Li Jing turned his head.

"The spiritual Qi in that valley over there is very hot, it seems to be all fire-attributed spiritual Qi."

As Yulian spoke, she pointed to a nearby valley in the northeast.

Hearing this, Li Jing raised his eyebrows.

Natural spiritual Qi from heaven and earth was highly malleable.

However, usually, the spiritual Qi from heaven and earth wouldn’t carry any unique attributes.

Spiritual Qi with an attribute usually assembled due to seasonal changes or influence from some factors.

Without thinking much about it, Li Jing had the Linglong Tower pause for a moment, and he led Yulian in the Spirit Warrior towards the nearby valley.