Chapter 248 - 247: Silver Light in the Night, Realm within a Realm

Due to Yulian wanting to have snake soup, Li Jing spent over an hour preparing this late-night meal.

To avoid mishaps, he switched between two spirit houses along the way.

When he told Yulian that a spirit house might explode, it wasn’t a joke.

In this aspect, even Li Jing himself couldn’t control it.

It must be said that Yulian was very thoughtful.

The snake meat she had prepared in advance for Li Jing was large enough for her and Jiu Li to have a meal.

After preparing the snake soup for Yulian and Jiu Li, Li Jing cooked a meal with four dishes and a soup to reward himself and Chen Yuran.

By the time the meal was ready, it was already midnight without them realizing.

The Linglong Tower, carrying the Heavenly King Group’s team, trailed behind the spirit house controlled by Li Jing, moving at a slow speed for a considerable distance to the east.

At this point, the Heavenly King Group had completely left the entrance of the Secret Realm, with no concerns for their rear.

In the Secret Realm, everyone was cautious with every step they took.

The Heavenly King Group dared to venture deeper only because they had the protection of Linglong Tower and the duo of Li Jing and Yulian, and Jiu Li.

If they were the exploration team of other forces, they wouldn’t dare to venture deeply.

On one hand, it’s too dangerous. On the other hand, the return journey is a big issue.

At the current location of the Heavenly King Group, if there’s no Linglong Tower, it would take at least six hours for the main force to return at full speed.

During such a lengthy journey, there existed numerous uncertain factors.

A single mishap could lead to many deaths.

Li Jing’s choice to go deeper into the Secret Realm from the start was because he was able to transport everyone conveniently, as the Linglong Tower could expand and shrink.

In terms of velocity, the Linglong Tower couldn’t compare to the Flying Sword Blue Edge, which had awakened its wind attribute, but after all, it was a seventh-level spirit instrument.

Furthermore, it was backed by the Grand Perfection World Stabilizing Mantra.

If Li Jing personally controlled it, the flying tower could surpass any Fifth Boundary who made an all-out effort.

Ignoring all these irrelevant things.

Seeing that they had been heading eastward for over an hour without any discoveries, Li Jing further slowed down the speed of their flight after changing to a new spirit house and summoned Chen Yuran and Jiu Li for a meal.

Soon, the two women came out from the Linglong Tower.

Upon seeing that there was snake soup, Jiu Li happily squeezed next to Yulian.

Thinking it was just an ordinary late-night snack, she hadn’t expected to get some meat from a Six Realm monster to eat. Wouldn’t she have to be nicer to Yulian?

If there was meat from a Six Realm monster to eat every day, even if Yulian pressed her head against the drawing board to urge her to work, she would still be willing.

Seeing the two fox demons huddled together, Li Jing felt both amused and exasperated as he too started eating.

Both of these fox demons held great appeal.

Especially Yulian, who naturally emitted a charm.

Sitting there eating bits at a time was a feast for the eyes.

As for Chen Yuran, she could be completely disregarded at the dining table.

Chen Yuran, who always looked plain, didn’t compete with Yulian and Jiu Li. Once she started eating, all she cared about was that.

Civilized?

Restrained?

Nonexistent.

There were three droplets of water next to the character for Uncle, and it had nothing to do with Chen Yuran.

In fact, it was already a struggle for her not to gobble down her food, and it was routine for her to stuff her cheeks like a hamster...

...

Without surprise, Chen Yuran, as the only one there who hadn’t forsaken food and drinks, was the first to fill her stomach.

After having eaten and drunk to her satisfaction, Chen Yuran rubbed her belly contentedly, looking up at Li Jing.

"We’ve been heading east for almost two hours. Haven’t we found anything on the way?"

In response to her question, Li Jing shrugged.

"Nothing for now. We’ll just continue moving. Small Secret Realms can be called endlessly vast, let alone Big Secret Realms. To avoid missing anything, we haven’t been moving very fast, so we haven’t really gone far."

In the midst of saying this, he took a couple of bites of his rice and put down his chopsticks to continue.

"There haven’t been any big lakes or rivers along the way. Once we see one, we’ll stop for a rest and continue when it gets light. That would also be a good time to wash the used bowls and chopsticks."

Seeing someone’s arrangement for a temporary rest, Chen Yuran nodded silently.

For the Heavenly King Group, rest wasn’t truly necessary.

After all, aside from digging up Fire Essence in the valley, the personnel were always stationed inside the Linglong Tower.

With the shelter of the Linglong Tower, they didn’t have to worry about safety, and didn’t even have to control their own flight. They only needed to spare a portion of their members to help watch the areas the Linglong Tower passed through.

From their spirits to their condition, every member of the Heavenly King Group was in great shape.

However, in the tranquil depths of the night, it wasn’t right for the Linglong Tower to just keep drifting eastward.

The night of the Big Secret Realm was deep and lonely.

There must have been some discoveries on the way the Linglong Tower passed, and Yulian and Jiu Li, the two Six Realm monsters, would definitely notice.

But the sensing distance of the two was limited after all.

Things lurking in the distant night couldn’t be detected by the two.

The flight speed deliberately slowed down by Li Jing couldn’t make up for the fatal flaw of limited visibility in the night.

In the exploration of the unknown Big Secret Realm, they couldn’t just pin their hopes on Yulian and Jiu Li. The eyes of the Heavenly King Group were also crucial.

Exhaling lightly, Chen Yuran stood up.

Just as she was about to say that she was going back to the tower to cultivate for a while, a flash of bright silver light caught her eye before quickly disappearing.

Seeing the fleeting silver light, Chen Yuran was slightly stunned before blurting out decisively.

"Li Jing, stop!"

?

Li Jing looked up, instinctively stopping the spirit house.

The Linglong Tower behind, following suit, came to a halt.

Seeing that Chen Yuran was frowning at a distant point in the southeast, Li Jing stood up and looked over to find that nothing was there, and asked with confusion.

"What’s wrong?"

Yulian and Jiu Li who had been busily enjoying the snake soup also put down their chopsticks because of Chen Yuran’s voice, casting questioning glances over.

"Over there, a flash of silver light just passed by."

Chen Yuran said, indicating the exact direction where she had spotted the moonlight.

"Perhaps something reflected the moonlight, and we just happened to be in the position to receive the reflection."

Hearing this, Li Jing and the others exchanged looks.

Looking at the direction Chen Yuran was pointing at, Li Jing turned back to her.

"Let’s go take a look. Yulian, Jiu Li, you two try to finish what’s left. We might have something to do soon."

Upon hearing this, the two women nodded respectively and picked up their bowls and chopsticks to eat faster.

Meanwhile, Li Jing was decisive. He controlled the spirit house to go towards the southeast direction indicated by Chen Yuran.

He, Yulian, and Jiu Li had all overlooked the reflection of the moonlight.

However, since Chen Yuran had seen it, it must be true.

At the very least, Chen Yuran was a Fourth Realm cultivator.

In the deep darkness of the night, the likelihood of her seeing it wrong was quite low.

The location she was pointing at must really have something that reflected the moonlight at a certain angle.

In the outside world, this situation might not be worth noting.

But in the Big Secret Realm, it was not something that could be overlooked.

Driving the Spirit Soldier, Li Jing asked.

"Yuran, how far do you think the silver light is?"

"I can’t be sure about that."

Chen Yuran shook her head and said.

"I only saw it for a moment, not sure how far exactly, but it’s definitely not close. You’re heading in the right direction, and you can probably speed up a little."

"Understood."

Responded Li Jing. With a slight movement of thought, he pushed the speed of the Spirit Soldier to its limit.

...

With the support of Li Jing’s powerful cultivation, the top speed of his Spirit Soldier Break was roughly equivalent to a Fifth Boundary driver controlling a third-level Spirit Soldier, astonishingly fast.

However, nearly two minutes passed, and nothing appeared in front of them.

At this point, not only were Li Jing and others a bit doubtful, but Chen Yuran herself was also losing confidence.

Li Jing believed that she wouldn’t be mistaken, and she also didn’t believe that she could possibly be mistaken.

But these two minutes had been equivalent to several hours of their journey eastward after leaving the valley.

Nothing of significance had appeared in front of them. Had she really been mistaken?

While pondering this, a hurried voice from a fellow academic from the Research Institute suddenly sounded in both Li Jing’s and Chen Yuran’s communicators.

"Counselor Li! Commander Chen! Stop! Don’t go any further!"

?

Li Jing frowned and brought the Spirit Soldier to a halt midair; following behind, the Linglong Tower also stopped.

Chen Yuran meanwhile pressed her communicator.

"Academician Shen, what’s wrong? Did the Research Institute discover anything?"

While speaking, she softly told Li Jing.

"This is Shen Zhiwen, a space expert from the Jianghai Science and Research Institute."

A space expert?

Li Jing was momentarily stunned.

Before he had time to react, Shen Zhiwen let out a sigh of relief over the communicator and quickly said.

"The Space Fluctuation Detector has sounded an alarm. There’s an extremely unstable space in front of us that we were about to crash directly into. Counselor Li, your speed was too fast. It’s a good thing you stopped in time; another ten seconds or so and we would have collided with it."

Upon hearing this, both Li Jing and Chen Yuran furrowed their brows.

Extremely unstable space?

After exchanging looks, Li Jing pressed his communicator to reply.

"Academician Shen, I will slow down and continue moving forward until you warn me to stop."

"Okay, I’ll keep an eye out."

Shen Zhiwen responded and cautioned.

"Counselor Li, please be cautious. The space fluctuation waveband detected by the detector is very similar to that of the Secret Realm Passage, which may lead to another Secret Realm. Judging from the fluctuation, the passage has just appeared and is in an unstable stage. If we recklessly crash into it, we may not be able to return."

Li Jing looked strange when he heard this and said.

"We’re already in the Big Secret Realm, and there’s still a passage to another Secret Realm?"

"There are precedents for multiple layered Secret Realms in history, but the technical means at that time were not enough to detect space fluctuations."

Shen Zhiwen responded and said.

"The explanation for this is quite complicated, Counselor Li. You can understand it this way. All Secret Realm spaces, including our real world, are independent anchor points in a larger framework, creating a parallel universe. Just like how the Blue Star is constantly rotating and moving, the Secret Realm spaces within the parallel universe are also moving. When these anchor points intersect and collide at the space level, spatial passages linking each other appear. Theoretically, these spatial passages can appear anywhere. It could be in the real world on Blue Star, within different Secret Realms, or even in the vast space of our real world."

With that, he continued.

"Of course, the presence of other spatial passages in the Secret Realm does not necessarily mean they lead to another Secret Realm. It could also lead to a space that has been independently developed. If we encounter such situations, it would mean we’ve hit the jackpot. Such circumstances have occurred less than ten times in global history. Each encounter involved top-level dwellings from lost civilizations in the Secret Realm, containing boundless resources and opportunities. There’s also the possibility that we might encounter spatial turbulence. We have to wait until we’ve further analyzed the spatial fluctuations to draw any conclusions."

Shen Zhiwen’s lecture was grounded and easy to understand.

Li Jing, who was not proficient in theories and academics, was able to grasp the gist of his explanation.

As a huge fan of various fantasy novels before he travelled through the dimensions, the term "cave dwelling" particularly resonated with him.

He was quite excited about this!

"Understood", Li Jing commanded the Spirit Soldier onwards in response.

After hearing Shen Zhiwen’s explanation from the communication channel, Chen Yuran was surprised. She explained the situation to Yulian and Jiu Li, who were also clueless on the other end of the communication link.

The ladies were astonished when they learned about the situation.

To avoid disrupting Li Jing, who was trying to navigate towards the unstable spatial passage, they declined to discuss further and focused on their tasks.

Li Jing was also extremely cautious.

This was not a matter to joke about.

Even the slightest mistake could not only ruin him and his team, but also the whole Heavenly King Group...

Moving at a slow pace, Shen Zhiwen’s voice sounded in the communication earpiece after about two to three minutes.

"Counselor Lee, we’ve arrived."

"Okay."

Li Jing halted at his command.

Just as he was about to land, a faint silver light flashed in the sky not far ahead, distorted, then disappeared.

This time, not only did Chen Yuran see it, but Li Jing, Yulian, Jiu Li, and the members of the Heavenly King Group within the Linglong Tower who were paying attention to the outside world also saw it.

With this development, Li Jing and the others quickly understood.

The reflection that Chen Yuran saw earlier was actually the sporadic silver brilliance of the spatial distortion.

When she noticed it, the silver light must have been extremely dazzling.

If it were as bright as it was just now, even a thousand-mile eye might not have noticed it from such a far distance.

Having landed and disassembled the spirit weapon with the three girls, Li Jing let the Linglong Tower also touch down and then pressed his communication earpiece.

"All members of the Heavenly King Group, do not act recklessly. Especially those from the Research Institute, you should conduct the detection of spatial fluctuations within the tower for now. Until we are sure it’s safe, no one is allowed to leave the Linglong Tower."

After this deep journey into the Secret Realm, and having encountered the Daohe fleet and the White Hawk Exploration Team successively, Li Jing’s commands carried a great deal of weight.

Even those from the Research Institute, who would sometimes offer dissenting opinions, now carried out his orders without question.

No one in the Linglong Tower made any sudden movements after it landed.

After giving the orders, Li Jing turned to Chen Yuran.

"Yuran, you go into the tower and make arrangements for the personnel. We passed by a lake earlier, so we’ll need to send two elite teams to protect the water quality and geological experts while they take samples for testing and gather some data about the environment in the Secret Realm. The detection of spatial fluctuations will take quite some time, and if it’s a spatial passage, we’ll have to wait for it to stabilize, so we will be staying here for quite a while."

"Okay."

Chen Yuran agreed and flew back to the tower.

Seeing this, Li Jing turned his gaze to Yulian and Jiu Li.

"Xiaoyu, Brother Jiu, you two go with me in different directions to ensure the safety of the surroundings. Focus mainly on the rear and both sides. Don’t worry about the front and avoid any possible accidents."

Hearing this, the two women nodded and flew off in different directions.

Seeing the two of them picking left and right, Li Jing activated his Sky Eye Technique, and then flew back towards the lake they had seen earlier.

Everything else was manageable.

But the safety of the "bigwigs" from the Research Institute had to be assured.

Any losses would not spell disaster for his exploration team in the Secret Realm, but would definitely lead to restrictions.

...