CH 24

The spiritual swords shuttled between the sky and the earth, skimming over the floating clouds. Within a short while, they landed not far from the entrance of the Yunxi Secret Realm.

At this moment, there were only a few scattered cultivators at the entrance of the secret realm. Except for Tianxuan Sect, the other four Great Immortal Sects were still on their way.

Chu Qi came down from Long Yin and overheard the other cultivators discussing the Great Immortal Sects. He couldn’t help but wonder, “Liu-shixiong, if there are five Great Immortal Sects in Yunhua Realm, why are they only mentioning four?”

“The Buddhists in the Bodhi Sect have never gotten involved in these secret realms. Their cultivation is a bit different from ours. They cultivate their minds and bodies, but rarely take opportunities that involve killing or plundering. It is said that their Bodhi Sect has a reincarnation mirror that gathers all kinds of worldly states. Buddhist cultivation starts from there and attempts to save all living beings from suffering and cultivate an exquisite Buddha heart.”

Liu Weiming answered him.

“So that’s how it is.” Chu Qi was stunned.

It’s no wonder that he only saw the Bodhi Sect once in his previous life when he went through the immortal sect selection. He had never seen members of the Bodhi Sect in any of the secret realms or even just walking around Yunhua Realm.

While chatting, everyone in Tianxuan Sect put away their spiritual swords and walked towards the entrance of the Yunxi Secret Realm.

There were only twenty-one of them in their group and since they came by flying on their swords without all the pomp and circumstance that a Great Immortal Sect should have, they seemed a bit unimpressive.

“Which sect are you cultivators from? Do you want to form an alliance with us? We have three medical cultivators and two artistic cultivators here.”

As the people of Tianxuan Sect approached, several cultivators came towards them and extended an offer of alliance.

Even if the cultivators below the Golden Core stage couldn’t see the sect emblems on them, they could roughly tell from their appearance that this group of people were all sword cultivators.

Sword cultivators are good, sword cultivators are good. Sword cultivators can fight and defend and need to be healed less.

Rogue cultivators or cultivators from smaller sects especially liked to form alliances with sword cultivators when they went out to gain experience. Now that they saw so many promising sword cultivators, they naturally wanted to come up and ask.

Liu Weiming happened to be standing near the cultivator who came up to ask about the alliance, so he politely refused, “Sorry, we don’t want to form alliances with any foreign sects.”

“Ah? But you don’t seem to have any medical cultivators…”

All of them wore a spiritual sword around their waists and their aura was a bit sharp. No matter how you looked at them, they were obviously sword cultivators.

“We brought our own spiritual medicine.”

After Liu Weiming’s words fell, the eyes of the surrounding medical cultivators widened, as if they heard some incredible words.

—Can spiritual medicine be better than medical techniques?!

—

Just when the atmosphere seemed to freeze, there was a large fluctuation of spiritual power in the air. When they looked up, they saw three large flying spiritual tools heading in this direction.

Even though the flying spiritual tool hadn’t landed yet, the aura that rushed towards them, as well as the high-grade light emitted by the spiritual tool, all revealed the identities of those on board.

“Ah, the people from the Five Great Immortal Sects are here!”

“The sect emblem on the side should be the Qingling Sect’s. I wonder if they’ll be willing to form an alliance with us rogue cultivators this time…”

“The cultivators of Qingling Sect are well-balanced, and Yushou Sect is full of beast masters. Some spiritual pets can fight, defend, or even heal. If you ask for my opinion, Fuyao Palace and Tianxuan Sect may have some…”

“But no one from Tianxuan Sect came…”

“…”

All of the Tianxuan Sect disciples were listening to the gossip about their own sect, and they were left speechless for a while.

Although the flying spiritual tool was more appropriate for their status, its speed was too slow, and it consumed a lot of spiritual stones.

For such uneconomical things, their Tianxuan Sect’s flying spiritual tool wouldn’t be used unless it was absolutely necessary.

Taking advantage of this gap, Tianxuan Sect and some other cultivators moved closer to the entrance of the Yunxi Secret Realm, waiting for the teleportation array to open.

Generally, when secret realms opened in Yunhua Realm, during the first three months or so, there would be fluctuations in the aura near the entrance. The specific location would be determined when the ray of light fell from the Heavens. When that light entered the secret realm, it took some time for the spatial fluctuations to stabilize before the secret realm teleportation array was opened to the outside world.

It usually took about half an hour for the teleportation array to open.

Amidst the lively discussions among casula cultivators, the other three Great Immortal Sects stepped down from their flying spiritual tools one after another.

First came Qingling Sect, then Yushou Sect, and finally Fuyao Palace.

Ling Wu brought many disciples from the Qingling Sect in from the outside. Once the other cultivators saw that they were members of a Great Immortal Sect, they consciously moved to the side.

The cultivation world respected the strong. The overall strength of the cultivators in the Great Immortal Sects was much higher than them, so naturally they would avoid conflict if they could.

“Ling-shixiong, those fellow cultivators from Tianxuan Sect left later than us, but they arrived earlier!”

From the group of Qingling Sect cultivators, there was a surprised voice.

Chu Qi didn’t even need to look. He could tell that the person who had just spoken was Luo Xin, the xiao-shidi of the Qingling Sect.

Thanks to Luo Xin, the people that had been standing in line near Tianxuan Sect in peace all retreated tens of chi, like they were avoiding the plague.

The rogue cultivators gathered in a circle and all of them stared wide-eyes at the twenty-one sword cultivators in the middle.

Tianxuan Sect cultivators?!

Right beside them? Lined up with them for almost a quarter of an hour?

Did they talk about them to their faces?

Just thinking of these points, the rogue cultivators felt suffocated.

“Wow, what’s the matter with them? Why did they suddenly step back so far?” Luo Xin looked at the behavior of the rogue cultivators around him with a puzzled look on his face.

“Luo-shidi, it’s best if you talk less.” Ling Wu looked up and could roughly guess what was going through the rogue cultivator’s minds, but it wasn’t good for Luo Xin to point that out.

“But Ling-shixiong, I’ve only said five sentences today.” Luo Xin felt aggrieved and defended himself in a low voice.

Ling Wu: “…”

Indeed, counting the three sentences at Menghua Inn, plus the two just now, there were only five in total. Perhaps the problem wasn’t that Luo-shidi talks too much, but that the content of his words always seemed to hit people’s weak points.

“Since the fellow cultivators of Tianxuan Sect arrived first, we will line up later.” Ling Wu said quietly.

After hearing his words, the Qingling Sect disciples followed the lead of their head shixiong and went to line up one by one. They carried themselves with the restraint and weight of members of aristocratic families. Although they walked leisurely, they all looked elegant.

Before the members of the Qingling Sect had finished queuing up, the disciples of Yushou Sect had already rushed over.

This time, the eldest disciple of Yushou Sect was Yun Jiangmiao. He had the highest talent and his cultivation had just reached the Golden Core stage. His contracted spiritual pet was the most powerful among those in Yushou Sect, so it was decided that he would lead his fellow disciples in the secret realm.

“Fellow Cultivator Ling.” Yun Jiangmiao greeted Ling Wu before asking, “Is this experience going to be done in a first-come-first-served order to determine who will use the teleportation array first?”

According to the usual rules of Yunhua Realm, the cultivators that used the teleportation array first should be the most powerful.

“This… our two sects can discuss the order of using the teleportation array in turns.” Ling Wu considered it and gave such an answer.

“Remember why we…” Two sects?

Before Yun Jiangmiao could ask further, Ling Wu’s finger pointed ahead of them.

All of the Tianxuan Sect disciples were standing at the front, followed by the disciples of the Qingling Sect.

“…” No wonder.

Yun Jiangmiao set aside the doubts in his heart, took a deep breath, and said, “Okay, then we will discuss the order of transmission in turn.”

This time, the sword cultivators that came from Tianxuan Sect were all at the Golden Core stage. Even if they didn’t arrive first, the others would have to give way to them.

Both Qingling Sect and Yushou Sect tacitly agreed to maintain peace, and asked their disciples to line up in order.

This lasted until Fuyao Palace arrived belatedly.

The disciples of Fuyao Palace were very recognizable. Regardless of whether they were medical cultivators or artistic cultivators, they all wore light yellow robes. The robes of their medical cultivators were embroidered with delicate flowers, while the artistic cultivators’ were embroidered with black landscape imagery. At first glance, it looked like a picture scroll being unfurled, which was very beautiful.

Although they were good-looking, the strength of the Fuyao Palace disciples this time was a little lacking. There were only five Golden Core stage cultivators, while the rest were in the Foundation Building stage. There were even a few Qi Refining stage cultivators that were seemingly brough along for nothing.

You should know, during the Qi Refining period, cultivators were unable to enter the Yunxi Secret Realm.

Chu Qi glanced over there, but didn’t see any familiar faces. It seems like the shijie that was in charge of recruiting for Fuyao Palace at the top of the immortal mountain didn’t come this time.

“This time, Fuyao Palace sent disciples from their third branch. Their internal competition must have been too great, since neither the first branch nor the second branch came.” Liu Weiming sighed.

“En?” Chu Qi looked back at Liu Weiming, “Liu-shixiong, don’t the disciples of Fuyao Palace divide their branches according to cultivation methods like us?”

In Tianxuan Sect, the sword cultivator disciples belonged to one branch, while the medical cultivator disciples belonged to another.

“No. The number of people in Fuyao Palace is the largest among the Five Great Immortal Sects. Therefore, over the years, disciples from the first branch, second branch, and third branch have all been separated, and each branch will recruit disciples in turn. During the last selection at the immortal mountain, the first branch went. Over the next thirty years, that branch will have less resources than the rest, so this time they didn’t come to the Yunxi Secret Realm.”

“They aren’t distributed according to strength?” Everyone’s cultivation base was different, so was it really necessary to miss this once-in-a-hundred-years Yunxi Secret Realm.

“No. There are too many people in Fuyao Palace. If they don’t do this, they can’t afford it.”

“…”

Chu Qi still didn’t understand why the disciples’ opportunities were cut off and made unaffordable.

Yan Jiuge, who was standing beside Chu Qi, saw that he hadn’t understood yet, so he added, “Not all cultivators practice like sword cultivators. Do you remember how many medicinal fields you used on Zhongling Peak when you practiced alone?”

“…a lot.” Chu Qi suddenly got it.

“Although the qualifications of medical cultivators from the other sects aren’t as good as yours, they have a large number of them, so their resources are more scarce. Most of Fuyao Palace is made up of medical cultivators, and they can’t defend themselves well when they go out to gain experience. If they didn’t control the number of people, no matter how many came, it would be useless.”

“Fortunately we joined Tianxuan Sect at that time.” Chu Qi was inexplicably emotional.

If he had gone to Fuyao Palace to cultivate, he might have taken away resources from other medical cultivators. Although resources were generally reserved for the strong, if there was competition, there would inevitably be conflicts and he would have to encounter unsatisfactory things.

While the few of them were talking, several Fuyao Palace disciples approached Tianxuan Sect and the others.

The leader was Su Qiuzhi, the eldest disciple of Fuyao Palace in their group this time. There were two people following her, one female and one male medical cultivator, both of which were at the Foundation Building stage.

“Fellow Cultivator Liu of Tianxuan Sect, long time no see. For this excursion into the Yunxi Secret Realm, our two sects might as well form an alliance and enter together. In this way, we can also ensure mutual protection.”

Su Qiuzhi remembered this head disciples of Tianxuan Sect. They met by chance ten years ago during their training. At that time, Liu Weiming left a strong impression on her.

This Tianxuan Sect sword cultivator dared to go into a Grade Three Nether Spider cave alone, with only a few bottles of spiritual medicine.

“Our Tianxuan Sect won’t be forming an alliance with any foreign sects this time.” Liu Weiming shook his head.

“Why? Does Fellow Cultivator Liu not trust me? It would have been much easier if you went with me into that Grade Three Nether Spider cave last time.” Su Qiuzhi brought up this old matter again.

This made Liu Weiming very embarrassed. Ten years ago, he went down the mountain alone to gain experience, but now he was out with his fellow disciples. It was a little shameful for his past to be brought up in front of everyone so suddenly, and he had only met this Fellow Cultivator Su at that time.

“Fellow Cultivator Su, I’m not the head disciple of Tianxuan Sect now. If you have anything to say, why don’t you bring it up with our head shixiong?”

Liu Weiming stretched out his hand and pointed at Yan Jiuge, who was watching this play out with Chu Qi.

In full view of the crowd, the young man in black sword cultivator robes didn’t even lift his eyes, “You don’t need to come to me, our Tianxuan Sect doesn’t want to form an alliance.”

“Fellow Cultivator, all of your Tianxuan Sect disciples are sword cultivators, you don’t have any medical cultivators. Is it possible that you’ll be able to make it through the entire secret realm with only a few bottles of spiritual medicine?” There was a hint of disbelief in Su Qiuzhi’s tone.

“This is none of your concern. You don’t have to worry about us.” Yan Jiuge’s voice was light. It was obvious that he didn’t care.

“But—!”

“Da-shijie1, why don’t we ask the other Great Immortal Sects? Tianxuan Sect has always been unreasonable. The disciples of Qingling Sect and Yushou Sect are more friendly.”

Just as Su Qiuzhi was about to say something, the medical cultivator shidi behind her suddenly spoke.

It was only then that Chu Qi noticed this medical cultivator. He had a low-browed and smooth-eyed appearance. He didn’t look particularly ostentatious, and his face was even a little innocent.

But how could he say such words now?

It made Tianxuan Sect, who refused to form an alliance, look like they had done something wrong.

“…”

“Okay, let’s go. There is no need to help these sword cultivators when we meet them. They have their own spiritual medicine and look down on us.”

Hearing her shidi’s words, the hesitation in Su Qiuzhi’s eyes faded, and her words became a little sharper. With this kind of attitude, they would never be able to communicate with each other.

“…”

Witnessing this dispute, the Qingling Sect and Yushou Sect looked at each other with dismay. Their Great Immortal Sects were usually amiable and gave each other a lot of face. This was one of the reasons why they could select disciples together on the immortal mountain.

Now, in front of the Yunxi Secret Realm, Fuyao Palace had to quarrel with Tianxuan Sect.

“Fellow Cultivator Ling, Fellow Cultivator of Yushou Sect, how about an alliance between our three Great Immortal Sects?”

Su Qiuzhi turned around and walked towards Qingling Sect and Yushou Sect.

Ling Wu considered her words and said, “…Although we would be happy to, Fellow Cultivator Su, if our three sects form an alliance, the resources and treasures we collect along the way won’t be easy to distribute. There are too many people, so it will be difficult to manage.”

There were sixty people from Qingling Sect, fifty from Yushou Sect, and one hundred and twenty people from Fuyao Palace, not counting those at the Qi Refining stage.

If this alliance was formed, their excursion to the secret realm would be more like a spring outing. Such a large group sharing one or two treasures… it really wasn’t realistic.

“Our Yushou Sect thinks the same way.” Yun Jiangmiao took the chance to voice his opinion as well.

Hitting a wall in both directions, Su Qiuzhi’s face didn’t look too good. But what Ling Wu said was true. This was why she had focused on Tianxuan Sect at the beginning, since they had the least number of people. In this way, even if they split it 50-50, their Fuyao Palace wouldn’t lose out.

Now that their plan to form an alliance had failed, what would their Fuyao Palace do?

Su Qiuzhi didn’t know why, but she always felt like her thoughts were a bit fuzzy.

“Da-shijie, since they are unwilling to form an alliance, our Fuyao Palace shouldn’t get in the way.” The medical cultivator shidi from before tried to persuade her again.

“Ah, yes. Our Fuyao Palace can practice without anyone else’s help.” Su Qiuzhi followed his words in a daze.

“…”

There was silence all around, and everyone looked in their direction with strange eyes. Since they knew this earlier, why did Fuyao Palace go up seeking alliances with others in the first place? Why wait until they hit a wall to ‘realize’ this?

“I’m about to say something stupid again.” Luo Xin couldn’t help but speak.

“Shut up.” Ling Wu warned him with both his eyes and words.

“…”

After the failed alliance with Fuyao Palace, the teleportation array for the Yunxi Secret Realm was finally ready. The spatial barrier disappeared spontaneously, revealing the white teleportation circle inside.

“Let’s go in first.” Yan Jiuge said to the Tianxuan Sect disciples.

“But shixiong, the teleportation formation can only send up to twenty people at a time. There’s still twenty-one of us disciples.” When Liu Weiming stepped forward, he saw the boundary stone next to the teleportation formation. On it, it said that it could only transport twenty people at a time.

In this way, one of the disciples would be on their own.

When entering a secret realm, the teleportation points were all randomized. No one knew where they would be sent. They might end up in a cave of spiritual beasts, or next to some Heavenly treasures. More likely than not, it would be some ordinary place.

The Yunxi Secret Realm was not small. If they didn’t enter the teleportation array at the same time, it might take a long time for a single disciple to find the rest of the group.

The Tianxuan Sect disciples looked at Yan Jiuge inquiringly.

“How about I go last?” Before Yan Jiuge became the head disciple, Liu Weiming was already used to putting himself aside to take care of others, so he willingly took on the burden of this matter.

“No need.”

Yan Jiuge opened his mouth to speak. His eyes fell on the teleportation formation as he continued, “Liu-shidi, take the other eighteen fellow disciples to go through the teleportation array together.”

“En?” Liu Weiming was taken aback for a moment. If he brought eighteen disciples, counting him, that would only be nineteen in total. In their Tianxuan Sect— wouldn’t there still be two left?

“Ah-Qi and I will teleport together later. We’ll be able to find you all much faster.” Yan Jiuge said.

“That makes sense, it’s better to be safe.” Liu Weiming fell into deep thought. The head shixiong’s strength was the strongest amongst them all, so he wouldn’t have any problem protecting Chu-shidi on his own. Most importantly, the head shixiong was willing to take Chu-shidi with him to fly on his sword, so he won’t delay their journey.

As for the remaining disciples, they wouldn’t be a problem at all.

Thus, Liu Weiming entered the teleportation array with the other eighteen disciples and went in first.

“Ah-Qi, let’s go in too.” Yan Jiuge said to the person beside him.

“Okay.” Chu Qi nodded and followed him into the teleportation array.

The person behind them happened to be a certain cultivator from Qingling Sect.

Luo Xin made to step forward, but his body was quickly pulled back by his Ling-shixiong, “Luo-shidi, do me a favor and don’t move around.”

“I’m not messing around. Shixiong, look, there are still eighteen vacancies in the teleportation array.” Luo Xin raised his head and met Ling Wu’s piercing eyes.

“…”

Sometimes he couldn’t tell whether this xiao-shidi was very smart, or just a fool.

Ling Wu sighed lightly, “Our Qingling Sect disciples will wait a little longer. Let the Fellow Cultivators of Tianxuan Sect go first.”

“Alright then.” Luo Xin could only stare at the teleportation array eagerly and resist the urge to go in quickly.

A white light flashed from the teleportation array and quickly engulfed the two figures. After the white light faded, the two people had already entered the Yunxi Secret Realm.

—

Chu Qi felt dizzy at first, but when he regained his clarity, the surrounding scene had already changed.

As far as the eye could see, they were surrounded by a lush green jungle under the canopy of tall trees. Sunlight came in through the gaps in the leaves and fell on their feet.

The spiritual energy in the air was very strong. Coupled with the fragrance of the grass and trees, there was a refreshing feeling, which made Chu Qi feel very comfortable.

“Even if you don’t do anything, it feels like it would be beneficial to cultivate for a few days.” Chu Qi said with emotion.

“En. Our luck isn’t that bad. The spiritual energy here is relatively strong, there should be some treasures nearby.” Yan Jiuge nodded.

The identity token on Chu Qi’s waist flashed, and a summons came through quickly.

“Chu-shidi, how is it on your side? We were transported to a barren mountain. There seems to be a lot of spiritual beasts around, so we should be able to practice our swordsmanship well.” Liu Weiming spoke first.

“We are in a forest full of spiritual energy, it doesn’t seem like there are any high-level spiritual beasts around. Ah-Yan said that there may be treasures nearby.” Chu Qi replied truthfully.

It’s a pity that Chu-shidi and head shixiong didn’t have a chance to hone their swordsmanship.

Liu Weiming sighed, “Then come over after you’ve finished finding treasures and collecting materials. I checked the direction, and we should be in the west.”

“Okay.”

Chu Qi put away his identity token, then raised his head and asked Yan Jiuge, “Ah-Yan, where are we going?”

“This place should be very suitable for cultivators with a wood spiritual root. Just feel where the spiritual energy is the strongest, and we’ll head in that direction.”

“…” That’s true. He was now a medical cultivator. He was especially familiar with the spiritual energy of plants and trees, so he would be able to find some rare herbs faster.

Chu Qi calmed down, closed his eyes, and began to perceive the aura around him.

After his cultivation had reached the Golden Core stage, his divine sense could reach a radius of a hundred li at most. However, when he looked too far away, he would feel a little tired, but it wouldn’t be a problem to look at places that were closer.

After a short while, Chu Qi discovered that there was a place not far from them that was emitting spiritual energy from the outside world.

“I found it. Go east, about ten li or so, there is a treasure that is radiating spiritual energy outwards.”

After Chu Qi opened his eyes, he shared the news with Yan Jiuge.

The next moment, Long Yin was drawn from its sheath and the blade expanded at their feet. Yan Jiuge looked at Chu Qi with obvious meaning.

“I’ll take you there to have a look.”

“Alright.”

Chu Qi nodded and stepped on the blade of Long Yin, allowing Yan Jiuge to bring him along.

While the two were flying on the sword, Yan Jiuge controlled his speed so there was no need to set up an isolation barrier.

The forest breeze blew across his face. Very refreshing.

With the quiet atmosphere around them, the breathing of the person behind him became extraordinarily clear. Chu Qi couldn’t help but be a little distracted.

Every since that night at Menghua Inn, Chu Qi felt a little different when the two of them were alone.

For example, at this moment, Yan Jiuge had his hands on his shoulders to stabilize him and prevent him from falling off the spiritual sword.

He hadn’t felt anything different when flying on swords with the rest of their group, but now that there were only the two of them, Chu Qi felt that he couldn’t ignore Yan Jiuge’s hands.

His palms were warm and he held him with a moderate strength.

“Ah-Qi.”

Just as Chu Qi was distracted, Yan Jiuge suddenly called out to him.

Chu Qi came back to his senses suddenly and turned his head with a guilty conscience. Like a conditioned reflex, he subconsciously asked, “What’s wrong?”

However, at the moment that Chu Qi turned his head, Yan Jiuge hadn’t yet drawn back from looking down at him.

The tip of Chu Qi’s ear brushed past a fiery breath and then came a soft touch— the two of them immediately froze.

It was as if all the thoughts in his head had been erased, leaving his mind completely blank.

Chu Qi woodenly stood on Long Yin, and felt as if his whole body had been doused in hot magma. His fair skin turned crimson as he blushed from the tips of his ears all the way down his neck.

J-just now….