The feeling of being teleported into the secret realm was quite magical. Suddenly, everything blurred before his eyes, and his feet landed on soft, muddy ground.
Lou Shuangzui opened his eyes, instinctively gripping the handle of his whip, and surveyed his surroundings—a landscape of purple-red soil and blue, almost dreamlike inverted trees with roots reaching into the sky.
He had seen the map from the herbal shop owner, and if that guy hadn’t made a mistake, this was the outskirts of the Hongxiu Forest. Beyond a plain lay the Sheji Canal, and to the east of the plain was Baolian Mountain.
The inner area of Hongxiu Forest had fiery red soil and purple trees, while the outer low-level Hongxiu trees were slightly lighter in color, bearing Xiuqiu Cluster Fruits, which were fundamentally different from the Luoxia Drunken Fruits produced by the high-level trees.
Xiuqiu Cluster Fruits are essential ingredients for transformation potions, primarily used to temporarily change the appearance of the consumer. The effect lasts for seven days, allowing changes in age and gender. If refined into a pill, the duration can be extended, lasting up to a year. Some high-level transformation pills can even enhance the effect, allowing changes in race.
On the other hand, Luoxia Drunken Fruits serve a completely different purpose. Xiuqiu Cluster Fruits are used by Hongxiu trees to attract birds to spread their seeds. They entice birds to eat the fruit, then faint and die in the Hongxiu Forest, planting the seeds while feeding the trees with their flesh and blood.
Luoxia Drunken Fruits, however, are cultivated to enhance the survival ability of the species, maturing once every three thousand years. They require the sacrifice of half the adult Hongxiu trees’ lives. When mature, the fruit falls into the soil, elevating the remaining adult Hongxiu trees by two levels and allowing all new trees in the forest to skip the juvenile stage and reach maturity directly.
As a spiritual fruit used by humans, Luoxia Drunken Fruits have the effect of consolidating strength and enhancing cultivation, effective for cultivators below the Transformation Stage. However, forcibly increasing cultivation is inadvisable, as it can easily lead to a drop in level, making it not worth the risk. Therefore, most cultivators use it as a reserve resource for breaking through realms, making it an extremely precious spiritual fruit.
High-level Hongxiu trees have developed intelligence and will attack cultivators and monsters, but low-level Hongxiu trees do not. However, they have their own means of self-preservation. A tree typically bears five fruits; aside from the one used for seed dispersal, the other four can attract a type of monster that eats Xiuqiu Cluster Fruits—the Qimeng Bird.
Qimeng Birds live in the outer Hongxiu Forest. They leave monsters that pose no threat and will feed new trees with their flesh, while also attacking any monsters or humans that threaten the forest.
Thinking of this, Lou Shuangzui already heard the hallucinatory cries, sounding like a mix of monkeys and cuckoos, one after another, raising a terrifying sound wave.
It seemed as if layers of illusions appeared before his eyes. Lou Shuangzui saw Shangguan Shu and even Lian Chaoxi…
His combat instincts led him to the correct response, shutting off his vision and hearing, while his spiritual power spread out in an instant. Poisonous vines delved into the ground; plants have no hearing or vision but can create a spiritual sight more useful than sight or hearing.
Lou Shuangzui could “see” the vibrant birds with purple and red plumage diving down, aiming for his neck. They opened their black beaks, revealing hideous sharp fangs and eight tongues resembling octopus tentacles.
—A very sanity-draining appearance.
But the young man was not afraid. He raised his hand, and his whip, imbued with his spiritual power and highly toxic, moved like a green and black intertwined lightning, hunting like a venomous snake, instantly killing the two nearest Qimeng Birds.
The remaining four hesitated for a moment; two turned to flee but couldn’t escape.
At some point, the poisonous vines had already consumed the nutrients of the Hongxiu Forest. They climbed up like dodder flowers, standing on the corpses of the Hongxiu trees, growing into terrifying giants. They formed a vine cage, trapping all the creatures in this small patch of forest, causing the vegetation to wither and the birds to fall from the sky.
A few minutes later, when the miasma created by the Hongxiu Forest and Qimeng Birds dissipated, Lou Shuangzui finally opened his eyes. He looked at the cruel yet enchanting scenery before him, a pleased smile curling his lips.
Meanwhile, on the judges’ panel, the numbers on the water mirror suddenly changed.
—Chen Yue Sect’s Lou Shuangzui, killed six Qimeng Birds, obtained thirty Xiuqiu Cluster Fruits, gaining four hundred and twenty points.
At this point, it had only been ten minutes since entering the secret realm. It’s worth noting that the Qimeng Birds on the outskirts also had the strength of the peak Foundation Establishment stage, but unfortunately, they were wiped out in just one encounter, along with the troublesome Hongxiu Forest.
On the judges’ platform, Wen Shunian lowered his eyelids, pretending to raise his cup to drink tea, but in reality, he was hiding the smile at the corner of his mouth.
For Lou Shuangzui, the Hongxiu Forest was not a dangerous place. His vines grew in number and toxicity with each Qimeng Bird and Hongxiu tree he killed, growing geometrically. Initially, he killed five Qimeng Birds in ten minutes, but as he progressed, when Golden Core mid-stage Qimeng Birds appeared, he could kill three in less than five minutes.
The vines moved with the young man’s steps. Perhaps sensing that Lou Shuangzui was heading towards the edge of the Hongxiu Forest without coveting the Luoxia Drunken Fruits, the Hongxiu Forest and Qimeng Bird flock learned to behave. In the direction Lou Shuangzui was heading, the monsters disappeared, and even the miasma dispersed on its own, clearly indicating they were seeing him off.
However, the area was vast, so it still took him more than a day to walk out of the Hongxiu Forest. He then spent another day crossing a small patch of hills to reach a plain with rivers and ordinary trees.
In just these two short days, Lou Shuangzui’s individual score approached two thousand. It’s important to know that each of the three great treasures was worth only ten thousand points. To earn over two thousand points in two days was already an impressive achievement.
As a result, on the judges’ panel, other sect leaders and elders finally took notice of Lou Shuangzui.
The Sect Leader of the Hundred Flowers Sect, Shen Junyu, smiled warmly. She turned her head to speak with Wen Shunian, her soft black hair falling onto the table in front of her. “Sect Leader Wen, Chen Yue Sect has a promising successor…”
She elongated her tone, her voice carrying a deep meaning, her brown eyes twinkling with mischief and liveliness.
Wen Shunian also smiled, his lips curling into a composed and graceful expression. “You’re too kind. The disciple from Hundred Flowers Sect with the surname Yu is also impressive. Not yet five hundred years old and already at the late Golden Core stage, to become the first disciple in the talent-rich Xia Peak is truly remarkable.”
As these two old foxes exchanged words, they suddenly heard a crisp sound in their ears. It turned out that the Sect Leader of Shiyang Sect, Xi Ming, had crushed the teacup in his hand. He looked nervously at the water mirror.
—The forest Lou Shuangzui had reached was also where the first disciple of Shiyang’s Sect Leader Peak and his gathered junior brothers and sisters were.
Xi Ming was worried because his disciple was a martial arts fanatic who loved to fight. Although Lou Shuangzui was only at the early Golden Core stage, the battles over the past two days had already shown that he was a strong cultivator capable of crossing realms to kill higher-level opponents, with the added danger of poison. A fight could easily cost a life if not careful.
He didn’t want to see his eldest disciple, Ying Qi, end up in a mutual defeat with a disciple from Chen Yue!
Unfortunately, things didn’t go as Xi Ming hoped.
The team led by Ying Qi happened to be on the same path as Lou Shuangzui, and they were about to collide. Fortunately, Lou Shuangzui’s keen hearing allowed him to hide behind a nearby tree.
However, he couldn’t hide for long. Ying Qi wasn’t just an empty-headed embroidered pillow; he was at the early Nascent Soul stage, a whole major realm higher than Lou Shuangzui.
The golden-eyed venomous snake hid behind the tree, quickly thinking of a strategy.
—First of all, hiding was useless, but going out directly, not to mention whether Shiyang would break his jade pendant here, reducing Chen Yue’s competitiveness, how would Lou Shuangzui handle it if it really came to that?
Shiyang had three inner disciples and twelve outer disciples, giving them a numerical advantage, making it difficult to fight—mainly because he couldn’t go all out. If he did, Lou Shuangzui was confident he could win, but the water mirror was still watching, so he couldn’t do that, making it hard to avoid conflict.
Moreover, the first disciple of Shiyang’s Sect Leader Peak, Ying Qi, happened to have the perfect counter attribute to Lou Shuangzui, a single metal spiritual root. So, trying to break through unscathed from these people was actually a very difficult task.
Then—
In a flash of inspiration, countless carefully observed scenes flashed through his mind. Just as Ying Qi seemed to sense something and began to frown, Lou Shuangzui no longer hesitated and reached into his storage bag.
Sure enough, Ying Qi noticed something was amiss. He raised his hand, stopping the actions of the other disciples behind him, his eyes sharp like an eagle’s, looking towards the nearby forest. “Who’s there?!”
“I’m… I’m sorry, I just wanted to stay in the secret realm a little longer…” Under the watchful eyes of everyone, a beautiful woman with pink long hair and light purple eyes, with fox-like eyes, walked out with red-rimmed eyes.
Meanwhile, outside the secret realm, the “long-lost brother” finally caught his breath. Wen Shunian was furious. He sneered and couldn’t help but curse, “You little rascal!” The more he spoke, the angrier he became. He turned his head to Wen Guyue and angrily said, “Why didn’t he use his master’s face! Isn’t his master good-looking?”
“I even thought of a name, just call him Lian Muyue!”
Author’s Note: