***
Practitioners of high realms were not to be cursed.
"Brother, those seem to be Profound-Communicating Grass, right?" the tall one said while pointing at the entire field of Profound-Communicating Grass in front of them.
The short one fixed his gaze to take a look.
It truly was!
Because his attention had all been focused on that red moon overhead, he had not noticed until just now that the plants growing in this prairie before his eyes were actually all Profound-Communicating Grass!
Looking toward the distance, the sword peak stood tall, and the chains coiled around it added a trace of solemnity and killing intent.
"Could this place be the sword-nurturing grounds of a sword-dao great power?"
"We did not see an exit when we were swept in just now, so this should be an attached-type secret realm."
"Looking at the style within this secret realm, it is very likely the handiwork of a certain demonic giant."
The short one calmly analyzed the current situation.
This type of demonic giant was generally quite cruel and merciless, and the secret realms they arranged were incomparably dangerous.
They would certainly not stay their hands just because the intruders were also members of the demonic path.
"By the way, where is our Secret Realm Age Detection Spirit Energy Meter? Hurry and take it out to perform a measurement."
"Uh... Brother, did you not say that some unimportant items that are inconvenient to carry should be ignored so we could leave as quickly as possible? That thing was so large, so I just left it there."
"..."
Damn it!
What a spendthrift!
That Secret Realm Age Detection Spirit Energy Meter was worth more than three million spirit coins, which they had only managed to save up after decades of hard work; was that an unimportant item?!
The short one wanted to cry but had no tears.
He truly wanted to crack open the head of this stupid younger brother of his to see what was packed inside his brain.
Seeing the expression of his elder brother, the tall one felt a bit of guilt in his heart.
The short one felt stifled in his heart, but he did not say anything more, as now was not the time for an argument.
"Forget it; I will first test the spatial stability of this place to see if a passage out can be opened."
The short one took out a talisman.
"You, be careful and do not break these Profound-Communicating Grasses."
After giving that instruction, he injected a wisp of magical power into the talisman held between his two fingers.
In this current era, practitioners had already summarized a complete set of secret realm development procedures.
First, the age would be measured using an age detection spirit energy meter, as generally, the older a secret realm was, the more dangerous it would be.
Subsequently, a Space-Piercing Talisman would be used to measure spatial stability to ensure that one had a path of retreat and could withdraw at any time if the situation was not right.
One had to confirm these two points before further exploration could begin.
As magical power was injected, a wisp of faint, bright-yellow firelight rose from the Space-Piercing Talisman held between the short one's fingers.
The place where the firelight burned distorted slightly, as if it were about to shatter at any moment.
As time passed, the bright-yellow firelight gradually turned blue, and the originally distorted space finally seemed to have reached its limit.
Crack!
Following a crisp sound, the distorted area shattered open, and the scenery of the outside world could be seen through it.
However, very quickly, the hazy grey mist covered it up.
"It is a success!"
The short one flicked his right hand, and the firelight on the Space-Piercing Talisman was extinguished.
"Rank C spatial stability; it is not considered strong."
He was at the late stage of the Divine Transformation, and his brother was at the middle stage of the Divine Transformation, so they could absolutely withdraw at any time.
"Be careful and do not be too greedy; even if we only harvest a few hundred stalks of Profound-Communicating Grass this time, we can still make a lot of money."
To be safe, the short one did not intend to approach that mountain peak that resembled a sword this time.
Anyway, now that they knew the coordinates of this place, they could return at any time in the future.
After selling the Profound-Communicating Grass from this trip, they would wait for the trouble to pass and then exchange their magical artifacts.
At that time, they would definitely show those Zhang siblings what for!
"Rest assured, Brother; I will be careful."
The tall one nodded his head and reached out to grab a stalk of Profound-Communicating Grass at his feet.
The leaves of sword-dao attribute Profound-Communicating Grass were sharp and could easily cut through skin if one was not careful, but it was not to the point where it could injure a Divine Transformation practitioner.
He gripped the Profound-Communicating Grass, and the leaves were directly crumpled together.
"Do not be so rough with your movements; the medicinal properties will leak away... Get out of the way!"
The short one suddenly let out a violent shout.
The tall one had not detected what had happened and subconsciously followed the command of his elder brother, but he was still one step too late.
Poof!
Blood splattered, drawing an arc in the air.
The arm, along with half of the shoulder, was separated from the tall one's body with a smooth cut.
It was sword qi!
But why?
The tall one's expression was somewhat bewildered, as he had clearly not reacted until he felt the pain.
"Argh!!!!"
Majestic magical power expanded, and air currents swept outward, causing the Profound-Communicating Grass for several li around to bend their waists.
Violent divine sense expanded frantically, and the tall one's eyes were blood-red, with only one thought remaining in his mind—to find the fellow who had sneak-attacked him from the shadows and torture them to death!
The bellyful of rage came to an abrupt halt in the next moment.
Dozens more invisible streaks of sword qi crossed and passed through him.
The magical power he had barely managed to mobilize was like paper, being easily penetrated and sliced open.
Dense red lines appeared upon his face.
The tall one opened his mouth, and pieces of flesh and blood began to fall away.
The short one’s eyes felt as though they were splitting with rage.
He no longer cared about being careful and charged directly over, yet as he reached out, he only caught two pieces of meat.
Under the strangulation of that sword qi, not only was the vitality of the physical body destroyed, but even the spirituality of the divine soul had been wiped clean.
Aside from that initial streak of sword qi, the erupting magical power had also crushed some Profound-Communicating Grass.
No matter how tough the stems and leaves were, they were still too insignificant compared to the pressure of a Divine Transformation stage practitioner's aura.
If it were not for that, the quantity of sword qi would have been much less, and he might have possessed a trace of a chance at survival.
A pile of meat chunks was scattered, and the flowing blood dyed the nearby Profound-Communicating Grass red.
The short one felt extreme grief in his heart.
"No, I must get out as quickly as possible!"
He made the most rational judgment.
He quickly searched through the flesh and blood to find the storage ring and put it away, then stood up to open the passage.
However, the scene before his eyes caused him to fall into complete despair.
The sword qi had not vanished; instead, it had adjusted its intensity, which was why it was a bit late.
Hundreds? Thousands?
The number could no longer be counted.
Under the chain reaction, sword qi comparable to the late stage of the Divine Transformation surged majestically like a tsunami storm, strangling toward him with overwhelming force.
"F*** your mother!"
Halfway up the mountain, a flash of red light appeared, and a jade box covered in bloodstains fell out of thin air.
Before long, a white ape arrived in the vicinity.
Driven by curiosity, it dropped the fruit in its hand and picked up the jade box to fiddle with it for a while.
After taking a few bites and discovering that it was not food, it quickly lost interest, tossed the jade box away, and ran toward the mountaintop.
At the same time, Xu Xing had already returned to Xuanjian City.
Inside the villa, spiritual light flickered slightly on the walls, and a comfortable, gentle breeze drifted in.
Xu Xing leaned back on a rattan-woven lounge chair, holding the cyan jade plaque in his hand.
The contribution points awarded for the mission had been credited to his account not long after he returned—or more accurately, to the account of the 'Xu Sandao' persona.
The amount was not small, but what Xu Xing cared about was not this; along with this sum of contribution points came a single sentence.
'I let my disciple go find you.'
The appearance of this sentence meant that someone within the Sword Sect knew that the person who emerged from seclusion in Xuanjian City was him.
However, only one or two people were aware of this specific persona of his.
It should not have been this way.
When he had previously sent a message to the Sword Sect to explain the situation and settle the disturbance, he had used a relatively high-level persona that was not known to others.
How had his identity suddenly been exposed?
"Could it have been at that time?"
He thought of a point.
Previously at the Miscellaneous Affairs Hall, he had injected a wisp of magical power to confirm his identity.
Thinking about it, only this point possessed the possibility of exposure.
To be able to see through his disguise... the terminal of that mana identification device truly was not simple.
"I was still too careless."
With a helpless smile, Xu Xing turned on the television.
A traffic propaganda program was being broadcast on the television.
Recently, there had been many such programs, and they were also being promoted on the streets.
Too many people had returned to Xuanjian City over these two days, and several major accidents, such as flying sword collisions, had occurred.
The most unlucky ones were the sword cultivators surnamed Lin and Feng.
As the first batch to be caught and being disciples of the Sword Sect, they had already been mentioned many times as typical examples.
***