On the swiftly advancing flying boat, the disciples of the Yuandao Sect gathered in groups of twos and threes to chat about this trip to the Xizhou Secret Realm.
“I heard that the Xizhou Secret Realm is the place with the most abundant spiritual energy in the entire continent. Cultivating inside for a day is equivalent to a month of cultivation outside. We are so lucky that the Xizhou Secret Realm opened just one month after we entered the sect.”
“That’s because you don’t know the whole story. The Xizhou Secret Realm is different from other secret realms. Although its opening time is uncertain, it basically opens two or three times a year, except that each time only lasts for two or three days.”
“Only two or three days? I hope I can successfully break through to the third layer of Qi Condensation.”
“I hope everyone makes a breakthrough.”
As they were talking, someone suddenly asked out of nowhere, “I saw Senior Brother Gu here too. Can he cultivate as well?”
“He doesn’t even have spiritual roots, how could he possibly cultivate? He’s just here for fun. Who told him to have a good father who is the sect master? This time, Senior Brother Shen Yusheng will definitely be assigned to protect him again.”
“Senior Brother Shen Yusheng is also miserable. He is clearly a once-in-a-millennium genius, yet every time he goes out, he has to drag along a dead weight.”
“It’s Gu Shi who is too detestable. He can’t cultivate himself, yet he still holds Senior Brother Shen Yusheng back. I think he is doing it on purpose.”
“Senior Brother Shen Yusheng shouldn’t have agreed to the sect master.”
While everyone was filled with indignation, they heard a steady pair of footsteps approaching. Raising their heads, they saw Shen Yusheng walking over in a glowing, moonlight-white dharma robe. He swept a glance across the gossiping disciples and said indifferently, “Mind your words.”
In the past, everyone only dared to speak in private, but now that they had left the sect and Shen Yusheng showed no sign of objection, they simply spoke their minds openly.
“Senior Brother Shen Yusheng, although the Xizhou Secret Realm opens frequently, it doesn’t even open for ten days a year, so time inside the secret realm is of the utmost importance. There are plenty of other places for Gu Shi to visit, why did he have to come and cause trouble? He should have just been left on the flying boat so you wouldn’t be distracted looking after him.”
“Exactly. He doesn’t cultivate and is purely a hindrance. Leaving him on the flying boat means he has food, drinks, and a protective magic array with zero safety risks, and we can all cultivate in peace.”
Shen Yusheng listened quietly without saying a word. Seeing that he remained silent, the disciples grew even bolder in their remarks, especially the newly initiated disciples, all eager to win the favor of this genius senior brother.
“Senior Brother Shen Yusheng, Gu Shi clings to you every day; he must have some ulterior motives.”
“I once heard someone talk about an evil technique that can extract other people’s spiritual roots and refine them for one’s own use. Senior Brother Shen Yusheng, you must be on guard against him.”
“Is there really such an evil technique?”
“I don’t know, I just heard others talk about it. If he doesn’t have bad intentions, why else would he cling to Senior Brother Shen Yusheng every day, even chasing after you after being rejected?”
“Perhaps he fancies Senior Brother Shen Yusheng’s peerless appearance.”
These words made Shen Yusheng’s face darken instantly. He shouted, “Shut up.” He flicked his sleeves and walked away, leaving the crowd looking at each other in dismay. To be able to make the usually good-tempered Shen Yusheng’s face darken on the spot meant this matter was most likely true. Gu Shi really dared to think of such things.
Coming off the deck with lingering anger, Shen Yusheng pushed open the first room door and spoke bluntly to the person dressed in cyan cloth robes inside: “The secret realm is dangerous. Stay on the flying boat and don’t tag along to cause trouble.” With that, he took a binding talisman out of his storage pouch, tossed it down, and turned to leave.
The talisman fluttered onto the floor, flashed with golden light for a split second, and transformed into a small confinement array.
Gu Shi let out a slight sigh and said nothing. This room was adjacent to the deck, and their entire conversation just now had drifted right into his ears with the wind.
He simply wanted to save his own life; why did everyone have to portray him so maliciously? And fancied Shen Yusheng? He was a straight man! To be honest, in the three months since he transmigrated into this book, he hadn’t even gotten close to Shen Yusheng. How on earth did these rumors even start?
That’s right, Gu Shi was a transmigrator. Three months ago, he transmigrated into this xianxia upgrading web novel titled Dark Night. Shen Yusheng was the male protagonist of the book, who was originally supposed to breeze through everything smoothly all the way, but the ending style took a drastic turn when a demon lord appeared and snapped his fingers to instantly destroy the world.
Gu Shi had transmigrated into a cannon fodder character with a prominent family background but zero spiritual roots who couldn’t cultivate at all. Or to put it another way, everyone was cannon fodder here because the world blew up, turning both the male lead and the second male lead into ashes.
At the beginning of his transmigration, Gu Shi had also given up and lain flat for a while. But after living the good life of waiting to die for too long, he didn’t want to die anymore. After all, he was the sect master’s only son; if he didn’t die, he could live a life of pure luxury forever.
To save his life, Gu Shi had tried numerous methods.
First, locate the world-destroying demon lord and unite the power of the entire world to eliminate him first. However, the book’s description of him was far too brief, consisting of only a few sparse sentences stating that his name was Xuan You, his pressure was terrifying, karmic fire covered his body, he could turn his hands to form clouds and rain, and pluck the stars from the sky with a wave of his hand.
Gu Shi searched through ancient texts and asked major figures in the sect, yet he couldn’t find a shred of information about Xuan You. It was as if he was simply a bug hastily created by the author because the ending was rushed.
Second, unable to kill Xuan You, Gu Shi thought about escaping. As long as he could flee this realm with people, he could survive. But this plan came to an abrupt end when his father sent him to a medical cultivator who wanted to perform cranial surgery to examine his brain.
Through that, Gu Shi also learned that aside from ascending to immortality, there was no way for them to leave this world. Yet, the spiritual energy in this realm was so meager that no one had ever successfully ascended.
Third, place his bets on the male protagonist. Since he was the male lead, he had to be ridiculously overpowered. As long as he raised the male lead’s cultivation level before Xuan You blew up the world so that the male lead could confront the world-destroying demon lord head-on, no matter how one looked at it, there should still be a glimmer of survival.
Having made up his mind, Gu Shi got to work. Although he couldn’t cultivate, his sect master father doted on him immensely, and the treasures given to him over the years filled more than half of a storage pouch. Although Shen Yusheng was a genius, he had been in the sect for less than a full year and had just broken through to the Foundation Establishment stage; the sect’s disciples were numerous, so the resources allocated to him naturally weren’t much. Thus, Gu Shi gave his own treasures to Shen Yusheng, hoping to shorten his cultivation timeline and rapidly boost his cultivation level.
Facts proved that this method was indeed viable. According to Shen Yusheng’s original timeline, he would only advance to the Foundation Establishment stage after finishing his cultivation trip to the Xizhou Secret Realm this time. However, with Gu Shi dumping treasures on him all at once, Shen Yusheng had already broken through to Foundation Establishment a month ago.
It’s just that Gu Shi never dreamed it would evolve into him coveting Shen Yusheng. The crucial part was that his trip to the Xizhou Secret Realm this time was actually to search for Soul-Gleam Grass to consolidate Shen Yusheng’s cultivation. This was a misunderstanding he couldn’t wash clean even if he jumped into the Yellow River!
Everyone knew that cultivating for a day in the Xizhou Secret Realm was equivalent to a month outside. Because the opening time was short, everyone came here solely for breath-training and cultivation, unaware that this place was packed with heavenly treasures. Even Shen Yusheng only accidentally found the Soul-Gleam Grass to consolidate his cultivation during his third visit to the Xizhou Secret Realm, and subsequently found treasures every single time he came back.
However, where there were many treasures, there were also many dangers; the guarding spirit beasts possessed formidable strength. Fortunately, there was only a low-tier fire wolf near the Soul-Gleam Grass, which would be no problem for Shen Yusheng’s current cultivation level. Gu Shi had originally planned to act as if by coincidence and lead him right over to it so he could seize the Soul-Gleam Grass, but now he would have to go retrieve it himself.
It wasn’t that Gu Shi hadn’t considered telling everyone about the world-destroying demon lord, but firstly, such a matter was too bizarre, and he had no way to substantiate it. Secondly, the concept of transmigration was unbelievable; how was he supposed to explain where the previous Gu Shi had gone? Would he be treated like a monster practicing body-snatching?
After mulling it over and over, he ultimately gave up. Lacking the ability to protect himself, he clearly understood the difference between being instantly blown to ashes or being tortured as a monster.
Early the next morning, the flying boat stopped at the entrance of the secret realm. The Yuandao Sect was the earliest to detect the opening of the secret realm and therefore arrived the earliest. With opportunities right before their eyes, everyone entered the secret realm in an orderly fashion under the leadership of the senior brother. Before leaving, the senior brother glanced at Gu Shi. Always cold and distant toward this nominal junior brother, he simply said, “Stay put obediently and do not move around rashly,” before leaving.
Naturally, Gu Shi had no intention of staying put obediently. Half an hour after the senior brother left, ensuring everyone had entered the secret realm, he pulled an array-breaking talisman out of his storage pouch and threw it onto the ground. The talisman emitted a crackling sound upon impact, and once the sound died down, the binding sensation around Gu Shi vanished as well.
The confinement talisman was something he had given to Shen Yusheng before departure, originally intended for Shen Yusheng’s self-protection; he never expected it would end up being used on himself. Having to beg others truly made one feel humble.
Gu Shi climbed down from the flying boat. The boat was parked rather far away within a dense forest, but fortunately, his physical stamina was excellent, and it didn’t take long before he reached the entrance of the secret realm.
The entrance was a swirling light curtain resembling a vortex. Stepping into it, Gu Shi only felt a vast expanse of pure white before his eyes, where nothing could be seen clearly. Suddenly, his feet felt light, and his body plunged downward uncontrollably. He had no idea how deep it was below, and falling down would most likely mean death. Gu Shi hurriedly retrieved a paper crane from his storage pouch, but before he had time to install the spirit stones, he had already hit the bottom. Thanks to landing prone on the paper crane, aside from feeling a bit of residual impact, he was completely unhurt.
Gu Shi installed the spirit stones into the paper crane. Powered by the spirit stones, the paper crane came to life like a real creature, spreading its wings as if ready to fly.
By this time, the white light had vanished. Sitting atop the paper crane, Gu Shi looked up: this place was a heavenly chasm rift with pitch-black stone walls covered in tender green grass. Ahead of it lay a tunnel, not particularly large, but more than spacious enough to pass through while riding the paper crane.
Gu Shi hesitated. This wasn’t mentioned in the book, but since there was a tunnel, there had to be something inside, perhaps even good treasures.
After much deliberation, Gu Shi ultimately decided to go try his luck. His storage pouch contained stealth talismans; channeled with spirit stones, they could last for the duration of an incense stick. He had a hundred of them in his storage pouch, which would be more than enough.
Gu Shi concealed his presence and appearance. He wore three defensive magic robes, stuffed a hundred dark thunder talismans in his bosom, and pinched ten confinement talismans in his hand. He also had a teleportation talisman, though unfortunately, teleportation talismans required spiritual power to activate and could not be driven by spirit stones. Even so, with these preparations, running away should pose no problem even if he encountered a high-tier spirit beast.
Gu Shi steered the paper crane to fly rapidly into the tunnel. After about half the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the tunnel suddenly widened, revealing a breathtaking view within, as it was actually a dwelling cave.
Fragrance curled in the air, the entire room was wreathed in clouds and mist, the cave ceiling resembled a flowing starry sky, a pond of lotus flowers was blooming brilliantly, and colorful butterflies fluttered about. In the center of the cave, a restricted patch of ground was enclosed by pink gauze curtains, with a sunset-like glow flowing across the gauze, dreamy and illusory like something out of this world.
Even without spiritual power, Gu Shi could tell that everything here was a treasure, and the guarding spirit beast must be inside those gauze curtains. He had been here for so long without the beast noticing him, which meant it probably wasn’t all that terrifying.
Just as Gu Shi was about to go over to inspect, he suddenly heard a stifled, agonizing moan coming from inside the gauze curtains, lingering and enchanting yet laced with pain, like a butterfly caught in a trap struggling in its final moments.
Gu Shi’s heart tightened. Could he actually be the destined child of heaven? This was really giving him a free win.
Suppressing the wild joy pounding in his chest, Gu Shi carefully steered the paper crane forward on tiptoe. Arriving before the gauze curtains, the enchanting fragrance grew even heavier, and the scorching, burning heat made the air itself feel feverish.
Gu Shi took out a long sword from his storage pouch while holding ten dark thunder talismans in his hand. If he couldn’t catch it off guard and kill it with a single strike, he would use the dark thunder talismans to blast it and buy time to escape.
Even with his presence concealed, as he approached the gauze curtains, Gu Shi still subconsciously held his breath and gently parted the curtains with his long sword. His eyes widened abruptly the moment he took in the scene inside.