“Run! Jiang Xuezhi is here!”
The Barren Continent was remote, chaotic, and teeming with numerous secret realms.
The low-tier secret realms were ignored by the Tianyong Immortal Manor and other major immortal sects, making them the domain of rogue cultivators and other races.
Given her current limitations, Jiang Xuezhi could only venture into these places.
As a Qi Refining cultivator, these low-tier secret realms were just right for her.
She bought a map of the Barren Continent from the market, which marked the locations of open secret realms with glowing dots. Jiang Xuezhi bit her finger and marked a few spots with blood, deciding to search them one by one.
Pojun, who had been silent for a long time, couldn’t help but speak up at this sight: “We could have just bought a pen while we were at it.”
Her body was covered in wounds, large and small, that hadn’t yet healed, and now she had bitten her finger again, did she not feel any pain?
Jiang Xuezhi ignored him as usual.
Pojun felt guilty, Pojun felt miserable, Pojun felt suffocated.
Jiang Xuezhi remained as calm as ever.
She quickened her pace and arrived at the nearest open secret realm, finding a crowd gathered outside.
They seemed to be sharing information and discussing how to proceed once inside, with quite a few companions among them.
Jiang Xuezhi, alone and unaccompanied, swept past them like a gust of wind, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
“What just flew past??” a rogue cultivator asked, bewildered.
A companion replied, “I don’t know, I didn’t see clearly. Are you sure something passed by?”
“Maybe, maybe not! Forget it, I’m not sure either. Let’s just hurry inside!”
“Right, right, this place has been open for a while now. If we don’t go in soon, there might not be any good stuff left.”
The group entered the secret realm together, but as soon as they stepped inside, they sensed something was off.
“Are you sure the information is reliable? This Earth-grade secret realm has been open for three days, not thirty, right?”
Someone asked in a daze, but no one answered him this time.
The others were equally stunned.
According to the map, this small secret realm had appeared three days ago, yet the interior looked as if it had been looted dozens of times.
How could this be??
“We’re already here, let’s look around!”
Unwilling to give up, they split up to investigate. After a thorough search, they finally lost all hope.
At the core of the secret realm stood a tall scaffold, and on it was a person dressed in fluttering red robes, her long hair adorned with a golden hairpin. She looked down at them from above while eating a steamed bun.
At her feet lay a pile of treasures, or what they considered treasures, though to her, they were nothing but scrap metal.
Having experienced the rewards of Heaven-grade secret realms, Jiang Xuezhi no longer had any interest in these things.
She realized that training in secret realms in this cultivation world was quite similar to the holographic training simulations in her own world.
Dealing with secret realms that matched her cultivation level was effortless. It had taken her only fifteen minutes to clear this one completely.
She felt her realm loosening slightly, a sign that her cultivation, which had stagnated in her original body, was beginning to stir after one-third of her spiritual root had been restored.
This was good news.
Jiang Xuezhi finished the last steamed bun from her inventory to replenish her energy and kicked the items at her feet down.
“These are for you.”
With those words, she turned and left for the next secret realm, leaving the rogue cultivators utterly bewildered.
For them?
Just like that?
Was she serious?
The crowd exchanged puzzled glances.
Someone voiced their doubt again: “Forgive my bluntness, but I really think that female cultivator just now looked a lot like Jiang Xuezhi, the traitor from the Xuantian Sect.”
“Don’t any of you think it was her?”
…
If they initially thought she was too calm and too flamboyant, hardly the behavior of a fugitive traitor, they were no longer certain now.
She might very well be one.
That demeanor, that presence, if she wasn’t from a prestigious sect like the Xuantian Sect, where else could she be from?
To these rogue cultivators, the Xuantian Sect was already an unattainable existence.
“It seems she’s also exploring the secret realm in the Barren Wasteland. If we can capture her.”
The Xuantian Sect had offered an extremely tempting reward, hoping someone could help them clean house.
It was said that Jiang XueZhi was only at the Qi Refining stage. For her to kill the Xuantian Sect’s head disciple at that level, she must have resorted to underhanded methods.
Now that she was being hunted, her condition couldn’t be good. If they could strike while she was distracted in the secret realm.
As the saying goes, fortune favors the bold. Perhaps they would be the ones to succeed tomorrow?
They had taken the items Jiang XueZhi left behind, yet they felt no gratitude toward her and still schemed to profit from her.
Rogue cultivators who had tracked Jiang XueZhi’s whereabouts began to gather and pursue her direction. Other bounty hunters who caught wind of the information also started searching for her far and wide.
In no time, her “reputation” spread far and wide, making her the target of all. Even prestigious institutions like the Tianyong Immortal Manor heard of her affairs.
The First Immortal Manor had stationed overseers, eyes and ears of the manor across the lands, responsible for patrolling the provinces, gathering intelligence, and handling emergencies. Every member among them was an elite, reporting directly to the manor’s Discipline Hall and the Manor-Suppressing Immortal Venerable.
News of Jiang Xuezhi soon reached them.
It was the hour for the overseers to report. Her matter wasn’t significant enough to emphasize, so the messenger briefly mentioned it in passing.
“Sword Venerable, that is all.”
The messenger bowed humbly, not daring to look at the great one seated above.
The Sword Venerable had just returned to the sect, seated cross-legged on a lotus throne, as if all the purity and aloofness between heaven and earth had condensed into a tangible form.
His aura was too stern, too unapproachable, and too piercing, it made them unable to even lift their heads.
“You may leave.”
His voice was as cold and detached as his presence, leaving them too intimidated to even breathe heavily.
“Yes.”
The overseer bowed and withdrew, and the great hall soon fell into silence.
On the lotus throne, the Sword Venerable sat upright, like the purest cedar atop the Kunlun Mountains.
His wide-sleeved robes, as white as snow, fluttered like flowing clouds, stirring fine, shimmering ice crystals in their wake.
His eyes, cold as ancient glacial ice, calmly regarded the golden characters floating in the air, all the key intelligence from the cultivation world in recent days was displayed there.
Jiang Xuezhi’s name appeared inconspicuously in a corner. He glanced at it expressionlessly, while the snowball in his arms chirped noisily by his ear, saying something that earned it a light tap on the head from him.
She had asked him to remember her name. His memory was excellent, forgetting would be difficult.
Her fame had spread quickly enough, though it didn’t sound like the kind of reputation that would enable her to repay him in any meaningful way.
A criminal who had killed a fellow disciple in the Xuantian Sect and then fled?
The Xuantian Sect’s leader claimed she had conspired with the demon race and stolen the sect’s treasure. Did that mean the divine artifact Pojun in her possession, which belonged to the Xuantian Sect, was acquired through dishonorable means?
Would a divine artifact acknowledge someone like that as its master?
Yun Cangming raised his hand, and a silver sword as thin as a cicada’s wing appeared in his palm, the divine sword Zhaohan, currently ranked first on the cultivation world’s weapon registry.
He spoke softly, as if to himself, “What do you think?”
Zhao Han felt as if no one truly understood.
But Pojun, on the other hand, was having the time of its life.
Jiang Xuezhi’s relentless speed in clearing secret realms brought it an extraordinary sense of joy.
The visual spectacle, the physical exhaustion of fighting without rest, Pojun, as a weapon, reveled in it all. But Jiang Xuezhi was human, could she really endure it?
Once she finished the steamed buns, she started swallowing pills, fasting elixirs, immortal pills, anything that could replenish her energy. When tired or sleepy, she’d only take short naps, but stopping was out of the question.
In less than three days, her name had already spread across the Barren Lands.
Pursuers came in an endless stream. Not only did Jiang Xuezhi have to evade them, but she also continued clearing secret realms, leaving traces of her presence everywhere. Anyone could tell this woman was anything but ordinary.
After repeatedly arriving too late and finding the treasures already gone, the rogue cultivators finally snapped.
“At this point, why not just give her a one-click sweep function? Why even bother having her show up?”
“Is there any difference between what she’s doing now and a one-click sweep? None at all!”
In the beginning, they could still pick up some leftovers in her wake, but ever since their greed became apparent, they couldn’t even get a scrap.
Not only that, but they suffered heavy losses, anyone who tried to take her life ended up as another soul claimed by her spear.
“That spear in her hand is no ordinary weapon, it must be the legendary treasure of the Xuantian Sect,” one clever observer deduced, advising, “Young Master, it’s best not to confront her directly. I’ve heard that Jiang Xuezhi reached the Foundation Establishment stage in just a few days. She’s nothing like the useless cultivator the Xuantian Sect claimed her to be, otherwise, how could she have killed Xiao Jin and stolen their sacred treasure?”
“If she wants to sweep through the secret realms, let her. The Barren Lands are full of them, there’s no way she can clear them all.”
So reasoned the most trusted strategist of the Young Master of Sin City. Unfortunately, the Young Master paid him no heed.
The young man, around eighteen years old, was the son of the wealthiest black market merchant in the lower three realms of Sin City.
He possessed countless magical artifacts and had always regarded the Barren Lands as his personal domain.
Jiang Xuezhi’s audacious actions, flaunting power and breaking rules on his turf, made him determined to confront her.
“Let her be?” The Young Master sneered. “As if we’re afraid of her. She’s nothing but a fugitive cultivator, fair game for anyone. Capturing her for the Xuantian Sect’s bounty or seizing her artifacts for ourselves would be ideal. Under no circumstances will I let her roam free.”
With that, the Young Master ordered his men to join him in pursuing Jiang Xuezhi.
The strategist hesitated. “Young Master…”
“Silence!” the Young Master snapped. “Am I to shy away from her? Charge!”
Her recent rise to fame had overshadowed his own, how dare she? He would make sure this woman learned who the true overlord of Sin City was.
Just as the Young Master set out, Jiang Xuezhi entered a newly discovered secret realm.
As her cultivation level rose, her heavenly tribulation was fast approaching.
She needed a favorable time and place to undergo the Foundation Establishment tribulation, somewhere her pursuers wouldn’t find her.
This newly opened realm was a mid-tier secret realm, and the Tianyong Immortal Manor had dispatched disciples to investigate. Jiang Xuezhi spotted them, but her impending tribulation refused to wait for their inspection to conclude.
By the time they finished, given her notorious reputation and long list of crimes, she would no longer be deemed worthy of entering such a realm.
She had to force her way in.
Her crimson robes billowing, Jiang Xuezhi made a grand entrance, instantly drawing everyone’s attention.
“It’s you!”
“Why is it always you?!”
“Where there’s a hidden realm, there I am. Is it strange to see me?”
Jiang Xuezhi cast a cool glance at the cultivators. Those familiar with her ways immediately began fleeing.
“Run! Jiang Xuezhi is here!”
Their frantic scattering left the Tian Yong disciples utterly stunned.
Disciples from other immortal sects arrived one after another. Jiang Xuezhi had intended to keep a low profile and slip into the realm unnoticed, but Tian Yong lived up to its reputation, their barrier was flawless. The moment she appeared, she was detected, leaving no room for concealment.
If she couldn’t hide, then she would make her entrance openly.
Jiang Xuezhi’s cultivation realm was fluctuating; she was on the verge of fully establishing her foundation.
Such rapid advancement meant her heavenly tribulation would be exceptionally fierce. Her physical condition was far from ideal, with toxins still corroding her bones and blood. She urgently needed a refuge rich in spiritual energy and complex in terrain.
She had to enter this hidden realm.
Ignoring the Tianyong disciples’ attempts to stop her, Jiang Xuezhi swung her spear, slicing through a Golden Core disciple whose cultivation far surpassed her own. Under his stunned gaze, she transformed into a crimson mist and slipped into the hidden realm.
…
A Foundation Establishment cultivator, though achieving it so quickly was indeed remarkable, had just entered like that?
She had just sent a Golden Core cultivator flying??
No way, this has to be fake, right?!
The Tianyong disciple spat out a mouthful of blood and crashed heavily to the ground, witnessed clearly by members of other sects.
It was the first time in his life he had been so humiliated in front of other sects, utterly disgraced, bringing shame upon Tian Yong.
Choking back his rage, the Tianyong disciple scrambled to his feet, his face flushed crimson, and activated his identity jade token.
“Someone has forcibly broken into the hidden realm, breached Tianyong’s barrier, and injured a Tianyong disciple!!”
Within Tianyong, from top to bottom, they were notoriously protective of their own.
He was going to tattle!