novelraw Chapter 321 Changes in the Secret Realm, Great Cultivator Feels Frustrated
Chapter 321 Changes in the Secret Realm, Great Cultivator Feels Frustrated
Chapter 321 Changes in the Secret Realm, Great Cultivator Feels Frustrated
At the entrance to the Black Mountain Secret Realm, the spatial ripples have not yet subsided.
After Chen Yi and Ning Bu'er left, the atmosphere in the ancient battlefield did not cool down. Instead, it was as if a piece of red-hot coal had been thrown in, and it instantly boiled over.
Several streaks of light rushed out of the secret realm's light gate in a disheveled state; they were several rogue cultivators from the Great Azure Realm.
One of them was clutching a jade box tightly in his arms, and a rich medicinal fragrance emanated from the cracks in the box, clearly indicating that he had snatched a top-grade spiritual herb.
"Leave your life behind!"
A loud shout shattered the surrounding clouds.
Immediately afterwards, a crimson lion with a mane like burning flames smashed through the light barrier at the entrance to the secret realm.
It was as large as a small mountain, exuding a demonic aura, and the fiery red hammer it held in its hand emitted a terrifyingly high temperature.
A demon king at the peak of the early Nascent Soul stage.
Its vertical pupils were fixed on the fleeing cultivators from the Great Azure Realm. With a flick of its crimson orb, a sea of fire was about to pour down.
"presumptuous!"
A cold snort echoed from the void.
The figure of the Crane-Crowned True Lord materialized, his white robe fluttering in the wind.
He was already furious because his disciple's physical body had been destroyed, and now that he saw the otherworldly monsters daring to chase him all the way to the Great Green Realm's homeland, his killing intent surged out like a tidal wave.
"How dare these mere beasts with fur and horns run rampant in my great Qing Realm?"
Crane-Crowned True Monarch raised his hand and pressed down, and a hundred-foot crane claw formed from spiritual energy appeared out of thin air, carrying the terrifying pressure unique to a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, and slashed down at the fire lion.
This strike was enough to crush the physical body of an ordinary early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator.
The Great Azure Realm cultivators watching the battle all showed expressions of pleasure, as if they could already see the lion's blood splattered on the spot.
However, there was not a trace of fear in the eyes of the fire lion.
It roared suddenly, and the crimson orb in its hand shone brightly, actually condensing a thick layer of magma armor on its body.
boom!
The crane's claws struck, scattering sparks everywhere.
What happened was astonishing.
That seemingly fatal blow only shattered the surface of the magma armor. The fire lion's massive body sank only a few dozen feet before stabilizing itself.
"What?"
Crane-Crowned True Lord's pupils contracted slightly.
Before he could change his move, the Fire Lion used the recoil to turn and flee at lightning speed.
"Trying to leave?"
Crane-Crowned True Lord felt utterly humiliated. With a flick of his sleeve, a white rainbow shot out like a flying sword, aiming straight for the lion's head.
The fire lion raised the magical treasure again to meet the attack head-on.
Clang! Clang!
Two loud bangs followed, and although the fire lion was shaken so badly that blood gushed from its mouth and nose, it used the force of the impact to instantly escape thousands of feet away.
Just as it was about to disappear into the void rift and return to the ancient battlefield, the demon king suddenly turned around, and with a flash of light from his fiery hammer, unleashed a sneak attack of poisonous fire.
The fire was extremely insidious, arriving silently and without warning.
The protective aura of the Crane-Crowned True Lord suddenly shone, blocking the poisonous fire, but a corner of his spotless white robe was scorched, and his face was stained with some soot, making him look slightly disheveled.
The entire room fell silent.
The late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator made three attempts, but failed to capture a single early-stage Nascent Soul demon beast. Instead, he was left looking disheveled and humiliated.
The fiery lion swaggered away.
The Crane-Crowned True Lord hovered in mid-air, his face so gloomy it was almost as if water could drip from it.
He could sense that the gazes directed at him from around him held less of the usual reverence and more of a strangeness.
Is this the true potential of cultivators from another world?
With just a magical treasure and a powerful physical body, he was able to cross two minor realms to contend with the top combat power of the Great Azure Realm.
Not far away, Xuan Yin Zhenjun stood quietly on the cloud, his hands tucked into his sleeves, his expression indifferent.
He recalled Chen Yi's warning before he left and secretly rejoiced that he had not rashly intervened.
The waters of this ancient battlefield are deeper than I imagined.
Ten days later.
As the last group of cultivators withdrew, the spiritual energy vortex at the entrance to the Black Mountain Secret Realm began to vibrate violently.
The originally distinct five elements of spiritual energy were now in chaos and clashing, emitting a piercing explosion.
This is a sign that the secret realm is about to close.
Several elderly men with white hair and beards sat cross-legged in mid-air, each making hand seals to deduce the changes in the energy of heaven and earth.
One of the elderly men, dressed in a simple Taoist robe, held a mottled tortoise shell in his hands.
As spiritual energy was injected, countless golden runes appeared on the tortoise shell, spinning endlessly.
Suddenly, the old man shuddered.
"what?"
He stared at a crack on the tortoise shell and let out a surprised exclamation.
"What's wrong? Has the heavenly secret changed?" a middle-aged cultivator next to him asked.
The old man frowned, his fingers tracing rapidly across the tortoise shell. He then looked up at the soon-to-disappear entrance to the secret realm and said in a deep voice, "The spiritual energy of the ancient battlefield—has changed. The rules that originally excluded high-level cultivators are loosening."
I predict that when the secret realm reopens in twenty years, the upper limit of the world's capacity will increase.
"Improve? What do you mean?"
"What I mean is," the old man took a deep breath, his voice a little hoarse, "that next time it opens, it might be able to accommodate mid-Nascent Soul cultivators. As long as they don't deliberately unleash their full spiritual pressure and trigger heavenly punishment, they'll be safe and sound."
These words immediately caused a stir among those around them.
"That's a good thing!"
An elder from a sect, dressed in purple robes, clapped his hands with delight, saying, "This time, we could only watch helplessly as the younger generation went in to compete, feeling restricted. Now that the restrictions are relaxed next time, the elders of our Great Azure Realm can personally enter and seize that heaven-defying opportunity!"
The people around him nodded in agreement, their eyes gleaming with greed.
However, the area within the core circle of Nascent Soul cultivators in their later stages was eerily silent.
They exchanged a glance and both saw the gravity in each other's eyes.
"Good news?"
The old man who had been holding the tortoise shell gave a wry smile and put it away. "Have you all forgotten what just happened?"
That fire lion was only at the early Nascent Soul stage, yet it managed to escape from Fellow Daoist Crane Crest. If a mid-Nascent Soul cultivator from another world were to enter—”
He didn't say the rest, but a chill ran down everyone's spine.
At the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm, cultivators from the Great Azure Realm have been completely suppressed.
If it reaches the middle or later stages, due to the barren spiritual energy and incomplete rules of the Great Green Realm, this gap will only be magnified infinitely.
"Then—what do we do?" The purple-robed elder, who had just been excited, turned deathly pale. "What if they launch a counterattack on the Great Azure Realm through the ancient battlefield—"
"This is exactly what I was worried about."
The old man sighed, "The world is unjust, and the foundations of cultivators in our Great Azure Realm are weak. The only way to change this situation is—"
"Only what?"
"We need to find a way to launch a full-scale attack on those advanced cultivation realms, seize a corner of their territory, and plunder the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to rebuild the foundation of our realm."
The surroundings were deathly silent.
Counterattack?
Do not make jokes.
We should be grateful if others don't break in.
"This matter is of great importance and must be immediately reported to the major powers in Zhongzhou."
The Nascent Soul stage monsters, heavy-hearted and with no more lingering attachments, transformed into streaks of light and scattered in all directions, leaving behind only a mess and a panicked atmosphere among the low-level cultivators.
At this moment, the Crane-Crowned True Lord was in an extremely bad mood.
The disciple's physical body was destroyed, and he himself lost face by taking action. Now, the future of the Great Green Realm is even more worrying.
An unnamed fire surged through his chest.
"Kongoji Temple —"
He touched his cuff, where his disciple's nascent soul was being nurtured.
He was about to head to the Vajra Temple to demand an explanation.
On the horizon, a golden light, like the rising sun, tore through the clouds and arrived in an instant.
The golden light was domineering and unparalleled; wherever it passed, even the clouds were tinged with a pale gold.
As Crane-Crowned True Monarch scanned the area with his divine sense, his brows immediately furrowed.
The three newcomers, all dressed in dark red robes and with dignified appearances, were none other than three eminent monks from the Vajra Temple.
The leader was a burly man with a resolute face; he was Master Xuanhui, the head of the Dharma Hall of the Vajra Temple.
"Okay, okay."
The Crane-Crowned True Lord, enraged to the point of laughter, swayed and charged forward.
"I was just looking for you, and you've delivered yourself right to my doorstep!"
He stood still in mid-air, releasing his spiritual pressure without any concealment, stirring up the wind and clouds.
"Xuan Hui, you've come at the perfect time!"
Explain to me why you, Yuanzhen, a disciple of the Vajra Temple, destroyed my disciple's physical body without cause.
If you don't give me an explanation today, don't blame me for being ruthless!
The golden light dissipated.
Xuan Hui and the other two stood in the void, with Sanskrit characters faintly flowing beneath them.
Faced with the questioning of the Crane-Crowned True Lord, Xuan Hui showed no remorse on his face. Instead, his eyes widened in anger, as if a Vajra had descended to earth.
"Amitabha!"
A single Buddhist chant, like a resounding bell, caused the air within a hundred miles to buzz.
"An explanation? This humble monk still needs to demand an explanation from Fellow Daoist Crane-Crowned Crane!"
Xuan Hui stepped forward, his muscles bulging like rocks, his robe billowing. "It's just that your physical body was destroyed in the battle. My Vajra Temple will compensate you with a fine new one."
"Yet you, a Nascent Soul cultivator, possess such a narrow mind, secretly hiring assassins to kill our academy's future head!"
Crane-Crowned True Lord was stunned, his anger instantly caught in his throat.
"What?"
"Keep pretending! Keep pretending!"
Behind Xuan Hui, a monk named Yuanjing pointed at He Ding and shouted angrily, "Senior Brother Yuanzhen's soul lamp was extinguished ten days ago! He Ding, you're the one who hired the assassin to kill him, how could you not know?"
"Yuanzhen is dead?!"
The expression on the face of the Crane-Crowned True Lord changed drastically.
Although he said he would seek justice from Yuanzhen, he never actually laid a hand on her, much less hired anyone to do so.
After all, he didn't dare to actually kill the other person.
Judging from their posture, they clearly believed he was the murderer.
"Great Master Crane-Crowned Clan, in this area surrounding the Black Mountain Secret Realm, besides you who has the motive to kill, who else dares to harm the people of my Vajra Temple?"
Xuan Hui's voice was icy, and the golden light around him grew stronger and stronger, with faint phantom images of Arhats appearing behind him.
The other two eminent monks also dispersed, forming a triangular formation around the Crane-Crowned True Lord, locking his aura in place.
Crane-Crowned True Lord's eye twitched wildly.
If it were any other day, he would have slapped someone who was so rude to a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator.
But not today.
Xuan Hui was a body cultivator with an incredibly strong physical body, and with the addition of this Arhat Formation—
The group of bald monks at Vajra Temple are notorious for their protectiveness and madness.
If a real fight breaks out, these three reckless guys can hold him off, but once those old geezers from the Vajra Temple arrive, he'll probably be done for today.
More importantly, this scapegoat is far too big.
Killing the future head of the Vajra Temple is tantamount to declaring war on the entire Vajra Temple.
Crane-Crowned True Lord took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the frustration in his heart.
"Master Xuanhui, you can eat whatever you want, but you can't say whatever you want." He frowned and said, "I really didn't know about Yuanzhen's death. I, Heding, act with integrity and honesty. If I did something, I would naturally admit it."
"Amitabha."
Xuan Hui sneered, not believing it at all. "Upright and honest? Whether you know the truth or not is not up to you to decide."
"Cultivator Crane-Crowned, please cooperate with my investigation. If you have nothing to hide, then come with me to the Vajra Temple to confront the Buddha!"
These words were spoken in an extremely forceful manner, almost like a command pointed at one's nose.
The fist hidden in the sleeve of the Crane-Crowned True Lord clenched and then relaxed.
beat?
We can't beat these lunatics.
Do not hit?
Where do we put our pride?
He glanced around. Although most of the cultivators had dispersed, there were still many eyes peering into the shadows.
That's it.
The situation is better than people.
"Ugh."
Crane-Crowned True Monarch sighed deeply, his angry expression turning into a helpless bitter smile, and he even had to suppress the angry fluctuations emanating from his disciple's Nascent Soul hidden in his sleeve.
"Master Xuanhui, there must be something fishy about this. This is not the place to talk. Please, let's speak privately."
He eventually gave in.
At this critical juncture when chaos was imminent, he really didn't want to, and dared not, completely break ties with a behemoth like the Vajra Temple.
Xuan Hui naturally gave the other party face, and the two quickly flew dozens of miles into the sky.
Above the Five Heavens, the gale-force winds, sharp as knives, sliced through the void, emitting a mournful howl.
However, this violent gale, powerful enough to tear apart a Golden Core cultivator, was firmly blocked by a layer of pale golden light shield.
Inside the light shield, the air stagnated.
Xuan Hui remained expressionless, the Zen relic in his hand radiating a soft yet undeniable aura. Each flash was like an invisible eye, staring intently at the Crane-Crowned True Lord opposite him.
"Yuanzhen first seized that spiritual spring in the Black Mountain Secret Realm, and then set up an ambush on the edge of the ancient battlefield?" Xuan Hui's voice was calm, revealing no emotion.
Crane-Crowned True Lord's eyelids drooped slightly, and his gray robe remained motionless in the still air.
Despite being a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, he could only cooperate with the investigation and answer questions.
"Exactly."
Crane-Crowned's voice was calm and steady, trying his best not to let his emotions show, "That was the third day after the secret realm opened, and Fellow Daoist Yuanzhen was acting—"
Crane Peak recounted everything that had happened in the secret realm.
He paused, then looked directly at Xuan Hui, "Master Xuan Hui, since I have promised not to pursue Fellow Daoist Yuan Zhen's responsibility, I have not been lying."
If your temple simply provides some compensation to my disciple according to the rules, this matter can be considered closed.
As for murder? Even hiring a hitman to assassinate me? I've never even considered it.
"Everything above is true."
The last four words were spoken with a firm and resounding tone.
Xuan Hui did not respond immediately.
He looked down at the Zen relic in his hand.
The relic shone with a clear, flowing light, without a trace of the murky blackness that represents lies.
But this did not completely dispel Xuan Hui's doubts.
A great cultivator in the late Nascent Soul stage has a soul as solid as iron. If someone tries to disguise themselves with their divine sense, even a Zen relic might not be able to see through their heart completely.
The most unpredictable thing in this world is the human heart.
Xuan Hui gently rubbed the surface of the relic with his fingers, then suddenly spoke: "This matter involves the lives of my Vajra Temple's direct disciples; it is of great importance."
He raised his head, his gaze sharp and fixed on Crane Peak, "I urge Great Cultivator Crane Peak to make a solemn oath against the demons within."
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