Terrifying!
It was simply too terrifying!
Little Stone frantically channeled his spiritual energy, casting his Earth Escape technique to tunnel madly underground.
“Damn it! How can a righteous cultivator train like this?” Little Stone’s voice changed with fear.
Practicing with poison, relying on daily consumption of toxin-laced foods to increase one’s resistance to poison, or to cultivate toxic arts.
Wasn’t this a cultivation method unique to the poison cultivators of the Western Regions?
Normally, righteous cultivators loved to be aboveboard—why would they touch something as sinister and treacherous as poison?
But the thing that scared Little Stone the most was that they actually disguised all of it as delicious and fragrant spirit cuisine.
If you claimed that dish was made by an immortal chef, Little Stone would never believe it in a hundred lifetimes—clearly, it came from the hands of a powerful and ruthless Poison Immortal!
Run!
He could only run!
Without waiting for Wang Zhiyai to bring over the medicine, Little Stone slipped away directly.
He didn’t even try to sense whether Wang Zhiyai was experiencing a dying flash of brilliance, or had already become a poison corpse.
The latter was clearly even more horrifying!
After one incense stick’s time, he rolled and crawled all the way back to their hidden hideout.
At this moment, Shiyan was using a Sheying Zhu to observe the situation above ground.
Seeing Little Stone’s sorry escape, he asked, “What’s with you? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Even scarier than a ghost!”
Little Stone caught his breath and began to recount the whole thing in detail—from how he tried to approach Wang Zhiyai with the excuse of decocting medicine in order to poison him; to failing to poison him and thinking the plan was doomed, only for the target to willingly take poison and then revive from death right before his eyes, and so on.
Shiyan fell silent after hearing the entire story, pondering for a while.
Seeing his boss so serious, Little Stone felt a sense of foreboding. This time, the opponent seemed even harder to deal with than themselves.
A moment later, Shiyan voiced his doubt, “Did you bring back the prescription?”
“Huh?” Little Stone blinked in confusion. “What prescription?”
“Are you serious? What else but the prescription?” Shiyan replied, annoyed.
“Uh…this?” After thinking for a moment, Little Stone pulled out a piece of paper from his chest.
It was the kidney-strengthening, qi-boosting soup prescription Wang Zhiyai had given him. According to Wang Zhiyai, even an earthworm could be used as a nail after drinking it.
Shiyan snatched it up, scrutinized it for a moment, then put the prescription away in his storage pouch.
“Ohhh—so Boss, you also—!” Little Stone stared in shock.
“Ahem! It’s for a fellow cultivator friend of mine!” Shiyan explained quickly. “Enough of that! Let’s talk about our current situation!”
“Boss, you don’t seem worried at all?” Little Stone scratched his head.
“Of course not. Since the sect sent us on this mission, they must have prepared for everything!”
According to the original plan of the One Qi Sect, they intended to lure these highly talented sect disciples into the secret realm first, then have Shiyan’s team tangle with them. Once the secret realm adapted to multiple sources of spiritual energy, they would send Master Yangli—a Jindan level powerhouse—for backup.
The plan was actually perfect. Only those at Qi Refining stage could enter this secret realm, so even if they had a Tribulation Transcending protector, that person couldn’t force their way in. But Shiyan could use secret arts to open a small door.
At that point, sending in a Jindan cultivator would be like slaughtering chicks—eliminating these Qi Refining juniors would be effortless.
But for some reason, Yangli—the key player in their plan—still hadn’t shown up. With the others already investigating the secret realm’s truth, Shiyan had sent Little Stone to stir things up.
Unexpectedly, these “righteous” sect disciples turned out to be more devious than anyone, forcing Shiyan to resort to his lowest plan.
“Now, it seems we’ll have to revive the immortal ahead of schedule! Their aptitude may be a bit lacking, but it’s good enough!” Shiyan chuckled darkly.
Lacking in aptitude… What was the boss saying? Why was he looking at me like that?
Little Stone remembered—the sacrificial offering was supposed to be at Qi Refining stage, and he just happened to fit the bill?
“Wait! Hold on, Boss!” Cold sweat dripped down Little Stone’s forehead.
In the dim secret room, after a short, miserable scream, calm returned. Only the flickering reflection of the Sheying Zhu remained, casting its faint glow.
At the altar, the demolition squad had just finished a day’s work, sitting on rocks and eating dinner.
Lin Shu was still poring over the ritual script, while Lu Zhiyun, with a little notebook in hand, scribbled and chatted about recent events.
“So you’re saying—everyone in this secret realm eventually dies?” Tong Yao exclaimed.
Lu Zhiyun snapped her notebook shut and looked at Tong Yao. “That’s how it seems right now!”
Over the past few days, the four of them had been gathering information in Qingshan Town, finally pinpointing the secret realm’s exact time—at the end of the Great Shang Dynasty!
The late Great Shang era—a critical period, on the brink of chaos, with the dynasty not far from collapse.
According to history, the fall of Shang wasn’t due to immortal strife, but rather because the demon clans infiltrated the royal power. Countless minor demons wreaked havoc everywhere, using humans as sacrifices. This period was called “Yaohuo Zainian.”
The “Qingshan Town Tiger Demon Slaying” incident was just a microcosm of that tragedy.
No one knew how the call-for-help letter managed to leave the secret realm, but Lu Zhiyun still found it tragic.
Since the secret realm was a reenactment of history, and the letter only appeared ten thousand years later, it meant all the villagers of Qingshan Town had already been slaughtered by the tiger demon. The plea for help was never sent—perhaps it even fell into the hands of the demon spies.
Lin Shu put down his chopsticks, dusted off his hands, and joined the conversation. “Actually, you all entered the secret realm from the very beginning!”
“Senior Brother Lin, we already figured that out!” Tong Yao grinned. “Was it when we returned to town after killing the tiger demon?”
“No! Even earlier!” Lu Zhiyun waved her hand. “To be precise, we entered the secret realm the moment we first gathered here!”
Lin Shu raised his brows at Lu Zhiyun, his eyes full of praise!
Junior Sister really is clever! She’s already figured it out!
From the start, before they even lost their way in the mountains, they had already entered the secret realm. Lin Shu only noticed something was off after encountering the tiger demon.
That tiger demon hadn’t shown the slightest fear of him—their guardian—and even dared to attack him head-on, as if seeking death.
“Junior Sister Tong, didn’t you think the tiger demon was odd? Like it only targeted us specifically?” Lu Zhiyun pointed out.
Seeing Tong Yao’s confusion, Lin Shu gave the answer. “To be precise, you drew its aggro!”
That tiger demon never once attacked Lin Shu, nor even interacted with him, as if it couldn’t see him at all.
Lin Shu realized right away—this was a design mechanism of the secret realm!
Put simply: whoever attacks it enters combat mode and is forced to become its enemy. In gaming terms, they drew aggro.
Such designs were common in secret realms. Wu Qinglong had designed many monsters like this under Lin Shu’s guidance.
The flaw was that these monsters weren’t smart enough—if you didn’t attack, nothing would happen.
Lin Shu explained now because the others had almost finished their investigation. He was worried that if he waited any longer, they’d think he was an evil cultivator in league with the tiger demon—and then he’d be doomed!
Thankfully, Junior Sister always trusted him—she suspected Zhendan, but never him!
Moved to tears!
After Lin Shu’s explanation, Tong Yao finally understood. She hadn’t expected such intricate tricks.
Most of the secret realms in Demon Severing Mountain were straightforward fighting grounds—the monsters inside automatically locked onto enemies. She’d never noticed the difference.
“So we’re still stuck here because we didn’t kill everything we needed to?” Tong Yao raised her hand and asked, “During the late Shang, demons colluded with officials. Could it be that Zhendan is the mastermind?”
“Should we just kill him tonight?” Tong Yao suggested.
“Ah, no—Zhendan is a good man!” Lin Shu clutched his forehead, half laughing, half crying.
Why did everyone always think Zhendan—the old head—deserved to die?
And this wasn’t the first time this plot had happened, was it?
“I think the real issue is elsewhere.” Lin Shu fiddled thoughtfully with the pair of chopsticks he used for Zhuan Ke. “The key to clearing the secret realm might be this altar!”
Maybe…they had to revive that thing to pass through…
If that was true, it’d be a disaster! If what they revived was a great demon from the late Shang, all hell would break loose!
But if they didn’t revive it, they couldn’t clear the realm… Lin Shu was worried, hoping his adjustment of the sacrificial method would change what was summoned.
“Come to think of it, if the tiger demon is just a construct of the secret realm, then we can’t bring anything out?”
Tong Yao opened her storage pouch to retrieve the “Tiger Soul” she’d gotten days ago, but no matter how she searched, she couldn’t find it.
“How strange! I had it this afternoon!”
That afternoon, fearing she might develop a grass-eating “fetish,” Tong Yao had taken it out to study, but now it had vanished.
Lin Shu was about to speak, but in the next instant, he became alert, pulling Lu Zhiyun and Tong Yao behind him.
At the altar, the incomplete foundation array suddenly flared with jagged green light. The inscriptions on all three stone pillars lit up, and even the sections Lin Shu had altered in recent days began to tremble along with the array’s activation.
Almost instantly, Lu Zhiyun and Tong Yao were pressed breathless by an overwhelming force.
If not for Lin Shu shielding them, they would have already fainted.
“S-Senior Brother! What’s happening?” Lu Zhiyun stammered.
“Don’t talk!”
In that moment, Lin Shu was certain of the other party’s cultivation—beyond the Tribulation Crossing stage!
Or rather…an Immortal!