“Magic Mirror? Are you online?”
Testing the waters, Yun Fei patted the Magic Mirror at her waist.
If it did not respond, it would mean she was still within the range of the Five Thousand Steps of Ever-bright, and her safety could still be guaranteed.
What Yun Fei feared most now was the Magic Mirror responding to her; if it did, it meant she was already far away from Dawn Academy.
“Ugh… Your Highness? I’m here! That was such a comfortable sleep~”
Hearing the murmur of the Magic Mirror gradually waking from its slumber, Yun Fei felt as if she had been struck by a bolt from the blue.
At this moment, the situation she least wanted to see had finally occurred.
“Your Highness? Is something wrong? Your Highness?”
The Magic Mirror shook off the white snow on its body, making a puzzled expression on its surface as it looked at Yun Fei.
It saw her standing motionless, as if she had suffered some massive blow.
“Your Highness! What’s wrong? Don’t scare me like this, okay?”
The Magic Mirror was startled by Yun Fei’s appearance.
It hurriedly detached itself from her waist and flew into the air, swaying back and forth in front of Yun Fei’s eyes, attempting to pull back her seemingly vanished consciousness.
“I…”
Yun Fei snapped back to her senses from her daze.
Looking at the Magic Mirror fluttering in front of her, she reached out and grabbed it, forcing its movements to stop.
“Magic Mirror! Quick! Use the Spiritual Power you’ve cultivated for thousands of years to observe our surroundings. I don’t know where we are right now. The temperature here is terrifyingly low. We have to find a way to leave this place, or else my career as the Young Master ends here!”
“Ah… ow~ ow~ ow~ Your Highness, don’t shake me~ Let me look…”
“Oh, alright.”
Yun Fei immediately realized she had lost her composure.
She quickly released the Magic Mirror from her hands, leaned closer to the fire, and waited quietly for the Magic Mirror’s conclusion.
“Hmm… the spatial fluctuation frequency here is quite high, equivalent to the spatial fluctuation frequency of most Secret Realms. This shouldn’t be the main world. Your Highness, we must have accidentally entered a Secret Realm.”
“A Secret Realm?”
Yun Fei forced herself to calm down, recalling everything that had happened before arriving here.
She remembered that before her consciousness went dark, she had seen that strange pattern on the back of Mu Lingxi’s hand.
Following that, the Corroding Ice Curse on her body suddenly erupted, and she knew nothing after that.
“So… it can currently be determined that the root of all this is the mark on the back of Mu Lingxi’s hand… But knowing the source of the problem seems useless; I need to get out! Otherwise, I’m going to freeze to death!”
“Don’t worry, Your Highness. There is definitely a way out, but if you just stay here, you certainly won’t find it. We have to go out and explore!”
“Explore? Are you kidding me? There’s a blizzard raging outside right now. Am I supposed to go out and die?”
Veins popped on Yun Fei’s forehead as she rebuked the Magic Mirror’s unreliable suggestion.
Did it think she didn’t know staying in place was useless?
“…Your Highness, have you forgotten that you brought your Treasure Vault with you? Perhaps there is a way to solve the current situation inside?”
“The Treasure Vault?”
A spark of inspiration suddenly flashed in Yun Fei’s mind, and she couldn’t help but slap her forehead.
“Previously, every time I went out, I wouldn’t carry the Treasure Vault on me. I actually forgot about it this time!”
If she wanted to solve the most pressing issue at hand, Yun Fei thought of an object that had been piled up in her collection Treasure Vault for a long time—the Fire Protection Badge.
This was a small, fiery-red badge with a carved floral pattern in the center.
Its core was crafted from the monster core of a Heavenly Fire Demon.
It was a supreme treasure of the fire attribute and was a birthday gift given to her by Sister Bai several years ago.
However, because she had already begun preliminary contact with the inheritance of the Nether Realm Purple Fire back then, she looked down on this thing and simply placed it in her Treasure Vault.
She remembered that she had even complained about Sister Bai being stingy at the time.
By wearing this badge, it could form a fire-attribute energy field around the body.
Moreover, it consumed the energy of the environment rather than her own Demonic Power.
For her current situation, it was a miracle cure!
“Hehe… Magic Mirror, you’ve been a huge help today. Once I get out, I’ll definitely engrave a beautiful pattern on your back.”
“Really? That’s wonderful!”
The Magic Mirror hopped happily in the air and then obediently returned to Yun Fei’s waist, hanging itself back in place.
Yun Fei fastened the badge to the clothing on her chest and infused a sliver of startup Demonic Power into it.
Instantly, the chill vanished without a trace.
“Whoa! The effect is this good!”
Yun Fei’s eyes lit up.
She stretched her limbs and found that there were no longer any obstacles to her movement; everything was perfectly smooth!
Opening a crack in the cave entrance, Yun Fei looked outside.
The wind was still howling, and snow filled the air, obstructing most of her vision.
The sky was gloomy, and the environment was extremely harsh.
“The blizzard seems to have stopped. Let’s go out and take a look.”
Yun Fei pushed aside the snow pile at the cave entrance and crawled out.
As soon as she came out, Yun Fei felt the temperature drop a bit more, but fortunately, with the Fire Protection Badge present, it was not that unbearable.
“Magic Mirror, it’s time for you to function again. Help me see if there is anything special nearby. Maybe we can find a way out.”
“Okay, Your Highness, let me search… There! In the southeast direction, there is a pillar of light reaching the sky. Currently, your vision is restricted, so you can’t see it clearly. If you move closer in that direction, you might be able to see it!”
“The southeast… which way is southeast?”
Yun Fei was excited at first, not expecting the Magic Mirror to find something just by giving it a try, but then she realized that from her perspective, she couldn’t distinguish north, south, east, or west on this Snowy Plain where everything looked the same color.
“Uh… to your right.”
***
“Mu Lingxi, can you explain to me what is going on with the mark on your hand?”
Hong Niang brought the confused Mu Lingxi to a closed room.
Along the way, she listened as Hong Niang recounted the sequence of events.
After hearing it, her expression became a bit strange.
It was also because of this expression that Hong Niang determined Mu Lingxi might know what the situation was.
“This… this mark appeared suddenly a year ago when I came out of the Canghai Pass Secret Realm. I couldn’t get rid of it no matter what. Later, I went to ask my Master, but she was also baffled and couldn’t figure it out. Later, during a cultivation session, this mark suddenly erupted with a strong light, just like earlier, and I was pulled into a Secret Realm. But I was ejected shortly after; I didn’t even do anything.”
“Canghai Pass Secret Realm? Are you sure?”
Hearing the name of this Secret Realm, Hong Niang’s expression became even gloomier.
“I’m sure… Vice Principal, what’s wrong? Is there something strange about that Secret Realm?”
“Yes… your Master probably didn’t mention it to you, but also a year ago, likely after you left that Secret Realm, it was confirmed to have been eroded by The Void. I now suspect the mark on your hand is related to The Void.”
“The Void…”
Hearing this term, Mu Lingxi’s face turned pale instinctively.
“Then Yun Fei…”
“If I’m not mistaken, she should be like you were back then, pulled into that Secret Realm… roughly how long did you spend in there before being ejected?”
“…Less than fifteen minutes.”
“Tsk, this is trouble. Yun Fei has already been in there for half an hour!”
Hong Niang’s face darkened, and then she grabbed Mu Lingxi’s hand.
“Do you have a way to actively open it? I’ll go pull her out!”
Mu Lingxi froze for a moment, then shook her head.
“This thing is unpredictable. I have no ability to control it at all, and I can’t figure out the conditions under which it opens on its own. It’s as if it really follows its own mood.”
“Is that so… then I can only force my way in.”
Hong Niang steeled her heart and closed her eyes.
Her consciousness drifted and plunged into the mark on Mu Lingxi’s hand.
Her body fell uncontrollably to the floor, giving Mu Lingxi a fright.
“Vice Principal?”
Looking at Hong Niang lying motionless on the ground, to be honest, Mu Lingxi was still a little panicked, but she suppressed her alarm, her mouth constantly murmuring.
“Yun Fei… please don’t let anything happen…”
Meanwhile, in the Secret Realm, Yun Fei was almost at the glowing pillar of light.
She deftly flicked her spear, glancing sideways at several white viscous substances lying scattered behind her that had blocked her way.
Her gaze darkened slightly. “Void Creatures… why would they appear here?”
To be honest, this was her first time killing Void Creatures single-handedly.
Those she had just encountered were surprisingly weak, yet extremely troublesome.
After killing them, their corpses would actually divide and recombine.
This was completely different from the situation she had seen when Mother killed the Void Creature that her father had transformed into.
But fortunately, the volume of the new creatures after recombining would decrease.
After killing them several times in succession, she finally managed to kill them for good.
“Mu Lingxi… does she have some connection to The Void? Or is it just that mark related to The Void?”
Yun Fei didn’t really think Mu Lingxi would be connected to The Void; if there was a connection, it would be as enemies.
After all, as the Saintess personally chosen by the Heavenly Way, her character and conduct were naturally trustworthy.
In short, it wasn’t a problem she could consider right now.
She still felt a bit disgusted; the feeling of the spear cutting through those slimy clumps was very strange.
This kind of psychological discomfort wasn’t something she could recover from instantly.
Shaking her head, Yun Fei forced herself not to think about those disgusting things and walked toward the pillar of light.
The area near the pillar of light was much cleaner.
Those Void Creatures still wandering around only stayed on the outskirts of the light; they seemed unable to approach the pillar.
“They don’t dare to approach… what exactly is the origin of this pillar? …If we had this thing, the battle against The Void would be much easier, wouldn’t it?”
Yun Fei looked down at the white viscous substances that had been stuck to the tip of her spear and wouldn’t shake off.
After she entered the range of the pillar of light, they actually seemed to be purified, turning into pure droplets that dripped onto the ground.
“Wait! This scent… these droplets are Liquid Spiritual Energy?”
Yun Fei was only slightly surprised at first and didn’t pay much attention, but when the thick scent of spiritual energy rushed into her nose, that small surprise transformed into great shock.
Clearly, this surpassed her scope of knowledge.
“Light that can purify The Void… if this light had been used to deal with Father back then, would he have been able to return to his original state too?”
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