After hearing Chen Yuyang’s words, Xuan Ke’s eyes showed a look of realization.
Now, she suddenly felt the path ahead become clear.
What to do, what she should do—she had a plan.
“In that case, let’s set off now,” Xuan Ke immediately agreed.
Meanwhile, in another part of the Xuan Clan secret realm.
In a strong sense of spatial distortion and dizziness, Cloud Lian barely steadied herself.
When she saw the surroundings, she was momentarily stunned.
The view around was cramped, all towering into the clouds with steep stone pillars of various shapes.
Standing among them felt like entering a massive maze.
For a moment, even the directions of east, west, north, and south were indistinguishable.
“What is this place?” she muttered to herself, a trace of unease rising in her heart.
After calming herself and slightly adjusting her state, Cloud Lian noticed that her spiritual sense could not extend beyond two zhang from her body in this area, nor could she fly through the air.
It was clearly restricted by some rule.
She could only observe with her naked eyes and explore this area on foot.
Cloud Lian carefully made her way through this stone forest, vigilantly observing her surroundings and listening for any movement.
Suddenly, the girl’s gaze was drawn to a faint glow on a rock wall ahead.
Cloud Lian’s heart stirred.
She cautiously approached.
That was an object hidden in a crevice of a stone pillar.
Sensing no threat from it, Cloud Lian reached out and took it out.
It was a jade-like item carved from a top-grade spirit stone that had exhausted its spiritual power, shaped like a coin.
“This, could it be…” Cloud Lian’s eyes lit up.
She hurriedly turned the coin over to look.
On the front of the coin was carved the character “Xuan.”
“A token!” Cloud Lian was delighted.
She didn’t expect her luck to be so good—she had only just entered the secret realm and already found a token!
Cloud Lian quickly tried to store the coin into her ring.
However, when she activated her ring’s spiritual power, she found that the ring had no reaction to the token coin, and it couldn’t be stored inside at all.
Cloud Lian tried several times, all ending in failure.
Cloud Lian frowned.
She didn’t know what trick had been done to the token coin, but she could feel the ring repelling it.
“Can I only carry it on me?”
Cloud Lian furrowed her brows, holding the coin in her hand.
This item was not big, but the coin itself continuously emitted a faint spiritual power.
If carefully probed, no matter where on the body it was placed, it couldn’t be hidden.
‘I suppose the Xuan Clan deliberately made it so—cannot be stored, cannot be hidden. How many tokens one has on them is completely clear. In this way, the struggle among each other will become even more intense and thorough.’
Cloud Lian thought, sighed softly, and placed the coin against her body, putting it in a close pocket.
Just as the girl planned to carefully search the area again to see if there were any other gains, a warning instinct flashed in her heart.
Cloud Lian instinctively dodged to the side.
At the same moment she dodged, a powerful surge of spiritual power shot from not far behind her.
Boom!
With a loud crash, rocks flew.
Next to where Cloud Lian had been standing, a thick stone pillar was blasted apart by that force.
Huge stones flew everywhere, collapsing down.
Cloud Lian’s pupils suddenly dilated, and her heart pounded wildly.
She quickly pulled forward to create distance while turning around to look at the direction of the attack.
Among the collapsed rubble, a man in black tight clothing, tall and thin, was rapidly pursuing.
The man had a smile on his lips, staring unashamedly at Cloud Lian’s chest.
That was exactly where she had hidden the token coin.
Realizing that the opponent was faster and that several stone pillars blocked the way ahead, Cloud Lian stopped, drew her blade, circulated her spiritual power, and prepared thoroughly for battle.
The man also stopped, but didn’t attack immediately.
Instead, he stood a few zhang in front of Cloud Lian.
“Heh, your reaction is quite fast.”
The man licked his lips, looked coldly at Cloud Lian, and said contemptuously, “Unfortunately, your opponent is me. You can’t escape!”
As he spoke, he took a step forward.
The aura he emitted, though not earth-shattering, made Cloud Lian immediately realize that there was a gap of several minor realms between them.
The man then said coldly, “You already have one token on you, right? Hand it over obediently, and if this young master is in a good mood, I might let you go.”
Cloud Lian’s hand gripping the sword tightened.
She didn’t know the opponent’s exact level, but it was most likely the peak of the Golden Core stage.
Although she herself had recently reached the eighth layer of the Golden Core stage through dual cultivation with her senior brother, the gap with this opponent was still enormous.
In a direct fight, she had no chance of winning.
Moreover, his clothing…
Cloud Lian’s gaze fell on a silver family crest embroidered on the man’s cuffs, and her pupils involuntarily contracted.
That was the symbol of the Dongfang family.
The Dongfang family, one of the four great families of the North Domain.
“Hmph, you recognize it? Since you do, then obediently do as I say!”
Dongfang Bai saw that Cloud Lian had recognized his identity, and his face showed even more arrogance.
His tone became even more aggressive, presumably thinking he had Cloud Lian trapped.
Under pressure, Cloud Lian felt her palms soaked with sweat, and her heart pounded in her chest.
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck the girl’s mind.
She thought of the items her senior brother had stuffed into her hands before she left.
There were quite a few talismans, but she had never tried them and didn’t know their specific power.
But right now, she had to try.
With her own strength, she had no chance of winning.
Cloud Lian gritted her teeth and made up her mind.
“Alright, I’ll give it to you. But… don’t hurt me.”
She looked up, putting on a deeply troubled and even fearful expression, her voice slightly trembling.
Seeing this, Dongfang Bai’s smug expression grew even more.
He sneered inwardly.
‘As expected, she’s a naive little girl who gets scared at a little intimidation.’
He waved his hand and said magnanimously, “You’re smart. Don’t worry, I, Dongfang Bai, keep my word. Once I get the token, I won’t hurt you.”
Despite his words, Dongfang Bai had another plan in mind.
‘When she hands over the token, I’ll seize the moment when she lets her guard down to seriously injure her, forcing her to leave the secret realm.’
‘That way, I can get the token while eliminating a potential competitor at minimal cost.’
‘After all, I didn’t swear any oath by the Heavenly Dao.’
‘In this secret realm, one less person means my rank will naturally be one point higher.’
Cloud Lian obediently nodded, slowly raised her hand, took out the token, and threw it toward Dongfang Bai.
“Here.”
Dongfang Bai’s eyes flashed with a gleam.
He quickly reached out to catch the token.
However, just as he saw the rapidly approaching coin, his gaze also noticed something else.
Along with the coin came a yellow talisman.
That was…
‘Damn!’ A warning alarm soared in Dongfang Bai’s heart, and a strong sense of crisis instantly flooded his entire body!
“Not good!”
Without thinking, Dongfang Bai tried to pull back his hand and retreat to defend.
But it was too late.
The next moment, the talisman turned to ash and erupted with a dazzling purple light.
Before Dongfang Bai could see clearly, his vision blurred.
Then he felt his body become light, and then he landed on solid ground.
Opening his eyes, Dongfang Bai noticed that the scenery around him had completely changed.
It was no longer that stone forest, but a familiar cliff.
A glowing gate… This was the entrance to the Xuan Clan secret realm!
Dongfang Bai’s eyes widened, his face full of disbelief.
“This… what is this? How did I come out?”
Dongfang Bai exclaimed, looking down at his body.
He was completely unharmed! No injuries, no pain.
“That bastard! What did she use? She actually teleported me straight out of the secret realm!”
Dongfang Bai trembled with rage, his face livid.
“Your teleportation talisman has shattered. You are eliminated.”
At that moment, a Xuan Clan elder stepped forward and said to Dongfang Bai.
As he announced, the elder’s gaze at Dongfang Bai also held a hint of barely perceptible amazement.
As one of the elders in charge of secret realm affairs, he knew that Dongfang Bai had been teleported out.
This meant he had encountered a fatal threat.
But strangely… the elder carefully examined Dongfang Bai.
The young man’s aura was slightly disordered, but his clothes were unusually neat, not like he had been in a battle, and he had no external injuries at all.
“This kid…”
The elder furrowed his brows.
Despite his surprise, he silently considered a possibility.
‘He was probably ambushed and instantly suffered a threat that would have been fatal, so the teleportation talisman activated before he was actually injured, sending him out.’
But this kid’s strength wasn’t weak among this group.
Even if ambushed, normally there wouldn’t be many who could end his life in an instant…
If that was the case, then just how powerful was the one who defeated him?
Meanwhile, back inside the Xuan Clan secret realm, in the stone forest.
Cloud Lian was also a bit stunned.
She only saw that after she threw the talisman and the token together, the talisman shattered.
Then a purple lightning bolt as thick as a bowl, containing a terrifying destructive aura, appeared out of nowhere and struck Dongfang Bai!
As the lightning flashed, the blinding light prevented Cloud Lian from seeing the details.
She only knew that with a loud crash, when she opened her eyes again, the opponent was nowhere to be seen.
On the scene, only a patch of scorched black rocks remained.
“This… was he vaporized?”
Cloud Lian covered her mouth, startled.
But soon, she shook her head.
“No, that’s not right… Although this talisman’s power was immense, to say it could instantly blast a Golden Core perfection cultivator into nothing was still unrealistic. Cultivators at the Golden Core stage weren’t that fragile.”
“He must have been threatened by the lightning, and the teleportation talisman activated to send him out of the secret realm.”
Calming herself, Cloud Lian quickly understood the logic.
Looking at the spot where the lightning struck, her eyes flashed with surprise: “The talisman my senior brother gave me, it’s actually this powerful!”
Cloud Lian muttered to herself as she walked to where Dongfang Bai had been standing.
There, besides the token she had thrown earlier lying quietly, there was another identical coin beside it.
Cloud Lian bent down and picked up the extra coin, her eyes glimmering.
‘This must be the token that person found. No wonder he knew I had one.’
‘It seems that even when he was teleported out, his token stayed behind.’
And thinking of the stack of talismans in her storage ring, some bold ideas began to form in Cloud Lian’s mind.