Mo Duan wasn’t quite sure if he was the only one who felt awkward about the current situation. It was only a few days ago when the Elders had delivered thinly veiled threats on his life in regard to the Secret Realm, but they were now acting as if none of that ever happened.
The people of this world might be used to such casual threats of violence, but Mo Duan couldn’t help but feel a bit uncomfortable around the other Elders.
Unfortunately, he didn’t really have the option of avoiding them. Luckily, they were unlikely to carry out their threats as his help was necessary to get them all to the Secret Realm. The Patriarch had given everyone a few days to sort out their affairs and arrange for their valleys to continue running in their absence. Mo Duan had assumed at first that some of the Elders would stay behind to protect the sect, but nobody seemed willing to be left behind and lose the chance to investigate the Secret Realm.
As a result, the actual running of the sect had been left to the various Hall Masters, and Mo Duan was now escorting the Patriarch and the Elders through the Vanishing Mist Woods. Elder Wuxing had taken to fighting any Spiritual Beast whose territory they happened to cross through while the other Elders were mostly just noting how much the woods had changed.
“It’s quite remarkable how many more Spiritual Plants there are in these woods since I last came here as a disciple,” said Elder Ying, curiously taking in her surroundings. “It's not only that they are more powerful, but there are several new species that aren’t native to this region of the empire.
“I doubt it’s a coincidence that the new species all seem to be dangerous,” said Elder Yuanlei, sweeping her sharp eyes over a Venomous Thornbloom. “The most likely explanation is that the Prismatic Veil Blooms are somehow drawing these Spiritual Plants to the woods in an attempt to protect themselves.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” said Elder Ying after giving it a moment of thought. “Given how old this Secret Realm must be, I’m sure there are more than a few Spiritual Plants inside who have achieved such awareness.”
There was some variation in the stage of cultivation necessary for a Spiritual Plant to become aware, but it was generally something that happened around the Core Formation realm. Typically, Spiritual Plants could only take on a human form once they reached the Nascent Soul realm. Mo Duan found it a bit concerning how nonchalant his colleagues were acting when they were about to enter a Spiritual Realm that was likely to contain beings as strong or stronger than themselves, but he probably shouldn’t be surprised.
Cultivators were all a bit crazy after all.
“How much longer until we actually get there?” Elder Wuxing asked irritably, still covered in the blood of the last Spiritual Beast that he had unceremoniously punched to death. “I swear, these woods have gotten bigger since the last time I was here. Although there are also a lot more beasts worth fighting. It might be worth it to send a few of my disciples here to toughen them up a bit once we find a way to stop them from getting lost.”
“Please remember to approve any such missions through the Hall of Administration. Our sect can’t afford to return to previous rates of attrition, especially not when the Secret Realm has increased the risk of us entering into conflict with the neighboring sects,” Patriarch Songyu said mildly. “Still, I would also like to know how much farther we have to travel, Elder Mo.”
“It shouldn’t be much longer now,” Mo Duan said from the front of the group, ignoring the faint suspicion in the Patriarch’s tone. “We’ve already passed the deepest point that I’ve ever gone on my own, and the Prismatic Veil Blooms have been steadily increasing their attempts to disrupt my sense of direction.”
Thankfully, Mo Duan’s guess was proven right and it wasn’t long before they were all studying an inconspicuous spot in the air while standing in a field of Prismatic Veil Blooms. Contrary to Mo Duan’s expectations, there was no tear in space or any kind of magical door floating in the air. Instead, there was simply a large spot that none of them could probe with their spiritual sense, not even the Patriarch. It was like their spiritual sense simply flowed around it unobtrusively.
If they weren’t standing directly in front of it and weren’t already searching for any inconsistencies, then it would have been very easy to overlook.
“How strange,” Elder Feng muttered to himself while studying the entrance.
“Is this not how the entrances to Secret Realms normally behave?” Mo Duan asked curiously.
His predecessor had never had the opportunity to enter one himself as they were almost all jealously hoarded by powerful organizations.
“No, it’s not. Secret Realms are usually fairly conspicuous once they open. The fact that this one is so difficult to detect suggests that it was either artificially created or that it was once owned by an organization capable of hiding it,” Elder Feng explained.
“I doubt there’s much to learn from continuing to study it,” said Patriarch Songyu before turning his attention to Mo Duan. “Elder Mo, I believe it would be best if you were the first to enter the Secret Realm.”
Mo Duan barely stopped himself from rolling his eyes. The Patriarch’s distrust was fairly reasonable given the circumstances, but he could tell that it would grow annoying quickly if something didn’t change.
Still, there was nothing to do about it right now, so Mo Duan simply nodded his understanding and took a step into the portal. He almost immediately felt all of his senses thrown into chaos as his spiritual sense was restricted to a few feet around his body. That and the sudden change to his environment forced Mo Duan to pause and take a moment to compose himself.
He then decided to assess his new surroundings, and suddenly found himself needing to gather his composure for an entirely different reason.
The portal had dropped Mo Duan off near the edge of a small island floating in the sky, giving him the perfect opportunity to take in the rest of the Secret Realm.
It’s a lot… bigger than I had expected.
The first thing that he noticed was that the realm had been separated into five distinct sections.
To his north, Mo Duan could see a large body of water that continued as far as his eyes could see. Its waters were relatively calm, and Mo Duan could vaguely make out the movement of a few aquatic beasts swimming near its surface with his Qi-enhanced sight.
Connected to this body of water was a large mangrove forest that gradually transitioned into a dense jungle stretching toward the east. The jungle teemed with life, and Mo Duan could see many kinds of strange Spiritual Plants that he was unable to recognize. Given how knowledgeable his predecessor was on the subject, he had no doubt that many of the Secret Realm’s plant life had either come from distant lands or different eras.
Down to the south was a vast and scorching desert. Unfortunately, it was a bit difficult to make out anything in that direction due to the fierce sandstorm hiding most of the desert’s surface.
Given the pattern that seemed to be emerging, Mo Duan was unsurprised when he looked to the center of the realm and saw a large plain that eventually transitioned into rolling hills. There were several herds of roving Spiritual Beasts roaming throughout the plains, but they were all too far away for Mo Duan to see them clearly.
To the far west was an enormous range of snow-tipped mountains that loomed over the rest of the mountains, completing the pattern that Mo Duan had previously noticed.
Even the landscape makes it obvious that the Secret Realm was artificially created, Mo Duan silently mused. Whoever made this place likely designed the areas to naturally produce one of the elemental Qi’s.
However, that wasn’t even the most interesting part of the Secret Realm as far as Mo Duan was concerned. He was so caught up in studying his surroundings that he didn’t even notice when his colleagues had followed him into the realm.
“Well… this is certainly far beyond what we had anticipated,” said Elder Feng, a hint of shock creeping into his normally dull voice.
It certainly is…
The ruins of an ancient city were definitely not on the list of things that Mo Duan had been expecting to find inside a Secret Realm. Especially not one that had been built across a chain of floating islands.
Although his predecessor had never been inside of a Secret Realm, Mo Duan knew enough about them to understand why people rarely chose to live inside of them for extended periods of time. The Qi inside of a Secret Realm had a tendency to take on unique features when compared to Qi from the outside world and was oftentimes more potent.
Using this Qi to cultivate was generally safe and even hugely beneficial when done in moderation, but that would change when done in excess.
A cultivator's meridians would eventually adapt itself exclusively to this Qi and could end up losing the ability to properly process less potent Qi. Attempting to do so would result in a variety of very serious health conditions unless the cultivator used specialized treatments or artifacts to alleviate their conditions. It was theorized that a similar condition would develop when someone from a Higher Plane attempted to travel to a lower one, but nobody knew for certain.
This phenomenon was troublesome enough that nearly all cultivators chose to simply live outside of the Secret Realms and utilize them in moderation. The fact that there had once been a city that chose otherwise in this realm was quite surprising.
“How lovely,” said Elder Ying, looking down at the diverse landscapes in admiration. “Properly cataloging this realm will likely take us many years. Whoever was responsible for creating all of this must have been truly powerful.”
“They would have certainly been powerful but creating something like this wouldn’t be particularly complicated,” Elder Feng said thoughtfully. “Forming these biomes would be as simple as placing a sufficiently powerful Spirit Vein of the appropriate element and providing some of the wildlife. After that point, the ecosystem would develop on its own. What’s far more impressive are these flying islands and the city that was once built on them. Truly, the times before the Separation were far superior to our own.”
“Actually, this city was almost certainly created after the Separation, Senior Feng,” said Elder Yuanlei, studying the ruins around them. “The architecture is from the Liang Dynasty, which was at least ten thousand years after our best estimate for when the Separation occurred.”
“Are we actually going to explore this place, or are we just going to enjoy the view while rambling on about history?” Elder Wuxing asked irritably. “You all can study this place as much as you want later, but not all of us can afford to waste our time.”
“I agree. The longer we are away, the more suspicious our absence will become,” said Patriarch Songyu, already moving toward the hard light Qi bridge connecting their island to the next. Mo Duan and the other Elders were quick to follow behind him. “Our first priority should be to learn what happened to this city and scout for potential dangers near this portal entrance.”
“We should also search for a library or archive. Elder Ying is correct to say that cataloging this place would require an inordinate amount of time. Not to mention the fact that records for many of the things in this Secret Realm are unlikely to exist in our sect,” said Elder Yuanlei. “The people who once lived here would obviously know it better than any other.”
Not only was walking through the ruins of the city quite eerie, but it was also rather… confusing. Most of the buildings were completely destroyed, as one would expect from a city that nobody had lived in for countless millennia, but a few were in relatively decent condition. No matter how hard he looked, Mo Duan couldn’t see any formations around the buildings designed to preserve them, nor could he study them more closely without his spiritual sense.
Unable to come up with any ideas, Mo Duan decided to ask the resident scholar. He honestly still felt a bit upset with her earlier actions in regard to the earlier meeting, but avoiding her would do nothing but hurt his own interests.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
If there was one thing that Mo Duan had in common with his predecessor, it was that they both knew how to be pragmatic. “Elder Yuanlei, why haven’t these buildings decayed after so many years?”
Elder Yuanlei glanced at him in surprise before turning a discerning eye to the ruins. “I don’t know for certain, but I would guess that the materials used to create them must be special in some way. There are signs that this city was destroyed by some kind of outside force. Most likely a group of hostile cultivators. It’s highly doubtful that any of their formations would have survived their battle.”
A material like that would be really useful… and valuable.
Having received a satisfactory answer, Mo Duan nodded to Elder Yuanlei and returned to searching the ruins. Having been stripped of their spiritual sense, the group was forced to split up in the interest of conserving time. A small part of Mo Duan expected some kind of ghost or monster to jump out at him as soon as he was away from his colleagues, but no such thing happened.
Not only was every building that he searched completely devoid of monsters, but there was barely anything inside of them at all. Mo Duan was starting to get the feeling that the entire city had been completely plundered from top to bottom, and that all of its valuables had already been stolen. Their exploration was largely fruitless and they passed through the various islands in the chain until they all eventually reached what was obviously the city’s former center of administration.
After all, the largest and most impressive building always belonged to the most powerful person in the community, no matter the time period.
“I had assumed that these ruins belonged to a sect, but this looks like an imperial palace,” Mo Duan said hesitantly as he studied the extravagant structure in front of him. No sect in the current age would be daring enough to challenge the Empress by constructing a palace, so he was a bit surprised.
Still… It's an impressive building.
Not only was it absolutely massive, being several times wider and taller than the Verdant Pagoda, but it was also far better preserved than any other building that he had seen in the Secret Realm. It was also emanating a powerful aura that Mo Duan could even feel without his spiritual sense that caused a hint of uncertainty to creep into his heart.
Mo Duan could tell that he wasn’t the only one who was hesitant, but the rest of the ruins had obviously been picked clean and this was the only place they had left to search. With that in mind, Patriarch Songyu led the way into the palace with his hand resting on the hilt of his sword, and the rest of them tensely followed behind.
How ominous…
The first thing that Mo Duan noticed as he entered the palace was the massive, featureless statues lined up against the walls and staring down at them. Fully prepared to defend himself in the event that they suddenly came to life and started attacking, Mo Duan carefully studied his surroundings as he followed his colleagues. It was obvious that the palace had once belonged to someone of incredibly high status, as it was filled with ornate and luxurious furnishings.
The wooden floors shone as if they had just been polished and colorful murals depicting a group of cultivators fighting mythical creatures decorated the walls. Most of all, the fact that nothing inside the palace had been looted spoke volumes.
“Do you think those statues would fight us if we tried to take anything?” Elder Wuxing asked curiously, echoing Mo Duan’s previous thoughts.
“I’m unable to see anything that would allow them to do so, but that would be the logical conclusion,” said Elder Feng. “I would rather not test it until we have a better understanding of their capabilities.”
“Our primary focus should be to find a library,” Elder Yuanlei said firmly. “There are plenty of benefits to be found in the rest of the Secret Realm, but it would be much easier to plan for the future if we found some manner of catalog.”
Unwilling to split up as they did before, the group slowly explored the palace while keeping an eye out for the library. Most of the building was simply filled with luxurious valuables that none of them dared to touch and more featureless statues. It was only when they all reached the throne room that everyone in the group, including Mo Duan, saw something that left them dumbfounded.
Okay… this place just got a lot creepier than it already was.
Sitting on the throne was an extremely handsome young man who was wearing an intricate set of dark red robes. Mo Duan would have thought that the man was alive if it weren’t for the sword piercing through his heart and pinning him to the throne. Even then, a part of him expected the man to open his eyes and start monologuing at them.
“It’s possible that he has been frozen through some manner of suspended animation,” said Elder Feng, breaking the tense silence.
“Do you know of any methods to suspend someone for so long?” Elder Yuanlei asked dubiously. “Any formation or talisman capable of doing this would have long since run out of Qi. The most likely explanation is simply that he’s dead and his corpse has been made unable to decay.”
“Even a cultivator of the Spirit Severing realm would begin to decay after a few millennia,” Elder Ying refuted. “And any method of preserving them would have also faded away by now.”
“Is there a way that we can verify whether or not he’s truly dead?” Patriarch Songyu asked gravely, directing his question to Elder Ying. As the sect’s foremost healer, she would obviously know better than anyone else.
“If I get close enough to check his meridians, that should be enough,” said Elder Ying. “Of course, we can’t be completely certain, but I don’t know of any methods for a soul to continue residing in a body devoid of Qi.”
“Then please do so,” Patriarch Songyu ordered. “This isn’t something that we can afford to be ignorant about if we wish to make use of the Secret Realm in the long term.”
Elder Ying seemed a bit reluctant, but she moved toward the throne and bowed respectfully toward the man before placing two fingers on his wrists. After a few incredibly tense moments, Elder Ying let out a breath of relief before sharing her findings.
“This man is almost certainly dead. As I said, there might be a Pre-Separation method capable of changing that, but I’m as confident of this as I can be. Especially since I can detect signs of his having surpassed the Spirit Severing realm, which explains why his corpse hasn’t decayed.”
Mo Duan stared at the corpse in shock and awe. His predecessor had never even heard of anyone reaching such a high level of cultivation in the modern age, as they simply lacked the resources to do so due to the Separation. He didn’t even really know with any certainty what the realm was called.
“Are you sure? How could such a powerful cultivator be killed by something as simple as a sword to the heart?” Mo Duan asked, glancing suspiciously at the relatively plain sword sticking out of the man’s chest. Even he would probably be able to survive a wound like that long enough to receive medical attention, let alone such a powerful immortal.
Elder Yuanlei turned her attention to the sword as well in response to Mo Duan’s question.
“There must be something particularly special about this weapon, most likely some manner of enchantment that we are unable to sense,” said Elder Ying as she began reaching for the blade’s hilt. “Perhaps if I remove it from the corpse, we ca—”
Mo Duan suddenly collapsed as an overwhelming sense of danger fell over the room. As he struggled to breathe, he quickly glanced at his colleagues and saw that they had all collapsed as well.
Most people developed powerful instincts as they advanced their level of cultivation that warned them of an imminent threat. His predecessor had finely honed this instinct over his many years of living a life of danger, but absolutely nothing that he had experienced prepared him for what he was feeling right now. Mo Duan knew with absolute certainty that if Elder Ying had managed to remove that blade, then every single one of them would already be dead.
The sense of danger eventually passed, and everyone picked themselves off the ground and began to collect themselves.
“I think it would be best if we left this room,” Patriarch Songyu said grimly, already making his way to the exit with as much dignity as he could muster. “There’s little else that we can learn here, and we still have yet to find the library.”
Mo Duan and the other Elders didn’t hesitate to follow him, eager to get away from the unchanged corpse and the terrifying sword piercing it. The rest of their search was completely silent as nobody was particularly interested in making casual conversation after what just happened. Cultivators of their level rarely faced threats so dangerous as to make them feel utterly helpless.
It wasn’t a pleasant feeling.
Fortunately, it didn’t take them very long to find the palace library and everyone immediately got to work looking for information on the Secret Realm. Elder Feng was able to verify that the library’s defenses wouldn’t activate unless the scrolls inside were removed, so that was one thing that they didn’t need to worry about.
The library didn’t have quite as many scrolls as Mo Duan had expected and none of them seemed to hold any details about cultivation techniques or methods, much to everyone’s disappointment. Despite this, what few scrolls it did contain were very useful and contained plenty of information about the Secret Realm itself.
As soon as he found a scroll that documented the realm’s so-called ‘Eternal Banyan Jungle,’ Mo Duan quickly sat down at one of the library’s desks and began gleefully reading. It would be very helpful if he could find a valuable Spiritual Plant to either grow in his valley or sell for more cultivation resources. Selling anything from before the Separation would probably be too dangerous, but they could still be used internally as long as Mo Duan was careful.
This ‘Five Elements Flower’ would be very helpful for Xue Chenying’s cultivation… The ‘Dragon’s Blood Tree’ would be pretty helpful as well. I’m pretty sure Lightning Bamboo is Post-Separation, so farming it should be safe if I can get a sample. I’d almost certainly get myself killed if I try to sell a ‘Dark Sun Lily,’ but having a few for myself would be nice.
Mo Duan was deep in thought when his attention was suddenly drawn to the sound of Elder Yuanlei uncharacteristically cursing from the other side of the room. Deciding to find out what the problem was, Mo Duan put aside his scroll and made his way over to the scholar.
“Is something wrong, Elder Yuanlei?” asked Mo Duan.
The rest of his colleagues had also been drawn by their curiosity and were listening in to the conversation.
“Yes. If what I’m reading is correct, then large portions of the Secret Realm are inaccessible to us,” said Elder Yuanlei, scowling down at the scroll in front of her. “Whoever created the realm included many powerful formations designed to separate Spiritual Beasts depending on their cultivation realms. They did this so that the realm could maintain a more diverse ecosystem without risking the more powerful beasts driving the weaker species to extinction.”
“I don’t see any particular problem with that,” Patriarch Songyu said mildly. “Wouldn’t such a system make it much safer for our disciples to explore the realm? It seems very convenient.”
“It would be, Patriarch, if we had any control over the Secret Realm’s formations,” Elder Yuanlei explained. “Without it, those formations will also prevent us from entering anywhere outside of the areas designated for our level of cultivation. We can not harvest any resources from any region below our cultivation.”
Mo Duan barely stopped himself from letting out his own string of curses once he processed the scholar’s words. Depending on the boundaries of those formations, there would almost certainly be many Spiritual Plants that he would be unable to access that only grew in specific environments. That meant that Mo Duan would be forced to rely on his disciples to gather any Spiritual Plant that he couldn’t get to himself.
“Does your scroll have a map of these formations?” Mo Duan asked pressingly.
“It does. See for yourselves.”
Mo Duan carefully studied the scroll and discovered that the situation was worse than he expected. The Lightning Bamboo should grow within the regions available to him, but the Five Elements Flower, Dragon Blood Tree, and Dark Sun Lily were all outside of his available area.
Understanding the implications of this, the group immediately began arguing over access to the Secret Realm for their disciples. They had to be relatively selective about who they let in due to secrecy, and everyone had justifications for why their disciples were the most important. The argument went on until Patriarch Songyu forcefully put a stop to it.
“That’s enough. All of this bickering is getting us nowhere,” said Patriarch Songyu, immediately causing everyone to quiet down. “Every Elder will be initially assigned five free slots every three months to the Secret Realm for their disciples, as well as one additional slot for every Hall Master.”
“Five slots for each of us? I think the Secret Realm can afford to support a few more than that, Patriarch,” said Elder Yuanlei, to the agreement of pretty much everyone. Mo Duan had the least amount of disciples in the sect, but even felt like five slots were too few.
“That’s why I specified that these slots would be initially designated. The rest of the slots will be distributed depending on the results of our sect’s annual tournament,” Patriarch Songyu explained.
Elder Wuxing looked pleased by this turn of events, but everyone else was far more subdued in their reaction. The disciples of Patriarch Songyu and Elder Wuxing spent far more time focusing on their skills in combat than any other valley, and unsurprisingly dominated the sect’s annual tournament. This was why the other Elders all organized their own competitions that they used to motivate their disciples.
“I understand what some of you must be thinking, but I believe that this is necessary,” Patriarch Songyu said firmly. “This Secret Realm is far more valuable than any of us could have ever imagined, and there will come a time when we must fight to defend it. Until we become strong enough to fend off any who might challenge us, our focus must shift to nurturing those who will be responsible for protecting this sect, including us. I expect all of you to use this opportunity to progress your cultivation.”
Mo Duan held back a wince as the Patriarch began explaining his expectations for the Elders. Given his unique circumstances, there was effectively no way for him to advance his cultivation without devouring someone from the Nascent Soul Realm with his bloodvines. That was one of the main reasons why he was focusing so hard on solving the problem of this demonic cultivation. Unfortunately, it would be quite some time before Ling Jun managed to become strong enough to purify his vines, time that he apparently didn’t have.
But… maybe there’s a way that I can speed this up.
Before he had been distracted by Elder Yuanlei’s cursing, Mo Duan had stumbled on a Spiritual Plant that had a significant weakening effect on Demonic Plants. If he could get his hands on one of those, then his problems could be solved much faster. It was a shame that the particular Spiritual Plant that he needed only grew in the Qi Condensation portion of the Secret Realm.
I’ll need to have as many disciples succeed in the tournament as possible to maximize my chances…
As he listened to Patriarch Songyu continue to explain how slots to the realm would be allotted, Mo Duan was already thinking about how to best strengthen his disciples.