"Nyam, nyam… oooooh! My severed right hand has grown back! All the holes in my body caused by that wretched human's lightning attack have healed too!"

"Nom, nom. Quiet down, Long Linglu, nom, nom… you're too noisy."

"Nyam, nyam… I'm not noisy! I'm just happy my hand grew back! Nyam, nyam…"

"Haah… whatever—hey! You're eating too much of the fruit! Don't finish it all!"

"Nyam, nyam, don't worry! I won't eat it all! I'm just so hungry, let me eat!"

"Just make sure to leave some of the fruit. We need it. And hurry up and finish eating; we've been here too long. We need to get into the alternative realm to find Sister Xue."

"Nyam, nyam, of course."

When Ruan Xiaoyue and Long Linglu left the scene of the battle they had won and headed toward the cave where the portal to the alternate realm was, they remained unaware of a child's soul emerging from the body of the elder whose heart had been stabbed by Ruan Xiaoyue. The soul was watching them with murderous intent.

Shaking off the murderous gaze, the child's soul quickly flew away from the elder’s corpse, which had a hole in its heart, heading toward an unknown destination.

Two hours later, the child’s soul arrived at a large mountain, atop which stood many grand buildings inhabited by people wearing the same sect robes. The soul flew past everything around it, heading directly toward the most prominent building among the others.

It stopped at the gate of the building, hovering down to approach the gatekeeper standing at the entrance. The soul spoke, delivering an important message.

"Gatekeeper, please inform the sect master that I, Elder Kong, wish to speak with him. I have vital information."

"E-Elder Kong? W-why are you like this?"

"Quickly, tell the sect master! This information is crucial!"

"Y-yes, right away."

After being scolded by the child’s soul—Elder Kong—the gatekeeper quickly went inside, returning shortly after to allow Elder Kong to meet with the sect master.

"The sect master has given permission, Elder Kong. Please, go in."

Nodding slightly, Elder Kong passed through the gate and entered the building where the sect master awaited. Without wasting any time, Elder Kong immediately recounted his encounter with Ruan Xiaoyue and Long Linglu in the Death Forest.

When he finished telling his story, Elder Kong waited for the sect master to process all the information. After a few moments, the sect master finally spoke.

"It sounds unbelievable, hearing this from you, Elder Kong, but seeing how you’ve returned to the sect with only your Nascent Soul in the form of a child’s soul, I have no choice but to believe it. Who would've thought the child we’ve been targeting had such unimaginable power, and that the divine fruit we've been seeking comes from that child and the demon companion with her?"

"Even so, we still don’t know where that fruit originated, Master. While I didn’t see the human child wearing any sect clothing from this continent, it’s possible that those two are serving a master with an exceptionally high cultivation level who’s hiding here, possessing a vast treasure trove. Perhaps that’s why they’re able to carry the divine fruit we desire so easily."

"It’s possible, as you suggest, that the children's master has an advanced cultivation level, allowing him to share the divine fruit with them. But I don’t believe their master is as powerful a cultivator as we might assume. As we know, the Fellow Sun continent has far less qi compared to others, so it would be strange for a high-level cultivator to choose to live here. I think it’s more likely their master is someone in the Body Integration stage who was fortunate enough to find a great treasure trove and distribute some to her disciples. However, due to her disciples' carelessness, we’ve become aware of the fruit."

"In that case, we have nothing to fear in capturing the two children. It’s unlikely they have a powerful master, and even if their master appears, we can call upon the ancestors to aid us in defeating him. If we succeed in capturing the children, we must take all the divine fruit they possess, Sect Master. With the amount of fruit they have, our sect will undoubtedly prosper."

Stolen story; please report.

"Your suggestion is quite good, Elder Kong. As for the divine fruit, of course, we must possess it, considering how incredible its effects are, especially after one of our elders has tried it. How could we possibly let it slip away? But the problem, as Elder Kong mentioned, is that those two children may have already entered the alternate realm in search of the girl who survived the small sect we destroyed. As we know, the alternate realm has become a forbidden territory, even abandoned by the White Lotus sect after so many cultivators from their sect, as well as external cultivators, entered that realm and perished, their lives vanishing. We do not know whether those two children are still alive after entering that realm or if they have already died, leaving behind the storage rings containing the divine fruit."

"So what should we do, Sect Master? Do we let those storage rings be lost inside the alternative realm?"

"There’s no way we’ll leave such valuable treasures behind. We’ll take all the sect elders at the Nascent Soul stage to the gate of the alternative realm, wait for the children to appear, and capture them. We’ll also send outer sect elders and worthless outer disciples to serve as sacrifices to retrieve the rings inside the realm, whether the children are alive or dead."

"Then please allow me to join as well, Sect Master. Give me time to find a new physical body as a vessel for my Nascent Soul. I want to avenge myself against the two children for destroying my original body!"

"There’s no need for you to seek a new body, Elder Kong. Fortunately, I have the intact corpse of a Golden Core cultivator from the sect we recently destroyed stored in my ring. Here, take this body and use it as your new vessel. With it, your cultivation won’t suffer too much. Once we’ve captured the children, I’ll let you have the pleasure of killing them for the damage they've caused to our sect. After you've possessed the new body, gather all the inner sect elders to convey your information so we can prepare to head to the alternative realm gate."

"Thank you, Sect Master. After I take possession of this new body, I will follow your instructions."

Once Elder Kong had possessed the body given to him by the sect master, he called upon all the Nascent Soul stage elders to discuss capturing Ruan Xiaoyue and Long Linglu. With the approval of all the inner sect elders, the sect master ordered them to gather the outer sect elders and disciples, preparing them to head to the alternative realm.

With the Great Thunder Sect planning to encircle the realm and capture Ruan Xiaoyue and Long Linglu, no one knew what fate awaited them should they be caught upon exiting the alternative realm.

_______

"We’ve been searching for hours, examining all the corpses we've come across. Have we still not found the body of that Xue person, Ruan Xiaoyue?"

"Long Linglu! Don’t say Sister Xue is dead! We haven’t even found her body! I’m sure she’s still alive, and we’ll keep searching until we find her! We’re not going home until we do!"

"Ehhh?! But I’m tired of running around this alternative realm. We haven’t found a single clue about Xue. Let’s just go home already. My dragon instincts are telling me something bad is going to happen to us. This place has been weird ever since we entered—too quiet. We haven’t seen a single human, beast, or demon. Plus, there are too many corpses of humans and demons with no visible wounds. Let’s go back, Ruan Xiaoyue!"

"I know… I’ve felt uneasy ever since we came here too, but I can’t leave Sister Xue behind, not knowing her fate. I owe her a debt. So, please wait a little longer, Long Linglu. Let’s keep searching."

‘I must repay Sister Xue for saving me from that group of arrogant men in this realm, even though I didn’t really need to be saved. A debt is a debt. Not to mention, Sister Xue helped me find rare plants and animals when we were here together.’

"But Ruan Xiaoyue, we’ve already explored much of the forest in this realm, and we haven’t found a single-oh! I just remembered, we haven’t checked the ruins in this alternative realm that one of my underlings told me about! Let’s go explore the ruins. We might find the body of that Xue person—ow! Ruan Xiaoyue! Why did you hit me?!"

"It’s your fault for mentioning Sister Xue’s corpse when I told you not to say such things."

"Why didn’t you just say it nicely? That hit really hurt!"

"I did tell you not to say Sister Xue was dead! You were the shameless one for repeating it!"

"Guh! How dare you hit me and scold me, Ruan Xiaoyue! I’ll get back at you for this insult, just you wait!"

"Haaaaah... I'm tired of your attitude. Just show me where the ruins are. Look, it's getting dark. We need to get there before nightfall, or we can rest here until morning if it's still far."

"Hmph! We're currently in the east, and it'll take about seven hours to reach the ruins in the west. Since I'm a descendant of the dragon race, the darkness of night doesn't affect my vision at all, unlike you who can't see... Hahaha! Ruan Xiaoyue, I remember you're just a human who can't see in the dark. Hahaha! How pathetic! Come on, Ruan Xiaoyue, let's run there even though it's night!" Long Linglu replied irritably, then gleefully mocked Ruan Xiaoyue for her inability to see in the dark.

"Ugh! I really want to punch you as hard as I can because of your insults, but you'd end up crying and that would only make me more frustrated. So shut up, damn it! Huft... haaaaah... let's just rest here and recover from our exhaustion. I don't want us to be in danger and unable to fight at full strength because we're tired. So zip it and help me set up a place to rest here."

"Yeah~"

Hearing Long Linglu’s teasing reply, Ruan Xiaoyue held back the urge to hit the demon, redirecting her attention to gathering all the branches and leaves around them. After collecting everything, she built a small makeshift shelter, something she had learned from Sister Xue, to stay in temporarily.

That night, they quickly fell asleep in their makeshift shelter, unaware that from the moment they entered the alternate realm, they had been watched by someone.