"Damn!" Mu Chen cursed as he tumbled on the ground and did a barrel roll. Xiao Xue was struggling so hard that he couldn't even concentrate on his footing.

Luckily, there was a clump of trees to break the fall. So Mu Chen was able to escape unscathed for the most part.

Mu Chen stood up holding a struggling Xiao Xue. In just a few days, Xiao Xue's strength had grown by leaps and bounds. She was small but her physical strength was explosive. Mu Chen couldn't imagine how a tiny body like hers could generate such force. Mu Chen did his best to console her. After a few minutes, Xiao Xue calmed down and became still. She was still asleep.

"Ugh!" Mu Chen looked down at his arm and shuddered. A pair of ugly dried limbs were still attached to him. Mu Chen wrested them away with some force and kicked them.

Mu Chen rubbed his forehead. The headache had subsided a bit allowing him to think clearly. "What the hell was that thing?"

That cry wasn't a simple sound attack, it had some spiritual elements mixed within it.

Recalling the creature's eyes which were full of malice, Mu Chen frowned. Was it a gu? But he had never heard of such a large gu. In his impression, gu were tiny and fragile parasites that couldn't live independently of their hosts. But the thing he just saw was in no way weak and even killed its host to get a stab at him.

But whether it was gu or something else, it couldn't be a coincidence that it attacked him. The goal of the enemy was him, his identity was clear.

"Mu Changshou!" Mu Chen clenched his fist. This Mu Changshou was becoming his nemesis, plotting against him at every turn. What was more frustrating was although Mu Changshou targeted him, Mu Chen himself didn't have a good opportunity to get rid of him.

"And this Qin Huang, I didn't think he would be so malicious." Mu Chen didn't want things to get out of hand, but he didn't expect Qin Huang had completely turned over to Mu Changshou's side. On the surface, Qin Huang was very reluctant to join their group but who knew, he was already plotting against them.

"But this is also good," Mu Chen thought. 'Qin Mo' was exposed before he could cause too much damage. If it had caught them off guard and plotted against their group—Mu Chen didn't even want to think about the consequences.

Only now did he realize, he didn't have a clear idea about Mu Changshou's means and capabilities. Gu cultivation was a taboo art, and there was very little information available. The known could be dealt with, but the unknown was scary.

Today was lucky, what about next time?

Mu Chen looked at Xiao Xue who was sleeping and had an idea. "Xiao Xue must have sensed it." Xia Ping had said she was in deep sleep. Yet when 'Qin Mo' had neared him, Xiao Xue became restless. She must have felt the threat and instinctively tried to escape.

"I hope everyone is okay." Thinking about his friends, Mu Chen's eyes became sharp. 'Qin Mo' had been exposed and separated, but Qin Huang was still with them. He was worried about them, but he didn't have any way to contact them.

"Mu Changshou, Qin Huang… just wait, I will definitely settle our scores." Mu Chen took a few deep breaths and calmed down. For now, he could only believe in his friends.

Mu Chen looked around and observed his surroundings. He was in a rocky and mountainous region, with sparse vegetation. It was such a common scene, if Mu Chen didn't know he was inside a secret realm, he would have thought he was still in the Southern Continent.

The spiritual qi here was thick, but also turbid. Without a purification array, using the spiritual qi to cultivate would be impossible.

Mu Chen strained his eyes and looked far, but didn't see anything remarkable. The sky lacked a sun, but it was still bright like any other day. A faint roll of thunder could be heard every now and then, but Mu Chen didn't see any clouds in the sky. He held a piece of crystal to the sky and peered through it. He looked through it several times at different angles and finally gave up.

Putting the sunstone away, Mu Chen flipped through the booklet Zhou Mei had given him. "It says I should head towards the center of the realm—it's the final resting place of the expert before he departs, so it's also the place of inheritance… but how do I find it?"

The information they had received from the Pavilion included several methods to find the center of a secret realm. For instance, you could observe the clouds and their curvature, to determine the correct direction. Or you could follow the movement of the sun when you were directly underneath it and you would reach the center. But they were useless. So far, he hadn't even been able to tell if the realm was flat or round.

There were some other methods, but Mu Chen couldn't use them due to his lack of cultivation. Before entering, he never thought he would land in such an awkward situation. If anyone from his group was here, he wouldn't have been in such a pinch. Moreover, his priority was to find a panacea which wasn't necessarily at the center. Unfortunately, the ace he relied on was currently enjoying a comfy sleep.

In the end, Mu Chen could only shake his head and pick a direction at random. But he had just taken a few steps forward when he stopped next to a boulder. Between the cracks of the boulder, a knotty and tuberous herb grew.

"Bitterroot!" Mu Chen exclaimed and hurried to collect it. This little herb was rich in spiritual qi. If a cultivator ate it, it was the same as taking a qi replenishing pill. But if an ordinary person took it, they would be immune to diseases for several years. It could help cleanse the blood and speed up the process of Blood Condensation. The only disadvantage was that it was extremely bitter. Even then, it was in great demand as an ingredient in several pill recipes.

After collecting the bitterroot, Mu Chen patted the dust off his robes and continued forward. Every once in a while, he would pause and collect a herb.

#

Someplace far away from Mu Chen, a group of people was in heated debate.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Mu Chen encountered a mishap, but his friends fared better. Unfortunately, they had to handle some unwelcome baggage.

"I knew it!" Qin Huang roared at Su Rong and others. "You guys were planning to screw me. Just wait, once I report this to the Patriarch—"

"Shut up!" Liu Fengying snapped. She was in no mood to deal with Qin Huang's tantrum. "Sister Mei, what happened?"

Zhou Mei told her how Mu Chen had released his hand to grab Xiao Xue.

Liu Fengying frowned upon hearing it. She was worried about Mu Chen, but there was little they could do. She turned to Su Rong and said. "Sister Rong, it's better for us to explore the realm."

"What about Mu Chen?" Zhou Mei asked.

"He will have to be on his own," Liu Fengying said. "If we are lucky, we might run into each other."

Zhou Mei was reluctant, but she also didn't have any better ideas.

Other than Qin Huang, nobody else had any objections. "I'm not going anywhere till we find Qin Mo," Qin Huang snorted.

"Then you can stay here," Liu Fengying said, "Sister Rong, let's go."

Su Rong also didn't have much hesitation and nodded.

Seeing Su Rong agree, Qin Huang almost choked. He raised a finger at her and roared, "Y-you... you aren't afraid of defying Patriarch's intention?"

Su Rong looked at Qin Huang and said, "If you want to come with us, you can come. Every moment in the realm is a precious opportunity. I'm sure, the Qin Clan's Patriarch will understand if we don't waste our time in your endeavor to find someone."

Qin Huang gritted his teeth. "Alright, I will come with you."

"I hope you won't bring up this matter again," Liu Fengying glared at Qin Huang, before looking at Su Rong. "Sister Rong, I will let you pick the direction."

Su Rong nodded and flipped her hand exposing a palm-sized arrowhead. She poured her spiritual qi into it and the arrowhead floated above their heads and began to spin. After a while it stopped spinning, pointing in a certain direction. Then it jerked and pointed in several other directions in tandem.

"The spiritual qi here is turbid, making it hard to get an accurate reading," Su Rong said. "But the compass was able to pick several locations that have a high concentration of spiritual qi." Su Rong pointed towards a distant patch of green, "That one is closest to us. But I think it is in everyone's interest if we all use our own means."

Liu Fengying nodded. She raised her hand and her spiritual energy surged. A ball of crimson fire came to life. It turned into a small firebird and flew into air. After circling them a few times, it returned back to Liu Fengying's palm and disappeared. Liu Fengying turned to them and said, "My conclusion is the same as yours, Sister Rong."

One by one, they all tried various means. Only Qin Huang was uninterested, perhaps as a form of silent protest.

Everyone's results were similar, but only Xia Ping's were a bit different. Hua Jin was sitting on Xia Ping's shoulder and squeaking animatedly.

"Ah! Hua Jin says we should avoid that area," Xia Ping said, pointing out the location Su Rong had first identified. "There's a great danger."

"Let's skip it then," Liu Fengying said. Su Rong and the rest didn't have any objections. After all, monster beasts had an innate sense of danger.

"Hahaha!" Qin Huang, who had been quiet so far, began to laugh. "You guys are going to believe this rodent? What a joke!"

"Hey, since you are so fearless, why don't you go alone?" Su He said. " I will cheer for you." Su He said he would cheer, but it looked like he was ready to set up a memorial tablet.

The rest of them didn't pay Qin Huang any further attention. After discussing amongst themselves, they picked a location and began to move towards it.

Qin Huang cursed under his breath, but quietly followed them.

#

Just like Mu Chen and his friends, others who had entered the realm were using their means to choose their directions. Some left it to fate, while some used a more methodological approach. Most of them had the same goal, to find the inheritance of the supreme expert who created the realm. Some were pragmatic and had more realistic goals. They didn't aim for the crown jewel but hoped to attain a few rare medicines or treasures.

It was easy to dream, but the reality was harsh.

A week had passed since Mu Chen entered the realm. The secret realm was what he had expected, and more. The breadth of life alone was astounding. In just a couple of days, he had seen dozens of species of plants and animals he had never even heard of before. The realm had evolved its flora and fauna and the encompassing ecosystem. And like every independent system, it was unwelcoming to foreign invasion.

Mu Chen was lucky in the beginning, and the harvest he had was bountiful. Although he didn't find the panacea he was looking for, he found several other precious herbs. Besides the initial surprise when entering the realm, Mu Chen's luck was rather good.

But just a couple of days after entering the realm, his luck seemed to have evaporated.

Currently, Mu Chen was on top of a giant boulder, which was smooth as granite. Surrounding him was a lush and verdant forest. A thick fog lingered on the tree tops, making it impossible to see the sky. The boulder was big, it couldn't match the height of the surrounding trees. Yet this rock had become his pillar in this untamed forest.

Mu Chen had attempted to cross the forest several times. But he always ended up returning to this stone. And every time he came here, the scenery changed a little. At first, he thought he was seeing things. But again and again, when he couldn't find a way out of the forest, Mu Chen was alarmed and began marking the trees. After repeated observations, he came to a conclusion: the forest and its trees were moving.

An ever-changing maze, what a headache.

This made Mu Chen realize what a big mistake he had made. Because of his experience in the Dark Forest, Mu Chen was very confident about his survival skills. So when he encountered a forest in his path, instead of going around it, he decided to cut through it. If he was lucky he might even find some rare herbs. It was like killing two birds in one stone, what was there to be scared of? But he didn't expect the forest was ready to swallow him whole.

"This forest is weird." Mu Chen regretted his decision for the umpteenth time. He had stayed in the forest long enough to notice a few peculiarities. Trees that could move were shocking enough. But what concerned him more was that the forest was too quiet. Aside from the occasional rustling of the leaves, there were no other sounds—he was the only one in the forest.

"The wine won't last forever." Mu Chen sighed as he took a sip and wondered if it was feasible to survive on leaves and bark. After drinking the wine, Mu Chen put away the pouch and laid on his back as he stared at the white fog.

By now, Mu Chen had gone through the booklet several times in hope of finding a solution but it was in vain. Mu Chen suspected he was in some kind of formation, but he didn't know how to break it. As a last resort, he even tried burning down the forest. But the forest was damp, and the wet wood was hard to catch fire with normal means. It was as if the forest was dead set on trapping him on this rock.

Xiao Xue was still asleep. Mu Chen had a feeling she was in an even deeper state as her breathing had become barely perceptible. Had she been awake, he would have at least had some company.

"Hmm?" Mu Chen frowned as he thought of something. "Could this boulder be special?" He jumped down and circled the boulder. But he didn't find anything weird. The surface was smooth to touch, but it could be attributed to weathering. So Mu Chen used his sword sense and scanned the rock.

To his surprise, the piece of rock extended way deeper into the ground than he expected. Like an iceberg that only showed its tip, what he saw was only a part.

Mu Chen was curious how big the rock truly was and stretched his sword sense to its limit. One meter, ten meters, twenty meters, hundred meters…then empty.

"Huh?" Mu Chen was surprised. The boulder was covering the mouth of a giant pit. It was so deep that his sword sense couldn't reach the bottom of the pit.

What was at the bottom?

Mu Chen frowned and looked around. The silent forest gave him an eerie feeling of being watched.

Mu Chen looked at the big boulder and pondered. He took a deep breath and his gaze became determined.