A hundred-zhang-tall ginkgo tree swayed gently, sending fan-shaped, bright yellow leaves dancing across the sky.
Pavilions, jade halls, towers, and golden verandas suddenly flared with treasures' luminescence as wisps of iridescent multicolored light shot straight into the clouds, refracting into blooms of auspicious clouds.
Within the mountains, cranes soared high, goshawks chased deer, and boundless brilliant rays shone alongside drifting auspicious clouds.
From above the vault of heaven, through a rift in the dusky sky, a golden ray pierced through at an angle, illuminating the grand hall and reflecting dots of mist-like, smoky glowing radiance.
Every glazed tile, every brick of gold and jade, every palatial hall, and even every blade of grass and tree seemed to come thoroughly alive at this very instant!
The thirteen immortal corpses had long since vanished without a trace, leaving behind only specks of radiant rainbows suspended in the air, a sight of exquisite beauty.
...
“The Nether Cold Fire is indeed worthy of being a Heaven Grade flame. It’s so difficult to refine; it seems I’ll have to take my time and make careful plans for it in the future.”
Nan Zhi slowly exhaled a breath, feeling clear-headed and sharp-eyed:
“Still, being able to refine the seal was an unexpected pleasant surprise. My cultivation even advanced three whole minor stages in one go. This really is a treasure. This trip to the secret realm was definitely not in vain.”
Although her right arm was still stiff and frozen for the time being from refining the Nether Cold Fire, the gains far outweighed the trouble.
Using the Nether Cold Fire, she had finally refined the Sect Master's Seal completely, boosting her cultivation level along the way.
“So why do I keep getting the nagging feeling that I was scammed into coming here?”
Nan Zhi steadied her breath. Sensing the fawn-like eagerness of the Sect Master's Seal in her dantian as it madly craved spiritual energy, she couldn’t help but grumble:
So, did this count as going out to gather herbs and accidentally picking up an entire sect for free?
Without even giving her time to react—could a sect's seal really force itself to recognize a master like this?
Just how many disparate gameplay styles had the game 《Path to Immortality》 stitched together?
Now they even had a Sect Master simulator, didn't they?!
And as for those True Immortals who had already passed on...
She understood their desire to entrust humanity's legacy and their policy of prioritizing quality over quantity.
Why don't you open your eyes and look? Aside from me, is there any other living soul in the entire secret realm who could make it here?!
Across the chessboard, corpses littered the ground.
A giant floating sword guarded the mountain gate.
Leaving aside the two sky-towering stone golems outside, just that giant floating sword guarding the gate alone would obliterate any real-world cultivator who dared get close with their meager cultivation levels.
At this rate, who could even tell whether they were choosing a Sect Master or running a real-life version of 《The Hunger Games》?
Nan Zhi even suspected she was the first living creature to step into this grand hall in a thousand years.
...
An external incarnation shared a life-link with the original body. While the true body focused on refining the Sect Master's Seal on this end, White Tiger Nan Zhi on the other end had naturally not been idle.
During this period, the Huang and Hu families had engaged in endless intrigue and strife, while the other families secretly instigated and schemed from the shadows, making it quite a back-and-forth contest.
Presently, the Huang family had set a trap intending to lure White Tiger Nan Zhi into the secret realm, while the Hu family had gambled everything, contacting the other three families to settle life and death within the secret realm once and for all.
“How does it feel after sleeping for two months this time? The Demon race has truly fallen. In the past, strength was all that mattered; whoever had the harder fists took the throne of the Demon King. But now they copy humanity, knowing only schemes, conspiracies, and petty tricks. It's truly disgraceful.”
White Tiger Nan Zhi picked a fruit offered by Hu Cuiling, popped it into her mouth, and pressed down, releasing blood-red juice as she lazily spoke in her mind:
“If the Huang family had a formidable great demon capable of slaying this lord and seizing the throne of Demon King, that would be one thing. Yet they insist on acting like clowns, doing nothing more than providing free entertainment.”
“You don’t plan to come over yourself?”
As soon as the words left Nan Zhi's mouth, she nodded in tacit mutual understanding:
“That's true. The Great Dao of cultivation must ultimately rely on oneself. Let the Five Families of Beidong resolve their own farce. Interfering too much will inevitably entangle karma and affect cultivation.”
“I'm not going.”
White Tiger Nan Zhi shifted her posture, her golden eyes tilting slightly upward with a trace of a smile:
“Besides, that's the territory of your Demon Suppression Division. What would this lord go there for? By the way, congratulations to us on becoming the master of a sect. When we visit the Four Provinces Continent in the future, we might even meet those previous ‘sect seniors.’”
“Back when the Sky Demons invaded, the Three Great Sects and several smaller cultivation sects protected the people of the North Province, fleeing into the Miaoling Secret Realm in the Ten Directions Mountains. Later, when the Four Provinces shattered and the secret realm was sealed, the True Immortal seniors set aside their past grievances, merging the three sects into one to establish the Unnamed Sect—‘Unnamed’ meant that all within the sect were ‘nameless and rootless’ people who had abandoned their homeland and had no face to return, hoping only that one day their remains could return to the North Province and humanity's legacy would endure.”
Nan Zhi closed her eyes, searching through the information stored inside the Sect Master's jade seal:
“The Sky Demons were ferocious, so the Unnamed Sect built their sect right at the entrance of the secret realm. Gathering the strengths of a hundred schools, they set up formations and a mountain-guarding formation, using their flesh and blood as a barrier against the Sky Demons. Although there is no trace of mortals left in the sect, records state that the former Sect Master, Gu Ningxue, repeatedly dispatched disciples to escort mortals in eight directions deep into the Ten Directions Mountains to preserve the human lineage.”
“In other words, it is very likely that humans still survive in the Ten Directions Mountains secret realm. There might even be bloodline descendants of Qiu Wutong.”
White Tiger Nan Zhi comforted her:
“Don't worry. The resilience of humanity is far stronger than wildfire. As long as a single spark remains, it will eventually rekindle.”
“I know. The Ten Directions Mountains are endless. Relying solely on myself to find Qiu Wutong’s descendants would take heavens know how long.”
Nan Zhi rubbed her brow:
“I plan to first gather the remains of the sect's disciples so that the next time I return to the game, I can bury them in the North Province. But what gives me a headache right now is something else.”
She looked around at the empty Sect Grand Hall. Flying outward a few steps revealed scarred ruins and scorched earth everywhere.
“A sect this huge—just how long is it going to take me to clean it all up?”
White Tiger Nan Zhi couldn’t hold back and burst into laughter.
...
“Heh.”
The humanoid white tiger lay back on the throne, her golden eyes gleaming with magnificent light.
Within the screen, the court ladies were laughing and playing, but startled by this sudden laugh, they quickly shut their mouths, hid their faces behind fans, and froze like motionless figures in a painting.
“Great King, is something amiss?”
Hu Cuiling held a platter of fresh mountain cherries. Beside her, Hu Cuixian, who was grinding medicine while dressed in a light green blouse, also flicked her tail curiously and looked over.
—June was not the season for mountain cherries to ripen.
In the Demon King's Cave, all fresh fruits were daily selections of the freshest, juiciest offerings brought by the birds and beasts of Qingmeng Mountain, all hoping the Demon King would eat a few more bites.
This plate of mountain cherries grew beside a spring welling with spiritual energy on the edge of a ten-thousand-zhang cliff; consuming a single berry would slightly boost one's spiritual energy, making them exceptionally precious.
A total of ninety-nine had ripened, and the Old Ape had counted them one by one before delivering them in person.
“No, I merely recalled something amusing. The fruit presented by Old Ape tastes quite good; you two can share and eat it.”
White Tiger Nan Zhi casually flicked her fingertips, her tiger eyes narrowing slightly:
“This lord will enter seclusion to cultivate. The rest of the demons may cultivate outside the cave alongside me. In addition, tell Hu Ban'er not to disturb me with mundane affairs. If anything goes awry, deal with it on his own.”
With the main body's cultivation breaking through to Foundation Establishment Level 7, the excess spiritual power that couldn't be absorbed was fed back into the demon body, and this external incarnation was also on the verge of breaking through.
The Great King is impatient.
Hu Cuiling and Hu Cuixian exchanged glances and bit their lips.
They had to inform their grandfather immediately to resolve the Huang family issue as soon as possible.
Cultivating alongside the Great King made one's cultivation progress by leaps and bounds!
All ten demon vanguards had the opportunity to follow the Great King in cultivation. If their Fox family alone missed this chance because of the dispute among the Five Families of Beidong...
That would truly be picking up a sesame seed only to drop a watermelon!
The two yellow foxes exchanged subtle glances with the little demons nearby before tip-toeing out of the cave abode, reverting to their original forms, and sprinting all the way down the mountain.
Rate on N.U.
