As soon as they exited the city gates, Xu Yi summoned the Swift-Moving Boat, and everyone immediately leaped aboard.
Xu Yi asked Hong Jing to point the way, then piloted the Swift-Moving Boat, speeding towards the secret realm.
On the boat, Bai Shan turned to glance behind them, a displeased look on her face. "Sister Xu, someone is tracking us. Should I go down and teach them a lesson?"
"No need to bother. I'll shake them off soon enough."
Xu Yi said nonchalantly.
Before she had even left the city, she had sensed a group of people stealthily following them. However, she was preoccupied with the secret realm at the moment and couldn't be bothered to deal with them.
"They're getting off easy," Bai Shan muttered under her breath.
Xu Yi pushed the speed to its limit. Before long, the group tailing them realized they had lost their quarry and all stopped, complaining loudly. Little did they know, they had just narrowly escaped death.
One day later.
The Swift-Moving Boat stopped. Xu Yi and the others had arrived at the location of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Sect's secret realm – a sparsely attended ancient temple.
According to Hong Jing, this ancient temple was originally built by the people of Ping'an City to express their gratitude for the benevolence of Ancestor Yi Cheng. Thus, Ancestor Yi Cheng later chose to pass away here.
After Hong Jing and Xiao Qi respectfully paid their respects in front of the ancient temple, they led everyone to the back courtyard.
In the back courtyard stood an ancient tree, approximately five hundred years old. Its branches were adorned with many faded red silk cloths, and discernible but blurry inscriptions could be seen on them.
Hong Jing bowed to the ancient tree again, formed hand seals, and unleashed a talisman.
The talisman flickered twice in the air before suddenly vanishing. A peculiar fluctuation spread, and the space distorted, slowly forming an arc-shaped light screen.
"Everyone, the secret realm is open. Please take out your spirit keys and enter with me," Hong Jing said to everyone, then added to Xiao Qi, "You go last."
"Yes, Buddha Son."
Xiao Qi had always held Hong Jing in high regard. Upon hearing his arrangement, he agreed without hesitation.
Upon hearing this, everyone took out the spirit keys to open the secret realm and held them in their hands.
Once everyone was ready, Hong Jing, holding his spirit key, stepped into the light screen and immediately disappeared into it.
"I'll go."
Xu Yi took a step forward, ahead of everyone else, and quickly vanished from their sight.
She only felt a blur before her eyes and a sense of weightlessness. When she opened her eyes again, she saw a dark, somber sky.
Xu Yi frowned subconsciously.
This secret realm was formed from Ancestor Yi Cheng's personal spatial domain. Logically, it should have embodied his Buddhist nature and been vibrant with life, not appearing like this.
Xu Yi pondered for a moment, her expression changing rapidly. She scanned her surroundings and couldn't help but curse under her breath.
Hong Jing was gone!
No, it should be said that Hong Jing was not here.
They had been randomly teleported to different locations.
This situation was actually quite common, much like the inheritance secret realm of the powerful artifact refiner she had visited with Long Haotian and others, where they were also randomly scattered.
However, this secret realm was different.
Hong Jing had mentioned that upon entering the secret realm, everyone would be teleported together.
Therefore, they hadn't made any prior arrangements on how to regroup after entering.
Xu Yi quickly took out the communication disk from her waist and tried to send messages to Hong Jing, Lu Zaiye, and others.
After a while, Xu Yi looked at the unresponsive communication disk with a frustrated expression.
From now on, she was determined to find a way to develop a communication disk that wouldn't be interfered with.
Learning that she couldn't contact everyone for the time being, Xu Yi focused her attention on her surroundings.
The place she was in was devastated, with not a blade of grass growing. All she could see were cracked and barren lands, with no other living creatures, not even a single sprig of verdant spiritual grass.
Furthermore, a gray mist permeated the air.
This mist made the space appear even more desolate and decadent.
Xu Yi attempted to circulate her spiritual energy and, not surprisingly, found it to be sluggish.
She immediately erected a defensive spiritual shield, expelling the gray mist from her body, and then cautiously advanced.
Meanwhile, the others scattered throughout the secret realm were taking similar actions to Xu Yi.
In another part of the secret realm.
Shangguan Yuquan was excitedly picking up a damaged but still potent artifact from the ground. At his feet lay a charred corpse.
The corpse's appearance was unrecognizable, but surprisingly, it had three arm bones on each side of its head, appearing extremely bizarre at first glance.
"This is an eighth-grade artifact!"
Shangguan Yuquan meticulously examined the artifact with his divine sense, finally reaching a conclusion that filled him with immense joy.
"Hahaha, this mission was worth accepting!"
The smile on Shangguan Yuquan's face was almost uncontrollable.
He was a sixth-grade artifact refiner. Even if this artifact had many damaged parts, after refining it back home, he could at least restore seventy to eighty percent of its power, enough for him to unleash his full strength.
"With this artifact, my ranking will surely rise by at least five spots after I return this time!"
Shangguan Yuquan's face flushed with excitement as he thought of this.
Don't underestimate those five spots.
The disciples of Kunlun Academy ranked themselves by seniority, and the higher the ranking, the more resources they enjoyed.
He had spent nearly a hundred years and had only managed to improve his ranking from one hundred and twenty-third to ninety-ninth.
The reason he was so resistant to Xu Yi and the others was his fear that once they entered Kunlun Academy, they might push him down in the rankings one day.
After all, there was a significant difference between the top one hundred and those ranked outside the top one hundred, so he had to protect his position.
However, with this unexpected acquisition of an eighth-grade artifact, the situation had changed considerably.
With an eighth-grade artifact in hand, he could further improve his ranking and no longer have to live in constant fear of being pushed down.
Shangguan Yuquan cherished the artifact, turning it over and over in his hands. He failed to notice a faint wisp of gray mist stealthily seeping into his body through the artifact.
Half an hour later, Shangguan Yuquan reluctantly placed the artifact into his storage bag.
"A Nascent Soul stage demon possessed an eighth-grade artifact. Could it be that other Nascent Soul stage demons also possess even better artifacts!"
If he could possess several eighth-grade artifacts, he was even confident enough to surpass Wanyan Xue.
After all, Wanyan Xue ranked sixty-eighth in Kunlun Academy and was the most outstanding among their batch of Kunlun Academy disciples.
If he could dethrone the "ice beauty"…
A twisted sense of pleasure flashed in Shangguan Yuquan's eyes.
He took out a circular compass and activated it with his spiritual energy.
After spinning several times, the pointer on the compass stopped, pointing towards the southwest.
"It's that way!"
Shangguan Yuquan flicked his foot, and his figure vanished like a phantom.
After an unknown amount of time, a strange sound suddenly erupted from where Shangguan Yuquan had stood.
Crackling—
The charred corpse suddenly crumbled piece by piece, and numerous dark spots floated upwards, drifting towards an unknown destination.