It resents that this world does not tolerate ancient divine beasts!
It hates that the Great Dao of Hongmeng annihilated the Azure Dragon clan!
It is unwilling. Cultivators inherently fight against heaven for their lives, and divine beasts are favored children of the world. Why should they be subject to the dominion of this heaven and earth? Why are they inferior even to human cultivators?
The Azure Dragon looked down indifferently, its purple beast pupils opening and closing. Three thick purple lightning bolts struck Bai Shengyi, Yuan Bingxin, and Hua Nishang respectively. With a divine dragon's tail flick, it continued to swim towards the moon.
That moon seemed extremely high and far, emitting a faint, clear, watery light, as if unreachable.
After descending the lightning, the Azure Dragon did not look back.
It knew that these three ants would surely die under its lightning. Their spiritual energy and vitality would also become the best supplements for its revival.
"Master!"
Bai Shengyi had only just opened a small gap in the barrier, never expecting the Azure Dragon to attack at this moment. As the lightning, carrying immense power, was about to fall upon Bai Shengyi, the Dream-Entwining Vine shot out from Bai Shengyi's wrist.
"Boom!"
A thunderous roar, a flash of purple light. The Dream-Entwining Vine was scorched black and withered, drifting down towards the ground.
However, it said, "Master, hurry and leave! Don't mind me!"
It saw that its master had already opened the barrier and that leaving this place quickly was the most important thing. Otherwise, once the Azure Dragon fully recovered, none of them would be able to escape.
"Master, boss, this lightning is even more potent than the Heavenly Lightning of the Divine Revelation Continent. Little Vine Leaf's roots are in great pain... I can only accompany you this far..."
"Shut up!" Bai Shengyi, with a pale face, flew towards the ground. Using the falling Dream-Entwining Vine, she stuffed a large pile of top-grade spirit stones and spiritual items into it and said coldly, "Heal obediently and don't waste time."
She retracted the Dream-Entwining Vine into her contract space and glanced at Yuan Bingxin and Hua Nishang.
Yuan Bingxin's Mahayana cultivation was already diluted by so much water from Qianlian Sea. She hadn't even adapted to the pressure within the barrier and was unable to dodge, being struck directly.
Hua Nishang was only slightly better off than Yuan Bingxin, but her situation was also not optimistic.
Sensing Bai Shengyi's gaze, Hua Nishang shouted, "Bai Shengyi, let's cooperate! Don't worry, as long as we can get out alive, all our past grievances will be settled!"
In the end, there wasn't much enmity between her and Bai Shengyi. She was merely jealous and wary of this woman's talent.
Hua Nishang had just glimpsed that Bai Shengyi had almost opened the barrier to escape.
Hua Nishang then hurriedly added, "Bai Shengyi, you are a smart person. You know that by joining forces at this moment, our chances of escaping are definitely higher than you fighting alone. Moreover, you must have also noticed that the Azure Dragon harbors hatred!"
It was not unusual for divine beasts to have emotions, but this Azure Dragon's hatred was directed at the Heavenly Dao, at heaven and earth!
What a rebellious thought!
Hua Nishang didn't even dare to dwell on it, her voice trembling as she spoke.
Yuan Bingxin wiped the blood from her lips. After a few thoughts, she also said, "Bai Shengyi, I am also willing to cooperate with you."
Both she and Hua Nishang had underestimated the Azure Dragon's strength. If this continued, neither of them would be able to leave.
As for the grievances between her and Bai Shengyi... after leaving this lake-bottom Dragon Palace, there would be plenty of ways to deal with Bai Shengyi!
She thought she had hidden her calculations very well, but she didn't realize that Bai Shengyi saw through them all.
Bai Shengyi grinned, a cold glint in her eyes.
She said unhurriedly, "I am not willing. As for cooperation, it's a losing deal for one against two. Do you think I, this grandma, am a fool?"
These two couldn't even move freely within the barrier, yet they wanted to take advantage and scheme against her. Did they think she, Bai Shengyi, was that foolish?
Rather than cooperating with these two, it was better to leave quickly.
"Shengyi, we can't leave." The Reincarnation Brush suddenly said.
"It's all my fault..." The Dream-Entwining Vine felt responsible.
"What are you blaming yourself for?"
The Reincarnation Brush explained irritably.
"It's not your fault. It's the Azure Dragon that has sealed off all the space in this area. The ancient Azure Dragon's innate divine ability is space Dao. It was born with the mastery of spatial rules. If it wants to seal this barrier, we can't stop it."
Bai Shengyi's expression changed slightly.
With space sealed, it meant that even the jade token might be rendered useless.
Did she really have to slaughter... slaughter the dragon?
Bai Shengyi's heart trembled slightly.
The Reincarnation Brush sensed her thoughts and also fell silent. Although the Azure Dragon's attack power had decreased and it wasn't using lightning, only its dragon breath, it was because it hadn't unleashed its ultimate move yet. Even its master, with unparalleled talent, couldn't swallow such a large piece of pie in one bite, right?
Just as the Reincarnation Brush was racking its brains to think of a solution, it heard Bai Shengyi murmuring, "...It doesn't seem impossible..."
Reincarnation Brush: !!
"You lunatic!"
The sharp curses from the other two startled the Reincarnation Brush. It thought it had blurted something out, but when it looked up, it saw Hua Nishang and Yuan Bingxin.
These two did not expect to be rejected and their mental states instantly collapsed!
"Crazy! Absolutely crazy! At this point, why can't you cast aside old grudges..." Hua Nishang couldn't help but curse, "Are you trying to drag all of us to death here? How can you be so selfish!"
She completely forgot that it was she and Yuan Bingxin who had chased Bai Shengyi into this barrier themselves. Yet now, she was shifting all the blame onto Bai Shengyi.
Bai Shengyi looked down at her and said indifferently, "If you don't want to die, you can crush the jade token to leave the secret realm."
"You!" Hua Nishang glared at Bai Shengyi resentfully. Of course, she knew that crushing the jade token would ensure absolute safety, but if she did that, Hua Ling Mountain's ranking in this competition would plummet!
Given how many disciples of Hua Ling Mountain she had accidentally killed earlier, if she also left, what would they have left to compete for?
Hua Nishang dared not gamble. Gritting her teeth, she raised her hand and unleashed a magical artifact that resembled a pagoda.
"Buddha's Question Pagoda?"
Yuan Bingxin recognized it as the top-tier defensive artifact, the Buddha's Question Pagoda, from a Wanbao Pavilion auction fifty years ago! She never expected such a heavenly-grade artifact to fall into Hua Nishang's hands.
As soon as the Buddha's Question Pagoda appeared, it firmly protected Hua Nishang and Yuan Bingxin, but the protection was shaky and seemed unable to hold for long.
Hua Nishang turned to Yuan Bingxin and said, "Junior Sister Bingxin, you don't want to perish in this wretched place either, do you? If you have any life-saving magical artifacts, hurry and use them. My pagoda can only last for about fifteen minutes."
Yuan Bingxin did not reply. She stood there in a daze, as if her entire attention was captured by something.
"Junior Sister Bingxin? Yuan Bingxin?" Hua Nishang called out a couple more times impatiently.
Only then did Yuan Bingxin snap back to reality, but her expression was still somewhat hesitant as she said, "Senior Sister Hua, did you hear anything?"
Why was someone just now calling her "daughter"?
Could it be that her mother had also entered the Minor Heavenly Realm secret realm?
But during the competition, the entire Southern Barren River would be under strict guard. How could her mother possibly enter?
Hua Nishang suppressed the urge to retort and said impatiently, "No! I didn't hear anything. Junior Sister Bingxin, hurry and use your defensive magical artifact! I just tried the jade token and found that it's useless here!"
Bai Shengyi's words had actually given her an idea, as survival was the most important thing. But when she had tried crushing the jade tokens of other disciples from the sect, the familiar spatial fluctuations had not occurred.
She was truly extremely anxious now.
Yuan Bingxin heard clearly what Hua Nishang said, and her face also turned pale. The jade token was useless?
The jade token was bound to the contestants and utilized the principle of spatial teleportation arrays, meaning that as long as the contestant themselves was within the range designated by the jade token, they could be teleported away.
Both she and Hua Nishang had participated in the Divine Revelation Grand Event more than once and had been warned before entering the secret realm. Thus, they had long ago found opportunities to collect others' jade tokens, precisely to test whether the jade tokens would become invalid at special times.
However, Yuan Bingxin had not taken this matter seriously at first because in past Divine Revelation Grand Events, there had never been a situation where jade tokens became invalid within a secret realm. She had even thought that the sect was being overly cautious!
In fact, it wasn't just Yuan Bingxin and Hua Nishang.
At this moment, the sect disciples outside the Dragon Palace at the bottom of the lake also suddenly discovered this problem.
"Senior Sister Luzi, the jade tokens are useless!"
"Senior Brother Yue, the jade tokens have become invalid!"
"Young Sect Master..."
...
Initially, the sudden appearance of the Thousand Souls Worm Silk emerging from beneath the ice river had already thrown everyone into disarray. Now, with the issue of the jade tokens becoming invalid, a sense of despair surged through almost everyone's hearts.
"What should we do! Senior Brother Yue, Sister Lan, will we die here?" Yue Qingshan's team, the youngest disciple, had come out with the group for the first time. He thought it was a simple trial, but it turned out to be so serious that he burst into tears.
Yue Ci shouted loudly, "What are you panicking about! What are you crying about! The jade tokens are useless, so strive to survive! Do you think you'll have a jade token to save your life in every trial from now on?"
"Everyone, don't be afraid, and don't panic," Lan Xuerou also comforted, "No matter how difficult it is, Senior Brother Yue and I will do our best to lead everyone out of the secret realm."
Yue Ci and Lan Xuerou quickly stabilized the team and led the group to fight and retreat. The disciples of other sects were not so lucky.
Not to mention the disciples of those third-rate sects, even the disciples of Qishan Pavilion, Fanglan Sect, and Qu Jing Sect and Xile Sect, who had not reunited with their sect leaders, suffered heavy losses!
They had not realized that they were getting closer and closer to the lake in the middle of the grassland until—
"No! We can't retreat any further!" Yue Miaomiao turned around and saw the boundless lake. Her pupils transformed into vertical slits as she gazed intently. The lake shimmered like a full moon, but a piece of it suddenly seemed incomplete.
That missing piece was continuously expanding.
"This lake is where the Azure Dragon feeds on vital energy. Everyone, we can't retreat any further." A person in plain cloth suddenly appeared before everyone. Tian Yu's usual nonchalant smile vanished, and with a solemn expression, he chanted a Buddhist phrase: "Amitabha."
Immediately, he unleashed a palm strike!