Activating his Swimming Dragon Steps, Ye Yong dashed forward at extreme speed, leaving the crowd far behind. He didn’t run in a straight line- he took several turns, and by the time he stopped, he had traveled several miles in.
He was confident that no Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators could have kept up with him.
As for the assumption that Ye Yong was finding a quiet place to break through to the Crystallization Realm? Not a chance. He was just at the 19th layer of the Foundation Establishment Realm. A rough estimate said he’d need to spend at least ten days guzzling pills nonstop to hit the 20th layer and start breaking through the Crystallization Realm. And that was assuming there were only 20 layers in the Foundation Establishment Realm- no unexpected surprises like doubling or tripling or even more layers.
But Ye Yong felt that was unlikely- he could sense his spiritual veins had already expanded nearly to their limit.
Once spiritual veins expand to a certain point, they can’t grow anymore. That’s when cultivators enter the Crystallization Realm, compressing their spiritual energy into spirit crystals for storage. At the Golden Core Realm, these crystals were further compressed and refined into a golden core- essentially the essence of a cultivator’s entire being. Some demonic sects specifically collect golden cores to boost their own cultivation.
At the Nascent Soul Realm, the core shatters and forms a soul infant, shifting focus to cultivating divine soul power. At that point, the cultivator no longer has the golden core as a weakness. Even if their body dies, as long as their soul remains intact, they can find a compatible body and potentially revive.
Of course, anyone who could kill a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator likely came prepared and won’t leave the soul intact. Most Nascent Soul Realm cultivators who die end up with both their bodies and souls dead. If the attacker was especially ruthless, they’ll wipe out the soul entirely- no reincarnation, no second chance.
Such was the cruelty of the cultivation world.
After stopping his sprint, Ye Yong bought a map of the White Sugar Mud Secret Realm from the system shop’s map section. The price of secret realm maps depended on the realm’s level, but they were generally more expensive than maps of the outside world, since secret realms were small pocket dimensions.
The White Sugar Mud map cost several hundred transcend points, and it was single-use. Spraying himself with beast-avoding incense, Ye Yong recalled the novel’s description and continued deeper into the realm.
Outside, it would’ve been nighttime by now. But in this realm, it never got dark- there was a glowing “sun” fixed in the sky, unmoving.
Ye Yong was quite lucky. Along the way, he didn’t run into any “gourmets” with special tastes, or any hyper-territorial “home guardians.” After a few hours, he roughly located the spot where the male lead had obtained his first stroke of good fortune- already quite close to the realm’s center.
It was a small herb garden surrounded by an illusion formation. Ye Yong remembered that it had been set up by an alchemist elder from the Heavenly Luo Sect, who came to harvest from it once every 300 years. If any young cultivator in the secret realm discovered the garden and took everything inside, the elder wouldn’t mind. The herbs planted there weren’t valuable to a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator- only useful for Foundation Establishment and Crystallization Realm cultivators.
Anyone able to detect and break the restriction would be worthy of taking the contents. In fact, the elder had left a few extra gifts inside the hut. Sadly, over a thousand years, no one had ever managed to claim them- either no one spotted the formation, or they couldn’t break it.
Although only Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators entered this realm, and the formation wasn’t high level, its level 2 difficulty still stumped most.
Ye Yong, however, had basic formation knowledge, so cracking level 2 formations like these ones was only a matter of time. Even if a level 3 or level 4 formation showed up, he could just buy the intermediate guide and keep going.
If formations were like math formulas, then breaking a formation was solving a problem based on those formulas. The breaker had to identify and apply the right one. Along the way, there were often misleading options- if your formation knowledge wasn’t good enough, it was easy to fall into traps and fail.
After a few minutes, Ye Yong broke the formation. The thorny bramble patch before him transformed into a well-maintained herb garden.
His theoretical knowledge was solid, but he lacked hands-on practice. Taking a few minutes to crack a level-two formation was actually slow. If it had been the Fallen Immortal Elder guiding the male lead Long Tian, it wouldn’t even have taken 20 seconds to break the formation.
Of course, Ye Yong was comparing himself to geniuses like Li Jun Xia or ancient freaks like the Fallen Immortal Elder. An average level 2 formation master would’ve taken over an hour.
Entering the herb garden, Ye Yong looted everything with zero hesitation- except for the dirt.
As for what herbs he got, he didn’t really care. According to the novel, the highest-grade herb here was only rank 3. Ye Yong was the kind of man who dared to brew tea with rank 5 Swordheart Grass. Rank 3 herbs? Please. Those were treasures only in the eyes of newbie cultivators like Long Tian.
After emptying the garden, Ye Yong went into the hut.
The alchemy elder’s extra rewards were a few alchemy manuals, some pills useful to Foundation Establishment and Crystallization Realm cultivators, and a middle grade rank 2 alchemy furnace.
The manuals were useless to Long Tian as he had the Fallen Immortal Old Man to guide him, the pills were useful, and as for the furnace- that was a treasure, considering Long Tian was currently stuck using a trash low grade rank 1 furnace.
Ye Yong took everything without a second thought, then prepared to move on to the next opportunity.
Just as he was leaving, a sly smile curled at his lips.
He spent 1 transcend point to buy a plain-looking brocade box, then 20 more to buy a life-saving medical manual. He placed the manual in the box, set it to where the furnace used to be, carefully added a level 2 restriction to the box, then went outside and reset the formation to make it look untouched.
Satisfied, he left in a great mood.
…
Elsewhere in the secret realm…
“Why aren’t we sticking with the main group?” Qiu Li Gao followed behind Long Tian nervously.
“What would we even get by following them?” Long Tian said expressionlessly as he walked ahead.
After the sect competition, Long Tian had made a name for himself among the outer disciples. But instead of being respected, he got constant trouble- mostly because he had defeated a guy named Bai Ze in public. Nobody wanted to be associated with him, except for Qiu Li Gao, who lived next door and helped him sweep the courtyard every day. While he was scared of getting dragged down, he was also kind and simple-hearted.
That was why Long Tian allowed him to tag along- if they found some fortune, he’d share a bit.
As for that Bai Gui, he acted like a tyrant among the outer disciples because his cousin was a Crystallization Realm inner sect disciple. After losing to Long Tian, he lost face and started harassing him- dumping garbage at his door was routine. Long Tian had recently beaten them all senseless, and they’d finally quieted down.
“You… don’t know the way, do you? Are you sure it’s a good idea to wander around like this?” Qiu Li Gao, kind as he was, had a timid heart. “I heard there are late-stage Crystallization Realm beasts out here… If we run into one, we’re toast.”
Long Tian didn’t want to keep talking. “If you want to come, then come. If not, leave now.”
“I’ll stay with you.” Because Long Tian seemed strong, Qiu Li Gao figured that as a background-less little cultivator, latching onto the thigh of someone powerful was a good idea.
“No. You need to leave. Right now,” Long Tian suddenly said.
“Why?”
“No reason. Just go. Now.”
Startled by Long Tian’s sudden low roar, Qiu Li Gao flinched and quickly turned back. But he hadn’t gotten far when a shadow appeared behind him- flashes of blade and sword. With a startled cry, Qiu Li Gao collapsed to the ground.
So evii! That is the heavenly villain’s style.
Should have taken the dirt as well