Chapter 119: A Whirlwind Tour of the Secret Realm

Chapter 119: Chapter 119: A Whirlwind Tour of the Secret Realm

The sudden voice startled Chu Fan.

He had just scanned the area with his Divine Sense, so how could he not be startled when several people suddenly appeared? They had materialized without a sound, catching him completely off guard.

As he turned, he saw four young men pointing and gesturing at him.

These four men were perhaps two or three years younger than Chu Fan. Although their attire was disheveled, the material and cut of their clothing indicated they were from either rich or noble families.

Based on their conversation, Chu Fan deduced they must have been teleported here from another entrance.

As Chu Fan glanced over at them, one of the men lifted his chin and asked condescendingly, "You there. Who are you, and why have you appeared here?"

Chu Fan glanced from their tattered clothes to his own, which were still perfectly neat, and an idea for a prank came to mind.

"I am the Guardian of this world. You have come unannounced. How is that any different from being a thief? Leave now, and I will let this matter slide."

He laced his words with Spiritual Power, causing them to boom beside their ears like a great temple bell. The sound was so startling their faces paled.

One of them, however, remained unfazed. He stared sharply at Chu Fan, as if trying to see right through him.

"You claim to be this world’s Guardian. What proof do you have?"

Chu Fan let out a hearty laugh, then his gaze turned cold. "Why would I need to prove myself to ants like you? If you don’t leave... heh."

Chu Fan didn’t specify what would happen if they didn’t leave, but his final, wicked smile was deeply unsettling. The moment the words left his mouth, he took to the air and departed.

The four men watched Chu Fan leave and then looked at one another, seeing the same confusion and fear reflected in each other’s eyes.

In their experience, when they couldn’t discern a person’s Cultivation, it meant one of two things: either that person had no Cultivation at all, or their Cultivation far surpassed their own.

But since that man was able to fly, and at such an incredible speed, there was only one possibility: his Cultivation was far beyond their own.

Realizing this, the other three started to complain about the one who had spoken up, cursing his big mouth.

Now they hesitated. Should they retreat? Or should they continue onward in search of opportunities?

Retreating now felt like a waste. After all, dozens of people from their several Sects had entered the Teleportation Array, but only the four of them had made it here alive. Everyone else was dead.

But if they didn’t retreat, that man’s wicked smile before he left, along with his earlier warning, all but guaranteed that staying meant death.

"What is there to fear? If he truly had the power to kill us, wouldn’t he have made his move just now?" the man who had spoken before said decisively. "Our Sects paid such a heavy price to send us here. If we return empty-handed, wouldn’t we be betraying our Sects’ expectations and letting down our fallen senior and junior brothers who sacrificed themselves?"

"Brother Yidu is right," another man agreed after some thought. "We can’t retreat. We’d lose too much face to go back. Even if we die here, we can’t turn back."

The other two fell silent in thought before finally nodding in agreement as well.

Chu Fan’s intention was only to play a prank. It would be best if it scared them away, but if not, it would at least make them tread carefully and not interfere with him.

Who likes being disturbed by people who show up out of the blue during an expedition? Chu Fan was no Saint; of course he hoped to have the entire Secret Realm to himself.

As for killing them, Chu Fan was confident he could do it based on his Cultivation Realm alone, assuming they had no other trump cards.

But Chu Fan wasn’t some bloodthirsty killer. He had no grievance or enmity with them, so why would he kill them?

After taking flight, Chu Fan sped onward. He passed more than ten collapsed grand halls and a winding, nine-turn bridge, though the vast lake beneath it had long since dried up. He finally stopped in a stretch of ruins.

Looking at the sheer size of the ruins and the stone pillars—half-broken yet still half-standing—Chu Fan judged that this might have been one of the largest halls in the Secret Realm.

After landing, he once again spread out some of his Spiritual Power so he could instantly sense and react if anyone approached.

Because of the four men who had appeared, Chu Fan now knew that the ruins truly did contain other Teleportation Arrays, and that people really could arrive here through them.

So it was best to take precautions.

Amidst the ruins, Chu Fan didn’t overlook a single piece of rubble. Some stones had been smashed when the temple collapsed, while others had been shattered by an external force. There were fragments of the temple’s pillars and bricks, broken stones from the bridge’s flowerbeds, and even pieces of plaques.

Many of the stones were engraved with geometric patterns or depictions of birds and beasts, and some even had characters carved on them.

By following the toppled pillars, he located what must have been the grand hall’s main entrance. Among the rubble on the ground, he found a cracked stone inscribed with the character for "Hall." After some searching, he could only piece together a few additional strokes from other fragments.

The few strokes he could assemble were merely a handful of disparate components.

It was impossible to guess anything from these components alone.

These were obviously fragments of the grand hall’s name.

Stepping between the crumbling walls of the grand hall, he was still profoundly shaken by the sight before him, even though the structure had long since collapsed and been scorched by fire.

At that moment, Chu Fan was thoroughly convinced this place had once been the domain of a God.

He didn’t know how long it had been in ruins—perhaps over ten thousand years, or even a hundred thousand—but upon entering this Secret Realm, he had been stunned by the abundance of Spiritual Qi.

And judging by the pillars and rubble, the grand hall before him must have been immense in its glory days.

The stone blocks inside were each adorned with relief carvings. When Chu Fan picked up a slightly larger piece to examine it, he was taken aback by the masterful craftsmanship.

As he touched the stones, he could still sense a faint circulation of Spiritual Power within them.

He made a bold guess: had this place not been destroyed, the Spiritual Power contained within the stones used to build these halls would likely have been even denser than that in the Spirit Stones the Six Sects and Eight Gates of the Eastern Domain used for Cultivation.

Although he had been mentally prepared by what Yan Jiuxuan had told him, he still found his imagination had been far too limited.

Just as Yan Jiuxuan had said, there didn’t seem to be any danger here.

But now, Chu Fan didn’t hold out much hope of finding any treasure. ’There isn’t a single complete building left,’ he thought. ’What kind of valuable treasures could possibly have survived?’

As for what insights he could gain, besides a sense of awe, he hadn’t learned much yet. The only thing truly beneficial to Chu Fan was the abundance of Spiritual Qi.

The Spiritual Qi here was several times more abundant than in Peach Blossom Valley at Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain.

Predictably, if he could cultivate here for an extended period, his Cultivation growth would be many times faster than outside.

Of course, the atmosphere here was also oppressive. Anyone who stayed here too long without sufficient mental fortitude would probably be driven mad by the suffocating feeling.

Since there were no special discoveries to be made, Chu Fan decided not to waste any more time and give the entire Secret Realm a quick, general survey first.

He had not gone far when he saw a huge, open space. The clearing was at least a hundred times the size of the Lingyun Sect’s Martial Arts Arena, and in its very center stood a stone stele roughly ten zhang high.

On the stele was a single, powerful character: "Sword."

The instant Chu Fan’s gaze touched the character for "Sword," his consciousness was devoured by it...