Everyone listened silently, but in their minds, they'd already ruled out this path.
"So right now, all these forces have their own territories."
"Yes. In the central area of this place, that's where the Immortal Realm cultivators are. They keep to themselves, only buying up the resources we find to support themselves.
But before, they weren't friendly to lower realm cultivators exploring here. They wiped out the largest family that came poking around. Later, the lower realm cultivators surrounded their central area, and only then did they soften. Now, there's a delicate balance.
More and more cultivators from other sects have come through different spatial rifts. Those Immortal Realm cultivators don't want to anger the masses. As long as the cultivators trade with them, they'll trade back.
The rest of us are loose cultivators, like me. We're not on the radar of any orthodox sect, so we have no other way out. We just band together, form teams, scavenge for resources on the outskirts, stack up Xianyuan stones, and hope we can leave someday."
By the end, Hou San sighed a little. They didn't want it this way, but sometimes circumstances are stronger than people—you just have to survive.
"Do you know where those lower realm cultivators were from? They dared to surround Immortals. Didn't they take losses?"
"Of course they did. Even though they were all peak Mahayana, there's still a difference between them and Immortals. But they somehow got these thunder grenades, strapped them all over their bodies, lured the Immortals out, and charged as a group.
Basically, for every thousand damage they did, they lost eight hundred. But their fearless bravery actually scared the Immortals. They knew that if the ants bit hard enough, they could take down the elephant. Since this place sits between the Immortal Realm and the lower realm, Xianyuan energy isn't abundant, so the Immortals could only maintain their cultivation level. If they wanted to advance, they'd have to return to the Immortal Realm.
But they can't go back anytime—they only have a fixed window to connect with the Immortal Realm. If all lower realm cultivators acted like those from Lingyun Continent, even with precautions, it'd be a huge hassle."
"Where exactly were those cultivators from?"
Jian Dan asked coolly, cutting him off.
"I don't remember clearly… maybe Lingyun Continent or Yunling Continent."
"And the leader's name, you must know that, right?"
"I do. Her name's Jun Qingfeng."
"Langyue Qingfeng, thick smoke and dark rain, the Heavenly Sect's teachings weathered but graceful. That's a solid name!"
Jian Dan smiled lightly and continued.
"Do you know where she is now?"
"No clue. She took heavy damage and vanished. Where s he went? Someone like me can't possibly find out."
"You know a lot about the inner circle even from the outskirts."
Jian Dan tested casually.
"What we find has to be traded for resources. Usually, I go with the boss. Major news like this? You don't have to dig—you just know."
"Not bad. So it's roughly the same as when we left, just that the Immortal Realm people were suppressed a bit. That surprised me."
"Exactly! And this happened only three years ago, so none of you would've known."
"Alright! I'm satisfied with your answer for now, so your life's spared."
Jian Dan waved to Kuang Dao and instructed,
"He's said enough. Let him rest for a bit."
Kuang Dao nodded and took Hou San to the next room, placing him with the ones tied up like maggots. He tapped them a few times, delivering a precise hand strike to make sure they passed out, then came out.
After Kuang Dao returned, Jian Dan pulled a formation disk from the Na Wu Bracelet, filled it with Xianyuan stones, and activated a soundproof barrier. Only then did everyone speak freely.
"It's Jian Jun!"
Jian Mao was the first to speak. Jian Jing, Jian Xu, and Jian Chuan all nodded.
Probably only Jian Dan didn't know Jian Jun's real name was Jun Qingfeng, but even just hearing the Jun surname was enough for her to connect the dots.
Everyone frowned a little. Jian Jing worried,
"Jian Jun's injured. Not sure if she's recovered over these three years."
"Senior Sister, don't worry. Jian Jun Zūnzhǔ would've left herself an escape route. She can't cultivate, sure, but there are always pills. She been operating here for nearly a hundred years and suppressed the Immortal Realm cultivators. She wouldn't put herself in real danger."
Even though Jian Dan was concerned, she knew the more she panicked, the more it would affect everyone else.
"Exactly. Since we're here, we won't let Jian Jun suffer. Now, we need to focus on finding her and the remaining Tianjian Sect cultivators."
This was Jian Mao speaking.
"And the other sect cultivators from Lingyun Continent, according to Hou San, they're probably sticking together."
Jian Chuan, as a former sect master, had a good grasp of the situation.
"Knowing Jian Jun, she'd hide her status to avoid attention. Claiming injury and disappearing was probably to avoid trouble."
Jian Xu's usually curved brows were sharp now, a cold glint in his eyes. Forcing Jian Jun to claim injury or hide? She must've been cornered.
Wu Siyuan, a later-stage cultivator, also knew Jian Jun Zūnzhǔ by reputation. Hearing about the suppression, he was indignant.
"We're only hearing Hou San's side of the story. What's really going on, we don't know. But as Tianjian Sect from Lingyun Continent, we can't reveal ourselves here."
Jian Dan began thinking about solutions.
"Zūnshàng, we can use my loose cultivator alliance's name. As for which lower realm we're from, we'll have to think of that."
Kuang Dao was first to suggest it.
"Hmm, that works. As for the lower realm, just make one up. Who's gonna verify it?" Jian Chuan agreed.
"As long as we stick to one story, it's not a big problem." Jian Jing also nodded.
"Next, we'll need to enter the inner circle."
"We should think it over first. Going straight there now might be reckless."
"Exactly. My suggestion: Hou San guides us around nearby, we look for treasure, then have a reason to check with the Immortal Realm people when we arrive." Jian Dan said.
"Yeah! Even if we don't find Immortal Realm people, cultivators from other worlds are fine too."
"I'm sure Jian Jun left signs. Remember, Purple Sky Sect already sent a team in?"
"Yeah, if they got the same intel as us, they're searching for Jian Jun too."
"Finding Jian Jun means finding Lingyun Continent's cultivators." Jian Mao said with certainty.
The seven of them pieced together the intel, analyzed it, and got useful conclusions, then shifted the topic to their own cultivation.
"No Xianyuan energy here, spiritual sense is limited, so we rely on swordsmanship for defense. Everyone trains their bodies. We can protect ourselves against anything short of Immortals, but we should prepare for the worst."
Jian Mao laid out the challenges ahead.
"Our previous encounter with Hou San's group? We won because we reacted quickly, and their strength wasn't enough. They're just loose cultivators on the outskirts. Against sect cultivators, can we still win? That remains to be seen." Jian Dan added.
The six nodded. They couldn't only guard against Immortals—other cultivators from different worlds were threats too.
"That's all we've got for now. Everyone knows the situation. Tomorrow, we'll scout around and gather more intel." Jian Mao said directly.
"Senior Brother, one stays behind tomorrow to ask another person, verify info. Xiao Yue and I will take Hou San to the nearest small team's territory."
"Not safe!"
===
I'm not sure if I've ever said this before, but one of my favorite game genres is MMORPGs.On PC, I play Guild Wars 2, and on Android, I've been playing Gaia Odyssey, A3: Still Alive, and Lineage 2: Revolution. That was back around 2020, I think? So yeah, about five years ago. Oh, and SAO IF too!
I started playing Gaia Odyssey and A3 right when they launched in my country, and I've been playing SAO IF ever since.
My usernames? I use Richark for Gaia and A3, and Rikhi for Lineage and SAO IF. My Richark character's around level 200, while Rikhi is somewhere around 350 (I think? Maybe? I kinda forgot lol).
Anyway, I seriously love Gaia Odyssey. It's just light and fun to play.
And A3? The story and graphics? Damn, they're so good. So pleasing to the eyes.
And SAO IF—I've always loved Sword Art Online, especially versions that let me customize my avatar (I love that I can choose the gender instead of being stuck as a male MC). That's also why I play Fatal Bullet on PC.
These three games, I downloaded and played them all the moment they officially launched here.As for Lineage, honestly... I forgot why and when I started playing it (please don't judge me 😭).
So anyway, I started translating and uploading here about five months ago—around June—and since then, I haven't really touched my mobile games. The last time I played was early August.Then today (Oct 23), I opened my games again on my laptop since my phone storage's full and my laptop still has some space.
And guess what? Out of nowhere, I got a mail notification in A3 saying the server will shut down on 2025/11/18.
I was SHOCKED. Like, what the actual fuck? That's less than a month away!!
God, I'm so stressed about it. I mean, the game's honestly so damn good—the story, the visuals, the characters, everything!
It hurts knowing it's ending.
Then I opened Gaia Odyssey and saw a notice about a big update coming on December 2.At least that one's still alive, but man… my A3 character.I even made a guild there, got it up to level 4, and I was the guild leader, dammit! Now it's been demoted back to level 1—probably because there aren't enough active players anymore. Still, it's such a waste. Seriously, what a shame...
Like... dayummm.
Ugh...
This is actually the second game I've played that's shutting down.
The first one was Uta Macross Sma-Pho De-Culture (歌マクロス スマホDeカルチャー), a Japanese rhythm game for the Macross franchise. That series is legendary—mecha, war, songs, and love triangles all mixed together.
It's kinda like AKB0048—mecha, idols, and space battles.