Yun Xi picked a random direction and slipped into the white mist. Hu Yingjun lagged a step behind, and soon they were completely separated.
Yun Xi moved forward through the mist by instinct, keeping her divine sense tightly around her, not daring to relax for a moment. This secret realm was far too strange.
Dian Dian occasionally transmitted her voice: "Master, when did you realize you were in an illusion?"
"When I touched your face."
"Huh?"
"The fuzzy texture felt familiar, so I tried to recall. While dressing, I touched the Glazed Jade Mask, which confirmed I was in an illusion. Then Fei Xia's transformation into the young mistress acted illogically, which made me even more suspicious.
A woman bold enough to kill a bandit leader would never commit suicide over a rumor, especially in front of my big brother. That was clearly a staged scenario.
When I saw the red fox turn into a man, I confirmed my identity and remembered who I was. When I asked my big brother his name, he couldn't answer. That deepened my suspicion.
I exposed Fei Xia's and your identities, yet the illusion persisted. That could only be the red fox. Fortunately, his four tails were not self-cultivated. Once I exposed his identity as an beast cultivator, he remembered himself, and the illusion finally broke.
That place earlier was strange, it left me uneasy."
Yun Xi frowned.
At that moment, Xianling Grass transmitted her voice: "You were able to exit the illusion so quickly because your divine sense is strong. The suggestions imposed by the illusion were weak. It only hid your memory, it could not alter it. That made you doubt the people and events around you, which allowed you to break free so smoothly.
The place you passed through was a segregated area of the secret realm. The secret realm had been sealed for thousands of years, isolated from the world, essentially halting its natural evolution. The realm spirit wanted the cultivators entering to become nourishment for the realm but could not overdo it, so it set up an illusion trial.
Those who fail become the realm's nutrients. Those who break the illusion are qualified to explore the realm. The realm spirit does not dig its own grave.
If outside cultivators detected the secret realm's strangeness, it would be resealed, which would be a loss."
Yun Xi continued walking, sensing she was about to enter the true secret realm. She asked Xianling Grass: "Xiao Xian, do you know the origin of this secret realm?"
Xianling Grass was silent for a long moment. Yun Xi thought she didn't want to answer, so she did not press, but the voice eventually came: "Master, this is not an ordinary secret realm. It is a fragment of a newly formed small world."
Yun Xi paused mid-step but then realized the truth. No wonder Lei Hongxuan and the others in the Spirit Realm suppressed their cultivation to descend, even fighting over the secret realm's dominance, only to be annihilated.
This secret realm remained dormant for so long before opening, clearly under the realm spirit's hand.
As a fragment of a small world sealed for so long, it could not naturally evolve or repair itself. Inside, the Wu tribe's descendants were consuming the fragment's energy, keeping the realm in a one-way state.
Once the realm spirit, or the small world's consciousness, awakened, it began self-preservation, which explains the rapid decline of the Wu tribe descendants. This time, the secret realm opened to use entering cultivators to eliminate the Wu tribe entirely.
By coincidence, Yun Xi was the first cultivator to contact the Wu descendants. It was only natural that she transferred them into her space, indirectly fulfilling the realm spirit's purpose.
Yun Xi asked further: "Xiao Xian, when will this incomplete small world fragment evolve into a full world?"
Xianling Grass considered before replying: "That depends on the power of world law. At least until your ascension to the Spirit Realm, this secret realm cannot evolve into a small world."
"I understand."
Moments later, Yun Xi emerged from the mist, the scene before her suddenly clear.
At the center stood a bronze divine tree, stretching through the entire realm into the clouds. Its bronze leaves clashed, ringing like a set of bells.
Surrounding the tree was a rolling sea of clouds, with floating islands suspended around it. Each island had wisteria cascading like the Milky Way, accompanied by the calls of cranes.
Yun Xi inhaled deeply, witnessing a scene previously only seen in jade slips. She transmitted her voice to Xianling Grass: "Xiao Xian, this fragment must contain the core of a small world's birth; otherwise, we wouldn't see this. If only I could move this divine tree into my space.
Now I understand Lei Hongxuan's mindset. If I were him, I would definitely try to seize it."
Her desire for the bronze divine tree was intense.
"Master, I advise against overestimating yourself or coveting the divine tree. If you were a Mahayana about to ascend, you might try. But with your current late Golden Core cultivation, forcing this fragment could result in the realm spirit consuming your soul, leaving your body as nourishment for the tree."
A cold splash of reality hit her. Yun Xi quickly recovered, wiping her mouth: "Hehe, I was just speaking hypothetically. Thank you for the warning. I was definitely affected by the bronze leaves' sound just now."
"Good. Be careful. It's hard to reach here. We still need to find spirit veins."
Xianling Grass never stopped reminding her about harvesting spirit veins.
Yun Xi coughed softly and transmitted: "Xiao Xian, if we take the spirit veins here, will the realm spirit let us leave?"
"Master, don't worry. The realm spirit will expel us when the time comes."
Curious, Yun Xi asked: "You're so confident?"
"Of course. If it refuses, I will drain all the spiritual energy in the secret realm."
"Tsk, so ruthless?"
Yun Xi realized she still underestimated Xianling Grass.
"Of course, I am Xianling Grass!"
Yun Xi found Xianling Grass boastful but said nothing. She leapt toward the nearest floating island, eager to explore the treasures awaiting her.
Meanwhile, Hu Yingjun saw the secret realm differently. To him, winding fox dens scaled the cliffs, each containing treasures. To claim them, he had to break the seals of every den.
Hu Yingjun braced himself, determined to overcome each seal. He could not bear seeing what he could not take.
Elsewhere, Wei Yunqing and Sheng Yuhong faced an illusion tailored to them.
In this illusion, ten years after Wei Yunqing joined his sect, he and Sheng Yuhong became the recognized prodigies of Haoran Sect, implicitly acknowledged as future Taoist partners.