Yu Xiang Zhēnjūn was right beside Yun Xi. Instinctively, he reached out to grab her wrist, but he was a moment too late. All he managed to shout was, "Feng Xiyun!"
Then, before anyone could react, Yun Xi was sucked into the rift. It closed just as quickly, as if it had never existed.
The sudden change put the surrounding Nascent Soul cultivators on high alert. No one expected the rift to reappear.
"Where will Feng Xiyun be taken?"
"I don't know."
"Why him?"
"I don't know."
"Is this rift random, or does it have a specific target?"
"I don't know."
None of the Yuányīng Zhēnjūn could answer these questions.
Xian Xu Zhēnjūn frowned. "Reports indicate that the giant demon beasts are regrouping. Everyone, prepare for replacements."
The Zhēnjūn of Haoran Sect had to momentarily set aside their worries and focus on the upcoming battle.
At this time, Golden Core cultivators exploring the secret realm were unaware that the Yuányīng Zhēnjūn were already fighting the corrupted giant demon beasts. A few sensitive Golden Core cultivators seemed to sense something was wrong and became more cautious.
Wei Yunqing, hiding in the bracelet space, found something valuable in her portable city—a bottle of Fourth-Grade Barrier-Breaking Pill.
As the name suggests, a Barrier-Breaking Pill is used to forcibly break through cultivation bottlenecks. A cultivator can only use it three times in a lifetime, after which it becomes ineffective.
For stagnated cultivators, it is extremely useful. Crossing this threshold could bring a qualitative leap in cultivation. Such pills are extremely rare in Weiyu Realm.
Wei Yunqing's eyes gleamed as she finally no longer had to chase after Yun Xi. Without hesitation, she swallowed one pill.
As the pill entered her system, a powerful surge of spiritual energy filled her meridians. Wei Yunqing closed her eyes, sat in meditation, and guided the energy into the Golden Core in her dantian.
At this moment, she did not realize that her bracelet had already been dragged into the ants' nest in the desert.
Meanwhile, Wei Chenyin and her group were fighting a swarm of giant desert scorpions. A dozen scorpions of varying sizes circled around them.
Zhang Lingrui struck first, cutting off the tail of a smaller scorpion, then dashed to Lin Keyang's side."Are these all part of the same family? Did we just poke a scorpion nest?"
Lin Keyang swung two punches in succession. The massive sand-colored fists struck the back of a medium-sized scorpion, cracking its shell but not destroying it completely. The scorpion tumbled into the sand.
He finally spoke: "These scorpions appeared suddenly and are extremely aggressive. Be careful. I feel something is off."
Wei Chenyin and Cao Yi nodded in agreement.
Wei Chenyin entangled one scorpion, while Cao Yi formed two attack formations in midair. He swung his sleeves against the scorpion's massive pincers, blocking its strike. The formations glowed golden as they engaged in a tug-of-war with the pincers.
Monks from Yunmen Temple fought in pairs against individual scorpions, and the two female cultivators from Huaxian Gate continued to cooperate seamlessly.
Liu Haotian and Zi Jing, accompanied by Lu Wangyou, were confronting the largest scorpion in the group.
Liu Haotian played the jade flute, using the melody as a formation to control the scorpion's movement. Zi Jing wielded a purple whip, which seemed alive as it wrapped around the scorpion's tail, trying to snap it.
Lu Wangyou held two black-gold long blades. As his teammates restrained the scorpion, he slid beneath its body and drove his blades deep into its abdomen.
The scorpion's soft underbelly was struck, causing it to roll in the sand. It manipulated the quicksand to engulf Lu Wangyou, then began frantically attacking Liu Haotian's sound-formed formation.
Zi Jing's whip was thrown off by the scorpion's tail. Frowning, she swung again, this time aiming to pull Lu Wangyou out of the sand.
The battle at the desert's edge had reached a critical point. Meanwhile, Yun Xi was transported to a void. The moment she appeared, a divine sense immediately locked onto her.
Yun Xi frowned and asked, "Xiao Xian, is this the core of the secret realm?"
"Yes, Master. You are now in the area formed by the realm spirit. Simply put, this is the heart of the realm."
Xiao Xian answered every question.
Just as Yun Xi prepared to ask more, the divine sense locking onto her launched an attack, targeting her sea of consciousness.
Yun Xi's Soul Refining Art was not for show. She immediately countered, clashing head-on with the intruding divine sense.
The impact sent ripples through the void for a breath, shaking the surrounding space.
Yun Xi attempted to trace the divine sense to locate the evil cultivator, but it suddenly vanished.
Xiao Xian spoke just in time: "Master, they are here. Follow my guidance."
"Understood!"
Yun Xi flickered forward, moving swiftly under Xiao Xian's guidance toward the standoff between the realm spirit and the evil cultivator.
On the way, she asked, "How can an evil cultivator hide in the realm spirit's territory?"
"This area has fallen. It is already difficult for the realm spirit to protect its core. Otherwise, why do you think it sought you for a deal?"
Xiao Xian responded with a hint of schadenfreude.
"The realm spirit had ulterior motives from the start, attempting to use incoming cultivators to accelerate the secret realm's evolution. This gave the evil cultivator an opening, causing the rear to catch fire, forcing the realm spirit to come to it. The supreme-grade spiritual vein reward was simply compensation requested by the spirit for you, Master."
The void was filled with Yun Xi's afterimages. Moments later, she arrived at a floating island. Though called an island, it was just a flat platform hovering in the void. In its center stood a black, irregular stone, two meters high and one and a half meters wide, surrounded by a gray aura. A tall male cultivator stood nearby.
As he turned, Yun Xi's expression twitched briefly. She sensed correctly: Li Chang was not dead and had even advanced to early Divine Transformation.
Li Chang's eyes narrowed dangerously as he stared at Yun Xi in the realm core. A glint of killing intent flashed through his gaze. He said coldly, "So it is you!"
Yun Xi raised the Nine Nether Dragon Umbrella, feigning calm. "Weren't you already killed? How are you here?"
At the same time, she glanced at her storage pouch to confirm that the previous "Li Chang" corpse was still inside. This was important evidence.
"Hmph! You overestimate yourself. You only killed a clone of mine."
Yun Xi rubbed her fingers hidden in her sleeve. "You've been killed twice already. How many clones do you have?"
"If I kill you, you will become my third clone."
Li Chang spun his black whisk, which rapidly extended and wrapped around Yun Xi's ankles.
Feigning panic and unpreparedness, Yun Xi was easily pulled before Li Chang. His palm shot toward her head.