Chapter 22: The Illusionary Realm Revitalizes the Cultivation World (22% complete)

Several days passed, and the day arrived for the opening of the secret realm. The group arrived at the entrance, where there were throngs of people.

When Jun Huilian came out for a stroll, he took out a fan from his Qiankun bag and waved it around. His leisurely and relaxed demeanor stood out from the tense atmosphere.

The crowd was noisy. Su Xiaoyao gestured to them and squeezed out of the crowd, but soon returned.

She was sweating profusely from her busy work, and when she saw her partner, she couldn't wait to share the information she had gathered: "I just looked from a high place, and it seems that, like last time, the secret realm has opened up 3,000 slots. The person gathered over there is the one who came out of the secret realm alive last time. He doesn't want to go into the secret realm again, but he wrote down his experience in a booklet and is selling it. What a business mind!"

Some non-essential information was omitted, such as that the number of people was not counted by her, but by the system.

"Should we buy it?" Xiao Tingyuan asked without hesitation, ready to take out his money.

"No, no, no," Su Xiaoyao denied. "The secret realm is not static; knowing a little about it is enough."

Of the group, only Xiao Tingyuan had come fully prepared. He said, "This secret realm is very special. It is not a mountain or forest, but a large illusion. Those who enter must abide by the rules. A slight mistake will result in death. I heard that when it opened last time, many people tried to search for treasures after entering, but they were killed by the illusions in the secret realm for violating the rules. So we must not act rashly and must be cautious at every step."

Su Xiaoyao continued, "The cultivation levels of all cultivators who enter will be suppressed to below the Golden Core stage. The secret realm is also extremely dangerous, so many forces simply send Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment stage disciples here. We don't need to worry too much about being targeted."

She looked around to make sure no one was watching, then lowered her voice and said, "But I noticed that there are many highly skilled people around the entrance to the secret realm who don't have keys. I suspect they want to wait outside and reap the benefits."

The danger lies not only in the secret realm itself, but also in the people.

Jiang Yun, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke up, looking directly at Xiao Tingyuan: "Chen Qirui wants to harm you, you should be careful."

When he went to cause trouble for Shen Qirui, he overheard his drunken conversation with his servant.

Xiao Tingyuan remained calm about this: "Those who harm others will ultimately harm themselves."

The secret realm opened on time, and the group, having agreed to travel together, held onto each other's sleeves, trying their best not to get separated.

Upon entering the secret realm, the scene before my eyes swayed, and a piercing, sharp sound reached my ears.

"Next one—"

As the fog cleared, the first thing everyone saw after they came to a stop was a city gate with the three large characters "City of the Wrongfully Dead" written on it.

The city seemed particularly oppressive under the twilight light.

Jun Huilian felt that the scene looked somewhat familiar.

The thought had just crossed his mind when Jun Feibai nudged her arm.

Jun Feibai transmitted his voice secretly: "This secret realm feels very familiar, but I can't remember where I've seen it before. Do you feel the same way?"

“I feel the same way,” she replied.

It's probably a place they've been to together, but things have changed over time, which is why they didn't recognize it.

Su Xiaoyao saw the people next to him and was just about to feel relieved that they hadn't separated when he heard a loud voice in the crowd shout, "What are you doing? Are you lining up to enter the city?" Then a throwing knife pierced the back of his head.

The loudmouth died on the spot.

Silence fell instantly. A masked man with a white face and red cheeks stood at the city gate and said in a low voice, "Can't you see that big 'Quiet' sign? No loud noises allowed. Do you country bumpkins still want to celebrate the festival of the unjustly killed?"

No one dared to answer.

Jun Huilian glanced at it several times before he noticed the huge "quiet" character standing at the city gate. It was casually written on a piece of Xuan paper, only the size of a palm, while they were more than a hundred meters away from the city gate.

The City of the Wrongfully Dead: truly a place where people died unjustly.

“Let’s line up first. Look, all the NPCs in front are queuing to register. I heard from that pale-faced guy that we have to go into the city to celebrate the Festival of the Wrongfully Dead. The first step in the game is definitely to enter the city. Getting into the city probably won’t be easy. There are definitely rules to stop people. For example, that guy was talking loudly. If the volume exceeds a certain decibel, it will probably trigger the death mechanism. We have to be careful.” Su Xiaoyao was eager to try. This kind of secret realm was like an escape room to her. She loved puzzle games the most.

Xiao Tingyuan and Jiang Yun didn't understand the game term "NPC," but Jun Huilian and Jun Feibai did.

They exchanged a glance and saw interest in each other's eyes.

A game-like illusion? They can do that too. Fang Tieyan has a lot of games stored in his memory. They can completely modify the games into modes that require the activation of spiritual power to play, which can both improve strength and increase fun.

The large-scale illusion created by the owner of this secret realm is quite interesting and worth imitating.

After Su Xiaoyao explained terms such as "NPC," "decibel," and "death mechanism," their line was not far from the city gate. The cultivators were not in a hurry to push forward, and no one knew whether "cutting in line" was one of the death rules.

There were five registration points at the city gate, and those with sharp eyes could see that people entering were given different tags.

The city gate was only slightly ajar, allowing one carriage to pass through. From the registration office to the inside of the city gate, one had to cross a moat. It was already late and too far away to see the scene inside clearly.

The monks lined up with the NPCs, and after the first unlucky one was executed, the rest of them tried to keep their voices down when they talked.

The delicate atmosphere was soon broken.

"He's a spy! Throw him into the river!" The pale-faced, shrill voice rang out again, and immediately a large number of Foundation Establishment stage soldiers surrounded a cultivator.

The cultivators tried various methods to escape, but their cultivation was suppressed, and any struggle against the sheer number of people was futile.

Not only him, but many monks were dragged out at the registration office, and one after another, chilling screams rang out.

"Why does this scene seem so familiar?" Xiao Tingyuan frowned deeply, feeling that everything that was happening was very familiar.

"You've been here before?" Su Xiaoyao asked in surprise.

"No," Xiao Tingyuan replied, "It just feels like I've seen it somewhere before, the City of the Wrongfully Dead, the City of the Wrongfully Dead..."

Su Xiaoyao thought he was just saying it casually: "I've only ever seen this kind of scene on TV or in novels before. I've never played a murder mystery game in such a luxurious setting."

Her words didn't remind Xiao Tingyuan, but they did remind Jun Huilian.

Jun Huilian twitched the corners of her mouth; she knew who the master of the secret realm was.

Jun Feibai and she were on the same page: "Ah, I remember now. Xu Buhui created a ghost realm and proclaimed himself the Ghost King. He invited us to visit that place, which is called the City of the Wrongfully Dead. He later wrote a book based on the City of the Wrongfully Dead, but no one dared to read it and the sales were always zero. It was you who kindly supported one copy."

No wonder it felt familiar; the City of the Dead in the illusion is the ruined Ghost Realm.

It's not surprising that Xiao Tingyuan felt it was familiar; he had drawn Xu Buhui's work before, and probably mustered the courage to flip through a few pages and read the written description of the City of the Wrongfully Dead.

Su Xiaoyao asked 996 to go to the front of the line to see what information the people in front of her needed to register. She found that they only needed to write a name, but that one name had killed so many cultivators.

She shared the information she had received.

After Jun Huilian learned who the owner of the secret realm was, she knew what was going on. She didn't interfere and let them figure it out themselves.

Jiang Yun mustered up his courage and patted the NPC in front of him in line. The NPC glared at him fiercely, but when he saw that it was a harmless child, his expression softened.

"What do you want?" he asked rudely.

Jiang Yun pretended to be ignorant and struck up a conversation, first complimenting the other person on his tall and burly appearance, and then expressing his desire to find a bodyguard.

Having received the best education from the Jiang family since childhood, and with an innocent appearance, the burly man quickly accepted his high-priced offer after he deliberately projected a friendly demeanor.

"I can only protect you until the celebration begins." The big man's eyes gleamed as he looked at the spirit stone in his hand.

Jiang Yun silently noted down the matter of the "celebration," and took out a blank sheet of paper where both parties wrote down an agreement.

Jiang Yun subtly showed the key point of the document, namely the name of the Han Dynasty, to his companions behind him.

Wang Gaolimeng.

The burly man had a name that perfectly matched his appearance.

Su Xiaoyao spoke up at this moment: "I used some tricks to overhear that the team next door has an NPC named Chen Lanli Zhengping, which is five characters long. Could the rule be that teams are divided according to the number of characters in the name?"

After observing for a while, they found that the second and third teams had the fewest people kicked into the moat.

"Why is this happening? Does the master of the secret realm have OCD?" Su Xiaoyao muttered to herself.

After Wang Gaoli finished registering, it was Jiang Yun's turn. Jiang Yun paused, then looked at the pale-faced man next to him with his hands in his pockets and gave them a sinister smile, revealing a set of white teeth.

"Hurry up, the people behind us are waiting. Write down your names," the registrar urged impatiently.

Jiang Yun wanted to see the name at the front, but it was all blurry and deliberately covered up.

He gritted his teeth and wrote four characters.

The registrant stared at him for two seconds, chuckled, and tossed out a red sign.

Jiang Yun breathed a sigh of relief; she had finally passed the test.

With his approval, Xiao Tingyuan and Su Xiaoyao were relieved.

The minor spells concealed on the roster have no effect on Jun Huilian and Jun Feibai.

Jun Huilian saw the name at the front.

Little beggar.

I love eating steamed buns.

Yunnan mushrooms.

Surprisingly consistent.

No wonder these three people were able to get together.

She forced a smile and wrote the three characters "Xu Bu Hui" (meaning "I will not regret it").

The pale-faced man smiled coldly. Just when he thought he had something to do, he found that the rules had been approved.

His expression turned terrified.

Why? She clearly only wrote three words!

Jun Huilian smiled and put away the white sign in his hand before entering the city.

"Red card, this way! Black card? Get lost! Black card dares to get in my way? Oh, white card, esteemed guest! Please come this way!"

"We have to follow the rules and separate now. Be careful, everyone. See you later." After entering the city, people with different tokens were forced to separate, and Su Xiaoyao left holding the red token.

Jun Feibai frowned unhappily as he held the black plaque and followed Jun Huilian toward the white plaque.

"Ha! A black-card cadet dares to trespass into the VIP area, kill him!"

The NPCs' expressions changed instantly, their faces contorted like demons as they stared intently at Jun Feibai, surging towards him as if to tear him apart.

Jun Feibai pulled out a handful of talismans, and stuck one on anyone who got close. The "person" who got the talisman immediately lost their soul.

When he got tired of sticking them on, he simply used his spiritual power to control the talismans to fly on their own, and when he ran out of talismans, he would just take out another handful.

Their extravagant and carefree demeanor stunned the onlookers.

Jun Huilian ignored him and led him directly to the so-called VIP area.

Upon entering a restaurant, the ghosts who had been backing out but had to comply with the rules were stopped outside. Instead of dealing with the rule-breakers, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

Jun Feibai snorted and followed Jun Huilian: "I'm going to empty Xu Buhui's pockets."

He used up so many talismans!

Jun Huilian smiled, his eyes crinkling like foxes: "Since we're here, we can't leave empty-handed, otherwise it would seem like the host is stingy. Old Xu certainly doesn't want us calling him a stingy guy behind his back. I remember he created quite a few things to open up the illusion realm back then. If they were all here, I'm sure he would be happy to sponsor our academy."

After she finished speaking, she brought up the system panel and entered some information. At the same time, an announcement rang in the ears of the mission participants.

[System Announcement: The game section is coming soon, stay tuned!]