Secret Realm

Two days have passed, and the group has gathered near the entrance to the Heavenly Bird Secret Realm.

Yun Xingjun waved his hand, signaling everyone to quiet down: "After the elders' tallying and voting, the initial allocation of resources has been decided."

The disciples began to cheer, chanting the names of their chosen protégés.

Ouyang Lanyue shook her head and stepped forward, her tone regretful: "The distribution result is not quite what everyone expected. This time, the distribution of supplies was reversed; the group with the fewest votes received the most supplies, while the group with the most votes received none."

An incredulous groan erupted from the crowd as Ouyang Lanyue began reading the results: "The following three disciples received no initial resources: Qi Yuan, Ye Ting, and Lu Wenxing. The following three disciples received the most initial resources: Pei Yin, Bai Zhuo, and Ye Yu. The remaining disciples received the same amount of resources."

To quell public anger, Ji Lin quickly explained, "It's like this: popularity and strength are related. The disciple who receives the most support is the strongest disciple. Therefore, we should not give the resources to the top three to reduce the gap between our disciples."

“In the past, the most important supplies for the trials of inner disciples were food. This year, there are no inner disciples, and all the direct disciples have already abstained from grains, so the initial supplies are medicine.”

The noise subsided a bit, and Yun Xingjun pointed to the passage behind him and began to explain the rules: "The rules are as follows. First, each disciple can choose one of the three passages. The choice will result in different entrance locations, but the passages are connected within the Head Bird Secret Realm, so you can meet each other within the realm."

"Don't panic if you see other rogue cultivators or demonic cultivators in the secret realm; it's normal. Some ingredients in the secret realm can be used as medicine, but there are also many poisonous plants and dangerous animals, so be very careful. There aren't many restrictions or limitations during the trial; you can use any means to steal other participants' resources and points."

"The competition is the same as in previous years. Everyone has a real-time score and can see their ranking. As long as you obtain rare ingredients and plants and put them into the scoring storage bag, you can score points according to the progress. In addition to plants, spirit beasts also contribute to your score. Each participant will have a jade pendant hanging from their waist. If you encounter danger, crush the jade pendant, and you will be teleported off the field, which is here, and you will be considered to have forfeited. Taking away the opponent's storage bag will give you all of their points and eliminate them."

The moment Yun Xingjun finished speaking, each disciple received a jade token, which they each hung on their waists, while Qi Yuan put it in her pocket.

"The jade token can display real-time rankings, but flying on a sword is prohibited during the trial," Yun Xingjun added.

Ji Lin's voice rose: "Contestants, take note, it can be any form! We will not interfere with your actions, but we remind you to manage your image. Many places have spirit stones that project images here, and making a fool of yourself will be seen by everyone."

"The countdown begins now! Future cultivators, give it your all! Achieve the best results in the trials!" he shouted, and everyone present was filled with excitement.

"three!"

"two!"

" one!!"

As the countdown ended, the disciples entered their chosen passages, and Qi Yuan decisively chose the second entrance.

She passed through the white light and arrived at a forest through the second entrance. There was a large swamp on the ground, and if she had run in and hadn't stopped, she might have fallen straight into the swamp.

The forest was eerie; although it was made of trees, they were all withered branches, and the leaves had all fallen to the ground, scattering yellow and green hues across the earth.

Strange creatures that looked like birds perched on dead branches, making bizarre noises from their throats.

"Senior Sister!" Pei Yin rushed towards her as soon as he entered.

"Don't move!" she shouted suddenly. Pei Yin immediately stopped in his tracks and then realized that there was a swamp in front of him, with disgusting green bubbles rising from it. Tree branches and animal carcasses floated out of the swamp.

Qi Yuan carefully navigated around the swamp to stand in front of him: "I told you not to be so reckless. You followed me in, right? Where are the others?"

“I saw Ye Munian and Cui Que also use this passage; they may have already left.” He lowered his head.

"Senior sister, do you want to cooperate with me? I'll give you all my supplies, and I don't want any of the points I get!" Pei Yin looked at her expectantly.

Qi Yuan waved her hand: "I don't need to. I'll be going to the trial alone this time, Pei Yin, be careful."

She looked around and finally found a straight path leading in that direction.

Pei Yin was somewhat disappointed, but he quickly got into the zone and began searching for points near the swamp.

"Junior Brother Pei, shall we cooperate?" Cui Que emerged from behind the tree, confident and composed. She was very confident in her charm.

"I don't cooperate with anyone other than Senior Sister Qi." Pei Yin didn't even glance at her, completely ignoring her.

Cui Que stood there, stunned, watching him leave without hesitation, gritting her teeth. This unknown junior brother was truly ungrateful; he'd regret it once she got a good ranking.

As soon as Qi Yuan reached a dense forest, a ferocious beast with a completely black body pounced on her. She reacted swiftly and killed the beast with a swift stroke of her knife.

She peeled off a piece of its skin and put it in her storage bag; the number next to her name changed from "0" to "30". This beast was actually worth 30 points.

A cluster of colorful and exotic plants grew in the grass. She cut all the plants down with a single sword stroke and retreated abruptly.

The moment a poisonous plant was cut, it sprayed out purple venom. Fortunately, Qi Yuan took a step back, and the liquid sprayed onto the ground.

She picked up the non-toxic plants one by one and put them into her storage bag, which immediately increased her score to "110" points. These were basically 10 points each.

Qi Yuan glanced at the rankings casually; she was currently in 9th place, while the 1st place already had 300 points.

She wasn't in a hurry, after all, there were still three months. She heard the roars of many wild beasts and the screams of rogue cultivators not far away, and Qi Yuan immediately rushed over.

*

She went on a killing spree. With so many wild beasts gathered together, Qi Yuan killed them one by one. After an unknown amount of time, the ground was piled high with the corpses of wild beasts, and in a corner not far away, there was a rogue cultivator trembling with fear.

Qi Yuan looked at the rankings. Because she was gaining points so quickly, the spirit stones were automatically tallied, adding to her account for every enemy she killed. Her ranking had already surged to second place. The first place was Ye Ting.

"Immortal! Thank you, Immortal, for saving me!!" The rogue cultivator cried out, collapsing to the ground.

"I'm not here to save you." Qi Yuan ignored him and continued searching for her next target.

"Junior Sister Qiu, if you see Senior Brother Ye or Junior Sister Qi, you distract them, and I'll take the opportunity to snatch their storage bags." Dongfang Yilin was discussing a plan with Qiu Yanyu.

"Senior sister, the trial has only just begun. Let's wait until they take more time before we make our move."

"OK."

Qi Yuan, hiding in the bushes, understood the situation and secretly slipped out, running towards another path.

Those outside the secret realm were watching everything closely, paying close attention to the real-time rankings.

Ye Ting, Qi Yuan, and Pei Yin's scores are increasing rapidly, dominating the top three spots on the leaderboard.

"Who is that Pei Yin? Is he a newly accepted personal disciple this year?"

"What? He's the fourth disciple of the Lingjian Sect! He's been a personal disciple for four years already."

"I've never seen this before!"

"..."

After running for a long time, Qi Yuan finally found a cave. It was outside the range of the spirit stone's broadcast, and with darkness falling, it was a place where she could rest.

The moment she walked in, several people looked up at her at the same time.

Qi Yuan: ...

"Hello," she finally managed to say after a long pause.

Yu Guanzhi and Bai Zhuo had never met this famous senior sister before, so they awkwardly said, "Hello, senior sister."

Ye Yu was a girl, so the conversation became more familiar: "Hello, Senior Sister Qi, I'm Ye Yu."

"Senior Sister Qi! You must remember me, right? I am Wu Shangyao! You even praised me before!" He rushed out from the innermost part of the cave and shouted loudly.

Qi Yuan found a seat and asked, "Are the four of you a team?"

The four nodded in unison. Yu Guanzhi scratched his head and said, "The four of us are all newly accepted disciples this year, so we all chose channel number three to team up and score points together. Senior sister, would you like to join us?"

"No, thank you. I'll conserve my energy and rest here tonight, and leave as soon as it's light." Qi Yuan spread some grass on the ground and lay down directly on it.

Fortunately, it was these four people. If it had been Cheng Jin, Duan Yu, or Dongfang Yilin, she would never have dared to be in the same room with them, otherwise her storage bag would probably have been snatched away before she even lay down.

She was suddenly moved by something inexplicable. The four disciples were so righteous that they seemed to radiate golden light, giving her a sense of security.

Three months... it's not like she'll be lucky enough to encounter a pack of wild beasts every day. More terrifying than wild beasts are some of her close disciples; if they join forces against Qi Yuan, she might not be able to defeat them.

Even late at night, some people's scores kept increasing until they stopped at a certain number in the early hours of the morning.

Before dawn, Qi Yuan got up, glanced at the four people sleeping soundly on the ground, gently walked past them, and exited the cave.

While she was still chopping the spirit plant, she sensed two people walking towards her while talking. Qi Yuan quickly put the spirit plant into her storage bag and then hid in the grass.

The two voices became clearer: "Senior Brother Song, there aren't many points here, let's go check the other side!"

Song Yu nodded sullenly, without saying a word.

"Senior brother, don't be so cold, pay attention to me!" Ye Munian pouted and said softly.

“…I don’t like to talk.” Song Yu pursed his lips and finally managed to utter a sentence after a long while.

"Alright, senior brother, look over there, there seem to be two people. Let's go and make our presence known so that those two will lower their guard and trust us. After this period, we'll steal their points!" Ye Munian was full of fighting spirit and clenched his fist.

After confirming that the two had gone far away, Qi Yuan climbed out to look for her score. When did Junior Brother Ye become friends with Song Yu? And he actually developed a brain.

However, in this hostile situation, she would rather Ye Munian not think things through for now.

Qi Yuan maintained a steady pace in cutting down the spirit plant. With practice, she not only discovered the suitable areas for this plant to grow, but also became able to distinguish whether the plant was poisonous or not.

But this is too few points; one plant is only worth 10 points. What she wants are rare spirit beasts worth hundreds to thousands of points. The Heavenly Bird Secret Realm is so vast; she doesn't know where they might appear.

The trial takes place in this secret realm for three months, making it easy to lose track of time. The harsh living conditions are secondary; more importantly, in order to gain points, they will be moved to different places every day. After fasting, they do not need food but need rest.

Wild animals are most active at night, so even if you choose to hunt at night, how can you avoid other hunters while resting during the day?

What people fear most is not wild beasts.

They are other participants.