convergence

He counted down the seconds in his mind, but when he reached the last number, he found that everything around him was silent. The woman he had been staring at had suddenly disappeared from his sight. His body froze, unwilling to think about the worst possible answer.

No, no, the magical artifact given to him by the family can temporarily control time; he has never failed to use it.

"You want to kill me?"

A voice devoid of any emotion rang out behind him, and the man's face immediately turned ashen. He turned around and saw the woman he was about to attack standing perfectly fine in front of him, her eyes showing no shock, only a hint of confusion.

His legs immediately went weak, and he knelt down. "Fellow Daoist, I made a mistake. The timing was a bit chaotic just now. I was thinking of getting the Nameless Flower..."

"Hmm? You mean," Chu Li raised her hand, twirling several silver needles between her fingertips, "to use silver needles to find the Nameless Flower?"

She looked down at the man kneeling on the ground and reached out to remove a badge he was wearing. "A member of the Shi family?"

The man on the ground seemed to suddenly realize something and hurriedly said, "Yes, I am from the Shi family. You can't kill me. Many people from our Shi family have entered this secret realm. If you kill me, they will definitely hunt you down."

He has no choice but to move out of the Shi family now, but in reality, his position in the Shi family is just so-so. He obtained this magical artifact with great difficulty, hoping to make a big profit in this Time Rift Secret Realm.

The Shi family possessed relatively complete information about the secret realm, so he knew very well that things native to the secret realm could not be taken out, which is why he thought of robbing other cultivators.

Even though his strength wasn't that great, he still managed to loot treasures from many people by using information he had known in advance and magical artifacts. The woman in front of him was the fifth person he had his eye on.

He thought it would be easy to handle—after all, most cultivators don't understand the laws of time at all. He only needed to use his magic weapon, plus the natural time advantage in the secret realm, to easily kill those cultivators whose cultivation level was much higher than his.

This also gave him a sense of satisfaction. So what if someone's cultivation level was higher than his? In the end, they were still killed silently by him.

"By the way, our Shi family has two geniuses joining us this time. If you dare—"

He couldn't say anything more; a moment of suffocation enveloped him, and then he completely lost consciousness.

Chu Li shook her hand off, not giving the man whose neck had been twisted another glance.

Noisy.

However, the Shi family he mentioned does need to be noted. It's not that Chu Li is afraid of the Shi family, but the Shi family does have a certain talent in time management. This talent has a hereditary characteristic, so almost all the cultivators in the family have time management talent, it's just a matter of degree.

The genius from the Shi family that he just mentioned should possess the highest time-related talent in the Shi family.

The probability of her encountering them in this secret realm is very high; these two will be formidable enemies in this secret realm.

She looked again at the silver needle in her hand. She sensed some fluctuations in time on it, which was likely due to something the man had done to the needle. However, this just happened to help her understand.

After all, the concept of time in this secret realm was too vast for her to comprehend in a short time. On the contrary, the one attached to the silver needle was very small, which was just right for her at the moment.

After a long while, Chu Li suddenly opened her eyes, which had been closed, and quickly touched a seed that was swaying in the air. With a flick of her wrist, the surrounding energy flowed, and the seed grew rapidly, formed a bud, and tremblingly bloomed its first flower.

She was teleported into a brand new space.

The space had been empty until now, but just as she landed, another voice rang in her ears.

She instinctively turned around, but the other person's familiar voice rang out first: "Senior Sister!"

His warm body embraced her tightly. Chu Li didn't say anything for a moment, but gently patted Nan Yi's back.

Nan Yi hugged Chu Li: "Senior Sister, are you alright? I later realized that the illusory figure wasn't you, so I entered the secret realm, but I haven't found the blooming flowers yet, and I don't know why I suddenly ended up here..."

He rambled on about his experiences after they broke up, and Chu Li listened quietly, occasionally answering the questions he posed.

As for why Nan Yi suddenly appeared, she had a guess. She touched the Time Amber hanging on her chest, which was a little hot—sure enough, this must be because of the amber.

The voice from before clearly didn't want her to leave. After thinking about it carefully, she realized that the only thing she had that was connected to the secret realm was amber.

The voice also mentioned that Nan Yi would be teleported to her side later, which was probably thanks to Amber.

After Nan Yi's emotions finally calmed down, he began to carefully examine the place.

This space is not large; in fact, it can be described as cramped, and can only accommodate a maximum of about ten people.

Just then, another voice rang out: "Congratulations to you two for successfully entering the second level. Don't blame me for not giving you a heads-up. The goal of the second level is to protect the amber."

Chu Li's eyes flickered when she heard that familiar voice.

It sounds exactly the same as the sound I heard outside the secret realm before.

Before she could even process the meaning of those words, the wall surrounding them was suddenly torn open the moment the words left her lips.

Chu Li suddenly looked up and saw a large group of cultivators gathered in front of her, with all kinds of cultivation levels, but the one standing at the very front was a Nascent Soul stage cultivator.

She grabbed Nan Yi's wrist forcefully and flung Qing Lian away: "Let's go!"

But it was still too late. A sharp-eyed cultivator pointed to the glowing object on her chest, "That's her! She has amber!"

A large group of people, like hungry wolves smelling blood, rushed towards the two.

Chu Li released several domains in succession, temporarily trapping most people for a few seconds. Nan Yi also used his foxfire to scorch the figures that kept getting closer.

After traveling a distance at high speed, the number of cultivators following behind gradually decreased, with only two Nascent Soul stage cultivators still struggling to keep up. At this moment, Chu Li suddenly stopped the green lotus and turned around.

The people behind him were overjoyed: "Hand over the amber quickly, and we'll spare your lives!"

Chu Li chuckled lightly, but her hands moved with lightning speed, creating another domain that enveloped the two of them. Then she pulled Nan Yi into it as well.

One of the cultivators was somewhat wary: "This is a domain? You're from the Myriad Manifestations Sect? Could it be... the sect's grandmaster?"

He had previously heard that the founder of the Myriad Manifestations Sect had some talent in the study of time, and that he had been researching time in recent years.

The other scoffed, "Does she look like one? What kind of person is the Grandmaster of the Myriad Manifestations Sect? How could she only be at the Nascent Soul stage?"

Hearing this, the man from before also began to have doubts. He hesitated for a moment, but in the end, desire prevailed—he wanted to obtain the inheritance, but only by possessing amber could he enter the next level.

Chu Li paid no attention to what they were discussing. She had deliberately kept them in her domain, not to listen to their speculations or idle chatter.

She needed to figure out exactly what this challenge was about, and what information those without amber possessed, otherwise they would become very passive later on.

We were just surrounded and attacked, and it was only because we reacted quickly that we survived. Otherwise, if we had been entangled with them, it would have been a big problem.

She approached slowly, and the two men opposite her did not dare to relax at all. After all, the woman opposite them was also at the Nascent Soul stage. However, they thought that since it was two against one, they had the advantage in numbers. Even if they couldn't win, they should still be able to escape.

But when they were about to draw spiritual energy from their bodies, they found that their bodies seemed to have turned into a black hole—all the spiritual energy stored in their bodies seemed to dissipate in an instant.

They inevitably panicked. What on earth was going on?

They had never heard of any realm that could directly freeze their spiritual power—especially since they and the person opposite them were at the same level of cultivation, how come they couldn't break free at all?

No, there are still domains that can achieve this level—but such a domain must be something only the Grandmaster of the Myriad Manifestations Sect could do, right?

"Who exactly are you?"

Chu Li met two pairs of terrified eyes, remained silent, and pointed her finger directly at the center of one of their eyebrows.

The man's eyes rolled back and he fell backward, at the same time another thud was heard.

Chu Li frowned. Were these two really that bad at handling things?

She just wanted to see their memories; she wasn't going to kill them.

Scene after scene unfolded before Chu Li's eyes without reservation; they were all memories of the two of them from the past few days.

She compared the two sets of memories and confirmed that they had not been altered. Then she roughly understood the situation: "I see."

She beckoned to Nan Yi and whispered to him about the current situation.

Apart from the cultivators who possessed amber, everyone else received the same task: to seize amber. The task also stated that only cultivators with amber could advance to the next level, which explains their eagerness.

Moreover, she gleaned some information from their memories: when each person emerged from the previous level, they would be automatically teleported to a space containing several people, but this was where the cultivators without amber resided.

Their space was opened earlier than hers, so by the time the walls of her space dissipated, a group of people had already gathered around out of curiosity.

Nan Yi recalled everything that had just happened. At first, the group of people seemed to be just lounging around, but later, they seemed to have seen something, and that's why they couldn't wait to surround them.

"Could it be..." A thought quickly flashed through Nan Yi's mind, "that they can see amber?"

Chu Li pointed to the spot where her amber was, "It's glowing; it must have been specially designed that way."

Nan Yi: "Can I put it in my spatial storage?"

“You can try, but I think that since this level has such a rule, either it can’t be put into the space, or even if it is put into the space, it will still have a way to show its existence.”

Nan Yi tried it, and sure enough, it wouldn't fit into the space.

"Senior sister, what about those two?" He gestured with his chin, "Were they killed?"

Chu Li glanced at the person lying on the ground: "Don't waste time on them. Others can eventually identify the amber on our bodies by light, so they won't be of much use."

These two are, after all, at the Nascent Soul stage, and who knows what life-saving artifacts they might possess. Instead of wasting time killing them, we should be figuring out how to get through this challenge.

"To end this level, there must be a limitation, perhaps time, or perhaps meeting a certain condition."

In the past two days, they have been spotted several times and chased several times, but each time they escaped unharmed without any major conflict.

But this won't do; it will only keep them exhausted, and the situation will become increasingly unfavorable to them as time goes on.

Furthermore, "Junior brother, have you noticed anything unusual about the last few times?"

But after waiting a while and not hearing a response, she couldn't help but call out again, and Nan Yi finally came to his senses.

Chu Li glanced at Nan Yi's expression and felt that he seemed to be spacing out a lot lately, which was not a good habit at this time. However, she did not point it out, but asked again.

In recent times...

Nan Yi thought for a moment, then said somewhat uncertainly, "Senior Sister, do you mean there are more people on the other side?"

Chu Li nodded slightly.

"But with so many people, it's still normal. Two days have passed, so they might have found some convenient way to locate us."

"My intuition tells me it's not that simple—approximately how far are we from the summit?"

The mountaintop is the highest point in this secret realm, and it was also the destination Chu Li had set two days ago. She thought she would first visit the most unique places in this secret realm to see if there was any way to pass through this challenge more easily.

She didn't think the secret realm would leave them no way out.

Nan Yi poked his head out of the cave and glanced into the distance. "At the current rate, it will take at least three more days." And that doesn't even include the time spent being disturbed.

If they want to deal with that group, they'll have to take a longer route.

He paused for a moment, then said, "Senior sister, another group of people has arrived."

Chu Li immediately stood up and said as she walked out, "Leave one person behind this time. I want to check on their situation these past two days."

A short while later, the two landed on a flat area. Nan Yi was still carrying an unconscious man in his hand, and he threw him onto the hard ground without any hesitation.

“I just picked one out, and this person has appeared in different groups of pursuers several times. He should know something.”

Chu Li used the same method as before to search through the other person's memories.

The images began to flash before her eyes, but her gaze fell upon a very familiar logo within them—

The Shi family.