"You must be Bai Ying, the new cultivator of Lingyin Sect? It's a pleasure to meet you! We come from Qiyang Sect and have come here to invite you to join our team."
As you can see, the secret realms this competition has transported us to are far more challenging than we anticipated. In my opinion, it's best to team up so we can support each other.
Otherwise, before even obtaining the competitor's token, they'd likely perish in the jaws of the monsters within the secret realm.
A Qiyang Sect cultivator dressed in a black robe, with a seemingly warm smile on his face, spoke to Bai Ying.
“Absolutely right!” Another Qiyang Sect cultivator standing next to this man echoed with a beaming smile:
"Master Bai Ying, we have long admired your name and heard that you have reached the Nascent Soul stage, possessing extraordinary strength. We have come to you seeking your protection. You can rest assured that we have no intention of taking your token. After the competition, we will do our best to help you win first place. We will be satisfied as long as we achieve a good ranking."
Although these people spoke kindly and their tone was somewhat ingratiating, the greed and scheming that flashed in their eyes did not escape Bai Ying's keen perception.
Bai Ying's expression was indifferent, her gaze frosty. She subtly took two steps back, her voice clear and cold, leaving no room for negotiation:
"Thank you for your kind offer, but I have no interest in forming a team." With that, she turned around, her spiritual power surging instantly, transforming into a streak of light, and flew straight into the depths of the forest.
Bai Ying became secretly wary. Judging from their appearance alone, those people looked to be only in their twenties or thirties, yet they exuded the powerful spiritual energy unique to Nascent Soul stage cultivators. If her own divine sense hadn't reached the Nascent Soul stage, she probably wouldn't have been able to detect anything amiss.
A sense of unease crept into her mind: this competition was clearly supposed to be a contest between young contestants, but these people before her didn't look young at all; they were all clearly over a thousand years old. What was going on?
How did these old monsters at the Nascent Soul stage manage to sneak into this competition, which is limited to young cultivators?
Bai Ying just wanted to leave this place as soon as possible, but she didn't expect that the group of people would target her and fly towards the place where she had left.
"Why are you running away? Cultivator Bai Ying, we just sincerely wanted to team up with you, why are you turning us away like this?" The Qi Yang Sect cultivator in the black robe shouted, his face still wearing a fake smile, but now the smile was somewhat ferocious.
“That’s right! Don’t rush off, think about our proposal again.” Another cultivator chimed in.
However, Bai Ying seemed not to hear anything, her spiritual energy flowing wildly around her without slowing down at all, her only thought was to get away from these people with ill intentions.
Seeing that Bai Ying was determined to leave, the cultivators exchanged glances, a fierce glint in their eyes.
Almost simultaneously, a cold smile appeared on their lips, as if they had reached some kind of tacit understanding. In an instant, a surge of powerful spiritual energy erupted from their bodies, their flight speed suddenly increased, and they instantly appeared in front of Bai Ying like ghosts, firmly blocking her path.
"I told you, don't run so fast. Let's have a proper chat." The leader, a cultivator in black robes, spoke with an unyielding tone.
He seemed about to speak again, but before he could utter a word, Bai Ying frowned, her jade-like hands swiftly forming a hand seal. A lightning-attracting seal, radiating dazzling lightning, instantly appeared in her palm. Without hesitation, she hurled the lightning-attracting seal at the person before her. In an instant, dark clouds filled the sky, thunder roared, and a thick bolt of lightning, carrying a world-destroying force, struck directly at the black-robed cultivator.
While the cultivator was frantically dealing with the heavenly lightning, Bai Ying seized the opportunity to turn around, lightly touched the ground with her feet, and transformed into a white streak of light, rapidly fleeing backward.
Seeing this, the cultivators not only didn't panic, but instead threw their heads back and burst into laughter. The laughter echoed through the dense forest, sounding particularly eerie and terrifying.
"Looks like you've found out! In that case, you're not leaving. You'd better stay here obediently!"
With that angry shout, their spiritual power erupted without restraint. The immense pressure of the Nascent Soul stage pressed down on Bai Ying like a tidal wave, the surrounding air seemed to freeze, leaves rustled and the ground trembled slightly.
Bai Ying's eyes narrowed dangerously instantly, a cold glint flashing in them.
The situation was critical, and there was no time to hesitate. She immediately spread her divine sense out like a tidal wave, trying to find an escape route in this perilous secret realm.
However, the sight that appeared before her as soon as she spread her divine sense made her gasp in shock, completely stunned.
She had thought that the few Nascent Soul stage cultivators she had just encountered were all there were, but the reality far exceeded her expectations. Looking around, countless Nascent Soul stage cultivators were hidden in all directions of this secret realm, like stars scattered across the sky.
Even more terrifying was that Bai Ying carefully scanned every corner with her divine sense. Although there were some young cultivators, there weren't many, not even as many as those old monsters in the Nascent Soul stage.
The entire secret realm has been occupied by a group of powerful old monsters!
Bai Ying's fingers clenched into fists uncontrollably, her knuckles turning white from the force. Just then, she keenly caught the Qi Yang Sect cultivator behind her issuing a vicious order to those around him: "Grab her! Before Yang Anqi died, didn't she send a message to all the major sects saying that she was a great treasure? As long as we capture her, we can get her method for refining those pills."
These words struck Bai Ying's heart like a heavy hammer.
I see!
She recalled Yang Anqi's strange expression before her death. At the time, she only felt it was eerie but hadn't thought much of it. Now, it seemed that Yang Anqi's dying words were not unimportant at all, but rather a revelation of her ability to refine elixirs to the various sects.
Although Zhou Jingmo had already placed a curse on everyone in the Lingyin Sect, Yang Anqi was already on the verge of death and naturally had no regard for the curse.
In order to take revenge on herself and put herself in a desperate situation, she actually spread the news that she could refine pills before she died.
A single pill could restore Qi Haoyuan, who was nearing the end of his lifespan, to his original state. Who wouldn't value such a pill?
That's why these old monsters at the Nascent Soul stage were willing to break the rules of the competition to come to this secret realm to capture him. They probably thought that as long as they captured him, they could control this heaven-defying pill-refining method.
At this moment, he had fallen into a huge, meticulously laid trap!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
