Chapter 211: If You Provoke Him, You’ll Suffer the Consequences
This was the Token of a Sect Disciple.
The Token flashed, and after three breaths, two words materialized in the air.
"Return at once."
It meant the Sea View Sect needed him for something.
Thinking about his current situation in the Sea View Sect, Shuitan glanced back at the utterly baffling Secret Realm and had no choice but to ask the System, "If I leave the Secret Realm now, does that count as abandoning the mission?"
The System replied, "Yes. Five hundred points will be deducted."
Using the exit function was equivalent to spending his life-saving points. The System also needed to expend energy to make it happen.
Besides, this was the System’s failsafe function.
The danger of the Secret Realm was one thing, but if he encountered an entity whose power could instantly kill a player, even the System wouldn’t have time to perform a rescue.
Of course, there was always the risk of losing his account.
Shuitan said with a sigh of resignation, "Go ahead and deduct them."
Right now, his undercover mission at the Sea View Sect was more important. When he first took the quest, the System had told him that one couldn’t casually enter and exit this Secret Realm. This was a choice he had to make himself.
At least he had reached Foundation Establishment, so the trip wasn’t a total loss.
He just hadn’t obtained any special rewards.
Shuitan stood in place, waiting for the System to teleport him out.
Just then, the Cold Pool Bird he had just killed respawned.
The System had already instructed Shuitan not to move and was beginning to harness the Secret Realm’s energy.
The space around him twisted and spun. It all happened in an instant. The Cold Pool Bird let out a piercing shriek and lunged at Shuitan.
In that same instant, the spot where Shuitan stood erupted in a brilliant light.
A crisscrossing sensation of shattering space filled the air. The moment the Cold Pool Bird reached Shuitan—
—an invisible beam of light slashed down from above its head.
Time seemed to stand still.
POP. After a moment of dizziness, the familiar scenery from before he entered the Secret Realm appeared before Shuitan’s eyes.
For safety’s sake, he hadn’t entered the Secret Realm from within the Sea View Sect, but from a location outside Liu Xian City.
At the same time, the head of a Cold Pool Bird plopped to the ground in front of him.
Shuitan’s pupils contracted.
In the next instant, he witnessed a sight that he could hardly believe.
The head, which had been perfectly normal for a Cold Pool Bird, was rapidly corroded and corrupted upon entering the Yunzhou Continent, transforming until it looked exactly like one of the continent’s native demon beasts.
It was as if it had mutated.
The sight of the bird’s head was truly unsettling.
Gazing at the bizarre scene, Shuitan quickly began to form a hypothesis.
The System exclaimed, "Holy crap, is the air in Yunzhou toxic? It’s even got a corruption effect?"
Shuitan: "..."
The Token in his hand was flashing faster and faster. With no time to think, Shuitan said, "First, switch me back to my original body."
He had to be in his original body to return to the Sea View Sect.
The System switched him back, and Shuitan hurried back to the Sea View Sect.
He was now a disciple of the Fifth Elder, so he could move about freely as long as he held his Token.
When he arrived back at his courtyard, someone was already standing there waiting.
It was his Eldest Senior Brother, Jiang Qi.
Shuitan cupped his fist in greeting. "Eldest Senior Brother."
When Jiang Qi saw Shuitan, his gaze darkened. "You’ve already reached Foundation Establishment?"
He didn’t seem particularly surprised, however.
Liu Xian City had abundant Spiritual Energy, so it wasn’t out of the question for Shuitan to achieve Foundation Establishment this quickly. Still, he hadn’t expected it to be quite so smooth a transition into the Foundation Establishment Stage.
Shuitan nodded. "It was just a lucky break."
Unlike First Mountain, there were also places where demon beasts gathered outside Liu Xian City.
Jiang Qi said, "It seems Master was worrying for nothing."
Shuitan put on a confused expression. "Eldest Senior Brother, what do you mean?"
"Master had intended for you to participate in the sect’s internal tournament, but since you’ve already reached the Foundation Establishment Stage, that’s no longer necessary."
Shuitan nodded, then asked, "Eldest Senior Brother, is Master in his hall right now? Master once told me to go see him again after I successfully reached Foundation Establishment."
Jiang Qi’s expression became even more unreadable. "Go on. Master will be waiting for you."
Shuitan, seemingly not giving it a second thought, headed straight for the Fifth Peak.
As Jiang Qi watched his retreating back, a cold glint slowly crept into his eyes.
’Just a lucky break, was it...?’
Meanwhile, Shuitan arrived at the Fifth Peak.
The great bronze gate was still embedded firmly in the mountainside, but it seemed to sense Shuitan’s arrival.
The gate swung open slowly, emitting a deep, resonant sound like an ancient summons.
But combined with the vast emptiness of the hall beyond, it also carried an indescribable, sinister feeling.
The System commented, "This place would be a great set for a horror movie."
Shuitan: "..."
He had barely stepped inside when he heard a familiar, wheezing laugh. "Excellent, excellent, excellent... You are truly the disciple I favored! To think you would smoothly reach Foundation Establishment in such a short time."
When Shuitan had first arrived, he was only a disciple at the Early Stage of Qi Refining, though he had been close to the Qi Refining Middle Stage.
Yet, after only a short while, he had already entered the Mid-stage of Foundation Establishment.
With such talent, when combined with the dense Spiritual Energy of the Sea View Sect, one can easily pull far ahead of others.
Shuitan remained silent. ’I can’t very well tell him I only managed to reach Foundation Establishment after entering a Secret Realm.’
’I’ve been fighting non-stop this whole time.’
Nominally, he had left to undertake a training mission from the Sea View Sect, but in reality, he had spent most of his time on his own affairs.
The Sea View Sect’s training missions weren’t exactly simple, but they mostly just involved hunting some demon beasts.
He still had to report back to the sect’s mission hall to go through the motions.
The Fifth Elder was clearly overjoyed. The better Shuitan’s talent, the more it benefited him.
Reaching Foundation Establishment this quickly proved that his progress had indeed been held back before.
Even though he couldn’t make out the Fifth Elder’s appearance through the hazy ball of light, Shuitan could still sense his master’s palpable excitement.
Shuitan said, "Training out in the world is beneficial for one’s cultivation. I would like to request to be stationed at the Demon Cave Valley to hunt demon beasts and further my training."
"It is a good thing that you have such ambition!"
The Fifth Elder didn’t object. He cleared his throat and said, "The Demon Cave Valley is just a buffer zone between the Ten Thousand Immortals Sect and the Tianyang Sect. Since you’re already at the Foundation Establishment Stage, you should go somewhere else. Go to the Dragon Frost Swamp, in the territory of the Li Yun Sect. It is a place that draws cultivators from all over the world. If you can go there and bring back a particular spirit material for me, I will have a Magic Treasure custom-made for you as a reward."
Dragon Frost Swamp.
Shuitan had never heard the name before.
He was a little surprised. "The Li Yun Sect? Isn’t that extremely far away?"
The sects on the Yunzhou Continent were unbelievably vast. Traveling to the territory of another sect was an unimaginably long journey.
"There are Teleportation Arrays. It won’t be an issue."
The Fifth Elder’s ancient voice grew a little weaker. "There is a Cave Heaven Blessed Land there, inaccessible to anyone below the Foundation Establishment Stage. The spirit material I need is inside. I will grant you the qualifications to enter..."
At the very end, his voice suddenly surged in volume, like the last burst of energy from a dying man. "Do not disappoint me!"
Shuitan froze for a second, then immediately answered, "Yes, Master!"
After leaving the Fifth Elder, Shuitan went to the Sea View Sect’s internal affairs office to report his mission as complete.
It just so happened to be the day of the Sea View Sect’s tournament. The Steward in charge of internal affairs was leading a group of disciples from various small sects into the Sea View Sect.
Shuitan ran right into Honghuang Anxiu and Zhang Sheng.
His unique and powerful aura caused the other disciples from the small sects to stare.
’They didn’t actually recognize each other; they hadn’t met since entering the game.’
But there was always a special connection between players—after all, they were all cut from the same cloth.
Their gazes met, and Honghuang let out a soft "Hey!"
Shuitan shot them a glance but could only pretend not to see them as he tried to leave as quickly as possible.
The Steward leading the group saw Honghuang’s gesture and immediately launched into a cliché, melodramatic tirade.
"What do you think you’re doing? That is the Ninth Disciple of our Fifth Elder! If you displease him, you’ll have hell to pay!"
Honghuang: "..."
’We’re all just playing a game, how can the difference in our status be this huge?’