Chapter 411: Tianci
"What's going on? Is this forest going crazy?!"
"Something's amiss."
At the outskirts of the dense forest, two shabbily dressed young people stood rooted to the spot, nervously observing the woods, which seemed to subtly emanate a chaotic madness.
"Are we still going to have to make contact with the outside world? I only just managed to secretly cultivate to the Life Field Stage using the resources here. I absolutely can't let them find out I'm still alive, or there'll be huge trouble!"
...
At this very moment, adventurers who had entered the Secret Realm Forest, seeking to get rich or even murder and steal treasures, all sensed that something was amiss.
Their biological instincts warned them that they had to leave the Secret Realm immediately, or they might encounter unimaginable dangers.
As professional hunters of mutated animals, sometimes even moonlighting as bandits and transforming into hunters of humans, they possessed an extraordinary sensitivity to danger and the utmost caution.
In such a world, rife with hostility toward humanity, those who weren't proficient enough in these two skills had long since become fertilizer for the forest's growth in the arduous struggle for survival.
As for the reasons they fought desperately for survival every day on this perilous land, each had their own story.
A very few sought thrills, but more often, they were on the run for committing crimes or evading enemies. After ten years of locust-like development, very few people still entered the Secret Realm simply to make a living.
This was because valuable spiritual materials were scarce in the forest's outer fringes, while the deeper areas were simply too dangerous.
Of course, a considerable number of people had been exiled to the Secret Realm Forest by the Huaxia Federation.
Exile to the Secret Realm, akin to an upgraded version of forced labor, was a form of criminal punishment. Prisoners banished to the Secret Realm Forest would be assigned different tasks based on the severity of their sentences.
Generally, they were required to survive in the forest for a period measured in years, while also gathering spiritual materials of sufficient value.
Periodically, they would be allowed to appear outside the Secret Realm to hand over the gathered spiritual materials and receive limited supplies.
Only after completing these two tasks would these individuals have a chance to return to civilized society.
After the Secret Realm Forest appeared, the edge of its protective energy field became an additional national border, with numerous outposts deployed around it to prevent potential beast tides and the escape of exiled prisoners.
After Bai Mo took over everything, aside from abolishing the pointless exile system, he didn't pay much attention to this area until the spy ants were discovered.
Min Tianci, a young man who had been silently cultivating within the Secret Realm Forest, preferring to wear rags rather than reveal himself, had been thrown into this godforsaken place—where ordinary people couldn't survive for more than a few days—three years ago, for offending the city's powerful elite.
Thanks to extraordinary luck, he had picked up a Secret Realm Survival Guide and a good number of spiritual materials from a predecessor's corpse. These items became Min Tianci's initial, crucial reliance for survival.
Everywhere their eyes could see, there was an uneasy stir. The hostility, which had originally been imperceptible to small ants like them, now seemed so potent it could condense into liquid.
"That direction, that's the source." The girl accompanying Min Tianci pointed toward the deepest part of the dense forest. She clearly possessed some unique ability, allowing her to perceive distant situations.
"Since that's the source, if we just walk in the opposite direction, we'll definitely get away from the danger." He had exceptional trust in the girl's abilities and, without a shred of doubt, prepared to take her hand and leave.
This mysterious girl had been "found" by Min Tianci by a small river in the Secret Realm. After waking from her coma, she hadn't revealed her origins, merely introducing herself as Yue Die, and saying nothing more.
She also seemed to have reasons for not being able to leave the forest, so she quietly lived with Min Tianci, who had saved her, and had even become his temporary girlfriend.
"No, I have a premonition that we won't be in danger. Perhaps we'll even encounter a turning point." Yue Die pulled Min Tianci back, seemingly wanting to walk towards the center of the disturbance.
"Alright, I'll listen to you." After some deliberation, Min Tianci finally overcame the primal fear deep in his bones and chose to follow the girl's direction.
In their more than a year of living together, he had experienced Yue Die's almost premonitory intuition countless times. This was also a significant reason why the two of them had managed to survive consistently within the perilous Secret Realm.
Min Tianci had even considered whether Yue Die had perhaps awakened such a terrifyingly powerful ability, yet hadn't cultivated to the point where she could protect herself from being coveted, which was why she had fallen into such a predicament.
"How far is it?" Min Tianci asked as they walked.
"I'm not sure. I only vaguely know that if we keep walking in this direction, we'll encounter something that will completely change our destiny."
...
"Die... die... die..." A faint, repetitive mental fluctuation, expressing the same meaning over and over, lingered around Bai Mo's avatar.
In the core area of the Southern Secret Realm, a place no human had ever been able to penetrate before, an unprecedented great war was now erupting.
The continuously spreading white and the cloud-gathering yellow fiercely contended for every inch of space around them.
Batch after batch of wild beasts surged toward Bai Mo from all directions, like moths to a flame. The yellow mist seemed to ignite all their latent potential, temporarily granting these beasts more than double their usual strength.
"How could a mere cup of water extinguish a continuous mountain fire?" Bai Mo suddenly said, addressing the omnipresent yellow mist.
"Both in quality and quantity, you're far too lacking... wouldn't you agree, little bird?" As his body gradually formed a humanoid silhouette, his right arm suddenly burst apart, transforming into dozens of streaks of light that shot into the distance.
All the streaking lights instantly converged once more, re-interweaving into a gigantic net that sealed off a seemingly empty spot several hundred meters away.
As the massive net contracted inward, a gigantic avian mutated creature gradually appeared from its previously invisible, stealthy assault state. At its mouth, a terrifying energy orb was still brewing.
The colossal bird, encircled by a vermillion energy shield, seemed to have utterly failed to anticipate that Bai Mo, while locked in a fierce battle with the field of hatred, would unexpectedly turn around and ambush it, which had been preparing its own ambush.
"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle..." The continuously contracting white light net rapidly eroded the gigantic bird's protective shield, emitting sounds that grated on one's teeth.
"Four Holy Beasts... what have you prepared for me this time?"
PS: Many thanks to reader 'Ai Ai Nuan Shao Nv' for the Alliance Leader tip... I almost got scared when I woke up and checked the backend. I'll find time to add an extra chapter in the next two days.
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