After filling out the application form, Qin Wanwan’s group made some preparations. The next morning, Heavenly Sword Sect sent someone to notify them to gather at the back mountain.
Qin Wanwan got up early to do her makeup, ensuring her appearance was quite different from Qin Wan’s. After putting on her face veil as well, she turned to look at Jian Xingzhi standing to the side: “How is it? Can you tell I’m Qin Wan?”
“Just based on that protruding hairy mole on your forehead,” Jian Xingzhi spoke seriously, “you can’t tell.”
Qin Wanwan nodded with satisfaction.
She turned to look at Nanfeng: “Are you ready?”
“Ready.”
Nanfeng carried his pack: “Can depart at any time.”
Hearing this, Qin Wanwan led Jian Xingzhi and Nanfeng out together, following the Heavenly Sword Sect disciples to an open area at the back mountain.
Before they even descended the mountain, she could already see from afar that the clearing was packed with a sea of people. The disciples led them to the clearing, then went to find other people.
Qin Wanwan surveyed her surroundings for a moment and saw Baisui You standing nearby, talking with someone. Qin Wanwan quickly called out in greeting: “Bai Fellow Daoist!”
Hearing this, Baisui You turned around. Seeing Qin Wanwan’s appearance, he was stunned for a moment, then pretended he noticed nothing and smiled: “Qin Fellow Daoist.”
“When did Bai Fellow Daoist arrive? Do you know when we can enter the secret realm?”
“Just arrived not long ago,” Baisui You said, glancing at the back mountain in the distance and raising his hand to point toward it: “That is the secret realm entrance. I heard that Xie Daojun will come shortly to open the secret realm gate.”
“Xie Daojun opens the secret realm?”
Qin Wanwan was curious: “Will he enter with us?”
“Naturally,” Baisui You smiled. “Heavenly Sword Sect is unlike Ghost City. Ghost City doesn’t care about the life and death of people like us, but Heavenly Sword Sect is a famous major sect. Even those who come to their Sword Tomb to seek swords will be well protected.”
“Indeed, the bearing of a great house…”
Qin Wanwan chatted idly with Baisui You when they heard a “dong” sound of a gong. Everyone looked toward one direction and saw that at some point, Xie Gutang had appeared in mid-air not far away, standing on his sword hovering in the sky.
Behind him followed two young disciples. One was a woman with plain features, carved from the same mold as Xie Gutang with the same aloof coldness. Her white dress was like snow, making her look like an ice-carved beauty that was difficult to look away from. The other wore moon-white brocade robes with red trim, had a baby face, held a gong in his hands, and looked at everyone with a smile.
“Master,” Nanfeng knew Qin Wanwan didn’t recognize people and quietly introduced them from behind: “That woman is the daughter of Heavenly Sword Sect’s sect master, the number one beauty of the cultivation world, Su Zhenxue. The one carrying the gong is Xie Daojun’s junior martial brother, Zhu Chi.”
Qin Wanwan nodded, glancing around. Many male cultivators were secretly sizing up Su Zhenxue—clearly she was indeed extremely popular.
“Welcome everyone to Heavenly Sword Sect for the Sword Trial Assembly,” After the gong sounded, the crowd quieted down. Seeing most people turn around, Zhu Chi smiled: “This Sword Trial Assembly is hosted by my senior martial brother Xie Gutang. Along the way, Heavenly Sword Sect will provide the most basic protection. Once you encounter any danger, just crush your name tag and you can leave the secret realm, but this also means mission failure. Please be cautious, everyone. The secret realm is fraught with danger and the situation is complex. Please be sure to heed my senior brother’s warnings and do not act freely on your own.”
With that, Zhu Chi put the gong into his storage pouch and took out a scroll of names, holding it unrolled with one hand.
Seeing him take out the name list, Xie Gutang produced a bronze mirror and tossed it into the air. The mirror immediately expanded, becoming a door standing not far away.
“Shortly I will call out names. When your name is called, please come forward to enter the secret realm. Upon entering the secret realm, the competition begins—you may leave the starting location immediately. The victory conditions will be announced after entering the secret realm.” As Zhu Chi spoke, he looked at the name list and raised his head: “Wenxin Sect, twelve people, step forward.”
Upon hearing Wenxin Sect, Qin Wanwan and Jian Xingzhi looked over. They saw twelve young cultivators below Core Formation stage step out from the crowd. Qin Wanwan scanned them—she didn’t really recognize most of them. She relaxed slightly and raised her hand to adjust her face veil.
After Zhu Chi counted the people, he continued with the next sect.
After listening for a while, Qin Wanwan realized that Heavenly Sword Sect was calling names based on how many people from each sect had registered, placing rogue cultivators or those who registered alone at the end.
So there were fewer and fewer people. When not many remained in the clearing, Qin Wanwan finally heard: “No sect, no affiliation—Qin Wanwan, Long Aotian, Nanfeng.”
Upon hearing this, the few remaining people all looked over.
Qin Wanwan felt somewhat awkward for a moment, wanting to explain that their sect wasn’t called “No sect, no affiliation,” but to avoid wasting time, she ultimately chose to give up.
She quickly led Jian Xingzhi and Nanfeng into the secret realm together. Upon entering the secret realm, she discovered this place seemed to be a forest, except that compared to ordinary forests, what was stranger here was that everything—whether trees, grass, or vines—was much larger than what was normally seen.
The three had only been observing their surroundings for a moment when they suddenly felt something descending from the sky. The three grabbed for it and caught a scroll.
Written on it was “Mission Instructions.”
Qin Wanwan opened the mission instructions and roughly scanned them. After first confirming it wasn’t some cruel task involving mutual slaughter, she relaxed and began walking to the side to read slowly.
This secret realm task didn’t look difficult—it was just capturing spirit beasts and gathering spirit herbs. Different spirit beasts and spirit herbs had different point values. Getting over one hundred points would allow them to exit the secret realm, and the first ten to reach one hundred points would be this year’s winners.
Heavenly Sword Sect had made the task very detailed. The characteristics and point values of different spirit beasts and spirit herbs were all clearly marked. There were even various peaceful clauses like “no killing people” and “no harming life except in self-defense.” It looked very simple.
But Qin Wanwan always felt something wasn’t quite right. The Sword Trial Assembly with so many people—was it really just this basic a task?
Qin Wanwan pondered this while also thinking about the optimal plan under the current circumstances.
Ordinary spirit herbs were one point each, ordinary demon beasts were five points each, mid-grade spirit herbs were five points each, mid-grade demon beasts were ten points each, high-grade spirit herbs were ten points each, and high-grade demon beasts were twenty points each. There were also top-tier spirit beasts or spirit herbs worth fifty points each.
To exit the secret realm most quickly, the key wasn’t just having enough points, but being fast enough.
If one had enough strength, of course directly capturing a spirit beast and gathering a spirit herb would be fastest.
“What does little dog think?” Qin Wanwan turned to look at Jian Xingzhi, first confirming whether he had received any strange tasks.
Hearing the words “little dog,” Jian Xingzhi knew what Qin Wanwan was asking: “Currently no opinion.”
Qin Wanwan nodded. Jian Xingzhi also finished reading the scroll and directly made the decision: “Then I’ll go capture a top-tier spirit beast, you go gather a top-tier spirit herb. We’ll meet back here in half an hour.”
Qin Wanwan: “Huh?”
As soon as the words fell, Jian Xingzhi had already taken large steps forward, but just as he stepped out, he saw in his mind a red warning title flashing bright red.
Warning: Don’t follow the female protagonist’s plotline! Don’t steal the female protagonist’s tasks! Just lie low!!
Jian Xingzhi: “…”
666 sighed somewhat wearily: “Master, don’t be too reckless. Remember your character design.”
Thinking about it, Jian Xingzhi turned back around and looked at Qin Wanwan: “Come on, you go capture the spirit beast and gather the spirit herb.”
“Brother Aotian truly has spirit.” Baisui You, who had entered the secret realm not long ago, heard Jian Xingzhi’s words and smiled as he closed his scroll. “However, this top-tier spirit beast wouldn’t be easy to capture even at the peak of Core Formation stage, let alone since you two have already suppressed your cultivation to Foundation Establishment? Why don’t we cooperate together and take down the spirit beast and spirit herb together?”
“What Bai Fellow Daoist says is correct.”
Just as Baisui You’s voice fell, a cool voice rang out. Qin Wanwan turned her head and saw Su Zhenxue closing her scroll and looking over.
As soon as she spoke, Nanfeng straightened the antennae on his head and immediately responded: “What Fairy Su says is correct!”
Su Zhenxue ignored Nanfeng, put the scroll in her sleeve, and walked up to Qin Wanwan: “There are ten spots to enter the Sword Tomb. The other sects have most likely already formed teams. If we several people team up together, we’ll be faster and have a better chance of success. How about it?”
“No…”
Before Jian Xingzhi’s words could leave his mouth, Qin Wanwan interrupted him and immediately spoke: “No problem, let’s cooperate together!”
After the several people settled the cooperation matters, Su Zhenxue and Qin Wanwan began formulating a plan.
“With our level, the risk of top-tier spirit beasts is too great,” Su Zhenxue opened the herb and beast directory and discussed with Qin Wanwan. “The five of us should work together to hunt some high-grade demon beasts. Generally, spirit herbs grow around demon beasts, so we can gather them along the way. The five of us need a total of five hundred points, which means at least fifty demon beasts.”
“Indeed,” Qin Wanwan pretended to be profound while flattering: “Fellow Daoist Su is truly exceptionally wise.”
“Then let’s work from near to far and start capturing high-grade demon beasts.”
Su Zhenxue looked up toward everyone to discuss. Qin Wanwan immediately suggested: “How about we gather spirit herbs first instead?”
“Why gather spirit herbs first?” Su Zhenxue didn’t understand. Qin Wanwan forced a smile: “We’ve just entered the secret realm and don’t understand the situation clearly. Of course we should pick the softer persimmons first and start with the spirit herbs that won’t run away.”
This point gained the agreement of everyone except Jian Xingzhi. Everyone took out maps and began searching for the location of the nearest spirit herbs.
Qin Wanwan looked at the map and confirmed the location and spirit herb variety:
Cactus.
Seeing this familiar name, Qin Wanwan felt somewhat emotional. In different places, the precious level of varieties differed. In the cultivation world, cactus could even be considered a high-grade spirit herb.
Seeing this “cactus,” Baisui You was somewhat worried: “I wonder what’s special about this cactus and how we should deal with it?”
“It’s fine,” Qin Wanwan spoke with full confidence. “I’ve seen this thing before. I’m familiar with it.”
As they spoke, the group felt the spiritual energy around them change. Jian Xingzhi frowned and immediately spoke out: “There’s a formation array.”
“It seems this cactus has spiritual consciousness and can set up methods to protect itself.” Baisui You observed the surroundings.
“This is after all a high-grade spiritual object cactus.” Su Zhenxue wasn’t surprised.
Qin Wanwan, however, was relatively reassured: “Don’t worry,” she spoke. “It’s just a cactus.”
As they spoke these words, the group arrived at the location marked on the map.
They discovered this was actually a large mountain. On the mountain was a huge cave, from which could faintly be heard some strange yet familiar sounds.
Everyone looked around—there were no plants at all. Su Zhenxue pondered: “We can only explore the cave.”
“If we all go together and there’s an ambush, that would be bad,” Baisui You thought for a moment. “I’ll go in first.”
“No need!”
Qin Wanwan volunteered: “I’ll go!”
“You’re this brave?”
Jian Xingzhi found it unbelievable. Qin Wanwan’s face was full of confidence: “A mere cactus—I can handle it.”
“Then let it be Qin Fellow Daoist,” Baisui You showed some concern. “Please be careful.”
Qin Wanwan nodded. Jian Xingzhi said worriedly: “I’ll go with you.”
With that, the two entered the cave together.
The cave was very dark without a trace of light. Qin Wanwan pulled out a luminous pearl to illuminate the passage, somewhat nervous because of the darkness.
Jian Xingzhi crossed his arms over his chest and glanced at her sideways: “Why are you so actively taking risks this time? What little scheme are you plotting?”
“You said everyone should team up together—there will definitely be lots of danger like this,” Qin Wanwan heard strange sounds coming from deep in the cave and nervously moved closer to Jian Xingzhi, quietly grabbing his sleeve. Jian Xingzhi glanced at her small movement but said nothing, listening to her carefully swallow and nervously explain: “When the time comes, everyone will have to take turns. This cactus doesn’t have much lethality—it just has thorns on the outside, no threat. Rather than having my turn to explore something I don’t recognize, I might as well be noble and magnanimous now, taking the lead. Then next time it won’t be my turn.”
“Worthy of being you.”
Jian Xingzhi wasn’t surprised at all.
The two walked closer and the sound became increasingly clear. Jian Xingzhi frowned: “What exactly is that sound?”
Qin Wanwan listened carefully for a while, somewhat uncertain: “Playing… playing mahjong?”
“Playing mahjong?”
Jian Xingzhi couldn’t believe it. Torches began appearing on both sides of the cave for illumination. Then a large wooden door over three meters high came into view. Qin Wanwan’s heart beat faster. She unconsciously moved closer to Jian Xingzhi and began talking to give herself courage: “This must be someone’s home living here. In a bit, we need to have a good attitude. Don’t scare people. Let’s ask for directions and see where exactly the cactus is planted.”
As soon as her words fell, the mahjong sounds inside stopped. Qin Wanwan was too nervous and completely unaware, continuing to speak: “When we get there, we’ll just find a hoe or a shovel. Aren’t you really good at digging things up? Start shoveling from below and uproot them. They grow in patches—we can divide them up.”
As they spoke, the two arrived at the door.
Jian Xingzhi seemed to anticipate something, the corners of his mouth curving as he looked at Qin Wanwan trembling beside him, clinging to him and almost hanging on his body: “Knock on the door.”
Qin Wanwan took a deep breath, gathered her courage, and knocked on the door, very politely speaking: “Um, hello, we’re just passing through…”
Before she finished speaking, the door opened.
A blast of cold wind struck. The first thing Qin Wanwan saw was a pair of green, short, cactus-like legs covered in thorns. She stared blankly upward from bottom to top and discovered standing before her was an enormous, muscular figure holding a spiked mace—it was a cactus.
This humanoid cactus wasn’t alone. Behind this large door, several mahjong tables could be vaguely seen, with a whole room full of cacti holding weapons, exuding a gangster air, looking menacingly at Qin Wanwan.
“Just now,” the cactus at the door rested the mace on his shoulder. With his movement, his bulging muscles swelled, looking quite terrifying. He lowered his head to look fiercely at Qin Wanwan: “Was it you who said you’d uproot us all?”
Qin Wanwan swallowed. She pretended to be calm as she retreated, seriously apologizing: “Sorry to disturb you.”
Having said that, she flung Jian Xingzhi aside, turned around and ran!!
She didn’t forget to notify the people outside who were eating snacks waiting for them: “This cactus is freaking huge—run for it!!!”