A banquet filled with joy for all—Hu Li was the happiest, followed by her nephew who was devouring food, and those inner sect disciples who barely lifted their heads to talk to guests and just kept eating.
"Ah, I wanted these useless folks to see the world, but it seems their eyes are covered as if by dicated oils," True Man Yuanling sighed as he shook his head, looking at his group of disciples, like a doctoral advisor troubled by his students, "After graduating from , you all will only be able to beco wandering healers."
With that, he waved his hand: "Go on, after eating your fill, return to your rooms and properly complete your assignnts—I’ve set up a pill furnace for Soul Suppressing Pills, half a month has passed without anyone refining one, if there’s no progress this month, you’ll all be punished by cleaning all the pill furnaces on Spirit Storage Peak thoroughly!"
The young cultivators who were initially chatting among themselves were instantly startled, quickly saluting True Man Yuanling, and bowing to Yu Sheng and others, then turning to fly towards the mountain to complete the master’s end-of-term assignnt.
True Man Yuanling called out to their retreating figures: "Don’t forget to check the herbal gardens each of you are responsible for on the back mountain by evening! You few are lacking in spirit plant quotas this year!"
Yu Sheng observed with interest from the side and casually remarked, "Feels like you’re a ntor guiding students in the universities back at Boundary Land, unlike the grandmaster image of the Immortal Sect I imagined."
"Why do you think my na arose on Border Communication?" True Man Yuanling sighed helplessly, "I’m taking care of these dumb disciples, managing sect affairs, regularly covering my troubleso senior brother’s sses, dealing with his ’intimate friends’ who co by every now and then, and when busy, I have to send out seven to eight clones, luckily Xuan Che is diligent, sharing so burden... Oh, enough of that."
Yu Sheng chuckled at those words and suddenly rembered: "Oh right, I almost forgot, I brought you a gift when I ca."
"A gift?" True Man Yuanling paused slightly, waving his hand, "Eh, our friendship does not seek fa or profit, no need to be so courteous..."
Then, a piece of Spiritual Fox Mysterious Iron thudded before him.
"...But on the other hand, a gift from a friend should not be refused... Is this what Xuan Che ntioned?"
True Man Yuanling imdiately shifted his focus, his eyes fixated on the "Mysterious Iron."
"You are indeed straightforward," Yu Sheng laughed, "That’s right, this is the ’Spiritual Fox Mysterious Iron’ I showed Xuan Che earlier, a specialty from Hu Li’s hotown, which can be used as the core for an Artifact Spirit. I thought it might serve so purpose for you here."
"Great, great!" True Man Yuanling imdiately clapped his hands in delight, "A good thing, truly a good thing, I’ll accept this generous gift—You should stay a few more days at Qianfeng Ling Mountain, I’ll take you to see the scenery of Taixu Spirit Hub. Not to boast, but this Taixu Star has countless spectacular sights, ranking high even in the Star Han Universe..."
At this point, True Man Yuanling couldn’t help but wave his hand again, sighing with a hint of regret: "Actually, I’ve always wanted to develop the cultural and tourism industry of Taixu Spirit Hub, but the other old fellows are only focused on cultivation, their thinking is very rigid."
Yu Sheng imdiately recalled the "tourism promotion flagship product" of Qianfeng Ling Mountain that Xuan Che showed him before...
At that mont, Xuan Che broke the silence, the honest young man brought up the main topic: "Master, perhaps we should first discuss the newly appeared ’Deceitful Secret Realm’ on Taixu Spirit Hub? What exactly is that Secret Realm?"
Once this topic arose, Yu Sheng rembered the reason why Xuan Che was called back to his sect, looking at True Man Yuanling with curiosity: "Right, I’m also curious about this—after all, you probably know, a ’Mist City’ suddenly erged on Boundary City recently, and both Boundary Land and Feiyu Star Domain have had hidden cultivator activities."
True Man Yuanling’s expression beca serious, he pondered slightly before speaking: "That Deceitful Secret Realm is not on Taixu Spirit Hub, but on its satellite ’Taiyou.’
Yu Sheng: "...On the satellite?"
"Taixu Spirit Hub is encircled by three moons, naly ’Taiyou,’ ’Hengming,’ and ’Constant Darkness,’ among which ’Taiyou’ is the largest moon, being the first alien planet that cultivators from Taixu Star set foot on after transcending from earth and sky," True Man Yuanling explained, "There are nurous mines, factories, and immigrant points established there hundreds of years ago, but later as we expanded to other areas in the Feiyu Star Domain, the ’Ancestral Land’ centered on Taixu Star was protected, and naturally, the ’Ancient Moon’ of Taiyou too.
"Now most mines and factories on Taiyou have been sealed, and the old immigrant points have all been relocated, leaving behind many things as morial sites for future generations to visit and admire.
"And the ’Deceitful Secret Realm’ that appeared this ti is located in an ancient mine which was already sealed three hundred years ago—according to preliminary investigations, beneath it should be an Exotic Realm of at least depth level three, though the danger level is yet unclear."
"Depth level three Exotic Realm?" Yu Sheng blinked, "Uh, if it’s an Exotic Realm, that should be pretty common, L-3 isn’t particularly deep, when I heard ’Deceitful Secret Realm’ I thought..."
Before finishing his sentence, he noticed Xuan Che and True Man Yuanling both showing peculiar expressions, evidently having sothing to say.
"What’s up?"
"...This is not the Boundary Land," Xuan Che murmured, "Exotic Realms are not common here."
Yu Sheng: "..."
Even Erin beside him couldn’t help but mutter, "In the Boundary Land, encountering eleven Exotic Realms out of eighteen bus stops is normal; even the small shops next to the farr’s market can be entrances to Exotic Realms. But ’outside’—an Exotic Realm appearing can shake the highest authorities, especially when it suddenly appears as a deep level L3."
Yu Sheng felt embarrassed, mainly because he was being schooled in common sense by Erin, a scatterbrained puppet...
Seeing this, True Man Yuanling lightly coughed twice and quickly continued, "Outside the Boundary Land, Exotic Realms are indeed rare, but the Feiyu Star Domain is vast, and we cultivators often have heightened ’Spiritual Vision’, so we are not entirely unfamiliar with Exotic Realms. This ti, the Exotic Realm that appeared in Taiyou is called ’Deceitful’, aptly nad for a reason."
Yu Sheng grew curious, "What’s the specific situation?"
True Man Yuanling spoke solemnly, "...Everyone who enters the Exotic Realm sees different things, even the sa group at different tis of the day entering the mine sees different scenes."
Yu Sheng was stunned.
This indeed was unlike any "normal Exotic Realm" he knew!
He quickly began to think, trying to understand what True Man Yuanling was describing based on the experience he had accumulated.
The first thing that ca to his mind was the "Abnormal Type" Exotic Realm Fairy Tales, and the different "subsets" that appear in this "story collection"—an Exotic Realm staged with different "subsets" was the only kind he knew that could present different scenes to each explorer.
He voiced his speculation and briefly explained the general situation of the "Fairy Tales" to True Man Yuanling.
"Showing different scenes according to different ’subsets’?" True Man Yuanling stroked his beard, pondering for a mont, "It sounds sowhat similar, yet it’s not quite the sa. That Exotic Realm has clear entrances and exits, and its interior is also a physical space. From a classification standpoint, it should be of the ’Wilderness’ or ’Kingdom’ type, not ’Abnormal.’ In my opinion, that Deceitful Secret Realm seems to be constantly changing itself, completely restructuring with each opening."
"What did people see when they went inside?" Erin couldn’t help but ask.
"So rely saw the structure of a changed and bizarre mine, others saw an endless underground void. Even more, saw vast lands with the sun and moon hanging in the sky, weather changes like wind, rain, clouds, and fog; yet the strangest sightings were of a village covered by the night—a village sotis lit, sotis pitch black, at tis with voices coming from the houses, and at others completely dead silent with a bloody scent lingering. Yet, no matter what, no actual ’residents’ were observed actively moving in the village."
True Man Yuanling paused, then added, "These occurrences have no pattern, and their appearance probabilities are completely random. Our attempts to send cultivators with different personalities or items into the mine at different tis of the day have failed to summarize any rules below. Of course, this is also related to the fact that the exploration has been conservative so far, with too few samples collected. After all, the place is truly uncanny, being in such a special area as ’Taiyou’, so we must be cautious."
Yu Sheng opened his mouth, paused for a mont in thought, and asked, "What about the entities that appear in there?"
"This is exactly what is most peculiar about it... There are no entities in there."
"No entities? In a deep level L-3 Exotic Realm, yet there are no entities?!"
"Precisely, at least so far, exploration teams have not discovered any entities in the mine," True Man Yuanling slowly nodded, "at most, you might hear so strange voices in that ’village’ or see puppet-like shadows under the lamps, but as for actual entities that actively move, attack, or communicate with explorers, none have appeared even once."
Yu Sheng blinked and exchanged glances with Erin at his feet.
The small puppet crossed her arms, looking serious, "This does seem a bit bizarre. While it’s true that not every Exotic Realm generates entities, the deeper the realm, the higher the probability of generating entities. Deep levels 1 or 2 are still reasonable, as the ’peaceful’ probability remains high, but reaching L-3... even stones should co flying at you."
Yu Sheng pondered for a while, then looked up at True Man Yuanling, "...Can we go take a look?"
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