Starting at the Nascent Soul stage, a rogue cultivator is incredibly poor.

Half a day later.

when--!

A loud bell rang out, piercing through the clouds and echoing throughout the entire floating island group.

Jiang Taiyuan's voice followed, as resonant as a great bell:

"The time has come."

"The entrance to the second level of the secret realm is now open, everyone, please proceed."

As soon as he finished speaking, the sea of ​​clouds below began to churn.

A new island slowly rose, and as it ascended into the air, its form abruptly changed. The island stretched and bent, transforming into a gigantic archway. Within the archway, light and shadow flowed, creating a dazzling array of colors and emanating intense spatial fluctuations.

The cultivators exchanged glances and then transformed into streaks of light, disappearing into the archway.

Qingyouzi exchanged glances with Qi Sha, Xie Changyuan, and the others, and then flew in one after another.

The moment you pass through the archway, the world spins.

Once his feet touched the ground, Qingyouzi found himself standing atop a solitary peak.

The summit was no more than three zhang square, with a bottomless abyss below. Black mist churned in the abyss, so thick it was impossible to disperse, and faint sounds of ghostly wails and howls could be heard, chilling and terrifying.

He extended his divine sense, but it only extended about twenty miles, even more so than the first level of suppression. Within that range, there was no one else but him; only a few dark figures flashed by in the distance through the mist.

"Random teleportation?" Qingyouzi raised an eyebrow. "That's fine, saves me from having to scheme against those idiots."

He kicked a stone and fell off the cliff.

The pebble fell into the black mist without a sound.

After waiting for a long time, I could not hear the sound of the water hitting the bottom.

Qing Youzi frowned slightly. This black mist not only blocked divine sense, but it seemed to be able to swallow even sound. Naturally, he was unwilling to make contact rashly, so he leaped into the air.

Looking down, one can see the uniqueness of this region.

Dozens of solitary peaks pierce the sky like swords, ranging from hundreds to thousands of feet apart. Between the peaks, there are thick stone bridges, their surfaces mottled and covered with moss, their age unknown.

Qingyouzi landed on the nearest stone bridge.

The bridge was about ten feet wide, with no railings on either side, and a bottomless abyss below. He walked cautiously, for this place was eerie, and every bit of his magical energy was precious. As for the thousand-year-old spiritual milk, he wouldn't use it unless it was a matter of life and death; every drop used was precious.

The roadside was littered with withered branches and overgrown with weeds. Occasionally, a few skeletons could be seen, half-buried in the dust, their clothes long since weathered away, leaving only bare bones.

As they were walking, Qingyouzi suddenly felt a chill run down her spine.

A faint sense of being watched came from behind me.

He frowned, and his divine sense instantly locked onto a dark shadow a hundred feet away.

The thing was attached to the bottom of the stone bridge. It was shaped like a human, but had no physical form. Only a pair of scarlet eyes flickered in the mist.

"You insignificant demon, how dare you spy on me?"

Qingyouzi snorted coldly and stomped her foot.

Several cyan threads emerged from the bridge surface, coiling around the dark figure like serpents.

"squeak--!"

A piercing shriek rang out. The dark figure struggled violently, but the threads tightened around it, and blue flames ignited, instantly reducing it to ashes that scattered into the black mist.

"A third-tier evil spirit..." Qingyouzi retracted the silk thread, lost in thought. "I was targeted as soon as I entered. This place is indeed more dangerous than the upper levels."

He had some regrets:

"If I had a Myriad Souls Banner, I could collect some ghosts to refine into treasures. But never mind."

The fluctuation of magical power had alerted the surrounding area, causing the dark figures in the mist to retreat, bringing some temporary peace.

move on.

As they passed a precipice, Qingyouzi's consciousness stirred slightly.

A corpse hangs on the outside of the cliff.

The corpse had long since turned into skeletons, and the clothes were tattered, but the style was still discernible, quite similar to those worn by Xie Changyuan and Xie Ziyu, only more ancient.

"People from the Yin Xuan Sect?" Qing Youzi's heart stirred.

A storage bag was tied around the waist of the skeleton.

Qingyouzi raised his hand and made a grasping motion, his magical power transforming into an invisible hand that snatched the storage bag. With the movement, the withered skeleton trembled slightly and turned into ashes and vanished.

He probed the bag with his divine sense.

There were several thousand spirit stones and two magic treasures, both of ordinary grade. There was also a fist-sized, transparent crystal sphere, cool to the touch, unlike anything ordinary.

"This is..." Qingyouzi weighed the crystal ball in her hand.

This object is neither a magic treasure nor a magic tool; rather, it resembles some kind of specially made artifact, devoid of any spiritual energy fluctuations.

"System verification".

"Ding, one hundred spirit stones consumed, identification successful."

Item Name: Mountain Crystal Cage (Unfinished and Battle-Damaged Version)

"Item function: Originally used by the Yin Xuan Sect to mine and store the earth veins of small mountain ranges, this item was not fully refined and, due to the passage of time, has become useless."

Qingyouzi's eyes lit up.

"I never expected to be able to collect the mountain range. Although it's ruined now, oh well, I'll take it for now."

He transferred the useful items into his storage bag and casually tossed the empty bag into the abyss.

Just as I was about to continue on my way, a thought suddenly struck me.

The "Yuanqing Sword Talisman" he had given to Lu Zhou was emitting a faint fluctuation; it had been activated!

"It's barely been warmed up, and you're already using it?" Qingyouzi frowned. "What happened?"

Without further delay, he transformed into a blue rainbow and sped toward the direction he sensed.

Half an incense stick later, a roar and a rumble came from ahead.

"The so-called number one cultivator below the Nascent Soul stage in the Yin Xuan Sect is, in the end, nothing more than a Golden Core cultivator!"

It was Lu Zhou's voice, arrogant in tone.

Qingyouzi's lips twitched upon hearing this.

"This kid... he's really good at pretending."

He felt the words sounded familiar, as if he had heard them somewhere before. He shook his head, concealed his presence, and quietly approached.

The battlefield was on a cracked plain.

The earth was crimson, lava flowed from the cracks, and steam rose from the ground. It was completely different from the black mist valley just now, as if we had entered another world.

Lu Zhou was shirtless, his muscles bulging, his aura surging like a raging storm. He held a broken sword in his hand, the blade stained with blood, his hand split open, clearly having just survived a fierce battle.

Opposite him, Xie Ziyu knelt on the ground, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. The small bronze shield in his hand was covered with cracks and its spiritual light was dim.

"I was already on guard against that old guy named Qingyou giving you that talisman." Xie Ziyu wiped away the blood and sneered, "Unfortunately, it's still not enough."

Qingyouzi, who was hiding behind a giant rock a hundred feet away, touched his face upon hearing this.

"Old man?" he muttered to himself, "I'm only a little over three hundred years old. According to the lifespan of a Nascent Soul cultivator (around a thousand years), I'm still in my prime, aren't I?"

Xie Ziyu slowly stood up, his breathing was disordered, but his fighting spirit was even stronger.

"I thought this plan was foolproof, but I never expected that old bastard Hong Kaishan would find such a variable as you." He stared at Lu Zhou, then suddenly smiled, "I acknowledge your abilities."

Lu Zhou scoffed, "Enough with the nonsense. Aren't you afraid I'll expose your plans?"

"Spill it out?" Xie Ziyu laughed as if he'd heard the funniest joke in the world. "You?!"

The laughter stopped abruptly.

His eyes suddenly sharpened, and he raised his right hand.

A small, black and red sword emerged from his palm, no more than three inches long, yet it exuded a chilling aura. The small sword grew rapidly in the wind, transforming in the blink of an eye into a hundred-foot-long giant sword, its blade wreathed in black and red energy, faintly accompanied by the howls of vengeful ghosts.

"This sword strike is named 'Infant Slayer'," Xie Ziyu said, enunciating each word clearly. "To die by this sword is something you can be proud of."

In the distance, Qingyouzi's eyes narrowed.

"Comparable to a Nascent Soul cultivator's attack... Can that kid withstand it?"

His mind raced with thoughts.

To save or not to save?

He didn't really care whether Lu Zhou lived or died. But the fifth-level cultivation technique "Ink Dao Heavenly Origin Technique" on Xie Ziyu's body, which could be cultivated to the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, was created by a powerful cultivator from the Upper Realm. It was simply too tempting.

The "Azure-Pulling Technique" he cultivated could only reach the late Nascent Soul stage at most. For ordinary cultivators, this was the limit. But Qing Youzi was different.

He is a transmigrator, possessing a system, and considers himself the protagonist of this world. How can the path to immortality stop at the Nascent Soul stage?

The Nascent Soul cultivation technique is extremely rare and hard to come by. If one could obtain it from this boy…

A resolute glint flashed in Qingyouzi's eyes.

So what if he offended the Yin Xuan Sect? He was all alone, with no ties whatsoever. Even if he couldn't win, couldn't he run? A Nascent Soul cultivator was determined to escape; it was difficult to stop someone of the same level. As for the lower-ranking disciples of the Yin Xuan Sect… if he truly angered them, there were plenty of ways to retaliate.

"This deal was worth it."

Qingyouzi slowly rose, and countless threads quietly emerged from his sleeves, with faint blue flames appearing on their surfaces.

In the center of the battlefield, a massive black and red sword, hundreds of feet long, was raised high.

Xie Ziyu's face was pale, clearly indicating that activating this sword had consumed a great deal of energy, but his eyes were filled with madness and confidence.

Lu Zhou gripped the broken sword tightly, his blood boiling as if on fire, already on the verge of death.

The giant sword crashed down with a deafening roar.

Just then, a green shadow cut into the battlefield like a ghost!