Mortal: Starting with the Golden Jade Book

The underground passage may seem deep, but it is actually not very long.

Shortly after Lin Zui entered the passage, he encountered a pale yellow barrier of light. After a moment of blurred consciousness, he found himself in a dense forest.

"Is this... teleportation?"

Sensing the significantly richer spiritual energy of heaven and earth around him compared to the outside world, Lin Zui quickly realized that he must have been teleported into the secret realm by the restriction.

However, before he could carefully observe his surroundings, he suddenly felt a gust of wind coming from behind him. Lin Zui dared not be careless and quickly dodged to avoid it.

However, the thing was persistent and incredibly fast. In the instant Lin Zui tried to dodge, it changed direction and caught up with him.

Lin Zui was startled and used the Five Elements Escape Technique in the blink of an eye to dodge far away. Only then did he see clearly that what was chasing him was a giant black snake as thick as a bowl.

"Black-scaled snake?"

Lin Zui was taken aback, but quickly recognized this snake-like demon beast, which was not uncommon. Although such creatures appeared in the outside world from time to time, most of them were only at the first or second level. However, the one in front of him had already reached the peak of the third level, almost comparable to a human cultivator in the late Foundation Establishment stage.

Lin Zui looked around and quickly noticed a huge nest hidden among the grass and trees, containing four or five unhatched white snake eggs.

"Good heavens, this teleported me directly into this guy's lair... No wonder he chased after me to kill me as soon as he came up."

Lin Zui cursed his bad luck inwardly, but the black-scaled snake didn't care about his mood and twisted its huge body to chase after him again.

Although this behemoth was extremely fast and had strong defenses, Lin Zui was prepared this time and was not caught off guard like before. He was able to deal with it with ease.

A moment later, the black-scaled snake was covered in wounds and on the verge of death from Lin Zui's attacks. If it weren't for the snake's dying counterattack, Lin Zui would have finished it off with a single claw.

Soon, the black-scaled snake let out its last hiss, its massive body crashing to the ground, and then fell silent.

Lin Zui stepped forward and removed some valuable items from the snake. His gaze then turned to the snake eggs in the nest. Although he didn't understand the art of beast taming, he could still sell them for some spirit stones.

Lin Zui swept away all the snake eggs, and after searching the surrounding area to make sure he hadn't left anything of value, he carefully left the forest.

He hadn't gone far when the sounds of fighting reached his ears.

Lin Zui was not surprised at all. Not to mention that there were very few rare and precious materials left in the area, with so many Foundation Establishment cultivators, there were too many wolves and not enough meat, so fighting was bound to happen. Even if these people could restrain themselves from fighting, the six demonic sects behind them would never sit idly by and watch them take the treasures in peace. They would definitely use some means to provoke these people to kill each other.

"I just don't know what methods they'll use?"

Lin Zui muttered to himself, then used the Returning Origin Technique to stealthily make his way towards that direction.

Soon, several figures came into his view.

Five cultivators, dressed in uniform and belonging to an unknown sect, surrounded seven or eight rogue cultivators in the formation. They attacked relentlessly with magical artifacts and talismans, coordinating their attacks seamlessly. In contrast, the seven or eight rogue cultivators in the formation, despite having the numerical advantage, fought individually without any coordination. They were constantly beaten by the five cultivators, and when they occasionally managed to launch a few counterattacks, they were all bark and no bite, easily blocked by the formation manipulated by the five cultivators.

Lin Zui could see clearly that it wouldn't be long before all these rogue cultivators would die here.

"Fellow Daoists, we don't want this patch of Azure Nether Flowers anymore. We'd like to give it all to you. Please be kind enough to let us leave."

Finally, a few rogue cultivators realized that the situation was bad and began to beg for mercy. However, having come to this point, how could the five cultivators let them leave?

They exchanged a silent glance, a knowing smile playing on their lips, and simultaneously increased the force of their attack.

"Fellow Daoist, are you truly determined to push things to the extreme?"

One of the rogue cultivators was filled with shock and anger. Seeing that the other party clearly intended to kill them all, he could no longer restrain himself and shouted at the other rogue cultivators around him.

"Everyone, if you have any secret skills, don't hold back. If you don't use them now, you'll all die here."

As the burly man spoke, he no longer hesitated and took out two more top-grade magic weapon throwing knives from his storage bag. He combined them with the flying sword he was originally controlling and attacked the opponent. The attack power was indeed greatly increased. However, not everyone among the others had such a so-called trump card. Apart from a silver-robed cultivator who took out a mid-level talisman and began to activate it, most of the others just spat out a few mouthfuls of blood essence to enhance the power of their attacks. Lin Zui shook his head repeatedly as he watched.

"Rogue cultivators are really poor..."

This level of strength was clearly insufficient to break the magic array set up by the five people. Although it caused them to be slightly flustered for a while, they were still killed on the spot in a short time.

When the last person fell, the five cultivators who were controlling the formation breathed a sigh of relief and were about to collect the people's storage bags when suddenly two screams rang out. The last two cultivators were simultaneously pierced through the chest by sharp claws and died instantly.

The other three were taken aback and were about to retaliate when Lin Zui flashed past them, taking their lives in the blink of an eye.

"It's just that they relied on a set of formations and the tacit cooperation among the group. Their own strength is really not worth mentioning. I just don't know what method they used to teleport together."

Lin Zui put away the magical artifact, looked at the corpses of the people, and thought to himself, but then he stopped caring.

Suddenly, a thought struck him, and he used his divine sense to lock onto the corpses. After a moment, his brows furrowed slightly.

"There really is something extracting the remaining spiritual energy and soul power from these corpses, and it's all going in the same direction."

Lin Zui looked in that direction.

"It seems that's the Xuanhuang Pool over there. I guess Dong Xuan'er and the others have already headed that way."

Whether or not he has the chance, he will eventually give it a try. However, since the Xuanhuang Pool needs to absorb the blood, flesh, and essence of cultivators to form Xuanhuang power, there is no need to rush.

There are some decent things in this secret realm, such as the black-scaled snake at the peak of the third tier, and the patch of Azure Nether Flowers here. Although they are not very old, they are still good enough to refine some not-so-rare Foundation Establishment pills. Since we've come this far, we can't miss them.

Lin Zui casually collected the storage bags of several cultivators and plucked all the Azure Nether Flowers. He then expanded his divine sense detection range to the maximum and quickly detected the auras of several more cultivators. He then decisively used the Returning Origin Technique and rushed over there.

On the other side, Dong Xuan'er, accompanied by twelve late-stage Foundation Establishment guards, flew unimpeded to the vicinity of the center of the secret realm, where a towering peak thousands of feet high appeared before them.

"Is the Xuanhuang Pool located at the summit of this mountain?"

Dong Xuan'er asked the guards behind her.

"Yes, miss."

Dong Xuan'er nodded, gazing at the summit with a hint of confusion in her eyes, but after only a moment, her gaze became firm.

"Release all the Illusionary Fragrance Butterflies. In the next few days, I want everyone in this secret realm to... be mobilized."

"Yes, Miss."

The guards agreed and each took out a spirit beast pouch from their robes.

The next moment, countless small butterflies flew out of the bag, circled in the air a few times, and then quickly scattered in all directions.