I saved the entire sect by playing idly by letting things fall apart.

Silence fell over the surroundings. Chu Xingzhi, whose sword had been broken in front of everyone, widened his eyes in surprise: "Ye Qiao!"

Although it was just an ordinary Xuan sword, for a sword cultivator to have his sword broken was tantamount to having his face stomped on. Enraged, he threw a punch directly at Ye Qiao.

She spun around to dodge and then kicked down, but Chu Xingzhi feinted and slammed his other hand down on her abdomen.

Ye Qiao grabbed his arm and simultaneously flung him away.

Mu Chongxi immediately jumped up, his eyes lighting up: "Ye Qiao is awesome!"

"Hit him! Hit him! Side kick! Turn around! Look behind Ye Qiao!" Mingxuan shouted along.

The scene was extremely lively.

Ye Qiao and Chu Xingzhi exchanged a glance, and just as they were about to continue, the voice of the Sword Inquiry Sect elder suddenly rang out from behind them.

"Have you all made enough of a scene?"

The once lively procession fell silent in an instant.

"You guys will die if you don't cause trouble every day, won't you?"

Seeing this, the elder of the Sword Inquiry Sect was truly disappointed. It was one thing to do terribly in the assessment, but to actually fight while balancing a flowerpot on one's head was another. He pointed at everyone present and said, "The secret realm will open in a few days. I hope all of you will behave yourselves and reflect on your actions."

"Especially some people who don't use their brains and got overturned in the last two days still have the nerve to watch the show."

"..." The other three disciples felt inexplicably implied.

He waved his hand, looked at the silent disciples, and said coldly, "Disperse."

Ye Qiao left feeling refreshed after the fight, abandoning all the flowerpots and heading home.

Qin Fanfan arrived too late. As he followed the group of disciples back to their courtyard, he asked, "I heard you guys got into a fight? How did it go?"

After all, Chu Xingzhi is also an opponent, so it's good to test the waters beforehand.

Ye Qiao said smugly, "I beat him."

Although Chu Xingzhi underestimated her, and her initial move was unexpected, catching Chu Xingzhi off guard, Ye Qiao still won in the end.

Qin Fanfan chuckled; he didn't believe it.

Even Mu Chongxi might not be able to defeat Chu Xingzhi.

But there's no need to say such things.

"Xiao Qiao." Qin Fanfan walked behind the group with her hands behind her back, "You've been stuck at this level for so long, is it because you can't break through, or are you in a bottleneck period?"

For disciples with high talent, breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage is very easy. Ye Qinghan broke through to the Golden Core stage as easily as drinking water, and the lightning tribulation at that time caused quite a stir in the cultivation world.

"It can break through to the next level." Ye Qiao pondered for a moment, "but my spiritual root is too weak, and the speed of breaking through is not proportional to my current spiritual root."

She needs to let it grow a bit bigger.

It seems that there's no other way but to piggyback on someone else's success.

In the cultivation world, most of the direct disciples of the Golden Core stage have already undergone the tribulation of lightning, and other cultivators have basically broken through to the Golden Core stage. The next stage is the tribulation of lightning for the Nascent Soul stage.

In the cultivation world, Nascent Soul cultivators aren't as common as dogs; Ye Qiao couldn't even find anyone to leech off.

Qin Fanfan praised her steady behavior, saying, "Being too hasty can indeed lead to an unstable foundation."

After a period of commotion, things gradually calmed down the following evening, and all the courtyards quieted down to analyze the situation in the next secret realm.

"It feels like the difficulty of these great secret realms is constantly increasing." Not only Ye Qiao felt this, but the other disciples also felt it.

"It gets harder as you go on." Mingxuan tapped the map given to him by the Sword Inquiry Sect with his fingertip. "The next secret realm is called the Bush Forest. Not only are there demonic beasts in there, but there are also many mutated trees that not only eat people, but if you are captured and do not break free in time, you will be devoured and assimilated."

The most troublesome thing about this secret realm isn't the monsters, but the plants there. This is where the advantage of having a fire-type spiritual root comes in; at least some plants won't dare to provoke them.

"If you encounter danger, crush your ID card and run."

This grand competition is held once every century. A hundred years ago, many geniuses perished in this secret realm. It was only later that they developed identity tokens, which could be crushed to teleport people out.

Mingxuan drew a lot of fire-controlling talismans and threw them to them, saying, "If things get bad, throw these out to calm the plants. If that doesn't work, just run away."

There was nothing he could do but wish these people good luck.

Especially Ye Qiao.

It's hard to say about others, but she's definitely the one who will be targeted the most.

"Sigh. Life is so hard." Ye Qiao sighed as she lay on the table.

Since acquiring the alchemy furnace, the speed of forming pills and producing pills has more than doubled. Those with high spiritual energy saturation are stuffed into porcelain bottles and distributed to the other senior brothers.

After all, the next secret realm doesn't sound very friendly, especially for Ye Qiao, who is at odds with the whole world.

Xue Yu looked at the pills she had refined and smiled. "If the Azure Water Sect knew your skill level, they'd probably try to poach your members."

The main reason is that Ye Qiao used a pot to refine things in the secret realm before. No one had ever seen such a strange thing before, so it was impossible to judge her skill level.

"You should have said so earlier." Ye Qiao looked up and tapped the ground casually. "If you had told me they were so rich, I would have gone back then."

It's hateful that she was young and naive, and her mind was bewitched by five steamed buns.

Three days later, all the disciples had packed up and boarded flying boats to the site where the secret realm was opening. It was early morning and the sky was just beginning to lighten. The cultivators outside the site were all slumped over with sleepiness, but the Wenjian Sect members stood straight like little poplars.

As Mu Chongxi was walking, he was slapped on the back of the head.

"Stand still," Duan Yu shouted from behind.

Mu Chongxi: "But she wasn't standing properly either, why don't you say anything about her?!" He pointed at Ye Qiao, who was so sleepy that she didn't even lift her head.

Duan Yu: "Is she the same as you?"

???

Why is this considered differential treatment?

"Qiaoqiao, long time no see." A cultivator outside greeted her warmly: "Promise us you'll live on with a smile."

"We believe in you. Even if you offend all your mentors, you'll still thrive!"

"Ye Langlang is a guy who survives in the cracks."

Ye Qiao, who had just entered and heard these words, was speechless.

She had drawn a lot of talismans before going down into the secret realm, and now her head was a little dizzy. After hearing these words, Ye Qiao raised a bright smile, waved her hand, and was about to say to them, "That's no big deal."

Looking up, she saw several other groups not far from her.

Every glance from them was chilling.

If looks could kill, she'd probably be dead by now.

Ye Qiao turned her head away nonchalantly, pretending not to see anything, but her mind was already frantically trying to come up with a solution. Ming Xuan nudged her: "What should we do? If you can't find a team this time, you're probably going to be targeted and killed."

In the previous rounds, the hatred wasn't directed at Ye Qiao; it was mainly because no one took a Foundation Establishment cultivator seriously.

Things are different now. In terms of hatred, who among you here is as high as Ye Qiao?

Mingxuan stroked his chin, seemingly deep in thought, and said with a slightly drawn-out tone, "I'm thinking about a question: who among us is the unlucky one who has the honor of teaming up with Ye Qiao?"

There's always one person left out of five. Ye Qiao hasn't been left out three times in a row. I wonder what will happen this time.