Chapter 219 (Part 2): Down It in One Gulp

Otherwise, at this distance, there would be a delay in her control over the beasts. In the midst of ever-changing combat, even that tiny bit of lag could have catastrophic consequences.

Only by getting closer to the battlefield could she command those Spirit Beasts as if they were her own body, directing them to do exactly what they needed to do.

“Hua Jian, you’re keeping A Meng cooped up in there? That’s a shame, she could have been the real surprise for them.”

Hua Jian clicked her tongue, still a little disappointed. She couldn’t give the little darlings of Tianmomen an even bigger shock.

The Dream-Butterfly’s form was too recognizable. The moment it appeared, everyone would immediately connect the dots to Hua Jian and her Illusory Dream Flowers.

But she wasn’t too upset about it. If A Meng couldn’t come out, then so be it. The little thing had been enjoying its time cooped up inside anyway.

“Hope you all like the gift I prepared, hehehe~”

……

Whether or not the demonic cultivators of Tianmomen appreciated Hua Jian’s gift, the few cultivators still lingering in the Secret Realm had been scared out of their wits by the grand gift she’d prepared at the very start.

Some of them were teams that had been crippled in the opening moments.

Others were low-tier demonic cultivators who hadn’t entered the Secret Realm at full strength and could only scavenge at the edges.

None of them had expected this Secret Realm to be this brutally high-pressure. It had been almost ten days, and only a single Gate had been pulled.

They’d wanted to keep hiding, hoping the clearing team would leave early.

But the colored foliage spreading deep into the Secret Realm forced them to abandon their hiding spots.

If they stayed where they were, they’d be devoured along with the entire Secret Realm by the rapidly encroaching vines.

Only now did they realize the most terrifying thing in this Secret Realm wasn’t the demonic cultivators running around killing people, but the endlessly spreading plants.

The space of the Secret Realm was as fragile as paper before these things. Everywhere they touched was swallowed into darkness.

If they had a bird’s-eye view, they’d see the outer edges of the Secret Realm had already been completely shattered by these plants, leaving only debris floating in the void, being fed upon by the plants.

Soon, the ground beneath their feet would suffer the same fate. They’d be utterly consumed just like the space around them.

Realizing they couldn’t stall any longer, they formed an alliance without much discussion, acting on pure instinct to save themselves.

The way to save themselves, of course, was to pull the Gate and evacuate. Given the current time, if they pulled the second Gate, they still had a sliver of a chance to escape alive.

But when several teams of demonic cultivators reached the second Gate point—the one hanging upside down and yet to be activated—they discovered it too was about to drop soon.

Before they could pull the Gate, they ran into an obstacle.

The Tianmomen cultivators ambushed at the second Gate point struck while the cultivators were trying to pull it, injuring several people in one go.

These Tianmomen cultivators were cunning. They didn’t charge in for a direct fight.

Instead, they harassed from range with attacks, hitting whoever tried to pull the Gate.

“You idiots! If you don’t get out of here, we’re all going to die! The Secret Realm is collapsing—there’s no time left!” the frustrated demonic cultivators roared in fury.

But the Tianmomen cultivators didn’t believe a word.

They’d observed the spread rate of those plants and knew there was still time before the Secret Realm’s final deadline.

These fools probably didn’t realize they were pulling the last evacuation Gate.

If there were any other Gates left, the Tianmomen cultivators might have let them live.

All they’d have to do was hand over everything they had.

But not now. There was only one evacuation Gate left, and the Tianmomen’s mission in the Secret Realm wasn’t complete.

They needed to pull the Gate at the absolute last moment.

This was a fundamental conflict with those demonic cultivators desperate to escape.

Tianmomen didn’t want to gamble on whether those cultivators would stab them in the back afterward.

The best solution was to wipe out these little pests entirely.

Counting them up, there were five ragtag cultivators in total, with weak strength and several already injured.

The Tianmomen cultivators lying in ambush at the third Gate point weren’t at full strength either, but their condition and combat power were far superior.

With harassment as their only goal, those five demonic cultivators had no way to counter them.

“Don’t think we don’t know what’s going on. You’re just trying to scare us with tall tales, but Tianmomen isn’t afraid of threats!” the Tianmomen cultivator barked loudly.

“I’ll tell you the truth—there’s only one chance to leave now, and we’re not giving it up to you!”

He blatantly revealed the information, causing the five demonic cultivators’ expressions to shift.

Only one Gate left?

Then weren’t they completely screwed?

“Don’t believe me? Look at that mechanism yourself. It can’t withstand another Transmission Array activation. I suggest you give yourselves a quick death and reincarnate early!”

The Tianmomen cultivator laughed heartily, watching the shock and disbelief on their faces. It felt incredible.

Even if this made these people desperate enough to lash out, so what? A cornered dog was still just a dog.

They were up against an iron wall—no matter how desperate they got, they couldn’t break through!

“Bastards!”

“Hahaha! Blame your bad luck for running into us—the strong ones. That’s just how this world works. There’s no place for the weak like you!”

“Don’t you fear we’ll fight to the death?!”

“Fight to the death? Fine, I’d love to see how you plan to do that. Talking big without choking on your own tongue!” The Tianmomen cultivator laughed even harder. They wanted to threaten him?

Look at yourselves—what a pathetic bunch!

“Try to escape from us alive first, then talk your big talk!”

……

“Shijie, word from the mechanism site. A few scattered cultivators are trying to activate the mechanism to leave the Secret Realm.”

“How many are there? Can the people outside handle it?” Youye didn’t turn around, her gaze fixed intently on the deep pit before her.

Inside the pit, two Tianmomen cultivators were operating a drill-shaped Spirit Tool together, digging desperately downward, searching for the Demon Corpse Crystal buried deep underground.

Their pace wasn’t fast, not because they were slacking off, but because the soil near the Demon Corpse Crystal had been affected by it—hard and sticky, making every inch of digging cost tremendous effort.

When it rained, it poured. While they were digging, another wave of Spirit Beasts was drawn by the Demon Corpse Crystal’s aura, crashing against Tianmomen’s defenses like mad.

Youye had to send nearly everyone out to hold them off.

Thankfully, most of these Spirit Beasts were only at the Ling Shi Realm.

Even with the influence of Demonic Qi, making them tougher than normal Spirit Beasts, they couldn’t deal much damage to Ling Kings.

This Beast Tide should end soon. Once it did, they could rotate the cultivators in good condition to switch with the two diggers, and the excavation wouldn’t be too delayed.

As for the situation at the perimeter, Youye figured she didn’t need to worry about it.

“They said they can handle it. No way those little rats will steal the last chance to evacuate.”

Things were going exactly as Youye predicted. The people she’d stationed outside, even if they couldn’t kill all those rats, could definitely hold them back and stop them from leaving.

Once her business here was finished, she’d slowly deal with those little pests then.

Either way, the last evacuation point would be hers, and those little rats would die right here in the Secret Realm, becoming her gift to Wanhuagu.

Youye was confident her good sister would love this gift.

Just as she was feeling pleased with herself, a terrified shout suddenly came from the battlefield.

“Ah! Help! There’s a monster!”

In an instant, everyone’s gaze snapped toward the direction of the voice.

When they saw what had happened, everyone simultaneously had the same reaction: a sharp intake of breath.

From the looks of it, a Spirit Beast had suddenly lunged at a demonic cultivator while he was dealing with others, and he’d casually swung his blade to cleave it in half.

After all, it was just a Ling Shi Realm Spirit Beast. There was no way it could survive a Ling King’s strike.

Even if that Spirit Beast was disappointingly weak for its rank.

It should have been a routine kill, but something went wrong.

The lunging Spirit Beast was split vertically, but what the demonic cultivator never expected was that something far more terrifying lurked inside its body.

As the beast’s shell was torn apart, a twisted plant hidden within opened a gaping maw lined with razor-sharp teeth toward him.

That was exactly why he’d screamed in terror.

Under everyone’s watchful gaze, the mass of plant life chomped down on his head, cracking through both his skull and the barrier released by his protective Spirit Tool in one crunch.

Before the headless demonic cultivator could even hit the ground, the twisted, horrifying plant took bite after bite, devouring the rest of him into its belly.

“Damn it—kill it!” Only then did Youye react to what had happened. Her subordinate had been brutally murdered right in front of her!

At that moment, she felt no anger, only a faint chill of fear. This plant gave her a terrible feeling. The instant she laid eyes on it, nausea welled up inside her.

So ugly. So twisted.

The other demonic cultivators snapped out of their daze, scrambling to pull out their Spirit Tools and surround the monstrous plant in a barrage of attacks.

It turned out this plant wasn’t strong at all. It was nowhere near as powerful as the three Spirit Beasts they’d killed earlier.

It had managed to take down a Tianmomen cultivator purely through ambush.

It had only gotten the kill by catching him off guard.

Once the demonic cultivators snapped to attention and brought their full firepower to bear, it was quickly blasted into fragments on the ground.

But even in pieces, it was still alive. The cultivators could clearly see its fragments trying to reassemble.

Some pieces landed on scattered flesh and blood, quickly draining the power from the gore and beginning to regenerate into their original forms.

“Get back—I’ll handle this!” Seeing this, Youye charged forward, pulling out her Spirit Tool once more and unleashing pitch-black flames upon the plant remains on the ground.

The scorching fire finally did the trick. A plant was, after all, still a plant. In the face of the flames, it was quickly reduced to ash.

Just as Youye was about to breathe a sigh of relief, another scream rang out from among the cultivators.

“Damn it…” Youye whipped her head around just in time to see an otherwise ordinary Spirit Beast spit out a flower bud larger than its own head from its mouth.

The bud, like a gaping maw, swallowed the cultivator who’d been drawn away by the commotion.

After swallowing the cultivator whole, the Spirit Beast’s body was shredded by vines erupting from within.

The cultivators could still see their comrade thrashing inside the flower bud, letting out pained cries.

But the cries quickly went silent. What followed was the second flower bud pulling their comrade out from its fleshy interior.

By this point, the bud had been filled with digestive fluids.

The cultivator’s protective Spirit Tool had already failed, and vines had even shoved their way into his mouth and skull.

If the cultivators had been a second slower, he would have been truly eaten.

“Wait—get away from him!” Youye’s instincts screamed that something was wrong. In that state, how could that cultivator possibly have survived?

Vines had gone straight through his mouth and brain. What right did he have to live?

“Why—what—” The rescued cultivator barely had time to process what had happened before a sharp pain exploded in his belly. “Ahhh! There’s something in my stomach!”

He collapsed to the ground, writhing in agony, trying to resist with his Spiritual Power.

But his Spiritual Power wouldn’t obey him at all.

In fact, the more Spiritual Power he used, the more active the thing in his belly became.

The cultivators unanimously turned their gazes toward Youye.

They’d been completely thrown by the situation. What exactly were these bizarre things?

Were they plants influenced by Demonic Qi, or something else entirely?

And what were they supposed to do with this man who’d just been rescued?

“Give him a quick death, then cut him open and see what’s inside!”

Youye made the decision without a moment’s hesitation.

They didn’t have time to figure out what was wrong with him. The best they could do was spare him further suffering and then slice him open to see what was going on.

Before anyone else could speak, Youye raised a finger and pierced the cultivator’s skull with Black Fire.

But something strange happened. Even with his brain blasted through, the cultivator continued to wail and writhe on the ground, as if nothing had hit him at all.

“There’s definitely something wrong!” Youye intensified the flames, this time reducing the cultivator’s head to ash in a single blast. The fire then spread across his body, consuming it.

Soon, the cultivator’s body vanished bit by bit in the Black Fire, revealing a bizarrely shaped plant to everyone’s eyes.

“Is that… a Heart-Eating Vine from Wanhuagu?” one cultivator blurted out in shock.

Could all these things be Wanhuagu’s handiwork?

Understanding flickered in Youye’s eyes. So that’s how it was!

Now it made sense. Wanhuagu couldn’t possibly have treated this Secret Realm as merely a place to rake in money. They had all sorts of little schemes running.

The Secret Realm itself was food for these plants, and inside, they’d planted various experimental tricks to test how well they worked against cultivators.

Really, making use of every single angle.

“What a greedy bunch. Once we’re out of here, I’m definitely settling this score with them!” She clenched her fists and said coldly in front of her subordinates.