Volume 1, Chapter 119 – The Sealed Secret Realm Entrance

“Move! Everyone, make for the secret realm entrance!”

Liu Ruyan’s voice cracked like a whip. Her usual gentleness had vanished, leaving only stark urgency on her face.

“Go!”

No one from Yaochi Immortal Palace hesitated any longer. Pushing their speed to the limit, they raced desperately toward the secret realm entrance!

At that moment, the entire secret realm descended into unprecedented panic and chaos!

And it wasn’t only Yaochi Immortal Palace. Every cultivator still alive, whether from the three great sacred lands, a first-rate sect, or the ranks of independent cultivators, was swept up in the turmoil.

Anyone with even a little experience realized what was happening.

“The secret realm is closing!”

“Venerable Tianqiong has awakened! We’re going to die in here!”

“Run! Hurry, get out!”

“The entrance! Get to the entrance!”

Weeping, screaming, and despairing howls echoed from every corner of the secret realm.

Countless figures came rushing from every direction, racing toward the secret realm entrance with no thought for anything else!

Greed, schemes, old grudges, and feuds were all crushed beneath the instinct to survive.

Everyone drove their spiritual power to the limit, desperate to reach the secret realm entrance even a moment sooner.

Yet the speed at which the secret realm was “closing” far exceeded anything they had imagined.

The sky was collapsing inward, the land was contracting, and the invisible spatial barriers were growing thicker and more solid by the moment.

Many cultivators discovered in horror that some invisible resistance was slowing their flight.

Their spiritual power was being depleted at a terrifying rate, as though the entire world were rejecting them, determined to keep them trapped inside!

“No! Please! Let me out!”

“Fellow Daoist Lü’s wife and daughter are still waiting for me to take care of them! Let me go first!”

“My father is the sect master of the Lingyun Sect! Get out of my way!”

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“Everyone, attack the barrier together!”

………

Driven to despair, some wept and begged, others tried to throw their status around, while still others joined forces to attack the barrier.

Yet their attacks vanished into it without a trace, failing to stir even the faintest ripple.

This secret realm had formed long ago, when Venerable Tianqiong failed his Tribulation Transcendence and his Dao laws collided with the power of the tribulation.

Now that the secret realm’s “master” was actively controlling it, how could Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators possibly shake the force sealing it shut?

Meanwhile, outside the secret realm, on the Tianqiong Plains.

Even as upheaval swept through the secret realm, the outside world had already descended into chaos!

The first to notice the anomaly were the elders leading the various factions, all of whom had been waiting near the secret realm entrance.

“The entrance’s gate of light… Something’s wrong with it!”

“Oh no! The passage into the secret realm seems to be… closing?!”

Cries of alarm rose one after another.

The expressions of every sect’s leading elder, including the senior figures from the three great sacred lands, instantly turned grim.

The secret realm was closing ahead of schedule?

Nothing like this had ever happened in the history of the Laws Secret Realm!

“Quickly! Stabilize the passage! Guide the disciples out!”

Xuanyangzi, Sacred Lord of Lingxu Sacred Land, was the first to react.

But it was already too late.

The gate of light, towering a hundred zhang high, was visibly shrinking!

“Blast it open! Hold the entrance steady!”

With a furious roar, the Barbarian King, Supreme Elder of Tianyuan Sacred Land, struck without hesitation.

His fist, powerful enough to shake mountains, carried a vast surge of force as it slammed into the gate of light!

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The Mahayana and Body Integration elders leading the other sects no longer hesitated. One after another, they unleashed their divine abilities at the gate of light or attempted to stabilize the passage with their spiritual power.

In an instant, dazzling radiance filled the sky over the Tianqiong Plains. Torrents of spiritual power surged and roared, creating a terrifying spectacle.

Yet to everyone’s despair…

The combined attack of dozens of mighty experts struck the gate of light.

Not only did it fail to cause the slightest disturbance, but it actually accelerated the gate’s closure!

“How… How is that possible?!”

An elder from Qingyun Sacred Land watched helplessly as the gate of light rapidly shrank from a hundred zhang to several dozen, then to only ten…

The disciples’ desperate cries and pleas for help came through the gate, piercing everyone’s hearts like steel needles.

“Something has gone wrong inside the secret realm! Someone is controlling it!”

Xuanyangzi was the first to understand. His face was ashen, his voice hoarse.

He had discerned the truth, but he was powerless to change anything.

Their ancestors in the Tribulation Transcendence realm were not here. With only Mahayana and Body Integration cultivators present, they had no hope of stopping this!

“Are we… Are we supposed to just stand here and watch…?”

A female elder from Wondrous Sound Pavilion choked out the words.

“My son is still in there!”

The sect master of the Lingyun Sect let out a despairing howl and charged recklessly toward the flickering gate of light.

“Come back! It’s dangerous!”

The people beside him hurriedly grabbed hold of him.

Just as the scene descended into complete chaos…

An indescribably terrifying sword intent erupted from Yaochi Immortal Palace’s Cloudsea Spirit Vessel!

Every elder who had been attacking the gate of light or attempting to stabilize it, whether Xuanyangzi and the Barbarian King in the Mahayana realm or the other Body Integration cultivators, shuddered violently.

They all turned and looked up at the aloof figure standing aboard the spirit vessel!

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Before that sword intent in its purest, most extreme form, their divine abilities and spiritual power seemed to tremble from the depths of their souls, suddenly insignificant beyond measure!

“So this is… the strength of Yaochi Immortal Palace’s Grand Elder?!”

“What realm is she in? Why does she feel even stronger than our ancestor?”

“What rank is the sword in her hand? Could it be heaven rank?”

A Body Integration sword cultivator from the Flowing Cloud Sword Sect murmured in shock. The sword in his hand had begun to hum of its own accord, as though paying homage!

Li Hanyi seemed not to hear the discussion below. Her eyes remained fixed on the gate of light, which was about to close completely.

“Open.”

Her crimson lips parted, uttering a single word.

The next moment, the Listening Rain Sword left its sheath!

A sword radiance that seemed to compress myriad sword intents into a single point bloomed from the Listening Rain Sword and slashed toward the secret realm’s gate of light!

Fast!

Indescribably fast!

“Shhk!”

The sword radiance, powerful enough to cleave a mountain apart, froze for an instant the moment it touched the gate of light. Then the gate swallowed it whole!

“What?!”

Li Hanyi’s cool eyes abruptly narrowed.

She had not used her full strength in that strike, but no ordinary spatial barrier could possibly have withstood it, much less absorbed it!

There was something wrong with this secret realm entrance!

“Stop! Everyone, stop attacking!”

Xuanyangzi of Lingxu Sacred Land was the first to sense that something was amiss. His expression changed drastically as he shouted:

“The entrance is absorbing our attacks!”

“It isn’t closing naturally. Something inside is actively controlling it, absorbing external power to reinforce itself!”

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His voice was hoarse with horrified disbelief.

“What? It’s absorbing our attacks?”

“How is that possible?! How could a secret realm…?”

“Look! The gate of light really has grown more solid!”

The other elders immediately stopped attacking and examined it carefully. Their faces turned deathly pale.

The gate seemed to have become an energy vortex that took everything in and let nothing out, a conduit feeding some terrifying existence within the secret realm!

“A… a major upheaval must have occurred inside the secret realm! Something beyond our understanding is controlling its core!”

The Barbarian King of Tianyuan Sacred Land also understood. A grave look, tinged with fear, appeared in his enormous, bell-like eyes.

“Senior, I fear this gate can no longer be broken by any external force.”

Xuanyangzi looked toward Li Hanyi aboard the spirit vessel, his tone heavy.

Li Hanyi did not respond. Her brows were tightly furrowed.

She could indeed employ even stronger methods, even pay a tremendous price to shake this strange entrance.

But what would the cost be?

If the energy went out of control, it would spell disaster for the disciples who had yet to escape!

Forcing the gate open might not save them. It might kill them instead!

Li Hanyi’s grip tightened around her sword until her knuckles turned faintly white.

Slowly, she returned the sword to its sheath, and the terrifying sword intent that had dimmed heaven and earth receded with it.

Everyone below felt the pressure lift, but no one felt relieved. Only deeper despair spread through the crowd.

Even Yaochi Immortal Palace’s Grand Elder, a Tribulation Transcendence cultivator, seemed… helpless?

Li Hanyi ignored the myriad looks from below.

She closed her eyes and focused. A strand of divine sense pierced through layer upon layer of spatial obstruction, racing toward Yaochi Immortal Palace!