Volume 1, Chapter 132 – Who Stole the Secret Realm?

All that remained was an utterly ordinary valley and the blank-faced cultivators from the various sects.

Time seemed to freeze at that moment.

The wind, the birdsong, even the sound of breathing—all of it vanished.

Falling Star Valley fell into an eerie silence so complete that a dropped pin could have been heard.

Everyone remained frozen in the same posture and expression as a second before.

The elderly host stood with his mouth open, his lips still forming the word “open,” his eyes round with shock.

The bold smile on the Blazing Sun Sect elder’s face had frozen, the corners of his mouth twitching faintly.

The sharp gleam in the White Cloud Sect elder’s eyes had given way to bewilderment.

Every disciple who had been poised to charge inside stood with one foot suspended in midair, the excitement on their faces replaced by disbelief.

A full five or six breaths passed.

“Wh-what… just happened?”

A young disciple’s hoarse voice broke the deathly silence.

His words struck the crowd like a drop of water hitting boiling oil, instantly sending everyone into an uproar!

“Where’s the entrance?! Where’s the entrance to Lingxu Blessed Paradise?!”

“How… How can it be gone?!”

“Am I seeing things? Or did those women from the Joyous Union Sect trap us in an illusion?”

“Impossible! The fluctuations from the opening of Lingxu Blessed Paradise clearly appeared!”

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“Gone? Just like that… it’s gone?”

“What kind of joke is this?! How could Lingxu Blessed Paradise simply disappear?!”

Cries of shock, frantic questions, and roars of disbelief engulfed the valley in an instant!

Everyone panicked, and the gathering descended into chaos.

The elders of the various sects hurriedly flew to the spot where the spatial ripples had vanished and frantically swept the area with their divine senses.

Yet no matter how thoroughly they investigated, even after using secret arts to probe the area, they found nothing at all.

There were no lingering spatial fluctuations, no traces of disrupted laws, and no sign of interference from a formation.

It was as though Lingxu Blessed Paradise had never existed there, and everything they had just witnessed had been nothing more than a shared hallucination.

“Wh-what in the world is going on?!”

The elderly man presiding over the secret realm had turned deathly pale, his voice trembling.

Lingxu Blessed Paradise had “vanished” during his rotation as host. He could never bear the responsibility for this!

“Could something have gone wrong with Lingxu Blessed Paradise itself? Perhaps its energy ran out and it collapsed on its own?”

One elder offered the theory, though even he found it unconvincing.

“Bullshit! The collapse of a secret realm is no small matter. How could it simply vanish without warning?”

“Could it have been… ‘moved’ by some mighty expert using methods beyond our comprehension?”

Another elder swallowed hard and voiced an even more outrageous possibility, though it might well have been the only reasonable explanation.

“Moved? An entire secret realm? You think it’s a rock someone can just pick up and carry away?!”

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Someone immediately objected, but there was little conviction in his voice.

But who could possibly move an entire secret realm right out from under their noses without making a sound?

Could those three have acted?

But why would beings of their stature take any interest in a minor secret realm like Lingxu Blessed Paradise?

For a time, suspicion ran rampant throughout Falling Star Valley, leaving everyone increasingly uneasy.

“This is far too suspicious. We must get to the bottom of it!”

“The disciples of my Blazing Sun Sect are still waiting to enter and train! What are we supposed to do now?!”

“My White Cloud Sect spent three years preparing for this secret realm!”

Complaints and furious curses rang out…

The whole of Falling Star Valley became a seething cauldron of chaos.

What had begun as a solemn gathering for the opening of a secret realm turned into a mass spectacle of utter bewilderment in the blink of an eye.

Meanwhile, Gu Han, the culprit behind it all, was far away at Yaochi Immortal Palace in the Southern Region and knew absolutely nothing about any of this.

A huge group of cultivators in Central Province had been left utterly baffled by the sudden disappearance of a “public instance dungeon” they had used for years.

In the main hall of Yaochi Immortal Palace.

Two hours quickly passed…

[Ding! Integration of “Lingxu Blessed Paradise” complete! Spatial anchor stabilized. No anomalies detected in the integration of its laws!]

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[Secret realm key permissions have been bound to the Host! The Host may open or close the secret realm at any time and expend Master Dao Points to adjust its laws or upgrade the secret realm!]

The instant the System notification ended, the pale cyan secret realm key in Gu Han’s palm grew slightly warm, establishing a profound connection with her.

With a thought, her divine sense silently entered the newly integrated secret realm.

In an instant, a world far vaster, more vibrant, and more mysterious than she had expected slowly unfolded before her “eyes.”

Towering mountains rose in endless undulations. Some were lush and verdant, with spiritual energy coiling around their slopes.

Others were red as fire, with magma from the earth’s veins faintly visible as it churned deep below.

Elsewhere, solitary peaks rose straight as swords, piercing the mist-shrouded sea of clouds.

Waterfalls plunged from the mountains like silver rivers, their distant thunder faintly audible.

Secluded pools lay still and blue-green, as though concealing unknown mysteries.

Vast plains stretched beneath winding rivers that ran through them like ribbons of jade.

“Not bad.”

Gu Han nodded slightly, satisfaction gleaming in her eyes.

Lingxu Blessed Paradise would undoubtedly provide the disciples of Yaochi Immortal Palace with an excellent place to gain practical combat experience and gather resources.

More importantly, it was completely under Gu Han’s control, making it far safer than the unknown secret realms in the outside world.

“I imagine those little ones will be thrilled to learn they have a new secret realm once they return, won’t they?”

The corners of Gu Han’s lips curved upward, as though she could already see her disciples training hard in Lingxu Blessed Paradise and reaping bountiful rewards.

As for whether the secret realm had originally belonged to someone?

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Where had it been before?

How had the System “transported” it here?

Gu Han did not ask, and the System did not volunteer the information.

Perhaps as far as the System was concerned, its job was done once the goods had been delivered to the designated location.

Whether someone else’s property had been “borrowed” along the way… was an unimportant detail.

And so, while Gu Han waited for her disciples to return and prepared to plan their new cultivation schedule,

a bizarre and terrifying rumor quietly began to spread through Central Province’s cultivation world:

Lingxu Blessed Paradise, which had existed for thousands of years, had been stolen in full view of everyone by an unknown mighty expert using inconceivable means!

The moniker “Secret Realm Bandit” also began circulating within the small circles of high-level cultivators, sparking endless speculation.

Yet no one would ever have imagined that the mysterious “bandit” was currently far away in the Southern Region, leisurely sipping tea.

Then again, even if Gu Han had known, she would not have cared. It was not as if she had done it!

If anyone was to blame, it was the System for not telling her!

As for all the frantic outrage and the unsolved mystery over in Central Province?

What did any of that have to do with Yaochi Immortal Palace?

All she had done was open her backyard and accept a delivery.

Perfectly reasonable, right?