Chapter 11 The Scheming Disciple and the Charming Master 11

Chapter 11: The Scheming Disciple and His Playful Master 11

"Immortal Venerable Huaiqing, you're here bright and early."

Lin Huaiqing froze for a moment at the sound of a familiar voice before realizing it belonged to Yin Shuangyue, whom they had met yesterday.

Since this was her turf, he stood up to greet her.

"Immortal Venerable Shuangyue."

"Immortal Venerable Huaiqing, the secret realm is about to open, and I'm afraid I won't be able to look after you properly. So I've sent my personal disciple Fu'er to take care of you. If you need anything, just tell her."

As she spoke, a bright-eyed young girl stepped out from behind Yin Shuangyue.

"Disciple pays her respects to Immortal Venerable Huaiqing."

"No need for formalities. I'll be counting on you then."

Fu'er was a bit younger than Yu'er, the girl they'd met earlier.

Young as she was, she was sharp and quick to act, immediately pouring tea and fussing over Lin Huaiqing.

It honestly made him a little uncomfortable.

As he sipped the tea she'd poured, Lin Huaiqing couldn't keep up the cold, distant act, so he struck up a casual chat with Fu'er.

"Little miss, why aren't you out there with your senior sisters doing the trial?"

"My master actually said I could give it a shot, but at the last minute, I got bumped off the list..."

She sounded pretty bummed about it.

Lin Huaiqing's hand froze mid-motion as he set down his teacup. He didn't dare keep chatting after that.

Turns out his two disciples, who'd gotten in through the back door, had swiped this girl's spot.

At the Chen hour (7–9 AM), the secret realm opened right on time.

A massive teleportation array suddenly materialized on the open ground behind the mountain. This was the only entrance to the secret realm.

Since they were staying at Yuqing Shrine, right next to the secret realm, Qin Du and Mu Yunting were among the first to enter.

Even though the two couldn't stand each other, they had to team up for now so they wouldn't get steamrolled by the bigger sects.

The secret realm only opened once every five years, and in that time, the plants and animals inside had run wild with no human interference.

Looking around, thick mist swirled everywhere, like stepping into a lush green kingdom.

Sunlight filtered through the thick canopy, scattering dappled light across the ground. With spiritual energy this rich, everything in the realm practically radiated life.

Even knowing none of it was real, Qin Du couldn't help but be impressed.

A place like this, and these cultivators turned it into a training ground—what a damn waste.

If the demon realm had a spot this gorgeous, he'd have it turned into a vacation resort and make every demon come check it out.

Mu Yunting, walking beside him, clearly wasn't in the mood for sightseeing. In his past life, he'd stumbled upon his life-bound spirit sword right here in this secret realm.

If he didn't grab it now, he'd have to wait another five years.

Five years might fly by for cultivators, but who knew what could change in that time?

And with a future demon lord hanging around his master, he couldn't relax for a second.

So he had to find his spirit sword, no matter what, to keep his master safe.

Before entering, every participant got a standard pack with a signal device tied to their identity. If they ran into danger, the device would flash and alert the people outside.

If someone was marked as "dead" inside the realm, they'd get teleported right back out.

The device also had a quit button. Anyone who wanted out could just press it and get teleported away.

Even Nascent Soul elders would get hungry after a while in there, just like regular mortals.

So the pack came with a water pouch and a little bit of dry food—just enough to last one person a single day.

After that, they'd have to scrounge for food and water inside the realm to stay alive. Go too long without eating, and you'd be marked as dead too.

During the trial, killing more demonic beasts meant more points, and finding hidden treasures in the realm would rack up a ton of points too.

But spots with treasure were usually guarded by some seriously high-level beasts.

Plenty of people in there had done this before, but Qin Du, a total newbie, actually got what you'd call a "beginner's luck buff."

Watching Qin Du dig out the demon core from a third beast, Mu Yunting was completely stunned.

This guy's luck was way too good. The beasts were practically flinging themselves onto his sword.

Meanwhile, Mu Yunting had absolutely nothing to go on.

His past-life memories were getting fuzzier by the day. He couldn't even remember which cave or which lake he'd found his fortune near.

It was like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Outside, the big screen was already rolling the live leaderboard. Everyone was glued to it, hoping to spot their own sect's disciples on the list.

"There it is! Immortal Venerable Huaiqing, your disciple Qin Du is sitting in third place!"

"Oh? What about Yunting?" Lin Huaiqing pressed.

Fu'er carefully scanned the whole leaderboard top to bottom but couldn't find his name anywhere.

The screen only showed the top hundred in real time, and Mu Yunting had clearly dropped out of the running.

But Lin Huaiqing wasn't worried.

How could the protagonist's big break show up this early? He'd have to be patient.

Time outside moved totally differently than inside the realm. Barely an hour had passed out here, but inside, the first night had already fallen.

Night was always the most dangerous part for participants. Beasts came out after dark and would catch exhausted people off guard, killing them on the spot.

Even if you dodged the beasts, plenty of poisonous plants in the realm got active once the sun went down.

Breathe in too much toxic pollen or miasma, and you'd be marked as dead too.

This was what they meant when they said death lurked around every corner.

And it was only the first night—already, nearly a tenth of the participants had lit up red.

Although Qin Du and Mu Yunting had long been at odds, they both understood that cooperation was the key to victory.

They found a relatively safe spot to rest, with Qin Du on watch for the first half of the night and Mu Yunting taking over for the second.

This way, both could rest while still staying alert to any danger nearby.

After getting through the first half of the night, they switched shifts. Qin Du had barely fallen asleep when Mu Yunting shook him awake.

"Wake up—there's movement nearby."

As Mu Yunting had said, they could hear faint wolf howls echoing, suggesting a pack of wolves hunting within five miles.

Since they appeared in the secret realm, these were certainly not ordinary wolves, but wolf demons cultivated over years by absorbing spiritual energy.

When faced with a pack of wolf demons, even cultivators above the Golden Core stage could not confront the entire pack head-on.

The two of them were now already within the encirclement of the wolf pack.