Chapter 18: Secret Realm Qualification

Chapter 18: Secret Realm Qualification

The Heavenly Dao Alliance's envoy obviously hadn't come all this way just for the exam.

While Zhou Hui was still scratching his head over that, back at the branch hall, someone brought up Zhou Hui with He Yong.

But when it came to a major figure at the Tribulation Transcendence Stage, even though the Abyssal Sea branch hall was thousands of kilometers from Celestial Spirit Mountain, no one had the balls—not even Su Xin—to badmouth him.

Hell, across the whole Central Region, people didn't even dare say Zhou Hui's name out loud.

Liu Chang—He Yong's subordinate and a Protector of the Abyssal Sea Hall of the Heavenly Dao Alliance—could only ask He Yong cautiously: "Hall Master, what about the Celestial Spirit Sect..."

"Tireless Immortal Venerable's fine—looks like the Heavenly Tribulation didn't lay a finger on him," He Yong said, sounding exhausted.

His bluntness made Liu Chang jump: "He... he might 'hear' you saying that."

"Whatever, it doesn't matter anymore." Look, worse stuff had already been repeated word-for-word by that guy's disciple. He Yong had no idea what the Immortal Venerable himself thought, but at this point he just didn't give a damn. "It's not like he's really gonna wipe out the whole Heavenly Dao Alliance!"

...Wait, had it really escalated to "wiping them out"?

Liu Chang could tell the visit hadn't gone well and asked nervously, "Then what about the secret realm quotas?"

"The secret realm..." He Yong muttered, then he broke into a cold sweat.

The secret realm... he'd totally forgotten to bring it up!

No—more like he'd never found the right moment to say it.

He Yong thought, his head throbbing.

When he'd gone to the Celestial Spirit Sect, sure, his main goal was to check on Zhou Hui, but as an envoy of the Heavenly Dao Alliance, going there and directly saying "we wanted to see if you got struck dead by lightning" would've been way too tactless—that was the kind of thing a rich-kid cultivator like Su Xin would do. So on paper, He Yong did have a legit reason for the visit.

And "exploring the secret realm" was that legit reason.

Actually, this secret realm was directly tied to Zhou Hui.

Last time Zhou Hui went through his Tribulation Transcendence, he called down Heavenly Thunder. That tribulation was so massive it kicked up a huge Spiritual Energy Storm centered on Celestial Spirit Mountain in the Central Region, which actually blew the seal off some mountain peak, exposing the entrance to a secret realm underneath.

Naturally, this was a good thing.

In the cultivation world, every secret realm meant tons of opportunities and resources—stuff cultivators would kill for.

The only issue was, once the seal got blown open, a sword aura with blazing light shot straight up into the sky, and every cultivation sect within a thousand li (about 500 km) sensed it!

Based on past experience, any secret realm that made this much noise just from cracking its seal—er, from having its seal blown off—was obviously no run-of-the-mill dungeon. It was the good stuff!

Instantly, the whole Central Region went nuts, and every sect wanted a slice of the pie.

But stuff like this was pretty standard in the cultivation world, and there was even an unspoken rule:

When a secret realm had no owner and no sect had staked a claim first, the usual move was to put aside the squabbling and explore it together—every sect within a thousand li that wanted in would send their own teams into the realm together, with a time limit. Within that time, everyone relied on their own skills to grab—er, find—as much loot as they could.

As for how many cultivators each sect could send, who went in first, whether anyone was packing way-too-overpowered artifacts, and all that—that's where the Heavenly Dao Alliance came in.

Of course, the Heavenly Dao Alliance wasn't doing this out of charity.

They'd obviously send their own people in to "assess" the realm's value and grab some "samples" while they were at it—that's why Su Xin was here.

But before anyone set foot inside, the big question was how many exploration slots each of the Great Sects would get—that decided how much of an edge they'd have in there.

He Yong had gone to the Celestial Spirit Sect half for this reason too.

Either way, since the realm's discovery was tied to Zhou Hui's tribulation, the Celestial Spirit Sect definitely had a right to explore it.

But as luck would have it, the Celestial Spirit Sect was in the middle of their big exam, and both He Yong and Su Xin got so caught up in it that they totally forgot to bring up the secret realm with Zhou Hui.

Obviously, He Yong didn't want to own up to that embarrassing screw-up in front of his subordinate.

"Ahem, we'll talk about this later," He Yong dodged. "Tireless Immortal Venerable just got through his tribulation—he's swamped!" Swamped with grading his disciples' exams, that is.

"We can't just put this off!" Liu Chang said anxiously. "The other sects are dying to get into that realm. People have been coming by nonstop for days, and some are literally camped out here, waiting for us to announce the quotas."

Liu Chang paused, then dropped his voice: "Since the Celestial Spirit Sect doesn't seem interested, their quota could just..."

"What the hell are you talking about!" Tireless Immortal Venerable hasn't "Ascended" yet!

Of course, if the Celestial Spirit Sect lost their big shot, that'd be a whole different story.

He Yong said flatly, "Unless the Celestial Spirit Sect straight-up says they don't want it, we can't just yank their spot."

"What if they never say anything?"

"Then we go by the usual rules," He Yong said vaguely.

Liu Chang nodded knowingly.

The "usual rules" meant that even though Tireless Immortal Venerable was too busy cultivating to care about worldly stuff, you still had to show respect to a Tribulation Transcendence big shot's sect. So they'd toss them the bare minimum quota as a courtesy, just to say "we told you."

He Yong had been planning to do exactly that.

He really didn't want to go back to the Celestial Spirit Sect!

"I'll go deal with the other sects first!" He Yong said, dodging the topic. "Let me handle what I can handle."

With that, he started heading for the front hall, but Liu Chang called out, "Uh, should we get Uncle-Master Su involved?"

Liu Chang wasn't actually from Su Xin's line, but he shamelessly copied He Yong and called Su Xin "Uncle-Master" anyway—basically begging to ride on his coattails.

But Su Xin had come back from the Celestial Spirit Sect acting weird—he'd locked himself in his room and wasn't even acknowledging Liu Chang.

"..." He Yong saw right through Liu Chang and snorted. "He's not coming. He's in no mood for this right now."

He Yong figured Su Xin shouldn't have been handling this at all.

As a nepo-baby cultivator, Su Xin was basically just there to loot the secret realm for treasures, but he acted like he was the actual boss of the Heavenly Dao Alliance, even butting into quota decisions.

Honestly, Su Xin getting knocked down a peg was the only good thing that came out of that trip to the Celestial Spirit Sect.

He Yong also didn't like having some spoiled brat getting in the way of his work.

With that in mind, He Yong told Liu Chang, "Go cheer up Little Uncle-Master. Take him out to play if you want, but don't go anywhere too dangerous."

"Yes!"

Liu Chang answered eagerly, but a weird glint flickered in his eyes.

*

"What's there to do in this godforsaken place?"

Su Xin said, sounding totally drained.

He refused to admit that he was afraid of that so-called "No-Strife Immortal" and didn't dare go out! Nor was it because he couldn't even pass the exams against ordinary disciples and couldn't face anyone!

"Heh heh, of course this place can't compare to the bustling Southern Region," Liu Chang said amiably, playing along. "After the great war with the ancient Demon God in the Central Region, most of the land was eroded by the Abyssal Sea, so that even larger mortal kingdoms couldn't form, let alone match the Southern Region—but chaos has its perks!"

He dropped his voice for that last part.

Su Xin couldn't care less about the boring history of the Central Region, but hearing Liu Chang's eerie tone in that final remark, he couldn't help shooting him a curious glance. Liu Chang, however, didn't continue, instead warily eyeing the bevy of pretty maidservants serving tea around Su Xin.

Su Xin immediately understood his meaning.

From his experience as a second-generation cultivator, he knew Liu Chang was about to mention something "fun," so he dismissed the maidservants.

Liu Chang then chuckled slyly: "Uncle Su, have you heard of the Carefree Palace?"

"The Carefree Palace?" Su Xin frowned, his interest, just piqued, instantly fizzled out: "That's it? I've been there many times, and I'm already bored of it."

Only a second-gen cultivator like him could say that.

The Carefree Palace was one of the top merchant associations even in the Northern Region, a hub for cultivators. They dealt in all sorts of rare treasures, spiritual pills, and miraculous medicines, and had established inns, restaurants, and auction houses in various cultivation towns. What they were most renowned for was their once-a-decade Rare Treasures Fair, mixing business, pleasure, and entertainment—a place every cultivator would kill to visit. There was even a saying: "Above, there's the Celestial Realm; below, there's the Carefree Palace."

"You're only bored of the Southern Region's Carefree Palace," Liu Chang said with a smile. "That's our Heavenly Dao Alliance's territory, with all those righteous sects and, naturally, a ton of rules. Anything even slightly exciting gets branded as scandalous. But it's different in the Central Region—there's hardly any decent power here. Instead, thanks to the Demon God's relics, there are many strange creatures, and rare treasures often surface. There's much more you can do. Even our Heavenly Dao Alliance can only ensure nothing goes wrong on the surface."

"Heh heh, the Heavenly Dao Alliance has little influence in the Central Region, yet you make it sound like a good thing," Su Xin laughed.

But since he laughed, it showed he was already interested in the matter.

Liu Chang pressed on: "Of course it's not a good thing, but as an occasional place for novelty and amusement, it's quite intriguing. Take the Carefree Palace, for instance—many of their goods are sourced from the Central Region. However, to dispel any bad influence, they operate here under a different name, called the 'Fallen Immortal Palace.' Tsk tsk, just hearing that name, you know what kind of business they're up to." With that, Liu Chang let out a few lewd chuckles.

Su Xin was tempted by Liu Chang's words but still maintained his composure: "I won't go to such filthy places."

"Little Uncle, look at what you're saying! I wouldn't dare recommend a truly dirty place to you! I value my life! The Fallen Immortal Palace, after all, is still part of the Carefree Palace's network—no matter how dirty, it can't be that bad, just a bit bolder than usual," Liu Chang quickly seized the opportunity. "And they've recently built new cave dwellings, and with the news of a new secret realm, they're hosting a sect gathering! It's the liveliest time, which is why I suggested you go take a look."

"In that case, let's go have a look," Su Xin said.

Su Xin also felt he truly needed to go out and have some fun, to completely forget the ordeal at the Celestial Spirit Sect.

What Su Xin didn't know was that after Liu Chang had flattered him profusely and taken his leave, he dropped his smile and coldly said to his servant:

"Go inform the Fallen Immortal Palace that what they wanted, I've delivered! As for whether they can secure more secret realm exploration quotas from this young master, that depends on their own abilities."