Chapter 5: Leaving the Barren Mountain, First Entering the Secret Realm

Chapter 5: Leaving the Desolate Mountain, First Entering the Secret Realm

Lin Yu in his arms knew nothing of this, slept soundly and peacefully through the night, curled up snugly in his arms, dreamless until dawn.

In the days that followed, the two of them lived a peaceful, tender life together on the undisturbed desolate mountain.

One fine afternoon, with bright sunlight streaming down and spiritual energy drifting lazily among the cliffs, after Lin Yu finished his daily healing session, Ling Xuance spoke softly.

"A Yu, although the residual demonic energy in my body has completely dissipated, deep in my foundation, a trace of demonic resonance still lingers as a hidden threat."

"Th-then what do we do?"

Seeing the worry and anxiety in the young man's eyes, Ling Xuance gently ruffled his hair.

"It's fine. The Demon-Breaking Herb in the secret realm can eradicate it completely."

"I need to go to the secret realm to thoroughly purge this hidden danger, so I won't have to worry about any backlash later."

He had already made his plans, and he gazed at the young man before him with tenderness.

"The secret realm is dangerous, and I can't stand to leave you alone on this cliff. Would you be willing to come with me into the small world I gave you?"

When he heard they were leaving Reflection Cliff, hesitation rose in Lin Yu's eyes.

He turned to look at the lush spiritual field beside the stone cottage, then at the stone dwelling they had lived in for so long—this place had held the most peaceful years of his two lives, his only sanctuary and home.

His eyes brimmed with reluctance as he whispered softly, "But... my vegetable patch, and our stone cottage..."

He couldn't bear to leave behind the thriving life he'd tended with his own hands, nor the little cliffside home that held so many gentle days and nights they'd shared.

Seeing the reluctance in the young man's eyes, Ling Xuance immediately raised his hand and formed a formation.

Spiritual energy flowed from his fingertips, spreading outward as clear, luminous light that coalesced into a dense, stable barrier, slowly enveloping the entire stone cottage and the whole spiritual field.

The formation settled silently, shielding everything within—the furnishings inside, the plants in the field—from the elements, securely preserving all the life and traces of their time on the cliff.

"I've set up a formation barrier. Everything here will stay perfectly intact."

"Whenever you want to come back, we'll return, and nothing will have changed."

The gentle promise soothed most of Lin Yu's reluctance, but a lingering worry remained. He hesitated before asking softly.

"What about... the Qingmu Sect? And the Lin family? Will they come after us?"

He feared that after they left, the Qingmu Sect might find this place, or the Lin family might come knocking again and shatter this peace.

A trace of warmth faded from Ling Xuance's eyes, replaced by a faint chill, as he calmly told the whole truth.

"Back then, when I was wounded by demonic energy and my spirit was damaged, my life tablet shattered completely. The Qingmu Sect has long assumed I perished without a trace. To them, Reflection Cliff is nothing more than an abandoned prison—no one will ever set foot here again."

"As for the Lin family." He lowered his gaze to the young man beside him, his tone carrying a hint of heartache and indifference.

"From the moment they sent you here in someone else's place to marry into Reflection Cliff, abandoning you on this desolate mountain, in the hearts of everyone in the Lin family, that bastard son Lin Yu was already dead."

"The dust has settled. They've long since cast you aside completely, and they'll never spare another thought for you in this lifetime."

Lin Yu listened quietly, feeling not a trace of grievance or sorrow—only total relief.

In his past life, he'd died alone; in this life, he'd been cast off by his family. Yet he never regretted the past, only felt grateful that in his darkest hour, he'd met the person beside him.

His entire world had always been just Ling Xuance.

Lin Yu lifted his eyes to the man before him and nodded gently. "Alright."

"I'll go with you."

Ling Xuance looked at the complete trust in his eyes, tenderness flooding his own gaze.

He raised his hand, producing the warm spatial jade pendant, and gently channeled spiritual energy into it. Soft light rippled at the entrance, calm and serene—a world unto itself.

Without a moment's hesitation, Lin Yu stepped lightly inside.

As light and shadow shifted, the young man landed steadily in the small world, wrapped in gentle, pure spiritual energy.

Ling Xuance tucked away the jade pendant, took one last look at the stone cottage and spiritual field now safely shielded by the barrier, then soared away on the wind.

Mountains and rivers churned, and three years passed like drifting clouds.

Three years had passed in the blink of an eye since Ling Xuance brought Lin Yu into the secret realm.

For three years, Ling Xuance had traversed the secret realm's deep valleys and perilous peaks, its hidden ravines and dense forests, yet he'd never managed to find a single Demon-Breaking Herb.

Though fortune hadn't yet smiled on them, both their cultivations had risen steadily through daily trials and quiet cultivation.

Ling Xuance had always been exceptionally gifted in the cultivation world, and three years of battle and slaughter had advanced his cultivation by leaps and bounds, bringing him to the Peak Golden Core stage long ago.

Yet no one knew that the demonic energy that had once invaded his body was like a hidden ailment rooted in his very soul, lurking deep within his meridians.

Deep within the secret realm, the desolate mountains were dyed under blood-red skies.

A brutal demon-slaying battle had just ended, with the corpses of demonic beasts scattered across ten li of mountain ridges.

Ling Xuance stood at the center of the carnage. His pristine white robes, which had always remained untouched by dust, were now soaked through with crimson blood—from collar to cuffs, from back to hem, all stained dark red.

The killing intent in his eyes had yet to fade, his face a mask of indifference, as if the ground beneath his feet were not a field of corpses but ordinary earth.

He lowered his gaze and raised his hand, condensing a thread of pure spiritual energy that precisely pierced the skull of a fallen high-rank demonic beast with practiced skill.

With delicate precision, he extracted a glossy, dark demon core, twirling it between his fingers before tucking it into his storage jade pendant.

He looked up at the layers of turbid energy in the secret realm's sky. The fierce battle just now had agitated his meridians, and deep within, he felt the familiar numb, astringent swelling—a sign that the latent demonic resonance was about to stir.

Until this hidden threat was eliminated, he could not afford a moment's ease.

While the outside world was fierce and bloody, within the self-contained sanctuary of the small world, time passed in peace.

Over these three years, Lin Yu had transformed his modest vegetable-growing skills into a full-fledged spiritual herb cultivation enterprise.

His daily routine was disciplined: morning meditation and breathing exercises, afternoon tending to the spiritual fields, quietly nurturing his spiritual energy, improving every day without ever slacking.

The life sprout in his dantian had long since grown into a lush, verdant spiritual herb, continuously emitting pure spiritual energy that nourished his meridians and physique.

The most striking sight in the small world was the vast expanse of Frostbreath Spirit Herbs.

This herb was extremely niche in the cultivation world—no one was willing to cultivate it on a large scale. The growing process required meticulous care, and it was exceedingly delicate: once removed from its native spiritual soil, it would wither and lose potency within half an incense stick's time.

Even more limiting was that it only worked for cultivators with ice-type spiritual roots, rendering it useless to all others. With barely one in a thousand cultivators possessing a mutated ice-type spiritual root, no one bothered to invest the effort in cultivating it.

Lin Yu remembered that Ling Xuance's spiritual root was a mutated ice type, so he planted a patch of Ice-Breath Spirit Grass, just so that every time Ling Xuance came back from a fight, he could instantly draw in pure ice-attributed spiritual power and soothe the restless qi in his body.

Lin Yu knelt on the soft grass beside the spirit field, his look calm and intent.

As the battle outside died down, Ling Xuance focused his mind and extended his spiritual sense into the small world within his storage jade pendant.

In an instant, the grim, bloody sight gave way to a soft, living vitality, and all his battle-weariness melted away the moment he saw the young man's steady form.

He was so lucky—to have found hope in a desperate spot, and to have someone truly care for him, keeping a gentle haven safe for him in the midst of danger all around.

After half a day of rest, Ling Xuance followed the records of a yin-damp spiritual vein in a fragment of an ancient text and made his way toward the miasma forest deep within the secret realm.

Sensing the presence of strangers, Ling Xuance raised his hand and placed a cold jade mask over his face.

The mask fit perfectly against his features, concealing his sharp, striking eyes and leaving only a pale, cold jawline exposed.

The next moment, three figures emerged from the thick fog, blocking his path ahead.

They were three cultivators—two men and one woman—all bearing the demeanor of orthodox sect disciples, their expressions wary but without any ill intent, merely cautious of strangers in the secret realm.

"You there, fellow cultivator, please hold a moment. Deep within the miasma forest, fierce beasts roam and miasma poison corrodes the body—entering alone is far too dangerous," the man in blue robes spoke first, his tone gentle and devoid of hostility.