Chapter 634: Chapter 631: Discovery (Congratulations to the Alliance Leader, Ji Ji Zi!)_1
"The Mo Sect has done grave harm!"
Li Ruoling took a sip of Spirit Wine and recounted the events of the past, "... I was also lucky enough to escape with my life when Mechanism City collapsed. That’s when I discovered just how vicious the Mo Sect really was, going so far as to launch an outright attack on the Dragon Controlling Sect’s stronghold... And because I had resided in Mechanism City for a while, I was inexplicably branded as an accomplice and pursued by the Dragon Controlling Sect. It was such a miscarriage of justice!"
Fortunately, he wasn’t actually a disciple of the Mo Sect, and since the people of that one shop had all perished, there were no loose ends, enabling him to hide his identity and escape notice.
Afterward, through a stroke of luck, he was able to condense a Talisman Pill, but that’s a different story altogether.
After hearing his story, Fang Xi also felt quite emotional.
’In the Cultivation World, the experience of any Immortal Cultivator is a story filled with twists and turns... and Li Ruoling also counts as a minor protagonist.’
"By the way, my wise nephew didn’t visit this old man just for catching up, did you?"
After a few rounds of wine, Fang Xi held his cup with a hint of a smile as he inquired.
"In all honesty..."
Li Ruoling was very alert; seeing Fang Xi address him as a wise nephew, he promptly went along with the flow, "After my Core Formation, I acutely felt the scarcity of cultivation resources. So, together with a few friends I made, we came to the Mysterious Dark Abyss to try our hand at fishing for a living... However, nowadays, nearly the entire sea area around Ghost Gate Reef in the Mysterious Dark Abyss is dominated by Mechanism Island’s Puppets, leaving us lower-level cultivators unable to compete. We’re forced to venture deeper into danger..."
He began to complain about ’Qing Hezi’ competing with the common folk for resources, but Fang Xi merely smiled and remained silent, quietly watching Li Ruoling boast.
The efficiency of the massive offshore platform was very high, and it indeed forced these ’fisherman’ cultivators to go deeper into the Mysterious Dark Abyss, which was part of his plan.
Without driving them into the depths, how could he get enough people to search for the entrance to the Secret Realm?
Of course, aside from these cultivators, Fang Xi also sent some bionic Puppets to roam the southeastern corner of the Misty Sea, but so far, they had not yielded any results.
"On one occasion, we were unfortunate enough to encounter the ’Unfixed Wind.’ Right on the spot, a Core Formation cultivator lost his life, and then we were blown off course to a place unmarked on any map..."
Li Ruoling’s eyes seemed a bit lost, "There, my companion and I accidentally fell into the Mysterious Dark Heavy Water, but by a fortuitous coincidence, we discovered a Secret Realm! Even though the entrance to the Secret Realm was guarded by extremely powerful prohibitions, preventing me and my companion from daring to enter, we could be certain it was indeed a Secret Realm... As a result, my companion fought me in a fierce battle, and in the end, I survived."
Fang Xi looked at Li Ruoling with a trace of wonder, "It’s all too common for Immortal Cultivators to fight over uneven spoils... My nephew’s encounter with this Secret Realm is indeed a heaven-sent opportunity."
"I know my own affairs... With my mere Core Formation Magic Power, I fear even a random trap in the Secret Realm could be deadly."
Li Ruoling gave a bitter smile, "However, my honorable uncle is so powerful, you must have already reached the Nascent Soul stage, right? I’m willing to offer the location of this Secret Realm to you, uncle, to explore together..."
His search for Fang Xi was naturally well-considered.
After all, with such a low level of strength, entering the Mysterious Dark Abyss was a life-threatening risk.
And that Secret Realm was located even deeper within the Mysterious Dark Abyss.
’Fang Yuan’ was also the most friendly high-level cultivator he knew.
"Could that Secret Realm be in the southeastern corner of the Misty Sea Area?"
After a pause, Fang Xi was the first to speak up.
"Uncle, how did you know?"
Li Ruoling suddenly looked up, asking in disbelief.
’This person’s luck... seems to be on par with Lord Hei Miao...’
Fang Xi was somewhat speechless himself.
The Secret Realm he had been searching for a hundred years was actually brought to him by this nephew. Could this be what they call... good people deserve good fortune?!
Unfortunately, the person’s cultivation was too low; knowing such critical information was more a curse than a blessing.
"Alas... do you know who my master is?"
Fang Xi asked seriously.
"I do not..."
Li Ruoling answered honestly. Back then, the Li Family only knew that ’Fang Yuan’ had been taken away by a distinguished figure, but they had no idea about the true identity of this person.
And what did that have to do with the other party knowing the approximate location of the entrance to the Secret Realm?
"My master’s Taoist name is ’Upper Green Lower Grain’!"
Fang Xi said with a faint smile.
"Qing Hezi?" Li Ruoling exclaimed in surprise: "I had no idea that my uncle’s master was actually the owner of Kong Sang Market, a Transcendent God! No wonder uncle has been cultivating in Kong Sang Market and progressing so rapidly with his cultivation..."
"Hehe, my master and I hit it off from the first meeting..."
Fang Xi briefly explained, then turned solemn, "But do you know why my master, who usually avoids worldly conflicts, has a special interest in the Mysterious Dark Abyss?"
Without waiting for Li Ruoling to answer, he explained, "Of course, it’s because my master has long known about the existence of a Secret Realm within the Mysterious Dark Abyss..."
As soon as he said this, Li Ruoling’s complexion turned deathly pale.
After a long time, he finally stood up and performed a bow, "Thank you for the reminder, uncle. Otherwise, I might have been utterly destroyed..."
Compete with a Transcendent God for a Secret Realm? He did not have the audacity to do so.
He might lose his life without even knowing how.
"Hmm."
Fang Xi nodded, considering him to be quite sharp, "However, the entrance to the Secret Realm is hard to find, and since you discovered it, I can give you two options... Firstly, you can try to explore on your own, and whatever you retrieve before others discover it is yours."
This was actually a path to certain death, as even cultivators at the Returning to Emptiness stage have perished there.
"The second option is to hand the entrance of the Secret Realm over to me, and I can compensate you with a ’Condensation Infancy Pill’ and many other pills that enhance the Magic Power of Core Formation stage cultivators..."
Li Ruoling immediately fell into deep contemplation. After a long pause, he spoke, "I choose the second option."
"Excellent!"
Fang Xi felt that this person was still quite aware of the times, and immediately pinched a talisman, sending a black light into Li Ruoling’s body.
"This is a spiritual energy marker, and for the next period of time, I would ask my dear nephew to cultivate within the market... I will also provide a Dongfu."
With a flick of his sleeve, dozens of bottles of elixirs fell onto the table, one of which, the Sky Green Bottle, contained the ’Condensation Infancy Pill’.
"These are... Thank you, Uncle."
After checking them one by one, a hint of surprise appeared on Li Ruoling’s face, "I shall return to retreat now, and will not emerge until I reach the Nascent Soul..."
He very sensibly took out a blank jade slip, pressed it against his forehead to imprint his Divine Consciousness, and then handed it to Fang Xi, "The map for the Secret Realm entrance is here!"
"Hmm."
Fang Xi took it, giving Li Ruoling a deep look, increasingly thinking him to be promising material.
...
The Mysterious Dark Abyss.
A Monster Bird with wings spanning nearly a dozen yards swooped across the sky.
It had two heads, one resembling an eagle and the other that of a tiger.
Both the eagle head and the tiger head had dull eyes; it was in fact a Puppet.
This Puppet flew with peerless grace, and a person stood on its back, Mo Yinqiu.
The mood of this Great Sect Master of the Mo Sect was not very good.
After all, he had been trading with Qing Hezi for a hundred years, and yet the entrance to the Secret Realm was still not found!
If Qing Hezi had not killed Lord Hei Miao back then, why would things have turned out this way?
Although he had also upheld the promise to protect several Mo Sect disciples and sent out Puppets to explore the Mysterious Dark Abyss, he had still obtained nothing!
"Chirp!"
Suddenly, the dual-headed Monster Bird Puppet descended its Escape Light and landed on a vast reef.
In a corner of the reef, there was a person sitting with legs crossed. It was Fang Xi!
"Sect Master Mo..."
Fang Xi’s face revealed a slight smile.
"Sir, you have sent a message to meet with me, may I know the purpose?" Mo Yinqiu got straight to the point.
In his eyes, Qing Hezi had probably come to prompt the transmission of the puppet skill.
"To be honest... I have finally found the entrance to that Secret Realm," Fang Xi said.
"What? You found it?"
Mo Yinqiu’s eyes widened, and then a hint of joy appeared, "Where is it? Let’s rush to it immediately..."
Seeing Fang Xi’s composed demeanor, Mo Yinqiu suddenly came to a realization, and a smile squeezed out on his elderly face, "The transmission of the fifth-order puppet skill was not sorted out by me before, but coincidentally... I have just finished supplementing it recently, even adding a few Puppetry Skills."
A bright yellow jade slip emerged from Mo Yinqiu’s hand, flying forth enveloped in a circle of yellow light towards Fang Xi.
Having already signed the ’Immortal Spiritual Document’ with each other, he was not worried about Fang Xi reneging.
"Hmm, thank you Sect Master for generously sharing..."
Fang Xi grabbed the jade slip, his Divine Consciousness entering it, and he quickly saw the crucial part, "Puppet Spirit Injection... a fifth-order Array Spirit? Quite an ingenious idea... wait, this method seems like it could also be applied to Spirit Communicating Treasures... capturing some powerful monster beast’s Soul Essence to be the spirit of a fifth-order Spirit Communicating Treasure, or even directly using the Array Spirit as the spirit?"
Now considering himself a master of puppet techniques, he only scanned it briefly before confirming that the transmission Mo Yinqiu had given was not fraudulent.
"This... Sir..."
Seeing Fang Xi engrossed in the puppet technique, Mo Yinqiu couldn’t help but speak up, urging.
This was the hope of his sect for generations! To this end, the lives of many Transcendent God cultivators from the Mo Sect were staked, he could not afford to ignore it!
"I won’t be venturing into that Secret Realm," said Fang Xi, waving his hand, "After all, such a Secret Realm is definitely very dangerous, and I quite cherish my life... However, I will tell you the entrance to the Secret Realm, so... shouldn’t we sign another Immortal Spiritual Document to confirm the division of the treasures obtained within the Secret Realm?"
"Division?!"
Anger rose within Mo Yinqiu’s heart, Qing Hezi was truly shameless, wanting the benefits without facing the risk!
Fang Xi seemed to see the irritation in Mo Yinqiu’s eyes and suddenly spoke up, "Of course, I only wish for you to not conceal anything, whatever is obtained from the Secret Realm, I should have the right to know... and if there are items of urgent need, I can also make a priority selection, or purchase them through Spirit Stones and elixirs."
He had now no incentive to explore Secret Realms.
After all, by cultivating step by step, he was bound to reach at least the Returning to Emptiness level someday. Why should he take risks?
What chance event could be greater than the ’cheater’ he carried on him?
Wouldn’t it be much better to honestly survive until Returning to Emptiness, and even to Integration and the Mahayana Realm, and then make a grand appearance?
"Then the originally agreed share must be changed, I and Mo Sect must take the majority... and you can’t just choose first. If anything of great use to me is found, there’s no way I would let you have it," said Mo Yinqiu, his attitude softening somewhat.
"That’s natural..."
Fang Xi, with patience, using the commercial negotiating skills of Cultivators downloaded in the Nine States, began to meticulously discuss with Mo Yinqiu, item by item...
Both, as high-level cultivators, holding firm on matters of interest, ultimately negotiated a result acceptable to both sides.