Chapter 6: The Desperate Secret Realm (Part 1)

Qi Wu Zhen sat cross-legged to the side, her eyes closed, as if she hadn’t seen Ji Yun Tian and the others enter. Guo Shier said, “Please sit. Is there something you need?”
Ji Yun Tian didn’t sit. Standing, he asked, “Are you satisfied with the first two batches of materials?”
Guo Shier nodded. “Very good. No problems.” He was indeed satisfied—some of those materials would have taken him a long time to find if he had to collect them himself.
Ji Yun Tian said, “The third batch of materials has been sent from another continent and should arrive in about three days.” He glanced secretly at Qi Wu Zhen and found that she seemed to be asleep, not even lifting her eyelids. Disappointed, he shook his head, realizing that Qi Wu Zhen had the right to ignore him.
Guo Shier nodded. “Okay. Have the materials delivered here in three days. By the way, how much is left?”
Ji Yun Tian frowned. “It will take five or six deliveries in total. Many materials need to be fetched from distant continents. So far, you’ve received about one-third.”
Guo Shier knew how enormous the list of materials was. He didn’t rush them, knowing they were even more anxious than he was. They were eager to provide the materials so they could get rid of those annoying plague gods.
Ji Yun Tian said, “Today… that little guy from our family… Well, on behalf of our family, I apologize to you, senior. The little guy doesn’t know anything. I hope you won’t blame him.”
Guo Shier asked, “Which little guy? What happened to him?”
Eagle Demon briefly explained the conflict. Ji Yun Tian turned red with embarrassment, while Guo Shier laughed heartily. He said, “That kid is interesting. Never mind. Don’t worry. If they really cared, you wouldn’t have had a chance to apologize at all.”
Only then did Ji Yun Tian relax. He said goodbye, “Please rest. We’ll be leaving now.”
Guo Shier replied, “As you wish.” Both sides were polite, appearing very harmonious.
Ji Yun Tian turned and left. The several altar-level experts behind him followed silently without saying a word. Guo Shier mused, “I still feel like he hasn’t said everything.”
Eagle Demon said, “As long as the materials are delivered, they don’t care about anything else. I guess they’d rather… we leave as soon as possible.”
Guo Shier said, “Uncle Eagle Demon, the materials you need… Hehe, luckily, we collected a lot on the Red Gold Continent last time. Some of it can be used for you. Together with what the Gu Ji family sent, it’s enough for you to build an altar.”

Eagle Demon said, “Since they’re all gold-themed altars, these materials should be enough for me to build two layers of altars. Hehe, I even have materials for the next level-up. I don’t need to worry about materials for now.” Back in the Red Gold Mountain Range, Guo Shieru had raided the Ancient Gold Family’s material warehouse and obtained a large amount of rare materials, which were not only sufficient for Eagle Demon but also covered Guo Shieru’s own needs for gold-related materials. Guo Shieru required an enormous quantity of materials of various types. He built altars based on five attributes, which was the most difficult method. His advantage was having the Ancient Ink Lotus, which could compensate for any shortcomings; without it, even if the altar was built successfully, it would be hard to achieve the effects of a heavenly altar. With the help of the old man Shuai, Guo Shieru hardly had to do anything himself—Shuai directly modified the altar in his soul, saving him a lot of trouble. Three days later, the third batch of materials arrived. After some time, the fourth batch was delivered as well. At Fort Huanfeng, Guo Shieru and his companions lived comfortably. The Guji Family provided the best hospitality, with all kinds of supplies being the finest and most expensive. Guo Shieru couldn’t help but marvel that even the Gu family was as weak as soft tofu under absolute military pressure. After preparing the materials, Eagle Demon began his formal retreat for level-up. Nan You also started consuming soul pearls and, like Luo Zhan, enjoyed the purification from soul fluctuations by Guo Shieru’s side every night. Qi Wu Zhen, of course, wouldn’t miss such an opportunity—she snuggled into Guo Shieru’s arms every night, believing that was the best spot. Guo Shieru had grown numb to this, but fortunately, Qi Wu Zhen was a beautiful woman, which minimized his disgust. After all, having a beautiful woman in his arms was better than having an old man. The fifth batch of materials arrived quickly, but the sixth and final batch was delayed. Ji Yuntian even came to explain the situation. Since most of these materials were needed by Qi Wu Zhen—and were either of high quality or extremely rare, making them hard to obtain for the Guji Family—they would take some time to find. Qi Wu Zhen understood how difficult these materials were to find, so she didn’t pressure the Guji Family, only urging them to hurry. Months passed unnoticed at Fort Huanfeng, until the so-called Icebound Season arrived—the coldest time on the Icebound Continent. Everyone there entered a state of shelter, with no one daring to leave the city. Even within Fort Huanfeng, people rarely went outside, as the outside temperature was extremely cold, unbearable even for professionals.

The defensive talisman array of Fort Fury has been fully repaired and activates at night, blocking part of the extreme cold winds to prevent those living inside the city from getting frostbitten. It is said that even advanced professionals must hide in the basements of their rooms during the coldest days.

During the Icebound Season, the cold isn’t the greatest danger—the real threat is the White Hair Wind in the wild. Once it blows, local cold-based creatures are frozen into ice sculptures.

Guo Shier likes to eat hot pot in cold weather the most, so these days he’s been working on that huge hot pot, as big as a bathtub. He attaches fire talismans to it and boils a large pot of bone broth.

The bone broth requires careful selection—using bones from dragon-type mutated talisman beasts along with some fresh animal bones, all chopped up and boiled together. After boiling for most of the day, the bones are removed, and various delicious mushrooms and dried bamboo shoots are added. The fresh meat from the mutated talisman beasts is cut into extremely thin slices, each as big as a magazine page from his past life. Along with vegetables and seasonings, it not only pleases Guo Shier but also makes Qi Wu Zhen and the others quite addicted.

That day, as they were enjoying the hot pot, Ji Yuntian arrived with several altar-level experts, looking worried. Luo Zhan asked curiously, “Old Ji, what’s the matter?”

Ji Yuntian replied, “We originally planned to deliver the last batch of materials… but something went wrong.”

Qi Wu Zhen raised his head and asked, “What went wrong?”

Ji Yuntian said, “They were stolen…”

Guo Shier and the others were stunned. Qi Wu Zhen asked coldly, “Who stole them?”

Ji Yuntian said with a wry smile, “Wang Ke, a famous lone wolf.”

Guo Shier asked, “What’s his strength?”

Ji Yuntian replied, “Not very strong—just an expert at the fourth-level altar. But he’s skilled at escaping and hiding. Here are his information and talisman shadow.” He handed Guo Shier a jade talisman.

After examining it, Guo Shier asked, “Where has he fled to now?”

Ji Yuntian said, “He’s trapped in a secret realm. We’ve activated the talisman lock, so he can’t use talisman gates there. The entrances and exits are blocked by our people.”

Guo Shier asked, “What are you trying to say?”

Ji Yuntian said, “We’re hoping the seniors can step in. Although we’ve blocked the secret realm and sealed off his escape routes, we can’t find him.”

Qi Wu Zhen pondered for a moment before saying, “Fine. Staying here all the time is boring. Let’s go and take some action.”

Eagle Demon had already successfully built his own first-level solid altar, a pure gold altar, which he was strengthening these days. Hearing this, he said, “Let’s go together. Once we get the materials, we won’t be coming back.”

Qi Wu Zhen looked at Guo Shier and said, “You’re the captain; it’s your call.”
Ji Yun Tian felt dizzy upon hearing this. Guo Shier didn’t hesitate either; he was used to being the captain. He said, “Okay, let’s leave this place and never return. It’s too cold here—I really hate it. Even hot pot has become boring.” He wasn’t afraid of the cold anymore, but he still disliked it. It was better to leave and go to a warmer place than to stay here andboringlyly eat hot pot.
Eagle Demon smiled and said, “There’s nothing wrong with eating hot pot. It’s just too stuffy here. All we do is practice cultivation. It’s good to leave early.” He was proud of himself for having built a Gold Element altar in such a short time. This altar was different from others—it was entirely made of Gold Element materials, so much so that even his body occasionally emitted golden runes.
The strongest aspect of an all-Gold Element altar was its attack power—pure Gold Element attacks. Its weakness was that it could be countered by Lightning Element, unless his altar was of a higher level than that of Lightning Element.
Guo Shier said, “Ji Yun Tian, give me the coordinates of the nearby continents and secret realms.”
Ji Yun Tian didn’t dare refuse. He handed Guo Shier a jade talisman and said, “It contains the coordinates of dozens of continents and secret realms.” He gave him the coordinates of ordinary continents and secret realms, omitting most of those where the Gu Ji family was located, only providing a few essential ones.
Guo Shier didn’t mind, as he wasn’t sure where the way ahead lay anyway. As long as he had coordinates, he could search slowly. All the previous coordinates were useless—there were only three: an Icebound Continent, a Thousand Lakes Continent, and a Snow Valley Secret Realm. The dozens of coordinates he got now would suffice for them to travel for a while.
Ji Yun Tian deliberately gave Guo Shier the coordinates of the continent where Wang Ke was in the secret realm, so that they could use a Cross-Realm Talisman to reach that continent and then enter the secret realm to chase Wang Ke.
Guo Shier thought carefully for a moment. He couldn’t sense any conspiracy. With Qi Wu Zhen’s strength, no method used by the Gu Ji family would work—she was too powerful, and the Gu Ji family had no way to counter her. This was the advantage of having overwhelming strength; others wouldn’t dare play tricks, as there was no hope of success.
After inputting the coordinates into the Cross-Realm Talisman, Guo Shier didn’t delay. He immediately opened the talisman gate and asked, “Will you take us there?”

Ji Yuntian said, “Yes, I’ll go with you.” He had to accompany them; who knew if there might be some reckless members in the family who offended others without caring, but if they offended Qi Wuzhen, that would be disastrous.
Guo Shier said, “Let’s go.” He stepped through the talisman gate.
The others followed. Qi Wuzhen’s figure flashed slightly—she didn’t go through the talisman gate either. Using some unknown method, she appeared right beside Guo Shier, making Ji Yuntian’s eyelids twitch.
Ji Yuntian said, “It’s right ahead.” The entrance to this secret realm wasn’t large—round in shape with a diameter of less than ten meters—but it was guarded by more than a dozen professionals, including several altar-level professionals.
Guo Shier asked, “What kind of secret realm is this?”