Chapter 180 : New Mission
After hearing Ruan Le's account, Yun Qingyue fell into deep concern.
Beyond worrying about the large number of demonic cultivators entering the ice plain, she was more concerned about the situation outside the secret realm. When the Canglán Secret Realm opened, the three sects had known demonic cultivators would try to slip in and had made preparations at the entrance on Mingzong Mountain. That some demonic cultivators had entered during the chaos wasn't surprising, but the appearance of so many raised questions about whether something else had happened that day.
Privately, Yun Qingyue asked the White Tiger: "Jianbing, you entered the secret realm after us. What exactly happened on Mingzong Mountain that day? Did something happen to Master and the others? Otherwise, how could so many demonic cultivators enter the secret realm?!"
The White Tiger looked equally perplexed, as she honestly knew nothing. That day, she had been trapped in the Master's Sleeve-Holding-Heaven technique, constantly looking for a chance to escape from her sleeve. When she finally found an opportunity, she ran straight away—how could she have paid attention to the situation outside? At most, she remembered the scene being quite chaotic, with seemingly many demonic cultivators appearing, but she had no idea how they had infiltrated the secret realm.
However, seeing Senior Sister's concern, she still offered words of comfort: "The Peak Master's cultivation is so high, she should be fine. When I snuck into the secret realm during the chaos, she was displaying her divine power dealing with those demonic cultivators. Otherwise, I wouldn't have found a chance to approach the entrance."
Hearing this reassurance, Yun Qingyue wasn't comforted but grew even more worried—if Master was guarding the entrance yet so many demonic cultivators still entered, it could only mean that something had happened to Master later. Had she been injured, or had someone detained her?
Despite her worries, Yun Qingyue understood that dwelling on these thoughts was futile. She couldn't get answers, nor could she do anything for her master outside the secret realm, which wouldn't reopen for at least eight more months. The urgent matter now was dealing with those demonic cultivators. Waiting passively wasn't an option; they needed to find a way to actively counterattack!
Compared to the immediate danger they faced, finding the Snow Realm Dragon Flame Flowers naturally became less important.
After discussing with the White Tiger, Yun Qingyue directly released a signal to gather everyone. The group, scattered around the mountain base searching for flowers, quickly responded to the signal, assuming Yun Qingyue had found the Snow Realm Dragon Flame Flowers first. Instead, they arrived to find Ruan Le and You Yi.
Everyone exchanged puzzled glances, and Su Hao stepped forward first to ask: "Junior Sister Ruan, you and Junior Brother You are..."
Ruan Le explained again to everyone with a bitter expression. Yun Qingyue didn't interrupt but pulled Bai Xu aside: "Senior Brother Bai, Senior Brother You has been poisoned. Please check if you can neutralize it."
Bai Xu naturally didn't refuse and immediately bent down to examine You Yi's condition. After his examination, he put a medicinal pill into You Yi's mouth, but his expression was grim, suggesting You Yi's condition wasn't good. After briefly explaining to Yun Qingyue, he took out his pill cauldron and spirit herbs, immediately beginning to refine antidote pills on the spot.
Seeing this, Ruan Le genuinely sighed in relief. Having already detailed everything to Yun Qingyue earlier, she now simply recounted the events concisely. Even so, her account left everyone deeply alarmed.
Tan Xin joined his palms and uttered a Buddhist invocation, remarking: "Senior Brother You and Junior Sister Ruan truly have extraordinary fortune, always managing to turn danger into safety."
Hearing this, Ruan Le didn't know whether to laugh or cry. While she and her Senior Brother did encounter unfortunate events, their ability to escape from peril was also real. Unlike her two other Senior Brothers, who lost their lives the first time they encountered demonic cultivators and were even turned into puppets...
She couldn't think about it anymore; continuing would disturb her mental state.
Ruan Le composed herself and asked: "Those demonic cultivators have relentlessly pursued my Senior Brother and me, and likely won't easily leave the ice plain. This place is so unique that they'll find their way here sooner or later. May I ask what plans the Senior Brothers and Sisters have?"
For a moment, no one had any suggestions, primarily because they had entered the ice plain simply to help Jianbing find ten Snow Realm Dragon Flame Flowers. When they had separated earlier, the atmosphere had been relatively relaxed, but now it had suddenly become so heavy that everyone was still adjusting. However, this adjustment didn't take long. Su Hao and Tanming were the first to compose themselves and asked: "Junior Sister Ruan, do you know how many demonic cultivators are pursuing you?"
Ruan Le thought carefully before answering: "That day, there were about a dozen surrounding me and my Senior Brother, and later there seemed to be even more pursuing us. But after entering the ice plain, we tried to avoid those demonic cultivators as much as possible, so I'm not sure exactly how many there are."
After hearing Ruan Le's words, everyone's mood grew considerably heavier—like Yun Qingyue, they began to worry about the situation outside the secret realm.
When Yun Qingyue and Tan Xin had first met, they had killed a batch of demonic cultivators in the rainforest, then another batch at Foguang Temple. Then came You Yi and Ruan Le's first pursuit by demonic cultivators—about a dozen that time, whom Yun Qingyue had slain or driven away. This time, it wasn't clear if the group pursuing Ruan Le included people from before, but adding everything up, they had encountered at least forty or fifty demonic cultivators, not counting masters like the Demonic Monk.
When the Canglán Secret Realm opened, not counting scattered cultivators and disciples from small sects, the three major sects had agreed to send only thirty-five disciples into the secret realm. Of these thirty-five, more than half were at the Golden Core stage, with only about a dozen at the Nascent Soul level.
In comparison, the righteous disciples were far outnumbered by demonic cultivators, and even if the sects wanted to provide experience, they wouldn't allow such an imbalance.
Given the current situation, something must have happened at Mingzong Mountain!
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Those inside the secret realm couldn't know or control what was happening outside. But faced with demonic cultivators who outnumbered them several times over, these young prodigies naturally wouldn't sit and wait for death. After a short while, they reached a consensus to take the initiative and strike first.
You Yi's condition wasn't good, mainly because the poison had been left untreated too long and had entered his meridians and internal organs. Removing it wouldn't be a quick process. Ruan Le wasn't much better off—her injuries were serious, and she had exhausted herself. Additionally, with only Golden Core cultivation among a group of Nascent Soul cultivators, she couldn't offer much help. In the end, the brother and sister pair were excluded from the operation, left behind to recover.
With the two injured outsiders removed, those who could participate in the counterattack against the demonic cultivators remained the seven people and one tiger.
The White Tiger had long since returned to her original size, though this time she wasn't nestled in Senior Sister's embrace but sat seriously in a circle with everyone, listening to Su Hao and Tanming discuss the upcoming arrangements.
Across the vast ice plain, the current whereabouts of those demonic cultivators remained unknown, as did their numbers and fighting strength.
According to Su Hao and Tanming's thinking, safety should still be the priority, so the best approach was to stay together to prevent the demonic cultivators from defeating them one by one. However, if everyone stayed together, their search range would be limited, and whether they encountered demonic cultivators on the ice plain would depend on luck, seemingly defeating the purpose of taking the initiative. They might as well stay at the ice plain volcano and wait.
After discussion, they finally decided to work in groups. The seven people and one tiger would split into two teams, maintain communication, and not stray too far from each other to ensure timely support if needed.
There was nothing wrong with this arrangement, but to the little white tiger, it seemed too conservative—the ice plain was so vast, and they couldn't fly. Relying on these few people to find demonic cultivators on the ice plain was like looking for a needle in the sea. Yet this needle had to be found, first to prevent future problems, and second—though no one mentioned it—to capture some demonic cultivators and question them about the outside situation.
The little white tiger was also somewhat worried about Peak Master Qingyu. Although she was always cold and had confined her in the Sleeve-Holding-Heaven technique, preventing her from following Senior Sister, she was still Senior Sister's master and hadn't treated her badly.
So while everyone was discussing plans, the little white tiger secretly asked the system: "System, can you find out what's happening outside the secret realm?"
Unfortunately, the system wasn't omnipotent and gave a negative answer: "I cannot. The system has always been with the host. What the host doesn't know, the system naturally doesn't know either." It added: "The secret realm is like a small space attached to the cultivation world. Though the spatial barrier between them isn't as thick as that between major worlds, it's still not easy to break through."
In short, it couldn't investigate across spatial boundaries.
The little white tiger wasn't surprised by this and didn't press further. She then asked: "Fine, let's not talk about what's outside the secret realm. Now that demonic cultivators are spread across the ice plain, do you have a way to detect their positions? I remember you mentioned before that you could perform a comprehensive scan!"
The system's denial was blocked, but the ice plain was so vast that a comprehensive scan would consume not just painful but flesh-cutting amounts of energy—the host was so lazy and not at all proactive about earning points. The only consolation was that her cultivation progress was decent, providing the system with a fair amount of energy. Now, was she about to strip away even the energy it had painstakingly accumulated?
No, it refused to go back to square one!
The system quickly thought of a solution, frantically searching through its unpublished stored tasks, but finding nothing suitable. Finally, it temporarily drafted a new one and sent it back to the main system space for approval.
Fortunately, the main system processed work very efficiently and, before the host grew impatient, approved the new task it had applied for—
"Ding! Congratulations, host, you have triggered a new task: Kill Demonic Cultivators..."