Chapter 362 : Picking Up Scraps
To satisfy the Little Swan Goose's enormous appetite, Jiang Mo had visited quite a few secret realms over the past year, each with its own unique characteristics. Some were as vast as new worlds, others as small as just a few palace chambers. Some felt like being among the clouds, others like entering the seafloor. She had seen secret realms of all varieties and truly broadened her horizons.
However, regardless of how many secret realms Jiang Mo had experienced, this was the first time she had encountered one like this...
The newly opened "secret realm" had actively swallowed everyone inside and then scattered them throughout different locations. Fortunately, Jiang Mo had been holding the Little Swan Goose tightly, preventing them from being separated.
But before Jiang Mo could feel relieved about this, she suddenly noticed that the Little Swan Goose in her arms had bristled, and following her gaze, Jiang Mo immediately felt a chill in her heart—looking around, she saw nothing but white everywhere. This whiteness wasn't anything ordinary but countless skeletons—human, beast, and some unidentifiable monsters.
Skeletons stacked upon skeletons, bones upon bones, layer upon layer extending all the way to Jiang Mo's feet, numbering in the thousands or tens of thousands!
Jiang Mo was no stranger to extraordinary scenes, but she had never witnessed so many skeletons before. Even though bones weren't as shocking as fresh corpses, the sight of this expanse of white was enough to send chills down one's spine. Especially when she realized she was standing on a skeleton, her first reaction was to cover the Little Swan Goose's eyes, and her second was to leap up and fly.
As for landing, she dared not do so carelessly, because looking around, she couldn't see any empty ground beyond the bones.
But flying wasn't a good option either, because once airborne, she saw that apart from the white bones, there were wisps of black mist circling and wandering through the air. Initially, they drifted aimlessly, but when Jiang Mo took flight with the Little Swan Goose, her presence immediately caught their attention. They gathered and took shape, transforming into hideous ghostly faces that lunged straight toward Jiang Mo.
Jiang Mo had experienced many trials during her recent adventures and recalled the demonic elements in the underground world that would constantly transform to attack her. Though similar in appearance as black mist, she could clearly distinguish them—demonic elements were mixed with various violent energies that could amplify human emotions. These black mists were different; Jiang Mo only sensed extreme coldness from them.
In an instant, Jiang Mo identified the true nature of these black mists—they were malevolent spirits. When souls dissipated but resentment remained, such spirits were born. They were inherently evil and harbored absolute malice toward all living beings!
Malevolent spirits were difficult to form; one or two were already troublesome, so how could one face thousands or tens of thousands?
The White Tiger was a divine beast, as was the Swan Goose; they were naturally auspicious creatures, countering all things dark and evil. Normally, Jiang Mo wouldn't fear encountering malevolent spirits, but when faced with such an overwhelming number, she had no choice but to flee.
So Jiang Mo ran, so fast that even the howling malevolent spirits behind her could barely keep up.
With the wind whistling past, the surrounding scenery rapidly receded. After running for a while, Jiang Mo gradually regained her composure. While fleeing, she began to have time to observe her surroundings, and only then did she notice that aside from skeletons on the ground, there were also many scattered magical treasures. Some were intact, others broken; some had lost their spiritual nature, while others still emanated weak spiritual light...
If someone else had appeared here, they probably wouldn't have focused on the sea of white bones at all, but would have been immediately attracted to the magical artifacts on the ground—even the damaged fragments radiated a power that testified to their former greatness. Therefore, even broken pieces of magical artifacts were extremely valuable materials for cultivators, equivalent to finding spirit stones scattered everywhere.
However, Jiang Mo wasn't a cultivator by birth, so her focus differed from others. Seeing these magical artifacts strewn about, she didn't develop any sense of greed; instead, only one thought crossed her mind.
Could this be some ancient battlefield relic? Or perhaps a mass grave!
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Jiang Mo's assessment of a mass grave was actually too conservative. She continued flying to escape the malevolent spirits behind her, and everywhere she passed was covered in white bones. She almost thought she had entered a burial ground secret realm, until she gradually began to see soil beneath the bones.
The exposed soil beneath the white bones was black, as if saturated with blood, forming a stark contrast with the snow-white skeletons above.
Jiang Mo didn't know why such a thought occurred to her, but she didn't linger or waste time pondering. Instead, she pushed forward with renewed vigor. Only when her sight was completely free of skeletons and the persistently pursuing malevolent spirits had somehow been left far behind did that lingering chill in her heart finally dissipate somewhat.
The Little Swan Goose also seemed to understand the danger and had remained very quiet throughout, obediently hiding in Jiang Mo's robes. Only now, sensing her slowing pace and reduced urgency, did she cautiously poke her head out.
Her beautiful, glassy phoenix eyes looked around carefully. Confirming there was no danger, the Little Swan Goose flapped her wings and flew out.
After a year of indiscriminate eating and drinking... no, of growth, the Little Swan Goose had now developed feathers and could fly short distances. Though she couldn't fly very fast or steadily, it was enough to come out and survey the situation.
Jiang Mo was concerned for her safety and pulled her back, saying seriously, "Senior Sister, don't wander off. The situation here isn't good."
She wasn't exaggerating, because even though they had escaped the pursuing malevolent spirits, the oppressive feeling in her heart hadn't diminished much—she looked up at the sky and saw it was completely overcast, with thick clouds blocking out the light, making everything around as dim as dusk. She then looked down at the ground; though they had left that battlefield far behind, the soil beneath her feet remained a deep black, and not a blade of grass grew.
Her divine beast instincts told her this was not a good place. Whether they could find treasures was beside the point; the secret realm itself gave her a sense of discomfort and even foreboding, making her consider escape.
Unfortunately, she had entered in confusion, and how to leave remained unknown.
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This secret realm gave Jiang Mo a bad feeling, and she wasn't someone who enjoyed taking risks. Additionally, with her diminutive Senior Sister in tow, she was even less willing to face unknown dangers. From the moment they entered the secret realm, she had been looking for a way out, but this realm was particularly unusual—there were no hints after entering, and she couldn't find a way to leave in the short term.
With no other choice, Jiang Mo had to explore with her Senior Sister. Though she initially thought this secret realm wouldn't yield any rewards and hadn't planned to risk collecting anything, she unexpectedly found many valuable items—aside from the lack of vegetation, this secret realm was like a sealed mine, or rather, a mine that hadn't been fully excavated. For those with the knowledge, good things could be picked up just by walking around.
For divine beasts, there was no such thing as not recognizing valuable items.
Even if Jiang Mo didn't know the names of these minerals, no high-quality ore could escape her perception. Once she held a mineral in her hand, she could usually determine its use, making its value easy to estimate.
So Jiang Mo and the Little Swan Goose spent about ten days "picking up scraps" while searching for a way out of the secret realm.
In those ten-plus days, Jiang Mo and the Little Swan Goose hadn't seen a hint of green. Forget spiritual plants—not even weeds could grow in this strange secret realm. They had gone from initial discomfort to gradual adaptation, until one day, as they were walking, they suddenly heard the sounds of battle coming from not far away. This jolted them out of their monotonous "scrap-collecting" life—after so many days, they hadn't encountered a single person!
It's worth noting that on that day in the desert, the people waiting for the secret realm to open numbered in the hundreds, if not thousands. All of them had been swallowed by the secret realm and scattered throughout. If they were evenly distributed, just how vast must this secret realm be?!
This thought flashed through Jiang Mo's mind, but she quickly dismissed it, picked up the Little Swan Goose, and ran toward the source of the sound.
There were indeed people fighting there—a man and a woman. The man wore the attire of a small sect, while the woman's dress suggested she was an unaffiliated cultivator. They didn't seem to have a personal grudge, but they were fighting fiercely, competing for a magical artifact.
The two were of similar cultivation levels, but the female cultivator was injured and at a disadvantage. As she fought, she cursed, "You despicable wretch, ambushing to steal treasures while wearing sect robes to spread false rumors—aren't you afraid of bringing shame to your sect?"
The male cultivator's face darkened at her words, but he sneered, "As long as you die here, who will know about any of this?"
As he spoke, the male cultivator suddenly intensified his attack, forcing the female cultivator to retreat repeatedly. When she could retreat no further, she angrily counterattacked. Neither side held back, and their battle grew increasingly fierce.
Jiang Mo didn't know either of them and had little interest in their conflict, so she focused her attention on the artifact they were fighting over. Looking at it, she saw it was just a fragment, albeit one suffused with spiritual energy. She had seen hundreds, if not at least dozens, of similar items in the battlefield area earlier, and couldn't understand what made it worth fighting over... Oh, it was still worth fighting for, since both were only at the Golden Core stage.
Seeing this, Jiang Mo sighed. Before she could intervene to stop the two, the Little Swan Goose in her arms flapped her wings. A beam of white spiritual light shot forth, and when Jiang Mo's gaze followed it, she saw that the previously fiercely fighting pair had been frozen into ice sculptures.
She looked down to see the Little Swan Goose standing tall and proud, with an expression that clearly said "praise me."
Jiang Mo couldn't help but laugh, planting a kiss on the Little Swan Goose's head before saying, "Senior Sister, you're amazing. But Senior Sister, I wanted to ask them for information. Now that you've frozen them, how can I ask them anything?"
The Little Swan Goose tilted her head, accustomed to the little tiger's "forwardness," then raised her small wings and flapped them again. The ice encasing the two began to melt.
Starting from the top, the melting stopped at their necks, just enough to allow them to speak. The two who had been frozen, having not been encased for long, remained conscious and looked at the person and bird with trembling, terrified eyes.
The female cultivator spoke first: "Respected Senior, this junior happened to obtain a magical treasure and is willing to offer it to Senior, only asking that Senior show mercy and spare this junior's life."