Immortality Cultivation

Fang Hao stepped out from that light gate, the dazzling sunlight making him squint.

He subconsciously took a deep breath; the air carried the scent of soil and vegetation, no longer possessing that feeling of dead silence or ethereal nothingness from inside the heaven-reaching pagoda.

Feet firmly on the ground, he had made it out alive!

He hurriedly looked around. Good heavens, the large plaza outside the heaven-reaching pagoda was empty; there wasn’t even a ghost in sight!

The previously bustling crowd—the Mu Family princes and royals, the Heavenly Sword Sect Geniuses, and the various Loose Cultivators—were all gone!

Only he remained, standing lonely at the base of the tower like a fool.

"What’s going on? Where are the people? Did they all die in the tower? That can’t be, right?"

Fang Hao muttered to himself, hurriedly taking out his Guest Elder token to check the time.

At this glance, his eyes nearly popped out!

"Damn! Almost three months have passed?!"

The token indicated that from the day he entered the tower until today, there was only one day left before the Tianyan Secret Realm closed!

He hurriedly checked his own state.

His cultivation was firmly at the Middle Golden Core Stage, his Sword Intent was more refined, his Hundred Refinements Golden Body Art was at the Major Achievement of the first level, his Physical Body was strong enough to withstand a Magic Treasure, and he had obtained the middle and lower volumes of the Chaos Derivation Art. His future was bright; the gains were quite significant.

"Forget it, forget it. A person shouldn’t be too greedy," he muttered to himself.

"The Opportunity of the heaven-reaching pagoda is probably worth more than all those scraps outside combined. Besides, it’s the last day; maybe I can still scavenge some leftovers?"

Thinking this, his heart became active again.

It was the last day; everyone was probably rushing to the Secret Realm exit, preparing to evacuate.

At this time, weren’t the scraps they looked down upon, or the dangerous places they hadn’t had time to explore, his own opportunities?

"Yes! While they are all running out, I will do the opposite and venture deeper once more!"

Fang Hao made up his mind, his eyes gleaming.

He identified the direction; the Secret Realm exit was in the southeast, so he would head northwest, drilling into places rarely visited by people!

He acted immediately!

He unleashed the Divine Spirit Steps, his figure turning into a wisp of blue smoke, speeding away in the direction opposite to the exit.

Along the way, he indeed didn’t encounter any people. Occasionally, he saw a few rays of escape light, but they were all flying towards the exit in a panic, and no one paid any attention to him.

He specifically chose to drill into places with complex terrain, abnormal Spiritual Qi fluctuations, or rumors of danger.

He activated the Clear Spring Spirit Eyes to the maximum, scanning the ground and mountain walls like a searchlight.

In a remote valley crevice, he found a few unwanted "Dragon Whisker Grass" plants, but they were five or six hundred years old—good items for refining Body Refining Medicinal Pills.

Deep inside an abandoned Demon Beast nest that had clearly just been ransacked, he dug out a few pieces of high-quality "Blood Essence Ore."

Passing a dried-up riverbed, he even dug out a section of "Sinking Water Wood" buried for who knows how many years from the silt; it was a Material for refining water-attribute Magical Artifacts.

The items weren’t top-tier, but even mosquito legs were meat!

Fang Hao happily collected them all into his storage ring, in a great mood.

As he flew, a mist-filled swamp appeared ahead. The map marked it as "Mist Swamp," famous for its poisonous miasma and illusion formations. It was said that people who entered easily lost their way and it was extremely dangerous, so usually, no one wanted to come.

"Mist Swamp? It’s the last day; surely no one would come to this ghost of a place, right?"

Fang Hao stopped at the edge of the swamp, looking at the rolling, multicolored poisonous miasma inside, feeling a bit hesitant.

If he went in, the risk was too great. If he got trapped and missed the exit opening time, he would have to stay in this Secret Realm for another ten years—that would be a huge joke.

If he didn’t go in, he felt itching in his heart. The more dangerous the place, the more likely there were good things that hadn’t been discovered by others.

"Damn it, the bold are stuffed to death, the cowardly starve to death! It’s just one day, let’s gamble!"

Fang Hao steeled his heart, swallowed an antidote pill, circulated the Chaos Derivation Art to protect his body, activated the Clear Spring Spirit Eyes to full power, and cautiously stepped into the swamp.

The visibility in the swamp was extremely low, the poisonous miasma was pungent, the ground underfoot was soft silt, and from time to time, poisonous insects would dart out to ambush him.

Fang Hao summoned all his focus and slowly felt his way in. After walking for about half an hour, apart from a few common poisonous plants, he hadn’t found a damn thing.

"It seems this place is truly poor..." He felt a bit discouraged and prepared to turn back the way he came.

Just then, the Clear Spring Spirit Eyes suddenly captured a faint glimmer of spiritual light flashing and disappearing beneath an especially dense patch of poisonous miasma to his front left!

"There’s something!" Fang Hao’s spirits lifted, and he quickly moved over.

Pushing aside the dense, thorny bushes, he discovered a cave entrance half-buried by silt! The entrance was only as thick as a water bucket, and it was pitch black inside; that faint spiritual light was emanating from within.

"Demon Beast nest? Or an ancient cultivator’s Immortal Cave?"

Fang Hao probed inside with his Divine Sense; there were remnants of a Restriction at the entrance, very weak and ancient, nearly ineffective. It didn’t seem deep inside.

He hesitated for a moment, took out the phantom shadow sword, cut through the cave entrance Restriction, and squeezed inside sideways.

The cave wasn’t deep, only a few zhang, and at the end was a small stone chamber. The stone chamber was filled with silt and emitted a musty smell. In the center of the stone chamber was a stone platform, and on the platform sat a jade box covered in filth. That spiritual light was leaking from the cracks of the jade box.

Fang Hao felt joy in his heart and stepped forward to carefully open the jade box. Inside the box, there were no legendary Secret Manuals or earth-shattering Magic Treasures as he had imagined, only three gray stones the size of pigeon eggs, dull in color and cracked on the surface, along with a broken black token of an unrecognizable material.

"What... is this?"

Fang Hao picked up a gray stone; it felt ice-cold to the touch. Probing it with his Divine Sense, he felt an extremely pure but dormant energy contained within, seemingly... some kind of high-grade Spirit Stone? But it didn’t look like one.

The black token was even stranger; it was neither metal nor wood, carved with incomprehensible runes, and his Divine Sense could not penetrate it.

After studying it for a long time, he couldn’t figure anything out. Fang Hao was a bit disappointed, but adhering to the principle of "a thief never leaves empty-handed," he still collected the jade box along with the stones and the token inside.

"Forget it, I’ll study it when I get out; maybe it’s some kind of treasure."

He exited the cave, not daring to stay too long, and quickly retraced his steps out of the Mist Swamp. Calculating the time, there was less than half a day left before the Secret Realm closed.

"Time to go." Fang Hao looked toward the direction of the Secret Realm exit, turned into a ray of escape light, and sped away.

This trip to the Secret Realm, although the process was tortuous, had gains far exceeding his imagination! It was time to go out, properly digest everything, and prepare for his upcoming cultivation!

At the Secret Realm exit, many people must have gathered by now, right? He wondered how Mu Fenghua, Soaring Wind, and those people had fared? Had anyone... fallen in the tower? Fang Hao thought to himself, and his speed increased by a few points.