Chapter 98: The Collapse of the Secret Realm

She had not gone far when a thunderous rumble rose behind her, and the ground beneath her feet began to tremble.

Fortunately, Yun Qing had been cultivating the Heaven-and-Earth Fortune Art for some time and could steady herself on the shaking ground without falling.

“Liu Liu, what happened back there? That noise, that movement—it sounds exactly like the earth splitting and mountains collapsing.”

“Your instinct is right. It is exactly that.”

Just after Liu Liu answered, red words appeared in the air:

Warning: the aerial formation in the secret realm has failed. Leave immediately.

A crack opened beneath her feet. Yun Qing hurriedly rolled left, veering several yards away, then sprang back up at once and kept running toward the front-left.

Along the path where she had been running, a fissure tore straight through the skybound ground. It widened and widened, and half the land lost its support and plunged downward, burying the entire herb field below.

Yun Qing ran faster. She did not know where the safe place was, and even the system could not give her a hint; it only warned her that danger was close and she had to leave at once.

A stone flew at her from behind. Yun Qing, her nerves stretched taut and her instincts sharpened by danger, used her jump skill to leap several yards into the air and narrowly avoid the huge boulder that would have smashed her into a pulp. In the brief fall that followed, she used her roll skill to bleed off the force of the descent, not daring to waste even a second, and continued running toward the direction where the cliff wall lay.

The cliff wall might not be safe, but it still offered a better chance of survival than falling into the abyss and being buried under shattered rock.

Fortunately, the red-iron spirit insects along the way had already been cleared by Qin Feng. After passing several dangers, all of which Yun Qing managed to evade one by one, the cliff wall was just ahead.

Using her jump skill, she leaped toward the cliff. If everything in the air kept collapsing, then once she was on the wall, perhaps she could stand on solid ground again and search for the exit.

After repeated jumps, the system’s warning still had not disappeared, which meant she had not yet found a safe place.

She sprang high once more, but when she landed on the upper ledge, she suddenly felt emptiness beneath her feet, and her whole body was dragged uncontrollably into the darkness.

“It’s over!”

The curse never left her lips before she felt herself hit the ground. The moment she landed, she began sliding downward, unable to stop.

This sensation was far too familiar. It was just like the descending slope she had encountered when first entering the secret realm.

Then she looked at the system mini-map. It was not a blank stretch of darkness, but a passage she had once explored.

This truly was the passage she had entered through. And this passage had dangers.

With a flicker of thought, Yun Qing produced a torch and lit it.

Her body was still sliding downward. Now and then she caught sight of puddles of poisonous water, but no red-iron spirit insects appeared.

The red warning text in the air changed as well:

Slide along the slope into the secret realm.

Her speed gradually slowed, and the incline became gentler and gentler until, at last, the descending passage came to an end.

Unlike the empty space she had seen the first time she came here, there was now a person seated in the center, dressed in a robe of bright red.

Above his head floated white text: name unknown, level sixty.

A level-sixty cultivator!

Being able to see his level was, of course, thanks to the hint scroll.

Even his face was red. At first glance, Yun Qing found his features strangely familiar.

Wasn’t this one of the cultivators from the Azure Peak Sect whom she had met several times before?

Looking more carefully, she realized that he was not wearing a red robe at all. He was drenched in blood.

Ahead, the downward passage’s gate stood open.

Yun Qing remembered that when she had broken the formation and entered according to the system’s instructions, the gate had automatically closed behind her.

But why was this level-sixty cultivator sitting here, soaked in blood, and not entering the secret realm even though the gate was open?

Text above his head meant he was still alive, and white text meant he was not her enemy.

With an immortal of the Azure Peak Sect here, there was now a little more hope of leaving the secret realm.

Yun Qing cupped her fists and bowed. “Greetings, Immortal Master!”

The other man gave no response. Since he was not her enemy, she could not see his health bar, and perhaps he was left with only a sliver of life.

“Liu Liu, could he be losing too much blood and about to die?”

“Then do you want to take advantage of the opportunity and reap a windfall?”

Reap a windfall? That would mean killing him, gaining experience, and then taking whatever he dropped—perhaps a flying sword, a storage pouch, and even the robes on his body looked valuable.

But at level sixty, he surely had more than a single point of health. If she failed to kill him, she might be the one to die.

Besides, she was not some blood-crazed murderer. She could not bring herself to kill an innocent man for treasure.

Yun Qing shook her head, making her stance clear.

The cultivator from the Azure Peak Sect seemed gravely injured. She could not heal him and had no medicine, so she asked perfunctorily, “Immortal Master, is there anything I can do for you?”

Seeing no reaction from him, she knew it would not be easy to rely on him to leave this place. She would have to depend on herself.

She communicated in her mind, “Liu Liu, is there any formation left here? Or do I have to go back through that gate to find the exit?”

The system did not calculate. Liu Liu answered directly, “There are no formations. As for the exit, it has not been found.”

The slope below the passage was relatively gentle and could be walked upright. Yun Qing asked, “Can I use this slide to climb back up to the Han Family mine?”

After a round of calculations, Liu Liu said, “Most of the formations here have already failed. It is not impossible that the formation on this slide has also failed. If you climb up, you may be able to get out.”

Yun Qing glanced at the Azure Peak cultivator seated on the ground, drenched in blood. He might have been healing. Even if she waited for him to finish, he might not be kind enough to take her out by flying sword. She would still have to climb on her own.

Turning around, she headed toward the slope and prepared to climb upward.

Then, at that very moment, a thunderous roar came from below, like a river surging forward, growing louder and closer, and rising from deep within the gate.

“Liu Liu, is the secret realm flooding?”

“Your distance is too great. I cannot check the situation clearly.”

Yun Qing looked at the Azure Peak cultivator, who remained motionless on the ground, and then at the gate, which gaped like the maw of some colossal beast. She stamped her foot and ran toward the gate.

When she reached it, she saw black soil surging in from the deepest end below like a wave of water. At that speed, it would not be long before it flooded up the steps and buried the whole place.

She had to climb the slope as fast as possible, or her life would be forfeit.

Red words flashed in the air:

Warning: Leave the secret realm immediately.

Without the system’s reminder, Yun Qing already knew how dangerous this place was. She turned and ran toward the slope.

But when she saw that even the deafening roar could not wake the Azure Peak cultivator from his meditation, she anxiously shouted, “Immortal Master, danger is coming. Hurry and go!”

No matter how loudly Yun Qing called, the Azure Peak cultivator gave no response at all.

Yun Qing recalled how she had once carried Ye Mingyu to Doctor Ye’s clinic. Back then she had not even reached the level of an ordinary trained martial artist, and now her strength was several times greater.

Since she could carry a five-hundred-catty wild boar, she should certainly be able to carry a cultivator only a few years older than Ye Mingyu.

She could not just stand by and watch this man be buried alive. She only hoped that when she checked her hatred list later, his name would not be there.

Time waited for no one. As she neared the cultivator, Yun Qing said loudly, “Immortal Master, pardon me.”