“Are you all right?” Luo Qingchen asked as she hurried to support her.
Just then, a white shadow darted out from behind a pile of rubble.
It moved so fast it looked like a flash of white light.
It was that Samoyed!
Ignoring Ling Xiyue entirely, it charged straight for Luo Qingchen.
Caught off guard while supporting Ling Xiyue, Luo Qingchen couldn’t react in time.
The Samoyed bit down on the hem of her robe.
“Where did this damn dog come from!”
Luo Qingchen raised her leg to kick it.
Before her foot could even touch the dog’s belly, the surrounding air began to distort violently.
An incredibly complex array of formation patterns surfaced on the bare black stone wall.
The patterns glowed with a blinding white light.
A massive surge of spatial energy instantly enveloped the two women and the dog.
*Whir!*
The white light flashed.
The spot became empty.
Luo Qingchen, Ling Xiyue, and even the Samoyed had vanished into thin air.
In mid-air, the residual power of the Black-robed Elder’s shockwave continued unabated, slamming into the cliffs on both sides.
The ground shook as massive boulders plummeted from the canyon walls.
The old man manifested a black spiritual shield, deflecting the falling rocks.
He landed on the ground and strode toward the black stone wall.
The stone wall had returned to its bare state, with no trace of the formation remaining.
Closing his eyes, his immense divine sense surged from his body, plowing through every inch of the ten-mile radius.
Nothing.
He had even lost contact with the spirit beast used for tracking.
“They vanished into thin air?”
The old man’s eyes snapped open, his face turning livid.
He glared at the stone wall, raised his fist, and smashed it.
*Bang!*
The stone wall was crushed into a large crater, sending fragments flying.
“Find them!” the old man roared at the subordinates behind him.
“Even if you have to flip this entire mountain range over, find that remnant! We cannot afford to lose that jade slip!”
—
As the white light faded, Luo Qingchen felt as if she had been stuffed into a washing machine for over one hour.
She felt incredibly nauseous.
She lay on the ground, rubbing the back of her head, taking a long time to recover.
What met her eyes was an unfamiliar forest.
Ancient trees reached for the sky, and vines interlaced everywhere.
The sky above had a faint green hue, looking completely different from the normal blue sky and white clouds outside.
The air was filled with an incredibly dense spiritual energy; with every breath, the spiritual energy in her Dantian felt more active.
Luo Qingchen climbed to her feet, brushed the dirt off her clothes, and looked around.
Ling Xiyue stood three steps away, her Green Scale Sword held across her chest.
Traces of blood from withstanding the previous palm strike still stained the corner of her mouth.
“Where are we?” Luo Qingchen asked, looking around in confusion.
Ling Xiyue closed her eyes, sent her divine sense out for a sweep, and then retracted it.
“It should be a Secret Realm.”
“An untapped Secret Realm.”
Luo Qingchen scratched her head.
“A Secret Realm?”
Ling Xiyue wiped the blood from her mouth with her sleeve, her tone indifferent.
“There are many ancient powerhouses on the Xuanzhou Continent who created independent spaces to store their lifelong treasures or serve as their burial grounds.”
She paused.
“Nowadays, most Secret Realms have already been explored by the sects that discovered them. Some sects even sell tickets, allowing rogue cultivators to try their luck.”
“Tickets?” Luo Qingchen’s eyes lit up.
“Does that mean people have found great treasures before?”
“There are rumors, but it is hard to say if they are true.”
Ling Xiyue scanned their surroundings, her brow furrowing.
“But an untapped wild Secret Realm like this has the highest danger level.”
“How dangerous?”
“A Secret Realm is a world of its own. The spirit beasts raised by the original owner may have evolved into terrifying heights after thousands of years of breeding. Not to mention the various restrictions, formations, and traps set by the owner before their death…”
Ling Xiyue glanced at Luo Qingchen.
“Generally speaking, exploring a wild Secret Realm requires the strength of an entire sect. Even then, deaths are common during the process.”
Luo Qingchen’s smile froze.
The strength of an entire sect?
She was only at Level 12 in the early stage of Foundation Establishment, and Ling Xiyue was in the middle stage of Core Formation while being injured.
Just the two of them?
This didn’t look like exploring; it looked like a suicide mission.
While Luo Qingchen was wondering how to find an exit, she felt something tugging at her pant leg.
She looked down.
A ball of white fur was biting her pant leg firmly, its four short legs braced against the ground as it tried to drag her backward.
It was the Samoyed.
While pulling, it mumbled indistinctly, “The Great Dog has her pinned! Hurry up and strike! I can’t hold her for much longer!”
Luo Qingchen didn’t move.
The Samoyed pulled harder, its little mouth shaking her pant leg left and right, smearing drool all over it.
“For such a great contribution, you’ll have to give the Great Dog ten pounds of top-quality cabbage! It must be ten pounds!”
Then, it sensed that the atmosphere wasn’t quite right.
The surroundings were frighteningly quiet.
The Samoyed slowly raised its head.
Two pairs of eyes were staring at it.
Luo Qingchen stood with her arms crossed, looking down at it, while Ling Xiyue held her Green Scale Sword and did the same.
The Samoyed’s tail froze.
It let go of her pants and took a step back, then another.
Its brain began to work at high speed—something was wrong.
Where was its boss? Why was it alone with these two?
Oh no.
It was all by itself.
Luo Qingchen tilted her head and gestured toward Ling Xiyue with her chin.
“Goddess, have you eaten yet?”
Ling Xiyue shook her head.
“I have already reached Inedia.”
Luo Qingchen pointed at the Samoyed on the ground. “Then how about…”
The Samoyed’s four legs went weak, and it collapsed onto the ground.
“Wait, wait, wait! Spare me, heroes!”
It pressed its front paws together and kowtowed to Luo Qingchen, its head almost burying itself in the dirt.
“The Great Dog is very useful! My nose is invincible under the heavens! I am an expert at tracking and finding treasures!”
It tried its best to shrink its body further against the ground.
“And look at how small I am! I don’t have any meat at all; I wouldn’t even be a few bites! I wouldn’t even fit between your teeth!”
Ling Xiyue glanced at it.
“A functional spirit beast. Keep it for now.”
The Samoyed’s tail immediately began to wag, moved to tears.
“When we need to leave, we can kill it then.”
The tail instantly drooped.
The Samoyed was dumbfounded.
‘How could this happen? Shouldn’t the normal process be to offer a reward first, something like “work hard and you’ll be rewarded,” to trick it into working? What is wrong with this woman in purple? She just stated the plan to kill the dog right to its face?’
Luo Qingchen knelt down and patted the Samoyed’s head.
“Alright, stop crying. Behave yourself, and you might be spared. From today on, your name is Xiao Bai.”
The Samoyed opened its mouth to protest.
As a dignified treasure-hunting spirit beast who had followed the Patriarch for 300 years, its name was—
It met Ling Xiyue’s indifferent eyes.
The sword hadn’t been sheathed yet.
The Samoyed shut its mouth.
“Xiao Bai is great! A wonderful name! It suits the Great Dog perfectly! Woof, woof, woof!”
Its tail wagged like a propeller as it frantically showed its loyalty.
Luo Qingchen stood up and quietly observed Ling Xiyue.
She had taken a direct hit from a cultivator at the peak of Core Formation.
Although the blood on her mouth had been wiped away, her complexion was clearly poor, and her right foot was slightly unsteady as she walked.
The injury was severe.
Luo Qingchen thought about the Heaven-tier High-grade Healing Pill that the jade slip had just given her and hesitated.
‘Should I give it to her or not? If I give it, I’ll lose my life-saving trump card. If I don’t, Ling Xiyue is currently the only combat-capable person we have. If she falls, what could I and a dog do in this Secret Realm? Could it be that I’m meant to start with a dog and rely on looting for all my gear?’