Chapter 67: A Bumper Harvest

Lin Xiaoyu had intended to observe first.

As her master would say, plan carefully before making a move.

But she quickly discovered that the entire secret realm seemed intent on not letting anyone stay still.

Distant booms echoed one after another, beams of spiritual light shooting into the sky.

Then the earth trembled, and waves of pure heaven-and-earth spiritual energy surged from every direction.

That was—

The sign of heavenly treasures emerging into the world.

——

The first report came in:

A hundred li to the east, someone had found a patch of Jade Marrow Grass. Thirty-seven stalks in total, every single one top-grade Foundation Establishment material.

Before that news even finished spreading, someone to the west cried out:

From the depths of a cold pool, twelve pieces of Mystic Yellow Essence had been unearthed. That was a supreme treasure for Golden Core cultivators refining their bodies.

And before anyone could react, in a valley to the south, three Dragon Scale Fruits had been discovered.

The sort of thing that even Nascent Soul experts would go red-eyed over.

“We’re rich!”

“Grab them!”

The entire secret realm descended into utter madness.

Those cultivators still locked in battle with Yin Soldiers moments ago—their eyes now burned red.

Forget Yin Soldiers. Forget danger. All of it was cast aside.

Resources were the only real thing on the path of cultivation!

Some turned on their own companions for a single stalk of Jade Marrow Grass.

Some, trying to seize a piece of Mystic Yellow Essence, were surrounded and struck down by dozens.

One man had just snatched a Dragon Scale Fruit, hadn’t even warmed it in his hands, when a cold arrow pierced his heart from the shadows.

Battle cries shook the heavens. Blood flowed like rivers.

——

Lin Xiaoyu stood on the ridge, watching it all unfold, her heart pounding fast.

Resources.

Resources in staggering quantities.

Her most important objective in entering this place was to gather resources.

But she remembered her master’s words—keep a low profile, be cautious, plan carefully before acting.

Yet the situation before her eyes…

“Plan carefully before acting?”

She murmured to herself.

“But resources don’t wait around.”

——

Another beam of spiritual light shot skyward.

This one was closer, just three li away in a valley.

Someone shouted: “Purple Heart Lotus! Twenty whole stalks of Purple Heart Lotus!”

Lin Xiaoyu’s eyes lit up.

Purple Heart Lotus. A top-grade Golden Core spiritual herb, the main ingredient for refining Boundary-Breaking Pills.

A single stalk could fetch ten thousand high-grade spirit stones.

Twenty stalks…

She drew a deep breath.

Then, she moved.

——

The Heavenly Dao Evasion Art pushed to its limit, her figure become a streak of violet-gold lightning as she shot into the valley.

The valley was already complete chaos.

Dozens of cultivators fought in a frenzy. Seven or eight corpses already littered the ground.

The twenty Purple Heart Lotuses grew beside a pond deep in the valley, glowing with a faint purple light.

Someone tried to rush toward them—cut down from behind by a single sword stroke.

Someone had already reached the pond’s edge, only to be blasted to pieces by multiple spells.

Lin Xiaoyu wasted no words.

The Qingfeng Sword left its sheath.

One horizontal sweep!

The three Golden Core cultivators at the front were sent flying backward, blood spraying from their mouths.

The whole scene went still.

Everyone turned to stare at this girl who had suddenly erupted into their midst.

Qi Refining Stage?

A little Qi Refining girl?

“Seeking death!”

A burly late-Golden Core cultivator roared and charged at her, blade raised.

Lin Xiaoyu didn’t even look at him.

One sword.

The man’s head hit the ground.

——

Dead silence filled the valley.

Lin Xiaoyu advanced step by step toward the pond, sword in hand.

Wherever she passed, everyone instinctively backed away.

No one dared block her path.

She reached the pond’s edge, raised her hand, and plucked the twenty Purple Heart Lotuses one by one, storing them in her spatial ring.

Then she turned to face the cultivators standing frozen in place.

“Anyone else?”

No one dared speak.

Lin Xiaoyu nodded, and her figure flashed, vanishing from the spot.

——

Over the next day, madness consumed the entire secret realm.

And Lin Xiaoyu became the maddest person in it.

In the north, a deposit of Ice Soul Profound Crystal appeared. Thirty-six whole pieces.

She fought her way there, drove off three waves of contenders, and swept it all into her possession.

In the west, someone found Deep Earth Spiritual Milk. Two full pools of it.

By the time she arrived, over a hundred people were already locked in combat.

Without a word, she charged straight in, cut a path to the pools, and filled ten entire jade bottles.

In the south, an ancient tomb yielded eighteen Nascent Soul Fruits.

Supreme treasures for Nascent Soul cultivators breaking through bottlenecks.

The Yin Soldiers guarding the tomb numbered over a thousand, five of them at the Nascent Soul level.

She carved her way in, cleaved through the Yin Soldiers, drove off the forces of three major factions, and seized all eighteen Nascent Soul Fruits.

——

In a valley.

Lin Xiaoyu stood among a pile of corpses, panting heavily.

She was drenched in blood—some her own, mostly others’.

From the Qingfeng Sword, blood still dripped slowly.

She looked down at her spatial ring, now stuffed to bursting.

Foundation Establishment Jade Marrow Grass and Mystic Yellow Essence.

Golden Core Purple Heart Lotus and Dragon Scale Fruit.

Nascent Soul Nascent Soul Fruits and Ice Soul Profound Crystal.

Plus countless spirit stones, pills, and magical artifacts—more than she could count.

“This should be enough…”

She murmured.

But the words had just left her mouth—

When another roar came from the distance.

A beam of spiritual light, even more brilliant than any before it, shot into the heavens.

That was—

Someone was shouting: “Hanling Hall has opened! Hanling Hall has opened!”

Lin Xiaoyu raised her head to look.

That direction… was the core region of the secret realm.

The palace shrouded in a pillar of crimson light. Its great doors were now slowly swinging open.

Countless cultivators, like moths to a flame, surged toward it.

——

Lin Xiaoyu tightened her grip on the sword hilt.

She remembered her master’s words—plan carefully before acting.

But she also remembered something else her master had said—when fortune arrives, don’t hesitate.

She drew a deep breath.

Then, she moved.

The Heavenly Dao Evasion Art pushed to its limit, her figure became a streak of violet-gold light, racing toward that palace.

Behind her, a field of corpses and endless madness.

Ahead, unknown fortune and greater danger.

But she did not waver.

Lin Xiaoyu drew closer and closer to the heavenly palace.

The nearer she came, the stronger that eerie feeling grew.

A massive pillar of crimson light thrust into the clouds above, bathing the entire Heavenly Palace in an ominous blood-red glow.

Within that blood light, waves of black mist swirled and writhed like living things.

From time to time, it coalesced into twisted faces, screaming silently.

Eerie.

Sinister.

Hair-raising.

*

At last, she reached the outer perimeter of the Heavenly Palace.

No fewer than tens of thousands of people had already gathered here.

A dense sea of cultivators stood in the enormous plaza before the palace gates, yet no one dared take another step forward.

Because right in front of the main gate—

Three thousand Yin Soldiers stood in perfect formation.

They wore shattered, decayed armor and clutched rust-eaten war halberds, standing there in absolute stillness, utterly motionless.

But their aura—

Three thousand Nascent Soul Realm cultivators.

Every single one of them at Nascent Soul Realm.

Three thousand pairs of ghostly blue eyes stared straight ahead in unison, devoid of the slightest flicker of emotion.

That crushing pressure silenced the tens of thousands of cultivators as if winter itself had frozen them in place.

An eerie stillness descended upon the entire plaza.

*

No one knew how much time had passed.

Then, a low voice suddenly echoed from the void.

Ancient and hoarse, it seemed to rise from the depths of the netherworld:

“Only those who break through the three thousand Yin Soldiers…”

“Are worthy of entering the Hanling Heavenly Palace’s Outer Gate Treasury.”

—