That an apple could actually strike Wei Yuan on the head proved it was no ordinary apple. At the very least, the mere fact that it fell downward was worthy of deep contemplation.
Alas, this question had long been solved by Qingming cultivators who had inherited the technological legacy of the outer world; it was not Wei Yuan's place to publish a paper on the matter.
The instant Wei Yuan's gaze fell upon the entrance to the secret realm, he sensed that it was actually trying to flee! Yet Wei Yuan's reactions were as swift as lightning. In a flash, he cast out thousands of strands of divine sense, each hooking like a barb to firmly lock the realm's entrance in place.
When exploring the secret realm of an ancient cultivator, Wei Yuan naturally made thorough preparations. Raising a finger, he released several puppets from his storage belt, mixed in identical avatars among them, and hurled them all into the realm together.
The avatars were meant for perception, while the puppets recorded observations and were laden with potent explosives, set to detonate should they encounter fatal danger.
Wei Yuan stood before the entrance without stepping inside. The moment the avatars passed through, connection with them was severed; evidently, inside and outside the threshold were two distinct worlds. A moment later, one avatar walked back out, reporting on the interior conditions.
The secret realm was a small pocket realm, veiled everywhere in drifting mist and thick primeval forest. This avatar had explored the surrounding ten li without encountering any peril. Having returned first according to the prearranged plan, it waited with Wei Yuan for a short while until the avatar tasked with exploring a twenty-li radius returned as well. Only then did Wei Yuan bring Hule Gao'en into the secret realm.
The realm was sweltering and humid, covered in marshes and teeming with bizarre flora. Ancient creepers twined between towering giant trees, moss was slick underfoot, and dark orchids thrust forth crimson pistils to catch swarming fireflies. The environment somewhat resembled the Wu domain, though it lacked the pervasive toxic mists and rotting waters, making it relatively hospitable for humanity. After entering, Wei Yuan was in no hurry to explore; instead, he released his puppet avatars and immediately began constructing a teleportation array on the spot. Several hours later, the array was completed, pinning down the entrance so that it could no longer slip away before he advanced further.
The secret realm thrummed with vigorous life, yet not a single bird, beast, fish, or insect could be seen. An eerie silence pervaded the surroundings.
To conduct a deeper sweep, Wei Yuan pulled out a spiritual insect pouch and unleashed several hundred puppet insects all at once. Imparting a strand of divine sense into each one, he sent them flying in all directions. Wei Yuan himself sat in the center, casually arranging defensive turrets around the perimeter, then set out a table, chairs, and fresh fruit to quietly await the results. Hule Gao'en looked on with a complex expression; who knew how many of his own kin had perished while exploring secret realms like this?
Wherever the puppet insects passed, the terrain was automatically mapped in Wei Yuan's mind. The map expanded continuously, yet it seemed to consist entirely of swamplands.
Finally, one puppet insect spotted a stone palace!
Constructed from massive blocks of stone, the palace stood tens of zhang tall. Its footprint was not particularly large; aside from the main hall, it appeared to have only two side halls to the left and right, and a rear hall.
Under Wei Yuan's control, this puppet insect gingerly flew closer to the stone complex and landed on a nearby tree to observe. At the same time, Wei Yuan redirected nearby puppet insects toward the area, preparing to conduct a multidirectional reconnaissance.
Yet before the other insects could arrive, the puppet insect that had first discovered the stone hall vanished from Wei Yuan's consciousness! A sharp pang pierced his mind as the strand of divine sense attached to the insect was extinguished.
Destroying a puppet insect was nothing extraordinary; the truly troubling part was that not even Wei Yuan's divine sense had been able to escape, and he had no idea how it had been destroyed. Wei Yuan opened his eyes, summoned Hule Gao'en, and questioned him thoroughly once more regarding his tribe's legends about the ancient immortal.
Judging by the known information, this ancient immortal was not known to be tyrannical, but having been a powerful court minister in life, his conduct was bound to be treacherous. Having been a powerful minister himself, Wei Yuan understood this all too well.
After a moment's contemplation, Wei Yuan bestowed a blessing of karmic luck upon Hule Gao'en, followed by a flying-sword gun and several cases of flying swords for self-defense. Next, Wei Yuan released another batch of puppet insects. This batch was diverse: some carried explosives, some harbored lethal poisons, some were inscribed with blood curses, and others were built for stealth. The entire swarm flew toward the stone hall, approaching it from every angle.
Upon reaching a certain distance, puppet insects abruptly lost connection in large swathes. This time, however, Wei Yuan's methods were different: his divided strands of divine sense were primarily used to suppress the explosives and deadly toxins. The moment the divine suppression vanished, the puppet insects detonated instantly.
Through the insects held in reserve behind them, Wei Yuan saw bursts of fireballs ignite out of thin air up ahead. Transparent bubbles burst one after another, and various fragments dropped from the sky.
Wei Yuan immediately directed the insects forward to retrieve a few pieces of the wreckage.
The remnants were razor-thin, transparent flakes. Wei Yuan turned them over in his hands for a while but could not discern what they were. Yet the fact that two successive swarms totaling over a thousand puppet insects had failed to even draw near the stone palace put him on high alert.
Wei Yuan pulled out another pouch of puppet insects, tossed it to Hule Gao'en, explained the refinement method in detail, and told him to try piloting a portion of them to find a breakthrough.
Hule Gao'en caught the pouch and inspected its contents. The puppet insects were only the size of a fingertip, exquisitely constructed. The pouch contained over two hundred of them, and refining them was remarkably simple. However, having never trained in splitting his consciousness, he had barely taken command of twenty-odd insects before they began wobbling drunkenly through the air. Seeing Wei Yuan effortlessly direct thousands of puppet insects toward the stone palace, Hule Gao'en was once again confronted with the immense gulf between their abilities.
Even so, he was not without clever ideas. Wei Yuan's hundreds of puppet insects had advanced scattered across a wide area only to be wiped out; sending his twenty would surely yield the same result. Thus, Hule Gao'en drew a flying sword, affixed the puppet insects to it, and launched it toward the stone palace. Just before reaching the forbidden perimeter, he dropped three insects behind for observation, while the flying sword, laden with explosive-bearing puppets, shot straight into the palace grounds!
The moment the sword entered the forbidden zone, it vanished without a trace. Hule Gao'en was dumbfounded, but the puppet insect Wei Yuan had stationed in the rear finally caught a glimpse: a faint, shimmering bubble suddenly appeared, swallowed the flying sword, and vanished along with it.
This bubble was exceptionally difficult to detect, becoming visible for only a fleeting instant as it engulfed its target, which was why Wei Yuan had failed to spot it earlier.
After a brief thought, Wei Yuan drew a dozen more flying swords and unleashed them all. Flying swords were far swifter, crossing a hundred li in the blink of an eye. As they neared the thousand-zhang perimeter, one of the flying swords suddenly self-detonated. A terrifying tempest of dharmic power swept through the area, blowing open countless dense, empty bubbles! The stone palace was practically submerged in an ocean of invisible bubbles; no wonder Wei Yuan had been unable to find an approach vector despite probing with thousands of puppet insects. With the first sword proving effective, the remaining swords lined up in a single file and bombarded forward at full speed. Whenever a bubble attempted to swallow a sword, Wei Yuan immediately triggered its self-detonation. Over a dozen flying swords detonated in rapid succession, blasting open a pathway several hundred zhang deep.
Yet as that wave of flying swords was spent, countless more bubbles welled up, resealing the breach.
"Clever technique," Wei Yuan praised softly, falling into thought over how to break it.
Beside him, Hule Gao'en watched with his heart in his throat. Wei Yuan had used Dao Foundation artifacts, all clearly specially engineered; their self-detonation power far exceeded ordinary artifacts, rivaling the strike of a dharma idol. Hule Gao'en himself was not certain he could withstand such a bombardment, yet it was still far from carving a direct path into the stone palace.
Wei Yuan then produced another sword casket. Inside lay a full hundred flying swords!
These were all high-explosive flying swords specially manufactured by Qingming, capable of taking down an enemy city gate tower from a hundred li away. After refining them, Wei Yuan unleashed all one hundred flying swords in a single breath!
This time, the stone palace's reaction was entirely different. Vast swarms of bubbles manifested, shimmering with layered seven-colored halos. Once visible, they suddenly turned extraordinarily tough and dense. A single flying sword could only shatter a few layers of bubbles, with each layer measuring barely over a foot thick. When all one hundred swords had exploded, they had cleared a passage of merely a hundred zhang. Wei Yuan had already opened another sword casket, but after a moment's hesitation, he snapped the lid shut and said, "Our current methods seem somewhat lacking. It seems we haven't prepared thoroughly enough this time."
With that, Wei Yuan checked the time and said, "I have already notified Qingming. Reinforcements will arrive shortly. To prevent the secret realm entrance from disappearing should we leave, we will remain here and wait quietly for their arrival."
Hule Gao'en asked, "It seems we haven't even exerted our full strength yet. How about I step up and test it out first?"
Wei Yuan shook his head. "No rush. We wait for reinforcements. It won't take long—a month or so should do."
Having spoken, Wei Yuan sat motionless, closing his eyes to cultivate and contemplate the Dao. Seeing this, Hule Gao'en had no choice but to meditate beside him. Fortunately, for cultivators, a month was nothing more than a single meditative sitting.
In his eyes, Wei Yuan had not even displayed a tenth of his power before refusing to act further and choosing to wait for backup. It seemed almost cowardly on the surface, but looking back, Hule Gao'en suddenly understood how the tens of thousands of his kin who had perished exploring secret realms had met their ends.
At this moment, within Wei Yuan's sea of consciousness, the entire sea of karmic luck surged gently, forming distinct tides. This phenomenon was induced by the unseen pull of destiny and heavenly mechanics. For Wei Yuan's sea of karmic luck to experience tides demonstrated just how terrifying this destiny's pull truly was. Yet bizarrely, Wei Yuan had received no premonition of danger whatsoever, which made the matter all the more ominous.
Wei Yuan was no longer the reckless youth of his early days; sensing a crisis, he stopped in his tracks without hesitation to wait for backline support.
Meanwhile, within Qingming, a cascade of orders was being dispatched. Vast quantities of supplies were moved out of warehouses into workshops, transformed into crated tools and dharma artifacts, and loaded onto flying boats.
Under the coordination of the Splendor of the Many Realms, Qingming completed all preparations with astonishing efficiency in under twenty days. Above the Immortal Heaven, Immortal Monarch Zhu Yan manifested an immortal form spanning a hundred li. Reaching out with a gentle sweep, three exquisite flying boats settled into his palm. With a light flick of his wrist, the three flying boats turned into tiny motes and descended straight into the Domain of the Mountain Folk.
Ripples suddenly stirred across the Domain of the Mountain Folk, and three gigantic bodies rose above the surface, glaring at Zhu Yan with hostile expressions.
Zhu Yan did not retreat. A dazzling light flared between his hands, revealing an immortal artifact primed on the verge of detonation.
The three Mountain Folk immortal-tier beings encircled Zhu Yan, yet none dared strike first. The power of an immortal artifact's self-detonation was already catastrophic, and Zhu Yan's divine ability could amplify that destructive might even further. Under ordinary circumstances, as immortal-tier beings, none of them were willing to throw away their lives without cause.
Chapter 1335