Translator: AnubisTL

Boom!

At the center of the fractured mountain ridge, space suddenly twisted, and a void rift rapidly expanded.

Under Li Qing's mana manipulation, the long-sealed secret realm finally opened a path for him.

"Now's the time! Ninth Insect, go!"

Li Qing immediately sent a divine sense command to the ninth insect below. The massive creature sprang from the ground with explosive force.

"Let's go! Charge, Little Nine!" Lin Jing, firmly seated on the ninth insect's back, shouted with unrestrained excitement.

Boom!

With a violent gust of wind, the ninth insect's colossal body forced its way through the void rift.

Li Qing followed closely behind, maintaining his mana output while swiftly flying into the rift.

Bringing the ninth insect into the secret realm wasn't for any particular reason other than its core formation realm combat prowess.

Li Qing's mana reserves were already dwindling, and the dangers within the secret realm remained unknown. The ninth insect's combat strength would be crucial.

Moreover, exiting the secret realm would require mana to reopen the path. Conserving mana within the realm was paramount.

With a disorienting whirl, the surrounding spatial scenery rapidly transformed.

Snap!

Li Qing plummeted from the sky. Before he could use his mana to stabilize himself, the ninth insect below extended a tendril and caught him securely.

"Master, are you alright?" Lin Jing, her initial excitement fading, rushed to Li Qing's side, her voice filled with concern.

"I'm unharmed, no need to worry," Li Qing replied, his eyes scanning the surroundings.

The area was shrouded in deep twilight, the ground covered in withered grass and dead trees.

Drip! Drip!

Water droplets fell steadily from a stone wall, creating an eerie silence.

Beneath the wall, years of dripping had formed a small pool, from which a thin stream trickled across the gray-black earth.

Thud!

Li Qing leaped down from the ninth insect's back and gazed up at the top of the stone wall.

He then expanded his divine sense, mapping the terrain and absorbing every detail of the surroundings into his mind.

The vast landscape stretched out in deep gray-black hues, desolate and silent. Within this secret realm, all vegetation had withered and died.

A mere touch would cause the brittle plants to crumble into dust.

Looking into the distance, the secret realm seemed boundless, a true miniature world!

Despite this, the area remained devoid of spiritual energy, similarly affected by the End of Dao Era, where spiritual energy had completely dried up.

Li Qing, however, wasn't disappointed; on the contrary, he was quite pleased.

The absence of spiritual energy meant there would be no threats to him in this place. Moreover, since the Red Moon's influence couldn't penetrate here, there was no need to worry about powerful strange beasts. This meant Ninth Insect could play a significant role, practically dominating the entire secret realm.

With this assurance, exploration would be much easier, conserving a considerable amount of mana.

Based on the terrain data gathered by his divine sense, Li Qing had already pinpointed his location on the map.

"Let's go! Let's see what strange things this place is hiding!"

With these words, Li Qing flew back onto Ninth Insect's back, commanding it to begin exploring the vast wilderness.

Lin Jing, meanwhile, hadn't blinked once since entering. She was deeply awestruck by the spatial traversal, her eyes darting around with curiosity to take in everything around her.

"According to the map, there should be a canyon to the right. Let's check it out first," Li Qing ordered.

Without complaint, Ninth Insect dutifully charged toward the direction Li Qing indicated.

A faint mist hung in the air ahead, and as Li Qing and his companions ventured deeper into it, a profound canyon stretched before them.

"Hmm? A Cold Essence Pine!"

As they approached the canyon, Li Qing's divine sense precisely located a small tree rooted to the canyon's cliff face. He immediately recognized its species.

The tree's form was twisted, though its size was modest. Each branch resembled pale blue jade, shimmering with an icy luster.

"What a pity. This spiritual tree has withered. If we could have harvested a few Cold Essence Fruits, it would have been a considerable gain."

Li Qing sighed regretfully. Even in the Great Wilderness Domain, such trees were exceedingly rare, growing only in forbidden lands.

Once mature, this spiritual tree bore a single fruit every five years. These Cold Essence Fruits were highly valued by cultivators practicing ice dao cultivation manuals.

Even core formation realm cultivators could enhance their mana by consuming them.

In the End of Dao Era, with spiritual energy depleted, these rare spiritual trees had naturally lost their vitality.

Such a waste!

A withered Cold Essence Pine held no value. Li Qing shook his head, signaling to ninth insect to proceed along the canyon's edge for a distance, without hurrying to cross it.

Soon, Li Qing discovered traces of human activity within the canyon!

Following the scattered footprints, the trio—two humans and one insect—quickly reached the end of the canyon. At the bottom, several small wooden huts stood closely clustered together.

"Master, there seem to be some wooden huts down there!" Lin Jing, lacking divine sense, couldn't see clearly despite her sharp vision.

Li Qing's divine sense immediately swept downward. When it probed the interiors of the huts, he fell silent.

In each hut, a skeleton clad in Daoist robes sat cross-legged.

All dead.

"Let's go down and take a look," Li Qing sighed, already guessing their identities.

If his hunch was correct, these were likely cultivators who had sought refuge in this secret realm after the End of Dao Era began.

The outcome was predictable. Even within the secret realm, they couldn't escape the effects of the End of Dao Era. The spiritual energy here had also withered away.

Moreover, these individuals might have retreated here too early, before they had the chance to convert to Red Moon Secret Power.

As their mana gradually depleted, they were ultimately unable to escape the secret realm, forced to await death's arrival within its confines.

What a tragic fate!

The ninth insect, with its nine tentacles, descended smoothly without encountering any obstacles.

Each tentacle clung firmly to the sheer cliffs on either side of the steep gorge, steadily lowering Li Qing and Lin Jing into the ravine.

The wooden huts were haphazardly constructed, as if hastily cobbled together.

Typically, immortal cultivators would carve out cave abodes as their daily residences, rarely resorting to building wooden huts like these.

However, considering the circumstances of the End of Dao Era, where every drop of mana was precious, it wasn't surprising that these cultivators chose to build their dwellings by hand.

Entering the first hut, they found a skeleton clad in a white daoist robe.

Etched into the ground was a final message:

"What heinous crime have the cultivators of this realm committed? Why must we be punished with the severance of the Great Dao?"

True Sun Immortal, Situ Nan.

Despair permeated the words. How tragic that a once-mighty immortal cultivator had been reduced to slowly awaiting death in such a place.

Li Qing scanned the hut, surprised to find no storage pouch.

A storage pouch left behind by a core formation realm true lord—even aside from other treasures, the daoist arts inheritance alone would have been immensely tempting.

"No."

Frowning, Li Qing slowly backed out of the hut and then investigated the adjacent wooden structure.

It was empty too!

The only contents were a skeleton and a despairing final message.

After searching every wooden hut in the area, Li Qing's lips twitched involuntarily. He couldn't believe he'd come all this way for nothing!

He hadn't come here to mourn the dead!

"Wait, why isn't even a skeleton in this hut? Did they bury themselves somewhere?" Li Qing stared suspiciously at the completely empty structure.

He quickly arrived at a conclusion: the person inside was likely the last cultivator to die. After the others passed away, this individual had systematically taken all their storage pouches.

"Missing? Even in the End of Dao Era, why would they bother taking the storage pouches?"

Was it greed lingering even in the face of death?

Having spent so long in the secret realm without finding anything, Li Qing felt a growing sense of frustration.

It seemed that in addition to searching for the heavenly spirit fire, he would now have to dedicate some effort to finding this person's burial site.

But the secret realm was vast, and locating a single individual would be no easy task!

With these thoughts in mind, Li Qing suppressed the idea for now, deciding to delve deeper into the secret realm and first locate the heavenly spirit fire marked on the map.

Even if the spiritual energy had dried up and the heavenly spirit fire had been extinguished, its fire seed would undoubtedly remain.

As long as the fire seed existed, Li Qing could attempt to bring it back to a region rich in spiritual energy and rekindle it.

Of course, this process might require considerable effort, but it would be well worth the wait.

Each heavenly spirit fire was an invaluable treasure, and obtaining a second one would greatly benefit him.

It would significantly enhance both his combat prowess and cultivation speed, adding another trump card to his arsenal.

With this decided, Li Qing climbed back onto the ninth insect and ordered it to head directly to the location of the heavenly spirit fire marked on the map.

Obeying the command, the ninth insect accelerated to full speed.

The desolate scenery of the secret realm blurred past on either side, the wind whistling in their ears.

After traveling at full speed for approximately three to four days, the ninth insect finally arrived at the foot of a massive, pitch-black mountain.

The mountain blocked their path forward, rising abruptly from the earth and dominating the landscape.

"Master, this mountain looks like the missing part of that mountain range outside," Lin Jing said, tilting her head.

Li Qing had also noticed this. The mountain appeared to have been forcibly severed from a larger mountain range!

(End of the Chapter)

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