It was like a lightning strike across the dark sky in an eternally silent night.

Mo Ju covered his chest with the feather fan.

"Who are they?"

Tantai Xuan got up to his feet from the ground, heavily panting. His eyes were bloodshot.

"Beiluo Lu Ping'an's maid and coachman," Mo Ju said.

Mo Ju emphasized these two—Nie Changqing and Ning Zhao—when he shared that information.

"How could they enter the Immortal Palace without Heaven Qi Plaque and Earth Qi Plaque?" Tantai Xuan asked in a loud voice, gazing at the Immortal Gate, which was by then shut closed once more.

"Maybe… Maybe it has something to do with the power behind them or because they are cultivators too," Mo Ju said.

He had a profound look to his face.

The power behind them might not be weaker than the Hundred Schools of Philosophy, and it could even outs.h.i.+ne the Hundred Schools!

However, Mo Ju held his tongue.

Tantai Xuan closed his eyes at Mo Ju's reply. Instead, he showed a bitter smile.

"Cultivators, cultivators… Can they really cultivate immortality?"

"Mo Ju, twelve people went through the Immortal Gate. Send some men to spy on them. If anyone comes out from there, ask them what the Immortal encounter in the Immortal Palace was. Send some men to gather Heaven Qi Plaques and Earth Qi Plaques too… And find some loyal martial arts pract.i.tioners and train them so that they can enter the Immortal Palace in the future.

"If Heaven Qi Plaques and Earth Qi Plaques are scattered around the world every time the Immortal Palace is open, it means there is more than one entrance to the Immortal Palace. Maybe this is the place where cultivators from different parts of the world train their powers.

"The world will change significantly. Before, Grandmasters used to be the trump cards. However, maybe in the future… Cultivators who can confront 10,000 people alone will become the real trump cards of the rulers."

Tantai Xuan opened his bloodshot eyes.

Mo Ju waved his feather fan lightly. He was surprised that after such a big blow, Tantai Xuan was not downhearted, but was enlightened.

At this thought, Mo Ju could not help but smile. He felt ambitious. Was there any counselor who did not want their lord to succeed?

"Yes." Mo Ju cupped his hands.

Then, Tantai Xuan turned around to leave, his red cape blowing in the wind on his back.

******

In the Immortal Palace…

A big quake!

The s.h.i.+eld forged by Mo's blacksmiths was dented. It flew out of Xiang Shaoyun's hand.

He spat a mouthful of blood.

He had intended to kill the skinny Daoist priest at one go with the aid of the Spirit Qi of the dead ghost general.

However, the Daoist priest seemed to have seen through him. As a countermeasure, he took in all the ghosts in the middle chamber to strengthen himself.

Xiao Shaoyun was given a good beating.

Despite donning the thickest armor, he got the most terrible beating.

Xiang Shaoyun had never been so humiliated, so desperate.

This skinny Daoist priest was too powerful.

He brought his palm upward and slapped Xiang Shaoyun, who was yet again sent flying. He could not get close enough to the Daoist priest.

Xiang Shaoyun's use of the Spirit Qi was utterly pathetic, compared with that of the skinny Daoist priest's. The Overlord was simply using the Spirit Qi to amplify his Qi and blood.

The skinny Daoist priest could transform the Spirit Qi into a palm and use it to exert pressure, among others.

The priest knew so many ways of using Spirit Qi that Xiang Shaoyun really could not complain despite the tremendous beating he received.

He had never felt so helpless.

Believing himself a prodigy, he was able to easily defeat a Grandmaster at the age of six, despite never taking seriously any martial arts pract.i.tioners in the world.

He was arrogant. He was proud.

He was the strongest military officer in West County, the invincible Overlord waving the s.h.i.+eld and ax.

However, he was so humiliated by a real cultivator.

Holding his wooden sword, Li Sansi was leaning against the stone wall, his white robe stained with blood. With every labored breath he took, his winced as a sharp pain shot through his chest.

"Cultivators, cultivators…

"The world is changing."

Li Sansi murmured.

Mo Shougui and Kong Nanfei were very pale. They could not go on fighting anymore.

They were Grandmasters. But they were, after all, humans, who eventually got exhausted.

Xiang Shaoyun was already a freak. He was sent flying ten-odd times, but he got to his feet again and again, tirelessly, to rush back at the Daoist priest with his ax.

Even Mo Shougui had to admit that Xiang Shaoyun was strong.

Unfortunately…

A man like this, this day… He could lose his life in this Immortal Palace.

Cough! Cough!

Xiang Shaoyun coughed up blood. He retreated a few steps and straightened his back while tightly holding the long ax in one hand with the blade facing downward.

He snarled at the priest. A grating noise echoed throughout the chamber as Xiang Shaoyun dragged the ax behind him.

The skinny Daoist priest Jiang Chao, floating in the air, threw him a glance with his green eyes.

The next second, he raised his palm. The invisible Spirit Pressure turned into a shapeless palm that pressed against Xiang Shaoyun's chest.

Like a faint gray flowing shadow, the invisible Spirit Pressure seemed to hit Xiang Shaoyun gently. However, his ribcage was broken, splas.h.i.+ng blood and sweat into the air, like stars hanging in the night sky shattered into pieces.

Leaning back, Xiang Shaoyun retreated, with his soles rubbing against the ground.

In an instant…

Two cold winds—one black and one white—zipped past his cheeks at high speed, cutting up a half strand of his hair.

Xiang Shaoyun's eyes suddenly lit up. He looked over.

What he saw was a wide and thick black butcher knife and a long sword as thin as a cicada's wing.

The two weapons whizzed into the middle chamber from outside, like two shooting stars zipping across the night sky, leaving a long narrow flash behind.

Buzz…

The skinny Daoist priest, floating in the air, turned his palm upward. A Spirit Pressure was surging.

When the butcher knife and the Cicada Wing Sword were only mere four inches from the priest's face, they suddenly froze midair, stopped by an invisible force.

Outside of the middle chamber, two white shadows executed acrobatic skills to approach, leaving no traces behind them.

Xian Shaoyun was gasping for air.

The white shadows flew past his left and right sides.

Li Sansi's eyes lit up. He kept staring at the two figures that had suddenly popped up.

Mo Shougui's eyes focused on them.

"Who are they?"

Kong Nanfei's lips were dry and chapped, but his eyes were as bright as stars in the night sky.

Young Master Lu from Beiluo finally meddled in this Immortal encounter!

"The Master visited Beiluo the day before yesterday. He learned the Secret Realm was on the Hidden Dragon Ridge after going back to the capital, so he sent me here. Before I left, he gave his compliment… Cooking green plums in the pavilion at the center of the lake when it was raining. Energies connected between chess piece and chess piece placed on the chessboard."

Kong Nanfei paused. Li Sansi and Mo Shougui simultaneously looked over at him.

"Overlooking mountains and rivers, various independent warlords laughed. There he was, Lu Ping'an in Beiluo City." Kong Nanfei recited the poem slowly. Then he took a deep breath. It was not common at all that the Master paid such a compliment to someone.

"These two are Lu Ping'an's maid and coachman."

Kong Nanfei said.

"Or… You can also say they are Lu Ping'an's apprentices from White Jade City."

Extremely shocked, Li Sansi and Mo Shougui instantly took a deep breath.

"Maid and coachman?"

This man was gorgeous!

******

Nie Changqing activated Daoist Spirit Transmission, while Ning Zhao activated Ksitigarbha Sutra.

The Spirit Qi in their bodies surged out of their Qi Cores, flowing around them to create Spirit Pressure.

They kept staring at the skinny Daoist priest.

The Spirit Pressures uniquely owned by cultivators were colliding in the air.

Nie Changqing raised his hand to execute his Knife Control Technique. Then butcher knife spun at high speed in the air as it approached the skinny Daoist priest.

The Cicada Wing Sword was bounced back. So Ning Zhao caught the sword back and then somersaulted in the air to launch an attack.

Her white dress was fluttering. With her Spirit Qi adhering to the long sword, the sword energy gushed out.

In the distance, Xiang Shaoyun looked them dead in the eyes.

His pupils contracted.

He was observing the battle. He found Nie Changqing and Ning Zhao were surprisingly not affected by the skinny Daoist priest's Spirit Pressure.

They were exchanging blows with the skinny Daoist priest.

In fact, Nie Changqing and Ning Zhao were just as strong as Xiang Shaoyun. However, thanks to Spirit Pressure, they achieved things Xiang Shaoyun could not.

"Is the pressure created by Spirit Qi the gap between cultivators and average martial arts pract.i.tioners?!"

Xiang Shaoyun seemed to have realized something.

Five wisps of Spirit Qi flowed out of his Qi Core on and off. He was still not very skilled in using Spirit Qi to create pressure outside of his body.

It was Spirit Pressure…

The huge gap between cultivators and average martial arts pract.i.tioners.

Even Ning Zhao could learn how to create Spirit Pressure by herself. Xiang Shaoyun was quite talented. He surprisingly created Spirit Pressure successfully after watching the battle.

He was reveling. He had not been so happy because of a breakthrough for a long time.

He strode forward after picking up his ax. With Spirit Pressure around his body, he did feel less pressured by the skinny Daoist priest's Spirit Pressure, although his Spirit Pressure was still too weak for him not to be completely unaffected.

However, it was not that he could not fight anymore!

Xiang Shaoyun joined the battle. The skinny Daoist priest felt more pressured.

Nie Changqing had his Knife Control Technique. Ning Zhao was as light as a feather.

Compared to them, Xiang Shaoyun was beaten hard by the skinny Daoist priest almost as soon as he charged forward, but it made him more excited instead…

Because he felt the skinny Daoist priest's strength was weakening!

A morning light like the Venus at dawn lit up in his mind!

Finally…

Controlling the knife from some distance, with his white robe fluttering, Nie Changqing struck the skinny Daoist priest in the neck. About two inches of the knife blade dug into the priest's flesh.

Holding her sword, Ning Zhao spun, white dress fluttering. The blade tip pierced through one dust floating in the air and another and eventually thrust into the skinny Daoist priest's chest, pinning him onto the stone wall.

Xiang Shaoyun roared in anger. Holding his ax with both hands, he jumped into the air.

All of a sudden…

The skinny Daoist priest, while pinned on the wall, opened his mouth. He snarled in anger in a sharp voice, as if his soul had been shaken.

"I, Jiang Chao, swear I will guard the Sovereign's honor at the cost of my life!"

The green light in the skinny Daoist priest's eyes got brighter.

The next second, his body swelled up until it exploded!

The dreadful explosion injured everyone in the middle chamber.

Densely packed Spirit Qi, as many as hundreds of wisps of Spirit Qi, intertwined with one another in the middle chamber, starting a storm.

After jumping, Xiang Shaoyun's body collided with the violent Spirit Qi. He was heavily injured in the chest by the explosion, his flesh mangled and bleeding. He fell on the ground and slid farther down. He kept coughing up blood.

Nie Changqing caught the butcher knife that bounced back. Blood flowed out from the corner of his mouth. Ning Zhao, very pale, took two steps backward. Her purlicue, where she grasped the sword, was injured and bleeding.

Feeling the Spirit Qi sweeping over the middle chamber…

Both of them knew this was an Immortal encounter. So they sat down cross-legged at the same time without discussing.

They activated their cultivation techniques to take in the Spirit Qi into their Qi Cores.

Xiang Shaoyun sprang to his feet. He also started to capture the Spirit Qi in the air to take it into his Qi Core.

As the great existence in the Immortal encounter in this Immortal Palace, the skinny Daoist priest, after his death, released so many richer Spirit Qi than that released by those small ghosts and even that by the two ghost generals. And it was much easier to refine.

Li Sansi and the other two also did some initial treatment for their injuries during the self-explosion of the skinny Daoist priest. Then, excitedly, they sat down cross-legged to take in the Spirit Qi.

******

On Beiluo Lake Island…

Lines were jumping before Lu Fan. The skinny Daoist priest Jiang Chao's face, who had self-exploded because he would not allow anyone to defeat him, kept appearing in his head while he was staring at the chessboard. He let out a sigh.

This was the first Secret Realm Boss he had created. He endowed Jiang Chao with feelings and a physical body.

Unfortunately, Jiang Chao's destiny had been decided at the beginning. He would keep reincarnating into one ent.i.ty and then another self-explosion.

Missions were all cleared in the first Secret Realm.

Right when Jiang Chao self-exploded…

A system message suddenly popped up before Lu Fan.

"Congratulations, Host. You have constructed the Secret Realm of the 'Immortal Palace, Hidden Dragon Ridge' and finished guiding people's exploration…"