Cultivation begins in Qingfeng Market.

three days later.

Lin Zhao confirmed that there was nothing special about this village. They were all ordinary people, farming and raising chickens, working from sunrise to sunset.

On the third night, he "took" a set of clothes and put his original robes into his bag.

I glanced at my reflection in the water tank; my face was fairly clean, and my hair was casually tied up, making me look like an ordinary hunter. My skin was just a bit too pale.

He hunted several wild rabbits and pheasants, hung them on his waist, and headed towards the city a hundred miles away.

The city is called Black Rock City. It is not a large city, only a few miles in circumference, and can accommodate more than 200,000 people.

But in this area, it's already the largest in the vicinity.

The city wall is not high, about two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters), and is built of bluish-gray stone bricks.

Moss grew in some places on the wall, and there were traces of repairs in others. The city gate was made of wood, covered with a layer of iron sheet, with fist-sized iron nails hammered into the sheet.

Soldiers were on duty at the city gate.

Lin Zhao glanced at it from afar and paused for a moment.

The soldiers were all burly and wore heavy, long black armor with layers upon layers of plates, making them look like they weighed over a hundred pounds.

But these people walked with a steady gait and long breaths, and the metal plates on their armor made a soft metallic scraping sound as they walked, which did not make them seem clumsy.

A rough estimate suggests that an average soldier's single-arm strength is around 1,000 jin (approximately 500 kg).

Those who looked like captains possessed strength exceeding several thousand jin—no less than cultivators in the late stage of Qi Refining.

What made Lin Zhao's eyes narrow was the weapons in their hands. They were all talismanic artifacts.

The spears, swords, and crossbows were all covered with fine black runes.

The runes weren't drawn on, but engraved into the metal, with a dark silver material filling the grooves. There were faint but unmistakable fluctuations of spiritual energy; it was a talisman artifact.

Although talismanic artifacts are not as agile and flexible as true low-level magical artifacts, they are sharp, sturdy, and powerful.

And the key point is that these black runes allow soldiers to use spiritual power in the secret realm.

This was clearly passed down from the Luo Tian Sect.

Lin Zhao carefully observed the patterns of the black runes and memorized them with his divine sense.

The structure wasn't complex; at its core was a vortex-like pattern, from which six branches extended, each ending in a closed ring. He didn't recognize this rune system, but he could tell its function was to absorb and transform.

He dared not stare for too long, for fear of attracting attention.

In his current state, surrounded by hundreds of such elites, he would be lucky to escape with his life, if not killed.

He lowered his head and followed the crowd into the city.

----

Blackrock City was bustling with activity.

The streets were lined with all sorts of shops—selling cloth, grain, blacksmiths, and medicine. The shouts, haggling, and children's cries mingled together, making it no different from any other city in the mortal world.

Lin Zhao found a corner in the market and displayed the two game animals he had hunted on the road for sale. He squatted on the ground, listening intently to the conversations of the people around him.

After half a day, he had gathered a lot of information.

The Luo Tian Secret Realm spans thousands of miles, but it is not large compared to a dynasty.

But perhaps because of the Dharma realm's regulation, the secret realm is very peaceful—the weather is favorable and there are no major disasters.

It has a distinctly idyllic, otherworldly feel to it.

The secret realm has hundreds of cities, each governing dozens of villages and towns.

There are nine other ancient cities above the city, which are larger and more prosperous.

Legend has it that there is a sacred site near every ancient city.

Holy sites can grant mortals incredible powers—those who gain these powers are called practitioners.

These soldiers serve the practitioners.

Lin Zhao had a goal in mind.

Cultivators. Ancient city. Sacred land. A line; follow it upwards and you'll reach the core secrets of this hidden realm.

One at a time.

At night, Lin Zhao found the dilapidated mansion of a cultivation family.

Grass still grows on the courtyard wall, but a plaque still hangs above the gate with the words "Zhao Mansion" written on it, though the characters are already somewhat blurred.

The library is located on the west side of the last courtyard; it's a small two-story building. The building isn't large, and the doors and windows are tightly closed.

Lin Zhao climbed over the wall and slipped into the small building through the side door. His footsteps were very light.

The stairs were made of wood and had fallen into disrepair over the years, creaking as you stepped on them. He used his divine sense to locate each loose plank, avoiding them, and silently darted up to the second floor like a night owl.

The second floor is a study.

The four walls are lined with bookshelves, filled with books—bamboo slips, silk books, and paper books, in varying ages and conditions.

In the center of the study was a desk with a book spread out on it and an oil lamp lit beside it.

A young girl was lying on the desk, engrossed in reading.

She was about fifteen or sixteen years old, dressed in a plain-colored dress, her hair tied up with a wooden hairpin. Her profile was delicate, her brows slightly furrowed, and her lips moved gently, as if she were silently reciting the contents of a book.

Lin Zhao's ten-foot divine sense did not reach the second floor, and he did not notice that there was someone behind the desk.

The moment he stepped onto the second floor, the girl suddenly looked up.

Eyes facing each other.

Just as the girl was about to cry out in surprise, Lin Zhao's divine sense acted first.

Even when suppressed by the secret realm, the divine sense of a Core Formation level cultivator is still absolutely overwhelming to mortals.

A wisp of divine thought gently swept over her, and the girl closed her eyes, her body went limp, and she lay back on the table as if she had fallen asleep.

Lin Zhao's gaze fell on the book she had opened.

It was a basic rune diagram book, the paper covered with black runes, and next to it were annotations written in red pen, the handwriting neat and delicate.

She meticulously dissected the structure of each rune, marking the direction and nodes of psionic energy, and marking any parts she didn't understand with question marks.

Lin Zhao casually flipped through a few pages and was overjoyed—these annotations had just resolved his doubts.

The vortex-shaped core rune is called the Source Rune, which is used to absorb free energy; the six branches are the Vein Runes, which are responsible for conduction; and the closed ring at the end is the Vessel Rune, which serves as the release terminal.

The entire rune system absorbs and transforms the unique power that is omnipresent in the secret realm, and uses it to power the rune artifacts.

Luo Tianzong called this power "Yuan Power".

It shares the same origin as spiritual energy, but is far more primal and violent, making it difficult to control. Under the suppression of the Dharma realm in this secret realm, external spiritual energy is sealed off, while primordial energy can circulate freely.

He finished reading all the books in the library in one night. His spiritual sense and memory were still intact, so he could turn the pages much faster than ordinary people. By the time he finished the last book, it was almost dawn.

He put the book back in its place, and the girl remained slumped over the table, her breathing steady.

Lin Zhao reached out and gently pressed her forehead, and with a slight thought, quietly erased the memory of their first encounter.

He then turned and went downstairs, quietly climbing over the wall to leave.

When the girl woke up, it was already broad daylight.

She lay face down on the desk, a red mark pressed against her face. She rubbed her eyes and looked at the book on the desk—still on the same page she had read last night.

"She fell asleep again," she muttered, then stood up and stretched.

She seemed to have had a dream, a vague dream image lingering in her mind, as if she had seen a figure, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't remember it.

She shook her head and closed the window.

When Lin Zhao left Blackrock City, he witnessed a battle at the city gate.

Hundreds of black-armored soldiers surrounded a man. The man was dressed in the robes of the Myriad Beasts Spirit Lord's Palace, and he was wounded, with his clothes torn in several places.

He was also unable to use spiritual power, but he didn't need to, since the disciples of the Myriad Beasts Spirit Lord's Mansion could transform into demonic beasts.