The Long Journey to Immortality

Although the three of them hadn't discussed beforehand who would take command after entering the secret realm, they tacitly agreed to treat Han Lu as the team leader and follow her orders.

"go……"

Han Lu looked around, trying to find a place that looked more like a monster's lair.

Just as she was struggling with her decision, a yellow portal suddenly lit up not far away, and three cultivators walked out of it.

Needless to say, these three were also disciples of the Zhengyi Sect participating in this competition, and they happened to be teleported to the same place as Han Lu and the other two.

It's just the beginning; there's no need to actively fight with fellow disciples.

But it's still necessary to take a look.

Using her spiritual eyes, Han Lu, who didn't have many friends in the sect, recognized the other person's identity at first glance.

"What a coincidence, senior sister, we know this person."

"You know each other?" Wen Erya was somewhat surprised.

"It's that cultivator who won first place at the tenth level of Qi Refining when we first participated in the competition..." Han Lu stammered for a moment before remembering the other person's name, "I remember it was Jing Jin."

Upon hearing this name, Wen Erya immediately realized who the other person was.

Although they knew each other, they weren't even acquaintances, so Han Lu wouldn't go up to say hello for no reason.

Jing Jin, who was at the eleventh level of Qi Refining back then, has now reached the early stage of Foundation Establishment after five years.

Han Lu, who was only at the second level of Qi Refining back then, has surpassed others and has actually reached the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment.

If the other party still remembers Han Lu, then Jing Jin will most likely feel awkward for a while when they greet him.

So the three of them silently steered their spirit swords away from the location where the teleportation portal had appeared.

"Let's go there."

Han Lu pointed to a lake in the distance.

This is a very large lake, the kind of lake that you can't see the end of from the ground.

In Han Lu's view, this was undoubtedly an excellent habitat for monsters.

"it is good."

After Yi Qiyan and Wen Erya agreed, they rode their spirit swords together and flew towards the lake not far away.

They had only flown a few meters when Yi Qiyan encountered a problem.

"Han Lu, do you think there's something special about this Spirit Rhinoceros Pearl? Why would the monsters and spirit beasts in this area treasure something that doesn't seem to have much value?"

Han Lu had also thought about this question and offered a guess: "Perhaps the Golden Core elders who hid the Spirit Rhinoceros Pearls in various parts of the secret realm used some kind of magic on the pearls to make the demon beasts and spirit beasts mistake them for something precious?"

"Or perhaps the Spirit Rhinoceros Pearl is simply favored by demonic beasts, just as cultivators favor spirit stones."

Both guesses were far-fetched, but the three of them couldn't find an explanation for why the monsters in the secret realm would risk their lives to help guard the Spirit Rhinoceros Pearl.

However, after flying less than halfway through the five-minute journey, Han Lu suddenly spoke up, "Wait a minute, something seems wrong down below."

Upon hearing this, Wen Erya and Yi Qiyan simultaneously stopped flying and looked down.

Looking at the large expanse of bare rock at their feet, the two asked, puzzled, "What's wrong?"

Han Lu, who has an extremely high sensitivity to spiritual energy, pointed in a direction and said, "The spiritual energy there seems a bit off. Let's go check it out first."

Chapter 520 Cleverly Breaking the Formation

"Something's not right with the spiritual energy?" The two were puzzled and closed their eyes simultaneously, trying to sense the energy with their own to see if the place Han Lu was pointing to was really as strange as she said.

Unfortunately, due to the distance, Wen Erya and Yi Qiyan did not notice anything unusual.

Although they couldn't verify Han Lu's statement through observation, the three of them still rode the spirit sword together and slowly descended.

The place Han Lu was referring to was a cave hidden among the rocks.

The cave was not deep, at most ten meters, but it was pitch black.

"Shall we go inside and take a look?" Yi Qiyan wanted to be the first to enter.

Han Lu stopped her, saying, "I want to use my divine sense to investigate, just in case there are some ferocious monsters hiding there."

"The cave is too small; the three of them cannot fully utilize their abilities inside."

"When it comes to close combat, neither of you are any good."

Without waiting for Yi Qiyan's reply, Han Lu took out the beast eye.

Activating the magical artifact and extending her divine sense outward, Han Lu finally realized the unique features of this cave.

The beast's eyes opened for only a moment before closing again. Wen Erya and Yi Qiyan looked at Han Lu, anticipating her answer.

“There are no demonic beasts in this cave, but there is a magic array. Let’s go in and take a look,” Han Lu said, making a reasonable deduction based on the results of her divine sense detection. “It should be that a Golden Core elder has set up a magic array puzzle here, and we need to solve it.”

After saying that, Han Lu raised her hand, and a white feather appeared in her hand.

With a slight circulation of spiritual energy, the feather transformed into a torch, emitting a white light.

Wen Erya took out a flashlight from the ancient cultivation secret realm as a light source to explore the cave.

Yi Qiyan did nothing special, but moved a little closer to Han Lu in order to use the light source.

The three entered the cave one after another, and then the light came on, allowing them to clearly see everything inside.

Inside the small cave, there was a clearly visible magic array, with three crimson spirit beads placed in the center. It was as if a sign was missing, telling any disciple who happened to enter the cave that they needed to break the magic array to retrieve the spirit beads.

Han Lu casually summoned her spiritual sword and thrust it towards the magic circle. The pale light barrier above the magic circle safely blocked Han Lu's casual attack.

Looking at the spirit sword that had returned empty-handed, Han Lu had a slight headache.

"This formation doesn't seem suitable for breaking by force."

Although all three are skilled in combat, only Yi Qiyan is proficient in miscellaneous subjects such as formations.

Han Lu had also studied it during her time in the Southern Frontier, but unfortunately, she was not talented in this area and could only barely manage to get by, knowing a little more than the average cultivator.

"We can only hope that the Golden Core elder who set up the formation didn't set the test too difficult."

Han Lu muttered something under her breath, then followed behind Wen Erya and Yi Qiyan, who had gathered at the edge of the magic circle to study it.

The atmosphere remained tense for about half a minute before Han Lu couldn't hold back any longer and broke the silence.

"Senior Sister, Yi Qiyan, how is it? Do you know how to break this formation?"

Wen Erya shook her head.

Yi Qiyan, on the other hand, wore a smile. It was unclear whether she was happy to have found a way to break the formation, or happy that Wen Erya hadn't found one, but she had.

“This formation is not difficult to break,” Yi Qiyan pointed out at the three obvious key points of the formation. “The three of us will each stand at one of the key points and use three different elements of the Five Elements to attack the formation at the same time. Even the most ordinary and weakest three elements can destroy this formation in an instant.”

Worried that Han Lu might not understand immediately, Yi Qiyan gave an example, "For instance, if I cast a metal-attribute spell, Han Lu casts a water-attribute spell, and Er Ya casts a fire-attribute spell..."

Hearing this, Han Lu and Wen Erya nodded slowly, "I see, let's give it a try."

After the three of them briefly assigned their positions and the attributes of their respective spells, Han Lu led Wen Erya and Yi Qiyan to cast the Hundred Thoughts Gathering Divine Skill.

With the help of this secret technique, the three can coordinate perfectly and cast spells at the same time to ensure that the formation used to test the teamwork of the participants in the Grand Competition Secret Realm can be successfully broken.

With everything ready, Han Lu sent a signal to her two friends via a white silk thread.

"start!"

Han Lu didn't need to chant any incantations; she conjured a hundred silver needles out of thin air and shot them at the formation.

Wen Erya then used an ordinary Qi refining technique to summon a water column no thicker than an arm, which shot towards the formation.

With water and metal in hand, fire is still missing.

A raging fire spewed from Yi Qiyan's mouth.

This is an ordinary spell with a strength of about the fifth or sixth level of Qi Refining, far inferior to the True Flame of the Fire Phoenix used by Han Lu's Fire Phoenix Divine Power, but it is sufficient for this situation.

Although the three spells are of different grades, their attributes are compatible with the method to break this formation.

As Yi Qiyan had predicted, when the three spells simultaneously touched the core area of ​​the formation, the formation, which had just easily withstood Han Lu's sharp spiritual sword attack, was defeated in an instant.

The formation collapsed, and the Spirit Bead placed in the center of the formation began to roll due to the vibration, eventually rolling right to Wen Erya's feet.

"It's done!" Wen Erya exclaimed excitedly, picking up the three Spirit Beads. "A resounding success!"

The three spirit beads were divided among the three people, one for each of them. After examining them carefully for a while, Wen Erya put them all into a storage bag.

These Spirit Beads were all restricted by the Golden Core Elders, and even after being stored in their storage bags, they would still emit an aura.

This arrangement ensures that when a stronger party plunders a slightly weaker party, they can completely wipe them out, without being deceived by a few lies or minor tricks.

"This is too smooth," Han Lu said, finding it hard to believe. "Could it be that the opportunity has arrived and nothing can stop it?"

Han Lu recalled her last trip to the ancient cultivation secret realm and became even more convinced that her luck had changed after she turned around.

Having obtained three Spirit Rhinoceros Pearls in less than a quarter of an hour since entering the secret realm, Wen Erya was in high spirits and exclaimed, "Yi Qiyan, I didn't expect you to be a master of formations!"

Hearing Wen Erya's praise, Yi Qiyan smiled broadly, feeling that she deserved full credit for the team obtaining these three Spirit Rhinoceros Pearls so soon after entering the secret realm.

The three chatted and laughed in the cave for a while before continuing to fly on their swords towards the lake that Han Lu had pointed out earlier.

This stroke of good luck gave the three, who were already confident of winning, even more confidence.

Wen Erya even joked, "Maybe there are seven or eight Spirit Rhinoceros Pearls hidden in this lake. If we go into the water, we might have already gotten double digits of Spirit Rhinoceros Pearls when we come back up."

Amidst laughter and cheerful conversation, the three arrived at the edge of the lake and together cast a water-repelling spell.

The spell was fully activated, and the three of them were completely enveloped in a transparent bubble.

Upon entering the water, the water within a ten-meter radius of Han Lu was completely pushed aside by the magic.

This method of entering the water allows the three people to move freely and explore underwater without being affected by the underwater environment.

[Author's Note] A bug in the previous chapter has been fixed with the help of a follow-up post. [Chapter 366] Thank you to the reader @孤独丶送钟人.

Chapter 521 Clever Acquisition or Forced Seizure

Maintaining this water-repelling spell for an extended period of time does not require much spiritual power, so it is not a burden for the three of them.

Once inside the lake, Han Lu realized that the water was extremely deep.

The light sources in the secret realm, which are not as dazzling as the sun, cannot penetrate into the lake water in large quantities.