The Long Journey to Immortality

Upon seeing this, Wen Erya was startled and used a secret technique to ask, "Junior sister, what's wrong? Are you alright?"

In her semi-true spirit state, Han Lu's body became much stronger, and such attacks were like scratching an itch through her boots.

Han Lu, who was already seething with anger, replied, "Senior sister, get ready."

The moment Wen Erya received this information, Han Lu was engulfed in flames.

The flames were activated by Han Lu's supernatural powers, so they naturally wouldn't have any effect on her. However, they instantly ignited the tentacles of the giant octopus that were wrapped around Han Lu.

The Phoenix Flame was unaffected by the ordinary lake water, burning its way along the giant octopus's tentacles.

Upon seeing this, Wen Erya instantly understood what she should do.

The feather fan reappeared in her hand.

With a hand seal, Wen Erya's feather fan grew five times larger, becoming half a person's height.

Wen Erya exerted all her strength, struggling against the water's force as she waved her feather fan.

The feather fan, a mid-grade fifth-level magical artifact, did not disappoint the two cultivators this time.

The wind generated by the feather fan successfully fueled the fire, turning what was originally just a few flaming tentacles into a raging inferno.

The Phoenix Flame, fueled by spiritual energy, completely engulfed the octopus in just three breaths.

The octopus, which has lived underwater for a long time, has no idea what fire is, let alone the divine power of the Fire Phoenix True Spirit.

Although it didn't feel much pain from being ignited by the Phoenix Flame, it could feel the spiritual power that made it strong and allowed it to dominate this area of ​​water being drained away.

Desperate for a cure, the octopus used every trick in the book to try and put out the raging fire.

If it had the courage to cut off its own arm when one or two tentacles were just ignited, then there would still be hope.

But now, with the fire having completely set its mountain-like body ablaze, it would be impossible for it to extinguish the fire, even if it had ten years, by its own power alone.

The sight of fire burning in the water captivated Yi Qiyan, who was watching from a distance.

Han Lu also returned to human form and went back to her two friends, watching the fire she had started.

The Phoenix Flame clung to the octopus and burned for nearly a minute before completely burning away the spiritual energy within the octopus.

Without the protection of spiritual energy, the octopus that had been swaggering in front of the three was now nothing but an empty shell.

The withered, soft body crumbled into fragments as the fire died down, some floating in the lake, others sinking to the bottom and merging with the silt.

Seeing this scene, Han Lu made an awkward joke, "It's my first time making grilled octopus, and I didn't control the heat well."

Yi Qiyan certainly didn't really want to eat a medium-rare grilled octopus.

She went along with Han Lu's joke and said, "Han Lu, you're more suited to be a cultivator than a chef."

Seeing Han Lu displaying her prowess, Wen Erya raised her opinion of her junior sister's strength even further.

After confirming that the giant octopus had been completely burned, the three of them entered the underwater cave, which had been wrecked beyond recognition by Han Lu with boulders, to search for the five Spirit Beads hidden inside.

Protected by the array, the five Spirit Beads remained unharmed.

Having experienced breaking the formation for the first time, Han Lu and Wen Erya both looked at Yi Qiyan, who was well-versed in various fields, upon seeing this formation.

"Yi Qiyan, how do we break this formation?"

Yi Qiyan had an idea after just one glance.

"It's just a typical defensive formation. We can break through it completely by using an attack roughly equivalent to the late Foundation Establishment stage."

To prevent disciples participating in the secret realm exam from stealthily obtaining the "Spirit Rhinoceros Pearl" through infiltration.

The Golden Core elder who placed these five Spirit Rhinoceros Pearls here then set up a magic array that needed to be broken by force.

Since the goal was to break through by force, breaking the formation became incredibly easy for the three of them.

"Leave it to me, you guys take a rest."

Yi Qiyan, who hadn't contributed to the final blow against the octopus, took the initiative to break the magic array.

Han Lu and Wen Erya tacitly took half a step back, giving Yi Qiyan more room to perform.

With a tap of her storage bag, a first-grade magic artifact appeared beside Yi Qiyan.

It is a large cauldron.

The cauldron grew several times larger with Yi Qiyan's magic incantation, just like Han Lu had just driven the boulder to smash the cave, without any fancy moves, and smashed directly into the magic array.

This attack was indeed at the level of the late Foundation Establishment stage, and naturally it broke through the formation that was only meant for defense.

Therefore, the formation that was prepared for the three-person team and required them to work together to break through was easily solved by Yi Qiyan alone.

Having obtained five Spirit Rhinoceros Pearls, and having entered the secret realm for less than an hour, they had already acquired a total of eight Spirit Rhinoceros Pearls.

Chapter 525 Harvest

According to the information provided by Zhong Wencheng.

In the past 100 years, in 20 major competitions, the team ranked 64th in 17 of them ultimately received 8 Spirit Beads.

This number is considered the passing grade for the vast majority of teams that expect to achieve a satisfactory result in the competition.

Although approximately one thousand Spirit Pearls are placed in the secret realm during each competition, waiting for the nearly three hundred teams participating in the competition to search for and plunder them.

However, since many teams will leave the competition early for various reasons, the number of Spirit Beads needed to achieve a good result is "far greater" than the average of three.

To win the championship, a team often needs to acquire as many as a hundred Spirit Beads to stand out among more than three hundred teams.

However, specific situations require specific analysis.

This year's competition's secret realm theme is very different from the past. Many weaker teams may not even be defeated and driven out of the secret realm by their fellow disciples before being driven away by monsters and forced to use tokens to leave this dangerous place.

In the past, one in five teams would leave early.

This time, it's very likely that nearly a third of the teams will finish their "test" early.

The giant octopus that Han Lu and Wen Erya just dealt with could very well become a stumbling block for other weaker teams.

Therefore, even disregarding the battles between squads, the Spirit Rhinoceros Pearl will gather in the hands of more powerful squads.

According to Han Lu's estimate, this time, she would probably need to find a full 150 Spirit Rhinoceros Pearls before she could confidently call herself "champion" before leaving the secret realm.

After explaining their views to their two companions, the three of them did not celebrate their acquisition of eight Spirit Beads for long.

“Don’t waste time here,” Wen Erya said. “This Mr. Hu should still have quite a few Spirit Rhinoceros Pearls. We shouldn’t let the other teams that chose the yellow portal to enter here snatch them up.”

Wen Erya still prefers to collect more from demonic beasts rather than plundering from her fellow disciples.

Yi Qiyan knew about Wen Erya's thoughts, but didn't understand them, yet she remained silent.

Han Lu knew and understood, but she didn't say anything.

There's no right or wrong in this kind of thinking; between close friends, there's no need to waste words on this.

Having grown accustomed to peaceful lives, the vast majority of cultivators in the Central Plains dislike fighting.

This is also one of the reasons why the Zhengyi Sect arranges for Foundation Establishment Realm disciples to participate in the Secret Realm Examination.

After all, it's fine not to fight or argue with your own people, but if you remain so amicable when bullied by outsiders in the future, then there will be big problems.

The calamity predicted by Gu Xiu Wang Han could not be predicted when it would arrive.

The reason why the Zhengyi Sect arranged such a harsh secret realm for this competition is to allow the disciples of the sect to get used to the fierce competition in advance.

Racing against time, the three who were already leading the rankings did not slack off in the slightest and continued to search in the lake, which might hold countless Spirit Pearls.

During her search, Han Lu diligently collected creatures that roamed the seabed, and managed to collect quite a few octopuses and squids the size of her palm.

After collecting a full twelve, she specially took out various spices that she had somehow put into her storage bag and used ordinary magical flames to cook a barbecue for Yi Qiyan and Wen Erya.

Just as Yi Qiyan said, Han Lu is indeed not cut out to be a chef.

In this respect, Yi Qiyan and Feng Rubing share the same view.

Even with the help of numerous spices to enhance the flavor, this barbecue is still barely edible.

But Yi Qiyan and Wen Erya ate with great relish, praising it repeatedly.

"This can barely be considered keeping my word," Han Lu thought to herself as she ate the slightly dry grilled squid.

During this time, they also saw two other teams exploring the bottom of the lake, doing the same work as the three of them.

Because Han Lu and Wen Erya were famous figures in the sect, the team members, though strangers to each other, still exchanged a few words in a friendly manner.

When they learned that Han Lu and the others had found dozens of Spirit Rhinoceros Pearls, they were full of praise and jokingly asked the three of them to share their experiences and insights.

When Han Lu learned that the other group only had five Spirit Beads in their storage bag, she also gained a general understanding of the efficiency of the other groups.

Compared to the powerful trio of Han Lu, Wen Erya, and Yi Qiyan, the other teams searching for the Spirit Pearl at the bottom of the lake were in a much more miserable situation.

They are at the bottom of the lake, and like Han Lu and the other two, their combat power will be reduced due to the environmental influences.

With their already mediocre combat strength further reduced, they inevitably had to be cautious when facing the monsters at the bottom of the lake, lest they be killed instead of hunting.

Naturally, the efficiency of collecting Spirit Beads decreased.

The atmosphere was pleasant. If the three of them hadn't been so engrossed in the activity, it would have felt more like a day trip to the bottom of the lake than an adventure into a perilous secret realm.

With a good mindset, luck is unstoppable.

During the nearly ten hours they spent exploring the bottom of the lake, the three of them managed to defeat a total of fifteen monsters.

Of these fifteen demonic beasts, only eight were favored by the Golden Core Elder, who considered them suitable "guardian beasts" to protect the Spirit Rhinoceros Pearls. He entrusted a portion of the Spirit Rhinoceros Pearls that he was responsible for placing to them, and placed them in the lairs of these demonic and spiritual beasts.

Perhaps the Golden Core elder who placed the Spirit Beads had obsessive-compulsive disorder or a penchant for rounding up, because the eight sets of Spirit Beads that the three of them received all contained exactly five beads.

With about half an hour left before the end of the first day, the three of them had already found a total of forty-eight Spirit Rhinoceros Pearls in the lake.

Such efficiency was something Han Lu never expected when she initially decided to explore this great lake.

They searched nearly two-thirds of the area of ​​this great lake.

Before the twelfth hour in the secret realm ended, Han Lu hesitated for a long time before leading her two friends away from the lake, which was once a fertile virgin land but had been over-cultivated into barren soil.

There's treasure at the bottom of the lake; many teams could sense it.

As the search efficiency decreased, Han Lu felt it was better to leave sooner and seek new fertile ground, rather than wasting time here more efficiently.

Having worked together in the secret realm for twelve hours, Yi Qiyan and Wen Erya became even more determined to have Han Lu as their leader, and naturally had no objections whatsoever.

After leaving the bottom of the lake, the three of them finally breathed in the fresh air of the secret realm again after ten hours.