The Long Journey to Immortality

Han Lu could easily understand the three people's thoughts.

Back then, whenever Yuan Xin participated in a major competition, he would always try to instill this "down-to-earth" and "pragmatic" mindset in Feng Bailu.

Since the other party did not want to buy, Wen Erya no longer asked herself to be the good guy.

After taking out all the Spirit Beads from the storage bag and counting them again to make sure nothing was missing, Han Lu and the other two flew away on their swords to search for new prey elsewhere.

Seeing Han Lu and the other two leave, the three unlucky guys finally felt relieved and began to recover from their injuries. They quickly made plans for the next two days.

The three decided to each carry a Spirit Bead, split up temporarily, and hide carefully. Even if two of them were unlucky and ran into others, they could at least bring one Spirit Bead back to the Zhengyi Sect.

Judging from the current situation, there will be quite a few teams that leave the secret realm early or are robbed of all their Spirit Beads at the end.

Even a single Spirit Bead would be enough to satisfy the three of them.

This approach is rather "humble," but given the lack of strength, it's the only option.

After playing the role of heroes who punished evil and promoted good, Han Lu and the other two flew a short distance towards the lake and rested for the time being in a scenic spot by the lake.

This wasn't because the three Foundation Establishment cultivators needed to rest due to the significant depletion of their spiritual energy from the recent battle, but rather because they planned to use a technique recorded in the token to find the Spirit Rhinoceros Pearl, thus aiding their subsequent journey to collect it.

The technique for finding the Spirit Pearl is simple, but it has many limitations.

First, it requires three people to perform the spell simultaneously, and it requires a full fifty Spirit Beads as a catalyst for the spell to be successfully cast.

After the spell is cast, it will guide the caster to a general area within a radius of a hundred miles where at least ten Spirit Rhinoceros Pearls have gathered, thus providing direction for the caster.

Because all the Spirit Beads placed in the secret realm by the Golden Core Elders are protected by arrays, this technique can only be used to search for Spirit Beads that have been stored in the storage bags of cultivators from other groups.

And given the quantity limit of fifty or ten tokens, the reason why this technique was recorded in the token is obvious.

This is to enable stronger teams to quickly find opponents of comparable strength, initiate battles, and plunder their Spirit Beads.

In the view of most sect elders, only in this way can the grand competition of the secret realm subjects become intense and achieve the results they want.

The three of them stopped at a relatively quiet lakeside clearing and spent a quarter of an hour learning the spells recorded in the token.

Yi Qiyan first set up a simple magic array to protect the three of them. Then Wen Erya counted out fifty spirit beads from her storage bag, took them out, and placed them in the middle of the circle formed by the three of them, as a catalyst and material needed to cast spells.

As the incantation was recited, crimson spiritual energy, the same color as the Spirit Rhinoceros Pearls, was released from the three people, completely enveloping the fifty Spirit Rhinoceros Pearls.

The Spiritual Beads, imbued with spiritual energy, trembled slightly, colliding with each other and making a "ding-ding" sound.

The spell lasted for about half a minute before getting to the main point.

After the crimson spiritual energy was completely tainted by the aura of the Spirit Rhinoceros Pearl, it became like powder, floating in the air and scattering in all directions with the help of an invisible force.

Ignoring the magic array surrounding Han Lu and the other two, the crimson powder spread outwards at an extremely fast speed.

For the first hundred meters, these crimson colors in the air can still be clearly seen.

But after spreading out for four or five hundred meters, this dust-like crimson color had become extremely thin and the color was no longer visible.

It's easy to imagine that cultivators ten or a hundred miles away, who were sensed by this technique, would not know about it.

He had already been marked by this tracking spell, and was now completely exposed to Han Lu and her group's perception, becoming the predator's hunting target.

“It’s done,” Han Lu said, looking up at the dust scattering in all directions. “However, it will take some time for it to spread to a hundred miles away.”

"Then let's stay here and wait for the result." Wen Erya took out a tea table, a tea set, and a small tin of tea from her storage bag, clearly intending to brew tea for her two friends and patiently wait for time to pass while they drank the tea.

About fifteen minutes later, under the influence of a mysterious force, the powder completed its exploration of the aura of the Spirit Rhinoceros Pearl within a radius of a hundred miles.

Some time passed before the intelligence was relayed back.

When the three of them had drunk their third cup of tea, the scattered red powder finally returned, bringing them firsthand information.

The dust settled, forming three lines of symbols. Han Lu deciphered them one by one using the "dictionary" she obtained after refining the token, and arrived at her final conclusion.

"Senior sister, within a radius of a hundred miles, besides us, there are three other teams that possess more than ten Spirit Beads."

"A quarter of an hour ago, their positions were respectively..."

After pointing in three directions, Han Lu continued, "According to the feedback, one team has around twenty Spirit Beads, while the other two teams each have slightly more than ten."

"Whom should we go and cause trouble for?"

[Author's Note] With the workday now set at two days a week, returning to work is just around the corner.

Chapter 530 The Return of the Spear

The choice Han Lu posed was actually asking Wen Erya to choose the "difficulty" of the next game.

However, having more Spirit Beads does not necessarily mean a stronger team.

However, in secret realms, opportunities are sometimes more important than strength.

After the recent act of "punishing evil and promoting good," Wen Erya's thinking has become somewhat different from that of the most orthodox cultivators of the Central Plains.

Naturally, making decisions at this time will be easier and more relaxed.

Wen Erya's idea was quite simple: "Let's choose the team that's closest to us. The number of Spirit Beads doesn't matter."

Then, Wen Erya explained, "The spell just now took about a quarter and a half minutes from start to finish. Even if we only calculate the time it took for the powder to be collected, we only know the approximate location of these three teams about a quarter of an hour ago."

"And if we rush there, we don't know how much time it will take, or how many more spells we'll have to cast."

“If we choose the team that is furthest away, they might have already disappeared by the time we reach the approximate location.”

“It would be better to choose the west,” Wen Erya pointed in a direction, “the army that is only thirty miles away from us.”

"If we hurry up and chase after them now, even if there are some twists and turns along the way, we should be able to catch up with them within an hour."

Finding a team within an hour and obtaining at least ten Spirit Beads is definitely a satisfactory result.

The analysis was reasonable and well-founded. After Yi Qiyan agreed with it for a couple of minutes, the matter was settled.

After finishing the remaining tea, Wen Erya quickly tidied up the Spirit Rhinoceros Pearl, tea set, and tea table. Han Lu and Yi Qi spent some effort erasing the traces of their temporary residence here, so that other teams would not be able to find her whereabouts based on any clues when they used magic to track down the Spirit Rhinoceros Pearl.

The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

Han Lu and her two friends wanted to be the praying mantis, but little did they know that there was a shrew following behind them.

Having a general destination in mind and needing to hurry on their journey, the three of them switched to Yi Qiyan's flying artifact instead of continuing to fly on their swords.

As the Holy Maiden of the Five Poisons Sect, Yi Qiyan possesses many high-quality magical treasures.

The Ark, a top-grade flying magic artifact she currently possesses, is at least three times faster than the three of them when they usually fly on their swords.

This is very appropriate for this situation.

Not to mention that when tracking objects by flight, the three of them need to use the "object-finding spell" several times.

The relatively enclosed environment of the flying artifact is perfect for casting spells that require a long wait.

After Yi Qiyan summoned the ark, the three of them did not linger by the lake.

They traveled quickly and arrived at the approximate location marked by the spell in just five minutes.

Naturally, the other party wouldn't wait for Han Lu and the others to arrive.

Han Lu didn't need to guess; she knew that the unsuspecting team was still exploring the secret realm at a leisurely pace.

Not a single unnecessary word was spoken.

The three gathered in the ark and began to cast spells.

“It should be nearby,” Han Lu said after casting the spell. “At the speed at which a cultivator flies on a sword, it should be no more than ten miles away from us.”

"If you spread these powdery spiritual energies out a couple of miles and then retrieve them, you might at most gain something."

Han Lu spoke with great confidence.

And the actual result after the spell was cast was just as she had expected.

"Sure enough," Han Lu said with a smile after deciphering the runes, "that group of cultivators is now thirteen miles to the north."

"If we use this method, we can catch up with them after casting one or two more spells."

All three had beaming faces, and none of them brought up the possibility of "catching up but not being able to beat them".

There are only three or four teams in the secret realm that the three of them need to take seriously, and the three of them already have a general understanding of them through the information provided by Zhong Wencheng.

However, that just means we need to take it seriously, not that we "can't beat them".

With Han Lu by their side, Wen Erya and Yi Qiyan both felt a strange sense of confidence.

In fact, Wen Erya, who had known Han Lu for five years, felt that even without the two of them, Han Lu might be able to take on three opponents and defeat 99% of the teams in the secret realm.

Setting off again,

This time, when they arrived at the location marked by the spell, Han Lu and the other two found signs of a fight on the ground.

Since no remains of the demon beast were found, Han Lu deduced that two groups of cultivators must have fought a battle here.

"Could it be that this team has been hunted down and their Spirit Rhinoceros Pearl has been stolen?" Han Lu muttered to herself.

Wen Erya shook her head. "It's probably just a chance encounter."

"A team that can obtain ten Spirit Beads must be strong."

"The battle only lasted for a short while before it ended. The result was either one-sided or a brief encounter, with both sides dispersing once they realized that the strength of each other was evenly matched."

"If it were a team with fifty Spirit Beads like ours that were to launch an attack, the battle definitely wouldn't be over in just five minutes."

Wen Erya's analysis made sense. Han Lu nodded slightly and said, "That's right. After a battle, there will be some exhaustion. When we fight again, it will be a little easier."

On the contrary, Han Lu, whose teammates believed her strength was comparable to that of a Golden Core cultivator, was the most cautious member of the team, and was even thinking of "taking advantage of the situation".

Just as the three were about to cast spells again to find their target location, the magical light in the sky not far away caught their attention.

"So that's how it is," Han Lu said, looking up at the sky and noticing six figures faintly visible in the air. "They fought their way from the ground to the sky. No wonder there are only a few traces of the battle left here."

Yi Qiyan laughed and said, "Then can't we just observe and wait from the sidelines like before, and play the role of the fisherman?"

Han Lu shook her head and said, "There's no cover in the sky, and we made quite a commotion when we piloted the Ark. They might already know we're here."

"Then what should we do? Just charge straight in?" Yi Qiyan's hand was already on the storage bag.

Wen Erya had an idea. "How about this, we'll pretend to leave in the Ark, then each of us will attach a talisman and return quietly, concealing our presence."

"This will lower their guard."

Upon hearing Wen Erya's idea, Han Lu and Yi Qiyan couldn't help but laugh.

"Erya, you are truly a genius."