The Long Journey to Immortality

The ark flew swiftly to the hideout of the team that Wen Erya had obtained through divination.

"Where is everyone?" After disembarking from the ark, he looked around and saw a vast grassland where not a single cultivator or even an ordinary animal could be seen.

Chapter 547 Winning People Over with Virtue

There was no sign of any other cultivators at a glance, so it was not that Wen Erya's divination had gone wrong, but rather that the other party had deliberately hidden themselves.

Wen Erya made a "shushing" gesture, then squinted her eyes, held a counting rod, and made her final divination.

The answer came in a short while.

Wen Erya winked at Han Lu and pointed to the ground with the counting rods in her hand.

Han Lu immediately understood and knew where the team that had been predicted was hiding.

With a tap of her storage bag, the Beast Eye appeared in Han Lu's hand.

Energizing her beast eyes, Han Lu unleashed her divine sense, controlling her spirit sword to fly at a low speed, while also probing the ground beneath her feet.

Although they chose to hide underground, they would definitely set up arrays to shield themselves from divine sense in their hiding place.

However, since Wen Erya had already determined the approximate location of the other party through divination, when Han Lu used her divine sense to detect, the array that shielded her divine sense would instead guide her in a general direction.

Wherever divine sense detection is obstructed, making it impossible to see the general situation underground, that must be the hiding place of that team.

Following this line of thought, they searched every inch of the small area, taking about a hundred breaths. Han Lu then waved to Yi Qiyan and Wen Erya to indicate that she had made some progress.

After gesturing to a number, the three of them, as if on cue, each used their own methods to dig three feet into the ground, turning the rotten soil beneath their feet, which clearly showed signs of damage and restoration, upside down.

Nearly a thousand cubic meters of soil were turned over and piled aside. Twenty meters underground, an underground room, reinforced by a protective barrier, finally saw the light of day again and was displayed before Han Lu and the other two.

The three people who were originally sitting in the basement reading and playing chess stared in disbelief at Han Lu and her two companions, who were smiling at them with their arms crossed.

"Senior Sister Han," the other person stammered, having heard of Han Lu's name, "How did you find this place and discover us?"

Han Lu feigned mystery, saying, "It's a secret."

Then, without wasting any time, she shifted the topic to the Spirit Rhinoceros Pearl, "What, there's still more than a day until the competition ends, and you're all leisurely reading books and playing chess here?"

The cultivator who recognized Han Lu chuckled awkwardly and said, "It's because I'm not strong enough. I'm afraid that if I wander around outside, not only will I not be able to find the Spirit Rhinoceros Pearl, but it will also be stolen by someone else."

"That's why I thought of digging a big pit to hide in and waiting for the competition to end in peace."

"Who knew... that it was still discovered by the wise, intelligent, and kind-hearted Senior Sister Han, Senior Sister Wen, and Saintess Yi."

Even a fool would know why Han Lu and the other two were going through all that trouble digging.

Although he didn't know how Han Lu had found him, the cultivator was quite sensible and began to flatter him, saying nice things. He remembered Han Lu and Wen Erya's good reputation within the sect and hoped that Han Lu, Wen Erya, and Yi Qiyan would be lenient and let them off the hook.

Although Han Lu and the other two were not heartless, and had even thought out the terms of the "protection agreement" long ago, they naturally would not turn a blind eye to this matter because of a few words.

Han Lu maintained her smile, "That's well said, but this trick won't work on me."

"Now you have two choices," Han Lu said, holding up her right hand and gesturing a number. "The first option is to fight us. If you lose, you'll have to hand over all the Spirit Pearls."

"As for the token, you can keep it, giving you the opportunity to continue surviving in the secret realm."

Upon hearing the first road, the three cultivators looked embarrassed.

The path Han Lu, this celebrity, chose was not much better than the fate of other teams that seemed intent on devouring their fellow disciples in the Grand Competition Secret Realm.

"The second point..." Han Lu used this approach, first downplaying the issue and then praising it, to make the three of them more willing to accept the protection agreement she and Wen Erya had come up with, thus gaining both fame and fortune.

Sure enough, after Han Lu explained the protection agreement, the three cultivators were quite interested.

"Senior Sister Han, this second route is good, but I want to discuss it with my two teammates first."

Han Lu waved her hand, and the three of them took a few steps back and gathered together to discuss.

Of the three, only two knew how powerful Han Lu and Wen Erya were; the cultivator who was unaware of their reputation still harbored some illusions.

"Second brother, Senior Sister Han's team also has two mid-Foundation Establishment members and one early-Foundation Establishment member, just like our team. Maybe we can defeat them and snatch their Spirit Rhinoceros Pearl."

These words drifted on the wind to Wen Erya's ears.

Wen Erya was not angry; she simply used a little trick to prove her strength.

With a series of clanging sounds, Wen Erya poured out all the Lingxi Pearls from her storage bag to flaunt her wealth.

Seeing over a hundred spirit beads in the hands of Han Lu and her two companions, the cultivator immediately understood their strength and abandoned any thought of direct confrontation.

Given the disparity in strength, and considering the generous terms offered by Han Lu and the other two, there was no need for further discussion.

"Senior Sister Han, let me ask one more question," one of the three cultivators asked before making their choice, "What if you don't keep your promise?"

The question was so naive that Han Lu even laughed out loud.

Yi Qiyan interrupted impatiently, "No need."

These three simple words completely dispelled the concerns of the three cultivators.

"Come on, let's board the ark first, and we can talk more after we get on."

Yi Qiyan's ark-like magical artifact is large enough to easily hold seventy or eighty people.

After tidying up the clutter in the basement room, the three obediently followed Han Lu onto the ark and paid protection money to the three "female bandits".

"How many Spirit Rhinoceros Pearls do you have?" Wen Erya was in charge of this final step.

Seven.

“In that case, give us four of them, and you can move freely in this ark for the rest of the time. We will ensure your safety in the secret realm.”

"Of course, if you want to leave, we won't stop you."

After repeating the key points of the protection agreement, Wen Erya finally accepted the three people's Spirit Beads with a clear conscience.

After being comforted gently, the three found a room in the ark. Once they recovered from their "fright," they resumed their normal routines, some reading, some playing chess, just like they had in the underground room.

With Han Lu and the other two protecting them, the three cultivators who had paid their protection fees acted even more easily than before.

After the deal was completed, Yi Qiyan, who had previously thought the method was somewhat "naive" and "stupid," abandoned any thoughts of opposition.

She could only silently lament the "weakness of the Central Plains cultivators" in her heart, while happily following Han Lu and Wen Erya in this gentle way to harvest the韭菜 (a metaphor for exploiting others).

In just two hours, Han Lu and her two companions had brought a total of fifteen cultivators onto the ark.

If it weren't for that one group of people who weren't cooperating and were still fantasizing about robbing Han Lu and her two companions, Han Lu and her companions could have acted even more efficiently.

With just over a day left before the secret realm closes, Han Lu and her two companions have already collected a total of 213 Spirit Rhinoceros Pearls.

Such a result would have made winning the championship a certainty in the past.

However, this competition was different from the usual ones. Han Lu and her two companions still dared not slack off in the slightest, fearing that there were other powerful teams who might have extraordinary luck and still be ahead of them.

Chapter 548 The Power of the Masses

When Han Lu and her two companions used their "verbal persuasion" to charge reasonable fees and provide protection to the vulnerable groups in the secret realm, they also became thorns in the side of other powerful teams in the secret realm.

With a large number of Spirit Pearls in hand, and having gathered with many other teams also carrying Spirit Pearls, they were all traveling on the same ark.

The aura emitted by the Spirit Rhinoceros Pearl was too strong, which made them a target of envy. Even if others used secret techniques to search for them from three or four hundred miles away, they could still detect their whereabouts.

But because of this, other teams eager to hunt other teams in order to earn Spirit Pearls hold Han Lu and her two companions in extremely high regard.

After all, the relationship between the number of Spirit Beads and strength is basically equivalent in the secret realm.

Avoiding direct confrontation and seeking other opponents is the first choice for these hunters who are not aiming for the championship or first place.

However, there are also teams like Han Lu and her two teammates who are determined to win the championship.

Han Lu and the other two then became the targets they had to challenge.

Defeating Han Lu and her two companions, who possessed a large number of Spirit Beads, became a shortcut for them to win the championship.

No sooner had Han Lu and her two companions invited the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth passengers of the Ark to board the Ark for a price of "three Spiritual Beads" than several cultivators approached them.

Considering that the aura of the Spirit Rhinoceros Pearl represented by Han Lu and the other two was too strong, this time they were approached by a group of people, two teams.

Just as Han Lu and the other two have mouths, they can resolve many things in the secret realm through negotiation and cooperation.

Other teams can also communicate and exchange ideas, or even rely on their usual relationships to sign gentleman's agreements, forming strong alliances to jointly defend against enemies.

This time, the challengers that Han Lu and her two companions encountered were six people who had already agreed to cooperate within the sect. After meeting each other in the secret realm, they confidently relied on their magic to actively seek out the powerful aura of Han Lu and her companions, and came to them, thinking of bullying the weak and taking advantage of their numbers to divide up Han Lu and her companions' Spirit Rhinoceros Pearls.

When the six people blocked the flying boat controlled by Yi Qiyan and challenged her, Han Lu and her two companions, who had just gotten used to harvesting crops peacefully, were quite surprised. At first, they thought that someone had heard about their good deeds and had come to seek protection.

After leaving the ark and meeting face-to-face, Han Lu and the other two finally understood the situation.

“Junior sister, you’re right,” Wen Erya recalled something Han Lu had said a few hours ago, “There really are people who have teamed up, thinking of using numbers to fight against the few, and coming to find us.”

Speaking of outnumbering the enemy, Han Lu suddenly had an interesting and useful idea.

"Senior sister, why don't we go all the way and do good deeds?"

Han Lu's explanation was too vague, and Wen Erya didn't understand at first. "What do you mean?"

"It's a good idea to let our fellow disciples who paid us protection money make a little extra money."

……

Seeing that they had already issued a challenge, but the other side was still not taking it seriously and was chatting away, the six cultivators were very displeased.

"Han Lu, Wen Erya..." They blurted out the names of the two famous figures from the sect. As popular competitors, these six cultivators had naturally studied information about Han Lu and Wen Erya.

When he looked at Yi Qiyan, the cultivator who was in charge of challenging her hesitated, "Yi... Qiyan."

The names of cultivators from the Southern Frontier do indeed differ somewhat from those of cultivators from the Central Plains.

"What? You want to fight? Six against three?" Yi Qiyan felt ignored and slighted, and replied irritably.

Cultivators in the Central Plains, especially those practicing in the Zhengyi Sect, generally value legitimacy in their actions.

The idea of ​​bullying the weak with numbers is unpleasant, so they changed their approach, preferring to lower their stance to make the words more palatable.

"No, it's just that the six of us believe that the three of you are exceptionally strong and need to be taken seriously. That's why we all agreed to come and challenge you."

"What, if you're scared, why not just hand over the Spirit Pearl from your storage bag and avoid a big battle?"

"In that case, if we surrender with courtesy and lay down our arms, we will still retain our place in the competition. We can make money together peacefully. Wouldn't that be wonderful?"

His words made a lot of sense, and he used the same tactic as Han Lu and the other two when they tried to persuade others to surrender.

However, this tactic didn't work on Han Lu and the other two.