118: Chapter 118 Taixu Secret Realm

Finally, resting quietly in his hand was the palm-sized, ancient-patterned token he had obtained from the first stone chamber.

Li Changqing picked up the token, his fingertips brushing over its mottled patterns.

The information from the Jade Slip he had just checked instantly matched—this was a token for the Taixu Secret Realm!

The so-called Taixu Secret Realm was an ancient Secret Realm territory left over from the primordial era, a supreme land of Opportunity belonging solely to the Juxing Domain.

Cultivators of the three major Realms of Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, and Golden Core could all enter it.

No one knew how many eons this Secret Realm had stood; to this day, the surviving ancient records and collections of the Juxing Domain had long since become blurred and fragmented, and its Origins were impossible to verify.

However, the ancient legends passed down since time immemorial were indisputable: the Secret Realm contained the accumulation of endless years, with countless Heaven And Earth Treasures piled up and ancient relics hidden everywhere.

All kinds of out-of-print Spirit Pills, extinct Spiritual Plants, top-tier Artifact Refining materials, and lost ancient Cultivation Techniques were available, all of which were peerless treasures that had long since lost their heritage in the outside world and were hard to find even once in a millennium.

The emergence of any single item from the Secret Realm was enough to make countless Golden Core Cultivators in the outside world green with envy, causing them to tear off their masks and fight to the death without hesitation.

If a Cultivator had deep good fortune and was blessed by Luck, and happened to stumble upon a hidden Immortal Cave or ancient Legacy, they might even have the chance to inherit the complete mantle and lifelong Daoist orthodoxy of an ancient great expert, breaking through their own cultivation shackles in one fell swoop and stepping onto a Heaven-Defying path.

There was a record in the unofficial history of the Juxing Domain: in ancient times, a down-and-out Cultivator with low cultivation accidentally stumbled into the Taixu Secret Realm and unexpectedly found an Immortal Cave of a great expert that had been sealed for eons and never before trodden by anyone.

Inside that Immortal Cave, there were several pieces of heaven-reaching Spirit Treasures, ancient life-bound treasures, and peerless inheritance Cultivation Techniques alone.

That Cultivator used the Opportunity of the Immortal Cave to be reborn overnight, their cultivation increased greatly, and they roamed the Secret Realm territory, killing fiercely, rarely meeting an opponent within the same rank, their reputation shaking the region.

And the fundamental reason why the entire Juxing Domain's Cultivators flocked to and crazily yearned for the Taixu Secret Realm, besides these conventional treasures, was that the Secret Realm territory contained rare, high-level life-extending Spirit Medicines that had long since become completely extinct in the outside world.

Such uniquely blessed Heaven-Defying resources were not only the cultivation foundation that Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment Cultivators dreamed of, but even Golden Core Cultivators who sat in charge of a region and possessed profound cultivation also yearned for them, eager to enter to search for treasures and Opportunities, to solidify their Dao foundation, and to advance their Dao.

However, a place of supreme Opportunity must be accompanied by supreme, fatal danger.

Deep within the Taixu Secret Realm, ancient killing Formations and Restrictions left over from eons past were everywhere, layered, hidden in the Void Realm, formless and faceless, impossible to guard against.

Once one carelessly fell into a restricted killing trap, there was no chance of survival, and being able to luckily escape with one's life was already a huge Opportunity.

Compared to the cold and dead silent Formations and Restrictions, what truly slaughtered countless Cultivators were the ancient exotic Yao Beasts and mutated plants that had occupied the Secret Realm for eons and bred for generations.

Deep in the Secret Realm, high-level Yao Beasts ran rampant, and there were a great number of them; Second-rank fierce Yao were visible everywhere, with strong physiques and monstrous ferocity, and even more terrifying Third-rank Yao Beasts were not in the minority.

They were bloodthirsty and violent, with monstrous ferocity, and were accustomed to killing; they were the most terrifying roaming killing intent within the Secret Realm.

The entire Taixu Secret Realm territory was vast and boundless, magnificent and expansive, with an overall territory several times larger than Huangfeng Prefecture.

Even for top-tier Cultivators with profound movement techniques and cultivation reaching the Golden Core Peak, it was normal to exhaust several years of time just to thoroughly traverse the entire Secret Realm territory.

In ordinary times, the Taixu Secret Realm was sealed for eons, and no one could step foot in it.

The Zhuxuan Locking Heaven Formation, which had existed since time immemorial, coiled around the border of the Secret Realm, covered in Dao patterns, with walls reaching the sky and the Dao sealing the Void Realm, as solid as a golden soup.

Even a top-tier great expert at the Soul Transformation Stage, using their full strength, could not forcibly break the Restriction and enter even half a step.

The Origins of such a supreme sealing Formation that had isolated the ages were a mystery, and the Juxing Domain only retained one ancient rumor: it was personally set up by a supreme great expert from the Juxing Domain in ancient times whose cultivation had transcended the shackles of the Soul Transformation Stage.

Time had washed over the ages, and the truth could no longer be verified, leaving only the Secret Realm to exist forever, its Seal immortal.

The Taixu Secret Realm possessed a mysterious Heavenly Dao iron Law that even great experts found difficult to fathom: every two or three hundred years, the sealing Formation at the edge of the Secret Realm would undergo a periodic loosening.

Whenever the Secret Realm was about to open, several magnificent and ancient cross-world teleportation Formations would appear out of thin air between the cracks of the Formation.

Only Cultivators holding the exclusive Taixu token could use the power of the teleportation Formation to step into this supreme Secret Realm.

Moreover, these Secret Realm teleportation Formations did not exist forever, only lasting for a short month.

When the one-month time limit ended, the heaven and earth Seal instantly re-condensed, the Formation hid in the Void Realm, leaving no trace, and the Secret Realm returned to its eternal silence once more.

In other words, the entire Juxing Domain's Cultivators only had this one-month window period to race against time and compete to enter the Secret Realm to seize Opportunities.

Once a Cultivator stepped into the Taixu Secret Realm, they had to stay there for a full ten years.

Once the ten-year time limit arrived, the Secret Realm's Heavenly Dao rules would operate autonomously, and invisible Dao power would sweep across the entire territory, teleporting all remaining Cultivators back to the teleportation point where they had entered.

For millions of years, this rule had never been disordered, never mistaken, and had remained the same since time immemorial.

Besides this, the Taixu Secret Realm also had a bizarre Heavenly Dao Law that even Nascent Soul and Soul Transformation great experts could not fully deduce even after exhausting their years:

Cultivators of different Realms had strictly divided exclusive activity areas, and it was absolutely forbidden to trespass across boundaries.

Once one forcibly crossed the regional boundary, the Secret Realm's Heavenly Dao would instantly suppress their body, forcibly suppressing the Cultivator's cultivation to the level corresponding to that area, leaving less than one out of ten of their Divine Abilities and sealing their Dao power.

For example, if a Foundation Establishment Cultivator forcibly broke into the area exclusive to Qi Refining Cultivators, their Foundation Establishment cultivation would be instantly stripped and sealed, forcibly dropping to the Qi Refining Realm, with their combat power plummeting.

This bizarre and overbearing Secret Realm rule had not changed for eons.

Countless Nascent Soul and Soul Transformation Stage Cultivators of the Juxing Domain had devoted themselves to deduction and bitter searching, but they were never able to penetrate its Origin, and could only obey the Heavenly Dao and abide by the rules.

"Taixu Secret Realm..."

Li Changqing whispered in his heart.

Once this matter was concluded and he left this place, he would definitely go to the Wanxiang Tower to find out the exact opening date of the Taixu Secret Realm.

He had already made up his mind—if the timing was right, he would definitely venture into this ancient Secret Realm Opportunity, fearless of danger, and move forward without hesitation.

After a full hour of adjusting his breath and resting, the faint Spiritual Qi circulating around his body returned to his limbs and bones, Li Changqing's chaotic internal breath was completely calmed, his consumed physical strength and Divine Sense were fully restored, and his body returned to its Peak Perfection state.

His gaze swept over this hidden Immortal Cave where he had temporarily stayed, and with a roll of spiritual light from his fingertips, all items of value left in the Immortal Cave, such as Spirit Stones, Spiritual Materials, and miscellaneous Magical Artifacts, were all swept up by an invisible suction force and taken into his storage ring, leaving nothing behind.