141: Chapter 141 Encountering a Fight

Yet, he did not lower his guard because of this. Records in the classics indicated that this seemingly dead and peaceful Gobi was actually fraught with hidden crises and lurking murderous intent.

Deep within the Black Withered Gobi resided over a dozen species of Yao Beasts unique to the Secret Realm. Most were at the Early Stage or Middle Stage of the Second Rank, corresponding to the strength of Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivators, possessing strange movement techniques and fierce combat power.

Once an ordinary Foundation Establishment Initial Stage Cultivator who had just entered the Secret Realm encountered them, being able to escape unscathed was already a stroke of great fortune.

Furthermore, the underground of the Gobi was riddled with ancient hidden Restrictions and trapping Formation patterns. Once one carelessly stepped into them and became trapped within the Formation, every step would be perilous, and it would be extremely difficult to escape.

However, this desolate Gobi also hid unique Opportunities.

This place nurtured several rare Spiritual Plants rarely seen in the outside world. Among them, the Ink-Veined Withered Spirit Grass and Red-Steel Rock-Heart Flower were the two main ingredients for refining the Guyuan Pill, a core Spirit Pill that enhanced the cultivation of Foundation Establishment Stage Late Stage and Foundation Establishment Peak Cultivators. They were the scarce Materials currently most suitable for him to improve his cultivation and stabilize his Dao foundation.

It was just that these two types of Spiritual Plants were hidden deep beneath strange rocks and in blind spots of Gale Winds, making their traces difficult to find and extremely hard to search for.

Even so, this was the greatest harvest and hope that this dangerous Gobi could bring him.

Li Changqing looked around at the vast and dead Gobi. He raised his hand to take out the Secret Realm map he had purchased from the Tianxuan Market, tapped it lightly with his fingertip, and carefully compared and analyzed his position.

If he were to follow his original plan to travel from here to the heart of the Secret Realm where the Foundation Establishment Stage Opportunities were more abundant, he would need to head west, exit the Black Withered Gobi, and successively pass through the three regions of the Multi-Lake Group, the Miasma Swamp, and the Strange Beast Forest before he could reach the middle layer of the Secret Realm, the Qingxia Mountain region where Foundation Establishment Cultivators gathered.

This was the closest route to the Qingxia Mountain region, but even so, the entire journey was still over two hundred thousand miles long.

In the outside world, a Foundation Establishment Cultivator flying at full speed without rest could cover the entire distance in less than a month.

But in this ancient and dangerous Secret Realm, every step held a crisis, every inch of land hid murderous intent. Every movement and flight had to be extremely cautious, and the time required to reach the destination was impossible to estimate.

Wishing to traverse the Black Withered Gobi to reach the Qingxia Mountains meant a long journey. With Yao Beasts running rampant, ancient Restrictions spread everywhere, and murderous intent lurking within the Secret Realm, Li Changqing had to keep his mind tense throughout the journey, not daring to have the slightest slack.

With his mind made up, Li Changqing did not hesitate any longer. True Qi circulated around his body as he cast the Breath-Restraining Technique and the Hidden Spirit Art, concealing his Foundation Establishment Late Stage cultivation to the Foundation Establishment Initial Stage. He then took out a Second Rank Invisibility Talisman and attached it to his body.

The Hidden Spirit Art, a Profound Rank Spirit Technique, had already been cultivated by him to the Minor Achievement Realm, allowing him to hide two minor Realms of cultivation. Given his current cultivation, unless a Foundation Establishment Cultivator possessed a special Spirit Body or had practiced high-level pupil techniques, they would not be able to see through his concealment.

With these dual measures, it was enough to avoid the blood-Qi perception of the vast majority of Yao Beasts and the Divine Sense detection of Cultivators.

After completing all preparations, he leaped into the air, identified the due west direction, and flew steadily through the air.

During the flight, he kept his Divine Sense spread out in all directions, constantly alert to any unusual Spiritual Qi movements. Whenever there was the slightest strange fluctuation, he would immediately stop to investigate and carefully discern it.

This cautious method of investigation significantly slowed down his speed, but it also allowed him to turn danger into safety several times, precisely avoiding several Formation Restrictions hidden beneath the Gobi.

Traveling rapidly, Li Changqing flew nearly a thousand miles without encountering any danger. Along the way, he only caught glimpses of two or three rocky hills where strange, unique wild grasses of the Secret Realm grew sporadically.

During this time, his Divine Sense captured a few faint traces of Yao Beast Spiritual Qi fluctuations. After a slight identification, he knew it was just ordinary Yao Beasts entrenched in the Gobi, so he did not stop and decisively detoured to flee. Since entering the Secret Realm, he had not yet encountered any fellow Cultivators.

Every time the Taixu Secret Realm opened, the major Sects and countless forces of the Juxing Domain would send Disciples to enter for treasure hunting and training.

It was estimated that hundreds of thousands of Cultivators entered each time it opened. While this number seemed huge, when spread across this vast, boundless Secret Realm, they appeared sparse and extremely few.

One had to know that the overall territory of this Taixu Secret Realm was millions of miles in radius, vast and boundless.

After countless years of exploration, the compiled records of Cultivators who had entered the Secret Realm throughout history had divided the Secret Realm into dozens of independent regions with different landscapes and varying murderous intent, each named and marked, leaving behind a complete Secret Realm map that provided great reference and convenience for later generations of Cultivators exploring the Secret Realm.

While flying through the air, Li Changqing always kept his Divine Sense raised, guarding all directions.

He had always been steady and cautious by nature, and being in such an ancient dangerous place where life and death were uncertain, he pushed his vigilance to the extreme, eliminating any possibility of being ambushed by Yao Beasts or Cultivators.

Although he could not precisely determine his specific location in the Black Withered Gobi at this moment, he firmly remembered the directional rule recorded on the map—as long as he traveled due west, he would inevitably be able to walk out of this desolate Gobi.

Just as Li Changqing was flying steadily and moving forward cautiously, a fierce battle was taking place directly ahead, dozens of miles away.

A burly man wearing a black brocade-patterned robe was entangled in a fight with a Secret Realm Yao Beast. The man and the beast both launched fierce attacks, trading blows back and forth, and the battle was deadlocked, making it difficult to determine the winner.

The burly man was eight feet tall, with a tiger's back and a bear's waist, a face full of thick whiskers, and a fierce and overbearing Aura.

He controlled two seven-colored Spirit Pythons with glowing scales all over their bodies, and a Medium Grade Spiritual Artifact with biting cold light hovered around him. Layer upon layer of attacks sealed off the area, trapping a giant Rock-Armor Scorpion about a zhang long, launching continuous attacks.

This Rock-Armor Scorpion was covered in thick, dark, and hard armor, its tail hook was an eerie crimson, and its sharpness was bone-piercing. It was actually a genuine Second Rank Late Stage Yao Beast, with combat power comparable to a Foundation Establishment Late Stage Cultivator.

The Spiritual Artifact in the burly man's hand slashed onto the scorpion armor, only able to spark a sky full of starlight, completely unable to break through its defense or damage its Origin.

The Rock-Armor Scorpion was incomparably fierce, continuously spitting out billowing black poisonous mist from its mouth, which was foul-smelling and pungent. Wherever the poisonous mist passed, Spiritual Qi dissolved, forcing the two Second Rank Middle Stage seven-colored Spirit Pythons to retreat repeatedly, not daring to approach.

If not for the burly man using his Medium Grade Spiritual Artifact to continuously distract and slash at it, protecting the Spirit Pythons, these two Spirit Pythons would have long since died in the scorpion's mouth.

At this moment, Li Changqing had not yet noticed the commotion of the battle in the distance, still maintaining his concealed posture, flying westward cautiously.

After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, he suddenly stopped his movement, a trace of surprise rising between his brows, his gaze locked tightly on the Void Realm ahead.

His vast and detailed Divine Sense clearly captured that several miles ahead, several violent and intersecting Spiritual Qi fluctuations were rising into the sky; it was clearly a Cultivator and a Yao Beast in a fierce battle.

He did not rashly urge his Divine Sense to conduct a forceful investigation. This place belonged to the activity area of Foundation Establishment Cultivators, and the Divine Sense of every Cultivator was extremely powerful. Rashly prying would easily be detected by the other party, exposing his own tracks for no reason.

He did not expect that shortly after entering the Secret Realm, he would encounter a scene of Cultivators fighting.