292: Chapter 293 Shocking Sagiri for a Hundred Years

If not for the sudden encounter today, according to her original trajectory, Sagiri would have, at some uncertain date in the future, joined her companions—who were equally filled with resentment—to use the meager magic crystals saved from begging to exchange for a few pieces of low-quality white-tier equipment and the lowest-tier skill book. Then, with trepidation and faint hope, she would have risked escaping Stanro City to head for the legendary, perilous, and life-threatening surface world.

However, at her most disheveled and desperate moment, the wheels of fate were forcibly turned by an incomprehensible force. Now, let alone saving up enough magic crystals or procuring equipment, she wasn't even mentally prepared, yet she was about to be taken directly to the surface by this mysterious and powerful master—and the destination was, shockingly, a high-level secret realm she had never dared to imagine before!

How could she not tremble with fear? She was merely a Level 1 Barrier Master with an E-rank Talent. Let alone facing the monsters within a secret realm, even a random ordinary beast wandering on the surface could easily take her life.

"Could this young master who took me in have some peculiar hobby?" An even worse thought sprouted uncontrollably. "Does he want to watch me being chased, teased, or even ravaged by monsters, taking pleasure in it?"

In her limited understanding, to possess the ability to so easily suppress noble scions and walk calmly with two stunningly beautiful girls, Lin Muyang's status must be incredibly noble. Even if he wasn't a noble in the traditional sense now, he was destined to be a big shot standing at the pinnacle of the world, unreachable by ordinary people in the future. Such an existence had unfathomable thoughts; perhaps he had long been indifferent to the life, death, and suffering of bottom-tier ants like them, or even found amusement in it.

Thinking of this, Sagiri's heart grew colder, and her body trembled even more violently. But she also understood that from the moment she was taken out of that alley and stepped into this luxurious hotel, she had no way back. The cable of fate had been firmly tied to this mysterious ship; the cabin was sealed, the course was unknown, and the only thing she could do was grit her teeth, brace herself, and let this ship take her anywhere, even if it were the abyss.

However, when she changed into the clothes provided by Gui Wanwan and walked out of the bedroom with trepidation, she did not see the expected mockery, greed, or cruelty in Lin Muyang's eyes. The other party's gaze remained calm, only brightening slightly as it swept over her, seemingly with slight approval of her refreshed appearance. But that gaze quickly moved away, refocusing outside the window with a look of focused contemplation.

Sagiri looked down at herself. The lightweight fabric perfectly outlined the delicate curves of the girl who had just begun to develop. To facilitate movement, Gui Wanwan had also given her a pair of sheer, thin stockings. Sagiri had never worn such things before; the silky, cool sensation wrapping around her legs made her feel very awkward. She subconsciously kept her legs tightly together, and her hands hung stiffly by her sides with nowhere to rest.

"Let's go."

Lin Muyang didn't say much, just raised his right hand and pressed it lightly into the air.

Hum—

An invisible, indescribable force field instantly expanded with him at the center, shrouding himself, Alice, Gui Wanwan, and Sagiri. Sagiri only felt the surrounding light distort for a moment, and her own body became light, as if it had lost some weight. She looked down and was surprised to find that the figures of herself, Alice, and Gui Wanwan began to rapidly become transparent and illusory, and after a few seconds, they actually disappeared from sight completely!

Immediately after, Gui Wanwan raised her small hand and tapped lightly towards Sagiri. An energy shield, emitting a faint ice-blue halo and flowing with mysterious runes, quietly emerged, like an inverted bowl, protecting Sagiri from head to toe. The shield felt slightly cool to the touch, yet it brought an unprecedented sense of security.

"Power of Wind Control, rise." Lin Muyang said in a low voice, and a gentle yet irresistible force lifted Sagiri, causing her feet to slightly leave the ground, hovering in mid-air.

Before Sagiri could exclaim, another strange fluctuation swept past. She felt that the sense of presence of her body seemed to become even thinner, as if she had developed a strange sense of detachment from the surrounding space and matter.

The next instant—

The scene before her eyes was as if wiped away violently by an invisible giant hand, and then instantly repainted! The luxurious room of the hotel, the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, the brilliant city lights outside the window... all scenes blurred, stretched, and disappeared in an instant!

Sagiri felt a slight wave of dizziness, as if passing through a layer of cool water film. When she steadied herself on the ground again and saw the scene before her, her pupils suddenly contracted, and her heart almost stopped beating.

Emerald green! Her eyes were filled with a heart-palpitating, unnatural, thick emerald green!

They were shockingly situated in the middle of a strange and dangerous forest. But what composed this forest were not ordinary trees, but plants several meters high with bizarre and ferocious forms! They had deep green vine trunks as thick as pythons, and at the top bloomed huge, enchantingly colored purple-red flowers. The center of the flower was not a stamen, but a terrifying mouthpart filled with spiral sharp teeth, constantly dripping with foul-smelling mucus! These flowers swayed slowly without wind, emitting a nauseating, sickly-sweet, rotten odor. As the mouthparts opened and closed, one could vaguely see the bone fragments of unknown creatures remaining inside.

"It's... it's the Venomous Man-Eating Flower! A legendary-grade species!" Sagiri's voice became sharp and distorted due to extreme fear; she recognized these terrifying plant monsters. In the dangerous surface area guide circulating in Stanro City, this sea of toxic saliva flowers was marked as an extremely dangerous red forbidden zone! Although these Venomous Man-Eating Flowers could not move, the venom they sprayed was enough to corrode steel, the strangling power of their vines could snap the bones of giant beasts, and even more terrifying was the sickly-sweet poisonous mist they emitted that could paralyze nerves. Even experienced Class Transferee squads with levels exceeding two hundred would never dare to easily set foot here.

And they had actually appeared directly in the core area of this sea of flowers! In all directions, wherever her eyes could see, there were only the slowly twisting trunks of man-eating flowers and those open, terrifying mouthparts that seemed to lead to hell! Sagiri felt as if all the blood in her body was about to freeze.

But immediately after, she discovered something even more incredible.

They were clearly standing in the center of this sea of flowers, less than a dozen meters away from the nearest few man-eating flowers, yet these notorious monsters showed absolutely no reaction to them! Those slowly rotating flower-disk mouthparts were not turned towards them, and the vines hung quietly, as if they were just a few lifeless stones.

"In... invisibility?" Sagiri understood instantly; it was that magical ability from before that made her body transparent! "But... but..."

She was even more shocked. These Venomous Man-Eating Flowers were Level 277 legendary-grade monsters! Their perception ability was extremely powerful, naturally possessing a not-insignificant anti-invisibility level, at least thirty or forty levels! This meant that ordinary invisibility skills were almost ineffective in front of them. Being able to perfectly cloak in such a group of monsters of this level meant that the person casting the invisibility skill must have a skill level or additional invisibility effect of at least over three hundred levels? Or even higher?

"Could... could he be over level three hundred? Or even four or five hundred?" Sagiri swallowed with difficulty, looking at Lin Muyang's excessively young and calm profile beside her, feeling that her perception had been completely subverted. In Atlantis, leveling up was extremely difficult; level three hundred was already the top combat power for many small and medium-sized floating cities, level four hundred was enough to become a regional overlord, and level five hundred was even a legendary existence. And this one before her who looked like he was only eighteen or nineteen... how could it be possible?

What made her feel even more incredulous was that such a young, peerless powerhouse showed no signs of aging at all? Was it a gifted talent, a technique for maintaining youth, or was his growth speed so fast that he hadn't spent much time in the process of reaching such a terrifying level?

Just as Sagiri's brain was in a mess, trying to understand this fact that completely exceeded her imagination, Lin Muyang had already started walking. He seemed to turn a blind eye to the ferocious man-eating flowers around him, heading straight towards a certain direction deep in the sea of flowers. Alice and Gui Wanwan followed closely behind, and Sagiri was also pulled by that gentle force, floating forward involuntarily.

After walking only a few dozen steps, in the thick emerald green color ahead, a discordant, constantly twisting and rotating dark red halo suddenly appeared. It was a spatial portal about three meters in diameter, like a vortex of blood, with ominous dark red light flowing at the edges, emitting stable and powerful spatial fluctuations that were incompatible with the natural poison-type energy emitted by the surrounding man-eating flowers.

Originally, Lin Muyang wanted to first let Sagiri see what an epic-rank secret realm was like, but he didn't expect to have an unexpected joy on the way.

"legendary-rank secret realm entrance, Blood Vine Dungeon, Level 77, 24-person scale." Gui Wanwan's cold voice sounded directly in Sagiri's mind, explaining to her the origin of the object before her.

Sagiri knew that in Atlantis, humans rarely came to conquer such secret realms that had already been occupied by monster species. Because the cost of clearing out the outer monsters was high, and the output within the secret realm might not be worth the consumption. Over time, many low-to-mid-level secret realms became part of the monster ecosystem, and some monster species even relied on devouring the monsters that periodically surged out of the secret realm to survive, forming a unique secret realm-monster food chain that had continued on this land for hundreds of years.

A subtle and fragile balance had formed between humans and surface monsters. As long as the monsters did not actively launch large-scale attacks on the floating cities, humans were too lazy to spend huge costs to clear out these troublesome local bullies. After all, nobody knew if annihilating one species would attract more troublesome neighbors, or allow other monster forces to take advantage of the situation and grow stronger.

"Let's go, go in." Lin Muyang stopped in front of the secret realm entrance, didn't look back, just said faintly, and then took the first step, stepping into the constantly rotating dark red vortex, his figure instantly swallowed.

Alice and Gui Wanwan did not hesitate at all, following closely behind.

Sagiri looked at the secret realm vortex that seemed like the mouth of a giant beast, and then looked at the surrounding Venomous Man-Eating Flowers that were close at hand and seemed ready to pounce at any moment, knowing that she had no choice. She closed her eyes, steeled her heart, and was also pushed by that force, rushing into the vortex.

A brief sensation of weightlessness and spatial disorientation came.

When Sagiri opened her eyes again, she found herself in a completely different environment.

The air was filled with a thick smell of blood and the sour stench of rotting plants. Under her feet was dark red, soft soil that seemed to be soaked in blood, and all around were cave walls formed by twisted, knotted, large dark red vines that wriggled like blood vessels. Countless sticky aerial roots dripping with scarlet liquid hung down from the cave ceiling. The light was extremely dim, with only some moss on the cave walls emitting a faint dark red fluorescence to provide weak illumination. This was the interior of the "Blood Vine Dungeon" secret realm.

And the secret realm information she had just received in her mind caused her already chaotic thoughts to directly crash.

【Blood Vine Dungeon (legendary-grade)】

【Entry Level: Level 77】

【Recommended Number of People: 24】

【Introduction: An underground cave eroded by the roots of ancient evil plants, inhabited by bloodthirsty vine monsters and their twisted symbionts...】

Level 77?

This secret realm required an entry level of 77!

Sagiri turned her head abruptly, looking at Lin Muyang, who had already stood still in front of her and was observing the surrounding environment, and then looked at Alice and Gui Wanwan, who were calm and composed beside him.

"He... they... how could they possibly enter?!" An absurd question exploded in her mind like a thunderclap.

If Lin Muyang was really as she guessed, possessing a level of three hundred or even higher, then he could absolutely not satisfy the entry condition of Level 77! Any secret realm had strict level restrictions; being lower or higher than the level range meant one could not enter, this was an iron rule!

Most importantly, she, a Level 1, had also entered!