107: Time flies

"Make it quick. In a moment, go collect the valuables using my ring."

Zhou Yan tossed the profound ring to Yuan Chenling.

Yuan Chenling used his magic power to support the ring and immediately began sucking all the valuables around him into it.

The Loose Cultivators felt that snatching resources like this was too much, while the Prodigies thought Zhou Yan was far too arrogant.

So, led by the person from before, they gradually gathered together, intending to teach this ignorant brat a lesson.

"Do you think you can take us all on by yourself?"

"I am also a Prodigy, we..."

Thirty minutes later—

"Because we are one family~ A loving family~"

"Sharing blessings together~ Sharing hardships, ah—!"

Zhou Yan delivered an electric shock to a bruised and swollen Prodigy.

"You're off-key even while singing. You call yourself a Prodigy?"

Zhou Yan sat on a large rock, reprimanding them with dissatisfaction.

The members of the "choir" before him were fuming but didn't dare to speak up.

The Prodigy who had just been shocked had already cursed the ancestors of the information brokers eighteen times over in his heart.

Damn it! I'm never believing those unreliable information brokers again!

Didn't they say the highest level in this Secret Realm was only the Foundation Establishment Stage?

Why did such a powerful guy show up? He even has the Divine Sense of the Core Formation Stage!

Then what the hell is the difference between him and the Core Formation Stage!

Just now, as he was about to teach Zhou Yan a lesson, he was suppressed by absolute strength, not even seeing what the other party had done.

He only felt a daze, as if the other person's figure had instantly become extremely tall; the next second, he saw the man already sitting on a rock, watching them leisurely.

At that time, he even wondered why the other person was sitting on the wall.

It wasn't until a sharp pain shot through his body that he realized.

Oh.

It turns out I'm already lying on the ground.

The group realized things were bad and tried to force themselves to flee, but they were firmly locked on by a Divine Sense.

Most of them had seen Core Formation Stage Cultivators before. Although this Divine Sense didn't cover a large area, the qualitative pressure was clear.

Not to mention that in this place where Divine Sense was generally restricted, the fact that the opponent could release it at all was a major problem.

This is definitely a Core Formation Stage expert who snuck in using some unknown method!

After facing reality, they became Zhou Yan's "choir," serving as background music while Yuan Chenling looted.

They could even hear strange tunes coming from that man, perfectly matching the lyrics they sang, making some of the proud young heroes feel incredibly humiliated.

Of course, this sense of humiliation vanished after being electrocuted.

After the shock, they felt completely refreshed and only wanted to sing loudly—definitely not because they were afraid.

"Boss, it's about done," Yuan Chenling whispered after finishing the looting, returning to Zhou Yan's side.

*Slap!*

Zhou Yan slapped him on the head. "How can you be such a beast?"

"Just because you're from the Yao Race doesn't mean you can stop acting like a human altogether, right?"

"Picking up valuables is one thing, but you're even snatching things from these poor Fellow Daoists' hands?"

Yuan Chenling understood Zhou Yan's underlying meaning and immediately put on a wronged expression. "But they took so much, and we've only taken this little bit. If they don't give anything up, wouldn't we be losing out?"

Hearing this, the crowd stared at Yuan Chenling with eyes that looked like they wanted to turn him into Braised Lion's Head Meatballs.

This Yao Race guy is truly wicked!

Zhou Yan punched Yuan Chenling on the head again and lectured, "We of the Joyous Union Sect do things reasonably! They offended us before, so it's perfectly reasonable for me to make them stand there for a while."

"It's also normal for you to take this time to pick up some unwanted items."

"But now you're blatantly robbing them—that's going too far! Isn't that right, everyone?"

Hearing Zhou Yan's words, the crowd could only squeeze out smiles uglier than crying and agreed, "Yes, yes, Fellow Daoist is right. Fellow Daoist is a reasonable person."

Zhou Yan nodded in satisfaction, stood up, brushed off the dust, casually stored the large rock he had been sitting on, and gestured to Yuan Chenling.

"How about this: each Fellow Daoist will hand over some Spirit Stones as tuition. After all, what you all just sang were premium songs not yet released by my Joyous Union Sect. It's not too much to ask for some tuition, right?"

He looked at everyone with a roguish smile.

"No one minds, right?"

Seeing Yuan Chenling closing in and Zhou Yan's smug face, everyone's blood boiled, and they wanted to fight to the death... "Oh, right," Zhou Yan said as if he had just remembered, "Line up to pay. The first person only needs to pay one hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones. Every person after that pays double the amount of the person before them."

As soon as these words were spoken, the Loose Cultivators and Prodigies, who had intended to unite and defend their dignity, had their eyes light up. They all looked at their "comrades" beside them with whom they had just planned to fight, falling into deep thought.

Just then, the Prodigy who had initially led the group stepped forward bravely, his face full of anger.

Everyone thought he was going to lead the resistance again, but they saw his expression change to one of pure sycophancy.

"I'm first! One hundred, right?" As he spoke, he handed one hundred Spirit Stones to Yuan Chenling, who took them with the ring.

The Prodigy chuckled and scratched the back of his head, asking sheepishly.

"Then I..."

Zhou Yan understood his meaning and gentlemanly stepped aside from the path to the portal, signaling that he could leave.

The Prodigy was overjoyed; he could finally escape this devil's den! These Northern Border people were too wicked... No, he said he was from the Joyous Union Sect! This Joyous Union Sect is too evil; they must be made to pay in the future!

Seeing the Prodigy leave safely, the rest of the group grew anxious and began to line up, everyone trying to squeeze into a front position, nearly coming to blows over it.

Seeing this, Yuan Chenling's admiration for his boss was like a surging river.

Boss is truly a role model for our generation!

Watching the last resentful Cultivator enter the portal, Zhou Yan looked at the empty room and felt a bit of regret.

This Secret Realm is still too poor; it didn't even fill my ring.

He took the ring back, put it on, and stepped into the portal as well.

Zhou Yan and Yuan Chenling had just returned to the fourth floor when they began searching for clues about Wang Yao.

But halfway through, the trail went cold.

Zhou Yan speculated that they must have entered some trial. However, since they could enter a trial, it meant Wang Yao should be fine.

Zhou Yan breathed a sigh of relief. As long as he was fine, with that Physique of his, he should have recovered by now, so Zhou Yan could head to the next floor first.

He picked up Yuan Chenling, and together they activated the Secret Realm key.

Their figures instantly vanished from the fourth floor.

When they reappeared, they were in a space somewhat similar in style to the Mirror World, but overall much brighter.

In the distant sky, a massive relief sculpture floated, depicting a person riding a boat.

Zhou Yan compared it with the key and found that this relief was much more detailed than the patterns on his and Yuan Chenling's keys, and its surface seemed to be covered with a special sensation.

"Time flies like an arrow, years like a shuttle," Yuan Chenling suddenly recited in a literary manner.

"I didn't expect your literacy level to be so high. You can even quote classics at a time like this?" Zhou Yan said with some surprise.

Yuan Chenling pointed in front of him.

"My literacy is average, but I can read."

Zhou Yan looked in the direction he was pointing and saw a small sign standing ahead, with those eight characters carved on it.

It was just that the sign was too short; he had been immediately attracted by the relief in the sky and hadn't noticed it.

"Uh..." Zhou Yan was momentarily speechless.

Meanwhile, on the fourth floor.

The group, who had been picked clean and forced to gather for the same trial, were staring at each other in dismay. (The Prodigies were at the front of the line, but they disdained taking gold and silver anyway, so they had zero gains. The Loose Cultivators took a lot but had to pay a lot—some even had to chip in extra—so they also had zero gains.)