19: The indifference of the Fourth Calamity? Wrong, that's the grace of immortals!

"That's right, that's right, this is exactly it!"

Seeing Zhou Yan's appearance, which was suffused with Immortal Qi, the Fourth Elder was overcome with excitement.

The Fourth Elder knew he couldn't snatch Long Tianxing, so he had been eyeing Zhou Yan all along.

Now that Zhou Yan's eye ability was directly revealed, the powerful aura clearly indicated a top-tier special Physique. Based on these eyes alone, he was no weaker than Long Tianxing!

But what made the Fourth Elder even more excited was something Jiang Hongyue had casually written in the records back then, which he had originally thought was just a description of his temperament.

Jiang Hongyue had described that Zhou Yan possessed an incredibly profound temperament; even if someone had never seen an Immortal, upon seeing Zhou Yan, they would subconsciously believe it to be Immortal Qi.

Originally, the Fourth Elder thought Jiang Hongyue was short-sighted and had never seen the buffs provided by a top-tier special Physique, mistaking that for Immortal Qi.

As it turned out, Zhou Yan was truly suffused with Immortal Qi. The Fourth Elder was not a junior at the Foundation Establishment Stage like Jiang Hongyue; he had truly seen what Immortal Qi looked like, so he could absolutely not be mistaken!

Could this be the legendary Reincarnation of an Immortal?

A Single Spiritual Root combined with a special Physique—if he were also a fallen Immortal, then he would have absolutely won! This is why going all-in is a form of wisdom!

"Oh no! We've been tricked!"

At this moment, how could the Elders present not realize that they had fallen for the Fourth Elder's cunning scheme?

What a masterful bitter-meat ploy, what a classic bait-and-switch!

The Sixth Elder took a huge leap, jumped onto the Fourth Elder, and began to put him in a chokehold.

The Third Elder immediately formed hand seals, and countless talisman papers flew out, combining to form numerous golden chains that took root in the Void Realm and bound the Fourth Elder's limbs in place.

Even the Grand Elder, who was usually quiet and reserved, joined in, stabbing his sword toward the Fourth Elder's rear.

"Ah!"

The Fourth Elder let out a miserable scream, a sound so shrill that even the Sixth Elder, who was hanging onto him, felt a shiver down his spine.

That Grand Elder was truly ruthless!

Fortunately, before all this farce took place, the Third Elder had already used talismans to shield the high platform, preventing outsiders from seeing the joke.

However, Zhou Yan, who was inside the Secret Realm, was unaware of all this; he was still in the midst of a mental storm.

The middle circle of the Secret Realm tested a Disciple's Heart-Nature and their own perceptions.

Therefore, at the start of the trial, it would block memories related to the Secret Realm and confuse their consciousness.

This in itself was nothing; after all, only when one knew nothing would their reactions be genuine.

But Zhou Yan was a Transmigration traveler; ninety-nine percent of his life had been spent on Blue Star, and this life in the world of cultivation only accounted for a very small part of his life.

Now that his memories were confused, the part about the cultivation world was naturally filled in by Zhou Yan's brain and integrated into his memories of Blue Star.

Zhou Yan's eyes shimmered with a faint golden light, and his body was surrounded by an unfathomable aura as he walked step by step along the mountain path.

The thug and young woman duo, who had been waiting for him for a long time, saw someone approaching and once again took their stance.

"Hehehe, little lady, just submit to me!"

"No... don't! Someone, help!"

"Hehehe, even if you scream until your throat breaks, no one will come to save you!"

[Secret Realm Monster - Thug] Rank: Qi Refining Level 1. HP: 100

[Secret Realm Monster - Beautiful Woman] Rank: Qi Refining Level 1. HP: 100

Did the newbie dungeon update? Why is this plot here at the start?

Seeing that Zhou Yan didn't move, the thug was already preparing to initiate the next plan, intending to sneak attack and kill Zhou Yan. Just as he was about to turn and pounce toward Zhou Yan, Zhou Yan moved.

He activated time acceleration. With the intention of a speedrun, he directly turned it up to 18x, quickly appearing in front of the thug.

"Stone-Shattering Fist."

Zhou Yan indifferently spat out the name of the skill. His right fist struck out directly, without any flair. The wind from the punch surged, but it wasn't grand or imposing; instead, it was extremely condensed at a single point, while a tiny, almost imperceptible gray rune flashed and vanished at the tip of his fist.

"Bang!" A heavy, muffled sound exploded. The thug's chest, centered on the point of impact, collapsed visibly to the naked eye. His whole body flew backward, but what sprayed from his mouth was not blood as before, but a large swath of distorted, fragmented, colorful light.

But the attack did not end there.

[Passive Skill · Fatal Strike triggered! True damage has been dealt!]

"Crack—Boom!!" A more eerie, more fundamental shattering sound rang out, as if glass had been forcibly cracked, and as if space itself had let out a painful groan.

The thug flying backward twisted and flickered violently in the air. It let out a sharp screech that no human could make. The human disguise on its surface faded rapidly like paint entering water, revealing its eerie, mirror-smooth original form beneath. It was a humanoid monster pieced together from countless broken mirrors!

It fell heavily to the ground, struggling. The area around the fist mark on its mirror-like body was covered in fine cracks, and fragments kept peeling off, turning into points of light and dissipating.

The look in its eyes as it gazed at Zhou Yan was filled with the most extreme, instinctive fear!

That bit of true damage might be useless in a game, but now it had not only severely injured the Secret Realm monster, but also, like a virus, directly eroded the Origin of the Secret Realm that constituted its existence.

The fragility and terror on the face of the beautiful woman nearby instantly froze, replaced by undisguisable shock and disbelief.

She screamed, no longer caring about acting, and turned to flee, attempting to blend into the surrounding distorted environment.

"Trying to run?" Zhou Yan inwardly complained about the unreasonable NPC design, "Shouldn't they attract aggro after initiating an attack? Why do the monsters run away?"

He activated Water-Walking; his movements were as fast as a ghost. With one step, he caught up, reached out, and grabbed the beautiful woman's thick long hair with extreme precision, yanking her backward without the slightest mercy!

"Ah!" Amidst her cry of pain, the fist of Zhou Yan's other hand had already mercilessly smashed into her back.

The same punch, the same Stone-Shattering Fist, and the same effect of Fatal Strike triggered.

"Bang! Crack!" The beautiful woman's disguise also shattered in response, and she screamed as she transformed back into another twisted, trembling, mirror-humanoid monster.

Because the illusory long hair vanished, it successfully escaped his grasp. It didn't even dare to look back at Zhou Yan, scrambling and crawling as it fled frantically in the opposite direction from the other monster.

The two monsters fled toward the mountain and down the mountain, respectively.

Zhou Yan stood in place and tilted his head. The scene before him seemed to blur for a moment; the screeching of the monsters and the distortion of the surrounding environment became unusually real, and he even seemed to smell a strange burnt odor at the tip of his nose... Was the game's special effects too realistic, or...?

This thought flashed by and was immediately suppressed by the powerful "Heart-Questioning" effect.

"The UI interface is there, the numerical effects are there, it's just a game." He muttered to himself, his tone resolute, attributing that momentary trance to the game's high immersion or that he was just a bit tired.

His indifferent gaze swept over the two fleeing quest targets, feeling somewhat speechless. Newbie monsters that run away—doesn't this affect the player's quest completion time and interest?

The newbie dungeon is so draggy; this game still can't get rid of its flashy habits. Adding behavior patterns to monsters is not as good as optimizing the bugs.

"Forget it, I'll just pick one at random."

Before the words had even faded, his figure had already moved. With an attitude that appeared almost god-like and indifferent to outsiders, he casually chose one direction and gave chase.

The two Secret Realm monsters, having revealed their true forms, sensed his pursuit and fled even more frantically. That 1% True Damage, originating from the Origin, had caused them to deeply imprint the fear of death onto every single fragment of their being.