Chapter 402
The three remaining days pa.s.sed peacefully without any disputes between the rival factions . The biggest group was definitely the ones composed of weak factions and lone cultivators, which cl.u.s.tered together . Arthur and Lucy were amongst them, hidden from view .
There were around three or four thousands cultivators, including all the famous and powerful ones . Dawn of the opening day, the river started reacting quite strangely . It was usually calm and silent yet it became extremely turbulent, producing waves that were as high as five meters .
Everyone who enters the Secret Realm will be sent to a random location, however, Arthur planned to forcefully teleport with Lucy, bypa.s.sing the mechanism that"s going to separate them . The ARK told him that the probability of succeeding exceeds 50% so it"s worth a try .
With the rising sun, the place became chaotic as the waters were restless and the wind raged . With curious and somewhat excited look, the cultivators stared at the occurring change and could barely hold themselves from diving into the river .
The presence of Lucy"s sister and the other powerful individuals made them hesitate and wait for their turn . After ten or so minutes, the water started spinning, affecting even the dark clouds high above . The center of this underwater tornado was some sort of a black portal, ominous and unstable .
The first people to enter were the scarred old man and the silver-haired woman, who unhesitatingly dived into the water and entered the strange portal .
Next was the powers of Green-Leaf such as Jian Si"s sect and the Mirage Era Hall . The man covered in bandages also entered alone, unhindered by no one as all the cultivators feared him .
When it was their turn, the large group of cultivators flocked into the dark portal, pus.h.i.+ng each other and even cursing . Arthur and Lucy remained motionless, not wanting to join that mess . Haste makes waste, furthermore, going first isn"t necessarily a good thing .
In a way, it is understandable for these cultivators to be in such a hurry as the treasures in the Secret Realm was unique and priceless . You could even stumble on an ancient artifact in the middle of nowhere, it all depends on luck and keen senses .
Arthur wasn"t interested in such treasures as they were useless to him . Their only goal is that soul-protecting item . Few others also chose to stay still, waiting for things to calm down before entering .
Five minutes after the opening of the portal, two siblings flew toward the dark portal with a slow yet steady pace .
Just as they got close to the portal, they were sucked into it, unable to retaliate . As he was holding Lucy"s hands, Arthur"s sole eye shone with a blue light .
Trapped into an unknown place, between two worlds, a mysterious force enveloped the couple before starting to separate them, each sent into a random direction .
Just when they were separated, time was stopped . Arthur flew toward Lucy and tightly hugged her before heading toward one of the countless lights in this dark place .
Fortunately, when the time-stop ended, the mysterious force couldn"t separate them as they were right next to one of the lights, which was a small portal that led to a random place in the Secret Realm .
…
Arthur and Lucy found themselves in a dark cave, surrounded by countless over-sized rocks . The first thing the couple noticed a small decrease in their stats . As he inspected his Status Window, Arthur was pleasantly surprised to see only his cultivation drop dramatically, as for his stats, they decreased by only 950m . It was the same case for Lucy .
Their cultivation was now at the peak of Divine Realm, nevertheless, their physical strength is absurd .
"It is quite easy to explain, actually . The limit for any person is 999 . 999m, so the Secret Realm decreases enough for you to be Divine beings, it didn"t into account your current stats . "
Claud explained the cause behind this occurrence . With how strong they are now, they shouldn"t encounter any real danger unless they purposely anger the dragon .
"Master said that there are many powerful monsters hiding here . Although it"s the dragon"s realm, it doesn"t from its lair . "
Lucy told Arthur some details about this Secret Realm . Losha thoroughly explained how to proceed, what to avoid and what to do .
They have two destinations, one is at the North of this secret Realm . It"s on a floating island which has a large waterfall, and the other one is near a hot lava deep underground .
Both places have powerful soul-protecting items, however, since Lucy can fuse Fire and Water, it is feasible to fuse these two items . This only applies to Lucy, who somehow managed to merge two opposing attributes .
Speaking of that flame, Losha instructed her to only use in the most desperate situations . Not only is it hard to control, it"s dangerous and it"ll bring much trouble .
The two of them didn"t know where they were as the place didn"t seem to have a nearby exit . The couple delved deeper into the cave only to discover that this place was actually a mine .
There were gigantic trolleys and broken pickaxes that were 3 or 4 meters long .
"It"s a Spirit Stones mine! You got lucky . "
Claud seemed excited, unlike Arthur or Lucy, who weren"t amazed . They have abundant Red Spirit Stones, even the rare Green Spirit Stones were no exception so, despite how it enticing it may be, the mine wasn"t considered a treasure trove by those two .
"Even if you"re not going to take some, at least summon some skeleton to do the job for you then come take the harvest once you"re leaving this secret Realm . "
Arthur shrugged his shoulders and followed his copy"s words, after all, he has nothing to lose . More than a hundred tall skeletons appeared around him . The undead soon started using the huge pickaxes to mine the Spirit Stones .
Lucy, who was busily inspecting the incredibly large cave, frowned and backed away a few steps only for a humongous worm-like creature made of stone to appeared where she was . Its mouth was wide open as it had planned to swallow its target only to miserably fail .
Before it could dive underground, the large worm was instantly frozen and shattered into countless pieces . It wasn"t a strong beast to begin and it was unlucky enough to encounter Lucy .
The brown-haired woman crouched on the ground and put her hand on the rocky earth . She made use of her sky-high stats to locate any monsters hiding underground .
It turned out to be a monster fest, more than fifty of those stone worms were stealthily moving underground . Unfazed, Lucy activated her Yin power, which bypa.s.sed the rocky ground and perfectly hit all the worms, freezing them .
It would be a ha.s.sle to get them all so Arthur could possess them, however, such thoughts disappeared from her mind as she saw that Arthur followed her actions and used his s.p.a.ce Magic to teleport all those corpses, before throwing them all in his storage .
This place seemed to be isolated from the outside so Arthur switched bodies, possessing the bone shark . Lucy jumped on his back and tightly held onto one of the smaller bones . The bone shark wriggled on the surface for a few seconds before it drilled into the ground .
The rocky underground, which was supposed to be a big hurdle, was cleanly cut by the sharp bones of the bone shark . With ever-so-increasing speed, Arthur drilled everything in his way and after a few minutes, they got out of that place . They were met with a blue and clear sky, a lush and peaceful forest and the sound of running water .
They were in a forest that surrounded a high-mountain .
Even with his sharpened senses, Arthur couldn"t feel the presence of any dangerous beasts or pa.s.sing cultivators .
It was kind of illogical for such a place to exist in a secret realm which is supposed to be fraught with danger . Nevertheless, Arthur changed his appearance again, wearing the bracelet and becoming Lucy"s "little brother" .
This secret Realm was vast, to say the least . It had a triangular shape with the dragon"s lair being at the very center . The floating island was far north, at the peak of the triangle and the hot lava was somewhere South .
From Losha"s description, Lucy was able to guess their current location . It was West of the Secret-Realm, which was a big forest that"s the safest place in this world .
Most cultivators will go to this place as it is not dangerous and they have the chance to find rare herbs or harvest the cores of some G.o.d beasts .
To not attract any unwanted attention, the couple chose to travel by foot and at moderate pace . From now on, they"re just a pair of siblings at the Divine Realm .
The two of them started descending the mountain while enjoying the serene scenery . No beasts attacked nor any cultivator stopped them .
Though it"ll be nice if they joined a group as to make their act more believable since they looked pretty weak, especially Arthur, who looked like a shy and fragile kid .
For the first three hours, they met no one but were still disturbed by some G.o.d beasts, which were slain instantly . After four hours, they met with other people, a small group .
They were a group of five, three males and two females . The three men were black and muscular, they wore gauntlets and thick silver armors . As for the women, they seemed to be along with the three men, who were lewdly looking at their new comrades .
In fact, the women didn"t seem bothered by that and would throw seductive smiles at the men . As they stumbled upon Arthur and Lucy, they "secretly" tailed them for half an hour before they showed themselves .
"Well, it"s better to have idiots around us . "
Arthur shyly hid behind Lucy while trying to hold back his laugh . His act was totally believable as the leader of this small group walked up to Lucy and scratched the back of his head while saying
"Aii little miss… we"re forming a small party to make easier for us to hunt . How about joining us? All the spoils will be split evenly . "
He cracked a grin while showing his disgusting teeth, to which Lucy held her hands while fidgeting, clearly not knowing what to do . Seeing her hesitant reaction, the man"s eyes flashed with a cold glint as he insisted
"Come on, the more, the better . It"s much safer if you"re in a group, we"ll protect each other"s back . "
"Yeah right . "
Arthur inwardly snorted but still remained embarra.s.sed on the outside . After what seemed like an eternity, the big sister mustered her courage and said
"Actually… we-we"re heading North . "
The man frowned, confused about her reply . After pondering for a moment, he seemed to have of something as he became excited . He heartily laughed while saying:
"What a coincidence, we were planning to go North too . How about it? Want to join us?"
Lucy took three seconds to reply by nodding her hand and holding Arthur"s hand, dragging him toward the group . As for the muscular black man, he licked his lips and followed the newcomers .