Entering the Secret Realm

Then he saw what was displayed next to the sect uniform in his private inventory:

[Lingxian Sect Uniform, low-tier defensive artifact, possesses a certain degree of defensive effect.]

The sect uniform was indeed a defensive artifact.

Lin Xiao was very satisfied. He said to the crowd waiting for their meal nearby,

"Hey, hey, hey! Everyone, let me tell you something!"

Hearing his call, everyone gathered around.

"Brother Xiao, what's up?"

Lin Xiao pulled out the sect uniform and told everyone,

"These clothes of ours are actually defensive artifacts!"

Jiang Youfu scratched the back of his head, confused.

"Brother Xiao, what's a defensive artifact?"

Lin Xiao then realized that apart from cultivation and spells, they practically knew nothing about immortal cultivation. So, he gave them a brief explanation.

After eating a mouth-watering meal of spirit rice, everyone felt refreshed and followed Lin Xiao to the large stone at the entrance of the Greenfield Secret Realm.

Lin Dayou and Landlord Sun also came.

Lin Xiao and Sun Yigao bid farewell to the crowd. Taking the bundles of dry rations prepared by their respective fathers, Lin Xiao placed the cyan jade plaque, which served as the key to the Greenfield Secret Realm, into the groove on the large stone.

Immediately, everyone saw a passage appear in mid-air next to the large stone, as if space itself had been torn open.

The passage was filled with a verdant green light; looking from the outside, they couldn't see the scene inside at all.

Sun Yigao was about to enter when Lin Xiao grabbed him.

He tied the hem of his clothes together with Sun Yigao's and made a knot. Looking at his rather ugly but presumably sturdy knot, Lin Xiao said with satisfaction,

"Tying them like this will prevent us from being teleported to different places."

Then he was the first to step into the passage.

"Let's go."

Caught off guard, Sun Yigao was dragged by his hem and immediately followed behind him.

As soon as they entered the passage, the two felt a massive suction force pulling them inward. They floated and fell inside. The passage was filled with blinding white light, forcing them to close their eyes.

However, it wasn't long before the feeling of solid ground returned, and the two were standing on their feet again.

But they felt as if they were wrapped up by a pile of plant stems and leaves.

When they opened their eyes, they found themselves completely surrounded by lush vegetation, even above their heads. They felt as if they were drowning in plants.

The two were squeezed tightly together. The surrounding plants enveloped them so closely that their limbs barely had room to move.

On their wrists, a beam of light wrapped around their hands. As the light faded, it revealed a red string.

This red string was their key out of the secret realm. Only they themselves could see and break it. As soon as this red string was broken, the secret realm would teleport them back.

After observing their surroundings, Lin Xiao realized that these were just ordinary plants, only overgrown, making them very tall and dense. He found a spot that looked slightly sparser and pushed hard, forcing open a small gap in the plants in that direction.

"Yigao, let's go this way."

Saying that, he walked toward the forced-open gap, with Sun Yigao closely following.

This area of lush vegetation was quite large. Lin Xiao and Sun Yigao squeezed their way forward like this.

The further they went, the lower the height and density of the plants gradually became, making it easier for the two to walk. But the area was so vast that it took them nearly fifteen minutes to get out.

By the time they stood in a place where, aside from towering trees, the rest of the flowers and shrubs began to thin out and were at most half a person's height, the clothes Lin Xiao and Sun Yigao wore had been scratched to shreds by branches, looking absolutely miserable.

Lin Xiao looked at his clothes and silently cursed. He would definitely get beaten by his dad when he got home.

He took out the sect uniform and changed out of the clothes on his body that were about to turn into a pile of rags.

Sun Yigao did the same.

The two put on the sect uniforms. The flowing white robes with dark patterns, paired with these two outstanding-looking youths, might make an unknowing observer think they were disciples of some major sect.

After changing clothes, they looked back at the place they had just come from. They saw that the plants behind them grew denser the further back they went, so dense that they towered into the clouds, forming a continuous expanse of green.

Sun Yigao said,

"Good thing the location we were teleported to wasn't too far back."

Lin Xiao nodded.

Otherwise, the two of them might have had to walk until dark without finding their way out, forcing them to spend the night inside.

The two continued forward.

The climate in this secret realm was quite hot. Surrounded by plants, the trapped heat could hardly dissipate. If an ordinary person were to enter, they might collapse from the heat before long.

Fortunately, the current Lin Xiao and Sun Yigao had already reached the eighth and seventh levels of Qi Condensation respectively, making this temperature not difficult to tolerate.

By the time the two walked until the sun was directly overhead, they finally saw a small river.

The water in this small river was extremely clear, and many purple, double-petaled small flowers grew along the banks, looking somewhat like plants of the aster family.

The two walked to the riverbank. Sun Yigao crouched down, cupped some water in his hands, and splashed his face. Even though they weren't afraid of the heat, splashing their faces like this felt more comfortable.

Lin Xiao, on the other hand, first picked one of these small purple flowers and placed it in his private inventory.

He used the appraisal function on the flower.

[Spiked Aster, a four-season flower, has the effect of promoting blood circulation and removing stasis. It is a good material for making pills.]

Seeing the words making pills, Lin Xiao didn't hesitate to start picking flowers and putting them into his private inventory.

Seeing him do this, Sun Yigao quickly helped pick them as well.

However, he didn't look for seeds, nor did he strip the area bare of flowers. He and Sun Yigao were conscientious enough to leave a lot behind.

Their sect now held the key to this secret realm. If they needed more in the future, they could just come back in and pick them.

Seeing how these Spiked Asters were everywhere, they probably weren't some particularly rare spirit plants.

After finishing picking the flowers, the two drank some water by the river and ate some dry rations with the river water before continuing their journey forward.

They didn't know which way to go in this secret realm, so they just picked a direction and walked.

Not long after walking forward, they entered a dense forest.

The trees in this dense forest were not very thick; they grew rather slender. A small child of a few years old could wrap their arms around one. They had very few branches, and the single main trunk grew straight and tall, pointing directly towards the sky.

As soon as Lin Xiao entered the forest, he sized up these trees and pondered in his heart whether he should chop them down and take them away.

These trees grew so straight that they would be absolutely perfect as building materials.

It had to be said, having a private inventory with a massive capacity made one unscrupulous when taking things.

Lin Xiao told Sun Yigao about his idea of chopping down the trees. Sun Yigao nodded, and Lin Xiao prepared to pull out two axes from his private inventory.

He had prepared many gathering tools before setting out, just so he wouldn't miss out on these plants.

Suddenly, the two heard what sounded like a fight coming from the distance.