PCJ – Chapter 546 Harvesting the Secret Realm

Fat Monkey and Luo Tianfeng also clashed head-on, and with a direct confrontation, Luo Tianfeng was utterly defeated. Gone was the former might he displayed when he effortlessly broke through the formation casually set up by Zhang Jiaohua.

Zhang Jiaohua stood motionless the entire time, not even lifting a finger—yet the outcome was already clear.

Mountain-Leaping Leopard, Fat Cat, and Fat Monkey never showed mercy to enemies—respect for the old or young meant nothing to them. They always believed in beating a dog while it’s down. Seeing Luo Tianfeng defeated, they immediately pounced on him and gave him a brutal beating. Already gravely injured, Luo Tianfeng was quickly beaten to the brink of death.

Even then, the trio had no intention of letting him go. They pinned him to the ground—biting, scratching, and clawing. Thanks to years of cultivation, Luo Tianfeng’s vitality far exceeded that of ordinary people. Otherwise, with all that abuse, he would have been dead long ago.

Mountain-Leaping Leopard bit down on Luo Tianfeng’s neck like a pair of iron tongs. Fat Cat sat right on his head, claws aimed at his eyes, ready to blind him at any moment. Fat Monkey was even more ruthless—he went straight for Luo Tianfeng’s manhood, clutching it in a deadly grip that could end his bloodline in an instant.

Originally, Zhang Jiaohua thought that since Luo Tianfeng was so old, he must have had plenty of descendants and wouldn’t be scared by such a threat.

“S-Spare me! Spare me!” To Zhang Jiaohua’s surprise, Luo Tianfeng surrendered immediately without even the slightest resistance.

Despite all the commotion, no one in the tents stirred; they were all fast asleep. That was the effectiveness of Zhang Jiaohua’s formation—it completely isolated all outside sounds.

Zhang Jiaohua walked up to Luo Tianfeng. “Is the Luoxian Sect’s only expert just you?”

“Of course not! The Luoxian Sect was once a renowned cultivation sect. How could I be the only one in the Qi Refining stage?” Luo Tianfeng answered, pride flashing across his face.

“Then why don’t you go call a few more experts so we can fight again?” Zhang Jiaohua asked.

“No, no, no! Even if I did, they wouldn’t be your match. The truth is, due to the deterioration of spiritual energy and the shortage of cultivation resources, the number of our sect’s experts has dwindled year after year. If this were 20 or 30 years ago, a simple formation like yours wouldn’t have stopped me. But now, the mighty tiger has fallen to flat lands…” Luo Tianfeng was clearly disgruntled.

“Are you insulting me?” Zhang Jiaohua raised an eyebrow.

Mountain-Leaping Leopard, Fat Cat, and Fat Monkey immediately intensified their hold on Luo Tianfeng.

“No! Not at all!” Luo Tianfeng quickly begged for mercy.

Zhang Jiaohua walked into the formation and dragged out the black-robed Luoxian Sect disciples and Luo Chunyang, who had previously charged forward. Although they were covered in wounds, their lives weren’t in danger.

“Can we take a look at your Xiyun Secret Realm now?” Zhang Jiaohua asked.

“Of course. But the Xiyun Secret Realm is already running low on spiritual energy. It probably won’t last much longer,” Luo Tianfeng replied.

“Why is that?” Zhang Jiaohua asked, puzzled.

Luo Tianfeng explained, “The reason this secret realm exists is due to a spiritual vein beneath the Xiyun Mountain Range. A spirit spring there continuously released spiritual energy. But in recent years, the spring has started drying up. Less and less energy is being released. That’s just how the world is now—the natural energy is chaotic, and without the gathering of spiritual energy, how can the spirit spring persist? The secret realm’s sects are already in decline. Years ago, we all fought over resources and ended up losing our elites for nothing. Now, everyone is thinking of abandoning the secret realm and returning to the mundane world.”

Now that Luo Tianfeng had accepted this, he seemed much more relaxed. For someone who’d tied his whole life to the secret realm, its decline was like a death sentence. But now that he no longer had to worry about it, even being at someone else’s mercy felt like a relief.

“A hundred years of burden, finally lifted,” Luo Tianfeng sighed deeply. He led Zhang Jiaohua to the place where Zheng Wendong had chased a rabbit earlier in the day. “This is one of the entrances to the secret realm. Originally, only the Xiyun Sect controlled it, but our Luoxian Sect’s founder discovered another entrance here and built our cultivation cave around it. He even set up a great protective formation. Even a Nascent Soul cultivator would find it hard to break through. With someone controlling it, even Soul Transformation cultivators would be in trouble.”

Following Luo Tianfeng’s guidance, Zhang Jiaohua weaved through the forest in a strange, winding path. Suddenly, the scenery shifted—they had entered a different world.

Fog blanketed everything, making visibility poor. However, the spiritual energy here was dozens of times richer than outside. No buildings were in sight, only vast stretches of farmland filled with bizarre medicinal herbs. Zhang Jiaohua didn’t recognize a single one.

“These are all spiritual herbs. Pills are great, but hard to make—and the ingredients are incredibly rare,” Luo Tianfeng said, looking wistfully at the herb fields. The herbs required very strict environmental conditions. If the secret realm collapsed, they’d be destroyed as well.

Zhang Jiaohua asked, “Didn’t you say this was your sect’s cave? Why don’t I see anyone here?”

“This secret realm is small—no one would waste space on buildings. Everyone lives near the spirit spring, where the energy is strongest. Cultivators don’t care about material comfort. Anywhere is fine for meditation,” Luo Tianfeng replied.

“Is the Xiyun Sect in the same boat?” Zhang Jiaohua asked.

Luo Tianfeng nodded. “Pretty much.”

They soon reached the spring, where many people sat meditating. The spring had already dried up, but the surrounding area still had relatively dense energy.

Zhang Jiaohua still didn’t quite understand. “What exactly is this secret realm? Why does a place like this exist?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” said Luo Tianfeng. “But I’ve heard that high-level cultivators create these secret realms through visualization. When they attain enlightenment, the illusions they visualize take shape as secret realms. It’s all very mysterious, and I never figured out the details. Not that it matters—there’s no way I could ever create such a space in my lifetime.”

Zhang Jiaohua had a sudden thought: Could this secret realm be similar to the space within my cultivation diagram?

“Hey! What are you doing?!” Luo Tianfeng screamed, seeing Zhang Jiaohua digging up seedlings in the herb field like it was his backyard.

“These are all mine now,” Zhang Jiaohua replied casually.

The cultivators around the spring began to sense something was off. Although Luo Tianfeng was the patriarch, bringing an outsider here—especially one who was now messing up their herb garden—was bound to cause outrage. These herbs were critical to their cultivation.

Luo Tianfeng sighed again. “Let him be. Even if we left the herbs here, they’d die once the realm collapses. These herbs are extremely delicate. They won’t survive in ordinary soil anyway.”

“I don’t recognize these herbs. I’m just taking one of each so I can identify them in the future,” Zhang Jiaohua said offhandedly.

More and more Luoxian Sect members gathered, surrounding Zhang Jiaohua and Luo Tianfeng.

“Patriarch, who is this person? Why did you bring him in here? What are you going to do about this? If you can’t deal with it, let us take care of it—we’ll make sure it’s handled properly.”

“Yeah! Patriarch, something’s not right with you today. Did this kid bewitch you or something?”

“This is the herb garden! No one in the clan is even allowed to touch it, and now you’re letting some kid ruin it? How does that make any sense?”

The questions poured in. Normally, they’d never dare speak out like this, but after seeing Luo Tianfeng return battered and bruised, suspicions were flying.

Zhang Jiaohua calmly picked a single seedling from each type of herb and stored them in his cultivation diagram space. He planned to propagate them there. With proper care, they could produce medicinal herbs far better than even wild ones.

“All of you, get lost! I’m not dead yet! Everything here is still under my command!” Ro Tianfeng shouted in anger. He was worried that the clan members might take up weapons and fight Zhang Jiaohua to the death. If they pushed Zhang Jiaohua too far and triggered his rage, the consequences would be disastrous.

Only then did the members of the Luoxian Sect begin to slowly disperse. However, their suspicion toward Zhang Jiaohua remained strong—they kept a close watch on him even as they backed away.