Li Wei sensed that the source of the oppressive aura was underground.

He wasn’t the first one to know.

The others who had entered the Secret Realm before him had also noticed it.

Someone tried to dig into the ground, hoping to find whatever was below.

Li Wei glanced over, then headed deeper into the Secret Realm.

The oppressive aura came from the land itself.

But that didn’t necessarily mean there was some kind of treasure buried underneath.

Legend had it that a Giant Dragon had fallen on the slope, creating a massive crater and forming Dragon Fall Slope.

The source of the aura was likely the Dragon Blood that had been spilled upon the earth.

The Dragon Blood had seeped into the soil centuries ago.

The Dragon Blood nourished the land, allowing lush and abundant vegetation to grow.

It also nurtured strange Dragon Blood Creatures.

As Li Wei walked through the forest, he saw that many of the animals in the Secret Realm had scaly armor.

This wasn’t normal.

It meant that the creatures within the Secret Realm likely possessed a trace of a draconic bloodline.

’Even the trees have scales?’

Li Wei reached out and touched the scales on a nearby tree.

Suddenly, the tree began to move.

RUSTLE RUSTLE RUSTLE!

Li Wei looked up. A huge, emerald-green serpent’s head emerged from the canopy, staring at him.

Its eyes were vertical golden pupils, exuding a sense of majesty.

They were Dragon Eyes.

Li Wei silently retracted his hand, as if to say it was an accident.

The giant serpent didn’t care whether he was intentional or not.

Seeing a living creature enter its territory, it automatically regarded Li Wei as prey.

"HISSS!"

The giant serpent opened its cavernous mouth, saliva flying everywhere.

It lunged at Li Wei, trying to swallow him whole.

WHOOSH! BANG!

A Fireball exploded in the giant serpent’s mouth.

The giant serpent shrieked in pain. Smoke poured from its mouth, and blood dripped continuously from its maw.

Li Wei looked surprised.

’A Fireball Skill shot straight into its mouth didn’t even kill it.’

’Doesn’t that mean this giant serpent is a Tier Three Magical Beast?’

’How did I run into something so powerful right after I got here?’

Li Wei cursed his bad luck inwardly.

Normally, the more powerful monsters stayed in the deeper parts of a Secret Realm.

There was another possibility.

It was a possibility Li Wei didn’t even want to consider.

’If that’s the case, this Secret Realm is far too terrifying.’

RUSTLE RUSTLE RUSTLE!

The giant serpent twisted its body, revealing its full form.

ROAR!

The giant serpent roared, its voice like thunder. A fierce wind howled, causing the leaves to rustle violently.

Li Wei held his breath and focused his mind.

’That’s some powerful breath.’

A Fireball rapidly formed in his palm, then extended and transformed into a Fire Serpent.

The Fire Serpent lunged toward the giant serpent, which was several times its size.

Fire Serpent versus giant serpent.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The giant serpent’s tail swept out, instantly leveling a patch of surrounding trees.

The Fire Serpent soared into the air, dodging the sweep.

The giant serpent’s attack paused for a moment, and the Fire Serpent seized the opportunity to dive down.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

The Fire Serpent coiled around the giant serpent several times, and the searing heat made it roar toward the sky in agony.

Li Wei’s eyes narrowed. He controlled the Fire Serpent to shoot forward and dive into the giant serpent’s open mouth.

The giant serpent instantly clamped its mouth shut.

Sparks flew from the corners of its mouth.

The next second, an expression of agony appeared in the giant serpent’s eyes. Its writhing body instantly froze, going rigid.

BANG!

The Fire Serpent exploded inside the giant serpent’s body.

Instantly, the giant serpent’s body swelled up like a balloon being overinflated.

HHHSSSSSSS!

Hot air and smoke gushed from both ends of the giant serpent.

The giant serpent fell to the ground, dead.

As Li Wei approached, he showed a surprised expression.

’Even after taking such horrific explosive damage, the serpent’s hide still hasn’t ruptured.’

It had only been stretched taut by the force of the explosion, with some parts tearing open.

Li Wei realized that this giant serpent’s hide was a treasure.

However, after the devastation of the explosion, not much of the Serpent Hide was left intact.

Li Wei had his Shadow Attendant cut off a few intact pieces of the Serpent Hide, planning to have them made into a Mage Robe.

He took a piece of the Serpent Hide to examine it.

’This giant serpent had some blood of the Dragon Race. This piece of Serpent Hide already possesses a hint of Dragon Hide’s Magic Resistance. No wonder it’s so tough.’

The main properties of Dragon Hide were toughness and extremely high Magic Resistance.

This Serpent Hide, possessing just a trace of those properties, already displayed astonishing Defense Power.

Unfortunately, its scales were just ordinary python scales.

If they had been Dragon Scales from a Sub-dragon Species with draconic features, they could have definitely been crafted into Top Grade Tier Three scale armor.

Top Grade scale armor was enough to block most attacks of the same tier.

If the Serpent Hide were made into a Top Grade Mage Robe, it could completely block the attacks of Tier Three Magic.

The power of Li Wei’s Fireball Skill was no weaker than Tier Three Magic.

The Shadow Attendant handed him a Demon Core the size of a baby’s fist.

Li Wei revealed a satisfied expression.

’Not bad luck. I got a Tier Three Magic Core.’

Looking at the giant serpent’s corpse, he thought for a moment and had the Shadow Attendant cut off a large piece of meat to store in his Spatial Ring.

’I’ll try the taste of a Sub-Dragon Species of Magical Beast when I get back.’

Li Wei looked up toward the depths of the Secret Realm.

He muttered to himself in a low voice, "I hope it’s not what I think it is. I’d rather just have bad luck."

Li Wei walked forward while his Shadow Attendant went ahead to scout the path.

He also sent out his Illusory Body.

The Illusory Body transformed into a bird and flew toward the sky.

But as soon as it passed the treetops, it lost its lift and fell.

Once it was back below the canopy, it returned to normal.

Li Wei looked surprised.

’This is... a Forbidden Sky Domain?’

’What is this place? Why is there a Forbidden Sky Domain?’

Li Wei felt that things were getting somewhat out of hand.

He originally thought it was just an ordinary Secret Realm where he could score some benefits.

Now, the presence of a Forbidden Sky Domain proved that this place was anything but ordinary.

’A Forbidden Sky Domain is a Tier Six Array. Who would set up such an extravagant Magic Array here?’

Li Wei’s heart was filled with questions.

’Does my master know about this?’

That was what he wanted to know most.

After all, it was Torresta who had told him to come here.

Li Wei found it hard to believe that Torresta didn’t know anything about this.

He found a safe place to stop and relied on his Illusory Body and Shadow Attendant to investigate the Secret Realm.

Li Wei decided to figure out what was going on here first before proceeding.

"Dragon Blood Fruit!"

The Illusory Body hadn’t gone far before it heard a cry of surprise.

Upon hearing this, Li Wei didn’t hesitate and controlled the Illusory Body to move toward the source of the sound.

Soon, it saw a huge, ancient tree.

The ancient tree was covered in scales. This time, it wasn’t a giant serpent disguised as a tree.

This was a Dragon Scale Tree.

Li Wei looked up and saw three bright red fruits hanging from the Dragon Scale Tree.

The fruits also had fine, scaly patterns on them.

It was Dragon Blood Fruit—incredibly precious Dragon Blood Fruit.

The first person to discover the Dragon Blood Fruit was a Tier Two Mage from the Mage Association.

The one who had cried out in surprise was a Warrior, an Extraordinary Professional from the Reinstein Clan.

Three members of the Reinstein Clan surrounded the Mage, their expressions hostile.

Normally, they wouldn’t dare to make a move against a Mage.

But with the incredibly precious Dragon Blood Fruit right in front of them, greed emboldened them.

"Step aside. We don’t want to fight you."

"I’m the one who found it."

BANG!

The Mage was hit by a sneak attack, and the Magic Shield around him vibrated violently.

He looked shocked as the figure of an Assassin appeared behind him.

It turned out there weren’t just three of them, but a fourth as well.

"Attack!"