My Misfortune Crushed Instances-Chapter 184: You Didn’t Kill Lady Peach Blossom, Did You?

Li Rui arrived at the Hea family's residence and met the middle-aged man named He Pengxi for the first time.

After a brief introduction and some small talk, the other party paid for the leveling service upfront.

This assignment wasn't for a standard fee; when Kong Ji passed the message, he had already said that reaching level 23 would be considered qualified, and further advancement would bring additional rewards.

Hea Yang had directly leveled up to 25, and also received a large amount of enhancement materials and skill points, enough to make up for the things he missed in the previous Secret Realms.

Li Rui didn't hold back and directly inquired, learning that the data storage contained nine pieces of epic materials.

Honestly, he was a bit shocked by the increased reward.

The Hea family is really wealthy!

After all, leveling up was only a five-star Secret Realm; if purely settled with epic materials, it would be at most three pieces, meaning the standard reward was directly raised to threefold.

"Having leveled up to thirty, within three days, an advanced Secret Realm will appear, and it's the Ascension Divine Hall."

He Pengxi said, "But you have to be careful; the advancement is very dangerous, mainly because the probability of soul dissolution increases. Every year, some people fall asleep and never wake up."

After settling the payment, He explained the upcoming events to Li Rui, while Hea Yang silently marveled from the side; he had never seen his third uncle so patient with anyone.

Li Rui asked, "Will there be battles during the advancement?"

"Consider it, yes, everyone's trial could be different."

He Pengxi said, "It depends on many factors—profession, personality, style, experiences."

Li Rui furrowed his brow, "Experiences? If I encounter a lot of world NPCs..."

"Currently, there are no precedents of encountering world NPCs during advancement."

"That's good."

Li Rui breathed a sigh of relief; if Brother Zuo chased him to this place, his life would be over.

After chatting a bit more, and finishing the serious matters, the two became more acquainted, and He Pengxi finally couldn't help but ask, "After Hea Yang came out, what happened in the Secret Realm? What's the story behind the notification?"

Li Rui waved his hand, "No need to worry, Hea Yang didn't see Zuo Qiutian himself, but a clone he made using residual souls."

He Pengxi frowned, "A clone isn't a puppet, and it's still very strong. How did you escape?"

Li Rui answered directly, "I killed him."

The Hea family uncle and nephew said, "....."

Simple and dull.

Even if it's just a clone, it's still Zuo Qiutian's clone, and that man is among the most fierce in all the world NPCs; a normal person wouldn't think about attacking him, usually choosing to run or use the Secret Realm's mechanism to counter.

Of course, in a five-star Secret Realm, there are basically no mechanisms to use, one must kill him, since it was a prerequisite task to obtain the Community Thunder key.

Li Rui wasn't very familiar with the Hea family, so there was no in-depth exchange between the parties; just before leaving, He Pengxi clearly extended goodwill, expressing a future opportunity for cooperation.

Li Rui naturally wouldn't refuse, the Hea family had influence in the Northwest and even the chaotic places, having contacts certainly wouldn't hurt.

But now, he had other matters to attend to, which involved heading directly to the capital, preparing for advancement upon arrival, and registering on the spot for the Secret Realm battlefield.

Pu Tong took him to the airport; they bid farewell and agreed to meet again if Li Rui returned to the Northwest; and shortly after, he boarded the plane.

Upon landing, Li Rui found that he had only arranged for Dong Sanchuan to pick him up, but unexpectedly, others were present, including Kong Ji and Guan Gui, and additionally, a voluptuous and lazy-eyed woman was scrutinizing him.

"What's going on with you, asking about the Secret Realm situation and insisting on discussing it later, you turned a five-star Secret Realm into a ten-star one, even changed the name of the subsequent Secret Realm, what's the story? Oh, you're level 30 now, right?"

Kong Ji, who was most familiar with him, introduced Cheng Mingyue upon arrival, then swiftly began asking about the Secret Realm questions.

Li Rui instinctively glanced at the engraving, but it was covered by Hu Yan's hand, and he replied, "Yeah, already at 30."

Nan Jiumei made a face at Cheng Mingyue, whispering, "See, you guessed wrong, right?"

The woman ranked among the top three supernovas was still somewhat incredulous; she wasn't mentally prepared for Li Rui's style, only feeling that leveling up five levels in a five-star Secret Realm was rather exaggerated.

Even herself, Dong Sanchuan, or even Guan Gui likely couldn't do it.

But recalling the system notification received earlier, realizing a world event must have happened in the Secret Realm, it seemed barely understandable, though just barely.

Meanwhile, Li Rui began addressing Kong Ji's questions, "Well, this is a long story."

"Why are you keeping secrets? Just tell us, I'm already dying of impatience."

Everyone here was a Secret Realm agent—none was uncurious about what had happened inside.

"In short, Zuo Qiutian arrived at Peach Blossom Spring a year before the Secret Realm time, tricked a bunch of Forest Spirits into a mess, then made adjustments, trying to use Evil Qi to control the Peach Blossom Goddess." Li Rui first explained the background.

Everyone nodded; this was originally the Secret Realm's plot, and many speculated Evil Qi didn't appear out of nowhere, so now hearing it was Zuo Qiutian's trap matched the logic.

"So did you unravel his setup?"

"That had to be unraveled."

Li Rui said, "Three task points and the location of the Peach Blossom Goddess each had a clue; I gathered the clues and then summoned a low-budget Zuo Qiutian."

"....."

"If I'm not mistaken, you killed him, right?"

Kong Ji was obviously more familiar with him than He Pengxi.

"Of course, after killing him, the Peach Blossom Goddess woke up and we had a heartfelt talk, restoring Peach Garden's past tranquility, happy end."

"Really?"

Nan Jiumei was the first to doubt, "The god's grave has been renamed Peach Blossom Goddess's grave; are you sure you just woke her up? It feels more like you killed her."

Li Rui spreads his hands, "If you want to think that way, I can't help it."

Zhang Hujun said, "No, brother, given our understanding of you, you're capable of such things."

Li Rui became anxious, "Bullshit! I just walk slightly off the beaten path, not like a big villain or antagonist; Peach Blossom Goddess is beautiful, gentle, generous, and kind, why would I kill her."

"Oh, she's a good person; I've never seen that Peach Blossom Spirit."

"Yeah, even when I cleared it at a third-level difficulty, I didn't find any hidden clues."

Zhang Hujun said, as a supernova himself, doing the three main lines posed no problem for him, but without the administrator's coat, his capability as a martial artist lacked the means to see through illusions; besides, even if he did, he couldn't defeat Zuo Qiutian's clone.

So for someone like him who hadn't seen Tao Yun, Peach Blossom Spirit was just a type of spirit monster, not of our kind, and not something that couldn't be killed.

Comparatively, Li Rui genuinely knew Tao Yun, and living among the Forest Spirit tribe in Peach Blossom Spring, who were a bunch of kind-hearted comical characters, killing was definitely an unthinkable act in his mind.

Walking with the group, Cheng Mingyue became curious.

She really wanted to know why everyone was only debating motives, did no one ever consider if he could actually win?