Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest-Chapter 700 - 4 Why Are You Acting Coy_2

Chen Tianming smiled without saying a word. He had first heard the name Yan Yu from his daughter because down in the inverted tower’s Mysterious Realm at the bottom of the Qiantang River, Yan Yu had killed two civilian Onmyoji from Chongying—confirming that the kid had set foot on the path of cultivation long before officially being trained by the government.

Which grassroots cultivator doesn’t have their secrets? However, as one of the first team cultivators, even if Yan Yu kept secrets privately, his surface had to be flawlessly red—nobody could pick faults with him.

Let him be!

Yan Yu, riding his sword, arrived at Shuzhong Prefecture and met with Zhou Hongyu, only to discover that she had come alone.

“Where are the others?” Yan Yu asked, “Just you?”

“They don’t owe you any favors,” Zhou Hongyu lightly said.

In reality, it was because everyone else had not yet reached the Hua Mansion Stage. If the second layer of the realm were to open, it would likely be a secret realm of the Hua Mansion Stage’s difficulty, hence only Zhou Hongyu could step up.

“Let’s go,” Yan Yu said.

The two of them steered their swords to the northwest, seeing the Hengduan Mountains beneath them growing steeper and the altitude higher.

Zhou Hongyu led the way in front, silent, with an expressionless face, suddenly heard Yan Yu say deeply from behind:

“Long time no see, you’ve lost quite a bit of weight.”

She almost lost control and crashed, incredulously looking back, only to see Yan Yu laughing and saying:

“Just kidding! Why so silent? The atmosphere is a bit dull.”

“I have nothing to say to you,” Zhou Hongyu responded curtly.

“I know, you’re the type who dislikes empty talk and prefers getting things done,” Yan Yu said, “How about I send you a group-buy link, and you help me slash it.”

“What are we buying?” Zhou Hongyu asked.

“A reference book, it’s called ‘How to Pry Open the Heart of an Iceberg Goddess.'”

Zhou Hongyu’s mouth twitched, as if she was barely holding back a laugh or subtly sneering in disdain.

“Just drop the sweet talk,” she said softly.

“Ah, are you getting shy?” Yan Yu rejoiced, “Turn around and let me see.”

Zhou Hongyu ignored him completely, only fiercely stimulating her True Yuan to make her sword fly even faster.

Yan Yu quickly sped up to catch up, the two sword lights, one after the other, reached the plateau and arrived at the Kunlun Mountains on the border of Jiangzang.

This place was vast and sparsely populated, mostly uninhabited continuous snow-capped mountains and beyond distinguishing any directions. Not knowing what method Zhou Hongyu used, she led Yan Yu flying for a while, then suddenly dove straight down, falling into a valley.

The entrance to the Mysterious Realm lay at the snowy valley floor, surrounded by a military camp, the building roofs covered in white cloth for concealment.

“How did you discover such a remote place?” Yan Yu marveled.

“Mountaineers,” Zhou Hongyu replied.

Since all procedures had been completed, the border guards quickly let them through.

The Mysterious Realm was codenamed “Kunlun Mansion,” and many Military Mansion Cultivators were stationed there, along with a specialized group of experts studying Cultivation World history—because this secret realm contained many ancient texts, the vast majority boasting about how incredible a famous orthodox sect known as “Kunlun Taiching Sect” was.

In the Kunlun Mansion’s secret realm, which appeared snow-covered year-round just like the outside world, the climate was actually as warm as spring. The sun never set, evergreen cold-resistant trees thrived in the valleys, and the mountain springs were crystal clear. Further up the mountainsides, along the contours of the mountain, divine palaces were constructed, looking extremely imposing and magnificent.

“Why have you stopped moving?” Yan Yu asked Zhou Hongyu, noticing her sudden halt.

“Where is the second level? How should I know?” Zhou Hongyu retorted irritably. “Now it’s your turn to lead the way.”

This puzzled Yan Yu, as Zhang Huaide was a man of tight lips. In his past life, he naturally wouldn’t advertise how he “discovered the second layer of the secret realm”. But if he admitted now, “I also don’t know where the entrance is, we need to search for it,” Zhou Hongyu would most likely turn around and leave—she was not one to be patient.

“If that’s the case, let me take the lead now, and you follow me,” Yan Yu declared, taking on the responsibility.

Zhou Hongyu had no objections and followed Yan Yu up a nearby hill, looking around in all directions.

The terrain of the secret realm was also a valley; the western side housed the divine palaces, to the north lay the mountain springs, to the east was a small patch of woodland, and to the south was the entrance to the secret realm, surrounded by a vast expanse of flat wasteland.

Logically, if there was a second layer to the secret realm, it would most likely be inside the divine palaces, which would make it convenient to station people to guard the entrance leading to the second layer.

But from another perspective, the divine palaces were also where the most Pingxi Army Military Mansion Cultivators were stationed. The upper limit of Spiritual Energy Resurgence had been raised for so long, it was unlikely that no one had discovered the entrance yet?

After thinking it through, Yan Yu decided to first check the east side, then make a round to the north.

After wandering around in the small eastern woods for quite some time without finding anything peculiar, he heard Zhou Hongyu suddenly ask:

“Are you sure you haven’t got it wrong?”

“Of course, just keep following me,” Yan Yu replied confidently.

“You’ve nearly trampled this place bare,” Zhou Hongyu dryly commented, “Do you want a shovel to dig with? Maybe it’s buried underneath.”

It wasn’t impossible… Yan Yu suppressed the urge to retort and invented an explanation:

“You don’t understand. The entire Kunlun Mansion secret realm is actually a formation. To reach the entrance to the second layer, one must first enter the formation from this east side… Aha!”

Pretending to have discovered something, he again led Zhou Hongyu towards the north.

The northern side had continuous hillocks and slopes with springs converging from high places into a stream.

Following the river upstream, Yan Yu discovered that its source was a cliff waterfall.

Above the waterfall was a wall of air, the so-called boundary of the secret realm, impassable. Behind the waterfall was a large expanse of vertical ice glaciers, shining like mirrors, bright enough to reflect one’s appearance.

Seeing Yan Yu tapping and hitting the ice wall with his Liangyi Sword, Zhou Hongyu spoke up again:

“Stop knocking. It’s already been measured with instruments, and it’s solid inside.”

“Being solid doesn’t mean there can’t be an entrance,” Yan Yu insisted. “Can matters of the Cultivation Secret Realm be explained with scientific principles?”

“Then keep knocking,” Zhou Hongyu scoffed.

Yan Yu resorted to using his Huang Tingjian to hack at the ice. He chopped for a long while, even using the Sword-Human Unity technique, but the ice wall was as hard as gold and iron and couldn’t be chopped through.

“We’ve already said there’s no way through.” Zhou Hongyu said impatiently. “If you keep wasting time here, I’m leaving.”

“Wait,” Yan Yu called out, raising his hand. “This unbreakable ice wall is precisely the biggest suspicion!”

“I can’t see it,” Zhou Hongyu stated.

Yan Yu didn’t elaborate further, but simply formed a sword technique with his hand and sent the Huang Tingjian flying out, directly slicing through the distant cliff wall.

Zhou Hongyu squinted her eyes.

“See?” Yan Yu analyzed. “Ordinary frozen earth and stones can’t block my Huang Tingjian’s strike; this ice wall behind the waterfall has definitely been specially reinforced with restrictions!”

“So what?” Zhou Hongyu said coldly. “Even if it has a mechanism, without a way to break it, it’s still worthless.”

After a brief moment of contemplation, Yan Yu suddenly smiled and said:

“Try using the Great Bright Fire that you found in this secret realm.”

“Magic Treasure,” Zhou Hongyu disdainfully replied. “I’ll cast the spell for one minute. If there’s no result, I’m leaving.”

How has this girl become so haughty? If you really have no patience, you can leave right now!

Yan Yu silently mourned for Lin Ning for a moment and then loudly declared:

“Cast the spell!”