Cultivation: But Not a Game-Chapter 65 - 31: Killing Spree
The exploration time agreed upon by the three guilds was 24 hours, enough for him to make a round of the entire secret realm.
During the search, Su Yu occasionally discovered some artificial traces remaining in certain canyons, such as collapsed buildings and stone pillars covered in vines, but the secret realm had been abandoned for an unknown number of millennia. These artificial traces had long decayed or been submerged by vegetation and were almost impossible to detect without a careful look.
Through these artificial traces, he speculated that there must have originally been zoning within the secret realm.
Flying south along the edge of the secret realm for over 5,000 kilometers, he saw a large lake covering hundreds of square kilometers. As he passed over it from high above, he saw a hundred-meter-long flood dragon swimming in the water, continuously devouring spots of blue light from the lake.
Azure Flood Dragon (Elite): Leader, Level 121, Aquatic Race, Flood Dragon.
"Is it one of those Level 100 beasts that drilled in from the Yuanjiang River?"
Su Yu paused for less than a minute before leaving without a hint of hesitation.
No need to think about it; such Level 100 beasts were not something he could provoke. They were definitely not his match.
Whether it was an elite template or a terrifying one, a level over 100 was analogous to Human Race cultivators passing the Celestial Tribulation, marking a qualitative change in strength with a rank suppression over low-level cultivators, making it very difficult to fight one-on-one.
Continuing south after leaving the large lake, he heard the rumbling sound of thunder from ahead about ten minutes later, with bolts of lightning occasionally illuminating the thin mist.
He flew over quickly and soon saw several individuals locked in battle.
To be precise, three were chasing one.
The one being chased was an acquaintance of Su Yu’s, Wei Xia, who came in second in the previous minor examination. He wielded a Thunder Hammer, continuously unleashing massive bolts of lightning.
The three chasing him appeared to be from the same guild. Individually, they were not his match, but together was another story.
One of them had a high-level Defense Treasure, a blue light barrier that covered nearly an acre, protecting all three within it.
The other two had no high-level Magical Treasures, but with their companion’s protection, even Wei Xia, wielding a high-level Magical Treasure, couldn’t help them.
Su Yu transmitted a message to Wei Xia from a distance:
"Need help?"
Wei Xia immediately responded:
"Yes!"
"Be careful, he has a high-level Magical Treasure with very high Defense."
"Understood!"
Su Yu extended his right hand, gathering the Sword Light, and with a raise of his hand, the Sun Concealing Sword transformed into a Sword Rainbow and soared into the sky.
"Someone’s coming."
Zhang Tianlei was the first to notice the Sword Light flying from behind and asked softly:
"Can you handle it?"
Xiao Yuan chuckled:
"This is a high-level Magical Treasure with 120,000 Defense. What can’t it block?"
"You don’t need to worry about me, focus on taking down the one in front."
The two teammates were reassured and continued to press Wei Xia with their Magical Treasures. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖
The Flying Sword arrived in the blink of an eye, followed by a sudden burst of Sun True Fire.
"Blazing Change!"
"Taibai Splitting Light Sword!"
The Sun Concealing Sword trembled, releasing thirty Sword Qi to cover the sky and bombard the large light barrier, instantly creating a huge indentation with a high explosive force of 42,000.
Defense Treasures above Tier Four come with inherent damage reduction characteristics, the higher the grade, the greater the damage reduction, with a Tier Seven Treasure providing 30% damage reduction.
"Crap!"
The defense, which had been maintained at around 110,000, instantly plummeted by more than half, leaving just over 70,000. Xiao Yuan was startled and quickly infused Mana into the Magical Treasure to restore the Defense.
But by then, the Sun Concealing Sword had already struck. The Flying Sword, trailing Sun True Fire, circled over the light barrier, causing the Defense to leak like a breached dam.
"Quick, channel your Mana into the Magical Treasure, his burst is too powerful."
The other two were taken aback, hurriedly infusing their Mana to restore more Defense than the damage incurred.
"Luckily, this is an area Defense Treasure, allowing everyone to provide Mana together, or we’d be done for."
As the thought crossed his mind, rolling thunder came from afar, and when he looked up, he saw Wei Xia taking advantage of their retracted Magical Treasures to decisively raise the Thunder Hammer and unleash a powerful move.
Countless lightning exploded into a vortex of thunder and light. A massive thunder pillar shot into the sky, gathering thunder clouds in the sky, extending to over a dozen acres within seconds.
"Thunder Strike!"
Amidst the earth-shattering thunder, bolts of lightning rained down from the thunder clouds.
Hundreds of thunderbolts struck down, with the Flying Sword circling the massive light barrier, continuously cutting. Treasure Light distorted and deformed, with the Defense visibly shrinking.
"Bang!"
Without surprise, the light barrier shattered, thunderbolts struck down, and the Flying Sword circled once, slicing through the protective aura and severing Xiao Yuan’s head.
The remaining two decisively scattered left and right to escape, the Flying Sword pursuing left, while the thunder gathered around the shadow to the right.
The Flying Sword crisscrossed twice, reducing the left shadow to two parts, which fell down.
On the other side, thunder rumbled for five or six seconds, forcibly breaking the defense and killing them.
Su Yu manipulated the Flying Sword to retrieve the spoils, with Wei Xia flying over and bowing from afar:
"Mr. Su, I owe you a life. If you ever need anything, feel free to find me."
"No problem."
He wouldn’t foolishly claim he didn’t need it.
"Shall we go together?"
"Let’s go together."
The two rested for a while, fully restored their Mana, and continued their journey.
"Your Swordsmanship has progressed since three months ago."
"I’ve slightly improved."
"That’s too humble. You’re much stronger than last time, and I won’t be able to match you in the second minor examination in half a month."
In mid-air, the two continued their casual conversation as they flew along.
"Your Swordsmanship talent is exceptional; have you ever thought about joining a sect? With your talent in Swordsmanship, you even have a chance to get into an Immortal Sect."
"Of course, I’ve thought about it. How about you?"
"I’ve thought about it, but while my family background is good, my talent is average, with a highest bone structure of 21 and comprehension of just 16. It would be a struggle to join an Immortal Sect, and hard to progress even if I got in. So, my father arranged for me to join the nearby Danxia Sect. With my talent and a high-level Magical Treasure in hand, I have a chance to apprentice under a Loose Immortal bigwig within Danxia Sect."
"That’s pretty good."
"But it’s no match for an Immortal Sect."
Su Yu remained silent.
This was hard to respond to. Saying that Danxia Sect could compare with Xuanzhen Immortal Sect was simply not something one said lightly.
In the other world, sect names weren’t assigned randomly. Some names were reserved for the top-tier sects, like Immortal Sect, Buddhist Sect, Demon Sect, and so on.
There were many sects on Blue Mountain Island, but not all could use the term Immortal Sect.
Only sects with True Immortal-level powerhouses alive, with a full set of Daoist arts leading to the True Immortal Realm, possessing extraordinary heritage, could be called an Immortal Sect.
In this, only righteous and unorthodox paths could be called an Immortal Sect or sect, Buddhist could be called a Buddhist Sect, and Demon Dao could be called a Demon Sect.
Without that strength, daring to call a sect such was overstepping and would invite attacks.
As far as Su Yu knew, only four could be called sects in the Blue Mountain Archipelago: Xuanzhen Immortal Sect, Nine Heavens Immortal Sect, Brahma Heaven Buddhist Sect, and Yin Sha Demon Sect. Beyond these four, hundreds of other large and small sects were ordinary sects.
The strength of these sects varied; the strongest were not far off from the few Immortal Sects, just one Sect True Immortal less, with the other mid-to-high-level experts not far behind.
And the weakest sect was... not too weak either.
Some weak sects might not even have an Earth Immortal expert, but they were still sects. Loose Immortal experts numbered in the hundreds, not something a guild could mess with.
Apprenticeship should certainly be under a large sect, strong and with a well-ordered inheritance, so that the master could cover for troubles caused in the future.
If the master’s sect was too small and accidentally offended a powerful Demon King or something, dragging the sect into destruction would be too lamentable.
The two chatted back and forth idly, and before they knew it, they arrived at the southeastern corner of the secret realm. As they turned a corner, Su Yu suddenly realized:
"On our way here, we didn’t seem to encounter anyone, right?"
Wei Xia paused, then laughed:
"That’s quite normal, isn’t it? Most wouldn’t run to the edge of the map, right? Moreover, it’s been five or six hours since entering the instance, so who knows how many have died. The survivors are probably less than half; with 150 people in a secret realm covering thousands of square kilometers, it’s normal not to run into anyone."
"That’s true."
"By the way, how many people have you taken down?"
Su Yu thought for a moment before replying:
"I think around 14."
"That many?"
"Is it a lot?"
Wei Xia was speechless:
"If half estimated to have died is 150, and you’ve killed nearly a tenth of them by yourself, isn’t that a lot?"
"Uh... I suppose it’s okay."
Wei Xia was speechless again, but after a while, the two bored companions resumed their chat.
