Chapter 11: Isn’t This Rope for Tying Up Pigs?

 

“Sixth Senior Brother, you’re such a spendthrift fool.”

 

Showing off cost him a hundred thousand spirit stones—a real waste.

 

Mu Chihuai didn’t understand. “It’s just a hundred thousand spirit stones. I can earn it back by refining a batch of pills after a few days in seclusion.”

 

“……” Speechless, Chu Sang turned to Tantai Ming. “Is pill refining really that lucrative?”

 

She was considering a career change.

 

Tantai Ming looked envious. “If my spiritual roots allowed it, I’d switch too.”

 

She had always thought the sect was poor; turns out, only she was.

 

As a poor sword cultivator without family or background, the Seventh Senior Brother, along with her, a disgraced female cannon fodder expelled from her sect, seemed to fit right in with the penniless Lingqing Sect whose sect leader had even abandoned.

 

However…

 

“How did such a wealthy young master like Sixth Senior Brother end up joining our sect?”

 

“Who knows,” Tantai Ming shrugged. “He joined a month before me. I heard our master brought him in. I was also picked up from outside. Apparently, the other senior brothers and sisters were all brought by the master too… I’m not clear on the details. You can ask him yourself.”

 

Chu Sang turned to ask Mu Chihuai, “Sixth Senior Brother, how did you end up joining Lingqing Sect back then?”

 

Mu Chihuai leaned back in his lounge chair, resting his head on one arm with his eyes closed. “I was tricked into it.”

 

“Huh?”

 

He lazily yawned and said, “As the legitimate son of the Mu family, one of the four great alchemy clans, and the most talented of my generation, I should have naturally joined the Huadan Sect, one of the eight great sects. I could have directly become a disciple under one of my Mu family ancestors, becoming a true disciple.”

 

“But on the night before the disciple selection ceremony, the Lingqing Sect Master came to my home and divined my fate.” He paused, then continued, “He said there was a death calamity in my destiny, that I would die young, and only by joining Lingqing Sect could I avoid this fate…”

 

“But in my opinion, my parents and I were simply fooled by Master at that time. I lived smoothly for seventeen years without any issues. Where’s this so-called death calamity?”

 

The more Mu Chihuai thought about it, the angrier he became. When he was young, he thought he had been kidnapped into a poor mountain village and tried to escape from the sect more than once.

 

But for some reason, his parents, who had been smart all their lives, believed this matter deeply. Every time he escaped back home, they would beat him up and send him back to Lingqing Sect.

 

As time went by and he grew up, Mu Chihuai didn’t mind anymore. After all, no matter which sect he was in, with his talent and strength, he could still thrive.

 

However, Chu Sang felt a hint of surprise. In a way, the Lingqing Sect Master’s prediction back then wasn’t wrong.

 

Mu Chihuai did indeed have a death calamity in his fate.

 

In the original story, he died at the hands of the male and female protagonists at just twenty years old. Wasn’t that dying young?

 

She wondered who this Master was to predict even this.

 

“Esteemed guests, you must be tired from your journey. Would you like something to eat?” The innkeeper, who had been extremely enthusiastic since receiving payment, even personally attended to the three.

 

Chu Sang, accustomed to eating beast meat and spirit fruits in the sect, wasn’t particularly interested in mortal food. She inquired, “I’ve heard that you’ve been doing business in this city for several years. Recently, many cultivators have come to the city, and I believe you must have heard something about it. It’s because a secret realm is about to open nearby.”

 

“How much do you know about this secret realm?”

 

Having received 100,000 spirit stones, the innkeeper had no intention of concealing anything and revealed all the inside information he knew. “It’s not really anything special. This secret realm opens every ten years, but previous years have never had such a big commotion as this year.”

 

Chu Sang perked up her ears to listen. So there was more to the story?

 

“Rumors say that a legendary phoenix has appeared in the secret realm. Once this news spread, it not only attracted nearby Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment cultivators but even Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators came from far and wide…”

 

The innkeeper looked around and waved away the attendants, lowering his voice, “I see that you three guests are probably here for the secret realm too. Are you looking for that phoenix egg?”

 

Phoenix egg?

 

The three looked at each other. Actually, they knew nothing about this.

 

Chu Sang coughed lightly, covering her mouth with her fist. “That’s right.”

 

The innkeeper smiled knowingly. “Since we’re fated to meet, I won’t hide anything.”

 

He pulled out a scroll map from his sleeve. “I happened to obtain this map of the secret realm a few months ago. I was planning to auction it off at a high price during this opportunity. If you need it, I can give you this map for free.”

 

“What’s this stone?”

 

Chu Sang took the map and noticed a dull, reddish stone hanging from the scroll rod. This stone looked like a common crystal you might find on the roadside. Upon closer inspection, there was nothing particularly unusual about it, but it didn’t seem suitable for decoration either.

 

The innkeeper said, “As it happens, I also obtained this stone by chance from the secret realm.”

 

“As you’ve seen, I’m not an ordinary person. Because my lifespan was exhausted and I couldn’t breakthrough, I’ve been hiding in the mortal world for many years. Ten years ago, when the secret realm opened, I wanted to seek a way to breakthrough, so like other cultivators, I planned to explore the secret realm.”

 

“This stone is what I happened to obtain in the secret realm.”

 

“At that time, I don’t know what a group of people were fighting over, but they fought to the death, both sides suffering heavy losses. To avoid getting involved, I hid quietly. When the battle subsided, I came out and found this stone among the corpses scattered everywhere.”

 

“I thought it might be a treasure, but after all these years, I haven’t discovered any use for it. I didn’t want to throw it away, so I just mounted it as a decoration.” The innkeeper sighed, his eyes showing regret.

 

Chu Sang’s fingertips lightly touched the stone, and she instantly felt a mysterious energy. But this strange sensation disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, as if it had never been there.

 

After the innkeeper left, Tantai Ming withdrew his gaze from the door and looked at Chu Sang. “Is there really a phoenix in this secret realm?”

 

“The innkeeper wouldn’t lie to us.”

 

In the original story, the female protagonist did indeed obtain a precious fire phoenix egg in a certain secret realm. Chu Sang recalled the man in the bamboo-green robe she had seen earlier. He should be Shen Rufei, the head disciple of the Beast Taming Sect.

 

In the original story, it was he who helped the female protagonist tame that fire phoenix.

 

Three days later, when the secret realm opens, the arrival of the female protagonist and the appearance of the phoenix are destined to make this secret realm far from peaceful.

 

Even small secret realms are filled with beasts, illusion arrays, miasma, and poison mists… dangers lurk everywhere, making it impossible to guard against everything.

 

Mu Chihuai took out the pills he had prepared in advance and distributed them to the two. There were all kinds of pills like Qi Guiding pills, spirit-replenishing pills, antidote pills, and more. The market prices for these were all high, the kind that Chu Sang couldn’t afford even one bottle of with all her savings.

 

Ah, this is the advantage of having an alchemist senior brother!

 

They need to hurry to the secret realm. They can’t let the female protagonist get there first.

 

“Hold on tight, I’m about to take off!”

 

Chu Sang swung her sword and shot straight into the sky. Before the other two could react, they were dragged and pulled into the secret realm in a flash.

 

A passing cultivator asked, “Did you just see three big birds fly by?”