Chapter 55

At this moment, on the Secret Realm Island.

Lin Fei felt an unprecedented pressure.

Since awakening as a beastmaster, he hadn’t felt this kind of pressure in a battle from peers for a long time.

The comments he had made while watching Mu Huiyue battle now boomeranged back onto him—what determined the outcome of the battle was the gap between the beastmasters.

Mu Huiyue understood her beasts very well—their physical condition, speed, personality, battle habits, skill power…

She didn’t even need to give every single skill command in detail. For instance, when ordering the use of an ambush attack, the small cloud dog would instinctively use Shadow Step to accelerate.

And whether the small cloud dog charging toward the opponent was actually the Moonshadow, and when it had become Moonshadow—only it and its beastmaster knew.

An unparalleled trust and synergy.

This trust and synergy were the foundation for her executing some out-of-the-box tactics.

In comparison, Lin Fei’s understanding of the Dreamwalking Beast was clearly lacking. He wasn’t even sure under what circumstances the Dreamwalking Beast would wake up.

After the Heavenly Fire Ritual dissipated, Mu Huiyue chose to continue the attack, determined to finish off the Suzaku Tail Feathers with a single push.

Ellen’s Soul Tremor could influence the projection of the Dreamwalking Beast. With a 2v1 against the Dreamwalking Beast after that, she was confident she could find the winning path.

However, before she could give the attack command, a sudden surge of energy, like a tidal wave, flooded every area within sight.

In that moment, Mu Huiyue felt a disorienting blur in both her consciousness and senses.

Time seemed to stretch like an elastic rubber band, twisted and pulled beyond comprehension, then snapped back to a shape her senses could understand.

It felt as if she had leapt high into the air, then suddenly plummeted down, spinning in a dizzying sensation of weightlessness.

…

She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but Mu Huiyue finally felt her feet touch solid ground.

She opened her eyes, her vision blurry, and it took a long while before she could barely bring it back to normal.

The environment around her had completely changed. She had been battling Lin Fei in the dense forest of the island just moments ago, but now it felt like she was standing in a dim cave.

Lin Fei and his beasts, along with Wen Li and Yan Xi Miao, had all vanished without a trace.

Mu Huiyue pressed her aching temples and softly called out, “Ellen, White Fang…?”

Two summoning circles appeared in front of her, and the tall, upright skeleton and the small white puppy appeared, surrounding her.

The dark-type beasts were very sensitive to changes in emotions, and both sensed the shift in their Beastmaster’s state.

White Fang gently wagged its cloud-like tail, emitting a worried bark: “Woof…?”

Ellen, being more composed, carefully checked that Mu Huiyue wasn’t injured before quietly staying by her side.

When the sudden disturbance had occurred, Mu Huiyue immediately returned the two beasts to her Beastmaster space. Thankfully, they had not been affected.

Mu Huiyue bent down to pat the small cloud dog on the head and looked at the skeletal warrior by her side, feeling much more at ease.

She steadied herself and began to think carefully about the current situation.

This sudden sensory disorientation was not unfamiliar to her; she had experienced something similar before when exploring the secret realm in Earl Xinglong’s mansion.

When crossing an unstable secret realm without any protective measures, similar symptoms would occur.

Could the sudden energy surge be the result of the secret realm’s arrival…?

But the dense forest on the island itself was already a secret realm in its fusion phase. Could there still be a new secret realm arriving within the realm?

Mu Huiyue carefully recalled the investigation reports she had reviewed earlier and was certain she had not seen any related records.

She lowered her head to glance at her investigator wristband and switched it to the secret realm exploration mode.

The wristband quickly displayed the investigation results: the regional norm for hidden energy was between 300-500wP, and the spatial measurement showed wood attribute with a hidden energy coverage rate of over 72%…

These were the readings for the fusion-phase secret realm of the island’s forest, exactly matching the measurements from when Mu Huiyue first arrived.

However, the next moment, the wristband’s readings suddenly became extremely unstable, as if the signal source had been interfered with.

The regional norm for hidden energy began fluctuating wildly, with readings spiking to 2000wP before quickly dropping to zero, and finally turning into a string of constantly jumping, blurry numbers.

The spatial attributes and hidden energy coverage readings were also continuously overwritten by new detection results, making it impossible to see the fixed values.

“What is going on…?”

Mu Huiyue furrowed her brows slightly, as she had never seen the wristband’s readings fluctuate like this before.

This was a detection tool specifically developed by the Secret Realm Affairs Bureau for newly arrived secret realms. Even if the realm itself was unstable, the wristband’s readings should not fluctuate as if it were malfunctioning.

Moreover, she was currently inside the secret realm. If the realm were truly unstable to the point that the wristband’s readings became disordered, then her and her beasts’ existence should also be affected and become chaotic.

Mu Huiyue thought for a moment and located the wristband’s positioning and communication function, attempting to activate the rescue mode.

This was an important measure for secret realm investigators when encountering an unexpected arrival. If everything went smoothly, the bureau would quickly dispatch nearby high-level beast masters to provide rescue.

However, just like the detection readings, the positioning and communication function was also under interference. The screen was filled with static, making it impossible to access any useful information.

Mu Huiyue couldn’t help but sigh.

Without relying on external help, she would have to rely on herself.

Fortunately, she was no longer the ordinary person who had been trapped in a secret realm, powerless to act.

As a physically fit 3rd-level Beast Master and an official secret realm investigator for the bureau, Mu Huiyue would explore thoroughly and uncover the secrets of this place.

She put down the wristband, which was still in disarray, and looked around.

This was a cave-like area, with damp air, dim lighting, and a temperature much higher than the outside world.

Mu Huiyue tried touching the ground and the rock walls. The surface felt very humid and hot. The rock walls were dark red in color, with a hard texture, unlike any rock she had ever encountered.

The dim light created large shadows, and Ellen moved along these shadows, eventually stopping not far away.

“Click.” (Huiyue, come check this out.)

Mu Huiyue walked over and saw the source of the dim light next to the White Fang.

It was a crystal growing on the rock wall, emitting a fiery red glow, with magma-like molten fluid flowing inside.

“Woof?” White Fang sniffed the crystal curiously and extended a paw to touch it.

“Click.” (Don’t touch it.)

The tall skeleton swiftly scooped up the little dog and placed it back beside the Beast Master. White Fang whined twice, curling its tail and lying down.

“Did you feel anything, Ellen?” Mu Huiyue asked, patting the little dog.

The skeletal warrior turned around, its long bony fingers tapping its jaw, as if contemplating its words.

“Click, click…” (I don’t know what this is, but… it has activity similar to that of an extraordinary creature.)

“Activity?” Mu Huiyue was a bit surprised and pulled up the encyclopedia from her investigator wristband.

The encyclopedia did react to the fiery red crystal, but the result displayed was [Exploration Error].

If an unrecorded extraordinary creature is encountered, the encyclopedia should show [Unknown Creature] and detect the creature’s normal hidden energy value.

Why was it showing an exploration error?

Mu Huiyue was puzzled. What exactly was this fiery red crystal with biological activity?

Before she could figure it out, the ground suddenly trembled, and the surrounding rock walls shook violently, though no rocks fell.

Ellen immediately became alert, pulling Mu Huiyue and White Fang into the shadows.

Humans and extraordinary creatures who do not have shadow concealment skills cannot breathe in shadow spaces. Being suddenly dragged into the shadows felt like falling into cold water.

White Fang whimpered uncomfortably twice. Mu Huiyue covered her mouth and nose, looking at the skeleton that was protecting her.

Ellen maintained his stealth mode, quickly moving forward.

“Click…” (Sorry, but I have a bad feeling about this…)

About a minute later, the skeletal warrior finally withdrew from the shadow.

Mu Huiyue finally regained her breath. She patted the little white dog in her arms and recalled White Fang into the Beast Space.

This place might be more dangerous than expected. It would be better to summon White Fang only when necessary.

Having been in stealth mode for so long, they were theoretically far from their previous position, but Mu Huiyue still felt uneasy.

Ellen was in the same state. The shadow space here was very strange; there was no sense of the regular contours from the outside world. It felt as though countless passages were tangled together, and she couldn’t tell where they had ended up.

Just after recalling White Fang, Mu Huiyue stumbled and almost fell.

The earlier tremor seemed to have been transmitted here, and the entire cave shook violently again.

She caught sight of the blazing red light and couldn’t help but look up. Between the rock walls, several crimson crystals had grown, each one at least as tall as a person, much larger than the previous one.

The intense tremor shattered the outer shell of the crystals, and the molten, magma-like substance inside began to spread, coalescing into a thick mass, which then dropped with a sharp sound.

Mu Huiyue took two steps back, watching as the viscous, crimson fluid slowly rose, taking on a strange shape, like some sort of standing creature.

It quivered, and its intense heat seemed ready to burst out—

“Ellen!” Mu Huiyue quickly turned and ran.

The skeletal warrior leapt out of the shadows, his long fingers snapping sharply.

The starkly different ghostly blue flames surged toward the crimson mass. However, the mass remained unfazed, pushing forward against the burning specter flames, and expelled a surge of heat from within.

The high-temperature flames instantly engulfed the cave’s space. Mu Huiyue covered her mouth and nose while running, feeling the skeleton’s arm wrap around her.

In the next moment, a dark ocean overwhelmed her senses, and the searing fire flowed across the shadowy sky above, like a silent black-and-white film playing out before her eyes.

The skeletal warrior led her out of the shadows, and after releasing the flames, the molten mass appeared much duller. It slowly began to writhe into a shorter, more compact shape.

“Ellen, use the bone spike assault!” Mu Huiyue ordered.

She knew nothing about these active substances and needed to gather as much information as possible.

The fact that the Netherfire had no effect suggested that this thing probably didn’t have an independent soul, or a sentient mental body.

This meant that the soul tremor, like the Netherfire, would likely be ineffective. The only remaining option was to let Ellen try using a physical attack with bone spikes to gauge its vulnerability.

The skeletal warrior once again sank into the shadows and emerged from the side of the crimson mass. In his hands, he held two leg bones crossed like twin swords, and a swirling black mist enveloped him. The bones were coated with a sharp black light, hardened by calcification.

The tall skeleton leaped forward, using the force of its body rotation to strike heavily with the bone sword in its hand.

A sharp sound echoed as the bone spike assault hit!