Ming Jingqiu seemed to blink, but quickly recovered. “No need. How you address me is your choice.”
Bai Xiaoxiao smiled. “Alright. Then Senior Sister Ming, call me Xiaoxiao too. Xingtong’s right—always saying ‘Fellow Daoist’ is a little strange.”
Ye Xingtong shot her a look of approval.
Bai Xiaoxiao couldn’t help but laugh.
Ming Jingqiu’s expression also softened. “Alright. Then I’ll call you Xiaoxiao as well.”
Bai Xiaoxiao let out a breath of relief. She glanced at Ye Xingtong and Jing Ying, who had huddled together whispering again, and a trace of worry crossed her face.
“So what do we do next? This ice-cavern-like cave is impossible to navigate. Xingtong and I walked around the whole way, and neither of us could tell directions.”
Ming Jingqiu thought for a moment. “On our way here, the Young Pavilion Master and I didn’t run into anyone else until we met you two.”
Bai Xiaoxiao was surprised. “Is this cave really a maze? And what’s its Restriction?”
They’d already been here quite a while, yet no one had discovered the Restriction. It was truly astonishing.
Ming Jingqiu shook her head too. “Not known yet. Every cave in this Secret Realm is a different little world, large and small, and the Restrictions are quite strange and varied.”
She thought for two seconds. “This cave probably isn’t a maze—just tremendously vast.”
Bai Xiaoxiao grew even more worried. If so, leaving wouldn’t be simple.
Just as they were talking, a startled cry rang out.
They looked toward the sound and saw that the crowd had a gap.
“How is this possible? The person standing next to me just now is gone—he vanished all of a sudden!”
Bai Xiaoxiao was stunned.
What did “vanished all of a sudden” mean? This ice cavern was nothing but ice pillars as far as the eye could see. There wasn’t even any other living thing. How could someone vanish?
But before she could puzzle it out, several more people vanished from the crowd, in full view of everyone.
Bai Xiaoxiao’s expression turned hesitant. “This… are we seeing ghosts?”
Ming Jingqiu’s face was somber. “Ghosts aren’t scary. What’s scary—is the unknown.”
Bai Xiaoxiao blinked, wanting to say that ghosts were also scary, but the atmosphere didn’t allow it.
The priority was dealing with the situation at hand. People were vanishing one after another—that was extremely bad.
The situation was inexplicable and sudden. Even those cultivators with their own schemes had to pull themselves together, looking around in alarm, afraid they’d be next.
The people who vanished might be alive or dead. What made everyone more uneasy was that there was no warning at all.
These were all cultivators, and not a single one had noticed anything wrong. That alone was enough to terrify.
No matter how great the conflict, it had to be set aside now. Finding the exit was the most important thing.
The cultivators immediately scattered to search. But as time passed, not one of them found an exit.
Frowning, Bai Xiaoxiao activated Spirit Vision and tried to search for anything unusual.
But this time, her Spirit Vision didn’t work. No matter what she looked at, she found nothing.
Either all this ice was ordinary ice, or everything in this cave outranked her cultivation.
The situation was bad.
In just that short time, when the cultivators searching for an exit returned, their numbers had dwindled sharply—yet they seemed to be just realizing it. In an instant, fear and unease spread through the air.
Only then did Bai Xiaoxiao understand how right Ming Jingqiu’s words were. For cultivators, ghosts truly weren’t scary. What was scary was an unknown like this.
Just as she was deep in thought, a voice suddenly spoke up.
“Perhaps I know what’s going on.”
Bai Xiaoxiao paused, a strange feeling rising in her chest. When Rong Qingqing’s figure appeared at the edge of her vision, a flicker of understanding crossed her eyes.
But the woman had chosen this exact moment to speak. Very telling.
Bai Xiaoxiao looked to Ming Jingqiu and saw the same wariness in the other woman’s eyes.
If anyone in this place had some measure of Rong Qingqing’s true nature, it was probably just her and Ming Jingqiu.
Ye Xingtong also disliked Rong Qingqing, but their conflict was still shallow, not yet escalated. After all, they rarely met.
Ming Jingqiu was different. They shared the same Shizun, and Ming Jingqiu was her senior sister—they crossed paths often.
What’s more, the other woman had never hidden her dislike for Ming Jingqiu. Ming Jingqiu naturally understood that this junior sister of hers wasn’t as kind and cheerful as she appeared.
And Bai Xiaoxiao needed no explanation. She’d read the novel, but she’d never been fond of Rong Qingqing, and she’d just been set up by the woman moments ago.
If anyone still took Rong Qingqing at face value as the Female Lead of the book, they had a hole in their head.
Yet in this situation, the woman had stayed silent at first, letting everyone search fruitlessly for an exit before jumping in. No matter how you looked at it, it stank.
Ye Xingtong’s brows shot up, as if she wanted to say something, but Ming Jingqiu stopped her in time.
“Wait and see.”
Ye Xingtong swallowed her words, reluctantly shut her mouth, crossed her arms, and watched, her face full of disgust.
She’d like to see what this woman was scheming.
“Tsk. What’s she putting on an act for?”
After two glances, Ye Xingtong couldn’t help rolling her eyes, making no effort to hide her dislike of Rong Qingqing.
The corner of Bai Xiaoxiao’s mouth quirked up. She felt the same way.
Mostly because Rong Qingqing’s acting wasn’t very good—there was always something a little off about her.
But while they found it off-putting, the others thought differently.
That crowd was mostly Rogue Cultivators and disciples of small sects. It had been obvious from earlier: if not for Ming Jingqiu’s strength suppressing them, even knowing they were Sword Sect disciples might not have made them yield so quickly.
But when Rong Qingqing spoke up, not only did they fail to show impatience or accuse her of cutting in, their attitudes could almost be called good.
Bai Xiaoxiao was quite taken aback. But when she glanced at Ming Jingqiu’s trio, she found their expressions unchanged—they hadn’t noticed the strangeness.
After a few seconds of thought, Bai Xiaoxiao tested the waters. “Senior Sister Ming… don’t you… find anything off?”
Ming Jingqiu frowned at her, confusion in her eyes. Ye Xingtong’s face was also full of blankness.
Jing Ying was even more lost. This was her first time meeting Rong Qingqing, and she’d only just learned the other woman didn’t get along with Ye Xingtong.
“What’s off?”
All three were bewildered.
Seeing this, Bai Xiaoxiao shook her head slightly.
She’d wanted to ask Shen Zhiyue too, but the little figure in her Sea of Consciousness was quiet—her consciousness was probably on her Main Body.
Bai Xiaoxiao didn’t press further. She simply watched Rong Qingqing with a thoughtful expression.
Rong Qingqing, for her part, showed not the slightest panic under so many stares. Instead, she gave a faint smile.
“I understand everyone is very afraid of what just happened. But there’s no need to be so wary. If I’m not mistaken, they should have gone to a hidden training ground.”
At her words, the crowd stirred in confusion.
“What hidden training ground? Never heard of it.”
“Right, right. The Flowing Light Spirit Cave has existed for hundreds of years since it opened. How come we’ve never heard of a hidden training ground?”
“Could this girl be making it up?”
“Little miss, since you dared to speak, you must have discovered something. Say it straight.”
“Indeed, indeed. Why the suspense? Time’s running out.”
No one wanted to die. The crowd had been terrified by the disappearances, and now hearing that the vanished weren’t dead, but had gone to a hidden training ground, hope stirred in every heart.
If that were truly the case, that hidden training ground surely held far more Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures.
Rong Qingqing took in all the gazes, and the smile on her face grew more pronounced.
“Naturally. Since I dared to open my mouth, I won’t deceive everyone.
Actually, earlier, when I and my two senior sisters came down the mountain to train, we accidentally stumbled into a brand-new secret realm that was on the verge of forming. Just as we realized something was wrong, the secret realm suddenly began to tremble violently.
By the time everything calmed down, we found we were no longer in the secret realm we’d first entered.”
“This… what does that mean?”
The crowd frowned, their expressions wavering.
“Our guess is that the secret realm that was about to form and the Flowing Light Spirit Cave Secret Realm began merging due to some accident. Initially, we weren’t certain. But just now, when people vanished, there was a peculiar fluctuation—the exact same fluctuation we’d felt when we stumbled into that secret realm. Hence, this guess.”
Everyone was astonished. No one expected that simply entering a secret realm would lead to two secret realms fusing.
If that was so…
“Little miss, you said you’ve been to that secret realm. What’s it like inside?”
Rong Qingqing looked back at Bai Suwei.
Bai Suwei spoke flatly. “Primordial chaos just opening; turbid qi not yet separated.”
Everyone’s expressions changed.
Bai Xiaoxiao, somewhat at a loss, edged closer to Ming Jingqiu and whispered, “Senior Sister Ming, what does that mean?”
Ming Jingqiu’s face was grave too. “If it really is a newly forming secret realm, it could indeed give birth to rare Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures or Spirit Beasts.
But that’s for a fully formed secret realm. If what Senior Sister Bai says is true… being swept into a realm that hasn’t finished gestating will most likely result in being absorbed as nourishment.”
Bai Xiaoxiao shuddered. “Absorbed… as nourishment?”
Ming Jingqiu nodded. “A secret realm takes anywhere from several hundred to tens of millions of years to form, and the causes vary. One type is naturally formed. Another type is a grotto-heaven left by a mighty figure—such realms usually contain an Inheritance, whether it’s a Cultivation Method or a Magic Artifact.”
Now Bai Xiaoxiao understood. What they were facing was the first type—and a hidden variant at that, where one slip could turn them into nourishment.
