97: Tell the parents

As soon as his hands touched the golden crystal, Xu Yan felt his Innate Talent begin to fluctuate, and the area on his wrist where the golden thread was wrapped started to feel faintly warm.

At this moment, the slightly surprised voice of the Azure Sky Luan sounded again.

“This is a destiny crystal. I didn't expect the power of the Fate element to exist within this Secret Realm. No wonder they were able to forcibly entangle you with karma just by saying a few words before.

However, I have not conducted too much in-depth research on the aspect of Fate. Regarding this crystal, I suggest you don't rush to absorb it. It's best to take it back for confirmation before deciding whether to use it.”

Listening to the Azure Sky Luan's suggestion, Xu Yan nodded, then forcefully suppressed his desire to absorb the crystal before him, storing it directly into his storage device.

Next, Xu Yan did not go looking for human towns or anything similar.

After experiencing that incredibly dangerous manipulation, Xu Yan still felt uneasy.

Therefore, regarding his next actions within the Secret Realm, Xu Yan chose to...

Call the parents.

He took off the empty-framed glasses on his face, allowing Wuxiang to revert to its original form, summoned the small base station and signal amplifier it carried, broke through the Secret Realm barrier, and connected directly to the external network.

Afterward, he took out his phone, compiled a message detailing his experiences in the Secret Realm—including his encounter with the Ghost Infant, being manipulated, and almost having his fate bound to that of the dying Secret Realm—and sent it to Mo Yi.

Mo Yi, far away in the Third Academy, checked his young disciple's account of his experiences with a smile after receiving the message.

Initially, Mo Yi still wore a smile as he read about the encounters between Xu Yan and the Ghost Infant, and Xu Yan's preliminary understanding of the Secret Realm through the memories of the three people.

But as the later information appeared, the smile on Mo Yi's face slowly faded until it vanished completely, and the aura around him became serious.

After finishing the message sent by Xu Yan, Mo Yi gave a few instructions to the mechanical assistant beside him, then sent a reply back to Xu Yan.

Xu Yan, who was inside the Secret Realm, quickly received his mentor's reply. The message contained only eight short characters.

“Everything is permitted, nothing is taboo.”

Simply put, it meant: Xu Yan, go ahead and do whatever you want, don't worry about those miscellaneous things; if anything happens, your mentor here will take responsibility for everything.

At the same time, Wuxiang's mechanical voice sounded in Xu Yan's ear.

“Temporary access detected. Black Hole Generator, Orbital Railgun, Star-Shattering Crossbow, Quantum Shield Generator... Temporary permissions activated. Target: Eerie World. Time limit: Until leaving the Secret Realm.”

For some reason, while saying these things, Xu Yan could detect a hint of excitement in the other party's mechanical voice.

However, that was no longer important.

Listening to Wuxiang's mechanical voice describing the temporary weapon firing permissions, Xu Yan realized that calling the parents had indeed been useful. Wasn't this the backing he needed?

However, weren't the weapon permissions Mo Yi granted a bit too outrageous? The Black Hole Generator, Orbital Railgun, and Star-Shattering Crossbow were all capable of casually destroying a Secret Realm. As for the Quantum Shield Generator mentioned later, it was clearly meant to keep Xu Yan safe from the first three weapons.

Xu Yan felt that he had merely been manipulated and wanted revenge on the mastermind, but what was this? Direct retribution against the entire world? It didn't need to be so extreme.

Fortunately, besides the previous four permissions, Mo Yi also unlocked permissions for some powerful ordinary weapons that wouldn't cause widespread collateral damage, preventing Xu Yan from being unable to use them out of concern for their excessive power.

He wondered what kind of expression the mastermind who had calculated against him would show if they knew about the permissions he acquired after calling his mentor—permissions capable of directly destroying this Secret Realm.

After the communication with Mo Yi ended, Xu Yan had Wuxiang put away the signal base station and amplifier.

Although the confidence Mo Yi provided allowed Xu Yan to walk sideways (act unrestrainedly) in this Secret Realm, Xu Yan ultimately decided to perform a Heavens Mandate Guidance first.

With a thought, the Heavens Mandate Guidance was immediately activated.

However, this time the Heavens Mandate Guidance was unlike before; the golden threads wrapped around his wrist were lit one after another, indicating that the result of Xu Yan's guidance was not simple.

After a total of thirty Heavens Mandate Guidance activations were consumed, the burning of the golden threads finally stopped, and Xu Yan entered a peculiar state.

Just as the last golden thread burned out, Xu Yan felt a mysterious and powerful force surge towards him like a tide. This force seemed to possess its own will, guiding his spiritual power to rush toward an unknown direction.

Xu Yan only felt the scene before his eyes begin to blur and distort, and everything around him became illusory and unreal.

Immediately after, a dazzling light flashed, and when he opened his eyes again, he found himself situated in a completely strange and extremely unique space.

The entire space was permeated with a strange aura, and faint energy fluctuations rippled through the air, forming visible waves. The whole space presented a deep and gloomy hue, making one feel both mysterious and full of endless possibilities.

Before him was an illusory Azure Heaven Giant Tree, yet the branches of this giant tree were bare, with only a few scattered light spots twinkling upon them.

Although this was the first time he had seen this scene, Xu Yan immediately understood the meaning represented by the light spots on the illusory giant tree.

That was an irresistible and inescapable force, like a predetermined fate in the dark, enveloping this mysterious Secret Realm and every living creature residing within it.

This was the Heaven's Mandate existing within this Secret Realm, like an invisible net, tightly weaving everything together. Whether strong or weak, all were controlled by this mysterious and powerful force, finding it difficult to break free from its shackles.

However, despite the massive number of creatures in this Secret Realm, there were only a handful of light spots on the illusory giant tree that bore the Heaven's Mandate.