45: Chapter 45

45

A warrior's teeth chattered as he hissed, "We can't go any further... this cold will be the death of us!"

"Are we really just going to retreat like this?"

The person beside him also had a pale, sickly face.

They were dressed in thin, short clothes, looking as if frozen solid in such bitter cold.

"We can't hold out... we must evacuate immediately and report the situation to the Regiment Commander for a decision."

After a brief discussion, the group quickly turned around and retreated the way they came.

—At almost the same time, Jiang Haojie was also experiencing the same frigid assault.

The cold air pierced his bone marrow like fine needles, making his whole body tremble.

A layer of white frost had already condensed on the edge of the Golden Feather Eagle's nest, and the once lush vegetation on the giant tortoise's back had largely withered and frozen to death.

Jiang Haojie knew he couldn't wait any longer; he suddenly leapt out of the nest and scrambled down the swaying tortoise shell.

He could barely stand upright amidst the jolting, so he had to pull that crimson flame sword from his storage space.

.

A faint flame rose from the sword's blade, but it could hardly dispel even half a bit of the chill; the tip of the flame flickered and swayed in the wind and snow, as if it would be completely extinguished at any moment.

He ran toward the exit of the secret realm with all his might.

Boom—!

A loud noise like muffled thunder suddenly exploded.

Perhaps the giant tortoise was too massive, or perhaps its power had shaken the entire Ice Mountain Range, but an iceberg on one side suddenly cracked and collapsed.

Jiang Haojie felt as if the world was turning upside down, and then a wave of snow crashed down from the sky, completely swallowing him.

...It's over.

This was his last thought before his consciousness sank into darkness.

Outside the secret realm, Liu Jinglong and Peng Tian had just looked away from the entrance's light curtain when that curtain of light suddenly fluctuated violently.

The fifty soldiers who had just entered actually all tumbled out, and at the same time, a terrifying wave of cold air swept outward, making everyone around them shudder in unison.

Peng Tian gritted his teeth to resist that bone-chilling cold and hurriedly asked, "What's the situation? You guys retreated not long after going in?"

Liu Jinglong also had a grave expression: "What happened inside? How could it be this cold?"

It was clearly the height of summer, yet they couldn't feel the slightest bit of heat; they only felt as if they had been suddenly thrown into the depths of an ice cellar, with the chill seeping out from the cracks in their bones.

A soldier's teeth chattered, his voice trembling: "We... aren't sure either.

As soon as we entered, a blast of cold air hit us right in the face."

"We originally wanted to brace ourselves and keep going, but that cold was just too terrifying; we couldn't withstand it at all... so we had no choice but to retreat first."

Even though they were already standing outside, they were still shivering all over, the cold air seemingly stuck to their skin.

Liu Jinglong and Peng Tian exchanged a look—some kind of unexpected mutation had likely occurred inside the secret realm.

"What are everyone's thoughts?"

Peng Tian turned his gaze toward Liu Jinglong and the others.

Liu Jinglong pondered for a moment, his voice low: "This matter has already exceeded the scope of what we can handle.

I believe we should report this upward immediately and request the dispatch of high-level combatants to forcibly enter and investigate."

"Not feasible."

The representative from the Guard Department shook his head. "Until the internal status of the secret realm is clear, the higher-ups will never easily mobilize experts above the fifth rank."

Every expert who reaches the fifth rank is a precious strategic resource, costing an enormous amount to cultivate; unless the situation is critical, they will never be allowed to set foot in an unknown and dangerous place.

Peng Tian's brow furrowed: "Then what do we do now? We can't just wait here forever.

As it stands, the secret realm can no longer be entered."

With so many people guarding this place, if they could only stand around, it would be no different from wasting time.

"How about this,"

The person from the Guard Department suggested, "This extreme cold phenomenon didn't occur when we sent people in before.

We can send small teams in at intervals to check; once the chill subsides, we will continue with the original plan."

After making eye contact with Peng Tian, Liu Jinglong nodded.

There was no better way for now, so they had to leave it at that.

At the same time, deep within the secret realm.

Jiang Haojie suddenly woke up amidst a suffocating sense of pressure, but the scene before him made his heart sink.

He found that he was actually immersed in water—more accurately, he was trapped in a warm body of water.

The current wrapped around him, conveying a continuous warmth.

But he had no time to look into it now; the dizziness from oxygen deprivation was getting heavier, and he had to surface immediately.

With a splash, he poked his head out of the water; white mist filled the surroundings, and everything within his line of sight was a hazy milky white, with everything in the distance swallowed by the fog.

The Tongyou Black Tortoise was gone.

Jiang Haojie's heart tightened.

If the Tongyou Black Tortoise had disappeared, how was he supposed to leave? The exit to the secret realm was right on that giant tortoise's back.

He hurriedly paddled his arms, searching around in the warm water with his unskilled swimming strokes.

This clumsy way of paddling was something he had randomly imitated when he accompanied Xu Qing to the swimming pool in the past; he hadn't expected it to come in handy at such a critical moment.

Damn it... where on earth did that tortoise go?

A trace of confusion rose in Jiang Haojie's heart.

Given the Tongyou Black Tortoise's massive body, even with the surrounding mist, it shouldn't have completely vanished without a trace.

Splash—

Just as he was concentrating on his thoughts, a violent sound of vibration suddenly came from the distance.

Jiang Haojie's ears twitched; he quickly identified the direction and immediately swam toward the source of the sound.

Before long, two mountain-like giant shadows came into view—they weren't stationary peaks, but the Tongyou Black Tortoise and a giant fish with gold and red radiance flowing all over its body, locked in a fierce battle.

Jiang Haojie's mind shuddered.

To think that deep within this secret realm, there was actually an existence that could contend with the Tongyou Black Tortoise.

Since the latter was an Emperor Rank Ancient Beast, then this fish was probably also...

He quietly activated his Eye of Insight, and a string of information immediately surfaced in his consciousness:

Ancient Beast: Jinwen Dragon Fish

Rank: Emperor Rank

Origins: Water, Fire, Holy Spirit, Void

Status: Peak

As expected.

Jiang Haojie took a silent breath.

This place truly was full of bizarre dangers and mysteries at every step.

Right now, these two giant beasts were fighting intensely; it would be dangerous for him to leave rashly, so he might as well watch for a while and wait for them to decide the winner before making plans.

Thinking of this, he quietly backed away for a distance—a collision of this magnitude and power would be a disaster if he were even slightly affected; it was better to stay far away.

Boom—!!!

Just as he backed away, the Black Tortoise and the Dragon Fish suddenly erupted with an earth-shattering impact.

The wild aftershocks swept in like a raging tide; Jiang Haojie didn't even have time to react before he was knocked unconscious by the shock.

---

"This is already the sixth batch of soldiers to enter."

Peng Tian looked at the backs of those disappearing into the secret realm's light curtain and sighed heavily, "If there's still no harvest this time, we... perhaps we should evacuate."

A whole day and night had passed since the last incident.

They had successively sent six teams to investigate deeply, but each time they met with misfortune: either a natural disaster, or raging sea waves, and they had even lost more than ten elites.

However, useful clues were still few and far between.

Liu Jinglong remained silent.

For the sake of this secret realm, they had been stationed here for seven or eight days.

If they still couldn't find out what was going on, they could only report it and let the higher-ups decide—they had already done their best.

At that moment, the light curtain flickered violently again.

Everyone looked over anxiously, only to see a blood-covered soldier stumbling out.

Peng Tian rushed forward to support him: "Where are the others? Why are you the only one who returned?"

The soldier's face was ashen, the fear in his pupils not yet dissipated: "Regiment... Regiment Commander... they're all dead... we had just stepped in and hadn't had time to look around when we saw a flash of light pass by... the others were instantly decapitated... I, I only managed to escape by luck..."

Liu Jinglong and Peng Tian exchanged a look, their hearts both sinking.

What on earth had happened inside the secret realm?

Peng Tian waved his hand, and two soldiers immediately stepped forward to help the heavily injured comrade up and hurriedly took him away to treat his wounds.

"This must be reported."

He turned to Liu Jinglong and the others, his face grave, "The situation is no longer something we can control."

Liu Jinglong nodded in silence.

The situation was far more troublesome than expected.

The person from the Guard Department beside them lowered his voice and said, "While it hasn't completely spiraled out of control, quickly ask the superiors to dispatch manpower.

If we delay any longer, I'm afraid the consequences will be unimaginable."

Liu Jinglong looked toward the entrance of the secret realm, a shadow flickering in the depths of his eyes.

...I'm sorry.

He murmured in his heart.

The family you left behind, I will take good care of them for you.

Pain.

As if struggling out of a long chaos, when Jiang Haojie opened his eyes, he only saw a few sparse stars flickering in the sky.

He lay there for a long time before his fragmented memories gradually pieced themselves together—

He was actually still alive.

Jiang Haojie suddenly sat up and looked down to examine his body, and then a wave of relief from surviving the disaster welled up.

However, the mask on his face was already shattered beyond repair.

But compared to his life, this really wasn't much.

With a thought, he took out several Healing Potions from the System Space and drank them all.

A warm current quickly spread to his limbs and bones, and his injuries were mostly healed.

Only then did he truly stand firm.

A solid sensation came from beneath his feet.

Something was wrong.

Jiang Haojie was suddenly alert—this wasn't the Tongyou Black Tortoise's back shell, but actual solid land.

The reason he was so sure was because in the distance, two massive shadows were lying slumped: the Tongyou Black Tortoise and the Jinwen Dragon Fish.

Could it be... these two guys fought until they both perished?

After a slight hesitation, Jiang Haojie immediately leapt forward.

He pushed Lingbo Microsteps to the limit and even didn't hesitate to use Critical Hit for acceleration; even so, he still ran for a whole night before arriving at the place where the two giant beasts were lying.

Both were already at their last gasp, with more breath going out than coming in.

Jiang Haojie couldn't help but shake his head.

What deep-seated grudge could make them fight to such a state.

To say they both perished might not be accurate; it was more like they both suffered heavy losses.

After all, they both still had a glimmer of life remaining.

Jiang Haojie was suddenly stunned and looked around.

This place... could it have originally been that hot spring? It's just that the water in the pool had been completely evaporated during the fierce fight.

The more he thought about it, the more possible it seemed, and his heart was filled with an indescribable shock.

Such a vast hot spring had actually been fought until not a drop was left—the slaughter between these two Ancient Beasts was truly ruthless to the extreme.

Shock was shock, but Jiang Haojie didn't forget the main business.

Since both were on the verge of death, now was the perfect time for the fisherman to benefit.

Two Emperor Rank Ancient Beasts meant two Emperor Rank beast sources.

"Roar—!"

He didn't hesitate for a second; aiming at the Jinwen Dragon Fish, his Lions Roar Technique erupted with full force.

The roar echoed repeatedly across the empty ruins, reverberating endlessly.

The Jinwen Dragon Fish's body gave a final few tremors, and then its life force completely dissipated.

Jiang Haojie once again let out a heaven-shaking roar toward that Tongyou Black Tortoise.

He chose to use sound waves instead of the crimson flame sword really because these two giant beasts' bodies were too massive; the crimson flame sword was as thin as a cow's hair in front of them, and he was afraid it would be difficult to even pierce their outer skin.

Two Emperor Rank beast sources lay quietly in the System Space, and Jiang Haojie nodded slightly.

If these two giant beasts hadn't fought until they both suffered heavy losses, it would have been absolutely impossible for him to obtain such precious beast sources.

Now that both were dead, it was also time to leave this place.

Counting it up, seven or eight days had passed; he didn't know if the same amount of time had elapsed in the outside world.

He walked toward the Tongyou Black Tortoise's corpse, and just as he was about to climb onto its back, a glimmer of light suddenly caught the corner of his eye.

Jiang Haojie followed the light and looked over; the light originated from beneath the Black Tortoise's hind foot.

He immediately rushed over, even activating the movement technique of Lingbo Microsteps.

Even so, it still took an hour to reach the source of the light.

The object was mostly buried by the giant tortoise's foot, and he could only barely make out the outline of a sphere; no other details were clear at all.

Jiang Haojie concentrated and used the Eye of Discernment—

Treasure: Dragon Pearl

Level: ???

His breath hitched.

Dragon Pearl... it was actually the legendary Dragon Pearl! To think that such a divine object was hidden within the secret realm.

The three question marks in the level column already indicated its extraordinary nature.

No wonder the two giant beasts would fight to the death; it turned out they were both after this Dragon Pearl.

Unfortunately, their efforts were in vain in the end, and instead, they had fulfilled him.

Jiang Haojie pulled out the crimson flame sword and began to dig.

After a full two hours, a Dragon Pearl as large as a carriage finally revealed its full appearance.

He shook his head and gave a bitter smile: if he hadn't come personally, ordinary people would probably have found it difficult to even take it away.

He took out a Storage Pouch from the System Space, and after putting the Dragon Pearl inside, he once again climbed toward the Tongyou Black Tortoise's back shell.

After a day and night of trekking, Jiang Haojie finally reached the edge of the tortoise shell.

After another day of running, the grey light curtain from when he first entered reappeared before his eyes.

Although this adventure in the secret realm was fraught with danger, he had ultimately turned peril into safety.

Since the mission was completed and he had even gained unexpected rewards, it could be considered a success.

He took one last look at the depths of the secret realm and stepped into the light curtain.