476: Great harvest

Light Gauze's gentle words were simply a sudden, pleasant surprise for Xun Xiuyuan, like someone handing him a comfortable pillow just when he needed to rest—it felt incredibly timely.

He had been secretly pondering how to obtain more exotic beast value to strengthen his own safeguards, but he hadn't expected Light Gauze to proactively suggest this idea, as if she had read his mind.

Watching the expression of surprise mixed with joy on Xun Xiuyuan's face, Light Gauze couldn't help but chuckle softly, her tone carrying a hint of light teasing.

She explained slowly, "Old Ancestor Shadow King has carefully cultivated many similar Secret Realm(s) over the years. Although the Realm of most exotic beasts within them is relatively low, there is no shortage of individuals with quite decent cultivation. Unfortunately, the taste of these exotic beasts is not ideal; some are even hard to swallow, so they have been kept aside and left unused."

It turned out that Old Ancestor Shadow King's original intention in cultivating these large numbers of exotic beasts was to serve as daily rations for the Starry Sky Giant Beast Clan to supplement the clan's food sources.

However, during the long cultivation process, many failures were inevitably produced—these exotic beasts might not be weak in strength, but because of their coarse meat and strange taste, they were ignored.

Precisely because no one was willing to eat them, they were able to breed freely in the Secret Realms. After being baptized by time, they actually survived to this day, and their Realm also rose to a fairly good level.

What Light Gauze mentioned was exactly this type of Secret Realm of exotic beasts that the Starry Sky Giant Beast Clan regarded as "chicken ribs"—tasteless to eat, but a pity to discard.

Now, presenting these Secret Realms as a favor to Xun Xiuyuan not only seemed perfectly appropriate but could also invisibly deepen their connection, which could be described as a wise move that killed two birds with one stone.

Light Gauze did not hesitate at all. She readily took out two secret realm keys shimmering with spatial fluctuations from her Magical Artifact and handed them to Xun Xiuyuan, saying in a relaxed tone, "The vast majority of the exotic beasts inhabiting these two Secret Realms are at the Great Saint Realm level, and there are also some Saint King Realm existences distributed among them. Senior, please rest assured, the number of exotic beasts is absolutely massive and will definitely meet your needs."

Because Light Gauze had previously spoken in depth with Xun Xiuyuan, she clearly understood that Xun Xiuyuan valued the number of exotic beasts in the Secret Realms highly—it could even be said to be his primary criterion for choosing a Secret Realm.

Seeing Xun Xiuyuan silently accept the two secret realm keys, Light Gauze added meticulously, "The actual entrances to these two Secret Realms are located near the territory of the Giant Beast Alliance. As long as you don't stray too far, you only need to activate your Divine Power to use the keys, and you can enter them at any time."

After hearing this, Xun Xiuyuan didn't say much, just nodded slightly to indicate he understood.

The next second, his figure quietly disappeared like a ghost, his aura completely hidden in the Void Realm—evidently, he couldn't wait to use the secret realm keys and step into that hunting ground.

However, surprisingly, Xun Xiuyuan's trip to the Secret Realms this time lasted a very short time. In less than three days, his figure appeared again.

Even Light Gauze felt a bit surprised because the last time he entered a Secret Realm, the time he stayed was much longer.

What she didn't know was that during the last Secret Realm training, most of Xun Xiuyuan's energy was held back by a difficult "Nether Remnant Soul," and the time actually used for slaughtering exotic beasts and accumulating cultivation was limited.

And this time, without external interference, he was able to clear out the exotic beasts with full force, so the efficiency was naturally astonishing.

When he appeared, Xun Xiuyuan had an obvious look of satisfaction on his face. He said to Light Gauze, "Wait for me a moment longer."

Before the words fell, he had disappeared again—he had actually used the key again to enter another Secret Realm.

And this trip in and out was still brisk. Shortly after, Xun Xiuyuan returned to the Giant Beast Alliance base, his aura dense, obviously having gained a lot.

A surge of uncontrollable joy welled up in Xun Xiuyuan's heart. The two newly discovered Secret Realms not only brought new possibilities for exploration, but more importantly, the number of cosmic core fragments had accumulated to a full twenty.

This meant he could perform two crucial Fusions again to further improve his cultivation Realm.

As long as he successfully fused these two cosmic cores, he would be able to break through his current Bottleneck and truly step into the Hongmeng Realm that countless Cultivators dreamed of.

Once he reached that level, even the legendary, high-and-mighty Supreme Realm would likely no longer be an unreachable existence in his eyes.

Currently, the cosmic cores that Xun Xiuyuan had not yet fused were mainly concentrated in the Metal, Earth, and Wood attributes of the Five Elements.

After weighing the options, he finally decided to exchange the Metal and Wood cosmic cores for Fusion first.

In this way, once these two cores were fused, he would only have the Earth cosmic core left to complete the Fusion.

Xun Xiuyuan had killed five Hongmeng Realm experts and some Guiyi Realm experts, but among the personal belongings of those great powers, there were no cosmic cores, not even Five Elements types, making Xun Xiuyuan have to use lottery draws to slowly accumulate them.

It is worth mentioning that although Xun Xiuyuan had not yet fused the water-system core, because he had previously successfully fused the ice-system cosmic core—as a branch of the water-system, this to a certain extent made up for the lack of water-attribute power and laid an important foundation for his subsequent cultivation.

Glancing at the dreamlike Light Gauze before him, he asked with a calm gaze, "Since your Starry Sky Giant Beast Clan has all migrated to the Yuan Ling Universe, are you going to return with me?"

Light Gauze nodded slightly, her tone respectful and firm, "My mission is to wait here for Senior to come out of seclusion, and then set off to return to the Yuan Ling Universe."

After speaking, the two looked at each other, their figures rose gracefully, and they flew side by side towards the distant transit station.

Due to the previous earth-shattering battle, all the teleportation arrays within and around the Giant Beast Alliance were completely destroyed, with few remaining, and none were intact or usable.

After a long journey of about a year, Xun Xiuyuan and Light Gauze finally arrived safely at the Yuan Ling Universe. This journey was quite calm, with no waves.

However, at this time, the Cosmic Alliance was in a state of uproar and turmoil.

Members of the five great Hongmeng Families poured into the Blue Star base—which was where the headquarters of the Cosmic Alliance was located—the atmosphere was heavy and tense.

Facing the five Family heads, Bai Yun's expression looked a bit tired and helpless as he slowly spoke, "The Ancestral Masters of your families have gone missing, and contact with high-level combat power has been lost. This matter truly has nothing to do with the Cosmic Alliance. My Old Ancestor is currently in seclusion, so I hope everyone will calm down and wait patiently."

Although the Cosmic Alliance was nominally the number one Alliance in the Cosmic Battlefield, upholding the principle of mutual assistance and cooperation, the situation had now changed drastically.

Due to the unscrupulous and unmasked actions of the Star Swallower, all Alliance members avoided the remaining forces of the five great Families, fearing that they would be implicated and attract further crazy retaliation from the Star Swallower.