BOOM!
Another attack from outside the white barrier struck.
As the dust blew away, the outsider cultivators saw that the white barrier didn't even have a dent. Their expressions turned sour.
They continued to attack the barrier.
BOOM!
They were desperate—since they could sense this secret realm was decaying, they could feel that death was waiting for them if they could not occupy this mountain artifact.
Before the secret realm completely fell…
"You backwater people don't know manners! Your fate is sealed! How dare you attack Big Brother's mountain!" The young cultivators inside the barrier join forces to insult them.
They had no fear that their words would come back to haunt them—after all, they had Big Brother Hengsheng's backing!
"Stupid old ass! …"
…
At the rear, the old man stepped back from the front, not wanting to become a target of insults from those young cultivators inside the barrier.
He rejoined the rest of the Ninth Gates of True Body Realm cultivators.
One of them said to the old man.
"How is it? Did the mountain lord come out?" a middle-aged man with a mustache said.
The old man shook his head. "This so-called 'Big Brother' is a coward; he did not dare to show up."
"Maybe we were too hurried. The mountain lord might need more time before he shows up. After all, he just underwent the Heavenly Tribulation," a middle-aged man with a mustache said.
A moment ago, they had just witnessed someone call upon the Heavenly Tribulation. Attempt to break through to the True Body Realm.
They assumed it must be the so-called 'Big Brother'—someone they had never seen, only heard about from the young cultivators who insulted them from the other side.
The strange thing was that the tribulation ended unusually fast.
They didn't know whether this so-called 'Big Brother' had succeeded or not, but it didn't matter—after all, even if he had succeeded, he was just a First Gate True Body cultivator.
He wouldn't be able to resist them if he dared to step outside the mountain artifact's protection barrier.
"We need to hurry, find a way to lure him out. Time is running out…" another old man, with a green poisonous aura leaking from his skin, said in a cold voice.
…
The 9 of them continued to discuss how to lure the mountain lord out and seize control of the mountain artifact from him, since this was the only way they could survive in this decaying realm.
They had already been stuck inside this secret realm for over 10 years, after losing the fight over the Immortal Inheritance and failing to reach the secret realm exit in time.
All past years, they had been stuck in this place. They had witnessed the realm decaying firsthand.
In the first year, cracks began to appear in the sky.
By the second year, the cracks had already run across the sky, causing chaos in the natural order.
In the following years, the sky above was slowly shattered, and a big chunk of land at the secret realm's edge fell into the void before their eyes.
All these things that happened reminded them of their fate—once the realm is completely consumed by decay, they will all die. This impending death tortured their minds, driving them nearly insane.
Until...
A year ago, while they cultivating or finding an exit around the mountain range, their Divine Sense detected a change in the flow of Heaven and Earth's Qi.
When they went out to find a cause, they witnessed the appearance of the sacred mountain emerging from the massive purple vortex that appeared above, amidst the shattered sky.
The sacred mountain was so massive that it could be seen from anywhere within the secret realm, surrounded by a transparent white barrier, like a mountain within a glass ball.
They also noticed the characters written on the mountainside: "The Endless Wealth Peak." This was a clear sign of a cultivator's presence. It was highly likely that this mountain had an owner.
When it landed on the ground, it sent tremor waves throughout the whole secret realm.
When they recovered from the shocking appearance of the sacred mountain, they sensed a glimmer of hope building up inside their hearts.
This mountain is clearly traveled through the void before appearing in this secret realm. If not, how could it have appeared inside a secret realm hidden within the infinite void?
They assumed this sacred mountain was some kind of Flying Treasure, a void ship—a mountain artifact that could travel through the void!
They became excited, because if they had been inside the mountain at the moment the secret realm fell, they would have survived!
They quickly moved toward the mountain. When they reached it, they found that they could not enter because the barrier prevented them from getting inside.
It was at that time. They met these despicable young cultivators for the first time.
At first, they were polite, begging the young cultivators, whom they assumed to be servants of the mountain lord, believing that the mountain's owner must be a powerful cultivator.
But the young cultivators did not let them in for whatever reason, and then not long after that, some of them found out from the young cultivator's mouth that the mountain lord was only a weak Spiritual Foundation Realm!
Their attitude changed—they were no longer polite and began to attack the barrier, intending to seize the mountain artifact. They almost succeeded on the first attempt, but the shattered barrier suddenly recovered instantly.
When they tried to attack it again, the barrier had become countless times durable. No matter what they did, they could not even put a dent in it.
From that moment, the insults from young cultivators on the other side of the barrier began.
…
While the nine Ninth Gate True Body Realm cultivators were discussing how to proceed, a servant of the middle-aged man with a mustache approached them, holding a small cage covered with a black fabric in his hands.
"Hm… What happened?" the middle-aged man with a mustache asked.
"Lord Gu! We caught the pet of the mountain lord!" the servant said, his tone filled with joy, before pulling the fabric off the cage, revealing the small creature inside.
"Meow?" the curious cat cried.
It was a small domestic cat with gray fur, and the tips of its fur shimmered with various color tones, making it look beautiful.
The expressions of the middle-aged man with a mustache and the others improved, because from the information they had gathered from the young cultivators' words, they knew that the mountain lord loved his demon beast pet.
"We could use this creature to lure him out!" someone said excitedly.
"How did you catch it?" the middle-aged man with a mustache asked.
"Some of us noticed this creature on the edge of the barrier. It matches the description of the mountain lord's pet perfectly, so we lured it out using a Divine Stone!" the servant said.
The middle-aged man with a mustache nodded and said, "Great. When we get out of this place, I will reward you later."
"Thank you, Lord Gu!" the servant replied.
"This creature's fur is very charming. Let me skin it—I'll make a beautiful waistband," a woman with white hair said in a sinister tone.
"No, we need it to be alive. If we kill it, the mountain lord might just take the mountain out of this secret realm without us," another middle-aged man said.
"Then give it to me when we are inside. It should be fine, shouldn't it?" the woman with white hair said.
The middle-aged man didn't answer, only shook his head, clearly annoyed by her.
"Just stop this," the old man said in an irritated tone.
"You guys are very boring. This is why you all look so old despite only being a few thousand years old," the woman mocked them, clearly not caring about the situation.
The others' faces turned dark. No one liked this woman—everyone knew what she did to keep her appearance young.
But no one spoke out because no one wanted to have a problem with her. After all, she is a demonic cultivator!
Without anyone knowing, the helpless cat secretly gazed at the white-haired woman as if she had already marked her prey.
Lord Gu, who was the strongest among all the people present, gazed around, noticing the tense atmosphere building up.
He had no intention of improving it, as it was impossible—they were from different factions, and they were only working together now to survive.
"Put things aside for now, at least until we return to the Nine Heaven Realm…" Lord Gu said in a cold voice. Noticing Lord Gu's tone, they stopped playing around and refocused on their current objective.
Lord Gu picked up the cage holding the cat and handed it to the old man with the poisonous aura.
"Old Ma, could you poison it?" Lord Gu asked.
Old Ma examined the cat's body and noticed it was just a rank 1 demon beast. He turned to Lord Gu and replied, "It's easy."
Then the old man picked up the small kitten from the cage. The cat pretended to struggle a little before letting herself be fed a poison pill.
"With this poison, if it doesn't receive a Soothing Pill, it will be struck by immense pain for a day and night. This should be enough to convince the Mountain Lord to let us inside if the information about him is true. If not…," Old Ma said with a sinister smile while looking at the innocent kitten.
"Meow?" The helpless cat acts as if she doesn't understand the situation.