19 Opportunities (VI)

"Strange... How come there are only a few disciples?" An elder mumbled, his gaze sweeping over the almost empty grounds with a hint of confusion.

Most of the disciples who had entered the secret realm had completely disappeared.

And the secret realm was about to close.

"Did they die...?" He wondered, lost in thought.

A few minutes passed, and then, out of nowhere, a disciple stumbled out of the portal, his face etched with sheer panic.

"Elder!" He exclaimed loudly, attracting the attention of everyone.

"Disciple Ye? Did something happen?" The elder descended from the sky and asked him.

"Y-yes! There was a big problem! As I led our sect to get treasures in the secret realm, we ended up encountering a glorious building!"

"We thought that it was the inheritance land, but we didn't expect that there was someone already guarding that place!"

"That same person seemed to be from the Divine Sword Sword, and he directly killed anyone that tried to approach that building!"

"WHAT!?" The elder shouted loudly in surprise.

"And that's not everything. There were also many disciples from other sects, but they all died under his sword."

"No matter if they pleaded for mercy, that man simply swung his sword ruthlessly! I ended up witnessing everything! Fortunately, I had time to escape..."

Hearing the disciple's words, the elder clutched his fists tightly.

"Could you describe this disciple?"

"Yes! He... he was otherwordly handsome, with long, flowing black hair and piercing black eyes. And, he had this odd mark on his forehead."

"O-otherwordly handsome? What do you mean by that!?"

"Well... he's the most handsome man I have ever seen in my entire life!" The disciple admitted.

Step...

Just then...

Another figure stepped through the portal.

And in that instant, Disciple Ye pointed at him, his voice filled with fear.

"THAT'S HIM!"

As everyone's gaze shifted to Long Yu, they couldn't deny it; he matched Disciple Ye's description perfectly.

However... some of them frowned upon seeing a bloodied blindfold covering his eyes.

"Brother... Yu?" A voice called out to him.

Long Yu's head turned in that direction and he approached Gu Ling, who had just called him.

"W-what happened?" She stammered as her hands reached out to caress his cheek.

"Nothing." Long Yu blocked her hands, and simply turned away.

[Host... are you sure you can hold on by yourself? Your heartbeat is increasing, and you're going to pass out at any moment.]

'It shouldn't be a problem...'

[Sigh...]

BOOOM!

Suddenly, as Long Yu leaned himself against a rock, a powerful aura exploded, attracting the attention of everyone.

"Divine Sword Sect! You owe me an explanation!" Li Xiao, the Great Elder of the Divine Dragon Sect, shouted loudly.

To his words, Wan Jianjuan appeared out of the void and confronted him directly.

Swish!

"Did you say anything?" As a faint aura came out of Wan Jianjuan's body, Li Xiao's aura was completely compressed.

"Y-you... owe us! One of your disciples completely annihilated our disciples!" Li Xiao spoke through gritted teeth.

"Ah? Isn't that your fault for cultivating such weak disciples?" Wan Jianjuan grinned.

"Y-you...!!!"

"Where's your arrogance? Wasn't your sect suppressed by our Sect Leader just a few years ago? What are you dabbling about?"

"Did you forget the difference between our strengths!?"

BAM!

Wan Jianjuan appeared on Li Xiao's side and slapped him, causing him to create a small hole in the ground.

Seeing this display of power, no one from the other sects decided to move, and it was at this moment that Long Yu realized that the Yaochi Sect didn't participate in this secret realm.

"Divine Sword Sect's disciples! We're going back now! Prepare your spiritual swords, and let's part immediately!" Wan Jianjuan announced.

With a sweep of his power, a huge barrier was conjured around all the remaining Divine Sword Sect disciples.

"Master..." Gu Ling approached Wan Jianjuan with a sad expression.

"Ah... My disciple... y-your cultivation! You've reached the pinnacle of the Golden Core realm!" He stroked his beard with an excited expression.

"But... why are you so unhappy? Your foundation is perfectly stable, and everything." He uttered.

"Well, that is just it—I was not meant to have this chance. I was given it by Brother Yu, and it appears that something has happened to him since then." She mumbled softly.

"Brother Yu...?"

"Ah... I mean Long Yu." She spoke, pointing towards Long Yu's direction.

"He has a blindfold... Did he lose his vision?"

"I don't know! It was okay before I was forced out of the secret realm, but then, he came out with that blindfold."

"So... you want me to check on him?"

"Yes! If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have reached the pinnacle of the Golden Core realm so fast!" She looked at him with pleading eyes.

With a sigh, Wan Jianjuan approached Long Yu under her eyes.

Long Yu's control over his spiritual sword seemed to be quite weak, and Wan Jianjuan immediately noticed this.

"Disciple Long. Why are you wearing a blindfold?" He went straight to the subject.

Long Yu looked at Wan Jianjuan before speaking, "No reason. I just need to wear it for now."

"I see. Did you gain an opportunity that made you wear a blindfold?"

"Something like that."

"That's great! I'm also here to thank you for granting such an opportunity to my disciple." Wan Jianjuan bent down his body a single bit.

Long Yu simply shrugged his shoulders.

"If there's anything you need, please ask for it." He added.

[Ask for a Nine-Leaf Ice Seed.]

"Then, I'd like to ask for a Nine Leafs Ice Seed."

"...Sure. I'll send someone to bring it to you later."

"Thanks."

'That old man finally left...' Long Yu sighed inwardly.

[By the way... why did you ignore Gu Ling?]

'Ah... I just did it unconsciously.'

[Liar.]

[Is it because of the Sword Gu in your body?]

'If you know the reason, why bother to ask?'

[...I just wanted something to talk.]

'Sigh... It's exactly because of the Sword Gu. After eating that damned pill, she only seemed to get more and more active.'

'By the way, did I really need to eat that fruit just before leaving the secret realm? Couldn't I simply eat it when I've reached the sect?'

[No, as soon as the Ice Sword Fruit is removed from the ground, it should be consumed. If not, the fruit's effects will be diminished.]

[By eating directly, you'll receive every benefit that it can offer to you.]

[Unfortunately, the first heaven isn't very great for the absorption of the fruit because of the low Qi purity.]

'I think... I'm going to pass out.'

[...You've already endured a lot.]

[Your body temperature is already below 500 °C. Back in your planet, you'd be already frozen.]

[Well... at least, you're smart enough to create such a perfect plan. However, if anything happens, I'll intervene.]

"Haaah..." Long Yu let out a cold breath.

He took a token out of his ring and transferred an ounce of Qi to it.

A message appeared on the token.

With his eyes almost closing, Long Yu transferred another ounce of Qi to convey a message to her.

With that message, Long Yu stored the token back in his ring, and sent a spiritual message to Wan Jianjuan.

He said that he needed to do something in the city that they were currently passing by, and after getting his approval, he hurriedly went down.

The only reason he was doing all of this...

It was because only someone as powerful as Shen Huiying could actually make his body completely absorb the Ice Sword Fruit.

Just then...

His eyes closed completely.

He finally passed out after enduring for such a long time.

At that moment, a layer of ice could be seen rising to his neck.

Half of his body was completely frozen.

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