Chapter 161: Chapter 161: Who Is the Unlucky Bride?
Aside from the few people whose faces looked off,
everyone in this Secret Realm looked completely normal.
The lively music of pipes and drums filled the air, and Song Jiulai overheard some people at her table gossiping about the wedding.
She didn’t recognize the names, but she could vaguely make out that they were gossiping about the groom’s family.
They said this was the groom’s third time getting married, and that his previous two wives had both died unnaturally.
The two old ladies reminded Song Jiulai strongly of NPC village gossipmongers.
The moment she heard they had died unnaturally, Song Jiulai’s brain kicked into gear.
’Doesn’t this sound like it has something to do with the bride?’
’A ghost bride?’
’Or is the groom a murderous maniac?’
’What is this instance even about?’
’This is the Cultivation World. There can’t possibly be ghosts, can there?’
’I’ve never even heard of Ghost Cultivators!’
This world didn’t even have ghosts, only extremely rare resentful spirits, which were mostly just residual consciousness left behind after being trapped by some Secret Technique.
Song Jiulai listened carefully and learned that the groom’s name was Qin Yongkang, and he was from the wealthiest family in town.
Every time he got married, he would throw a banquet for the entire town.
In short, he was rich and ostentatious.
However, Song Jiulai quickly discovered something was wrong. "Holy crap, why isn’t there a single trace of Spiritual Energy here?"
She still had the Spiritual Energy inside her body, but there was none in the outside world.
That meant once she used it, it would be gone for good.
System: "It must be a rule of this Secret Realm."
A normal mortal town, a wedding, a world with no Spiritual Energy.
It all sounded like it concealed a considerable risk.
Hearing this, Song Jiulai looked around. Now she understood why the other Cultivators had such grim expressions.
With no way to replenish their Spiritual Energy, they would have to rely solely on chugging elixirs if they ran into trouble.
And then—
"Great. My Jiezidai won’t open either."
Ever since she got the Sect warehouse, her Jiezidai wasn’t as critical, but she still kept it for emergencies.
Now that her Jiezidai was useless, Song Jiulai knew where the danger of this instance lay.
’Three days...’
’Don’t tell me the goal is just for the disciples to survive these three days?’
"It’s fine," the system said. "You can still use the Sect warehouse."
Seeing that the system’s functions were indeed unrestricted, Song Jiulai was greatly relieved.
’I have a cheat. I’m not afraid.’
Suddenly, Song Jiulai saw a frowning Cultivator stand up, seemingly lock eyes with someone in the crowd, and walk over to whisper a few words to them.
The two seemed to recognize each other, then moved to the side to discuss something.
Song Jiulai couldn’t hear them, but she had a realization. "Oh, so we can move around. I thought we had to stay seated."
So, Song Jiulai abruptly stood up and began wandering around the courtyard with her hands behind her back, targeting the most gossipy-looking old women to ask for more juicy details.
Having learned her lesson from last time, the face Song Jiulai had fashioned for this puppet was, unlike her previous half-hearted attempts, at least that of a presentable female cultivator.
Seeing someone so eager to gossip, the old women were incredibly enthusiastic and began chatting with Song Jiulai about the various events in the groom’s life.
The other Cultivators also noticed Song Jiulai’s rather unusual behavior and frowned slightly.
Aside from the first two who had met up, no one else had moved yet.
The two who were talking also noticed Song Jiulai’s actions.
One of them curled his lip. "Must be a new disciple."
Only first-timers bother asking about the goings-on in this Secret Realm.
It’s actually completely useless.
Other Cultivators had done the exact same thing as Song Jiulai before.
"We can’t use Magic Treasures, there’s no Spiritual Energy, our Qiankun Bags won’t open... if we have to rely on our cultivation alone, I’m afraid we won’t be able to fight the groom. And if we’re unlucky enough to be chosen at night..."
Tao Yitian of the Biyin Sect said with a grim face, "No one has ever said what happens if you’re chosen by the groom, only that it’s very dangerous."
The person with him was Xiao Yushu of the Starlight Sect. He chimed in, "If only there were disciples from the Yinxiao Sect here. They’re the only ones who have made it through this small world safely, right?"
The Yinxiao Sect definitely has the solution for this Secret Realm.
Tao Yitian sneered. "The people from Yinxiao Sect are completely selfish. Even if their disciples were here, why would they share the secret without getting anything in return?"
Xiao Yushu shook his head. "Brother Yitian, you can’t say that. We can only get the reward by unraveling the mystery of this small world, so we have to cooperate. We don’t know what Level the groom will be this time. We’d better pray that everyone who entered is at the Golden Core Stage. Otherwise, if we run into Foundation Establishment or Qi Refinement disciples, they’ll just drag us down."
The Moonlight Secret Realm had many strange quirks, and one was that it didn’t look at a disciple’s true cultivation.
The boss’s strength was determined by the combined cultivation of all the disciples who entered the small world.
Whatever Level the small world’s boss was, the disciples’ cultivation would be suppressed to match it, but only when they actually confronted the groom.
If a disciple was originally at the Qi Refinement Realm, they would be forcibly boosted to the Golden Core Stage.
But this wasn’t a good thing.
It only boosted your Spiritual Energy capacity.
Their combat awareness couldn’t keep up.
Low-level disciples would experience a disorienting sensation in battle, as if they were top-heavy, making them prone to mistakes.
Furthermore, after being forcibly boosted, their cultivation would be impeded once they returned to the real world.
In the Moonlight Secret Realm, different small worlds had different rules for escape.
Some Secret Realms required you to simply fight your way out.
Others had their own hidden rules, and solving them allowed for an early escape.
But there was actually one core secret.
Legend had it that every small world in the Moonlight Secret Realm contained a Secret Realm Fragment. If one could truly solve a Secret Realm and obtain its fragment, collecting all the fragments from the Moonlight Secret Realm would reveal the location of the fallen body of the previous Moon Demon Emperor.
The body of a Demon Emperor—the most coveted and powerful refining material in the entire Cultivation World.
But no one on the Yunzhou Continent knew if this information was accurate.
The Moonlight Secret Realm was vast, and there were many scattered Secret Realm Keys. It wasn’t just disciples from the super Major Sects who entered; disciples from various other Major Sects also came in large numbers.
Because the Secret Realm was so enormous, it was impossible to consolidate everyone or get a clear picture of the situation inside.
The various Major Sects could only consolidate information after running into each other within the Secret Realm.
There was just one thing: every entrance to the Secret Realm was controlled by a Major Sect, ensuring that only their own people could enter.
To date, over a dozen entrances to the Moonlight Secret Realm had been discovered and were now guarded.
There hadn’t been any incidents for over a hundred years, so these disciples had a good idea of which sects’ disciples would be entering.
The Biyin Sect was an Alchemy Sect, and the Starlight Sect was an Artifact Refining Sect. The two sects had always been on good terms, and since Tao Yitian and Xiao Yushu knew each other, they recognized each other on sight.
As for the Yinxiao Sect, it was currently the only sect that had uncovered the secret of the "Groom" small world.
Of course, they certainly wouldn’t reveal how they’d cracked it.
In this small world, the main combat objective revolved around the groom, Qin Yongkang.
The small world lasted for three days, and at the end, Qin Yongkang would choose one disciple to be his "bride."
That’s right. The bride Qin Yongkang intended to marry was none other than the unlucky disciple who was chosen.
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