Chapter 165: Chapter 165: A Mysterious Place
The woman stared at her blankly. "You don’t even know what the No Emperor Sect is. What good would it do if I told you?"
’It is useful! It is!’
’I have tens of millions of players and billions of Blue Star people behind me. Just tell me, and I guarantee we’ll analyze it for you!’
’Just say it!’
Mu Qiu wanted to press further, but the female Spiritual Body’s voice turned cold. "I’m not telling you for your own good. Since you don’t know, there must be a prohibition on it. It might be fine inside this Secret Realm, but who knows what will happen once you leave?"
She sounded very certain.
Certain that the existence of the No Emperor Sect was a forbidden topic.
’That must mean this Sect did something heaven-defying in the past, or perhaps its very existence was heaven-defying.’
’Otherwise, why has no one ever mentioned it?’
"Besides, there’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world."
The woman noticed the conflict on Mu Qiu’s face. After all, she was just an ordinary player, not yet skilled enough to calmly mask her emotions. The woman said, "If you really want to know, do something for me. If you can accomplish it within three days, I’ll tell you who I am and all about the No Emperor Sect you’re so curious about."
"So it’s an exchange," Mu Qiu said. "You could have just said so, Senior. I’m not an unreasonable person."
The woman suddenly covered her mouth, seeming to give Mu Qiu a coquettish laugh before pointing in a direction. "Go the way I’ve shown you until the flames die out and the ground collapses. You’ll enter a place. Find a blue Treasure Bead there and bring it to me. Then, I will tell you anything you want to know. As long as you can find me before this Secret Realm resets, I will wait for you here."
The woman clearly knew what this place was.
And she understood the rules of how this Secret Realm resets.
Mu Qiu wasn’t surprised.
’This is probably a hidden quest within a hidden quest.’
’And judging by what others are saying in the world channel, I might have stumbled upon a key part of the plot.’
She didn’t consider refusing, only asking, "That Treasure Bead won’t be that easy to get, will it?"
The woman chuckled lightly. "It is a bit dangerous. But what if you have the luck for it?"
System: "A bit dangerous means a one hundred percent chance of losing your life."
"Ninety-nine point one percent," Mu Qiu said calmly. "You have to leave me at least a sliver of a chance."
System: "Not a whole sliver. More like zero point nine slivers. Your math is terrible."
Mu Qiu: "..."
’Was this system fed something it shouldn’t have been before it left the factory?’
Not wanting to banter with the system any longer, Mu Qiu agreed without hesitation. "Alright, Senior. I accept."
The woman was surprised. "Oh? So you’ve got some backbone? I seem to have underestimated you. In that case, when you return, I’ll give you a special gift—provided you make it back alive."
Mu Qiu: "If I didn’t agree, I’d just be sitting here chatting with you for three days. I have to find something to do."
The woman: "..."
Having received the woman’s directions, and without even knowing her identity, Mu Qiu could only set off toward the unknown path ahead.
’It’s not like refusing would have done any good anyway. I know nothing about this Secret Realm, and the system is unreliable. I’m basically forced to take the bait from anyone who talks to me.’
The other Spiritual Bodies seemed to be in a daze. Aside from the woman she just spoke to, they were mostly the Spiritual Bodies of demon beasts. She hadn’t seen any other humans.
Only this woman was different.
So she had no choice but to listen to whatever the woman said.
The Secret Realm stretched as far as the eye could see. The burning flames seemed eternal, scorching the sweltering earth.
Fortunately, the intense heat didn’t hinder a Cultivator’s movement.
Mu Qiu walked for a long time, so long that she lost track of it, until finally, the surrounding flames were all extinguished in an instant. FWOOSH.
The light dimmed along with them, and the sweltering heat began to recede.
An indescribable, bone-chilling cold started to creep toward Mu Qiu from all directions.
Mu Qiu unconsciously hugged her arms, her teeth starting to chatter. "How long was I walking?"
System: "Ten minutes."
"...Only ten minutes?" Mu Qiu was in disbelief. The next second, the ground beneath her feet suddenly began to shake.
Mu Qiu’s Spiritual Energy was sealed in that same instant. The ground suddenly split open, and she lost her footing, her body weightless.
SWOOSH. Her vision went dark, and a suffocating, crushing sensation washed over her, making it difficult for Mu Qiu to breathe.
Although the game had no pain sensation, it rendered other tactile feelings with incredible realism.
It made it impossible to distinguish between reality and illusion.
This was a major reason why so many players were becoming more and more addicted.
Sometimes, when Mu Qiu logged off and opened her eyes to the sights of Blue Star, she would feel a sense of wistful disorientation.
But fortunately, she hadn’t yet lost track of who she really was.
THUD—
Her body seemed to have hit the ground.
She said "seemed" because her vision was pitch black; she couldn’t see a thing.
Since there was no pain, she only felt a jolt in her backside.
She felt around. Good. It was solid ground, cold to the touch. Probably some kind of floor.
It wasn’t one of those situations where you land somewhere, reach out, and feel something horrifyingly slimy.
Mu Qiu wasn’t afraid of such things, but she would still have a subconscious stress reaction.
She extended a finger. Fortunately, this Secret Realm hadn’t restricted anything. She used her Spiritual Energy to conjure a cluster of flames at her fingertip, faintly illuminating a corner of her surroundings.
’I haven’t learned the high-level material-conversion Spell for conjuring a candle out of thin air, so this will have to do.’
By the light of the flame on her fingertip, Mu Qiu could roughly make out where she had fallen.
A tiny secret chamber.
It was very small indeed.
So small that if she tried to stand up straight, her head would hit the ceiling.
She pushed against it. It seemed solid.
Forced to hunch over, she shuffled forward inch by inch.
She soon discovered it was just a square space. Not really a chamber for a person, more likely for storage.
To her right, there was some residue left behind by something that had melted.
Mu Qiu rubbed it between her fingers. It turned into a fine powder, but she couldn’t tell what it was.
When she shuffled to the far end of the space, she found a hole in the middle of the ceiling. If she could shrink herself a little, she could squeeze through.
This wasn’t difficult for someone who could use Spells.
But just as she was about to climb out, she noticed the light outside the hole was even dimmer. Through the light of her flame, she saw a large, dark mass.
The next second, the dark mass moved aside, and she saw a golden surface, as smooth as a glass marble, with watery lines of light flowing across it.
Then, a blue-gray shell opened and closed over the golden surface, so fast that Mu Qiu almost missed it.
It reminded Mu Qiu of one thing.
—Blinking.
She had thought that after watching so many zombie horror movies, she was already unflappable.
But when she recognized that action, her scalp still prickled with fear.
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