ETR | Chapter 93

Xiao Xueman fell silent for a moment after hearing this, then slowly helped Qin Lou up.

"Qin Lou, do you know something?"

He suddenly asked this question.

Qin Lou was taken aback, not quite understanding what he meant.

“When I entered the Secret Realm, I almost had no sense of direction. We weren’t really after any treasure, just knew to head towards the center, maybe get close to the rules—but that’s just a maybe,” Xiao Xueman said.

“I was well aware before coming that the biggest possibility was that there might be nothing at the center of the Secret Realm, and I would just be making a pointless trip. But you…”

Qin Lou seemed much more purposeful than him.

“I’m just asking,” Xiao Xueman relaxed his tone.

“I’m sorry, you’re too driven, Qin Lou. It makes me uncomfortable to watch.”

He still carefully supported Qin Lou’s injured arm. The spiritual power that was hard to extract was still surging in the wound. It looked painful.

“I’m not trying to blame you. What I mean is… you should have gone with Yun Heng,” Xiao Xueman continued.

“What the Illusion Realm said wasn’t entirely unreasonable. I was too selfish with you.”

If it weren’t for blocking that attack for him, Qin Lou wouldn’t have been injured.

Although it was really just an illusion, seeing the wound always reminded Xiao Xueman of that time with Qin Lou.

That was probably a memory pulled from the Illusion Realm. Xiao Xueman had heard about it from Yu Zhengrong, and Qin Lou had mentioned it too. But regardless of how lightly those words were spoken, the long period Qin Lou actually went through couldn’t be described in words.

When he really saw it, he didn’t know how to control his emotions. And with Yuan Shu in the Illusion Realm saying such things at that time, he couldn’t help but be affected.

“I volunteered, Xueman,” Qin Lou looked at him.

“It was really just an illusion, and about being selfish, I truly disagree. If you were really selfish, you wouldn’t be so bothered by it now.

And even if it were me going through this, you wouldn’t leave me behind.

If I really had something else, I would tell you. It’s just that the Eternal Heart Lotus is really reacting now.”

He took out his spirit instrument, and Xiao Xueman saw that the fire lotus-shaped spirit instrument was indeed glowing bit by bit, the light drifting towards the cave, illuminating the small cave, confirming his words.

"I'm anxious, also afraid there's not enough time," Qin Lou said, "Over at Xiao Wan's side, I don't know when he will be acknowledged by the rules, I can't help but be scared."

He couldn't afford to lose Xiao Xueman again.

As Qin Lou said this, he insisted on moving forward, and Xiao Xueman could only muster up his spirit to accompany him.

Qin Lou was already injured, he couldn't let the injured lead the way now.

The cave was terrifyingly narrow, and although the two of them didn't encounter any attacks, the further they went, the heavier their steps felt, as if they were walking in mud. Even when Xiao Xueman tried to mobilize his spiritual power, it didn't improve much.

The light from the Eternal Heart Lotus grew brighter, and the dripping sound of water became more frequent, eventually turning into a gurgling stream, but they couldn't tell where it was coming from.

The spirit instruments and herbs Xiao Xueman brought with him were all ineffective at this time, including the stone Xiao Wan gave him, which he took out to look at, but it had no reaction.

The path in the cave seemed to go downward continuously, and after walking for a while, Xiao Xueman saw a thin light membrane blocking the path ahead, obscuring the view beyond.

The light membrane clung to the cave walls, and if they wanted to move forward, they would have to go through it.

Xiao Xueman stopped abruptly and exchanged a glance with Qin Lou.

This cave was indeed strange.

"You stand behind me," Xiao Xueman said, "I'll try first."

Qin Lou was injured now, regardless of whether the light membrane was dangerous or not, it had to be tested first.

Xiao Xueman first used a spirit instrument to touch it, and the light membrane, like it had elasticity, bounced the instrument back.

It seemed the force wasn't enough.

Xiao Xueman stopped using the not-so-handy spirit instrument and switched to his own vine. But unexpectedly, when a vine lashed out, it wasn't bounced back, instead, he was sucked in.

Qin Lou!

Xiao Xueman hadn't anticipated this scene at all. His first reaction was to turn around and grab Qin Lou, but the light membrane's pull was incredibly strong, and with a misstep, he and Qin Lou missed each other.

He's still injured!

Xiao Xueman also saw Qin Lou's surprised and panicked expression, but soon, he couldn't see him anymore.

He only heard Qin Lou's terrified shout of "Xueman," and then there was no other sound.

After being sucked into the light membrane, Xiao Xueman realized why he could hear the dripping water sound.

It was all water inside, or more precisely, extremely abundant water-type spiritual power. It was somewhat like the domain ability Feng Lingru used during the competition, but the situation Xiao Xueman faced now was far more severe than Feng Lingru’s incomplete cultivation.

The water carried him, flowing forward madly, and the terrain of the cave beyond the light membrane continued downward, becoming even narrower, allowing only one person to pass.

Like Xiao Wan back then, Xiao Xueman immediately used his spiritual power to create a protective barrier, isolating himself from the water.

But no matter how much he worried about Qin Lou, he couldn’t go back. His vine couldn’t find any foothold to exert force and go against the current.

The water was extremely turbulent, and it was already difficult for him to protect himself from the increasingly strong impact. Xiao Xueman also tried to break the rock walls during this process, but his attacks only left shallow marks.

He didn't know where the water was taking him, and Xiao Xueman's head grew heavier.

There was something wrong with this water.

Qin Lou was still outside. Thinking of this, he tried to redirect all his spiritual power, and the water was forcibly blocked for a moment.

But he was already in a very narrow place, unable to stand, his body twisted and curled up, the rock walls extremely hard, leaving him powerless.

The heart's blood necklace Qin Lou gave him was glowing, weaving a special protective barrier around him.

"Qin Lou!" Xiao Xueman shouted, but there was no response.

He tried hard to move upward, but it was still impossible, and his blocking could only last for a while. The water became even more turbulent, impacting him until he couldn't maintain it anymore, and he was finally swept away by the current.

The center of the Secret Realm was indeed not easy to break into.

When the treasures of the Secret Realm emerged, it was just a matter of competing with other spirit cultivators.

But once the target changed to exploring and confronting the Secret Realm itself—especially the most central and challenging forces within it—even Qin Lou and Xiao Xueman, who stood at the pinnacle of the continent as Spirit God Tier 9, felt a sense of helplessness.

After all, no matter how strong a spirit cultivator is, it's hard to contend with the forces of the Spirit Realm Continent itself.

Because Xiao Xueman had forcibly blocked the water flow earlier, he soon suffered the water's retaliation. He couldn't find another chance to stop, and eventually couldn't hold on, falling asleep during the process, drifting along with the current, with no end in sight.

When he woke up again, he found himself lying by a lakeside.

Looking up, the sky above him was white, pure white, no longer the patched-together ragged sky he saw before.

Not in the Secret Realm anymore?

Impossible.

Xiao Xueman shook his head, the wood-type spiritual power shield he had up was still there, and the heart's blood necklace shield from Qin Lou was also still there, but it was clearly almost depleted, faint to the point of being nearly invisible.

Where's Qin Lou?

Xiao Xueman looked around, but didn't see anyone else.

The lake he was lying by might be connected to the cave, but after diving down to check, the lake wasn't large, just a water pool, and there was no outlet or inlet at the bottom, he couldn't find a way back, nor could he find Qin Lou.

The scene here was very monotonous, just a small water pool, with a few leafless, withered plants beside it, which broke with a touch from Xiao Xueman.

Beyond these few trees, there were gentle slopes all around, and looking around from the top of a slope, it was all endless gentle slopes.

All repetitive, monotonous scenes.

Xiao Xueman quickly circled around, but no matter which direction he went, it was all the same gentle slopes, and in the end, he could only return to the small water pool, where the plants he broke were still waiting for him.

Maybe it's still a problem with the lake.

Xiao Xueman dove down again, but the lake indeed had no issues, even the water was just ordinary water. Xiao Xueman used his spiritual power to draw all the water up, and the lakebed was clean.

No matter how he tried to dig down or climb up, it was all in vain.

Trapped here.

He didn't know where Qin Lou was, whether he encountered the same situation as him.

Qin Lou was still injured, and if he encountered this situation, he would be even more passive.

Xiao Xueman felt a bit anxious, but since he had a way in, there must be a way out.

If it couldn't be seen on the surface, then he would use spiritual power to look.

Xiao Xueman walked to the lake that he had drained, stepping into the mud, and for the first time in a long while, revealed his tree form.

Xiao Xueman had lived for a long time, unlike Xiao Wan who was a small tree, he was a fully grown old tree. The leaves of the Tianxi Divine Tree were long and slender, dark green, like pairs of eyes.

He grew larger and larger in this environment, until the crown of his tree touched the sky, and his branches extended towards the endless hills.

Soon he discovered that as his branches extended outward, when passing through those identical hills, there was an extremely subtle feeling of being separated segment by segment.

Extremely subtle, but he felt it.

This place had seams.

He used his spiritual power to carefully probe that unusual feeling, trying to wedge into that tiny seam.

Every now and then, the “seam” would have a slight tremor—sometimes light, sometimes heavy—and at that moment, the whole world seemed to loosen.

Xiao Xueman was very patient, and at the moment of the tremor, he began to use his spiritual power to cut, trying to expand that seam by seizing the moment of the tremor.

Each time he did this, he felt the place shake along with it.

Meanwhile, his branches continued to extend, starting to search for new seams in a larger circle, embedding spiritual power into them during each tremor, digging a little deeper.

Xiao Xueman didn't know how long this went on, in this small world he had no mind to count the passage of time, and after many attempts, he heard a faint "click."

At that moment, his extended branches seemed to hit a wall.