"Finally found one?"

Jiang Xu repeated the phrase, completely baffled.

’What does he mean, "finally found one"?’

’Finally found what?’

The leading Female Cultivator from Purple Flower Palace turned deathly pale.

Although they had prepared for death upon entering this Secret Realm, it didn’t mean they weren’t afraid.

They were utterly horrified that something so bizarre was happening to them.

If they had simply been overpowered and killed by a Demon Beast, that would have been one thing.

But to encounter something like this was truly difficult to accept.

The oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.

If they couldn’t figure it out, none of them could be sure they wouldn’t be next.

The Female Cultivator who had been walking in front of the now-missing Nan Huaying was especially pale with fright.

After Nan Huaying’s disappearance, she was now the one at the very back of the group.

"Do you know why the missing disciple disappeared? Was there anything special about her, or did she do anything unusual after entering the Secret Realm?" Jiang Xu asked.

The Female Cultivators huddled together and discussed it for a long while, but they came up with nothing.

"We’ve been analyzing this for a long time, but we can’t find anything unusual about her. She was just a very ordinary person, no different from anyone else."

"That’s strange," Jiang Xu said, puzzled.

’Out of more than twenty people, she was the only one taken. He couldn’t have just grabbed someone at random, could he?’

’Or perhaps the mysterious man has his own set of criteria for choosing his targets, and we just don’t know what they are.’

Jiang Xu glanced at the sky and saw that much time had been wasted. He called Zong Ziqi to continue their journey to Linglong Mountain, also telling the Female Cultivators from Purple Flower Palace to hurry there as well.

...

The two of them then continued on their way to Linglong Mountain.

Along the way, they found many more Female Cultivators who were paralyzed by Body Stabilization, just like the ones from Purple Flower Palace.

Jiang Xu freed them all from their restraints.

It was unclear whether it was a coincidence.

All of the Cultivators paralyzed by the Body Stabilization were female; there wasn’t a single male among them.

This inevitably led Jiang Xu to a guess.

’Could it be that the mysterious man is only interested in women?’

While this was a relief to Jiang Xu, it also raised many more questions in his mind.

After being rescued by Jiang Xu, these Female Cultivators all told the same story as the others.

They were suddenly hit with Body Stabilization, a man approached with a strange pearl, circled them once, and then left in disappointment.

When Jiang Xu asked if anyone else was accompanying the man, they all said no.

Upon asking about the timing, it turned out all the attacks had occurred after the incident with the Purple Flower Palace group.

This meant that Nan Huaying was not being kept with him. There was no telling if she had been harmed or what had become of her.

It also meant that after abducting Nan Huaying, the mysterious man hadn’t stopped; he was still at it.

It was very likely that one person was not enough for him.

However, among this new group, no one had been abducted like Nan Huaying, nor had anyone suffered any actual harm.

There were also several mixed-gender teams among them.

They had also been attacked.

The Female Cultivators in these teams were treated the same as the others, but the male Cultivators had been knocked unconscious, completely unresponsive, though not actually dead.

It was worth noting that so far, not a single solo male Cultivator or all-male team had reported such an encounter.

This greatly piqued Jiang Xu’s curiosity about the matter.

However, just because his curiosity was piqued didn’t mean Jiang Xu felt compelled to do anything extra.

Since it seemed highly unlikely that this affair posed any threat to him, there was no need to get to the bottom of it.

Besides, the man was clearly a powerhouse, perhaps even stronger than a Foundation Establishment Cultivator.

If he went looking for trouble, the man probably had no intention of bothering him in the first place. Jumping out like that would just be asking for a beating.

And so they traveled, eventually reaching Linglong Mountain.

Linglong Mountain was located in the outer region of the Secret Realm. It was majestic and beautiful, its body as translucent as jade, with overlapping peaks and ridges.

Clouds and mist coiled around its peaks, which appeared and disappeared from view. At its foot, the jungle was exceptionally lush, teeming with all kinds of vibrant flora.

The entire mountain range formed a ring, tightly enclosing a wide, open area and creating a natural barrier.

Halfway up the mountain, a winding path snaked its way to the summit, with many hidden caves and ledges visible along the route.

Jiang Xu and Zong Ziqi climbed the path, continuously encountering Cultivators from other Sects who were also heading to the same destination.

It was obvious they were all discussing the mysterious man and the reason the departure from the Secret Realm had been moved up.

By the time the two finally reached the summit of Linglong Mountain, a large crowd of Cultivators from various Sects had already gathered, anxiously awaiting news and murmuring amongst themselves.

It was clear that those who had arrived so far were only a small fraction of everyone who had entered the Secret Realm.

Even if many more were still to come, in the end, only thirty to forty percent of the original number would make it out of the Secret Realm alive.

The level of danger in the Secret Realm this time had far exceeded their imaginations.

The Restrictions and Demon Beasts were a given; those were uncontrollable forces, akin to natural disasters.

But man-made disasters—that is, deaths caused by cultivators killing each other—accounted for the vast majority.

This included not only battles between different Sects but also casualties from conflicts of interest within the same Sect.

And the greatest cause of death was the existence of Demons.

They would stop at nothing to kill.

Sowing discord, using spies, honey traps, feigning injury...

They had turned the Thirty-Six Stratagems into an art form.

Jiang Xu swept his gaze over the crowd and, among the few dozen people before him, spotted five or six Demons!

They all had shifty, suspicious looks, clearly up to no good.

He could imagine that by the time they were finally leaving, there would surely be a dozen or even more Demons.

If these Demons managed to slip into the outside world, with their nature, there was no telling how many people they would kill.

However, since he would soon be leaving the Secret Realm, as long as those Demons didn’t bother him, Jiang Xu had no intention of ridding the world of evil.

Jiang Xu set up the Seven Extremes Array, then sat down to meditate and rest, awaiting the arrival of his two sect ancestors the next day.

...

He waited until the sun was high in the sky.

Only then did Qin Muxian arrive in a hurry, his face etched with exhaustion.

A few other Foundation Establishment Cultivators accompanied him, also looking worn out.

It seemed these Foundation Establishment Cultivators had expended a great deal of effort and energy searching the entire Secret Realm for disciples.

After Qin Muxian and his group arrived, a large wave of people began to show up in succession.

At that moment, Zong Ziqi approached Qin Muxian and told him about their encounter with the Female Cultivators.

Qin Muxian listened, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"This is truly bizarre. No wonder I kept running into Female Cultivators just standing motionless on the road. When I told them to go to Linglong Mountain, they didn’t react at all. So that’s what was going on."