A Secret Realm was a paradise for powerhouses at the Void Realm and above, and the very foundation of a Sect’s survival.

Mo Qi had originally planned to enter only after completing the Nine Transformations into Spirit and condensing his True Essence. But things rarely go according to plan, and he was just shy of his goal.

Still, since he was here, he might as well make the best of it. He was quite curious about the world inside the Secret Realm.

After walking for about fifteen minutes through a special Array passage, a bright light appeared up ahead.

Mo Qi quickened his pace. A refreshing, dense wave of Spiritual Energy washed over him, no less potent than what he had felt in the depths of the Earth-level Spiritual Ore.

The Spiritual Energy was also mingled with something special—it was hard to say whether it was a tangible substance or just a feeling. It was ethereal and impossible to grasp, yet undeniably real.

Beyond the light, Mo Qi found himself in a vast expanse of dense, white fog, so thick he couldn’t see his hand in front of his face.

"This is the Secret Realm?" Mo Qi glanced around in confusion. However, there was nothing to see but the oppressive, grayish-white void before him.

"Is anyone here? I am the disciple Mo Qi, here by order to challenge the Void Road." Mo Qi bowed deeply into the emptiness.

He remembered Yang Ming mentioning that most of the Void Sect’s true pillars—its most powerful experts—lived here, including several ancestor-level figures.

That was why he dared not be negligent, let alone disrespectful.

His voice carried far into the distance, but there was no reply.

Mo Qi called out several more times, but the result was the same.

’How strange. Don’t tell me this isn’t the Secret Realm. Did Yun Xuzi and his cronies trick me?’

What Mo Qi didn’t know was that his every move was being watched by three old men with pure white hair and beards.

"So that’s Mo Qi? The master of that little fellow, Liu Hui? He doesn’t look like much. His vitality is strong and his foundation is solid, but there’s no fluctuation of True Essence in his body. It’ll be hard for him to amount to anything."

"Tell me about it. When that Liu Hui kid was here a while back, all he did was drone on and on about how incredible his master was. My ears are still ringing from it. Now that I see him, it looks like the kid was probably duped."

"So, what’s the verdict? Should we bring him over?"

"Bring him over? Hell no. Let’s leave him be for a while and see what his temperament is like. If he can’t even handle a little solitude, then there’s no point wasting Energy to open the Void Road for him."

"That plan works."

"Agreed."

Mo Qi waited for nearly half an hour. Seeing that the fog showed no signs of dispersing, he simply sat down cross-legged on the spot and began to take stock of his recent gains.

It all started when he left the Void Sect for the Earth-level Spiritual Ore. He had destroyed the Basic Beast-Attracting Array, subdued Jin Sanpang, killed Zhang Cheng, and made a mortal enemy of the Wolf Fang Sect.

After that, he cut down Qi Tian and Diao Qing, fought Jin Quan, rushed nonstop to Nanyang City to save Niu Kexin, and finally engaged in a life-or-death battle against Xu He.

It was safe to say the events of the past half-month had been more exciting than his previous sixteen years combined.

He had suffered no small amount of hardship, but his gains had been immense.

First, his four-piece kitchen set had absorbed the Primordial Energy from the Spirit Marrow, transforming into an ever-changing External Incarnation.

Next were the Top-grade Spirit Stones. The Pig Emperor had collected seventy percent of the entire Spiritual Ore vein, amounting to an astonishing one million stones!

One million Top-grade Spirit Stones. Even the Void Sect, with its thousands of years of accumulated wealth, would struggle to produce so many at once.

Finally, there was Mo Qi’s own Cultivation. He had reached the Eighth Transformation of the Nine Transformations into Spirit, the Innate stage.

He was just one step away from advancing to the final Ninth Transformation and completing the Nine Transformations into Spirit.

But Mo Qi currently had no clue how to break through from the Eighth Transformation. In the past, the Chaos Scripture had always given him some hints, but this time, there were no instructions at all.

’Do I need to consume some kind of special Spirit Medicine?’

After a moment of contemplation, Mo Qi cast aside his wild thoughts and took out the rusty ring hanging around his neck.

When Xu He had crushed his heart, in the final moments before his revival, he had seen the ring retracting its power over frozen time and space. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

He knew, then, that this unassuming ring had saved his life.

He also realized that his mother must have left him this ring on purpose.

’Is it a symbol of my identity, or a clue to my mother’s whereabouts?’ Mo Qi had no way of knowing.

He tried to probe it with his Spiritual Power, but found it couldn’t penetrate the ring. ’Maybe it needs True Essence to activate.’

This only strengthened Mo Qi’s resolve to complete the Nine Transformations into Spirit as quickly as possible.

Just then, the Pig Emperor, who had been sleeping in Mo Qi’s robes, woke up.

"Eh? Mo the kid, where’d you find such a great place?" the Pig Emperor asked, its nose twitching and its face a picture of delighted surprise.

It leaped onto Mo Qi’s shoulder and sniffed the air greedily, a look of blissful satisfaction on its face.

"This emperor smells treasure! Lots and lots of treasure! It smells so good... that’s three-thousand-year-old Golden Bull Grass... *SNIFF*... that’s five-thousand-year-old Yellow Li Root... and a six-thousand-year-old Dragon Beard Fruit! And so many rare and Exotic Beasts! We’re going to eat well!"

The Pig Emperor smacked its lips, drool soaking the shoulder of Mo Qi’s robe.

Mo Qi picked the Pig Emperor up with a look of disgust. "Are you really getting this worked up over some Spirit Medicine? I don’t remember you caring this much back in the Wailing Abyss."

The Pig Emperor wriggled out of his grasp and scrambled back onto his shoulder.

"Heh heh, I wasn’t thinking that far ahead back then! Who knew we’d be this broke after getting out!"

"Let’s go, let’s go! Mo Qi, this emperor will take you treasure hunting!" the Pig Emperor urged, tugging at his collar.

Unable to refuse the Pig Emperor, Mo Qi got up and started walking slowly in the direction it indicated.

"Pig Emperor, this is the Void Sect’s Secret Realm. It’s filled with countless experts, so you’d better take it easy."

"Relax. This emperor is using telepathy to talk to you. They won’t find out."

The moment Mo Qi stood up, he caught the attention of the three elders.

"Hmph. It hasn’t even been that long and he’s already getting restless. His temperament is too poor."

"Just let him be. The fog is blocking the way, so it’s not like he can get out anyway."

"Hey, look at that Pig Demon on his shoulder. I’ve never seen that breed before."

"What Pig Demon? That’s just a common pig, fit only for slaughter. It has no Spiritual Energy whatsoever."

However, as Mo Qi continued to advance through the dense fog, the expressions on the three elders’ faces slowly began to turn strange.

"How did he find his way to the back of the Void Road? That area isn’t exactly safe."

"Who knows? He probably just wandered over there by accident."

"No, look at his path. He’s walking in a perfect straight line without the slightest deviation. This means he’s not wandering aimlessly—he’s heading toward a specific target!"

"How is that possible? Without Soul Power at the Void Realm or higher, it’s impossible to tell which way is which in this fog!"

"Wait, look! What’s he doing?"

Within the fog, following the Pig Emperor’s guidance, Mo Qi found his first Spirit Medicine.

It was a golden, cabbage-like plant half as tall as a man. Its leaves were curled tightly together, making it look like a crouching water buffalo from a distance.

The Chaos Scripture promptly provided an annotation: *Three-thousand-year-old Golden Bull Grass, a tonic for enhancing vitality.*

"Quick, quick! Mo the kid, make this emperor something delicious!"

’Taking a Spirit Medicine from the Secret Realm without permission seems like a bad idea... but...’

After a moment’s hesitation, Mo Qi decided to go for it.

’As they say, there’s no blame for those who act in ignorance. Besides, Yun Xuzi was the one who sent me in here. I called out for ages and nobody answered. Taking a little something to eat isn’t going too far, is it?’