Cultivation starts with picking up attributes
Chapter 117: Ch-117: Hit it, Now!

Chapter 117: Ch-117: Hit it, Now!

A jade pillar split the sky, thin as a needle but visible even from the deepest corners of Feilun Sect.

Like a beacon, it pulsed—once, then again—each thrum of light echoing into the spiritual network that bound heaven and earth.

Tian Shen didn’t flinch. Standing at the cliffside, his robes swaying in the winds summoned by the Secret Realm’s awakening, he simply watched. Behind him, the sect stirred.

Bells rang softly—three chimes in harmony. Not an alarm, but a signal. A call to readiness, not war.

Footsteps approached.

Feng Yin stood beside him again, eyes narrowed at the light.

This time, there was no tea in her hands. Just a scroll tucked beneath her arm and the faint scent of ink clinging to her sleeves.

"No one’s denying it now."

She said.

"No," Tian Shen replied. "Now they’ll race."

"Others already are."

...

In the observation hall, Elder Su stood before a massive projection dome—an ancient mechanism once used only during large-scale campaigns.

Tonight, it was lit from within, casting a spectral map of the Central-Eastern border.

Dozens of points pulsed on the grid. Sect teams. Rogue cultivators. Beast tamers. Even foreign talisman sects from the Southern Front.

"Like moths to fire, Ready to Devour or be devoured."

Elder Su muttered.

Feng Yin joined her, eyes sharp, arms crossed.

"Not all of them will make it out."

"Most of them won’t,"

Elder Su replied.

"But we may need some of them to go in first."

The map shifted. One pulse blinked red, then vanished.

"Another team eliminated?"

Feng Yin asked.

"Yes. No signal. Only residual distortion. The Secret Realm is rejecting some cultivators. We still don’t know the pattern."

"Then let’s not assume strength guarantees entry."

...

By midday, the Sect Master convened his council. Not in the jade halls—but in the open-air valley where the roots of the Feilun Tree were said to touch the Spiritual veins.

Tian Shen stood among them. So did Feng Yin, Little Mei, Drowsy, and the six senior division leads.

The Sect Master’s voice was calm, resonant.

"The Secret Realm is awakening. That much is clear. But we will not act as others do. Not with panic. Not with greed."

He turned toward Tian Shen.

"You will assemble a team. Not to claim the Vault. Not yet. But to enter its outer edge."

Tian Shen blinked.

"We’re going in?"

Elder Su interjected.

"Just far enough to plant markers, recover data, and withdraw. It’s reconnaissance. Nothing more."

Feng Yin nodded.

"We’ve mapped entry points based on the leyline interference. There’s one stable breach in the jade crescent ridge. But it won’t stay stable long."

Tian Shen felt his heart beat louder—not out of fear, but the rising hum of purpose.

"When do we leave?"

The Sect Master smiled faintly.

"Tonight."

...

As night fell, the team gathered on the eastern overlook. Tian Shen stood at the front, armor light but reinforced with elder-forged talismans.

Feng Yin wore her traveling robes, her scroll pouch sealed and protected by spatial anchors.

Little Mei stretched lazily on a roofbeam above, Drowsy curled around her like a floating scarf.

Xu Wei arrived late, tripping over his own boots. Jun Lin and Yi Fen helped him up without a word. Their faces were pale but determined.

"It will get you through the first layer,"

Feng Yin said, handing a compass to Tian Shen.

He accepted it with a nod.

"We’ll return by first light."

"Hope we do."

She murmured.

Then, without further fanfare, the team descended into the mist-covered path toward the jade crescent light pillar.

...

The breach shimmered like a wound in space—rippling with jade light, spiraling with echoes of foreign wind and colors that didn’t belong in the mortal world.

Tian Shen took a breath.

"Everyone ready?"

Feng Yin nodded. Little Mei’s eyes gleamed. The scouts steadied their packs.

Then, they stepped through.

...

The world inside was wrong.

Sound didn’t echo. Light bent strangely. Time felt... diluted.

They emerged on a floating terrace of white stone suspended above a sea of clouds, with distant landmasses drifting like shattered islands.

Enormous chains of spiritual metal spanned the sky, anchoring fragments of temples, forests, and towers together.

Xu Wei gasped.

"It really is a vault."

Jun Lin looked uneasy.

"A broken one."

Tian Shen held up a talisman. It glowed faintly, stable.

"Plant the markers," he said. "Then we get out."

They moved quickly, placing runic anchors at calculated intervals. Each marker emitted a soft hum as it latched onto the strange space.

Tian Shen knelt beside a fractured altar, tracing patterns etched into the stone.

"These designs are quite old," she murmured. "Possibly pre-Ascension Era."

"We don’t have time to decode," Feng Yin reminded.

But before they could move, a sound unlike any other echoed from deeper within the realm—a low, resonant pulse.

The kind that came not from structure...

...but from something alive.

The team froze.

The air shifted. Mists pulled back. Far off, a massive silhouette turned—not physically, but within the perception of every cultivator present.

Little Mei’s tail bristled.

"It knows we’re here," she whispered.

Tian Shen’s grip tightened.

"Fast. Move."

They turned, retreating swiftly, but the space itself resisted. Windless pressure slowed steps as the talismans flickered.

"The realm is rejecting us now!"

Tian Shen yelled.

Feng Yin ripped open a scroll.

"Spatial turbulence—hold still!"

With a burst of light, a gate re-opened.

They stumbled through, panting, just as the white terrace began to fracture behind them.

...

Outside, the pillar of jade light pulsed again—brighter this time. Other sects were approaching. Portals opened on mountain paths. Flying ships and sword beams cut across the sky.

Feilun’s team had made it inside.

But they were no longer alone.

...

The jade light still pulsed high above, but its rhythm had changed—faster now, like a heartbeat. A warning.

Tian Shen staggered forward, blood trailing from a shallow wound on his arm. The group had just barely exited the Secret Realm, but the realm hadn’t let them go unscathed.

Behind him, the portal rippled again.

"Not good."

Little Mei growled.

"Something’s coming through!"

Before they could regroup, the breach exploded outward in a burst of distorted light and roaring pressure.

From within, three figures emerged—not human, but wearing the shape of men. Each clad in broken armor, their auras reeked of ancient decay and fragmented time.

"Guardian remnants!!"

Feng Yin said, eyes wide.

"Leftover from whoever sealed the Vault."

The lead creature raised a rusted halberd and let out a guttural cry that vibrated through marrow and soul.

"Formation!"

Tian Shen barked.

Xu Wei threw up a barrier, but the halberd cleaved it in two with a single swing, sending him flying into the rocks.

Yi Fen caught him with a talisman net, but her shoulder dislocated with the impact.

Little Mei vanished from sight, only to reappear above the second guardian with her claws extended.

Her strike met resistance—an invisible ward—but she pushed through, gouging a scar down the creature’s arm.

Feng Yin summoned three burning seals and slapped them into the air. They ignited into twin phoenixes that dove at the third figure.

The guardian responded by unleashing a pulse of decayed qi, eroding the flames midair—but not fast enough.

*BOOM*

The explosion knocked it back a step.

"These things don’t die easily," Jun Lin shouted, hurling spiritual kunai in rapid succession. They hit, but bounced.

Tian Shen charged forward.

Sword drawn, he leapt into the air, his qi flaring into a brilliant silver arc. He brought it down onto the lead guardian’s halberd, meeting it blow for blow.

The clash echoed like thunder, blasting dust and shattered rock in every direction.

"These are just mindless beasts, So focus."

He hissed.

The second guardian turned mid-air and fired a burst of golden runes directly at their backline.

Yi Fen erected a dome—just in time. The runes struck, shattered, and the dome cracked like glass, but have just enough time for Feng Yin to erect a more powerful barrier.

"Now!"

She shouted.

Tian Shen responded with another slash, this time infused with both Lightning and Fire Qi.

The halberd snapped in half.

The guardian howled with an ancient sound, raw and agonized.

Jun Lin and Xu Wei moved in with synchronized attacks—Daggers and Formations—forcing the injured guardian back toward the breach.

But the third figure raised its hand—and the ground below erupted with corpse-vines, twisting toward the sky like skeletal fingers.

"Dogde!"

Feng Yin warned.

Little Mei spun midair and spit out fire from her mouth—the flames hit the third figure’s forehead, sealing a rune that began to burn.

It stumbled.

"Hit it! Now!"

She screamed.

Feng Yin, blood trickling from her temple, released her final talisman: a dragon seal, glowing gold.

It wrapped around the guardian’s chest like a chain and constricted.

*BOOM*

The guardian disintegrated in a flare of light.

Only two remained.

But the breach pulsed again—once, then twice.

"Reinforcements probably."

Tian Shen muttered.

"We need to finish this."

He closed his eyes.

A second later, his Qi exploded outward.

Silver lightning arced across the battlefield.

His blade grew longer, more radiant.

He moved like a comet, vanishing and reappearing before the second guardian. This time, no words—just a clean horizontal cut.

It fell.

The lead guardian roared and lunged with its broken halberd.

But Tian Shen dogded the blade.

"You’re done."

And drove his sword upward through its core.

The guardian convulsed, then vanished into ash.

The breach sealed behind them.

Everyone stood, panting, covered in bruises and dust.

Then Tian Shen smiled.

"We survived."

For now.

But they all knew.

That was only the first wave.