Jiang Chen reversed direction and used the Remembrance spell again. The grass pointed behind him.
His sense of direction was intact.
He crouched and pressed a Flame Blossom into the ground.
Without a sound, the violent technique bored a fist-sized hole in the earth.
Jiang Chen fixed his eyes on the hole's position and began walking backward.
He was certain he was moving — the hole grew more distant, shrinking in his vision.
Then, without blinking, the hole vanished.
Jiang Chen bounded back to the original spot. The riverbank was pristine, covered in green as though the hole had never existed.
"What is going on? Is this truly an illusion? An illusion that can carry the physical body — different from the Ethereal Realm? A higher-order one?"
"No — if the physical body experiences everything inside, it's no longer an illusion. It approaches the creation of a world. That possibility is too remote."
"First, I must confirm the physical body truly entered. The powerhouses waiting outside the Moon Gate for their kin are proof. The cultivators who never returned over the years are proof."
Jiang Chen pondered while probing the Moon Key in his palm, trying to see if he could enter the Ethereal Realm from here.
No response.
In the Celestial Secret Realm, the Ethereal Realm was inaccessible.
This place cut off many things — artifacts, tools, and even Lunar Star power.
Of course, this didn't determine which was higher-order: the Celestial Secret Realm or the Ethereal Realm.
Jiang Chen turned his head toward the stream.
The stream was clear. The waterweeds and fish were plainly visible.
That was precisely why most people directed their suspicion and vigilance toward the dense forest and distant hills, subconsciously ignoring the stream itself.
Earlier, Jiang Chen had tested the stream with a conjured stone — the water rippled, the fish scattered, nothing unusual.
But thinking it over now, he sensed something wrong.
He formed hand seals, sending two vine serpents into the water to catch a fish.
The fish startled and fled.
Jiang Chen controlled the serpents remotely, pushing their speed to the limit, but the fish was even faster! It darted through the water like a silver ribbon, flashing left and right.
How could an ordinary fish move that quickly?
And if it wasn't ordinary, why had the stone startled it earlier?
Understanding struck Jiang Chen like lightning. Without hesitation, he stepped into the stream.
Before the sky-moon had aligned with the water-moon, the Moon Gate itself had been in the Full Moon Pool.
That was the clearest hint of all — the gate was in the water!
...
The same stream. The same bank.
Li Longchuan stood at the water's edge but did not move.
He spread his hands and drew an invisible bow. A feathered arrow materialized from nothing, suspended in the air.
Li Longchuan waited patiently, then slowly released the phantom string.
The arrow shot straight into the water.
Without glancing elsewhere, Li Longchuan walked directly into the stream.
...
Xu Xiangqian encountered this scene first.
But being his usual carefree self, his first thought was not about finding opportunities — it was:
"Let me grill a fish first!"
He stared at the fish in the stream, eyes gleaming, head bobbing with excitement.
"Fish, I also desire! Bear's paw, I also desire! The two cannot be obtained together — but the preparation differs! Bear's paw stewed, fat fish steamed — they cannot be mixed!"
"Come to papa!"
He reached out a hand. The gentleman's vast, noble Qi formed a great translucent white hand that plunged into the water.
"Steaming, I also desire. Grilling, I also desire. The two cannot be obtained together — but as the Master said, whichever is convenient!"
He chanted garbled excerpts from the classics, while his Qi-formed hand fumbled methodically through the water.
But the fish were too clever, always slipping away at the last moment.
"Oh, I don't believe it!"
Xu Xiangqian rolled up his sleeves and stomped one foot into the stream.
...
The fifty who entered the Celestial Secret Realm each displayed their own methods.
Some followed the riverbank forward and never discovered the problem.
Some crossed to the far bank and ran toward the distant hills.
Some dove straight into the dense forest.
None of them returned.
Because only by stepping into the water could one avoid combat in this initial stage.
The dangers in the hills and the forest exceeded what most could handle.
The sole exception was Wang Yiwu. Upon entering the Celestial Secret Realm, he had naturally used a military secret technique to mark Chong Xuan Sheng.
But the technique's indicator pointed toward the distant hills beyond the far bank.
Without a flicker of hesitation, he crossed the bank and walked toward the hills.
He did not deliberate, because deliberation was unnecessary.
People had survived the Celestial Secret Realm before, and so would he.
Because among the Heaven-Piercing realm, the Qi Kingdom's God of War Jiang Mengxiong had declared: in this generation, he was the strongest!
He walked into the distant hills.
And the distant hills roared.
...
Gao Jing stepped into the stream. The water was clearly water, yet when he entered it, he felt nothing.
He walked deeper into the water, descending further and further.
The water rose over him. He could hear the current, feel the moisture, but the water never touched his skin.
Beneath his feet, a staircase had appeared — carved from white jade.
The jade steps descended endlessly into the depths.
Gao Jing steadied his mind and continued forward. Being separated from his family companion was unexpected, but as a scion of the Jinghai Gao, his strength and knowledge were sufficient to keep him from panic.
Forward now meant downward.
His footsteps on the jade stairs made almost no sound.
He was fully alert, but his feet never faltered.
Time passed slowly underwater, with no landmarks to measure by. He could only count his own steps.
After roughly nine li, his foot landed and the jade stairs ended.
Before him stretched a long corridor.
The corridor was inlaid with gold and jade, carved with an elaborate mural whose specific story he could not discern — only that it depicted ancient nobles at a feast.
Lining both sides of the corridor, half-height blood corals stood at regular intervals.
Every coral was unique.
He looked ahead, and the view opened dramatically!
Behind a towering red jade archway stood a palace beyond the power of words to describe.
The Jinghai Gao were famously wealthy. Their estates were monuments to luxury, filled with treasures from every kingdom, rarities displayed in every corner.
Yet Gao Jing now felt those mansions were not fit to be called hovels.
The palace before him was built of crystal bricks, adorned with luminous pearls.
None of that would have impressed him either.
But he recognized the palace's beams — the beams were carved from Moon-Wash Nanmu.
This snow-white wood was prized for crafting artifact-grade spear shafts — a single shaft was worth a fortune.
The palace used this wood as its beams.
Looking closer, those self-luminous orbs were no ordinary pearls. Each one contained swirling mist within — Smoke Luo Pearls. Equally excellent materials for artifact crafting.
What he could identify alone left him awestruck, to say nothing of what he couldn't.
This palace radiated ten thousand rays of light and a thousand threads of auspicious energy, utterly unlike anything in the mortal world.
He summoned tremendous willpower to restrain his gaze, pulling it back to the red jade archway before the palace.
He read the inscription:
**CELESTIAL DRAGON PALACE**