This was a day that left everyone dumbfounded.
A name that seemed almost impossible appeared at the top of the "Lihuo Palace Exploration Rankings."
"Holy crap! Chen Xiaohan? Isn't that Meng Zibin's girlfriend?"
"Shocking, I checked the cultivation rankings, she's still at the late stage of Foundation Establishment. How did she suddenly surge to the top spot here?"
"Are the exploration rankings and cultivation rankings related? Look, Li Qingyun is first on the cultivation rankings, but he's barely in the top ten on the exploration rankings!"
"I heard that the criteria for the exploration rankings is based on who harvests the most resources in the secret realm. Doesn't that mean this woman snatched the resources from others?"
"It really is! I saw that the exploration progress of a group of people dropped significantly later on!"
"..."
The cultivation technique Chu Yang gave to Chen Xiaohan, the "Gu Poison Scripture," was given to her in front of everyone. Many knew that Chen Xiaohan was a dangerous woman.
Now it seemed she was indeed dangerous.
Even though so many people had their things snatched, one still hoped they were okay.
From then on, Chen Xiaohan's reputation spread throughout the entire Lihuo Palace.
How many people had been robbed by Meng Zibin?
Apart from those who surrendered directly, the ones who bled had their wounds invaded by Gu poison.
This kind of Gu worm, invisible to the naked eye, would enter your body and lie dormant, completely undetected.
Once it released venom in your body, unless the Gu worm was eliminated, it was incurable. You could take detoxifying pills, but as long as the Gu worm was alive, it could continue to release venom.
Luo Xiaowei and Qin Xiaoxiao also felt a chill after hearing about it.
"Holy crap! Luckily I was smart. I ran as soon as I saw them, I never had a direct confrontation with Meng Zibin, and I didn't bleed!"
"I knew something was off about this woman when we were on the snow mountain peak!"
"Phew—actually, I saw through it a long time ago. The reason I ran as soon as I saw Meng Zibin wasn't because I was afraid of him, but entirely because I was afraid this despicable woman would take advantage of the situation..."
"A'wei, you don't have to pretend in front of me."
"..."
At this moment, another heavenly lightning tribulation descended from the sky.
Within a formation, a young man holding a halberd endured the lightning with great difficulty, his body covered in scorched marks.
When the lightning tribulation dissipated, with a long roar, Meng Zibin emerged from a formation.
"Haha! Today, I have finally stepped into the early stage of Golden Core!"
Meng Zibin was also an extremely proud person. He had always been suppressed by Li Qingyun and Bai Nianchen, and he couldn't even defeat that scoundrel Wang Teng, which made him feel stifled!
"Now, the gap with Li Qingyun should have narrowed, right?"
Just as he was thinking this, in the distance of the sky, another thunderous roar descended.
The familiar Enlightenment Ancient Tree appeared, blocking the falling lightning.
Then, the five-colored divine light of the "Chaos Divine Lotus" surged forth, absorbing all the remaining lightning.
This meant that Li Qingyun had entered the middle stage of Golden Core.
Meng Zibin: "..."
The heroic spirit that had just risen in his chest was doused with cold water again. This guy's cultivation speed was truly like cheating.
He knew that Li Qingyun hadn't spent much time scavenging for resources, so the spirit stones, herbs, and pills he acquired must have been several times less than theirs.
With such meager cultivation resources, his cultivation speed could still leave them behind by at least a minor realm.
"Zibin, you've finally broken through to the Golden Core stage! That's great!" Chen Xiaohan returned from outside and showed a happy smile upon seeing Meng Zibin.
"I'm sorry, I was still one step behind him."
"It's okay, do you still have spirit stones? Do you need to continue cultivating? I have a lot of resources here..."
Meng Zibin frowned and said, "Use your resources yourself, I don't need them."
As a result, Chen Xiaohan took out over twenty storage rings.
Meng Zibin: "???"
Good heavens, while he was in seclusion, what great things had this girlfriend secretly accomplished behind his back?
But he still refused: "I've been in seclusion for a long time, and prolonged seclusion isn't suitable for my cultivation. Besides... what time is it now?"
Chen Xiaohan replied, "If I remember correctly, it should be the six hundred and sixtieth day since we entered."
Meng Zibin was stunned: "Is it almost over? Time flies so fast..."
Nearly two years had passed, and now only the last month remained.
For most people, their experience in this Time Secret Realm was finding tokens, looting corpses, entering the inner sect, then finding more corpses, finding rings, finding treasures...
After emptying them out, they would begin secluded cultivation.
Some could endure the loneliness and cultivate in seclusion for a year.
Some might come out to wander around every few days, and then enter into boring secluded cultivation again.
Perhaps occasionally there were opportunities for搶奪 (qiǎngduó - to snatch/plunder), but those were low-probability events. A large-scale threatening situation like Chen Xiaohan's was considered a major terrifying incident within the entire secret realm.
As for those who went to Xue Qianwei to learn alchemy, they might not have genuinely wanted to learn, but were just too bored and wanted to find something to do.
In short, most of the time was spent in secluded cultivation.
Cultivation knows no years; in the blink of an eye, the seas can turn into mulberry fields.
The biggest enemy on this path is oneself. Can you endure the loneliness of being ignored? Can you tolerate the tedious and tasteless cultivation? Or when you should be brave, are you brave enough?
These qualities already determine a cultivator's lower limit.
The upper limit depends on their talent.
What comforted Chu Yang was that these prodigies he thought highly of, although they might have different personalities and their own flaws, the qualities that determined their lower limit were never something he needed to worry about.
Even the naturally timid Qin Xiaoxiao dared to rush forward without hesitation when she saw Luo Xiaowei injured.
Time passed little by little.
With a thought, Chu Yang checked on the people within the secret realm.
Many were already impatient, eagerly waiting to leave.
And those outside were much more precise with their timing than those inside. They knew today was the last day and had stopped climbing the tower, waiting to conduct interviews!
After all, the events inside were not broadcast live, making everyone very curious about what exciting things had happened.
Without these formidable old acquaintances, climbing the tower wasn't exciting enough. To this day, no one else had cleared the first level.
Until the very last moment, Chu Yang waved his hand, and golden teleportation lights flashed on everyone who had entered the secret realm.
Chu Yang said to the reporters crowded around outside, "The seven-day secret realm journey has come to an end. They will be teleported out soon. Relatives and friends can rest assured, everyone is alive. Remember to pay close attention to their mental state later..."