Chapter 81: The Early-Death White Moonlight in a Cultivation Novel (Part 12)

Zhou Yanxi waited for two full days at the edge of the Endless Forest before the Shuangzi Secret Realm finally opened. Seeing tens of thousands of cultivators jostling and crowding around the entrance, she quietly stepped back from the crowd.

There was no point rushing in. In this kind of chaos, it was far too easy to get ambushed.

For example, that flamboyant man diagonally across from her, twirling a folding fan—he didn't notice that a small, skinny cultivator had just sprinkled powder on the corner of his robe.

Zhou Yanxi immediately recognized it as tracking powder. If the fan-wielding man didn't realize it in time, he'd basically be walking around the secret realm with a "free treasure here" sign on his back.

And that pretty female cultivator nearby? Someone had already stolen the storage pouch from her waist, and she was completely unaware.

This all stemmed from one unspoken rule in the cultivation world:You can't casually use divine sense to scan strangers.Anyone who breaks this rule can be challenged to a duel on the spot.

So many rogue cultivators came to events like this just to make a quick buck. They knew they'd likely become cannon fodder in the secret realm anyway, so they took advantage of the entrance chaos to steal and scam.

Of course, there were times when they picked the wrong target—like in the spot Zhou Yanxi had just vacated, where a thief was cut down on the spot by a burly cultivator. One strike, dead on the ground.

No one batted an eye. After a second's pause, the surrounding crowd simply carried on as if nothing had happened.

That's just how things were in the cultivation world—bloodshed was more common than meals or tea.

Zhou Yanxi had also seen that gruesome scene but didn't so much as blink. She simply moved farther away from the crowd.In her heart, she sighed: Thank goodness I stepped back in time. That guy's blood would've splattered all over me otherwise.

She waited until most of the people had already entered before walking toward the secret realm entrance herself.

Right before she stepped in, someone brushed against her—a male cultivator.

Sure enough, what was meant to happen still happened. But Zhou Yanxi wasn't worried. The items in her storage pouch weren't that easy to steal.

She had carefully coated the outer surface of the pouch with multiple layers of spirit-sealing powder.

Anyone who touched the pouch would find themselves unable to use spiritual energy for half an hour.

For a cultivator, that was no different than offering up your own neck to the enemy's blade.

Of course, this powder only worked on Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment cultivators. Against someone stronger—like a Golden Core expert or a body cultivator—it was mostly useless.

But even in the worst-case scenario, the only valuable thing in her pouch was a pill furnace tainted with poison pills. Whether the thief planned to use it or sell it, they'd still end up eating a loss.

Once Zhou Yanxi actually entered the Shuangzi Secret Realm, she was stunned.

She'd been teleported into a desert.

Well, she supposed it made sense—her rotten luck had likely kicked in again, sending her straight into one of the most barren zones.

And if that wasn't bad enough, the place was also a dead zone—a place where spiritual energy couldn't be used. Even her storage pouch wouldn't open.

Thankfully, her personal space was still accessible.

A bad start, no doubt. But on the bright side, because there was no spiritual energy here, no spirit beasts posed a threat either. Otherwise, she'd have been forced to burn her father's life-saving treasures just to stay alive.

Using the survival knowledge she'd acquired in her first mission world, Zhou Yanxi oriented herself using the sun's position and the angle of her shadow, eventually determining which way to go.

It was truly heartbreaking—she trudged through sand for four straight days and nights. The time lost in this desert was so painful, she could barely breathe thinking about it.

If it weren't for the food and water stored in her space, and the fact that her body was strengthened through cultivation, she wouldn't have made it out.

And she wasn't the only unlucky one.

There were plenty of other "lucky" cultivators like her who had been sent to this desert hell, many of whom had interacted with Zheng Sumin before entering.

As it turned out, anyone who had developed enough goodwill toward Zheng Sumin became unwitting victims of her fortune-stealing technique, transferring their luck to her.

Among all those thrown into the desert, less than one in ten made it out alive.

When Zhou Yanxi finally escaped the endless dunes, she had no time to even catch her breath before she was ambushed by a monkey-faced, sharp-nosed male cultivator.

Fortunately, she had heard the whoosh of his weapon breaking through the air and dodged at the last second, narrowly avoiding the blow.

Although she could now use spiritual energy again, her control was still weak since her body had just left the energy-deprived zone. It would take some time to restore full function.

So she had to end the fight quickly.

She flew into the air with her innate blade and hurled a Thunder Talisman downward.

The attacker didn't expect a "scrappy rogue cultivator" to be carrying a Grade-4 offensive talisman. Before he could dodge, he was blasted unconscious on the spot.

Zhou Yanxi didn't waste the opportunity. She dove down and stabbed him through the heart with her blade, then used the hilt to lift the storage pouch off his belt.

Not quite trusting that it was his only stash, she scanned his body carefully with her divine sense and found a second storage pouch hidden in his chest.

Once she confirmed there was nothing else of value, she cast a Fireball Spell and incinerated the body.

With that done, she quickly used a Movement Talisman and fled the area.

Why the rush? Because she was wary of someone lurking nearby—ready to swoop in and reap the spoils.

And sure enough, a quarter-hour later, two other cultivators showed up to the scene. But Zhou Yanxi's cleanup had been flawless—there wasn't a single thing left for them to scavenge.

Eventually, she found a towering tree that stretched into the clouds. She soared up into the branches and quickly set up an isolation array.

Oddly enough, after killing that man, Zhou Yanxi felt a familiar rush—the same reckless, bloody edge she once had in her very first mission world.

Perhaps this feeling—dancing on the edge of death—was what thrilled her most.

Now it was time to see what loot she'd scored from that would-be ambusher.

Author's Note:Dear readers, feel free to vote on which mission world you'd like to see next!

The Substitute Lover of a Genius Director

The Bullied Legal Wife in the Path of Exile

The Unlucky Scrapper in the Survival World

Leave your choice in the comments! The one with the most votes will be written next after this arc ends. The other two will be scheduled for later~