?Hua Ziyan and Xue Bing both, as well as the Core Disciples with them instinctively closed their eyes, opening them when they did not feel the water, but did feel the temperature dropping significantly and a sudden influx of incredibly potent Spiritual Qi they had never experienced before.

What opened up to their view in the opening between large icy rocks took their breaths away as a vast world of ice and snow stretched far to the slightly curved horizon.

Hordes of Demonic Beasts were still streaming into, aiming toward the lake behind them but Wu Long singlehandedly stopped the entire stampede, slaughtering the beasts left and right.

They gasped and joined in to help. He was standing at the only small passage in between quite massive but uneven icy rock walls surrounding the lake which allowed him to efficiently stop the beasts from moving in and possibly harming the ladies who took a moment to adjust.

And as they approached the spot he was in they could see the scenery below as it turned out they were at the top of a massive mountain.

Their eyes then reflected a gigantic army of Demonic Beasts, far bigger than anything they ever saw or even imagined, all streaming toward the mountain.

There were thousands of massive figures of 9th tier beasts among them, hundreds of thousands of 8th and 7th tier beasts as well, all others making up a sea of beasts.

“We should change locations first”

Wu Long chuckled, and led the women to the side as the beasts then ignored them to pour into the passage they previously defended.

As they left their spot, Xue Bing could see that now the waters of the lake slightly shook with ripples when higher-tier beasts entered them as they made anguished cries but still disappeared into it, likely never emerging from the other side, with many lower-tier beasts caught up in ripples being torn into pieces disappearing too.

“W-why are they ignoring us and so focused on entering the link?”

Once they were in a relative safety on a small platform of the mountain, one of the Core Disciples mustered up the courage to ask a question seeing as Wu Long answered them with lighthearted feeling.

“Haha, I don’t know that exactly, but in my experience it is because they are escaping a predator”

Wu Long chuckled which caused the beauties to hide. What predator could have such a massive and powerful horde to flee from it?

“Ah, if we could see this Secret Realm in the skies, we should-…”

Hua Ziyan remembered Wu Long’s explanation of how the world around them actually looked if seen from the Great Void, turning her gaze to the sky but freezing the next moment, her pupils contracting as the others followed seeing her expression while Wu Long lightly smiled as he expected as much.

“This is… our world?”

Xue Bing uttered reluctantly in a whisper.

What they saw was a planet of gigantic proportions, so massive they could barely see the edges of its form if they looked to the sides, but what surprised them more was that it was completely and utterly shattered, magma and fire glowing from within the cracks, with some parts far to the sides completely missing. There were streams of fiery orange-red coming out from within the cracks and making a huge arc of massive proportions entered back into the planet in other places they came out from.

“Haha, to be exact, that point right there, right above our heads at this moment, is the shard which the three continents are on”

Wu Long chuckled pointing to a small shard of the planet above their heads toward which the mountain’s top was pointing to.

“But…”

“That is the true extent of the Great Calamity”

Wu Long explained to the shocked Hua Ziyan, still completely lost Xue Bing and the others who paled at the sight.

“The Silver Lake Continent was actually a tiny portion of the former complete world, barely worth noting”

And after adding this, gave them some time to process this information.

“But… didn’t you call it a small world?”

Hua Ziyan came to her senses first and turned to him.

“Haha, that is what I assumed based on circumstances, which was completely wrong. I learned how wrong I was in the conversation with Old Man Zhao”

Wu Long replied lightly scratching the back of his head with a wry smile.

“But… what are we doing here?” 𝘦𝑎.𝒸ℴ

Xue Bing asked, as she first assumed he was moving here to fight off the Demonic Beasts here along with some other motive, but it seemed that the first half was completely off as the higher tiers Demonic Beasts could now not pass.

“Haha, to be honest us being here is already the end goal, as I only needed to get here, and with this my motive is complete.

But as we got here near the end of the night, our way back is cut off until the day passes on the three continents. So we might as well explore a little”

Wu Long explained with a chuckle.

“The end goal?”

Xue Bing asked with a bit of surprise, as she did not take him for someone satisfied with just looking around.

“This”

Wu Long pointed up.

“The Spiritual Qi, don’t you feel it’s purity and quantity? It is even richer here than in other parts of the Boundless Mortal World.

Secret Realms are not connected to the rest of the Seven Boundless Worlds by a permanent link, so they take massive amounts of time to accumulate enough Spiritual Qi.

But since it is mostly unused and does not flow anywhere else, as well as temporarily opening up to the outside, Secret Realms are quite often used as trial grounds where disciples use the accumulated rich Spiritual Qi to make rpid advancements.

This one, as far as I know, only became active since the time of the Great Calamity at which point it made the connection with the site later known as the Winter Forest, so it has been accumulating energy for who knows how long”

He then added an explanation to the puzzled gazes, and then the realization appeared on their faces.

“But… then why didn’t you take Sister Ling who could use this to advance?”

Hua Ziyan then widened her eyes and he nodded with a smile of appreciation as her first thought was of others and not how it could benefit her as always.

Ye Ling was a Sword Cultivator who advanced by making achievements in her Sword Dao. But since her comprehension of the sword was already high the only thing limiting her was actually Spiritual Qi, so cultivating here she could advance very fast.

“The window in which this particular Secret Realm is connected to the Winter Forest is very small unlike many which are used as I have told you about previously.

We have only one day here, and if we do not leave the next night we would be stuck here for a decade until everything becomes aligned again.

The lakes on both sides have to reflect one another at least partially for the link to form.This planet, although tiny rotates incredibly slow around its own orbit, and the rotation around the orbit of the planet it is satelliting is even slower.

This small amount of time is insignificant for any cultivator, so there is no real point in cultivating here, though it would no doubt be beneficial for a small boost”

“Then why did you need to get here?”

Xue Bing asked becoming more and more confused by the minute.

“Haha, that is a surprise for later”

Wu Long chuckled with a mischievous light appearing in his eyes. A technique he did not think would be of much use to him appearing in his mind.

“Now, as I said before, since we are stuck here anyway, why don’t we explore a little?” .

He then proposed as they looked at each other in worry with only Hua Ziyan nodding immediately and Xue Bing looking at him in silence for some time.

“Um… isn’t it dangerous to explore the land where… something that could be the predator to these is located?”

One of the Core Disciples finally asked and he smiled with achuckle.

“Haha, don’t worry, the worst we could encounter is a 1st-tier Profound Grade Beast which probably is the predator they all are trying to escape. A 2nd-tier is the tiny possibility, but not anything higher.

We are not in the Fractured World, but we did not leave the Boundless Mortal World after all, so the restrictions of which cultivation levels all beings except perhaps Spirit Race can reach still apply”

As he spoke the ladies felt weak in the knees.

“Th-that’s the dangerous part!”

One of them exclaimed.

“Well, it certainly is… but if we are careful enough we should be safe. Not to mention, that if it is one 1st-tier Profound Grade beast we would be fine.

Demonic Beasts are not cultivators after all”

He lightly laughed as they looked at him with widened eyes as if seeing a madman.

.