Chapter 41
Chapter 41: Shan Gao
The secret realm was like a black mouth opening in the world.
Step in, and it felt like stepping into nothing—like the ground forgot you existed. Your body folded, tipped, and then the sky vanished.
Jiang Li Sheng had never entered a secret realm in her life. She screamed, “Ahhh! Senior Brother An—hold on to me!”
An Ru Xu clamped onto her arm with both hands and shouted right back, “Junior Sister Jiang, you’ll be fine!”
“Ahhh!”
“Ahhh!”
Their voices bounced around in the void, two panicked screams turned up to the loudest setting.
At first it was a straight fall. Then the world began to spin. Wind and currents surged like something alive. Even with all his strength, An Ru Xu couldn’t fight the storm inside the realm. His grip slid. His fingers loosened against his will.
And then—he lost her.
Jiang Li Sheng’s stomach dropped. [I’m done.]
An Ru Xu’s heart dropped with it. [We’re done.]
Are we going to splatter to death?!
Behind them, the long chain of disciples also lost their holds, one after another, until everyone became a separate body—flipping, tumbling, blind in the dark.
No one knew how long it lasted.
Then—
Bang.
Jiang Li Sheng hit the ground hard enough to see stars. She’d always been the type who bruised easily and complained loudly. But she also remembered one crucial detail: secret realms were dangerous, and lying around like a corpse was a great way to become one.
She forced herself upright.
A dense forest surrounded her. Dead trees rose like skeletal pillars, and she’d landed between two massive trunks. Lucky she hadn’t struck a branch—those brittle limbs would’ve skewered her clean through.
The only reason she was still conscious was the ground. Thick layers of fallen leaves had piled up for who knew how long, cushioning the impact like a rotting mattress.
It was so quiet it felt wrong. No insects. No birds. Nothing but dead wood and dead leaves.
Jiang Li Sheng scanned the area and realized there wasn’t a single living tree in sight. The trunks looked like they’d been dead for ages, and yet the fallen leaves hadn’t turned to soil.
She stood still and waited, breath held, but no one else fell here with her. She didn’t dare call out—calling out in a secret realm was an excellent way to invite something hungry to dinner.
At least she had that much sense.
She fumbled out her message token and tapped An Ru Xu’s message talisman again and again.
Nothing.
No glow. No response. Not even a flicker.
Her heart sank. The realm blocked messages.
Her master had always said secret realms were never the same. On the way here, she’d heard An Ru Xu and Lu Shao Ling discussing the Qi Shan Secret Realm. They’d prepared for it, talking about rich yin energy and iron, fine jade and blue chalk, and how it contained Deathless Herb—eat it, and you wouldn’t die young.
No one had mentioned an endless dead forest.
Kun Lun Sect’s Library Pavilion supposedly held detailed records of the Qi Shan Secret Realm, but the records changed every 100 years. Every century, the mists and illusions reshaped themselves. Only after breaking the illusion barrier could anyone see the true landscape.
Back then, Jiang Li Sheng had been locked in her room doing pill refining and crafting. Since it changed every hundred years anyway, she figured reading was a waste of time. Better to refine life-saving items. Besides, An Ru Xu would be with her.
Except now An Ru Xu had been ripped away in the first breath.
So yes—this dead forest was probably the illusion barrier.
And no, she had no idea how to break it.
All she could do was creep forward. Dry branches cracked under her feet with sharp, whining pops. She walked for a while without seeing any danger. Her fear loosened a notch. Thinking about it, she’d crashed in with a huge noise and nothing had attacked her—maybe this place really was safe.
So she tried yelling. “Senior Brother An! An Ru Xu!”
Again.
And again.
No answer.
Fine. If she couldn’t shout her way out, she’d fly.
She drew her sword, stepped onto it, and shot upward. The message token might be dead, but her spiritual power wasn’t. Her plan was simple: rise above the treetops, get her bearings, leave this dead forest behind.
She rose—
—and the forest rose with her.
She went up an inch; the dead trees grew an inch.
She went up a foot; the dead trees grew a foot.
She tried again, harder, faster. The trees matched her like a cruel joke, stretching endlessly until the canopy was always just out of reach.
Jiang Li Sheng lowered her sword in disbelief. As she descended, the forest descended too, shrinking back to its original height only when she was on the ground again.
She sucked in a sharp breath. “Are you doing this just to mess with me?”
The forest, being a forest, did not answer.
After all that, she didn’t even want to move. “How do I get out…”
Then she took another breath and forced herself calm. She didn’t need to hunt for Deathless Herb. She didn’t need some grand lucky break. She only needed one thing: not to get eaten.
If this dead forest really had no danger, then why exhaust herself?
Maybe she could just sit here until the secret realm’s time ran out and get tossed back outside like a kicked stone.
So she found a spot to sit, opened her storage pouch, and inhaled the comforting aroma of snacks. Bag after bag—sweet, salty, crunchy—the kind of smell that made survival feel possible.
She grabbed one and started eating with loud, happy crunches.
A furry paw shot out from behind her.
In the blink of an eye, her snack vanished.
Jiang Li Sheng sprang up like her clothes were on fire, whirling around.
A beast sat where she’d been. It looked like a pig, but its fur was red as flame, plush and blazing. It bared its teeth and spoke in a clear human voice, “Son of a bitch, why are you running?”
Jiang Li Sheng: “…”
It opened its mouth and cursed like it had a personal feud with manners.
She glared, wary and offended in equal measure. “You stole my food and you’re cursing at me?”
The beast’s eyes narrowed. “Hand it over. All of it. If you don’t, I’ll eat you.”
Jiang Li Sheng’s grip tightened around her storage pouch. Absolutely not. Secret realms lasted a long time. If she gave away her snacks, what was she supposed to live on? Leaves?
And she’d learned the hard way—after Tu Lou had stolen her snacks—that beasts had bottomless stomachs. Give them one bag, they’d demand ten. Give them ten, they’d demand your arm.
Better to give nothing.
But what was this thing called?
Her master had drilled a monster compendium into her head since childhood. She dug through distant memories, matching fur, shape, teeth—
Shan Gao.
But Shan Gao was supposed to come from Bitter Mountain.
And Bitter Mountain was hundreds of kilometers from Da Gui Mountain, where the Qi Shan Secret Realm was supposed to be.
So why was it here?
Why had she fallen into this place?
Shan Gao didn’t wait for her questions to resolve. When it saw she wouldn’t hand anything over, it lunged.
Fast—too fast. Like a flaming boulder rolling downhill, it crashed toward her.
Jiang Li Sheng barely raised her sword in time.
She stabbed straight into its open mouth—
Crack.
The sword shattered.
Not snapped. Not dented.
Chewed.
Shan Gao crunched through steel like it was dried bamboo.
Jiang Li Sheng stared at the broken hilt in her hand, stunned beyond words.
The beast surged again.
Jiang Li Sheng hurled the hilt at its eyes and ran.
Shan Gao dodged easily, spat out glittering fragments of sword, and barreled after her.
The dead forest filled with noise: Jiang Li Sheng crashing through brittle branches, and Shan Gao’s relentless curses chasing her like a second shadow.
It called her stingy. Called her trash. Called her a son of a bitch. Called her a short-legged little brat. Promised to rip her apart.
Jiang Li Sheng’s anger climbed with every filthy word. She wanted to turn around and fight.
But a beast that could chew swords wasn’t something you argued with.
So she ran—desperate to use sword-flying speed to shake it off.
Thankfully, her storage pouch held spare swords.
Otherwise, she would’ve become dinner on her very first day in the secret realm.