At this moment, Mu Jinyu was unaware that Wu Xiongfei and his group were already prepared to turn the entire secret realm into his burial ground.
After confirming that only two False Merged Path Realm individuals had entered the secret realm, he gracefully left the forbidden area's entrance and returned to Dragon Lake, intending to cultivate to the peak of the Ninth Layer of the Fanxu Realm as soon as possible, and then go out to kill these two people.
He wanted to avoid the situation where more False Merged Path Realm cultivators would enter the secret realm, making it difficult for him to take action then.
As for why he didn't immediately break through to the Hedao Realm and then deal with them?
He wasn't foolish; he already knew that this place couldn't tolerate a Hedao Realm expert. Why would he risk his life to try such a thing?
After returning to Dragon Lake,
Mu Jinyu originally intended to use the Purple Gold Gourd to refine the Bi Fang Cauldron, to enhance the cauldron's spiritual nature further, but he feared that without the Purple Gold Gourd, the Primordial Heavy Water could not be contained within the Bi Fang Cauldron.
Additionally, with two False Merged Path Realm experts watching from outside, he decided to first increase his cultivation to the peak of the Ninth Layer of the Fanxu Realm.
"How's it going? Have more people come?"
Zhuo Yue, seeing Mu Jinyu return, asked with a worried expression.
Mu Jinyu shook the Purple Gold Gourd in his hand and said, "Yes, someone who was blind came, I handled them. This is the spoils of war."
"This Purple Gold Gourd..."
Zhuo Yue saw the Purple Gold Gourd in Mu Jinyu's hand, felt it looked familiar, and then his eyes widened in shock as he exclaimed, "This seems to be... the Purple Gold Gourd from the Divine Formation Sect?"
"Yes, the one who came was indeed from the Divine Formation Sect." Mu Jinyu nodded.
Zhuo Yue was worried yet speechless.
The number of factions Mu Jinyu had offended was increasing.
If earlier he had killed the heirs of various factions, there might still be a chance to resolve the enmities when he broke through to the Hedao Realm, but after killing Wu Qiyuan of the Wu Family and Jiang Song of the Divine Formation Sect, these two major forces would likely not let it go.
Seeing Zhuo Yue's worried look, Mu Jinyu smiled faintly and said, "Senior Zhuo, you don't need to overthink. They have long been irreconcilable with me. Even if I don't bother about their pursuit and wish to let it go, they won't rest easy..."
"Only by killing, killing until they fear it, killing until they dare not oppose me!"
There was a chill of killing intent in Mu Jinyu's tone as he recalled the scene a few days back when Wen Rou and the others were chased by that group.
Zhuo Yue nodded gently at Mu Jinyu's words, though a trace of worry remained in his eyes.
Although he knew Mu Jinyu was right, he still felt, regardless of how powerful Mu Jinyu was alone, how could he stand against so many factions?
But as things stood, he could only take it one step at a time.
...
Five days later.
Mu Jinyu finally broke through to the peak of the Ninth Layer of the Fanxu Realm. Although there was still a distance to the Hedao Realm, as long as he consumed the Hedao Fruit, he was quite confident he could reach the Hedao Realm in one go.
However, because the secret realm couldn't withstand the pressure of a Hedao Realm, he feared something might go wrong, so he forcibly restrained his desire to break through.
Opening his eyes, Mu Jinyu's eyes shone like stars, seemingly containing a myriad of great paths.
Scanning what used to be the jade-green Dragon Lake, he noticed that it had become crystal clear, with not much of the green glow left. Clearly, the essence of the Flood Dragon Inner Pill contained within had almost been absorbed completely by him.
"Finally reached the peak of the Ninth Layer of the Fanxu Realm. Now dealing with those two should not be difficult. Hopefully, no more False Merged Path Realm cultivators arrive during this period."
Mu Jinyu murmured to himself, also considering that after killing those two, searching the forbidden area, he would leave the secret realm to undergo tribulation and break through to the Hedao Realm outside.
Afterward, he awakened Zhuo Yue, who was cultivating, then operated his True Yuan to extract the remaining essence of the Flood Dragon Inner Pill from Dragon Lake, storing it in the Bi Fang Cauldron. He took the newly breakthrough Seventh Layer of the Fanxu Realm Zhuo Yue, to join Wen Rou, Jian Ruyan, and Little Phoenix, who were searching for heavenly materials and earthly treasures other than the Hedao Fruit in the forbidden area.
"There's nothing good in this forbidden area, it seems the best items besides the Hedao Fruit, are the dragon corpse."
Jian Ruyan shook her head after Mu Jinyu found them, indicating they found nothing of value during these days of searching.
"Forget it, then let's leave the secret realm early and continue looking for medicines for you."
Hearing Jian Ruyan, Mu Jinyu was slightly disappointed, thinking there might have been a chance to find the spiritual medicines needed to solve the soul-seizing aftereffects in the forbidden area.
But since Wen Rou and the others searched for nearly ten days, rummaging through the whole forbidden area and finding nothing notable, considering they had already obtained the Hedao Fruit they came for, they could think of leaving the secret realm earlier.
Afterward, Mu Jinyu did not hesitate further, taking the three and the beast with him, leaving the depths of the forbidden area towards the entrance.
He wanted to resolve the two outside the forbidden area before leaving the secret realm.
Otherwise, once in the outside world of Kunlun Ruins, the opportunity to deal with them might not arise.
Soon after,
Mu Jinyu arrived again at the forbidden area's exit.
"Damn, when will that little guy come out? Could it be he doesn't plan to come out anymore?"
"There are ten days until the secret realm is completely closed. Could it be he really plans to finish cultivating inside?"
"If so, when he exits outside, I fear we'll miss our chance to get that Hedao Fruit."
In a thicket, Wu Linyuan and Shi Haoran whispered to each other, eyes tinged with anxiety, not as composed as five days ago.
After all, once the secret realm closed, and the people inside were sent outside, with so many Hedao Realm experts present, they would have no chance to kill Mu Jinyu and get a Hedao Fruit.
"It's all that Jiang Song's fault, greedy to eat all by himself. Not only did he end up dead, but he also prevented us from entering the forbidden area to eliminate that guy!"
"Sigh, when will the Sect Leader send someone who understands restrictions in? Otherwise, we're left with no choice but to fight blindly!"
Just as Wu Linyuan and Shi Haoran were about to decide to gamble everything and brute force their way through the restrictions,
"Boom!!!"
A fierce sound of breaking through the sky came, their eyelids twitched, and they quickly unleashed their movement techniques to dodge away!
"Bang!!"
They narrowly escaped to the side only to find the thicket they were in had been reduced to ashes, leaving a deep pit at the original spot.
"Hmm?!"
"Finally willing to come out!"
The two, looking slightly disheveled from the previous surprise attack, with gloomy faces, initially wanted to berate whoever dared to lay hands on them, but upon seeing Mu Jinyu,
their eyes instantly sparkled with brilliance, not frightened but pleased.
Afterward, they exchanged a glance and, without hesitation, summoned their damaged heaven-reaching spiritual treasures.
"Clang!"
"Clink!!"
The damaged spiritual treasure Wu Linyuan took out was a dazzling Golden Sword, its appearance glamorous, the dragon body forming the sword blade, entirely covered with intricate dragon scales, the dragon tail standing as the sword tip, exuding a sharp aura.
This sword sliced through the air, it must be the Dragon Tail Swing, earth-shattering!
And the dragon head clasped around the sword guard to form the hilt.
This exceptionally magnificent sword's sole regrettable aspect was the dragon eye spots on the hilt that should have embedded two dragon eyes for a finishing touch but were missing.
The heaven-reaching spiritual treasure Shi Haoran took out was an ancient bell, resembling stone or jade, plain and simple in appearance, with a significant crack nearly splitting the whole bell in two.
And as Shi Haoran activated the bell, the surface densely covered with strange curse marks.