[Not long after you entered, you sensed fluctuations of battle coming from the outer region of the Myriad Demon Mountain.]
[An hour later, following the coordinates Gu Xinyue had given you, you found the location of the spiritual herb.]
[What you did not expect was that an illusion formation had actually been set up here.]
[Your Great Void Technique was of little use against an illusion formation, but fortunately, you had the Eye of Truth.]
[The Eye of Truth activated, and you quickly found the true body of the spiritual herb. After harvesting it, you immediately ran toward the Sword Pavilion at full speed.]
[This illusion was built with the spiritual herb as its formation core. Once you took the herb away, the people on patrol would soon discover what had happened here.]
[Meanwhile, the three major sects were still locked in an intense martial contest when an urgent voice suddenly came from within the Myriad Demon Mountain.]
["Sect Master, this is bad! The spiritual herb is gone!"]
[When Gu Xinyue, who was watching the competition, saw this, she knew you had succeeded, so she decided to add fuel to the fire.]
[In a flash, she appeared beside one of the Elders of the Feather Transformation Sect. A strand of Sword Aura pierced through the man's Dantian, and then she vanished from everyone's sight.]
[Only a small number of people witnessed Gu Xinyue's move. Most of them were focused on the missing spiritual herb.]
[However, it did not take long for the news of the Feather Transformation Sect Elder's death to spread completely, throwing the scene into even greater chaos.]
[At this moment, you and Gu Xinyue, the true culprits, were already on the way back to the Sword Pavilion.]
[Three days later, you returned to the Sword Pavilion. You had barely arrived when Gu Xinyue returned as well.]
["Not bad, Little Junior Brother. You moved quite fast."]
[After you handed the spiritual herb over to Gu Xinyue, she told you that she was going into seclusion to break through to Fifth-Grade Alchemist and refine the Void-Breaking Pill.]
[Two years later, Gu Xinyue emerged from seclusion and successfully refined the Void-Breaking Pill.]
["Little Junior Brother, I am going to the Fallen Immortal Secret Realm."]
[When you heard that she was going to the Fallen Immortal Secret Realm, you calculated the time. This was the fifth year, and it was almost time for Lin Qi to break through to Foundation Establishment.]
[You told Gu Xinyue that you happened to be returning to Qingzhou as well, so your routes were the same.]
[The next day, you and Gu Xinyue flew toward the Secret Realm on swords, and you did not use the Great Void Technique to travel.]
[After arriving at Tianyuan, you parted ways with Gu Xinyue and continued flying toward the Desolate Village.]
[In the third month after leaving the Sword Pavilion, you finally returned to the Desolate Village.]
[The instant you landed, Ye Chuxue sensed your arrival and came out to greet you.]
["Su Ming? You finally came back!"]
[Looking at Ye Chuxue, you suddenly remembered that when you left last time, you had been in too much of a hurry and had never used the Eye of Truth to inspect her.]
[You knew that both she and Lin Qi had problems, but you did not know whether only one of them was the issue or whether both of them were.]
[Ye Chuxue: Human]
[Talent: Taiyin Body]
[Cultivation: Foundation Establishment Great Perfection]
[Spiritual Root: High-Grade Water Spiritual Root]
[After using the Eye of Truth to inspect Ye Chuxue, you discovered that there was actually nothing wrong with her.]
[You therefore instinctively concluded that the problem must lie with Lin Qi, though you did not rule out the possibility that even the Eye of Truth could not detect the abnormality.]
[Originally, you had planned to return and kill both Ye Chuxue and Lin Qi immediately. But after using the Eye of Truth, you suddenly changed your mind.]
[Back in the Pill Sect, when you used the Eye of Truth, you could clearly distinguish which ones were humans and which ones were Bizarre Insects.]
[And so, after you and Ye Chuxue stayed in the Desolate Village for half a year, you finally heard news concerning Lin Qi.]
[This time, you took the initiative and brought Ye Chuxue straight to the prison of the Qin Kingdom.]
[When you arrived at Lin Qi's prison cell, Ye Chuxue was preparing to act at once and rescue him.]
[Seeing this, you immediately stepped in and stopped her.]
[The moment you saw Lin Qi, you used the Eye of Truth to inspect him. With that single look, you finally understood how all of this had happened.]
[Lin Qi: Human]
[Talent: Son of Destiny (Fallen)]
[Cultivation: Initial Foundation Establishment]
[Spiritual Root: Top-Grade Fire Spiritual Root]
[Fallen: Tainted by a trace of the aura of the Bizarre Insect Progenitor.]
[Note: Even the Heavenly Dao of this world has already been contaminated. How could the Son of Destiny born from its power possibly remain untouched?]
"Holy hell? So it really was Lin Qi who had the problem!"
When Su Ming saw this, he could not help jumping to his feet.
"Tainted by the aura of the Bizarre Insect Progenitor? What kind of thing is that?"
"Could it be that this was what contaminated the Secret Realms?"
The more Su Ming thought about it, the more terrifying it became. Combined with the mention in the simulation that the Heavenly Dao had been contaminated—
this only made him even more certain of his previous guess. The reason the Spiritual Energy of the Canglan Realm had gone wrong was because the Heavenly Dao itself had gone wrong.
"I have to kill Lin Qi!"
As soon as Su Ming said this, he continued looking at the simulator.
[After seeing all of this, your gaze turned completely icy.]
[Under Ye Chuxue's shocked stare, you raised your hand and directly killed Lin Qi with a strand of Taixu Sword Aura.]
["Su Ming! Why did you kill him? Was he not an Awakener?"]
[After ruling out Ye Chuxue as a suspect, your attitude toward her also improved somewhat. The previous collapses of the Secret Realms had all happened because of Lin Qi's existence.]
[Even though he himself did not know the reason, you would never allow such a hidden danger to remain alive.]
[Faced with Ye Chuxue's questioning, you only told her simply that there was something wrong with Lin Qi's identity, and if you did not kill him, there would be enormous trouble in the future.]
[Seeing the grave expression on your face, Ye Chuxue glanced at Lin Qi's corpse and chose to believe your words.]
[After leaving the Qin Kingdom, Ye Chuxue told you that she was planning to go to the Fallen Immortal Secret Realm to break through to the Core Formation realm.]
[After thinking it over, you decided to go with her. This trip was mainly because you wanted to investigate the situation inside the Fallen Immortal Secret Realm once again.]
[Because of Lin Qi's role in contaminating the Secret Realm in the previous simulations, your understanding of the Secret Realm had only extended to the bronze divine hall.]
[As the largest Secret Realm in both Qingzhou and Youzhou, you knew there had to be more secrets inside than just the bronze divine hall.]
[After traveling for half a month, you arrived at the Fallen Immortal Secret Realm.]
[After entering the Secret Realm, Ye Chuxue casually found a place to prepare for her breakthrough, while you walked deeper into the Fallen Immortal Secret Realm.]
[Along the way, you did not see anyone else. You wondered where Gu Xinyue was now and whether she had broken through to the Void Refinement realm.]
[Soon, you arrived at a familiar valley. Looking at the bronze divine hall before you, you had no intention of entering.]
[The previous two times you entered, aside from obtaining part of the truth of the Remote Ancient Era and a cultivation inheritance, there had been nothing else inside.]
[You crossed the valley and continued onward into the depths.]
[After passing over a plain, what came into view was a great mountain, from which faint waves of Sword Intent emanated.]
[As you looked at the Sword Mountain before you, a bold idea suddenly surfaced in your mind.]
[You already had a broken Taixu Sword. If you went up there again, would you obtain two Taixu Swords at the same time?]
[With that thought in mind, you decided to give it a try.]
...