Sage of Humanity

Going out to find supplies was accompanied by great risk, once they encountered the Corpse Race, a conflict was bound to erupt. Take this time for instance, a team of six people came out from the stronghold, and in the end, only Yuan Xiang was left alive.

After some explanation, Lu Ye had a rough understanding of the current situation in the Unparalleled Continent.

The human race was in dire straits, struggling to survive, while the Corpse Race was powerful and formidable, not to be provoked.

"Tell me about your stronghold," Lu Ye said.

"The stronghold..." Yuan Xiang fell into reminiscence, "Our stronghold is not big, and we don't have many people, just over two hundred. The strongest among us is Elder Zui Shan, and the stronghold is also controlled by him..."

As Yuan Xiang eloquently described, the situation at the stronghold became clear to both Lu Ye and Ying Wuji.

In the apocalypse, many people chose to band together for warmth, which led to the formation of strongholds, big and small. Some strongholds might have only a few or even a dozen people, some a few hundred, but they never exceeded a thousand people.

That's why Yuan Xiang said, the place where Lu Ye and the others had been before was also a stronghold, of course, assuming that Lu Ye was telling the truth.

Moreover, due to various sudden crises, the location of the stronghold was not fixed. If the location of the stronghold was exposed and discovered by the Corpse Race, they would need to move quickly, otherwise a massacre was unavoidable.

Ying Wuji didn't understand, "Life is so difficult, why don't the people of these strongholds join together in one place? Why do they choose to scatter in all directions?"

Lu Ye looked at him as if he were looking at an idiot.

Ying Wuji bristled, "What? Isn't what I said correct?"

Yuan Xiang gave a bitter smile and said, "I've actually thought about this too and asked Uncle Yooi about it before. Uncle Yooi said, although joining together could increase our strength, it would also make us a bigger target, and easy to expose. If that happened, it would certainly attract a large number of the Corpse Race to encircle and suppress us. This is why it's better to be scattered. Although it means being weak and isolated, it's easier to hide, and also..."

She paused, then continued, "Uncle Yooi said, in this chaotic world, people's hearts are unfathomable. Even among the human race, when encountering good things in the wild, people would fight and scramble. So, no one can guarantee that others will have the same heart as their own. Perhaps some people from different strongholds have the same view and will join together, but getting all the strongholds on the Unparalleled Continent to unite is completely impossible."

Ying Wuji frowned and pondered without retorting.

Although he had come to the Unparalleled Continent, he was not a native cultivator and had not experienced the hardships of life here, so it was difficult for him to comprehend the complex feelings of the cultivators in this world.

He felt that this world was more perilous than any secret realm he had experienced before.

However, speaking of which, from the lineup that Heaven's Augury provided them, it was evident, the top six of the Cloud River rankings were all there, plus him, who ranked sixteenth in ghost cultivation, and also a tremendously talented physique cultivator and healing cultivator.

Nine people in total, such a team, if they could cooperate sincerely, would sweep the entire Cloud River battlefield without any problem.

With such a lineup, the troubles to be solved definitely wouldn't be minor.

"So... what's the deal with the secret realms?" Lu Ye asked.

Previously, after he had rescued the man surnamed Yu, that individual seemed to mistakenly assume he originated from some secret realm.

At that time, Lu Ye didn't inquire in detail, but now, of course, he wanted to understand it thoroughly.

"The secret realms..." Yuan Xiang's eyes suddenly showed a hint of longing, "Those are the sacred lands that all of the human race yearn for! It's said that the people inside live a life completely different from ours, just like a thousand years ago, they can live safely, and the resources for cultivation are also abundant and never run out."

As she spoke these words, Yuan Xiang's expression took on that of a poor child from a destitute family describing the extravagant wealth of a rich merchant.

Through her narrative, Lu Ye finally understood what the term "secret realm" represented in the Unparalleled Continent.

In fact, these secret realms were not fundamentally different from the secret realms he was familiar with.

In a strict sense, they were all miniature worlds independent of the local domain.

Within Nine Provinces, many secret realms exist, whether it was Xianyuan City, which Lu Ye had experienced, or the Ten Thousand Beasts Domain, Soaring Dragon World, all were types of secret realms, vast inside, relying on the large environment of Nine Provinces, yet also able to exist independently, usually hidden from the outside.

The Unparalleled Continent also once had very prominent big sects, these sects naturally had their own secret realms, these kinds of secret realms, whether used for grazing spirit beasts, cultivating spirit plants and medicines, or for disciples to enter and temper themselves.

But after the heavenly changes, even those big sects had been wiped out. Although their gates were destroyed, the secret realms were preserved. Lucky disciples hid within them, and as time passed, more and more of the human race came to these secret realms by reputation, gathering within them to evade the pursuit of the Corpse Race.

In the beginning, there were quite a number of secret realms occupied by the human race in the Unparalleled Continent, but as time went on, more and more secret realms were discovered and breached by the Corpse Race. Today, only three secret realms are controlled by the human race.

They are Mount Sumeru Secret Realm, Ziwei Dao Palace Secret Realm, and Silver Snake Valley Secret Realm.

Compared to the chaos and hardships outside, the secret realm can indeed be considered the last pure land of the Unparalleled Continent, also preserving the most quintessential strength of the human race in this domain.

Cultivators within the secret realm would often venture out to hunt the Corpse Race, but over many years, there had been no substantial progress. The Corpse Race still firmly controlled this part of the world, leaving minor strongholds like where Yuan Xiang was located to merely scuttle and hide.

Thus, after seeing Lu Ye cleanly execute that zombie, it was the man surnamed Yu who mistakenly thought he hailed from one of the three great secret realms.

Because for someone of his age to possess such strength, he couldn't have been raised from a stronghold where even survival was a struggle; only those born in a secret realm would have such a foundation.

And when Lu Ye casually handed him a Detoxification Pill of excellent quality, he grew more certain of his guess, sadly Lu Ye did not confirm it.

"If the secret realm is so wonderful, why don't you go to one of those secret realms?" Ying Wuji couldn't help but ask again, carefully glancing at Lu Ye.

Fortunately, this time, Lu Ye did not look at him as if he were an idiot.

"Who wouldn't want to go?" Yuan Xiang smiled wryly, "Now, the human race residing in the Unparalleled Continent all dream of entering a secret realm, but who can actually go? Not to mention the lack of guidance, even if one were to go, finding the portal to a secret realm is no simple task. Even if one manages to find it, there's no guarantee of gaining entry. One might even get killed for trying."

Ying Wuji frowned, "Why is that?"

"Initially, the human race of the Unparalleled Continent controlled many secret realms and all great secret realms opened their doors wide to accept humans. But a secret realm is only a miniature world, with limited capacity. If too many people live there, it inevitably won't have enough resources. Gradually, the secret realms started refusing outsiders. I heard that there was one secret realm where clans from different sects fought fiercely over control, leading to both sides suffering and giving the Corpse Race an opportunity to massacre everyone. So, now entering a secret realm is extremely difficult."

"Isn't there any other way to join a secret realm?" Lu Ye asked.

From the last moment he was transported from the Nine Provinces, a flurry of information exploded in Lu Ye's mind, bestowed by Heaven's Augury.

Save the shattered Unparalleled Continent!

To achieve that, he would inevitably need the power of the secret realms, making it beneficial if he could join one.

Yuan Xiang seemed to be a girl without much guile, answering questions honestly even when facing people she just met like Lu Ye and Ying Wuji. Naturally, Lu Ye wanted to gather more intelligence from her.

"Of course, there is," Yuan Xiang nodded, "This is the only hope for the human race in various strongholds to survive. It's said that every once in a while, Guiding Envoys from the three great secret realms go out to look for suitable candidates to bring into the secret realms. Three years ago, a few people from our stronghold were chosen and taken away, but such opportunities cannot be actively sought; one can only passively wait, and even then, being chosen is not guaranteed."

Ying Wuji nodded upon hearing this, "It seems the people of the three great secret realms haven't been utterly ruthless; they've still left a glimmer of hope for others."

"It's not necessarily because they want to be like this!" Lu Ye pondered thoughtfully.

Yuan Xiang looked at Lu Ye in surprise, "Elder Zui Shan used to say this."

Zui Shan...

That was the leader of Yuan Xiang's stronghold, likely the strongest there, and evidently, Yuan Xiang held him in high regard.

"What exactly did Elder Zui Shan say?" Lu Ye asked.

He had some guesses, but after all, they were just speculations.

"Elder Zui Shan said that if the three great secret realms didn't act this way, every year there would be many humans searching for their portals, potentially drawing the attention of the Corpse Race, hence leading to trouble for the three great secret realms. It's better to channel than to block, so by doing this, the three great secret realms give all surviving humans a ray of hope," replied Yuan Xiang.

Lu Ye nodded slightly; it seemed that Zui Shan's thinking coincided with his own.

But looking at it from another angle, this wasn't necessarily the fault of the people from the three great secret realms.

As Yuan Xiang mentioned, a secret realm is ultimately a small world. Even if it exists independently from the Unparalleled Continent, it has limited capacity and cannot accommodate all humans. Sending out Guiding Envoys to find a few suitable candidates to bring back provides hope for the surviving human race, preventing them from engaging in self-destructive actions, while also bolstering the power of the secret realms—an approach that kills two birds with one stone.

"Is there anything noteworthy about the Corpse Race?"

Having roughly understood the situation of the human race, the next step for Lu Ye was naturally to learn about the Corpse Race.

Know yourself, know your enemy, a hundred battles will not be perilous!

"The Corpse Race... Nowadays, the Corpse Race is everywhere in the Unparalleled Continent. If there's anything noteworthy, it would be the Huntian Holy Temple Secret Realm. That place has the highest concentration of the Corpse Race. It's said the very first of the Corpse Race, the Golden Corpse King Corpse Fiend, was originally a disciple of the Huntian Holy Temple and now squats there."

Lu Ye's heart stirred, "Are you saying that there is a secret realm in the Huntian Holy Temple?"