Starting My Cultivation With Time Management

Both of them crossed the Iron Chain Long Bridge nonchalantly, as if they were strolling leisurely through their own cave dwellings.

They promptly arrived at the Cloud Platform at the end of the bridge.

Pushing open the great doors of Zhao Palace, the two didn't stop, continued forward, and after passing through the long corridor, they entered the Fire Mansion of three thousand realms.

The Trial Secret Realm they found themselves in strongly resembled Hell, with a red sky above and black earth below, and the air searingly hot, yet lacking the scent of charred remains—instead, it was a peculiar, suffocating heat.

It was a kind of heat that tormented the soul.

Xu Yinglian felt slightly uncomfortable and subconsciously wanted to use the Universal Pure Tone Minor Illumination Technique (a versatile Daoist spell capable of illumination, recovery, and body purification), but recalling the admonition of the Ziwei Master, she forcibly suppressed the urge.

"Junior Sister, be careful," Qiu Changtian suddenly cautioned, "External flames cling to the body, the fire within blazes; guard against both."

Xu Yinglian was taken aback by his words, but then she indeed found that it was true—it wasn't just the external heat that was unbearable, there was also a strange irritability brewing within her.

Utilizing the talent of the Seven Orifices Exquisite Heart, she forcefully suppressed that irritability, only to find it constantly grinding against her Divine Sense, which was very uncomfortable.

However, this indeed served as a way to temper her Divine Sense.

"Oh, here come the golden-armored soldiers," Qiu Changtian alerted her.

Xu Yinglian followed his gaze and saw a brilliant golden light ahead; it was hundreds and thousands of golden-armored soldiers forming a phalanx, riding clouds toward them, an overwhelming murderous aura filling the air.

"Let's go," Qiu Changtian said gently, then wielded the Tianyuan Yiqi Sword and charged forward.

The Tianyuan Yiqi Sword, by its nature, had the blunt force of a flying brick, a straightforward and brutal Immortal Sword, the more vigorous the True Yuan behind it, the more stunning its power when unleashed.

Confronted by the unprecedented First Grade Golden Core of Qiu Changtian, backed by an endless supply of True Yuan, the impact it delivered was almost comparable to Mount Tai bearing down.

With just a fearsome charge in and out, a large number of golden-armored soldiers were sent sprawling, dissipating into smoke and disappearing.

"Senior Brother, wait for me!" Seeing Qiu Changtian demonstrate his mighty prowess, Xu Yinglian also roused her competitive spirit and hurriedly called out.

She wanted to compete with her senior brother to see who could slay more!

Since Qiu Changtian was only using the Tianyuan Yiqi Sword, Xu Yinglian decided not to employ any other Daoist magic either, just thrusting her Feather Jia Sword out; each time it pierced into the body of a golden-armored soldier, their bodies spontaneously combusted, vanishing in a puff of smoke.

However, even with each attack resulting in an instant kill, her single-target attacks couldn't match the quick efficiency of Qiu Changtian's penetrative strikes.

After slaying countless enemies yet still not fully satisfied, Xu Yinglian grabbed Qiu Changtian's arm, pleadingly and coquettishly entreated him,

"Senior Brother, go slower! Leave some for me!"

"What's there to save?" Qiu Changtian said, laughing and crying at the same time, thinking to himself that although his junior sister's temperament had become much gentler after their marriage, her competitive spirit to win hadn't changed at all, "Didn't you hear what Master said? A hundred thousand soldiers, endless and inexhaustible, how could they possibly be all killed off?"

"I guess they're like leeks, cut one part off and another will sprout right back up," he mused.

Indeed, as soon as they had eliminated all of these gold-armored soldiers, they saw a great golden light emerging in the distance, revealing even more phalanxes of golden-armored soldiers that appeared and charged towards them fiercely.

Seeing this, Xu Yinglian was thrilled and immediately joined Qiu Changtian to head straight into battle.

The Zhao Palace Secret Realm, the Fire Mansion of three thousand realms, although designed to train the martial prowess of Golden Core Realm cultivators, mainly catered to the average Golden Core True Person, whose cultivation levels were not even up to the Third Grade Golden Core, so no matter how challenging it was, it only had limited difficulty.

Against the First Grade Golden Core Qiu Changtian and the Second Grade Golden Core Xu Yinglian, where was the challenge? Their swords were practically mowing down grass.

As they fought and advanced, they quickly made their way into the depths of the Fire Mansion.

Here, rivers of magma flowed vigorously, dark smoke filled the sky, and golden-armored soldiers were as numerous as the sea, packed tightly from all directions, converging on the center where Qiu Changtian and Xu Yinglian stood.

Facing such an overwhelming number of foes, neither dared to remain complacent; Qiu Changtian used Thor's Awl, while Xu Yinglian unleashed Great Bright Fire, continually sweeping clean the enemies that came too close.

Caught up in the thrill of battle, Xu Yinglian simply unleashed her Divine Skills, her body suddenly leaped forward, transforming into a gigantic golden-red phoenix, and where she passed, all the golden-armored soldiers burst into fierce flames, swiftly turning to ash.

Qiu Changtian watched enviously from behind, suddenly wanting to switch to the Long Long template and play dragon and phoenix with his junior sister... Of course, it was just a thought—as actually transforming into a Jiaolong would surely scare her to pieces.

"Eh?" The phoenix returned to Qiu Changtian's side and transformed back into human form, speaking, "Senior Brother, there seems to be something under that sea of fire over there."

"What thing?" asked Qiu Changtian, surprised.

"I don't know," Xu Yinglian shook her head and said, "I just have a mysterious intuition."

Cultivators always pay attention to the resonance between the heavens and the human spirit, not to mention this mysterious and profound intuition, so Qiu Changtian looked towards the distant Red Plain Sea of Fire and called in his mind:

"Ah Jing, scan it."

"Alright, alright," replied the Kunlun Mirror.

After a moment, Xu Yinglian asked again:

"Senior Brother?"

"Hmm, what is it?"

"Why aren't you talking?" Xu Yinglian asked curiously.

Qiu Changtian, of course, couldn't say "I'm waiting for Ah Jing's scan results," so he honestly replied:

"I'm pondering what exactly is hidden below that is causing you to have such a mysterious intuition."

"It must be something related to the phoenix..." hypothesized Xu Yinglian, when suddenly the Kunlun Mirror interjected:

"Scanned it, it's a phoenix egg."

"A phoenix egg?" Qiu Changtian asked with a frown, "Why would there be a phoenix egg here?"

"You ask me, who do I ask?" retorted the Kunlun Mirror.

"Ah Jing, watch your language, okay? I'm warning you!" After reprimanding Ah Jing, Qiu Changtian turned to his junior sister and said, "Could it be a phoenix egg? Maybe it's a fledgling phoenix sensing a reaction to your bloodline?"

"Why would there be a phoenix egg here?" Xu Yinglian wondered aloud.

I want to know which phoenix would lay an egg here too... thought Qiu Changtian internally, but he said aloud:

"If we retrieve what's inside, won't we find out?"

"How do we retrieve it?" Xu Yinglian started to feel a headache coming on.

With their level of insight, they could obviously see that beneath them, this magma ocean wasn't just high-temperature magma, but a kind of Red Lotus Karma Fire containing large amounts of karmic retribution.

Merely getting close to these flames would cause endless emotional turmoil, churning incessantly in the Sea of Consciousness, requiring strong Divine Sense to suppress.

If they were to really come into contact with those flames, even a peerless genius with Daoist Heart Clarity like Qiu Changtian would inevitably be tormented by this karma fire.

If that were not the case, why hadn't many high-rank cultivators dispatched by Kunlun over the past few decades discovered the secret under the magma of the Fire Mansion Secret Realm?

It's merely that the elders also dared not get close to explore this Red Lotus Sea of Fire.

"Let's just give it up," Xu Yinglian suggested comfortingly, "Regardless of what it is, it can't escape from here. We can come back and retrieve it when we're capable."

"That's the only way," Qiu Changtian nodded, thinking to himself whether his Five Elements Divine Light could dispel this Red Lotus Karma Fire.

I'll come back and try again after tricking my junior sister into leaving.

"Speaking of the phoenix," Xu Yinglian brought it up again, "do you remember the previous investigation into the Feng Tong ancestor's relic?"

"I always keep my junior sister's matters very close to heart," Qiu Changtian thought to himself that the Red Lotus Karma Fire seemed to be outside the Five Elements, its nature being karmic retribution rather than true flame, fearing that the Five Elements Divine Light might be useless against it.

"Flatterer," Xu Yinglian frowned but couldn't suppress a laugh, "Once we leave the secret realm, let's report to our master and have him allow us to leave the mountain. How about that?"