Chapter 125: The Scarlet Territory (4)

  This cursed weapon possessed the ability to kill, bind, and much more. However, the only drawback of using it was that it could not differentiate between friend or foe, creating chaos whenever the wires were dispatched.

  Even he might have been attacked if he had remained above the ground.

  Need to hurry and get out of here before more beasts arrive. Hey, cursed weapon... help me one more time. Please, Xu Mo muttered under his breath.

  This time, the target would be the rocks around him that had trapped him, preventing any movement. It was going to hurt, but he would protect his vital parts first.

  Before he could activate it again, light began to glow from his chest—not literally from him, but from the token given by the sect to every disciple before departing. It helped identify if fellow sect disciples were nearby. It glowed whenever sect members approached, making it easier to find allies in this foreign land.

  "HELP!!" Xu Mo shouted at the top of his lungs. Anxiety gnawed away at him. He had no idea how long he had been stuck inside this place. Surely by now, others must have already advanced their cultivation by leaps and bounds, while here he was, trapped in an unknown location.

  "Did you hear that?"

  "What?"

  "Someone just shouted 'Help.' The sound came from below the ground."

  "It wouldn't be a ghost, right?"

  "Look at this. The disciple token is glowing. That means whoever just shouted must be from our sect."

  "HELP!!"

  "Yeah, I heard it now too. The voice seems to be coming from that fissure path. Could it be that a fellow disciple fell inside and got stuck?"

  "Could be. But stay alert. It could also be someone from an enemy sect who got their hands on one of our disciple tokens and is trying to lure us into a trap."

  The two disciples from the Hidden Dragon Sect cautiously approached the fissure path. As they got closer, they noticed dead bodies of Spiritual Stage beasts scattered around, along with the corpses of disciples from other sects.

  "HELP!! I’m stuck down here, below the fissure path! My Qi reserves have depleted!" Xu Mo shouted again, this time briefly explaining his situation so that the sect members above wouldn’t panic or assume he was some evil cultivator.

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  Though it was his first time taking lives—multiple lives, in fact—because he couldn’t see what chaos his cursed weapon had caused above, he felt no mental burden over it. Killing human beings for the first time brought him no guilt.

  "Who are you?" one of the disciples above the ground asked cautiously. Xu Mo could just make out the faint shimmering outlines of two figures at the edge of the fissure.

  "I am Xu Mo, the True Successor Disciple of the Hidden Dragon Sect. I don’t know how long it’s been, but ever since I crossed the portal into the secret realm, I have been trapped inside this place. Due to some unknown reason, my Qi has almost completely depleted, and the last bit I had left was used to activate my weapon artifact and kill the disciples from the other sects."

  True Successor?!

  The two disciples looked at each other, eyes gleaming. They thought their greatest opportunity had just arrived. If they could save the True Successor of the sect, they might gain his goodwill—and if he was a generous and righteous person, he might even reward them with rare pills and artifacts.

  They were only at the peak of Qi Condensation and had been in the sect for quite some time. Their talent was mediocre at best. They had no real chance of fighting for fate-defying opportunities inside this secret realm.

  "Don’t worry, Senior! We will save you somehow," they reassured Xu Mo. They had no doubts about his identity; after all, Xu Mo's real status had been announced just before entering the secret realm, and the Head Elder had even used his divine sense to block the announcement from leaking outside, ensuring only sect members knew of it.

  Xu Mo finally caught sight of the familiar robes on the bodies of the two people who had responded to his cry for help. He knew their willingness was more because of the status he held rather than pure goodwill. If he had been just another disciple, he might have been left here to die.

  "Old man?!" The two disciples stumbled back a step, eyes wide with disbelief as they peered into the gloom of the fissure path.

  Wedged between the rocks was a figure wearing the robe of a True Successor, the disciple token glowing faintly against his chest.

  Old man? Xu Mo blankly echoed the words in his mind, not quite able to process them.

  Moments ago, the two had looked concerned, almost ready to lend their aid. But now, their faces tightened—sharpening with suspicion, hardening with self-righteousness.

  "You devil!" one spat, drawing his weapon with a metallic hiss. "What did you do to the True Successor?!"

  Devil? Xu Mo's mind reeled. I'm the True Successor! Isn’t this jumping to conclusions a bit fast?!

  "What are you talking about? I am the True Successor. Xu Mo," he said, his voice calm but strained.

  "Don’t lie!!" both disciples snapped in unison, falling into defensive stances. Their gazes darted left and right, wary of hidden ambushes.

  "Brother, I think this old monster has already killed our True Successor," one muttered grimly. "He’s just pretending to be weak... waiting to lure us in and slaughter us."

  "What should we—" Before the words could even finish, his companion had already turned and fled down the path without looking back.

  The second disciple cursed under his breath and bolted after him.

  Xu Mo remained rooted to the spot, eyes wide, mind a whirl of shock and disbelief. Inside, his thoughts churned in stunned silence. What... old monster?

  Slowly, he lifted a hand to his face. His heart skipped a beat.

  His once-smooth skin was now withered and dry, creased like old parchment. His pupils shrank into pinpoints.

  Urgent. Everyone. We have fallen Below 4 Star Ratings.