Patriarch Zheng Yong was indeed in a good mood as he saw hope for the future of his clan. The past few years have been very stressful for him and he spent most of his time thinking whether Wang Wei will send a troop of soldiers to kill all the people of his family.
Zheng Yong gazed at the token in his hand with a smile on his face while thinking about his next move.
In this world, there are two things related to space: space rings and Secret Realms.
Space rings can be made by a few rare refiners through a spiritual material called Heaven Meteorite. Many cultivators have tried to use this material in order to create a teleportation array, but unfortunately, no one has succeeded.
As for Secret Realm--who are also referred to as Cave Realm--are small dimensional spaces born naturally from Heaven and Earth full of spiritual qi. As a result of this, the Secret Realms are often a blessed place for cultivators.
Zheng Yong knew how important Secret Realm can be to a family as his Zheng clan used to have a Secret Realm of their own. Unfortunately, after years of use, the Secret Realm was destroyed.
Additionally, from the information he received, Zheng Yong guessed that this particular Secret Realm was probably an inheritance left by an ancient power.
After pondering for a while, he contacted one of the loyal Divine Altar cultivators of the Zheng Family and sent him to check out the Secret Realm.
Without alerting anyone, the Divine Altar cultivator secretly left the capital and headed in the mountain range where the Secret Realm was discovered. After using the token he was giving, he was teleported inside.
However, as soon as he stepped inside, he was attacked by one of the puppets. The cultivator fought for a few hours before taking out the core of the puppet, thus rending it immobile.
Afterwards, the cultivator walked a few meters in the inner part of the Secret Realm when he smelled a very attractive smell. With his years of experience, he could tell that these pills were at least High Grade Profound Tier, and probably even reached the Earth Tier.
Thinking about this, the cultivator wanted to rush to the place where the pills were located, however, he was ambushed by countless puppets. He spent so much effort just to disable one puppet, so he knew that he was no match for so many of them, so he left the Secret Realm to report to his patriarch.
Zheng Yong furrowed his brow after hearing this as he realized that the protection of the Secret Realm was more powerful than expected. However, this only proved that whatever was inside this Secret Realm was in fact more valuable than he expected.
As such, Zheng Yong contacted the Transcending Mortality Ancestor of their Zheng Family to go and check out the Secret Realm.
The Zheng Family's ancestor was more than happy to do so as she too understood the significance of such a Secret Realm to their clan.
After entering, she noticed that all the puppets were lined up together like a well trained army. She ignored them and flew in the air bypassing them. After entering the other, the Zheng cla's ancestor discovered that her flying ability was banned inside the room.
However, she was able to notice all the wealth and pill bottles around. She opened one of them to smell it. She immediately recognized it as an Earth Grade pill as the mere wisp she took was enough for her origin essence to increase by a small amount.
She checked a few more bottles and realized that they were all of the same quality. Then, she raised her to look at the altar where a golden book was lying there.
She did go after the book as he already knew that there were formations arranged there. Instead, she tried to place a few bottles of pills inside the small space ring she had in her hand.
Unfortunately, as soon as she did that, the array in the room activated and she was prevented from doing so. Following which, countless puppets were activated and attacked her.
However, she was not afraid. As a Transcending Mortality cultivator, how could she possibly be afraid of a few puppets. Unfortunately, she was too arrogant or looked too high at her ability.
Although she was more powerful than one puppet, however, with all of them working together, she was not a match for them. Not to mention that these puppets have the ability to work together like they all had one mind.
As a last result, the Zheng Family Ancestor had no choice but to run away from the Secret Realm. Immediately afterwards, she secretly returned to the capital and told her encounter to Zheng Yong, who had an ugly look on his face after hearing this.
"Ancestor, if we use all the secret strength of the Zheng Family, could we capture the Secret Realm?" asked Zheng Yong.
Unfortunately, Patriarch Zheng received a negative answer to his question. After pondering for a while, Zheng Yong had a flash of determination in his eyes.
Later, that night, in a secret room of the Zheng Manor full of anti-spying formation, a meeting took place.
"Before I say another word about the topic of our discussion tonight, I need you two to sign a Soul Contract that states that if any of you reveal the slightest bit of news about the topic we discussed tonight, all your direct and indirect bloodline descendants will suffer Thunder Retribution from Heaven."
"Zheng Yong, is there any need to be so cautious?" asked Patriarch Chang Liu.
"Old Zheng, what made you so serious?" asked Patriarch Leng Zan.
"Are you two going to sign it or not?" responded in a cold and indifferent voice.
Seeing the reaction of Zheng Yong, the two of them realized the severity of the situation, thus decided to sign after pondering for a while.
A few minutes later. Patriarch Leng Zan screamed, "What! You discovered a Secret Realm!"
"Don't yell out loud, you idiot!" reprimanded Patriarch Chang Liu, an act which made Leng Zan look around with suspicion. Then, he took a deep breath in relief after realizing that only the three of them were in the room.
Immediately afterwards, Leng Zan became excited at the prospect of their family. The past few years have been a nightmare for his Leng family. Most of the property was taken over by his majesty Wang Wei.
Their family had lost all the power they had in the previous kingdom; they were forced to obey the law and would be punished as long as they made even the slightest of mistakes. He has never been so aggrieved in his past 250 years of age. However now, he saw hope for his family's future.
While Leng Zan was imagining the happy future of his clan, Patriarch Leng Zan was way more calm or level-headed than him. As such, he asked, "Old Zheng, let's be honest with each other, why did you tell our family about the Secret Realm? Shouldn't you keep this kind of good thing for your own clan?"
After hearing, Leng Zan woke up from his fantasy and looked at Zheng Yong with suspicion.
As for Zheng Yong, he wanted to lie and said that he thought about the two of them as a way for their clans to unite in times of struggle. However, he knew that despite the rash way that these two acted sometimes, they were by any stupid. After all, no stupid person can hold the position of Patriarch for as long as these guys have.
Not to mention that these guys probably would not believe him if he told them such blatantly lies. Despite the fact the three clans have been in alliance for countless years and have intermarried for numerous generations, they would not hesitate to betray each other given the price was high enough or the circumstances demanded for it.
So, he told the truth; he told him about how difficult it was for his ancestor to break through all the obstacles of the Secret Realm by herself and he needed the strength of their clans.
After the other two patriarchs understood the entire situation, they nodded and discussed how to properly divide the wealth inside the Secret Realm. When it came to their benefits, all three of them forgot their friendships and turned into animals in the jungle going for their prey's jugular.
The next day, after coming to an agreement that satisfied all three clans, each of the Transcending Realm Ancestors met each other to discuss the proper plan to defeat all the puppets inside the Secret Realm. After making a concrete and reliable plan based on the information provided by the Zheng Clan Ancestor, all three of them entered together.
Unfortunately for them, as soon as they entered the Secret Realm, something they did not anticipate happened to them.
