Of course, all this talk of consolidating the Thunder Wind Realm, forming an alliance to resist strong enemies, unifying the Thunder Wind Realm and ascending the throne as the Thunder Emperor, of tens of millions of people hailing him, and of an eternal emperor whose merits eclipse all ages,
all of it was just young master Lei’s fleeting daydream.
He was, at present,
merely a cultivator at the Nascent Soul stage with no soldiers and no generals. Any of the Nine Great Powers could crush him with ease.
The only subordinate he could command was one, his little sister Xiaoyu.
This force was clearly insufficient.
His most important task right now was to increase his strength.
Without any power base, personal combat prowess was the basic requirement for survival.
Personal strength for survival, building a power base for development.
The demon race had not yet descended, and his strength was not enough to join the game.
Young Master Lei’s urgent priority was to raise his cultivation.
And to gather the tokens and master the Wind Blade Evasion Technique.
He heard that this Wind Blade Evasion Technique could ignore formations and seals, ignore spatial lockdowns, and unleash speed exceeding two major realms. With it, he would have a trump card for self-preservation, able to fight or retreat whenever and wherever he pleased.
He even vaguely recalled hearing someone say that extreme speed itself was a form of power.
The enemy wouldn’t know what hit them; you could dash over, slap them twice, and then flee, and the enemy wouldn’t even know who had struck them.
The more he thought about it, the more impatient he became. Young Master Lei now wished he could immediately rush to the Fire Immortal Secret Realm and obtain the fourth token.
Wan Lei had carefully studied the three tokens he had obtained earlier, hoping to glean a move or two from them. Even if it wasn’t the complete Wind Blade Evasion Technique, even half would be beneficial, at the very least improving his speed.
However, there were no divine abilities within them. Despite probing with his divine sense for a long time, he could only perceive the Dao of Light, Rules, and Destruction from each token.
And the Daoist arts were not particularly profound.
He had heard from Gouzi that the Daoist arts of the remaining three Immortals were Creation, Beginning and End, and Darkness.
In Gouzi’s words, to put it simply, their six Daoist arts were three pairs of diametrically opposed and completely contradictory attributes.
No, they were supreme heavenly Daos that transcended all attributes.
Light against Darkness, Creation against Destruction, Rules against Beginning and End.
Wan Lei had studied them. Weren’t these just the basic components of the laws of the universe?
Yes, relativity was definitely valid.
The Immortals knew their stuff.
For the next period, Wan Lei and Fang Xiaoyu stayed home, diligently… diligently cultivating, to improve their physical strength and cultivation. By the time it was almost time to leave, both of their cultivations had broken through to the early stage of the middle Nascent Soul realm.
Fang Xiaoyu was doing slightly better, her spirit energy absorption speed being faster. Wan Lei’s spirit energy absorption speed was relatively slow, and there was no lightning available for him to absorb here. Fortunately, he had broken through to the peak of the lower Nascent Soul realm using the Heavenly Tribulation within the Destiny Diagram before, otherwise, he really wouldn’t have kept up with Fang Xiaoyu’s progress this time.
Before departing, Wan Lei transmitted a message to Sui Xiaohang and others, asking if they had arrived.
Sui Xiaohang’s reply was:
“Secret realm? I wouldn’t go even if a dog begged me. This young master is now a Heaven-grade alchemist. My precious body doesn’t sit in dangerous halls. Thinking about the last Water Immortal Secret Realm, where more than half the people died, that casualty rate is too terrifying. I almost died in there myself. Who can guarantee that my luck will be good next time? I won’t go, I’d rather die than go.”
He then contacted Qian Duoduo, the Heavenly Calculator, and others. The responses he received were either that they had family matters to attend to and couldn’t get away, or that they were in secluded cultivation. In short, none of his old friends were going.
Wan Liuchuan, on the other hand, not only refused to go to the secret realm but also advised Wan Lei not to go, suggesting they go together to steal Liu Yuxin out.
Young Master Lei smiled, pondered for a long time, and weighed the pros and cons. He believed that given his current relationship with the Liu family and his own strength, going to the secret realm was safer and offered a higher chance of survival.
He feared that if he went to the Liu family, Liu Naiweng and the Liu Clan Leader might experience a series of emotional journeys: fright, astonishment, joy, excitement, and finally, relief from the lifting of a great revenge.
Well, those two old gentlemen were not young anymore, and they might even have heart conditions. It would be bad if they had a heart attack and died on the spot after this incident.
Young Master Lei, after all, possessed benevolence towards all life.
As for Liu Yuxin, hehe, she was just a feisty girl. Why save her? Would the Liu family kill her?
Young Master Lei couldn’t guarantee that this dead girl wouldn’t stab him in the back after he rescued her.
After confirming that no one else was going, Wan Lei and Fang Xiaoyu disguised themselves, reverting to their previous appearances as Fang Jingzhe and Qi Qingming, quietly left the Fang family, and flew towards the southwest.
As for why they disguised themselves, there was a reason.
Firstly, Wan Lei didn’t know if Liu Naiweng had discovered his secret, but even if he hadn’t, the Liu family remained a significant threat.
Not just the Liu family, but the other families were also major threats. When they reached the road or entered the Fire Immortal Secret Realm, and he was engaged in battle with enemies, they might suddenly strike him. Therefore, keeping his secrets was very important.
Secondly, Old Fang absolutely refused to let them go to the secret realm again.
After all, they were always the ones who encountered trouble, while others emerged safely. They had also experienced near-death crises inside.
Furthermore, with the death of eleven Mahayana cultivators at once last time (though ten of them were killed by Wan Lei) and more than half of the people from the Thunder Wind Realm, Old Fang was even less likely to agree to them going to the secret realm again.
One could see the attitudes of others. In any case, none of the people who had survived the last time were willing to go back to the secret realm.
But Wan Lei had to go. Seeing that he had already collected half of the tokens, and the great battle was imminent, he had to obtain the Wind Blade Evasion Technique. Only then could he ensure his freedom of movement on the battlefield and have a trump card for self-preservation.
Thus, Fang Jingzhe and Qi Qingming, under the cover of night, quietly left the Fang family, arrived at the capital of Fengju Kingdom, and took the teleportation array, reaching Liang Kingdom, the country where the entrance to the Fire Line Secret Realm was located, that very night.
In fact, considering their cultivation and the powers behind them, it was beneath them to bother about which country it was; their strength already surpassed any country.
Among the tens of thousands of countries in the Central Domain, none could pose a threat to them. The only ones they needed to treat with caution were the Nine Great Powers.
Now, this Liang Kingdom was located within the Zhou family’s sphere of influence.
Did Young Master Lei need to be so cautious and prudent here?
Of course, he did.
Considering the overall situation, among the Nine Great Powers of the Thunder Wind Realm, only the Yin Yang Sect, the Kui Lian Sect, and the Fang family did not have any enmity with Wan Lei. The other six powers all had blood feuds with Wan Lei.
Zhou Zhanxin, the Mahayana elder of the Zhou family, had died at the hands of Young Master Lei in the Water Immortal Secret Realm.
Moreover, this time, the three powers behind Young Master Lei had not sent anyone.