In the Buddhist realm, on a planet with a diameter of one hundred thousand li, Bodhisattva Puji, clad in a grey monk's robe, opened her eyes. The dim, secluded meditation chamber was instantly illuminated by her bright gaze, as if by daylight.
"Who is it? What is it? My cultivation is actually growing so rapidly?"
"It seems related to the lower realm, but which lower realm it is, I can't sense clearly!
This is truly strange and peculiar!"
With just a few soft murmurs, Bodhisattva Puji closed her eyes again and resumed chanting Buddhist scriptures.
She had been confined for five hundred years, and only two hundred had passed, leaving another three hundred to go.
The next day, Bodhisattva Puji opened her eyes again, her gaze no longer calm, but filled with a hint of pleasant surprise.
"How is this possible? In just two days, my True Immortal fifth-layer cultivation has broken through to the sixth layer!
With my normal cultivation, it would take a thousand years to break through. Did it break through so easily?"
Puji's surprise was not just limited to this. Over the next four days, she broke through another cultivation layer, reaching the True Immortal seventh layer.
"True Immortal seventh layer. I can be considered a master now, can't I? This is truly unexpected!"
"But what on earth is going on?"
...
No one could answer Bodhisattva Puji. On the planet where she resided, a large amount of karma was converging towards her secluded meditation chamber.
Meanwhile, Yang Hong, who had sent 180 spirit plant demons to ascend to the immortal realm, looked at the 129,600 ninth-tier Great Vehicle realm spirit plants in the sealed space. Their auras had already dropped to the fourth-tier Golden Core realm. He was contemplating whether to continue 'plucking wool'.
"It's a bit of a shame that this secret realm is collapsing. Why not let it re-gather spiritual energy and the origin of heaven and earth, and pluck wool later? I have plenty of World-Breaking Stones anyway, so I can pluck to my heart's content."
Then, he felt the extremely scarce karma accumulated on his body and smiled even more happily.
"Haha~ I didn't expect that the karma generated by using the [System] within this secret realm wouldn't be borne by me. This is truly exhilarating!"
"It's decided then! I'll leave this secret realm and pluck wool slowly!"
"Here I go!"
With an excited and joyful mood, Yang Hong activated a World-Breaking Stone and left the secret realm that had sealed him for decades.
He left with a full harvest, and also sent off 180 demon immortals.
He was definitely an immortal, not a Buddha, even though the ascension channel to the Buddhist realm appeared first each time. The ascension spirit plant demons departed after the immortal realm channel appeared.
As Yang Hong left, he scanned the surroundings with his divine sense, confirming that there were no living beings within a thousand li. The life on [Connecting Heaven Island] above the secret realm had also been annihilated by the tribulations of the 180 ascensions.
"Tsk tsk~ Life annihilated. What immense karma!"
"Hehe, this karma won't fall on me."
Yang Hong smiled happily and triumphantly. He had already guessed where this karma had gone.
He was very willing to repay Bodhisattva Puji, who had sealed him back then, even a little. And he would continue to repay her.
He carefully used the Earth Evasion technique to burrow underground, then switched to Wood, Water, Metal, and other evasion techniques. He took a detour to ensure he wouldn't be discovered before returning to the Great Sui Imperial Palace.
It wasn't that he couldn't win the fight if he was discovered, but rather he wanted to continue plucking wool from this secret realm for a long time without being found.
Especially after he had used the World-Breaking Stones twice to enter and exit, the spatial barrier of this secret realm was no longer as sturdy as before. If any immortal or Buddha from the upper realm became interested, they could still enter with great effort.
If that happened, he might not be able to pluck wool anymore.
He lived leisurely in the Great Sui Imperial Palace for another year, and after celebrating his 400th birthday, Yang Hong decided to leave and embark on a new journey.
"My cultivation is already perfect, but I can't even induce the ascension tribulation. What is going wrong here?"
Riding his flying sword, he flew slowly in the air. Yang Hong released his full aura, but he still couldn't induce the ascension tribulation.
It seemed he still had some great karma to resolve, or perhaps some bond that had not been severed. In short, it was a mysterious feeling that prevented him from ascending.
Feeling a bit vexed, he simply unleashed his cultivation and flew slowly on his sword.
Along the way, all cultivators, upon sensing his cultivation aura from afar, immediately landed and stood respectfully. They waited for him to fly past, and no cultivator dared to fly in front of him.
This was the aura and pressure of a Great Vehicle realm cultivator!
After wandering aimlessly for more than two months, Yang Hong suddenly had a feeling and looked towards his current location.
"Huh~ Isn't this the heart island of Hongtong Lake? Could my fortune be in this Hongtong Secret Realm?"
"Just in time, Hongtong Secret Realm is one of the secret realms I had planned to collapse. I'll collapse it along the way."
With this thought, he no longer cared that there were cultivators living nearby, and even watching him. He directly took out a World-Breaking Stone, activated it, and disappeared from his original spot.
He still had 11 World-Breaking Stones left, which was enough.
"Holy crap~ Is that a World-Breaking Stone?"
"Who is that esteemed person? They directly broke through the barrier and entered Hongtong Secret Realm."
"The point is, doesn't Hongtong Secret Realm have a cultivation suppression? Anyone above the Nascent Soul realm entering will be killed by the secret realm's rules?"
"Hiss~ There is indeed such a rule! Is that Great Vehicle realm esteemed person committing suicide?"
"Cough cough~ That esteemed person is an ancestor of our Great Sui Dynasty, the ancestor Yang Hong of Qingfeng Mountain."
"Does it matter who it is? Is there anyone who can enter Hongtong Secret Realm and not be killed by its rules?"
"Perhaps~ maybe~ perhaps..."
That person couldn't continue. After all, the rules of Hongtong Secret Realm had been passed down for hundreds of thousands of years, based on the experiences summarized by their ancestors with their blood.
Everyone nearby believed Yang Hong was doomed, and soon, news of Yang Hong's death spread like wildfire.
However, no one expected that the [Hongtong Secret Realm] had already undergone a great change.
...
"Holy crap! Did I enter the Demon Realm?"
As Yang Hong's vision recovered, the first thing he saw was a scene resembling a terrifying demonic domain, so he blurted out in shock!
He had seen similar scenes before, in the Myriad Demon Sea Region, during the final stage of participating in the Demon Sealing Secret Realm, after the great battle between Gu Zhen Mo and Shi Zhen Mo, the Demon Sealing Secret Realm looked like this.
Giant withered bones twisted and pierced the sky, pools of rotten flesh flowed and writhed, strange demonic plants grew rampant, revealing ghastly faces, and terrifying ghost cries and demonic howls filled the heavens and earth.
In the distance, he could see bizarre demonic beasts slaughtering and devouring each other!
"Did I use the wrong World-Breaking Stone? Did I directly travel to the Demon Realm?"
Looking at the terrifying scene, Yang Hong fully restrained his aura and cautiously flew forward, trying his best not to come into contact with anything in this secret realm.
"Huh~ This thing~~ looks a bit familiar."
After flying for more than ten li, Yang Hong suddenly stopped and looked at a towering forest before him.
Its leaves resembled bodhi, its texture like dragon scales, its branches like bamboo, and its fruits like sweet dew.
Wasn't this an Enlightenment Fruit Tree?
But were Enlightenment Fruit Trees this tall?
Each tree was a thousand zhang tall and a hundred zhang thick, emitting an aura that far surpassed ninth-grade spirit plants, even stronger than the pseudo-immortal flowers Yang Hong had planted in Shallow Dye Plains.
"Hiss~ I remember. It's a mutated Enlightenment Fruit Tree. When I entered the [Hongtong Secret Realm] back then, I encountered this strange thing, but at that time it had only evolved to the seventh grade, and I uprooted it!"
"I didn't expect it to mutate into something this large and terrifying now, evolving directly into a complete demonic plant."
"This is really Hongtong Secret Realm. But what happened to this secret realm?"