Chapter 42: The Secret Realm

Chapter 42: Chapter 42: The Secret Realm

It was Lydia.

Then the words that followed made him pause completely.

"Mira... I think I remember who I am," the voice said.

But the moment Xavier stepped into the room, Lydia’s eyes lit up, her attention immediately shifting as if she found something that interested her more.

She hurried toward him, looking genuinely pleased to see him, completely ignoring Mira.

"Darling, you’re finally back!" she exclaimed.

"I want chicken soup," she added, without missing a beat.

Mira’s expression darkened immediately.

"Why are you calling my husband that?" she demanded.

Lydia tilted her head, looking genuinely puzzled.

"Why can’t I?" she asked.

"You—" Mira planted both hands on her hips and glared at her, unable to finish the thought.

Xavier could only shake his head with a helpless laugh. Somehow, these two had managed to turn asking for dinner into another argument over who had the right to call him their husband.

Lydia was still a strange case. Although she had previously behaved almost like a child who had lost her memories, she was becoming increasingly articulate, and more importantly, fragments of her past were beginning to surface.

Unfortunately, recovering her memories had not corrected her strange attachment to Xavier. She was now referring to her him as her husband.

Before Mira could start another argument, Xavier stepped between them.

"Enough," he said firmly.

He turned his attention to Lydia, his expression growing serious.

"You just said you remembered who you were," he pressed. "Tell us what you remember."

Xavier had been curious about Lydia’s identity for quite some time. Her existence itself was already beyond his understanding of the martial world.

He had never heard of someone’s consciousness taking refuge inside another person’s body, much less someone gradually recovering memories from an unknown past.

Mira also stopped arguing. She folded her arms and stared at Lydia, waiting for her answer.

Lydia’s playful expression disappeared. For a moment, she seemed to be searching through the fragments buried deep inside her mind. Then she began to speak.

"I was an empress," she declared.

Xavier blinked. Mira stared at her. Neither spoke.

Lydia seemed completely convinced.

"I remember people calling me the Empress," she insisted.

Xavier rubbed his forehead. An empress? The old imperial age had disappeared centuries ago. Was Lydia claiming that she had once ruled some ancient civilization? He wasn’t convinced, but there was no harm in asking.

"Then tell me something," he said. "If you were really an empress, what was the name of your empire? And who served under you?"

Xavier expected her to become confused. Instead, Lydia’s eyes brightened.

"The Sharia Dynasty," she said without hesitation. "I was the Empress of Sharia."

Xavier’s expression changed slightly.

Lydia closed her eyes, trying to piece together the memories still scattered inside her mind.

"I remember a palace," she murmured. "A massive palace. People were kneeling everywhere, calling out to me."

She paused, and her expression grew stranger.

"But they weren’t all human," she continued. "There were flying horses. Massive tigers that could breathe fire. Enormous serpents sprawled across the floor, their bodies as hard as stone."

Lydia frowned as she tried to remember more.

"There were many others too," she admitted. "I can’t remember what some of them looked like."

Xavier listened carefully. Lydia suddenly raised a finger.

"There was also a man dressed entirely in white," she recalled. "They called him the Demon King. He seemed to command many of those creatures."

She paused, and then, as though an entirely different thought had occurred to her, she looked at Xavier.

"But he wasn’t nearly as handsome as my husband," she added brightly.

Mira’s face darkened at once, while Xavier wisely pretended he hadn’t heard that part.

Lydia, however, looked delighted.

"I know I’m right," she said. "I really was the Empress."

Xavier and Mira exchanged a glance, neither of them ready to accept the story completely. But there was something undeniable. Lydia had changed.

Not long ago, she could barely communicate coherently.

Now she could describe a palace, an empire, strange creatures, powerful figures, and fragments of what appeared to be an entire civilization. Whether every detail was accurate or not, her memories were clearly returning.

Mira, however, wasn’t particularly interested in Lydia’s former status. There was a much more important question.

"If you really were an empress, when can you leave my body?" she asked pointedly.

Lydia’s expression turned thoughtful. Mira had asked her this before, and previously Lydia could only shake her head because she didn’t know the answer. This time, however, she seemed to remember something.

"Two souls and six spirits," she murmured.

Mira frowned.

"What does that mean?" she asked.

Lydia pressed a hand against her temple.

"I only have part of myself right now," she explained.

"The rest was separated from me. If I find my two missing souls and six spirits and bring them back together with what remains of me—" she paused, "—I can rebuild my own body."

Xavier understood immediately. Lydia’s current state wasn’t complete. Too much of her spiritual essence was missing, which was why she remained trapped inside Mira’s body.

"Then where are they?" Xavier and Mira asked, almost simultaneously.

Lydia frowned.

"I don’t know where all of them are," she admitted. "But I remember one. One of my soul fragments is inside a secret realm."

Xavier’s expression sharpened.

"Which secret realm?" he asked.

"The Hunting Ground," Lydia answered immediately. "If I enter that realm and recover the fragment, I can merge it with myself."

The room fell silent. Xavier and Mira exchanged another glance. The words secret realm carried enormous significance in the modern martial world.

The first secret realm had appeared roughly a century ago, around the beginning of the world’s spiritual resurgence.

Since then, these mysterious spaces had become one of humanity’s greatest sources of both opportunity and danger. Nobody truly understood where they came from.

Some believed secret realms were gateways to disaster, containing unknown environments, strange species, powerful monsters, and mysterious forces that could eventually spill into the human world.

Others regarded them as mankind’s greatest opportunity, since secret realms contained resources that could not be found anywhere else, and many powerful martial artists had relied on those resources to advance.

There were even ancient theories claiming that the path toward immortality, or even godhood, could be found within the deepest parts of these mysterious worlds.

After a century of exploration, however, humanity still had no definitive answer.

One thing was certain: hundreds of secret realms had appeared since the spiritual resurgence. Some were temporary.

Humanity would discover them, send martial artists inside, harvest their resources, and eventually watch the realms disappear.

Others were far more dangerous, establishing lasting connections with the human world and allowing alien races and monstrous creatures to emerge and gradually encroach upon human territory.

Many of the extraordinary beasts that now existed throughout the world could be traced back to secret realms.

So when Lydia mentioned the Hunting Ground, neither Xavier nor Mira could dismiss it completely.

Xavier searched through everything he knew, but nothing came to mind.

"The Hunting Ground," he murmured, frowning. "I’ve never heard of a secret realm by that name."

"Neither have I," Mira added, staring suspiciously at Lydia. "Are you sure you aren’t making this up?"

Perhaps Lydia really had once been an empress, or perhaps her fragmented memories had become distorted. The so-called Hunting Ground might simply be another false memory.

Lydia shook her head immediately.

"No," she insisted. "It’s real. I remember it."

Xavier remained unconvinced. There was no way to verify her claim, at least not yet.

Neither Xavier nor Mira realized that they would receive their answer far sooner than expected.

********

The following morning, the entire city of Valemont was buzzing with breaking news.

Television stations interrupted their regular programs, news websites pushed emergency alerts, and clips of a strange phenomenon were already spreading rapidly across social media.

A brand new secret realm had appeared.

Xavier and Mira were watching the morning broadcast when the screen suddenly switched to a live report. A female reporter stood at the edge of the city’s outskirts, her expression unusually serious.

"Good morning. This is Silver Eyes News," she began. "I’m currently near Autumnleaf Mountain, where an extraordinary phenomenon appeared late last night."

She stepped aside, and the camera immediately focused on the enormous structure behind her.

A massive crimson portal hovered in the distance, its gateway forming a semicircle roughly one hundred and twenty meters across, the surface constantly rippling with violent red energy.

The sight was enough to leave anyone watching stunned.

The reporter continued.

"According to preliminary information, this phenomenon first appeared at approximately ten o’clock last night," she reported.

"Authorities have now confirmed that the structure behind me is the entrance to a previously unknown secret realm. At present, no one knows what exists beyond the gateway."

The reporter suddenly turned toward a group of officials nearby.

"And we’ve just spotted Deputy Minister Grant Mercer of the Valemont Extraordinary Affairs Department," she said. "I’ll try to get a statement from him."

The camera shifted. A middle-aged man stood before the enormous gateway, surrounded by officials and heavily armed martial artists. Grant Mercer faced the camera.

"Good morning," he began. "As you can see, this gateway leads to a newly discovered secret realm. Those who have experience exploring secret realms should already know that such realms usually reveal their names when someone first crosses the boundary."

He paused.

"This one has identified itself as the Hunting Ground," he announced.

Xavier’s expression instantly changed. Beside him, Mira slowly turned her head. Neither said anything.

The name was exactly the same one Lydia had given them only the previous night.

Grant continued.

"Our teams spent the entire night conducting preliminary tests and gathering information," he reported. "We have confirmed that, at least for now, the Hunting Ground only permits entry to martial artists who have reached the Foundation Establishment Realm."

His tone grew more solemn.

"There is another matter everyone needs to understand," he continued. "Based on our current understanding of secret realms, creatures originating from these worlds generally require approximately one month before they can establish a stable passage into our world. That gives us a limited window."

Grant looked directly into the camera.

"I am therefore calling upon qualified Foundation Establishment martial artists throughout Valemont and across the country to register with the Extraordinary Affairs Department," he declared. "Our objective is to assemble enough capable martial artists to enter the Hunting Ground, investigate the realm, and eliminate the potential threat before that one month period expires."

The broadcast continued, but Xavier barely heard another word. His attention was fixed on Mira, who was already looking back at him. They didn’t need to say it aloud. They were thinking the same thing.