Chapter 483: There’s No Way Out

Lu Sangjiu found it hard to understand their resigned attitude. She was determined to try for herself to see if it was possible.

The others clearly shared Lu Sangjiu’s sentiment, so they all politely declined the male cultivator’s well-intentioned advice.

The two female cultivators were a pair and naturally went to the right, while Lu Sangjiu’s group of three went left.

The valley before them was, at a glance, a cylindrical shape completely enclosed by mountains.

Or rather, it felt as if this place had once been a complete mountain peak, but someone had forcibly gouged a massive hole out of its center.

In short, it was like they were trapped inside a cup.

Flying was forbidden in the Secret Realm, and a suction force from above naturally pulled people down. This meant that returning the way they came was basically impossible. Their only option was to see if the mountain walls held any hidden paths.

The valley wasn’t very large, about three hundred square meters in total.

However, more than half of the area was riddled with large craters, which were obviously formed by people crashing down when they fell.

Because of this, there wasn’t much stable ground to stand on. The people there were clearly not in the same group, yet they were all tacitly crowded together.

Since the area was small and there were five of them in total, they quickly inspected all the surrounding mountain walls.

Unfortunately, there were indeed no paths leading outside.

But Lu Sangjiu thought, ’We’re all Cultivators. Can we really be stumped by a small problem like this?’

So, she took the initiative and suggested, "Since there’s no path, let’s just dig one ourselves."

Lie Rufeng said nothing, but he immediately struck the nearby mountain wall.

Although it was just a casual strike, it packed immense power. However, the mountain walls here seemed exceptionally hard.

From Lu Sangjiu’s perspective, that blow should have blasted a crater at least three or four meters deep. Instead, it only created a hole the size of a bowl and a finger’s depth in the rock face.

They were all momentarily stunned, especially Lie Rufeng, who had been the one to strike.

His brow furrowed. He didn’t doubt his own strength; instead, he reached out to inspect the mountain wall.

Seeing he looked a little dejected, Lu Sangjiu thought for a moment before offering some comfort. "It’s a bit small, but as they say, with enough hard work, you can grind an iron rod into a needle. If we take turns, I’m sure we can carve out a big hole soon enough!"

The words had barely left her lips when a sneer came from the crowd nearby.

The sound was jarring in the silence, and it was clearly a mocking laugh, not a friendly one.

Lu Sangjiu followed the sound and saw a young woman sitting in the group, her eyes filled with unconcealed amusement.

When the woman saw Lu Sangjiu looking over, the mockery in her eyes grew even stronger.

Instead of getting angry right away, Lu Sangjiu calmly asked, "What are you laughing at?"

Her attitude was reasonable, so the young woman didn’t respond too harshly.

"Laughing at how naive you are, of course. If it were that simple, why do you think we’d all be sitting here?"

’That’s what I was wondering too,’ Lu Sangjiu thought. But amidst the earlier silence, she hadn’t been sure how to ask.

Now that this Female Cultivator had spoken up, she certainly wasn’t going to miss the opportunity.

"Actually, I was curious myself. When I was looking just now, I didn’t see any marks on the mountain wall from external force."

"But with so many people falling in here, I doubt we’re the only ones who thought of digging through the rock."

"So... if you’re willing, young lady, could you perhaps enlighten us?"

Lu Sangjiu’s respectful attitude seemed to please the young woman. She didn’t give them a hard time and just yawned lazily before saying, "It’s because no matter what damage is done to the mountain wall, it completely repairs itself at the stroke of midnight."

"So, unless you can carve a tunnel through the mountain in a single day, all your progress will be reset to zero once the day is over."

"And as for carving a tunnel in one day, we’ve already tried. It’s completely impossible."

"The rock gets harder the deeper you go. Everyone who can enter this Secret Realm is below the Heavenly Immortal Stage. Even with a few powerful geniuses around, it still can’t be done."

As she said "geniuses," the young woman shot a meaningful glance at Lie Rufeng, the corner of her mouth curling into a slightly mocking smile.

Lie Rufeng paid no mind to her veiled taunt, merely lowering his gaze, lost in thought.

At this point, Lu Sangjiu was getting a massive headache.

’I really didn’t expect this place to be so bizarre.’

As she fell silent, Mu Lin couldn’t help but ask, "Excuse me, do you know the reason for this phenomenon?"

The young woman smiled faintly and answered lazily, "I do."

Then, without waiting for Mu Lin to ask again, she added maliciously, "But why should I tell you?"

She looked Mu Lin up and down with disdain and said, "An uncle who looks like you shouldn’t be trying to hit on people, okay?"

She paused, then glanced smilingly at Lu Sangjiu. "At the very least, you need to be as handsome and dashing as him."

Mu Lin: "..."

’He froze on the spot. He never imagined he’d be ridiculed for his appearance.’

’Sure, he was a bit rough around the edges and unkempt on a normal day, but... but his features were actually decent, weren’t they? He was far from being so repulsive!’

Mu Lin was indignant, but they were the ones asking for help. He wasn’t some impulsive teenager, so of course he could swallow this insult.

So, although his expression was one of complete speechlessness, he forced himself to hold his tongue.

Then he just turned his deadpan face to Lu Sangjiu and stared, saying nothing.

His stare made the corner of Lu Sangjiu’s mouth twitch. She had no choice but to bite the bullet and turn back to the young woman. "Ahem... so, could you please tell us the reason, Miss?"

It was unclear whether the young woman was deliberately trying to provoke Mu Lin or if she genuinely admired Lu Sangjiu.

In any case, after having been so ill-tempered just a moment ago, she actually grinned and answered Lu Sangjiu’s question.

"Sure. It’s nothing that special, just a small-scale Time Reversal Array. Lots of people can set one up."

"It’s just..." She spread her hands, her tone helpless. "It’s just that this Array was set up on the outside, in a place we can’t reach."

"So even though it’s not a difficult Array, we can’t touch it, so there’s really nothing we can do about it."

"So..." She kindly made some space and said to Lu Sangjiu with a grin, "So, little brother, stop wasting your time and energy. Why don’t you come sit for a while?"

Lu Sangjiu: "..."

’This was the first time she’d ever received such an enthusiastic invitation from a Female Cultivator.’ She definitely couldn’t go over there. She gave an awkward smile and said, "Thank you for your kind offer, Miss, but we need to discuss this a bit more and see if there are any other methods."