TL: Etude
250 meters! 230 meters! 220 meters!
Ye Tian walked slowly, as if wandering aimlessly. Almost no one paid attention to him, except Yue Ling.
"What is Ye Tian doing?" Yue Ling wondered but soon turned her gaze back to Yunhe Wang, floating in the sky. Watching a king-level in action was an opportunity not to be missed.
Boom!
Finally, Yunhe Wang made his move. A pair of enormous glowing hands emerged from the void, reaching into the one-meter-long spatial rift.
"Open!" Yunhe Wang roared.
Crack, crack, crack!
The previously static spatial rift tore open once more, widening under the influence of the glowing hands, eventually forming a hole five meters long and two meters wide.
Yet, everyone clearly saw that during the process, Yunhe Wang's glowing hands were vanishing, his aura slightly weakening. This suggested that tearing open the rift was somewhat strenuous for him, and not without cost.
By this time, Ye Tian was less than 200 meters away from Yunhe Wang. Instantly, he checked Yunhe Wang's talents.
Human: Yunhe
Cultivation Talent: Extraordinary
Spatial Talent: Basic
"Wow, he even has spatial talent!" Ye Tian exclaimed.
To his knowledge, spatial and temporal talents were mysterious and superior to other talents. This was the first time he encountered a martial warrior with spatial talent.
He wanted to replicate this spatial talent but eventually gritted his teeth and copied Yunhe Wang's extraordinary cultivation talent instead. A basic spatial talent might be marvelous, but an extraordinary cultivation talent was invaluable, impacting the future.
Besides, there were also ferocious beasts with spatial talents. Those could be found if he searched.
Weighing the options, copying the extraordinary cultivation talent made more sense.
A few seconds after Ye Tian copied the extraordinary talent, Yunhe Wang disappeared.
"Lucky I copied it in time, or I would have missed such an extraordinary talent," Ye Tian thought gratefully.
He then walked back to Yue Ling.
"That's a king-level being, capable of living 500 years! The Earth has only undergone its great transformation a mere 100 years ago. Five hundred years is an incredibly long time!" Yue Ling sighed. "I wonder if I can ever reach king-level in this lifetime?"
She had acquired treasures, boosting her talent to a top cultivation level, but the probability of reaching king-level remained below 10%. Even within the grand base in the Demon Sea, numerous top-level cultivators were stuck at the peak of the grandmaster level; only a scarce few had managed to step into the king-level realm.
"Don't overthink it, let things happen naturally," Ye Tian advised. (Says the guy with the cheat lol)
"Right, let's go with the flow," Yue Ling lifted her spirits, "At least we can enter the grandmaster realm and live up to 200 years. Many martial warriors never get the chance to reach that level in their lifetime, not to mention those who are destined never to become martial warriors. Compared to them, we are extremely fortunate."
"Indeed, we are incredibly fortunate!" Ye Tian wholeheartedly agreed. It was due to sheer luck that he had awakened his ability to clone talents, a stroke of fortune that led him step by step to his current standing. Without this cloning ability, even if he were a time-traveler, he would never have become powerful. He wouldn't even have the chance to become an elite martial warrior due to his inherent limitations.
"Prepare to enter the secret realm!" the family elders commanded the gathered martial warriors.
Elder Yue Ben also turned to address the martial warriors of the Yue family: "Once you enter the secret realm, try to ally with members of our clan. It's safer that way. You can stay in the realm for only one month. If you don't return within that period, you'll have to wait another decade to leave. The secret realm has mysterious rules that prevent one from breaking through to the Grandmaster realm while in it. Don't harbor any false hopes. You should all understand the consequences of wasting ten years at your age."
"We understand, Elder!" replied the Yue family martial warriors in unison.
Suddenly, Yue Ling handed Ye Tian a wristwatch. "This is a contact sensor. Even within the secret realm, we can use this device to locate each other. Once we enter, we'll be teleported and should regroup as quickly as possible."
"Understood," Ye Tian fastened the wristwatch and then asked, "How do we leave after a month?"
It was a fair question; his knowledge of the secret realm was still quite limited.
"We exit through the same spatial rift," explained Yue Ling. "Once we're all in, someone will place an artifact inside the rift. At that time, a mysterious light will illuminate the entire secret realm. We can then use this light to locate the rift and calculate the time to exit."
"Ah, I see," Ye Tian finally understood. In essence, the spatial rift was a gateway, and there was another rift on the secret realm's side. Instead of exiting from that rift, they would be flung by spatial forces to various locations within the realm.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
One by one, the martial warriors leapt into the spatial rift and disappeared. Soon, it was the turn of the Yue family members. Ye Tian followed Yue Ling, entering the rift one after the other. As he entered, he was enveloped by a force of spatial energy.
Boom!
A surge of force assailed him, and Ye Tian felt slightly disoriented as he plummeted towards a particular location.
Secret Realm.
Ye Tian appeared next to a small stream, his impact creating a large crater in the ground. Thankfully, his body was sturdy; otherwise, an average person would have been reduced to pulp by such a fall.
After standing up and assessing his surroundings to ensure there were no immediate dangers, Ye Tian quickly sought a suitable resting place. He was preparing to start the integration of a extraordinary-level cultivation talent.
Soon, he found a pile of rocks, large enough to hide a person and unlikely to be discovered. Entering this rock pile, he sat down cross-legged and began the integration process.
Boom!
A wave of intense pain shot through him. It felt like the first time he had integrated a talent. The pain from the integration of this extraordinary-level cultivation talent was even more intense than he had imagined. Yet, thinking about the benefits that would come after, he endured it.
After an indeterminate amount of time, Ye Tian recovered, coming out of a period of discomfort. His body was soaked, his clothing stained with sweat. His first action was not to clean himself but to check the status of his talents.
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