"Let's go, let's hurry out, don't keep Elder Bamboo waiting..."

Su Youyi, tense, spoke with a voice that seemed somewhat strange, rigid in her movements as she walked toward the exterior of the Eight Desolate Spirit Realm Bamboo.

Before they began their seclusion, Zhu Shigu had already placed the passageway not far from their location. Now, only a few steps were needed to reach it.

Once Su Youyi, carrying with her senior brother, stepped through the light portal, the vast space within the main body of Eight Desolate Spirit Realm Bamboo once again returned to its usual tranquility.

"You two have finally come out of seclusion!"

As soon as the light faded, a familiar voice rang out beside Liang Yi and Su Youyi.

Liang Yi looked carefully around to find himself amid the same expansive bamboo forest he saw upon arriving at Little Bamboo House, filled with endlessly vast intelligence.

And there stood Feng Yuyou, expressionless, watching with unintended indifference as the closely bonded Liang Yi and Su Youyi emerged together.

Feng Yuyou's seclusion had yielded tremendous gains. With the aid of the Eight Desolate Spirit Realm Bamboo and the Array's enhancement, she had seamlessly broken through to the late Sixth Realm.

However, the known unmistakable anomaly that accompanied Su Youyi's promotion had dealt a severe blow to Feng Yuyou's competitive spirit.

Although Feng Yuyou had never roamed the Cultivation World, her own confidence was also extremely strong. She did not think she was much inferior to those young leading cultivators from the superpowers of the Cultivation World.

But now reality had harshly slapped her twice.

While she was barely glimpsing the verge of the Seventh Realm, Su Youyi had already shattered the promotion barrier, directly heralding the arrival of the younger generation's Seventh Realm.

She really couldn't understand why, being equally talented cultivators, Su Youyi could leave her far behind.

Moreover, seeing Su Youyi clinging tightly to Liang Yi's left arm only added to Feng Yuyou's irritation.

Su Youyi glanced subtly at Feng Yuyou, who had not changed at all since just now, wondering why she sensed something was different.

"My fellow disciple and I have both made gains; please... extend our gratitude to Elder Bamboo for providing this place for seclusion."

Liang Yi withdrew his left arm with three tugs, reluctantly breaking free from the all-too-comfortable softness.

It was only then that Feng Yuyou, taken aback, realized that even Liang Yi had now advanced to the early Seventh Realm.

But he was only at the Sixth Realm when he went into seclusion!

Although reports had indicated that Liang Yi had performed a similar feat before, jumping directly from the Fifth Realm to the Sixth, the difficulty compared to breaking through to the Seventh Realm was like heaven and earth.

Feng Yuyou, currently striving towards the Seventh Realm herself, was acutely aware of the difficulty involved.

Yet now, she felt that both Liang Yi and Su Youyi didn't seem to feel any pressure from realm breakthroughs at all.

This realization was a heavy blow for Feng Yuyou, her mood involuntarily sinking. Could the gap between her and the true inheritors of the superpowers be so vast?

If Liang Yi knew what Feng Yuyou was thinking right now, he would definitely offer some comforting words.

It wasn't that this girl was inadequate, but rather that she had chosen the wrong benchmarks for comparison.

Him and his fellow disciple, one was an outlier amongst outliers, and the other should have been the main character of this great world, a being destined to take a leading role.

To compare oneself with them was indeed asking for a shock.

"Fellow Daoist Feng?"

Seeing Feng Yuyou slightly dazed, Liang Yi gently called out, snapping her back to reality.

"Oh, congratulations on your successful ascension to the Seventh Realm, the master has gone into the Void seeking a breakthrough opportunity. He will return immediately once he breaks through."

Feng Yuyou absentmindedly explained the situation of her absent master to Liang Yi and Su Youyi, while she herself remained mired in her disheartened state.

Liang Yi and Su Youyi exchanged glances, realizing that Elder Bamboo was no longer here.

"Thank you for the information. By the way, what about the Mr. Orange who came with us?"

Liang Yi looked around him; they were now not far from the only living city in the Little Bamboo House secret realm, the place they had passed when they had arrived.

Calling it a city was actually akin to calling it a market town.

In the Little Bamboo House secret realm, young disciples being groomed like seedlings were continuously cultivating, while the higher-ups either had to keep going to various branches to deal with affairs or had to keep going out to develop new branches in order to expand Little Bamboo House's ability to gather information.

"During the few days of my seclusion, that Demon Clan Young Master has already visited the entire Bamboo Town. He must be eating and drinking in various taverns as usual right now."

Apart from its world-leading intelligence network, what made Little Bamboo House an exciting topic of conversation was its taverns' Spirit Food, which, though initially a side business to make money, nearly overshadowed the main business.

Within this secret realm, there were several peak Spirit Chefs who had settled here. With Little Bamboo House providing various ingredients for research, the Spirit Chefs in turn shared their perfectly researched and polished new dish recipes with the branches of Little Bamboo House, allowing a city to enjoy Spirit Food from all over the world.

Discovering this situation, Mr. Orange was over the moon with joy. In the half-month of Liang Yi and Su Youyi's seclusion, Mr. Orange had already made himself familiar to the several peak Spirit Chefs.

Apart from Mr. Orange's distinctive appearance, he always managed to provide critical suggestions to the Spirit Chefs after tasting their dishes, helping them perfect and improve their creations.

Thus, the penniless Mr. Orange found another very legitimate method besides dining and dashing.

"Should I say, as expected of Mr. Orange?"

Su Youyi pursed her lips and smiled, feeling that this was indeed very much Mr. Orange's style.

With the Law of Devouring and Digestion on his side, Mr. Orange did indeed have the qualifications to judge and offer suggestions.

"Then let's have Fellow Daoist Feng lead us there."

Feng Yuyou had nothing else to do; he had come here directly after detecting some abnormalities and was now ready to interact more with Liang Yi and Su Youyi.

"By the way, Fellow Daoist Feng, has anything special happened in the Mystical Mechanism Continent since our seclusion?"

Unlike Liang Yi, Su Youyi didn't have access to a player forum, so now she had to painstakingly go everywhere to gather information herself. And who better to ask than the Chief of Little Bamboo House who knew so much?

"This half-month..."

Prompted by Su Youyi's question, Feng Yuyou wandered in thought as he walked, slowly sorting through his memories.

"The biggest event is that Abnormal People have started appearing on the front lines of the battlefield against the Abyss. Although their cultivation isn't very strong, because they have the property of being undying and invincible, their role on the battlefield is still significant,"

Feng Yuyou said slowly.

"And we have also found that the rate of progress of these Abnormal People is incredibly fast; if they can't be killed completely, they will quickly grow stronger."

Thinking of the information on Abnormal People extracted from various reports, Feng Yuyou's face and tone both showed surprise.

Liang Yi raised his eyebrows when he heard this; that was indeed true. Players could never be killed and would always grow stronger.

Even if the experience gained was slow, the players would not stop striving towards becoming stronger; there would always come a time when experience is fully collected.

"Some Great Cultivators believe that the Heavenly Dao anomaly that brought forth these Abnormal People is a counterattack by the Heavenly Dao against the Abyss, and the hope for a complete victory over the Abyss lies with these undying and invincible Abnormal People,"

Liang Yi walked on, unconsciously scratching his cheek as he did so. Those Great Cultivators guessed quite accurately, in a sense it was indeed so.

"The second matter is that now the Abyss Seal has been completely broken through, and the entire Desert North region has fallen into the hands of the Abyss. Led by Zen and Banished Immortals, the forces of the Desert North region have already transferred beforehand to another secret realm prepared by Zen."

"The Abyss Seal is completely broken!?"

Su Youyi didn't expect such a big event to happen just during a short period of her seclusion, but she then asked Feng Yuyou with concern.

"My master, is he alright?"

Knowing what her master had done before, Su Youyi didn't believe that after being blocked at their doorstep, the Abyss could maintain a good temper.