The Time Trap and the Hunting Net

Two figures, one at the ninth-layer of Qi Condensation and the other at peak Qi Condensation, converged from different directions, their eyes gleaming with the avarice of predators who had finally cornered their prey.

“Seize Lin Wan’er!” An excited roar, brimming with undisguised malevolence, echoed through the stone forest.

‘Qiu Yue’s people?’

‘Their reasoning eluded him; after all, the Qiu family clearly coveted his head on a platter, so perhaps they believed that by helping Qiu Yue claim it, they would earn a reward from the Qiu family.’

‘Under a hefty reward, brave individuals were bound to emerge, yet these were still disciples of the Xuan Nv Sect, were they not? How could they simply feign blindness to what had just transpired?’

‘Even if their hearts were clouded by greed, the reward hadn’t even been offered, so why this desperate haste to pledge their loyalty?’

‘How much time had passed?’

‘Had Qiu Yue truly managed to enthrall all these individuals with some extraordinary ability in such a short time?’

Lin Mo’s face remained impassive, his fingertips subtly twisting as an imperceptible, icy surge of Profound Yin energy, like a spiritual serpent, silently permeated deeper, more concealed crevices along specific rock seams, ready to ensnare.

The moment the peak Qi Condensation disciple burst forth from behind a large boulder on the left, their flying sword glinting with a cold, deadly light as it lunged for Lin Mo’s heart, an abrupt and startling change occurred.

“CRACKLE—!”

With the peculiar rock Lin Mo leaned against as its epicenter, the ground within a thirty-meter radius instantly froze solid, a layer of bone-chilling ice crystals rapidly spreading across the rugged terrain at a visible pace.

Yet, this was merely the prelude.

Even more horrifying, several specific, seemingly haphazard colossal rocks simultaneously erupted, discharging numerous crystalline, tenacious blue threads.

In a flash, these threads interwove into a formidable net, precisely ensnaring the charging peak Qi Condensation disciple’s ankles.

Concurrently, on the other side, the ice surface beneath the ninth-layer Qi Condensation disciple in green robes suddenly bulged upwards, manifesting several sharp ice spikes that lunged directly for their calves.

“No!” the peak Qi Condensation disciple exclaimed, a jolt of alarm striking them as they lost balance, their ankles ensnared by the tough, icy threads, sending their body involuntarily pitching forward.

She forcibly twisted her body, swinging her sword to cut the threads.

Yet, clinging to the delusion of self-preservation and hoping to emerge unscathed in such a brutal fight was a mindset that inevitably placed them at a disadvantage.

Lin Mo’s fist shot out, but the disciple saw no discernible wind-up, nor did he sense any spiritual energy protecting him. ‘Why should I fear this mere fist?’ she thought, dismissing it.

In an instant!

The fist abruptly accelerated, its afterimage still lingering a dozen centimeters away as the actual blow slammed forcefully into her face.

A fleeting trace of surprise crossed the disciple’s mind, yet she still made no move to defend, for she had sensed no spiritual energy whatsoever.

‘Besides, this Lin Wan’er isn’t a body cultivator; his fists couldn’t possibly possess such power,’ she thought, just as a colossal surge of spiritual energy abruptly exploded from the fist’s surface!

Immediately!

Her protective spiritual energy shattered instantly, proving as fragile as a thin window paper, easily pierced with a single poke!

Just as terror began to solidify in her eyes, the fist, imbued with biting cold, slammed home with brutal force. Where the fist struck, flesh compressed and deformed, utterly shattering that terror from her face with a single devastating blow!

The profound, chilling spiritual energy corroded like a venomous snake, instantly freezing the surging spiritual energy within her body.

Her entire body felt as if it had been struck from a great height by a heavy hammer, smashing into the rocks as blood spurted forth.

At the very same moment, the green-robed disciple had just let out a cry; though her reaction was swift enough to narrowly avoid vital points, sharp ice shards still sliced through her calf and trouser leg, drawing a few streaks of blood. The frigid cold instantly invaded the wound, leaving her entire leg numb.

She had foolishly believed that with someone engaging the enemy head-on, she wouldn’t need to waste spiritual energy on defense. Instead, she had poured all her spiritual energy into her sword’s edge, intending to swiftly take down Lin Wan’er in a single strike!

Never had she imagined that this ‘Lin Wan’er’ would have meticulously laid such a hidden trap!

Lin Mo moved.

He did not pursue, instead moving with dazzling speed, shifting through several positions among the limited strange rocks.

With each pause, his palm would lightly brush the stone surface.

Wherever he passed, the frozen ice layer on the ground began to sprout new, more densely packed blue-white crystalline threads that, like rapidly growing vines, swiftly coiled around the two disciples’ weapons, calves, and arms.

The creeping sluggishness caused by the frigid erosion intensified, making their spiritual energy flow excruciatingly slowly.

To their horror, they discovered that not only were their limbs restricted by the eerie, cold crystalline threads, but even the spiritual energy circulating within their bodies seemed to have frozen, becoming viscous and stagnant, making even simple movements incredibly difficult.

The peak Qi Condensation disciple slammed heavily onto the ground, yet she still managed to quickly adjust her position.

Regaining her senses, she instinctively tried to prop herself up with her sword, but her sword-wielding hand was tightly bound by several blue threads around her wrist. The frigid energy had invaded her meridians, paralyzing half of her body as she lay on the hard, icy surface. Though she struggled desperately to lift her sword, it ultimately clattered to the ground.

The green-robed disciple fared even worse; after her calf was scratched by an ice spike, it was instantly enveloped by surging ice crystals and threads. She tumbled to the ground, her lower body almost completely numb, leaving only her terrified screams echoing.

The battle concluded in a flash of lightning.

Lin Mo slowly approached the two, looking down upon them, his gaze as cold and unforgiving as ten-thousand-year-old profound ice.

“Don’t kill me! I surrender! I’ll give you my points!” The peak Qi Condensation disciple cried out, her face deathly pale, desperate to speak first.

The green-robed female disciple, ignoring her intense pain, nodded repeatedly, tears welling in her eyes.

“Y-yes… yes… we’ll give you our points! Let us go…”

Though this was merely an illusion, the pain was undeniably real. To avoid further torment, one could only surrender their points to their opponent, the most direct method being to seize the opponent’s token.

However… the opponent also had to be willing to accept.

Lin Mo ignored their pleas of surrender.

With a flick of his finger, several more condensed and tougher blue-white crystalline threads, like living entities, instantly coiled around both their necks and their still-unbound wrists.

The icy threads subtly bit into their flesh, bringing a death-like suffocation and a bone-chilling cold that instantly silenced them, leaving only their ragged, terrified breaths.

“Names? Affiliation?” Lin Mo’s voice was calm, yet it carried an undeniable, crushing authority.

“Wa… Wang Lin! Yi-Domain, Ninth…” The peak Qi Condensation woman struggled to speak.

“Ch… Chen Ying… Bing-Domain, Seventh…” The green-robed woman trembled.

‘Qiu Yue sent you to find my tracks?’

Lin Mo’s fingertips twitched slightly, tightening the blue threads coiled around them and intensifying the frigid cold.

“Y-yes, yes!” Chen Ying quickly blurted out, fearing she might be too slow. “S-Senior Sister Qiu gathered everyone who could still fight, saying she wanted to root out… root out Lin Wan’er!”

“As long as we found your whereabouts… and stalled you, until Senior Sister Qiu arrived… that would be enough.”

“She promised a generous reward: spiritual artifacts, pills, or cultivation manuals, all open for selection!”

“Many… many people were tempted!”

‘A day ago?’ Lin Mo’s eyes narrowed slightly. ‘He had only been recuperating for a mere hour outside!’

“A day? You mean… a whole day has passed?” Lin Mo’s voice grew even colder.

Wang Lin felt the threads around her neck tighten further, the cold biting to the bone. Fear overcame her hesitation.

“Y-yes, yes! We’ve been searching for you this entire day!”

Her words tumbled out with frantic speed, terrified that any delay would lead to her being frozen to death.

“It’s… it’s not the same!”

“One day outside, but inside the secret realm… ten, even twelve days can pass!”

“It’s a semi-open secret among the core disciples of the Hall of Clarity,” Wang Lin explained, “The Hall Master and the others… they tacitly allow it. It’s not explicitly stated in the rules, precisely to test disciples’ adaptability and mental fortitude during prolonged, high-intensity continuous combat! Many were unaware at first and suffered greatly for it!”

Lin Mo’s heart reeled. ‘The time difference?’

‘So, two hours outside equates to one day within the secret realm?’

‘In that case… 72 hours outside would mean… 36 days inside?’

‘A whole month!’

‘This means if I can hide effectively, I’ll have ample time to recover from my injuries…’

‘Why didn’t the Hall Master mention this…?’

Lin Mo understood!

‘By intentionally withholding this information, was the Hall Master trying to buy him enough time to recuperate?!’

‘If others knew about this time differential… then Qiu Yue would undoubtedly exhaust every effort to find him, solely to achieve a swift resolution.’

‘She might even search for points faster than him… if she couldn’t find him.’

‘Qiu Yue desired a decisive confrontation, but a fair duel was certainly not her style. Given her personality, she would undoubtedly employ any means necessary to secure victory.’

‘Then… before Qiu Yue could fully grasp the situation, he would be able to repair his fractured meridians, and even condense spiritual energy to imbue his nature…’

‘Right, there was no mention of cultivation restrictions either… He estimated that Qiu Yue had also recovered to her peak state, while he only needed to wait for his injuries to heal.’

Lin Mo had long suspected that many of the Hall of Clarity’s rules were intentionally left unsaid, kept hidden, and deliberately ambiguous.

‘Presumably, this was to leverage information asymmetry, eliminating those with less flexible minds and weaker observational skills!’

‘Didn’t this perfectly align with the Hall of Clarity’s theme of “simulating reality”?’

‘Reality was… fraught with unexpected situations, and only the sufficiently astute could survive.’

‘But this theme also conveniently provided him with ample reason… to recuperate.’

‘Truly, killing two birds with one stone.’

‘Lin Mo even wondered if the provision of recuperation time for the severely injured was something Hall Master Xian had concocted on the fly, specifically to make him realize this point.’

“Hmph, taking an entire day to find me, you truly are slow.”

Lin Mo deliberately concealed this crucial piece of information. “How many people has Qiu Yue organized to search for me?”

‘After all, as someone impoverished, I can’t possibly imagine how many marvelous gadgets the wealthy possess…’

Wang Lin sighed, continuing, “Senior Sister Qiu… on the very first day, contacted everyone in the Jia-Domain, along with some elites from the Yi, Bing, and Ding-Domains… forming a ‘hunting net.’ We, the peripheral members… we’re just the scouts she’s spread out to find people… and send a signal when we locate you.”

“Now… more than half of the secret realm is filled with her people… I heard… I heard nearly twenty people have already been eliminated…”

Chen Ying added, “That’s right! And Senior Sister Qiu’s cultivation… is unfathomable. She’s currently accompanied by two of the top three from the Jia-Domain, and also the first and fourth from the Ding-Domain… they are incredibly strong!”

“They are all stationed near the points monument in the core area. Wang Lin and I… we just wanted to get some points first, then find you to claim credit…”

The situation was at least ten times worse than Lin Mo had imagined.

A day had passed in the secret realm, and the enemy held the advantage of time, terrain, and manpower, being meticulously organized and numerous.

Not only did his injuries require time to heal, but he was also completely alone, caught in a meticulously woven search net that covered more than half of the secret realm.

Qiu Yue was indeed utterly ruthless.

He estimated that by now, she wasn’t merely seeking points; she intended to use this secret realm’s time trap and ceaseless pursuit to utterly exhaust and break Lin Mo, all under the watchful eyes of others.

Lin Mo released the control of the threads, and the two collapsed to the ground.

“Leave your points, and the teleportation talisman,” Lin Mo’s voice was icy.

The two immediately produced their identity tokens and handed them to Lin Mo.

Facing this ominous figure, they harbored no thoughts of resistance.

‘Having subdued them both in an instant, this ‘Lin Wan’er’ surely possessed a cultivation level far beyond what they could perceive on the surface!’

Ten seconds later, small teleportation talismans appeared beside them, and with a flash of white light, they vanished.

After waiting several minutes to confirm that the two had genuinely disappeared from the spot and that it wasn’t some illusion, Lin Mo concealed himself before retracting his spiritual sense.

Two faint streams of points flowed into Lin Mo’s identity token.

Watching the white light of their disappearance, Lin Mo swiftly retreated, continuously extending his spiritual sense.

Avoiding the sharp edge of the blade was the wise course of action, yet thanks to these two, Lin Mo had gained many interesting insights.

Especially regarding the two tokens now in his possession.

‘Qiu Yue, if you wish to play, I shall play along!’