Chapter 357 — The Seven-Island Ruins Targeted by Shi Jin

Shi Jin and the others had been worrying all along—was there a trap in that realm? Was it even real? For instance, could this realm itself be the very switch that would break the Undying Infernal Phoenix's seal?

They had only just opened it, and the Undying Infernal Phoenix on the undead battlefield had broken free.

If that were the case, they were in serious trouble.

So Shi Jin had reported the news of the realm, and only after the nation had made foolproof preparations did Shi Jin and the others set out to explore it.

That way, even if something went wrong, every party would be able to react.

Of course, that was the worst-case speculation. After all, according to the Undying Infernal Phoenix, this realm was purely a place where it stored its resources—stuffed with treasures!

Nor were Shi Jin and the others entirely disbelieving. If they hadn't believed, they wouldn't have come to explore. What if everything the Undying Infernal Phoenix had said turned out to be true?

What if it really had left the Scarlet Eye a whole heap of mythological and legendary resources?

Then they'd have wronged Mother Phoenix.

It was precisely because they harbored all these doubts that Shi Jin froze when the Precious Gem Cat said the Undying Infernal Phoenix hadn't lied.

"How do you know?"

"Besides—if it's true, isn't that good news? Why do you say something's wrong?"

"Mm... it's a mix of good and bad."

The Precious Gem Cat said, "Just a short while ago, our... ahem, friends over at the Seven Isles investigated and got confirmed word."

"Seems someone accidentally entered the place before we even decided to go look for the Phoenix Secret Realm!!!"

"According to the Undying Infernal Phoenix's map, the Phoenix Secret Realm is definitely located on 'Scarlet Divinity Isle,' one of the Seven Isles. But careful investigation revealed that fifteen years ago, a beast master of the Seven Isles blundered into a secret realm connected to the phoenix race there and obtained vast resources from it."

"And thanks to that, she grew at breakneck speed into a legendary beast master whose name shook the Seven Isles."

"Holy shit—you're saying the realm she stumbled into is the one the Undying Infernal Phoenix was talking about? Didn't it say only beings carrying its bloodline power could open the realm?"

"#@%@#￥@" Shi Cen's eyes flew wide, and he launched into a stream of curses.

"How would I know?" the Precious Gem Cat muttered. "But I hear that legend is mixed-blood too, and she's got the telepathic talent as well. Could she be a phoenix half-blood with the double buff of Listening to the Echoes of History?"

The treasures were gone—and it was hurting the Cat most of all.

"Could she be another illegitimate daughter the Undying Infernal Phoenix left behind—the Scarlet Eye and the Empress's little sister, the third sister??? Or a bloodline left by the Empress? If it weren't for something going on over in the Seven Isles, there'd be no reason for the Undying Infernal Phoenix to put the realm there. Besides, during the Empress's dynasty, foreign exchanges were quite frequent..." the Precious Gem Cat mused aloud, filling in the blanks.

Shi Jin was at a loss. What kind of mess was this?

"So what do we do—march over and make that legendary beast master hand the resources back??" said Shi Li.

"Or go claim kinship and have the Scarlet Eye get a share of the inheritance."

The Precious Gem Cat was taken aback. "Hold on, hold on—it's all just my guess. They might not be connected at all. And besides, things aren't that bad yet."

"Never mind. Let's take you to see the Overlord Sea Legend and the others first. We only got the news a short while ago and are in a meeting discussing it."

"Hurry, hurry." said Shi Li.

Inside the warship.

The conference room.

Regarding the news just relayed from the Seven Isles, the Overlord Sea Legend and the others had indeed sunk into deep contemplation.

This trip to the Seven Isles—the exchange and trade were secondary.

The main purpose was to assist Shi Jin in exploring the Phoenix Secret Realm and hatching the egg of the Empty Emperor's legacy.

Yet now, on the eve of departure, word like this had arrived, and everything had to be reconsidered.

The figures of the Precious Gem Cat and Shi Ying appeared in the warship's depths.

In the conference room, four Legends sat at the meeting table.

Among them, the Overlord Sea Legend and the Xiao Shuang Legend were old acquaintances of Shi Jin's; he knew them.

As for the Cyaoxia Sect senior of the Eleventh Bureau, Shi Jin hadn't had much contact with him, but he knew the man was a veteran archaeologist who studied the history of the seven nations, the Eleventh Bureau's pillar of combat strength, and a Legend.

And the last of them, a handsome young man scarcely older than Shi Jin, was Jiang Tianyang—a Fourth Sequence Legendary Beast Tamer and heir to Eastern Radiance's largest financial conglomerate. It was said that some twenty years ago, when he was but a few years old, he had seized the dividend period of the seven-nation exchange at the last World Tournament to roam the globe with his elders and see the outside world, and that he himself possessed a formidable head for business.

"Senior Yu, Sister Xiao, Senior Ke, Mr. Jiang," Shi Jin greeted each of them in turn as he arrived.

At the sight of the Gem Cat that had appeared with him, all four rose at once and nodded; the Legend of the Overbearing Sea also bade Shi Jin take a seat:

"You've come," said the Legend of the Overbearing Sea. "Senior Ying has told you, I take it."

"She has. What's the situation now?" said Shi Tang.

"It isn't as bad as all that. Word that came later says the legend from the Seven Isles merely blundered into the secret realm—she has no reliable way of entering the Phoenix Secret Realm, nor did she manage to carry off all its resources."

"They say the deeper one goes into this Phoenix Secret Realm, the stricter the demands on bloodline power and the more scorching the interior, so she took only the low-grade materials, while the high-grade ones are all guarded by powerful flames."

"And once she had come out, when she tried to enter again, she could no longer find the way in."

"So the Phoenix Secret Realm's core resources are still inside?" said Shi Tang.

"That would seem to be the case," said the Legend of the Overbearing Sea.

"Still inside, yes—but the trouble is, the Seven Isles have known of this secret realm for over a decade."

"They lacked the means to crack or enter it, but that beast tamer who stumbled into the Phoenix Secret Realm grew up and founded the 'Phoenix Shrine,' which guards the entrance to this day."

"And for more than ten years, unflagging as ever, they've been studying how to enter the Phoenix Secret Realm again. So slipping in unnoticed and exploring it will be difficult, I'm afraid. The realm isn't out in the wild—it lies under the watchful eye of the Phoenix Shrine, one of the Seven Isles' top powers."

"Even if, as the Undying Dark Phoenix says, you can crack the realm with one hundred percent certainty, the Seven Isles will hardly sit by and watch us walk off with its core resources."

"From what our sources have gathered, there should be a mythic-grade resource at the heart of the Phoenix Secret Realm—and at least two legendary resources besides. Otherwise that Seven Isles legend wouldn't be so obsessed as to probe it for over a decade without pause."

"She has even trained a great many Phoenix Maidens for it, hoping to enter the realm again by similar means."

A mythic-grade resource!

So there really was one!

Shi Jin's eyes burned with greed.

A ninth-grade legendary resource was already hard enough to apply for—and this was a tenth-grade mythic resource!!