The poorest member of the Imperial Guard, the Empress begged me to embezzle.

The Butterfly Queen's phantom slowly dissipated before Chu Xiu, transforming into a wisp of her lingering aura that eventually vanished from the room.

Chu Xiu sighed; he owed the Butterfly Queen another huge favor.

"Come to think of it, I don't even know her real name..."

Chu Xiu removed his clothes, stepped into the healing liquid, and sat cross-legged to regulate his breathing.

With his current cultivation at the Great Perfection of the Reincarnation Realm, he could absorb all the healing liquid inside the cocoon without any worries in just one day.

The shackles of realm still exist. Even though the Spirit Healing Liquid greatly amplified the effects on the soul, Chu Xiu's soul realm remained at the Great Perfection of the Reincarnation Realm.

Chu Xiu estimated that the medicinal power of the healing liquid stored in his body should be enough to allow him to safely survive about two more severe injuries to his soul.

During the time he absorbed the healing liquid, no one came to disturb him. When he finished dressing and left the cocoon, he felt the speed of the airship slowly decreasing.

This means that they are approaching the capital of the Demon Zen Kingdom—Golden City.

Chu Xiu flashed and appeared on the airship deck from inside the house.

An Lan also pushed open the door at this moment. Upon seeing Chu Xiu, her eyes lit up with joy. She hurried to his side and came with him to the back of Venerable Miaoyin and Ye Wujiang.

Looking down at the city that stretched for thousands of miles and was made entirely of gold, Chu Xiu couldn't help but admire the wealth and power of the Demon Zen Kingdom.

At the same time, under Chu Xiu's observation of the aura, it was visible to the naked eye that the spiritual energy in the surrounding world was being drawn by this golden city, constantly gathering towards the city center and sinking into the ground.

"Huh?" Chu Xiu asked in surprise.

Ye Wujiang tilted his head and said, "What, have you figured out the secret of this Golden City?"

Chu Xiu nodded slightly: "The placement of every building in this entire city must have a special meaning. If I'm not mistaken, the entire Golden City is a complete spirit-gathering formation."

"Using gold to build the city is probably just a smokescreen."

Ye Wujiang raised an eyebrow: "This city was indeed built according to an ancient spirit-gathering array, but you've misunderstood one thing..."

"The reason why the city was built with gold is that the entire Golden City is not only the capital of the Demon Zen Kingdom, but also the training ground of the Demon Zen Kingdom's ruler. This Demon Zen Kingdom's ruler cultivated by extracting the spiritual essence contained in rare ores, and became a regional overlord."

Chu Xiu asked doubtfully, "Spiritual essence? What is that?"

Miaoyin chimed in, "The so-called spiritual essence is the product of spiritual energy being stored, refined, and purified within the body of certain naturally spiritual beings. It is countless times purer than the spiritual energy that fills the entire Great Thousand World."

"Directly refining spiritual essence for cultivation is twice as effective as using ordinary spiritual energy."

Chu Xiu suddenly realized: "So that's how it is. Does that mean that the spiritual energy within a cultivator's dantian can also be considered spiritual essence?"

Miaoyin gave her an appreciative look and nodded, saying, "You're right, but even so, cultivators can only absorb the spiritual essence within rare and precious materials; they cannot cultivate by depriving another cultivator of their spiritual essence."

Such cultivation methods seem to be forbidden by the Heavenly Dao. Even if evil demons and heretics deliberately practice them, they will suffer severe punishment from the Heavenly Dao and die a violent death on the spot.

Chu Xiu nodded slightly; this was normal.

If everyone used the deprivation of others' cultivation as a means to improve their own, the whole world would have been in chaos long ago, and there would be no order in the natural order.

"Purifying all the spiritual energy in your body into spiritual essence is one of the necessary conditions for a Great Perfection of the Qiankun Realm to advance to a higher level than the Qiankun Realm. You will know this when you reach the corresponding level in the future."

Ye Wujiang patted Chu Xiu on the shoulder.

Miaoyin, who was standing to the side, suddenly received a telepathic message. After responding to the message, she looked at Chu Xiu and the other person.

"Let's go. The king has instructed us to go directly to the entrance of the Sumeru Secret Realm and meet him there."

"As for her..." Miaoyin looked at Anlan, who had no cultivation.

Chu Xiu smiled slightly, "It's alright, I have a secret treasure that can accommodate living beings to settle inside."

He turned to An Lan and said, "I'm worried about leaving you alone in the capital. Why don't you come with me into my secret treasure world?"

An Lan bowed gracefully: "It is entirely up to you, young master."

Chu Xiu nodded, and with a wave of his hand, he took An Lan into his storage space.

They even used their creative power to freely modify storage spaces to create a paradise here, and provided all the necessities of life, such as houses and food, for An Lan to live in temporarily.

After doing all this, Chu Xiu nodded to Miao Yin and Ye Wujiang, indicating that he was ready.

"Please follow me, both of you." Miaoyin nodded slightly and led Chu Xiu and Ye Wujiang soaring through the air towards the north of Golden City.

After traveling only a few hundred miles, an ancient formation, shrouded in mountains and clouds, appeared before the three of them.

Within the great formation, dozens of figures had already appeared.

Chu Xiu looked at the ancient formation that shielded the entire mountain range from sight and sound, and couldn't help but exclaim in amazement: "No wonder I was completely unaware of this formation before. It turns out that the power of this formation can actually connect with the ancient formation in the capital at the same time, completely shielding the aura of the main body as well."

Miaoyin smiled slightly and said, "If it weren't for that, how could my Demon Zen Kingdom dare to possess the Sumeru Secret Realm without being plundered? It's only because the two of you are traveling with me that you can directly enter the formation with the token in my hand."

The rest of the group were able to enter this massive, sky-covering formation only through the array within the capital city.

"Even if ten experts at the Great Perfection of the Qiankun Realm joined forces, they could not shake this sky-covering array in the slightest."

Miaoyin flipped her hand, and an antique wooden token appeared in her palm. The moment the token appeared, the ancient array in front of her opened a crack, allowing the token holder to enter.

The three exchanged glances and nodded, then transformed into streaks of light and entered, landing in front of an ancient temple.

"Venerable Wonderful Sound".

"May Your Excellency be well!"

Upon seeing Miaoyin's figure appear, greetings immediately rose and fell in front of the ancient temple.

Miaoyin responded with a smile to each person, treating them equally regardless of their cultivation level.

Chu Xiu glanced around and saw that, apart from himself, Miaoyin, and Ye Wujiang, of the forty-odd people waiting for the secret realm to open in front of the ancient temple, three were at the Qiankun Realm cultivation level.

Judging from the strength of his aura, he's not much weaker than Miaoyin and Ye Wujiang.

The remaining people were all at the same cultivation level as Chu Xiu, all at the Great Perfection of the Reincarnation Realm.

Chu Xiu asked doubtfully, "Does this secret realm have requirements regarding the upper limit of cultivation?"

Miaoyin nodded slightly: "During the ten days that the secret realm remains open, only five people at the Qiankun Realm can be in it at the same time. There is no restriction for those below the Qiankun Realm. However, the dangers within the secret realm are too great for those below the Great Perfection of the Reincarnation Realm to handle, hence this requirement."

Ye Wujiang patted Chu Xiu on the shoulder and pointed to the other five Qiankun Realm experts present, introducing them to him one by one.

"The one dressed in a Taoist robe and carrying a sword box is none other than the sect leader of the Lingtian Sword Sect in Zhongzhou—Wan Jianhou."

Chu Xiu stared intently at Wan Jianhou, the sect leader of the Lingtian Sword Sect. His entire body exuded a chilling sword aura, and his sharp edge was fully revealed. He must be a difficult person to get along with.

"That vixen who looks like she's not wearing anything is none other than Bai Yuling, the mountain lord of Qingqiu in Xizhou."

"Qingqiu? Isn't that one of the two great fox clan holy lands in the demon realm, on par with Tushan? How could it appear in the demon realm?" Chu Xiu asked, looking at the alluring woman reclining on the soft couch not far away.

"It's nothing more than a cunning fox who has fallen on hard times and created a force in the name of her hometown. In the entire Qingqiu of Xizhou, she is the only pure nine-tailed celestial fox. All the others are hybrids."

"I see……"

"As for this last one..." Ye Wujiang looked at the robust, clad monk sitting cross-legged atop the ancient temple not far away, and smiled:

"That bald man is the ruler of the Demon Zen Kingdom, Venerable Wunian."

Chu Xiu looked over, only to find his gaze meeting that of Venerable Wunian as he slowly opened his eyes.

Even though Venerable Wunian didn't intentionally make a move, Chu Xiu still felt an intense pressure, like a boulder pressing down on his shoulders, causing his knees to buckle slightly.

If this oppressive force hadn't suddenly dissipated, Chu Xiu felt he probably wouldn't have been able to withstand it.

Venerable Wunian flashed and appeared in front of Chu Xiu.

Venerable Miaoyin bowed slightly and paid his respects to Venerable Wunian.

Venerable Wunian nodded slightly, looked at Chu Xiu, and said gently, "I'm sorry."

Chu Xiu was taken aback, not expecting that the ruler of the Demon Zen Kingdom would apologize to a junior like himself. He quickly waved his hand and said, "Your Excellency is too kind. It was Chu Xiu who was rude first."

Venerable Wunian smiled slightly and looked at Ye Wujiang: "Sect Master Ye, it's been a long time. You've found a fine successor."

Ye Wujiang raised an eyebrow and smiled, "Not only is that right, but I cherish Chu Xiu to the extreme. If he hadn't taken the liberty of peeking at your face first, and if you hadn't restrained your aura in time, I would have made a move against you."

Venerable Wunian shook his head helplessly and asked, "Now that you've come here, does that mean you're willing to venture into the secret realm with the four of us this time?"

Ye Wujiang nodded: "After a thousand years, it's time to go in and find out what's going on."