Over three thousand years ago, the Great Qin Iron Cavalry swept across the land. Emperor Shi pursued the Immortality Technique, discovering the Grotto Heaven Blessed Secret Realm, glimpsing the Supreme Secret Technique, acquiring the Secret Treasure, taming the Secret Spirit, and with it unified the eight wilds and six harmonies, establishing the Great Qin Ancestral Court. From then on, all under heaven became royal soil, and the four seas and eight wilds were ancestral lands.
With the cultivation of the Secret Technique, Emperor Shi became immortal, youth eternal, for a millennium remained in his prime. He sat in the Ancestral Court for over two thousand years. Under his reign, carts shared the same track, writing shared the same script, and technology and exquisite craftsmanship thrived, quickly entering the industrial age. Meanwhile, everyone could enter the Secret Realm, practice the Secret Technique, and obtain the Secret Spirit, leading to a thriving world where technology and secret arts were equally renowned, and human civilization entered an unimaginable era, with the emperor revered as the Emperor Ancestor.
Over a thousand years ago, a strange Secret Realm appeared in the sky, like a palace covering the heavens and extinguishing the firmament. Countless anomalies manifested in the world, seemingly with Immortals hidden within, causing various abnormal changes across the Divine Land.
The sky was sunless, the night was starless, yin and yang were indistinguishable, the seasons were unclear, all things withered, and the five grains did not grow.
The Emperor Ancestor, personally leading a million Great Qin Iron Cavalry with accomplished cultivation, waged a rebellious war and charged into the Secret Realm, slaying until the universe changed color, and the winds and clouds churned, with the sounds of slaughter echoing to the heavens, pouring blood rain washed over the Divine Land for ten days, finally restoring clarity to heaven and earth.
The Celestial Secret Realm dissipated, the sun and moon reappeared in brightness, the world returned to normal, yet the Emperor Ancestor and those million Great Qin Iron Cavalry never returned.
The world fell into chaos, with heroes rising together, the Ancestral Court collapsed, and after over two hundred years of chaos, the Divine Land finally embraced an era of peace once more. The Ten Celestial Kings reorganized the Ancestral Court, becoming the initial generation of elders of the court.
There was no more emperor in the world, only the Chief Judge of the Ancestral Court and the ten Ancestral Court Elders with the right to elect the Chief Judge.
"Awaken lifebound secret talent... Spirit of the Cheerleaders..." Chen Guan was stunned on the spot, unable to recover his senses for a long time.
Since becoming a cultivator, Chen Guan had countless times fantasized about what kind of lifebound talent he would awaken upon entering the Secret Realm at his coming-of-age ceremony at eighteen. For a cultivator, a lifebound talent is enough to influence their entire fate.
He fantasized about awakening some top-level lifebound talents, such as the legendary unparalleled lifebound talents "Unparalleled Dao Body", "Celestial Vein Sword Bone", or "Ten Directions Martial Arts Battle Soul".
Chen Guan also thought he might not be able to awaken an unparalleled talent, as that would be top-level talent that only has a one in a billion chance of awakening, with perhaps only one or two people in the world able to obtain each unparalleled talent.
The five qualities of lifebound talents are ordinary, rare, uncommon, unique, and unparalleled, with ordinary being the worst and unparalleled being the best.
Awakening a talent is very simple: by reaching the age of eighteen, mastering the fundamentals of a Secret Technique, entering the Secret Realm for the first time, and sensing the existence of Primordial Energy, one can naturally achieve Celestial-Human Communication and awaken their primordial energy talent.
Chen Guan had imagined countless possibilities, but never thought he would awaken such a lifebound talent as this.
Just from looking at the name, it was clear that this lifebound talent had no enhancement effect on the cultivation of Secret Techniques or the use of Secret Skills. It seemed more like a morale-boosting talent, presumably an auxiliary talent.
This is an era where personal martial prowess is extremely celebrated, with everyone taking pride in becoming strong. To survive in the Secret Realm also requires powerful martial force as support.
No matter how good an auxiliary talent is, it ultimately needs to be dependent on others, living at their mercy, which is a result Chen Guan could not accept.
"Even if I awaken an auxiliary lifebound talent without self-strengthening talent enhancement, I can still practice the Secret Technique to the top level, smoothing over the gap between lifebound talents; I can still command top-level Secret Spirits, and compete with those top-level cultivators." Chen Guan did not dwell too much, instead carefully feeling the lifebound talent he had awakened.
Chen Guan: Cultivator (Level 1).
Primordial Energy: 1.
Lifebound Talent: Spirit of the Cheerleaders (Absolute Secret).
Secret Technique: Longevity Skill (Level 1, Ordinary).
Secret Skill: None.
Secret Spirit: Five Red Dogs (Level 1, Ordinary).
The world rules within the Secret Realm are different from the outside. In the Secret Realm, cultivators of Secret Techniques can introspect themselves and obtain information about themselves, allowing everyone to clearly understand their cultivation situation.
Upon entering the Secret Realm for the first time, Chen Guan only just awakened. The Longevity Skill he previously practiced was also an ordinary Secret Technique that anyone could practice. After awakening, he only had 1 point of Primordial Energy, which is also the starting point for the vast majority of cultivators.
When Chen Guan saw the words "Absolute Secret" following his lifebound talent, he was first delighted, thinking that although his talent was an auxiliary type, if it were an unparalleled talent, it should still hold significant value.
Upon taking a closer look, the delight on his face turned into confusion.
Among the five qualities of ordinary, rare, uncommon, unique, and unparalleled, there was no such quality level as Absolute Secret, which seemed like a knock-off version of unparalleled.
"Are there even knock-off lifebound talents?" Chen Guan wondered, his mind filled with uncertainty, as he thought more deeply to understand what exactly his lifebound talent was.
Spirit of the Cheerleaders (Absolute Secret): Words of praise overflow, able to stimulate the potential of life, unlocking the shackles of the soul, allowing the praised to feel uplifted as if assisted by a divine presence, with more beautiful the words, the more directly they reach the heart, and the more remarkable the effect.
The more Chen Guan looked, the more puzzled he became. He had never heard of this Absolute Secret quality and was unsure of what the situation really was.
From the literal interpretation, the Spirit of the Cheerleaders appeared to align with what he had originally thought: an ability to motivate morale or boost combat resolve, seemingly able to be activated through words or perhaps some action beyond words, the more exaggerated the praise, the better the results.
Chen Guan was unsure of how this ability differed from the methods used by those in power to inspire and encourage. Only through experimentation could he understand the true extent of this talent's effectiveness.
"Though I have never heard of the term Absolute Secret before, it doesn't seem like an ordinary talent at all. Also, it's so rare, never heard of it before, perhaps it might be a quality that is even better and rarer than unparalleled. If that's the case, even as an auxiliary talent, it should be capable of tremendous impact, incomparable to general auxiliary talents…" Chen Guan restrained the excitement within himself, observing his surroundings, pondering how he could test the effect of the Spirit of the Cheerleaders.
He was located in a valley where not a single blade of grass grew, yet it was filled with all kinds of strangely shaped white bones, resembling a huge burial pit.
The currently known Secret Realms are divided into two major types: Grotto Heaven and Blessed Land. Grotto Heaven is a High-Level Secret Realm that cannot be entered unless one reaches a certain level of cultivation, with many cultivators never entering a Grotto Heaven in their lifetime.
Blessed Lands, by comparison, have fewer restrictions. Humans can enter a Blessed Land after reaching eighteen years of age. If one is not yet eighteen, even if a Blessed Land is right before them, it remains invisible. Even if someone tries to guide them in, they will not be able to enter, merely watching others pass through the mountain while they crash against the mountain wall, unable to enter.
Outside the Secret Realm, practicing Secret Techniques only strengthens the body and spirit, for there is no Primordial Energy outside, and thus practitioners cannot accumulate Primordial Energy through Secret Technique cultivation to strengthen the body.
Only by entering the Secret Realm and having the body absorb Primordial Energy can one awaken their lifebound talent and truly start on the path of cultivation.
Every Blessed Land is as if an infinitely vast otherworld. So far, no human has fully explored any Blessed Land.
When entering a Blessed Land for the first time, one is randomly teleported to any location within, which cannot be controlled. However, it generally happens to be in an area where low-level Secret Spirits frequent, whether due to some mysterious power's influence or the inherent rules of the Secret Realm a mystery.
Chen Guan did not know where he was either, and even though he had prepared extensively before entering this Blessed Land called "Pingdu Mountain," he still couldn't discern his location.
The bones in varying sizes, larger than dinosaur bones and smaller like toothpicks, and of various strange forms, clearly did not belong to the same kind of creature.
As he was looking around, he suddenly noticed something moving among the bones, and on a closer look, it turned out to be a creature covered in white fur, resembling a polar bear.
Fixing a careful gaze, he realized it wasn't a polar bear but a giant snow-furred rabbit the size of a polar bear.
Calling it a rabbit, though it wasn't quite like any rabbit in reality; its head-body proportion was completely reversed from reality, with its head larger than its body, crouching such that its forepaws did not touch the ground, standing like a human.
Even though its face wasn't visible yet, the fluffy body and round head, plus those long rabbit ears, were very much like an anthropomorphic rabbit in a manga.
At this moment, crunching sounds were coming from where the rabbit was, making Chen Guan suspect whether the giant rabbit was gnawing on a carrot.
As Chen Guan observed it, the giant rabbit suddenly turned its head toward him, revealing an anthropomorphic rabbit face, round with long hair and large eyes, giving a bit of a cute look.
However, Chen Guan did not find it cute at all, for its fearsome white rabbit teeth and the blood-stained white fur around its mouth, along with one paw clutching a large blood-stained Pig-killing Saber, and the other paw holding a half-eaten raw bone stick, spotted with bits of flesh and blood stains.
The rabbit's blood-red eyes looked at Chen Guan, and despite its adorable and anthropomorphic face, it wore an evil expression. To Chen Guan, its entire being seemed to exude a sinister and bloody aura.