The Passerby Female Supporting Character – Chapter 64
by Little PandaBeast Tide
When she first entered the Secret Realm, Song Linlin had been quite nervous. After actually spending a night inside, she gradually got used to the environment, and her whole being slowly relaxed.
Of course, spending the night in such a place naturally meant one couldn’t expect any good treatment. You couldn’t even pitch a tent at night, otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to see the situation outside clearly. If you fell asleep at night and didn’t even know you’d been surrounded by Demon Beasts, that would be truly miserable.
So, Song Linlin had to make do, finding a relatively clean spot and leaning against Chi Qianning to doze for the night. She didn’t dare to sleep too soundly. In the dead of night, she didn’t dare light a fire either, afraid the light would attract something nasty. Fortunately, the night inside the Secret Realm was quite bright; the range visible to the naked eye wasn’t small.
Four or five days passed like this. Unlike those who teamed up specifically to hunt Demon Beasts and obtain their Inner Cores, Song Linlin basically detoured far away whenever she saw traces of Demon Beast activity. Under this cautious approach, she only encountered a few lone Demon Beasts along the way, which she easily dealt with.
Five days went by, and most of the teams in the Secret Realm had gained plentiful rewards. Song Linlin only had three Inner Cores in her pocket; compared to others, this haul was truly rather pitiful.
However, Song Linlin didn’t mind. She hadn’t entered the Secret Realm to improve her strength anyway, only forced to enter due to the sect’s orders.
Not far away.
Lu Renjia1 was the leader of a small team of moderate strength. In these five days, his team had searched everywhere for groups of Demon Beasts and had indeed successfully hunted quite a few. However, compared to those powerful teams, this bit of gain simply paled in comparison.
Especially those formidable teams—they didn’t even deign to hunt these low-intelligence, savage Demon Beasts in the periphery. They all ventured deep into the forest, heading towards the middle and core regions to hunt higher-rank, more powerful Demon Beasts.
This brought great risks, but naturally, the rewards were also greater. Besides Demon Beast Inner Cores, they could also harvest some rare Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. Lu Renjia didn’t have that kind of strength. Although envious of their harvests, he could only continue methodically rounding up these low-level Demon Beasts.
On this day, he happened to run into several other teams wandering the outer edges of the Secret Realm. The leaders of the several teams exchanged information; all were envious of the teams capable of entering the depths. Thus, these few decided they too would pull off something big in the periphery.
They spent another two days preparing a large number of fresh corpses left behind after Demon Beasts died, storing these fresh corpses in their Qiankun Rings. The number of Demon Beasts inside the Secret Realm was immense, seemingly impossible to kill completely. In two days, they quickly collected a large quantity of corpses.
The several teams gathered together again, each hiding in a concealed position. Lu Renjia looked at the other few leaders; they all nodded at him. The next moment, a pile of Demon Beast corpses, almost forming a small mountain, appeared in the clearing.
A thick smell of blood immediately drifted out. Blood flowed down the small mountain; these corpses still retained the freshness of having just been killed.
Lu Renjia then took out a small bottle. This was something valuable he had specially asked a friend outside to purchase at great expense from an Alchemist before the Secret Realm began. It was said that the powder inside could stimulate the nerves of Demon Beasts, attracting them to approach madly.
He had kept this item, reluctant to use it. Now, he silently took it out. Since they had decided to pull off something big, this was certainly no time to be stingy. However, because the Alchemist hadn’t specified exactly how much to use, Lu Renjia steeled himself and poured the entire bottle of powder onto the small mountain made of Demon Beast corpses.
Soon, a faint fragrance mixed with the smell of blood permeated the air. Today was a fine day; a slight breeze blew through the woods, and the air circulated quickly. The scent from here instantly drifted far away.
Lu Renjia was also hiding in a tree. Squatting on another branch was his teammate Li Erniu2, who could be considered one of his underlings. Li Erniu scratched his head, looked at the small mountain piled high with Demon Beast corpses, and whispered to Lu Renjia, “Boss3, will this work? Can it really attract a lot of Demon Beasts?”
“How would I know? Your boss isn’t exactly the type to rely on wits,” Lu Renjia said, slapping Li Erniu on the head. “Alright, cut the crap! Just wait patiently now!”
Their several teams had collected so many Demon Beast corpses precisely to attract herds of Demon Beasts here, and then catch them all in one go.
Many Demon Beasts existed in the outer area of the Secret Realm. Although they gathered in small groups, overall they were scattered. Lu Renjia’s team spent a lot of time each day searching for these gathered Demon Beasts; the actual killing was quite easy.
Now, they planned to use the heavy scent of blood to stimulate the Demon Beasts, attracting them to approach on their own, and then hunt them together. This way, they would save the time needed to search for Demon Beasts, greatly increasing efficiency.
Soon, a medium-sized wolf demon, smelling the scent, ran over. Upon seeing such a large quantity of Demon Beast corpses, its eyes practically lit up as it rushed towards the pile, tearing voraciously at the bodies of its own kind.
The ambushing crowd, however, was in no hurry to act. They needed to wait until the Demon Beasts reached a certain density before charging out, maximizing efficiency.
Demon Beasts continued to approach from all directions. Lu Renjia looked at the densely packed Demon Beasts in the clearing and nodded with satisfaction. He estimated that after a little more time, once there were even more beasts, they could make their move.
Just then, the ground suddenly began to tremble. A rumbling sound erupted and continued to grow louder.
“What’s going on? An earthquake?” Lu Renjia asked Li Erniu beside him doubtfully.
The ambushing crowd was equally puzzled. Why would the ground suddenly start shaking for no reason? Could earthquakes happen inside a Secret Realm?
After a moment, someone suddenly screamed, as if seeing something utterly terrifying. He immediately jumped down from the branch and ran quickly in the opposite direction, shouting as he ran, “Run! Lots of Demon Beasts are running towards us! It’s a Beast Tide4! We’ve triggered a Beast Tide!!!”
Lu Renjia, up in the tree, also paled. If it were just a large group of Demon Beasts, they could handle it with some effort. But if the scale was large enough to form a Beast Tide, it wasn’t something their group could deal with. Even the weakest Demon Beasts, if numerous enough, could trample humans like them to death with their hooves.
Lu Renjia immediately pulled Li Erniu, jumped down from the branch, and started running without looking back.
Song Linlin had just finished eating and was resting against a large tree. She had plucked a huge leaf from some tree and placed it on her head as a sun hat, leaning lazily against the trunk, resting with her eyes narrowed.
The ground began to vibrate slightly. Song Linlin sensed something was wrong, took the leaf off her head, and turned to look at Chi Qianning beside her, puzzled. “What’s happening? Is this an earthquake?”
Chi Qianning was also frowning. She turned her head to look in a certain direction. Within her perception range, it was excessively noisy there; various sounds converged, making it impossible to discern what exactly was happening.
Just then, two people suddenly ran over. Lu Renjia naturally saw Song Linlin and Chi Qianning sitting under the tree not far away. Li Erniu followed behind him; both were fleeing helter-skelter. Still, he shouted towards Song Linlin, “Run!!! There’s a Beast Tide behind us, the Beast Tide is coming!!!”
“Holy crap!”
Song Linlin was also quite shocked by his words and immediately scrambled up from the ground. Ahead, Lu Renjia was already just a receding figure. Behind him, people continuously ran past, all looking panicked and utterly distraught.
The ground’s vibration grew stronger and stronger. Song Linlin had initially thought it was an earthquake; now, she feared it was a massive gathering of Demon Beasts, their running footsteps making the ground echo.
Song Linlin grabbed Chi Qianning’s hand and quickly started running, following the steps of the people ahead. “Waaah! Let’s run quickly, it’ll be too late if we don’t hurry!!!”
Chi Qianning, her hand held by Song Linlin, was forcibly pulled forward to escape. She was much calmer than Song Linlin and still had the presence of mind to ponder the cause. Logically, during the first seven days, the periphery of the Secret Realm had been calm and peaceful. Why would a Beast Tide suddenly occur today?
“This Beast Tide isn’t right. I’m afraid it was man-made,” Chi Qianning said in a low voice.
“What?”
Song Linlin had thought it was a naturally occurring Beast Tide, never expecting it to be man-made. She immediately spoke up indignantly, “Who had nothing better to do, doing such a wicked thing!”
The Beast Tide advanced very quickly. The ground’s vibration became increasingly intense. Song Linlin had never been an athletic person and couldn’t sustain running for too long. By now, she was already panting heavily.
The entire surrounding area erupted into chaos, all affected by the Beast Tide triggered by Lu Renjia and his few teams. Furthermore, the scale of this Beast Tide was continuously expanding. Originally, it only affected the gathering of Demon Beasts in that one area, but later, as everyone fled, Demon Beasts from other areas along the path joined the Beast Tide’s ranks. Now, 70-80% of the Demon Beasts in the surrounding region had gathered together. This force was quite terrifying; all these people combined probably couldn’t withstand the Beast Tide’s attack.
Lu Renjia led the large group behind him, running nonstop. The more he ran, the more panicked he became, never having imagined he would cause such a huge disaster. The other few team captains also silently shut their mouths; no one dared reveal that this Beast Tide was caused by them. Otherwise, never mind the crazed beasts behind them, they would surely be beaten to death by their furious fellow disciples.
“Damn it, we can’t keep running around the periphery!” Lu Renjia realized that the surrounding Demon Beasts were continuously gathering, and the disciples in the periphery simply couldn’t fight so many beasts. Continuing to run here would only strengthen the beasts’ forces and deplete their own stamina.
So, Lu Renjia steeled himself and decisively ran towards the depths of the forest, towards the middle region of the Secret Realm. Once inside the middle region, there wouldn’t be so many low-level Demon Beasts. The beasts in the middle region already possessed considerable intelligence, each marking their own territory. The beasts generally kept to themselves5. Normally, low-level Demon Beasts would fear the aura emitted by higher-level beasts and wouldn’t dare approach the middle region.
Staying in the periphery, they would definitely be worn down and killed by the Beast Tide. Although the Demon Beasts in the middle and core regions were powerful, the further they advanced, the scarcer the beasts became. As long as they weren’t unlucky enough to barge into a Demon Beast’s lair, there shouldn’t be any major problems.
Most importantly, the truly powerful disciples were all in the inner regions; those remaining in the periphery were not strong. Once their group encountered them, they would surely have ways to deal with this Beast Tide.
The situation was urgent now. The gathered crowd was just mindlessly following the person in front, running quickly. No one noticed they had already run away from the periphery, continuously advancing into the depths of the Secret Realm.
Song Linlin also didn’t notice the route had changed. At this moment, she had no mind to pay attention to such unimportant things, only desperately fleeing forward, afraid she would fall behind and be trampled to death by the Demon Beast army behind her.
The large group quickly entered the middle region. The mist lingering in the sky here was thicker, making the sky seem dimmer than in the periphery. The originally quiet environment was shattered as the group burst in, yelling loudly. This area had originally been the territory of a black bear.
Lu Renjia’s luck was decent this time. Several days ago, a team had successfully hunted that black bear. Now, this place was essentially ownerless territory. However, the black bear’s aura hadn’t completely dissipated and could still intimidate low-level Demon Beasts.
When the Beast Tide army approached, some timid Demon Beasts were deterred by the black bear’s residual aura and immediately stopped, not daring to step foot inside. But the sheer number of beasts in the tide was too large. Surrounded by so many of their own kind, even the black bear couldn’t completely halt their advance. Most of the Demon Beasts still charged in, though the scale was noticeably reduced.
Lu Renjia, running at the very front, felt the ground’s vibration lessen and immediately knew his plan had succeeded. Some low-level Demon Beasts didn’t dare enter the inner region. Now, they just needed to keep running, persist until they reached the core region. The core region wasn’t large, and the most formidable teams were all there. As long as he reached the core region, he would surely be saved.
They ran nonstop from morning until the noon hour6. The Beast Tide behind them had noticeably diminished by half compared to the beginning, but it was still not something their group could resist. Having run for so long under tense emotions, everyone was panting heavily, running purely on survival instinct, continuously lifting their feet forward.
Fortunately, they were already approaching the core region. Lu Renjia at the very front of the group was also running until his mouth was dry, gasping for breath. But as the person running at the very front, especially since this Beast Tide was likely caused by him, Lu Renjia dared not stop. He continued to lead the crowd forward. Li Erniu beside him was also about to collapse from exhaustion.
In a daze, Lu Renjia vaguely saw what seemed to be many people standing ahead. He immediately widened his eyes, looking carefully ahead, confirming that the scene he just saw wasn’t his imagination—there really were many people standing there.
Moreover, Lu Renjia saw a familiar figure among them. His original fatigue vanished completely. He raised his arm and shouted excitedly, “Big Bro7!!! Save me!!!”
Ahead was Lu Renjia’s older cousin, Long Tao8. As the leader of a powerful team, Long Tao had naturally started heading towards the depths of the Secret Realm on the very first day of entry. At this time, he had already been in the core region for two days. Today, he happened to meet people from several other teams. Everyone gathered together, discussing jointly dealing with an extremely powerful Demon Beast in the core region.
Ye Tingran also noticed the commotion from afar. She turned her head, narrowing her eyes slightly, only to see a large group of people running towards them in a panic.
Lu Renjia was the first to reach the core region teams. He could barely speak properly, grabbing Long Tao’s arm and pointing towards the area behind them, “Beast… Beast Tide! Lots of Demon Beasts behind! It’s already formed a Beast Tide!!!”
“What? The Demon Beasts in the periphery can form a Beast Tide?” Long Tao was shocked. Such a thing as a Beast Tide was unheard of in the Profound Yin Realm in the past. He immediately asked, “What did you do? You actually triggered a Beast Tide?!”
Lu Renjia lowered his head guiltily, “Me and the guys from a few other teams collected a lot of Demon Beast corpses, and then I sprinkled a bottle of Beast Luring Powder. We originally just wanted to attract some Demon Beasts over to wipe them out in one go. Who knew it would actually trigger a Beast Tide…”
“Idiot! Didn’t you even read the instructions before using the powder?!” Long Tao immediately slapped Lu Renjia on the head.
Ye Tingran also frowned. “Alright, let’s deal with that group of Demon Beasts first. Otherwise, if so many Demon Beasts run into the core region, it’s very likely to cause the core region’s beasts to riot. That would be truly dangerous.”
“No! That Beast Tide also has many Demon Beasts from the middle region mixed in. I’m afraid the middle region’s beasts have already rioted. If it were just the peripheral beasts, we could handle it, but now it’s fundamentally beyond what we can deal with!” said someone with excellent eyesight.
“Now that we’re on the edge of the core region, we absolutely cannot let those things run in. Otherwise, if the core region also riots, the strength of the beasts inside is incomparable to those outside,” Ye Tingran said.
Lu Renjia hadn’t expected the Beast Tide would also cause beasts in other regions to riot. At the time, he was only thinking about escaping for his life. Only now did he realize just how much trouble he had caused.
“Th-then what do we do now?” Lu Renjia stammered, trembling.
Ye Tingran said to someone behind her, “In the very center of the core region, there are Elders and many Deacons9 on duty in the Secret Realm. Go explain the situation and ask an Elder to come resolve this matter. We’ll hold the line here for now, block the Beast Tide’s advance.”
“Okay! I’ll go right away!”
Song Linlin was also running, panting heavily. Beside her, Chi Qianning’s breathing was still steady, showing no sign of fatigue even after running for so long. Their running positions had changed from Song Linlin initially pulling Chi Qianning forward to Chi Qianning now pulling Song Linlin along.
“Heavens, I’ve never run this far in my entire life! I can’t take it anymore, my lungs are about to burst!” Song Linlin said weakly.
Chi Qianning practically dragged her forward. She saw the group of people furthest ahead and turned to Song Linlin, saying, “Hold on a little longer, we won’t have to run soon.”
In this situation, someone would definitely go find the Elders guarding the Secret Realm to resolve the Beast Tide issue. Otherwise, relying solely on these disciples, none of whom had even reached the Nascent Soul stage, clearly couldn’t solve such a massive problem.
The Demon Beasts in the middle region had already rioted, and the core region contained several Nascent Soul stage Demon Beasts. If beasts of that level charged out and mixed into the crowd, they could practically slaughter every disciple present.
Therefore, the Xuanyun Sect would certainly not let such a thing happen. The Elder guarding here would definitely intervene.
“Ugh… Wait!” Song Linlin stared ahead, her eyes suddenly widening in disbelief. “That person… Is that person Ye Tingran?”
Chi Qianning nodded. “Yes.”
Song Linlin was shocked. “Aren’t we in the peripheral region? How can we see her?!!”
“?”
Chi Qianning turned her head to look at Song Linlin with a puzzled expression and asked in return, “Could it be that after running for so long, you didn’t even notice we changed our escape direction long ago?”
Song Linlin looked completely bewildered. She really hadn’t known about this; until now, she still thought she was in the periphery.
What the heck?! How did I somehow end up running into the core region?!
The author has something to say:
There will be another update tonight (Correction, let’s make it a double chapter tomorrow and release it together)
Footnotes
- 路仁賈 | Lù Rénjiǎ | The name sounds identical to 路人甲 (lùrén jiǎ), meaning “Passerby A” or “generic person,” likely an intentional naming choice by the author.
- 李二牛 | Lǐ Èrniú | A very rustic and common-sounding name, literally “Li Second Ox.”
- 老大 | lǎodà | Lit. “Old Big.” Common term for boss, leader, or eldest brother.
- 獸潮 | shòucháo | A stampede or massive, uncontrolled wave of beasts.
- 井水不犯河水 | jǐngshuǐ bù fàn héshuǐ | Lit. “Well water does not interfere with river water.” An idiom meaning to mind one’s own business or stay within one’s own sphere.
- 午时 | wǔ shí | Traditional Chinese hour corresponding to 11 AM – 1 PM.
- 大哥 | dàgē | Can mean elder brother, but often used informally to address a male leader, boss, or respected senior.
- 龍套 | Lóng Tào | The name literally means “walk-on role,” “utility actor,” or “bit player” in opera/theater, likely an intentional naming choice.
- 執事 | zhíshì | Officials handling specific duties within a sect, generally ranking below Elders.
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