"Alright, everyone! Now that we've had lunch, let's keep moving forward!" Yuan ordered. He decided to cross the ancient ruin, seeing no reason to stay any longer since he had already acquired the useful items left behind by a mysterious person.

Everyone felt energized upon hearing Yuan's enthusiastic voice, and they began to follow his lead as Yuan and his wives led the group forward. Yuan used his divine sense to cover the entire area of the ruin, knowing every nook and cranny, and where the spiritual beasts were currently resting.

"Darling, are we really going to avoid those spiritual beasts? Don't we need their nutritious meat to become stronger and faster?" Grace asked. She could also sense the powerful spiritual beasts in the distance and knew from their presence alone that they were strong.

"Though I'd love to fight them and collect more spiritual meat for us, we don't have time for such things. We need to get out of this place as quickly as possible," Yuan replied after thinking for a moment. He was curious about the secrets the secret realm they encountered in the past might hold.

The truth is, he had forgotten about that place until he saw the mission after upgrading the system. It seemed that place held something very important to him, and he couldn't help but wonder what it was.

Anna noticed the look on her darling son's face and immediately looked worried. "Dear, from the look on your face, you're hiding something from us, I'm sure of it. Tell me, what are you hiding?" she asked, looking at Yuan with a very serious expression.

Upon hearing this, Yuan looked at his mom, Anna, with a bittersweet smile and sighed. "Since you've figured it out already, there's no point in hiding it from you, Mom."

He then continued, "Well, it's related to the mysterious figure I saw who looked exactly like the statue inside the secret chamber. He told me that I had to enter the Secret Realm within two months, and it's an absolute must."

"The mysterious figure that looked exactly like the stone statue… It seems he is somehow connected with the secret realm we found before," Anna said, raising her brows in surprise at what her son had just said. She almost couldn't believe it.

A mysterious person from thousands of years ago knew about their past, present, and future. This was too much of a coincidence. How could someone know so much about them? Moreover, it was thousands of years in the past. This was simply unheard of.

"Just how strong is this mysterious person to know our past, present, and future thousands of years ago? Just what level of cultivation did he have to know all of this?" Rose muttered in a low voice, her face showing a seemingly shocked expression.

The others had the same look as Rose, especially Julie, Ava, and Leah. They couldn't help but look at Yuan with strange expressions, as they were clueless about the term 'Secret Realm.'

"It seems a small explanation is needed about this so-called 'Secret Realm'," Yuan smiled at his wives, noticing the confused looks on some of their faces, and he began to explain the secret realm to them briefly.

As they continued moving forward, leading everyone toward their destination—the base of the corrupted creatures—hundreds of thousands of corrupted monsters would be gathered in one place.

Mireya, Sylvia, Valeria, and Leah were shocked to learn that mythical places like the 'Secret Realm' existed in this world. This was truly shocking and unbelievable to them.

"I can't believe that such a magical place exists in our world, and yet we were unaware of their existence until now," Valeria muttered with a dazed look on her face, seemingly surprised by this revelation.

Anna smiled at them and said, "Hehe, no one noticed them before because no one in this world has the ability to sense spiritual energy except for us. If they had the ability, they would've sensed it long ago."

"I see... that indeed makes sense," Mireya nodded with a smile, now understanding everything.

"Well, for now, we should forget about those things and focus on the mission at hand. We can't afford to waste time," Yuan said with a smile and led everyone forward. They all followed his lead without any complaints.Meanwhile, Arthur opened his eyes as he was being carried by two of his Holy Knights on a stretcher. He saw the dark sky and looked very confused.

"Where am I?" he muttered as he tried to take in the strange surroundings, covered in large trees and with a creepy atmosphere.

"Holy Son! You're awake! Thank goodness you're okay!" The Holy Knights were extremely excited to see their Holy Son wake up. They had already been given a very rare healing pill, so they were not worried about his health as he had completely recovered an hour ago. He had just been unconscious until now, which was very normal.

"Are you feeling alright, Holy Son? Please tell us if you're having a—"

Before the Holy Knight could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by Arthur. "Don't worry, I'm perfectly fine. Now tell me, where are we currently?" Arthur asked, looking at the unfamiliar surroundings and noticing that everyone was following Yuan and his wives.

"As you can see, we have been following his lead for almost two hours now. We continued marching a few moments after you fainted. As for where we are, I'm not sure either," one of the Holy Knights said.

"I see..." Arthur sighed. "It seems we have no choice but to follow him and his wives. Ever since we came to that small kingdom, my luck has been running quite low."lightsnovel

"Don't be concerned about it, Holy Son," one of the Holy Knights said. "Things will work out for us, I'm sure of it."

"I hope so..." Arthur released a deep sigh.

Sometime later, everyone arrived at a dark and gloomy place. The area looked awfully creepy, with a dark forest before them filled with only dead trees.

Garrr! People could feel the fierce aura of the monsters from the forest, along with the creepy growls of the creatures that resided inside.

The forest looked lifeless at first glance, but from its appearance alone, everyone could tell it was very dangerous. Moreover, there were many strange footprints of the monsters covering the whole surrounding area.

"What kind of place is this? Why can I sense the presence of the dead inside this creepy forest?" one of the people muttered, his body shaking with fear.

Indeed, the area was particularly cold compared to other parts of the forest. It was also filled with a unique aura very similar to that of the corrupted monsters.

Archmage Isadora immediately came forward and stood in front of the forest. She cast a powerful spell, and shortly after, her expression turned extremely serious and grim."What an ominous feeling this is... I'm sure of it, this is the place where the corrupted creatures are hiding!"

lightsΝοvel As soon as people heard this, their expressions turned very serious and grim. Some even began to tremble, unable to forget the experience of fighting against those corrupted creatures.

"What? We have found the location of those monsters?"

"Does that mean we can leave this place once we clear out every single monster and destroy everything so they can never reproduce again?"

"That's for sure, but it won't be easy. There could be hundreds of thousands of corrupted monsters guarding that place."

"Hundreds of thousands? That's such a huge number… how are we supposed to defeat so many?"

Shocked murmurs filled the area as people couldn't help but look at the forest with trembling gazes. The creepy atmosphere made them very fearful.

King Richard slowly walked toward Archmage Isadora and asked, "Miss Isadora, are you sure this is the place where the corrupted monsters' nest is located?"

"I'm sure of it. This is the place," Archmage Isadora confirmed. She could feel the presence of thousands of corrupted monsters inside the forest.

"Which means we need a proper strategy before confronting the corrupted creatures," Daniel muttered with a serious look on his face. Usually calm, he couldn't maintain his composure after hearing Archmage Isadora's confirmation.

"Indeed," Archmage Isadora nodded. "The corrupted monsters' numbers are far greater than ours, and without a good fighting strategy, we can't win this battle."

"That is precisely why I think we should come up with a proper strategy before confronting those vile creatures," Archmage Eldrick proposed.

Everyone else agreed with Archmage Eldrick's proposition, as this would lower the death rate and give them a chance to combat the overwhelming number of corrupted monsters.

Archmage Eldrick smiled, looked at everyone, and then shifted his gaze to Yuan. "Now that everyone agrees with my decision, how about we discuss this as quickly as possible?"

"That would be wise. I have no objection," Yuan responded calmly and decided to postpone his plan to launch the attack on the corrupted monsters.

Once Yuan said that, everyone began to quickly set up the monster-repelling devices in the surrounding area, a few meters away from the dead tree area. They also began to set up tents to spend the night.

Yuan and his wives started working on their own tent. Yuan and Valeria set up the tent while Anna began preparing dinner for everyone in the family.