Spirit Realm

Atop the vast sea surface, a blue crystalline war chariot was flying unhurriedly toward its destination. It was already thousands of kilometers away from the Ruined Lands.

A young man was skinning a Silver Snake of Profound Ice with practiced movements, making meat skewers and barbecuing it over an ignited Heavenly Flame Crystal floating in midair inside the crystalline war chariot.

It didn’t take long before a fragrant scent began permeating from the meat.

The young man picked up the snake meat with a dagger and ate to his heart’s content beneath the white clouds and blue sky.

It didn’t take long before the entire Silver Snake of Profound Ice was barbecued and eaten into his stomach.

“The refined energy of flesh stored inside a Rank Six Silver Snake of Profound Ice truly is rich.” Qin Lie rubbed his stomach, let out a burp and mumbled to himself in satisfaction.

He had already parted ways with La Pu, and the place he was in now was relatively far away from the Ruined Lands. No matter how powerful Chi Yan and Gu Tuo were, they might not necessarily be able to find out the direction of his escape and catch up to him.

Plus, he had made himself a new face with the fox skin mask the moment he flew out of the Ruined Lands. He now looked like an entirely different person.

He refused to believe that Chi Yan and Gu Tuo could catch up to him following only his scent.

Despite being safe for now, he wasn’t in a hurry to interact with the Ice Phoenix’s soul or release it.

The first thing he needed to do was to recover his strength as much as possible until he was at his peak form.

The recovery of his soul energy and spirit energy inside his dantian’s spirit sea was relatively easy to manage with large amount of spirit stones and pills in his possession.

However, the recovery of his physical strength wasn’t nearly as simple because he had overused his bloodline powers and weakened his own body.

Thankfully, the spatial ring La Pu had given him contained plenty of dead rank five and rank six spirit beasts.

The flesh of the Rank Six Silver Snake of Profound Ice especially contained a tremendous amount of energy and blood. A huge amount of refined energy of flesh had been generated inside his body after he consumed just half the snake.

“Glug! Glug!”

He sat in silence as his stomach expanded and contracted in a strange manner, digesting the snake meat with a special method.

The rich refined energy of flesh was absorbed into his own flesh, internal organs, muscles, and bones through the stomach’s near indiscernible bodily functions.

His fatigue was swiftly fading, and a sharp gleam had returned to his eyes.

Another day passed.

Today, he passed by a desolate island as he drove the crystalline war chariot further and further away from the Ruined Lands.

He crystalline war chariot stopped, and he spread his soul consciousness out like an invisible carpet to scout the island carefully.

Dozens of seconds later, he withdrew his soul consciousness and muttered to himself, “There should be no one on this island.”

While saying this, he landed the crystalline war chariot on a patch of gray brown soil.

Frowning, he finally cast a hesitant look at the Ice Phoenix’s human body.

Although the girl dressed in white clothes felt completely lifeless, her skin looked as bright and clear as ever. It shone with a luster that reminded him of cold jade.

The human girl the Ice Phoenix had transformed into also had an exquisite and flawless face. It looked like the careful handiwork of the greatest sculptor in the world.

Overall, the girl looked like a goddess who had walked out of a painting, or an art piece that had been sculpted from ice. Her grace was infinite.

“It’s time to fulfill the promise.” Qin Lie looked up to the sky.

It was high noon right now, the time when the sun was at its brightest.

After a few days of recovery and eating whole Silver Snake of Profound Ice, he had almost recovered to the peak of his strength.

His soul, spirit energy, and physical body were filled with rich, refined energy. He was currently at the peak of his combat strength.

On top of that, this place wasn’t the frost cave. The Ice Phoenix wouldn’t have absolute frost aura to borrow, and the sun was hot and bright. This environment would keep her from unleashing her true strength, especially since she was grievously wounded.

“I should send the the Demon Sealing Tombstone farther away too,” he muttered. Then, he drove the crystalline war chariot to a coral area a long distance away from the desolate island. He took out the Demon Sealing Tombstone, stuffed it between some rocks and finally returned to the island.

The Demon Sealing Tombstone was extremely sensitive to the Ice Phoenix’s presence. Once the seal on the Ice Phoenix’s body was unlocked, and her soul were to fuse back with her body, the Demon Sealing Tombstone would detect her.

Once the Demon Sealing Tombstone detected the complete aura on her body, it would fly out at the first notice and do its best to seal her away.

At her current state, there was no way she could escape the Demon Sealing Tombstone’s sealing. She would quickly vanish into the Demon Sealing Tombstone, no longer able to interact with him.

“This should be fine.”

It was only after a series of meticulous planning that Qin Lie finally dared to carefully open a tiny gap in the thunder and lightning seal inside the Soul Suppressing Orb with his soul consciousness.

“Whoosh!”

A crystalline, icy light flew out of his forehead. The icy light was actually a flowing frost stream, and it quickly expanded and transformed the moment it flew out of the Soul Suppressing Orb.

Slowly, the icy light turned back into a ball of frost stream. Inside the frost stream, there was a pocket-sized phoenix that looked like it had just woken up from its slumber. It flapped its wings with a bit of sluggishness during the process.

The Ice Phoenix swiftly awakened.

When her soul had flown into the Soul Suppressing Orb and was surrounded by multiple layers of thunder and lightning, she actually lost consciousness.

She didn’t understand why the Soul Suppressing Orb made her feel like her soul was utterly powerless.

When she finally awakened and sensed her true body by instinct, she immediately slipped back into her true body.

The eyelids of the Ice Phoenix’s true body moved and opened slowly after her soul had reentered her body.

A hint of astonishment appeared in her eyes.

To her surprise, she discovered that the soul damage she suffered after she engaged Forefather Dark Wind, Chi Yan, and Gu Tuo in a difficult battle had been greatly diminished.

It was a miracle that absolutely astounded her.

In reality, her physical body wasn’t hurt that badly after the harsh battle at Frost Island. The frost energy of the frost palaces, the absolute frost streams the Ice Emperor had left behind, and many more ice attribute crystals were all capable of healing her wounds very quickly.

In fact, she had consumed a lot of ice attributes crystals the moment she went back to the frost kingdom.

When she encased her body in blood crystal and was recovering using the Ice Phoenix’s secret art, she was also gathering the frost palaces’ frost aura to restore her body.

Therefore, most of the wounds on her physical body were actually gone when she was startled to wakefulness.

What she wasn’t able to truly recover was the severe damage to her soul.

The damage to her soul wasn’t something that could be restored with the frost crystals or frost palaces’ absolute frost aura.

It required a long period of recuperation.

After she woke up, the intense battle she fought against Qin Lie had damaged her soul even further. That was why she had no choice but to submit to Qin Lie’s requirements and relinquish all of her defenses, allowing her soul to enter the Soul Suppressing Orb.

She knew that it might take ten years before the wounds to her soul would finally recover.

However, she discovered that the severe soul damage she suffered had actually recovered by a lot after she came out of the spirit artifact that sealed her earlier.

In her opinion, this occurrence was practically a miracle. It made her feel absolutely astonished.

“Perhaps a very, very long time had passed. Maybe it had been a few years since the time I was sealed.” As she thought this, she quickly asked for verification from Qin Lie, “Where am I? Also, how much time has passed since I was sealed in your spirit artifact?”

“We are currently heading toward the Heavenly Silence Continent, and are about ten thousand kilometers away from the Ruined Lands. There’s no way those people can find us.” Qin Lie’s tone was careless. “I guess it has been, hmm, about four days since the day you were sealed.”

“Four days?!” the Ice Phoenix cried out involuntarily.

Her cry had an odd, extremely sharp timber to it.

It was actually similar to the “Giant Dragon’s Death Chant” unleashed by the dragonmen experts in principle even though they operated at a different level.

Qin Lie subconsciously covered up his ears and frowned. “It’s just four days, so what? Is there something wrong?”

“No, no, nothing’s wrong,” the Ice Phoenix hastily denied it. She couldn’t help but stare with her crystal-clear eyes between Qin Lie’s brows, where the Soul Suppressing Orb was hidden. A thought slowly appeared inside her mind.

“Can we talk properly now?” Qin Lie said solemnly.

“Where’s the Demon Sealing Tombstone?” The Ice Phoenix asked again.

“Relax, I sent it away temporarily,” Qin Lie answered.

“That’s good.” She nodded before observing Qin Lie seriously. She thought about the whole situation for a moment before saying, “I guess you really are a man of your word.”

Qin Lie raised an eyebrow.

“Alright, speak. What do you want to know?” Her expression turned relaxed.

“Jia Yue, the girl who was possessed by you. What on earth has befallen her?” Qin Lie exclaimed.

“I haven’t lied to you about her. She really is fine. I’ve even left some of the secrets of frost inside her mind. When she wakes up, she’ll discover that she is perfectly fine. In fact, she’ll discover that she had obtained a better way to circulate her powers. Overall, it was a good trade for her,” the Ice Phoenix spoke slowly and calmly. “After the Graveyard of Gods had collapsed, my soul had fused with my true body and wasn’t nearly as hurt as it is now. At that time, the Demon Sealing Tombstone no longer posed any threat to me. Therefore, I had no use for the girl’s body. Naturally, there was no reason for me to hang around her body for long either.”

“Is that the absolute truth?”

“I have no reason to lie to you.”

“Why does your bloodline possess the circulation technique of the Ice Emperor’s frost powers? What do you know about the Ice Emperor?” Qin Lie asked again.

“My senior was the Ice Emperor’s closest friend. If we are to go by the definition of you humans, I guess my senior can be counted as the Ice Emperor’s… spirit pet.” Ice Phoenix bit its lip and uttered the words reluctantly.

Qin Lie had guessed this from the beginning. He urged, “Continue.”

“I only know that the Ice Emperor, Flame Emperor, and Thunder Emperor were renowned as the three emperors, and that they were the equal of the five Progenitors. They all possessed exceptional abilities. However, I’ve never seen the Ice Emperor before. Everything I know was told to me by my mother after she had given birth to me,” the Ice Phoenix continued, “When my mother had me, she left the Ice Emperor on her lonesome and went into an auxillary world where Ice Phoenixes gathered. It was there she went to a long period of pregnancy before she finally gave birth to me.”

“But not long after that, while I was still young, the Heaven Fighting Race found our world and attacked us. All adult Ice Phoenixes were captured alive and taken into the Heaven Fighting Race’s auxiliary worlds, where they were penned up and raised together with other high rank spirits like the giant dragons and turned into spirit meat that could restore their bloodline powers. Since I was born at a higher rank, possessed extraordinary intelligence, and was able to cultivate the power of frost, I was posted inside the Graveyard of Gods as the ice spirit who stood guard over the Forbidden Land of Ice.”

“I’ve never seen the Ice Emperor, and I know little about his past. My mother didn’t get to tell me too much about him before the Heaven Fighting Race had attacked us.”

“After that, everything was over. My mother was captured alive and taken away. I was turned into the ice spirit and given the responsibility to guard the Forbidden Land of Ice forever.”

The Ice Phoenix said quietly with a bowed head and sorrowful expression.

“I see…” Qin Lie nodded, thought for a moment, and continued, “Let’s change the subject. What kind of agreement did you have with the first voodoo creature? Also, how many secrets of the Graveyard of Gods do you know?”

The Ice Phoenix didn’t answer immediately. She thought deeply for a moment as if she was choosing her words.

It was a long time later before she finally told Qin Lie what she knew through a slightly awkward sounding human language.