Spirit Realm

After playing and eating their fill, the three strange beings returned to the Soul Suppressing Orb and went quiet.

Qin Lie used his soul consciousness to try and peer into the depth of the Soul Suppressing Orb and immediately saw the three tiny beings sleeping within. They had yet to go deeper than the space where the four ancient diagrams hovered and were sleeping near them.

The small Fire Qilin radiated a faint scarlet aura of extremely potent fire energy.

In much the same way, the little wooden person gave off a verdant aura that contained a strong life force.

As for the Thunder Crystal Beast, it exuded an eye-catching electric aura. If one were to listen closely, the rumbling of thunder could be heard resonating from its tiny body.

After a moment of hesitation, Qin Lie decided not to disturb the three slumbering beings. He also refrained from refining the blood essences of the other three spirits.

“I’m heading below to check on Gao Yu,” Qin Lie said as he left the room.

When he opened the door and entered the hallway, the door to Xing Yao’s room coincidentally opened as well. Xing Yao emerged and glanced at Qin Lie as he walked away, then silently followed him, her eyes trained on his figure.

Since her set of rooms was right beside Qin Lie’s, she had felt the energy fluctuations of the three entities flying out of the Soul Suppressing Orb and happily playing around.

This had piqued her curiosity.

In addition to that, she was worried that Qin Lie had asked for information about Gold Sun Island, so she blatantly followed him and observed his every move.

Qin Lie ignored her as he walked down the hall to the stairs and descended to the lowest level of the ship.

Qin Lie soon began to hear voices.

In a filthy corner of the vast, chaos-filled room that made up the lowest level, amongst the intermingling smells of sweat and piss, Qin Lie saw Gao Yu, Luo Chen, and Du Xiangyang.

“Qin… Xing Lie!” Du Xiangyang shouted as soon as he saw Qin Lie.

Du Xiangyang greeted Qin Lie loudly, but was forced to change his words when he saw Xing Yao behind him.

“How have the past two days been?” Qin Lie asked as he moved to them, a smile on his face.

“You’ve seen the conditions we’ve had to endure,” Du Xiangyang said, a bitter, pained expression on his face.

Gao Yu and Luo Chen, on the other hand, remained silent. Both of them were similar in personality and only nodded slightly to acknowledge Qin Lie. They didn’t complain like Du Xiangyang did.

However, from the way that both of them furrowed their brows, Qin Lie could tell that they also weren’t satisfied with their current accommodations.

Qin Lie turned around and gestured to Xing Yao with a smile on his face.

“My dear niece…” he said. “Could you help move my three friends here to more… comfortable quarters? Even you can see how horrible the conditions here are, right? You are, after all, covering your nose. I can clearly see the disgust on your face.”

When Xing Yao followed Qin Lie through the room, she had actually put a hand to her face, her expression twisting in revulsion.

This level of the ship had originally been hectic and restless, but the moment Xing Yao appeared, several Netherpassage and Manifestation Realm martial practitioners of Gold Sun Island converged on the area. This resulted in the atmosphere calming considerably.

Everyone silently focused on the area she was in.

Seeing Qin Lie gesture toward the young miss of Gold Sun Island and refer to her as his “dear niece,” the subservient smiles on their faces were replaced with strange expressions.

“There’s nowhere for them to be moved!” Xing Yao sneered. Then, after pausing for a moment, she said, “Furthermore, I’m not your dear niece! You’re not a member of my Xing Family!”

“Your aunt and Enforcer Guo have confirmed that I am. Why do you still not accept it?” Qin Lie laughed, then sarcastically said, “Earlier, in front of your aunt, did you not call me your dear uncle?”

As Qin Lie said this, all of the Gold Sun Island martial practitioners staring at him became dazed, their eyes filling with respect.

“As long as my father doesn’t acknowledge it, you are not a member of my Xing Family!” Xing Yao declared, steeling her resolve.

Qin Lie chuckled. “He will acknowledge it.”

“You don’t need to worry about us,” Gao Yu suddenly said. He could tell why Qin Lie had come to them. “We’re fine. No one here can harm us.”

He glanced at the Gold Sun Island martial practitioners around them then said, “Go. Focus on your own business.”

“Still… please help us move elsewhere if possible,” Du Xiangyang pleaded. “We don’t need to be in the top level of the ship. Just the middle level would be enough.”

“I’ll try,” Qin Lie replied.

As they spoke, Xing Wu emerged from the stairwell and approached Qin Lie.

“Xing Lie,” he said. “Big sister would like a word with you. She’s at the training area of the second level.”

“Alright.” Qin Lie nodded.

He followed Xing Wu to the large training area on the second level of the ship. Upon arrival, he saw countless early stage Fulfillment and peak Netherpassage Realm martial practitioners of Gold Sun Island cultivating, polishing their spirit arts, and discussing ways to break through bottlenecks.

Xing Shengnan, who resembled a mountain of meat, currently sat in the midst of several Fulfillment Realm martial practitioners, explaining what they would need to be careful of when breaking through to the next realm.

Xing Shengnan was currently in the early stage of the Fragmentation Realm. Since no one else here had a higher realm, she was qualified to teach others.

Only then did Qin Lie realize that, although Xing Shengnan’s bulk seemed rather unsightly, she was still a warm-hearted person.

Xing Shengnan painstakingly dealt with every question that the martial practitioners presented to her, carefully explaining every detail of her answers without reservation.

She even patiently answered the questions of several nearby peak Netherpassage Realm martial practitioners nearby who had come over seeking her guidance.

Qin Lie could see from the eyes of every Gold Sun Island martial practitioner that they truly respected this woman and trusted her words.

The moment she saw Qin Lie, Xing Shengnan chuckled heartily and waved at him from a distance.

“Little Lie, you’ve come!” she exclaimed.

Qin Lie smiled a broad, toothy grin as he leisurely walked over and asked, “Were you looking for me, big sister?”

“Yes, I was,” she answered. “It seems to me like you’ve just broken through to the late stage of the Netherpassage Realm and have yet to stabilize it. I called for you because I wanted to let you know what to focus on during this time. The path of your cultivation will be a smooth and straightforward as a result.”

Xing Shengnan gestured for Qin Lie to take a seat on the floor, then turned to the people around her. She had been helping them earlier, and now introduced them.

“This is Liu Qing, and this is Fang He,” she said, pointing to the men one by one. “The one over there is Hu Yun. All of them are in the late stage of the Fulfillment Realm and will soon break through.”

Xing Shengnan then pointed to Qin Lie, her expression growing bright as she introduced him to the others. “This is Xing Lie. He is the biological grandson of my seventh grandfather, the closest family member of my Xing Family!”

“So it is Young Master Lie!”

“Greetings, Young Master Lie!”

“Greetings, Young Master Lie!”

Seeing how formal Xing Shengnan had become, the three men didn’t dare waste time and quickly greeted Qin Lie in a respectful manner.

“You’re too kind! All of you are too kind.” Qin Lie became flustered and waved his hands. “In the past, I cultivated deep within the mountains of the Heavenly Calamity Continent. It was only recently that I emerged and took a ship to the Heavenly Slaughter Continent. There is much that I have yet to understand, so I hope that all of you will take care of me.”

Upon hearing that Qin Lie had been cultivating deep in the mountains, traces of scorn appeared in the eyes of the three late stage Fulfillment Realm practitioners.

The foundation of the path of cultivation was based on the accumulation of experiences. One needed to constantly practice, exchange ideas, and partake in combat to break through to higher realms. They needed to do all three of those things equally and cultivate proper spirit arts, strengthening themselves, and be lucky enough to advance continuously.

In the eyes of these three, Qin Lie was just a boy who had been cultivating deep in the mountains for his entire life that never had any opportunities to exchange ideas or engage in combat with other people. The possibility of him having fortunate encounters or rich experiences was just was nonexistent.

A martial practitioner who only knew how to cultivate would possess mediocre strength at best. They wouldn’t be able to shine in anyone’s eyes.

Although they respected Qin Lie’s status as a member of the Xing Family, they considered Qin Lie himself insignificant.

—They didn’t believe that Qin Lie would be able to inspire them in any way.

“Little Lie, since you cultivated in solitude, your knowledge and experience are most likely… greatly inadequate,” Xing Shengnan said, sighing softly. “I, myself, also need to cultivate, so I cannot personally guide you all the time. So, from this day forth, you must come to this level of the ship and ask your seniors to personally teach you about the secrets of cultivating.”

“Yes, big sister,” Qin Lie promised obediently. “I will.”

“The late stage of the Netherpassage Realm focuses on the condensation of one’s True Soul and the accumulation of soul energy. Only by repeatedly cleansing and tempering the True Soul can one’s capacity for soul energy reach the amount needed to get a glimpse of the bottleneck before the Fulfillment Realm.” Xing Shengnan pondered for a moment, then continued, “You have only just entered the late stage of the Netherpassage Realm. Don’t be in a rush to condense your True Soul. Be patient. Only when your spirit sea is bright and clear should you begin using your spirit energy to temper and refine your body. This will allow you to stabilize your realm in a quick, efficient manner.”

Qin Lie knew that Xing Shengnan was speaking from experience, so he carefully committed all of her valuable teachings to memory, nodding his head in agreement the entire time.

“Big brother will be here in two days. He should have several True Soul nourishing pills with him,” Xing Shengnan said. “Once he arrives, I’ll help you ask for one.”

Even with the three other men present, Xing Shengnan didn’t hide a thing and clearly expressed her concern for Qin Lie.

“Yes!” Qin Lie said with a smile. “Then I will first thank big sister.”

Ignoring everyone else, Xing Shengnan continued to explain all of the matters that Netherpassage Realm practitioners needed to pay attention to, speaking to Qin Lie without stopping.

Once she couldn’t think of anything else to explain, she stood up.

“It’s getting late,” she said. “Let’s call it a night. Ah, that’s right. Little Lie, come over again tomorrow. I’ll get some basic spirit arts for you to take a look at. We’ll see if we can find any that suit you.”

“Alright.” Qin Lie nodded yet again.

“I’ll be going up first. Don’t be in too much of a hurry. Take this time to speak with your seniors and listen to the experiences they had when breaking through the Netherpassage Realm to the Fulfillment Realm. It will be very helpful to you.” Xing Shengnan then turned to the others and said, “I ask that all of you spend some time and help Little Lie. It hasn’t been easy for my little brother.”

“Yes, of course! We will, we absolutely will.”

Before Xing Shengnan, the three men had no choice but to nod in agreement. However, that wasn’t necessarily what they were thinking.

Today’s original plan was for Xing Shengnan to help and instruct them. Yet with Qin Lie’s arrival, Xing Shengnan seemed to have completely forgotten about them, diverting all her time and effort to helping Qin Lie.

This had already made the three of them silently curse their luck.

Then, even after that, Xing Shengnan asked for them to help Qin Lie continue learning. This naturally pissed them off even more.

“Alright, I’m leaving.”

In spite of her gargantuan size, Xing Shengnan disappeared in the blink of an eye, her steps as light as air.

After Xing Shengnan left, Liu Qing stood up as well, stretching his back.

“Well I still have matters to attend to,” he said, taking his leave. “Fang He. Hu Yun. You two discuss matters with Young Master Lie, okay?”

Immediately afterward, Fang He spoke up as well. “The time has come for me to go and gather spirit energy. My apologies Young Master Lie, but perhaps we can talk tomorrow.”

Without waiting for Qin Lie to so much as nod in response, Fang He got to his feet, dusted himself off, and also left. He clearly didn’t want to waste any time with Qin Lie.

Then Hu Yun opened his mouth too. “I…”

Qin Lie’s expression sunk as he suddenly sneered, “You have something to do as well, right? I understand. Farewell.”

Although he had already stood up and was about to leave, Hu Yun saw Qin Lie’s expression and sighed subconsciously. He silently cursed Liu Qing and Fang He for leaving so quickly.

“To be honest… it’s nothing,” he said, sitting back down. “Well, if Young Master Lie has any questions, please ask.”