Spirit Realm

At an unknown space of the outer realms.

There were many giant starships flying through the infinite stars like star beasts.

Four brawny and robust-looking men seemed to pass through a series of light tunnel before suddenly appearing inside the room of a starship. They were all clansmen of the God Race.

Three huge tombstones had immediately flown out of the body of three men the moment they had appeared.

The tombstones had crisscrossing lines of blood on their surface, and they were emanating ripples of soul energy from time to time. They hovered quietly above the three men’s heads.

The three tombstone holders were narrowing their eyes and perceiving something with their soul.

A very long time later, Yu Xi of the Light Family grabbed the Flesh Filling Tombstone from the air and stuffed it back into his body.

“It’s Han Che.” He looked at the only man who hadn’t produced a Flesh Filling Tombstone and explained, “The Profound Ice Family has entered Spirit Realm ahead of time, and the way Han Che had phrased it… it was a trap. Not only that, he said that Qin Lie, a member of your family seems to be the mastermind behind everything. He also has Mia in captivity. Right now Han Che is inside the abyss passageway, and he wishes to know what sort of relationship the Blaze Family and that rather reputable Qin Lie share.”

The other two men had put away their Flesh Filling Tombstones and were staring inquiringly at Lieyan Zhao as well.

“Qin Lie is that person’s grandson,” Lieyan Zhao replied indifferently.

Lieyan Zhao was a brawny man with red hair that reached past his shoulders. His entire body emanated with heat that made him feel like a volcano that was constantly spewing lava at every moment.

“For now, this Qin Lie has no relations to the Blaze Family, but… I have no idea what the future brings either.” Lieyan Zhao pondered for a moment before continuing unhurriedly, “Some time ago, that person had visited me and asked for that Ancient Life Tree.”

An Hao of the Darkness Family looked interested, “You mean the Spirit Realm Wood Race’s Ancient Life Tree?”

“That’s right,” Lieyan Zhao replied.

Yu Xi and Kuang Jue of the Bloodthirst Family shot a look of puzzlement at him simultaneously.

Both the Light Family and Bloodthirst Family hadn’t participated in the invasion of Spirit Realm thirty thousand years ago. Therefore, their knowledge of Spirit Realm was half-baked at best.

They didn’t know what that Ancient Life Tree represented.

But An Hao was different. As the patriarch of the Darkness Family, he knew many secrets relating to Spirit Realm because he had fought alongside Lieyan Yuan thirty thousand years ago.

Moreover, he also used to be close friends with Lieyan Yuan. In fact, he knew Lieyan Yuan better than Lieyan Zhao, the current patriarch of the Blaze Family himself.

“The Spirit Realm’s Ancient Life Tree contains an extremely mysterious lifeforce. The Wood Race of Spirit Realm is in fact born from the Ancient Life Tree.” An Hao looked down and pondered for a moment before continuing seriously, “Back then, he had come to the conclusion that the Ancient Life Tree is connected to the ‘Life Origin’ after a careful examination. The Ancient Life Tree is also the final piece of the puzzle that is the Perfect Blood project.”

An Hao fell silent after that. He looked like he was digging deeper into his memories.

The other three patriarchs waited quietly for him to speak up again with solemn expressions.

The silence lasted for a long while before An Hao finally continued, “Unfortunately, the Perfect Blood project he had set in motion back then had failed before he even reached the stage where the Ancient Life Tree could be used.”

An Hao looked up, and his dark, lightless eyes seemed to flash once. “If he’s asking for that Ancient Life Tree now… does that mean that project has reached the final phase?”

All three God Race patriarchs raised their eyebrows at An Hao’s assumption.

“That doesn’t sound too likely, does it?” Kuang Jue of the Bloodthirst Family shook his head. “No one has heard of him for the past twenty thousand years, and no one knows where he’s hiding at. If the project was a success, he would’ve returned home openly and retaken everything he had lost. In fact, the elders would be happy to appoint him as the new leader of our race. He would’ve been able to reassume control of everything.”

“If that project really does succeed, then… our race may just be able to become the absolute ruler of the infinite universe in a hundred thousand years.” Yu Xi of the Light Family inhaled once before continuing, “If what you’re saying is true, then there is nothing that can stop him from making an impressive return. Not only will he become patriarch of the Blaze Family once more, we ourselves will happily recommend him as the God King of our race.”

“God King…” An Hao tugged at the corner of his lips. “No doubt he has coveted the throne since a long time ago. Had he succeeded in conquering Spirit Realm completely, increasing the Blaze Family’s strength to a certain threshold using Spirit Realm and completing the Perfect Blood project, he would have definitely had a chance to become the God King of our race.”

“The throne has been empty for far, far too long. I will deliver him myself if he is able to prove his ability!” Kuang Jue’s lips split into a wide, sinister grin. “Of course, he would have to work harder to prove his worth! He must also resist a combined attack from all four of us before he can truly make it to the God King’s throne!”

While the four patriarchs were still discussing with one another, Han Che was hesitating about something inside the abyss passageway.

He thought long and hard about the matter, but he ultimately let out a sigh and sent another soul message to the four patriarchs through the Flesh Filling Tombstone.

At first, he was planning to keep this secret to himself and use it to benefit Mia and the Profound Ice Family.

Unfortunately, Mia had gone missing since, and Qin Lie had shown up at exactly the black hole that lead to Spirit Realm.

Moreover, the Profound Ice Family was currently trapped in Spirit Realm, and Qin Lie was clearly acting in an untrustworthy manner. He wouldn’t have ran away immediately after he saw him and Bing Hui otherwise.

He had no choice but to reveal the important secret.

An Hao, Yu Xi, and Kuang Jue took out their Flesh Filling Tombstones again after they sensed the new message.

They executed a secret art to listen to Han Che’s message.

“What?!”

This time, all three patriarchs had turned pale with shock and screamed before they realized it.

Their eyes continued to shine with the light of disbelief, and they looked absolutely excited even after they had withdrawn the Flesh Filling Tombstones.

“What is it?” Lieyan Zhao asked.

“That Qin Lie has awakened the Profound Ice Family bloodline and ‘Absolute Zero’!” Yu Xi exclaimed.

Lieyan Zhao shook violently in response.

There had never been a God Race clansman who possessed multiple bloodline attributes. Not a single one!

The most basic prerequisite of the Perfect Blood was that all five bloodline attributes must appear on a single person.

This was also the aspiration behind the Perfect Blood project.

However, back when An Hao was still in Spirit Realm, the only result he saw were semi-successful test subjects who came to possess the bloodline traits of some races in Spirit Realm.

Moreover, every youngster who had been experimented on and granted some additional bloodline traits all died in a short time.

Not a single one of them were able to live for long.

In the end, the repeated failures and the massive amount of deaths incurred in both the Blaze Family and the Darkness Family drove An Hao to turn against Lieyan Yuan.

He came to believe that the Perfect Blood project was a mistake from the beginning, and that there was no longer any need to continue it further. From that moment onwards, he had become the enemy of Lieyan Yuan.

Some Blaze Family members had also thought that Lieyan Yuan was a madman because of the many deaths of their kin.

While the Hundred Races of Spirit Realm were uniting as one to drive both the Darkness Family and Blaze Family away from Spirit Realm, the God Race was in fact already imploding on the inside. Moreover, it was an internal strife that couldn’t be resolved in any way.

Lieyan Yuan was pushed aside by both An Hao and the Blaze Family members who had come under Lieyan Zhao’s rule.

Moreover, An Hao and Lieyan Zhao’s activities were secretly approved by the other three families who hadn’t taken part in the invasion. The elders all believed that the project had failed, and that there was no need to continue it any further.

Moreover, they believed that Lieyan Yuan had unshirkable responsibility regarding the massive deaths behind the project.

Originally, Lieyan Yuan was supposed to be trialed publicly after the God Race had evacuated from Spirit Realm.

However, he had used the excuse of protecting the God Race’s retreat and vanished during his battle against the experts of Spirit Realm.

To this day, An Hao, Lieyan Zhao, Yu Xi, and Kuang Jue all believed that Lieyan Yuan had left because he knew that he would face a public trial the moment he returned home. He hadn’t wanted to resign himself to his fate.

In reality, that was the truth.

In the end, all of Lieyan Yuan’s troubles had started because of the project’s failure.

Not only had he expended much resources to gather the blood essences of every race in Spirit Realm, he had driven the Hundred Races into rebellion with his atrocities and even murdered many of his kin when his kind had already had difficulty reproducing in the first place, all for the sake of continuing the project.

However, there just wasn’t light at the end of the tunnel. Despite all the time and sacrifices he had made, he wasn’t able to prove that it was possible to focus all five bloodline attributes of the God Race on a single person.

That was the biggest reason why the elders of the God Race had ultimately chosen to give up on the project.

Once the elders were certain that the project was doomed, they started pursuing Lieyan Yuan for his failures.

Everything had turned out the way it was because of his failure. Things would’ve been very different otherwise.

Things were different now, however. Not only did they receive news that Qin Lie, Lieyan Yuan’s grandson, had somehow awakened the Profound Ice Family bloodline, he had even awakened a core ability “Absolute Zero”! This was enough to prove that the project wasn’t a complete failure after all!

“He was asking for the Ancient Life Tree, wasn’t he? Does that mean that the project has… truly succeeded?” Lieyan Zhao looked dazed. “Were we wrong? Would we have benefited from the project if we had just given him a bit more time?”

An Hao inhaled deeply before he declared, “This matter is of the utmost importance. I suggest that we speak to our elders immediately!”

“In addition, Qin Lie must stay alive, whatever his relation to the Blaze Family is!” Yu Xi added.

“I will contact Han Che immediately and inform him to keep Qin Lie alive! As for his daughter Mia…” An Hao’s eyebrows wrinkled once before he continued, “I think she’s far less important than Qin Lie.”

“Agreed!”

“Agreed!”

“Agreed!”

All three patriarchs nodded in succession before urging An Hao to send the message to Han Che immediately, demanding the latter to keep Qin Lie alive at all costs.