Spirit Realm

“You have no need to be surprised. The moment your human race martial practitioners enter the Nirvana Realm, their lifespan will be massively increased. If they don’t experience a fiendish rebound or aren’t killed in combat, then it isn’t a problem for a martial practitioner of the Nirvana Realm to live a thousand years or two.”

Seeing Qin Lie become alarmed over nothing serious, Ku Luo could not help but explain, “After a martial practitioner has ascended from the Nirvana Realm to the Imperishable Realm, they will be able to live even longer. Every breakthrough extends a martial practitioner’s lifespan, so there is no need to be surprised at all.”

“My grandfather said that he would help you build a teleportation formation. Was it completed?” Qin Lie asked again.

“It was.” When the matter was brought up, Ku Luo sighed quietly. “It is in the belly of a mountain named ‘Herb Mountain.’ I sent my younger brother Ku Lu to confirm its completion, but Ku Lu has not replied since. His fate is fraught with grim possibilities.”

“Herb Mountain!” Qin Lie’s expression changed.

“You know of that place?” Ku Luo said in surprise.

“I’ve been cultivating within Herb Mountain all this time!” Qin Lie stared at Ku Luo and frowned deeply. “Before I left Herb Mountain, I destroyed a strange formation according to my grandfather’s instructions. Could I have destroyed the same formation that you mentioned?”

“Probably not.” Ku Luo shook his head. “There should be another within that formation. The teleportation formation should still exist within Herb Mountain. Since the Venerable One promised us this, he definitely wouldn’t allow you to destroy it. What you destroyed is probably not the real teleportation formation.”

Qin Lie suddenly recalled Ku Lu.

From what Song Yu had told him, Ku Lu charged out of the Nether Battlefield many years ago, breaking through the numerous defense lines set up by Eight Extreme Temple and Profound Heaven Alliance before madly rushing toward the position of Nebula Pavilion. Along the way, he killed plenty of Profound Heaven Alliance experts.

In the end, Ku Lu was severely injured by the combined strength of Song Yu, Nie Han, Xie Yaoyang, and other Profound Heaven Alliance experts three hundred miles away from Ling Town. Since then, he had been locked away in Profound Heaven Alliance’s prison.

When he connected this with Ku Luo’s words, Qin Lie abruptly came to a realization.

Ku Lu hadn’t been headed toward Nebula Pavilion, but Herb Mountain at Ling Town. He had been trying to confirm the teleportation formation’s location and destination!

“Your younger brother, Ku Lu, isn’t dead. He is jailed within Profound Heaven Alliance’s prison and heavily shackled,” Qin Lie suddenly said. “I’d met him a few days ago and spoke with him.”

Ku Luo’s eyes brightened as wild joy appeared on his face. He said repeatedly, “It’s good that he’s alive! It’s good that he’s alive!”

“I was already planning to search for you. Profound Heaven Alliance’s three patriarchs want to exchange the Profound Yin Nine Leaf Lotus for the life of your brother, Ku Lu.” Qin Lie explained, “The three patriarchs of Profound Heaven Alliance are all in the Fragmentation Realm. They plan to use the Profound Yin Nine Leaf Lotus to resist the corrosion of the Nirvana Fire. However, the Scarlet Tide Continent’s martial practitioners have fought you and viewed you as fearsome monsters for so long that even these important people in Profound Heaven Alliance did not dare to trade with you openly. So, they quietly asked me to help sort things out…”

Qin Lie smiled bitterly and shook his head. “As a result, while Ling Yushi was cultivating the Nine Hell Evil Scripture deep inside the poisonous bog, she accidentally attracted the nether demonic energy. That same nether demonic energy attracted Profound Heaven Alliance, Eight Extreme Temple, and Joyful Union Sect’s attention. They followed it to our location and discovered the Ling Family’s abnormality…”

He opened his hands and said with a look of helplessness, “Right now I, Blood Spear, and the Ling Family have all become public enemies of the continent… as your spies.”

“Our race does have the Profound Yin Nine Leaf Lotus. I am extremely willing to exchange this for my younger brother’s life!” Ku Luo said with blazing eyes.

“It’s too late. The identity of the Ling Family has been exposed. Blood Spear and I have also been branded as spies of the evil race. Even if we currently want to trade with Profound Heaven Alliance, they’d probably be too afraid to do so.” Qin Lie sighed on the inside.

“Does the Venerable One… know about the Ling Family’s existence? Do they know about their background?” Ku Luo pondered for a moment before staring at Qin Lie somewhat strangely. “What is your relationship with the Ling Family, anyway?”

“Let’s just put it this way. Herb Mountain… is right beside Ling Town. The place my grandfather and I temporarily stayed at was precisely the Ling Town we first arrived at in the Scarlet Tide Continent...” Qin Lie smiled slightly. “I’ve recently seen an octagonal-shaped White Bone Nether Spirit Altar behind Herb Mountain. I’ve even received a message, and the sender of that message also left the first volume of the Nine Hell Evil Scripture inside the White Bone Nether Spirit Altar. If my assumption isn’t wrong, then that first volume was prepared for the Ling Family clansmen by my grandfather. The people who inscribed the White Bone Nether Spirit Altar was probably an eight horned elite of your Horned Demon Race!”

“An octagonal-shaped White Bone Nether Spirit Altar and the first volume of the Nine Hell Evil Scripture!” Ku Luo turned pale from shock. “Are you sure?”

“One hundred percent sure!” Qin Lie said.

Ku Luo suddenly grew excited and laughed strangely. “He actually didn’t die. He actually still lives!”

“Who?” Qin Lie asked.

“He is a senior of my race. We all thought that he had perished long ago, but we never thought that he would still be alive… No wonder he never showed up in the Nether Realm in the past three thousand years. He never came back in the first place—he stayed in Spirit Realm and did not leave!” Ku Luo appeared incredibly excited.

Duo Luo and Ka Meng, who had been listening to Qin Lie and Ku Luo conversing this entire time, also became incredibly excited at this moment.

“What’s with the Ling Family, anyway?” Qin Lie frowned and asked.

“Uncle, it’s about time to talk with the Ling Family, isn’t it?” Ka Meng said.

Ku Luo nodded and walked out of the hidden room with Qin Lie. They arrived in front of the Ling Family inside the cave.

Ling Yushi and the others looked a little worried. They all seemed to be frowning slightly and looked incredibly anxious.

They had no clue about their own identities at all and wanted to know the answer as soon as possible, yet they were afraid that their identities being of the evil races would also be confirmed.

“Among all the races in the Nether Realm, there is one race that was born with the blood of the Evil God inside them!” After saying this, Ku Luo stared deeply at Ling Yushi, Ling Xuanxuan, Ling Feng, and other Ling Family clansmen who possessed purple eyes. He then exclaimed in a soft tone, “This race is called the Dark Nether Race. They are the kings of all the races in the Nether Realm! The five Evil Gods of the Nether Realm are the result of Dark Nether Race elites evolving!”

Ling Xuanxuan and Ling Feng looked confused. They did not understand the language of the Nether Realm. Ling Yushi, however, wore a look of surprise and actually asked in the language of Nether Realm, “The Dark Nether Race?”

After merging with the first volume of the Nine Hell Evil Scripture, not only could she understand the language of the Nether Realm... she could also speak it.

“The Dark Nether Race?” Qin Lie also looked confused.

“That’s right, you are a part of the Dark Nether Race!” The ghastly flames inside of Ku Luo’s eyes burned as he stared deeply at Ling Yushi and said, “For the longest time, the strongest race in the Nether Realm has always been the Dark Nether Race. They always held power over the Horned Demon Race, the Ghost Eye Race, and the Dark Shadow Race. If it weren’t for the Dark Nether Race’s internal strife causing their already small population to become completely extinct, we may not have lost the war three thousand years ago!”

“The Dark Nether Race has already perished?” Qin Lie was shocked.

“They died a long time ago.” Ku Luo’s expression was bitter. “The Nether Continent was developed by none other than the Dark Nether Race. The Dark Nether Race is very similar to your human race save for their purple hair, purple eyes, and purple blood. These are the only differences between your race and the Dark Nether Race.”

Seeing the shocked and doubtful-looking Qin Lie and Ling Yushi, Ku Luo continued to explain quietly.

“The Dark Nether Race has always encountered difficulty with reproduction, so their population was already small in the first place. Even then, the sparsely populated Dark Nether Race was still the ruler and absolute overlord of all the races in the Nether Realm!

“Every member of the Dark Nether Race is born with extraordinary talent and an incredibly acute sense for nether demonic energy. They are natural warriors from birth. A normal Dark Nether Race baby is born two to three times stronger than than the babies of other races, and they also have the absolute advantage when it comes to cultivation talent.

“Furthermore, those of the the Dark Nether Race who are born with purple blood are god’s beloved children and the Evil God’s favorite children! When those with the blood of the Evil God within them grow to a certain extent and become able to completely activate the blood of the Evil God inside of them, they will be able to transform into an Evil God and essentially become a true Evil God!

“The five Evil Gods we worship were once people of the Dark Nether Race as well. They were all Dark Nether Race elites with purple blood flowing inside of them! It is exactly because they are as powerful as gods and have purple blood inside their bodies that this blood is called the blood of the Evil God! Every member of the Dark Nether Race that has purple blood flowing inside them are the Evil God’s children, and they all might be able to transform into an Evil God in the future!

“Unfortunately, conflict in their ranks caused this powerful race’s already small population to decline toward extinction.

“Three thousand years ago, when our three powerful races warred against Sky Mender Palace, the Dark Nether Race had already perished many years before. Otherwise, with the Dark Nether Race commanding the three powerful races, and their own intervention, we may not have lost to Sky Mender Palace so badly!”

Ku Luo, Duo Luo, and the trio of six horned elites under Ka Meng’s command were also staring at the Ling Family clansmen with high expectations.

“Yushi, why was the Ling Family at Ling Town? How much do you know about... your ancestors?” Qin Lie turned his head and asked her.

Ling Yushi’s purple eyes flashed as she shook her head slightly under Qin Lie’s gaze. “We know nothing about our own background.”

“You guys didn’t know that the Dark Nether Race was alive and in other continents of Spirit Realm no less?” Qin Lie asked Ku Luo again.

Ku Luo also shook his head. “We are not certain. Even our race’s scriptures documented the demise of the Dark Nether Race, saying that no new Evil Gods would be born in the future. This is known by all the races in Nether Realm as a matter of deep regret.”

“Yet the Ling Family obviously exists and... the Dark Nether Race obviously isn’t extinct. How do you explain this?” Qin Lie asked again.

“The Venerable One might know.”

“Grandpa Qin Shan might know why.”

After a pause, both Ku Luo and Ling Yushi simultaneously exclaimed softly, casting doubt on Qin Lie’s grandfather, Qin Shan.

Upon hearing their words, Qin Lie came to realization.

Their assumptions were not wrong. His grandfather had requested the Nine Hell Evil Scripture from the eight horned elites of the Horned Demon Race. He had taken Qin Lie with him and temporarily stayed in Ling Town. He had built the teleportation formation in Herb Mountain and even once told Ling Feng that if his eyes and hair one day turned purple, he shouldn’t panic...

It was obvious that his grandfather had come to Ling Town because he knew about the Ling Family’s identity.

Unfortunately, since his grandfather wasn’t here, none of Qin Lie’s doubts and questions could be answered.

……