Spirit Realm

“Qin Lie… are you still going to continue waiting?” Xue Moyan asked.

Xue Moyan had been watching from the sidelines for a very long time. After seeing Black Cloud Palace and Heavenly Sea Pavilion begin their slaughter of the Xing Family, she could no longer suppress herself.

Qin Lie didn’t answer immediately.

He focused his attention on the surface of the sea below, releasing a wisp of mind consciousness and using it to probe the water.

Tiny sparks of electricity flashed through his eyes every so often.

Qin Lie narrowed his eyes. A strange feeling came over him as he discovered that the speed at which he released his soul consciousness was faster than he expected.

An idea suddenly occurred to him, and he had his soul consciousness sink into the depths of the sea like a tentacle. He used it to examine the sea for signs of activity.

He found plankton, fish, and fresh corpses underwater. He could even clearly sense the fragments of their consciousnesses dissipating.

His soul consciousness reflected all of this into his Soul Lake.

The range of his soul perception was now several times larger than it used to be. Now it could cover a more expansive area!

Qin Lie currently stood atop a Flowing Gold Fire Phoenix at least several hundred meters above the sea… yet he could sense the tiniest of changes in its depths.

“Netherpassage… netherpassage…” Qin Lie muttered to himself, carefully thinking the matter through. “So this is what netherpassage truly means…”

“How much longer do we have to wait?” Xue Moyan hurriedly asked again.

The tiny sparks of electricity in QIn Lie’s eyes slowly faded. He cast a sideways glance at Xue Moyan and said, “You guys should stay here. We can’t be careless just yet, so I’ll be the first to go down there.”

“You’re going down there?” Song Tingyu asked in surprise.

Black Cloud Palace and Sea Pavilion were currently engaged in pitched battle with the Xing Family. Countless martial practitioners were going to die in this fight.

The possibility of something happening to Qin Lie or him getting accidentally injured was extremely high.

Song Tingyu was worried about him. After a moment of thought, she said, “Let me go with you.”

“No need, just stay here!” Qin Lie shook his head, a smile on his face. “I’m a meddler, so I naturally know how to protect myself. Don’t worry!”

Qin Lie immediately left the wooden building and leaped onto a crystalline war chariot, preventing them from trying to persuade him any further.

He had long since memorized how to control such a chariot. The moment he entered the war chariot, it roared to life and swiftly descended from the Flowing Gold Fire Phoenix.

Song Tingyu gritted her teeth. “That bastard!”

“Relax!” Du Xiangyang said lazily, clearly not worried about Qin Lie at all. “There’s no way he’ll get hurt. Xiang Xi probably told Black Cloud Palace and Heavenly Pavilion about Qin Lie’s ‘backer.’ That Xiahou Sheng should know too.”

“You mean Terminator Sect?” Luo Chen asked in surprise.

“Hahahah! Of course I’m talking about Terminator Sect. You couldn’t possibly be thinking that Blood Fiend Sect would influence them in any way, right?” Du Xiangyang smiled and glanced at Xue Moyan. Then he calmly said, “Blood Fiend Sect in its current state is nothing to be afraid of, after all. Black Voodoo Cult and the three great families are particularly aware of that.”

“Would they really yield to him because of Terminator Sect?” Song Tingyu asked, somewhat shocked.

“They believe that Forefather Terminator is Qin Lie’s backer,” Du Xiangyang said, an easygoing expression on his face. “Heh… in all of the Land of Chaos, not many people would dare to offend him.”

Only after Du Xiangyang explained this did Song Tingyu finally relax.

“That being said…” Du Xiangyang continued. “I’m pretty sure that Qin Lie is planning to butt heads with those people, so…”

Frowns returned to everyone’s faces as his voice trailed off.

Around a hundred crystalline chariots glowed with impressive translucent light, making them look like enormous crystal lamps in the sky. They rumbled as they descended upon the Xing brothers’ Flowing Gold Fire Phoenix.

Explosions reverberated from that flying spirit artifact, and it immediately erupted in flames.

Many Xing Family clansmen and Gold Sun Island martial practitioners loyal to the Xing Family had already begun engaging the enemy.

At the same time, numerous Sword Leaf Boats surrounded the Wavebreaker where Xing Yao and the others were. Chains shot from boats and smashed into the ship, tethering them tightly. Figures then disembarked from the boats, using those chains to climb aboard.

Guo Yanzheng took a deep breath. “Are you certain you don’t want to leave, First Miss?”

He and Qi Jing had already made up their minds to grievously wound or kill any enemies that came at them even if they died in the process..

“Yes, I’m certain.” Xing Yao’s face was pale. Despair now occupied her originally bright eyes. “I am not my father, my uncle, or my aunt. I am not talented at cultivating, nor do I have impressive skills. Even if I manage to barely survive this, I won’t be able to revive the Xing Family or avenge them by fighting the three great families. In light of that, I might as well die with everyone.”

“I see that you aren’t completely oblivious, Miss Xing.”

A derisive voice echoed from a corner of the deck. A youth leading a group of Black Cloud Palace experts walked over.

This youth was called Zheng Yun and was none other than the youngest son of Black Cloud Palace’s palace master. He was at the peak of the Netherpassage Realm, only one step away from the Fulfillment Realm.

“Back off!” a Xing Family clansman shouted angrily, attacking Zheng Yun with glittering silver daggers that looked like dense fish scales.

“Watch out, young palace master!” a person behind Zheng Yun cried out.

“Haha!” Zheng Yun laughed as a giant pitch black flag suddenly emerged from the back of his neck.

Black clouds covered this pitch black flag. It radiated cold spirit energy.

“Whoosh!”

A strange humanoid spirit beast suddenly appeared atop the giant flag. It was pitch black and had tentacles all over its body.

This spirit beast seemed as if it had been imprisoned within the black flag for years. When it saw the shower of silver daggers flying toward it, it trembled violently, using its tentacles like whips and lashing at the incoming assault.

The dozen or so daggers shattered as soon as the tentacles struck them. Not a single one of them hit Zheng Yun.

The enormous black flag roared, engulfing the Xing Family clansman like a cluster of black clouds.

“Krak! K-krak!”

After a series of disturbing noises rang through the air, blood dripped from the flag.

Before that Xing Family clansman could even scream, the demonic spirit beast within that enormous flag actually consumed him.

The entire time this took place, Zheng Yun hadn’t even bothered to look at his victim. He laughed loudly and walked straight toward Xing Yao.

“Long time no see,” he said.

Xing Yao’s face was pale.

“My father once attempted to repair the relationship between our Black Cloud Palace and your Gold Sun Island through a political marriage. Back then, he told me to marry you and take you back to Black Cloud Palace.” Zheng Yun sighed. He then regretfully said, “It’s unfortunate that you don’t consider me marriage material.”

The Black Cloud Palace elders standing behind him wore sinister smiles on their faces.

“Young palace master!” one of them said. “You can still marry her and make her your bride for one night! Hehehe!”

All of the Fulfilment Realm elders of Black Cloud Palace began laughing and wickedly, voicing their agreement.

Their words made Xing Yao’s pretty face twist in anger and shame. “Zheng Yun! Even if doing so means immediate death, I refuse to do as you wish!”

“Oh! Oh no. Please, don’t. Don’t be angry!” Zheng Yun exclaimed in pretend panic. “I couldn’t possibly let you die, could I?

“Heheh! Even if you have to die, you should die after everyone else does, right?” Dropping the act, Zheng Yun looked behind him and viciously said, “Starting with Guo Yanzheng and Qi Jing, kill everyone but Miss Xing!”

The moment he gave this order, Black Cloud Palace’s elders immediately charged toward the Xing Family clansmen, ferociously beginning their bloody work.

At nearly the same time, Heavenly Sea Pavilion martial practitioners had climbed aboard the other ship and begun their slaughter.

“Bang!”

A crystalline war chariot suddenly plunged from the sky and crashed between the martial practitioners of Black Cloud Palace and the Xing Family clansmen.

The terrifying impact shattered that section of the tough wooden deck and sent bits of wood flying.

The people near Zheng Yun couldn’t help but cover their faces to avoid the sharp debris.

“Who goes there?” Zheng Yun yelled coldly.

“It’s that boy who pretended to be a member of the Xing Family!” Qi Jing exclaimed in astonishment.

Qin Lie jumped from the war chariot as wood scattered across the deck, suddenly appearing beside Xing Yao and Guo Yanzheng.

Qin Lie flashed a bright smile and nodded at Zheng Yun politely, saying, “Xiang Xi promised to have this little bitch service me. I’m quite sorry about this, but you wouldn’t take what I was promised, would you?”

“Who are you?” Zheng Yun frowned slightly.

A yellow-faced Black Cloud Palace elder moved closer to Zheng Yun, a meaningful look in his eyes, and whispered to him. “This person is a direct disciple of Forefather Terminator. Within Terminator Sect, he’s even more important than that Chu Li.”

Obvious fear leaked from Zheng Yun’s eyes.

Qin Lie grinned at the Black Cloud palace martial practitioners, casually fishing a couple of Terminator Profound Bombs from his spatial ring and playing with them.

Dense sparks of electricity coursed through these metallic balls. The ferocious thunder energy they contained was extremely shocking.

“Terminator Profound Bombs!”

All the Black Cloud Palace martial practitioners and Xing Family clansmen cried out at the same time. The faces of everyone on both sides turned ugly.

Zheng Yun hastily put on a smile. “Haha… brother, what are you…?”

Qin Lie nodded and winked at Zheng Yun, saying, “You understand, right?”

Zheng Yun had no choice but to maintain the smile on his face. Although this turn of events depressed him, he obediently set the delicious piece of meat in his mouth back down.

“A gentleman doesn’t take what isn’t theirs,” he said. “Since Enforcer Xiang already promised Xing Yao to you, I can only resign myself and part with her.”

After learning of Qin Lie’s “true” identity, no matter how much he wanted to obtain Xing Yao, Zheng Yun had no choice but to give her up.

Black Cloud Palace was just a Copper rank force. In fact, just to survive up to this point, they had to attach themselves to Black Voodoo Cult. Compared to Terminator Sect, a force who controlled the entire Heavenly Silence Continent alone, Black Cloud Palace was nothing at all.

He believed that Qin Lie was the direct disciple of Terminator Forefather. He would have to be crazy to try and snatch what Qin Lie wanted.

“Thank you!” Qin Lie saluted Zheng Yun pretentiously, clasping a fist with a palm.

All of a sudden, Xing Yao exploded and pounced at Qin Lie like a madwoman.

“I’ll kill you!” she shrieked.

She hated Qin Lie even more than she hated Zheng Yun. This fake Xing Family clansman had sown so much discord amongst her people and pushed her to the limit again and again. Now that he was going to take her for himself, Xing Yao could no longer tolerate him for even one second more.

But she was only in the middle stage of the Netherpassage Realm.

She said it herself: her talent in cultivating was ordinary, and her skills were average at best. He strength was nothing impressive.

She was absolutely harmless to Qin Lie.

Qin Lie simply smiled and watched Xing Yao take a stance that resembled a bird, her eyes shining with bone-deep hatred. A chirping sound echoed through the air, and spirit energy gushed from her palm, taking the form of an ethereal emerald bird.

“Riiip!”

The ethereal bird swiped at Qin Lie’s chest, tearing his clothes and leaving deep indentations on his skin.

However, the attack couldn’t even break through his skin.

Making a pulling gesture in front of him, Qin Lie pulled Xing Yao to his side and summoned countless chains of lightning into existence. They wrapped around Xing Yao, restraining her.

Just like that, Xing Yao was instantly subdued.