Spirit Realm

Sitting high atop a Spirit Hunting Beast, the three Horned Demon elites with six horns, Ku Luo, Kang Meng, and Duo Luo, moved past the river lush with Demon Cleansing Orchids with Qin Lie and arrived at the desolate mountain.

Song Yu and the others from Profound Heaven Alliance grew serious the moment they saw the arrival of the Spirit Hunting Beasts.

“Qin Lie, long time no see.” Song Yu wore a calm look and smiled at Qin Lie after he arrived, beckoning him to come down.

“How have you been, Alliance Chief Song?” Qin Lie greeted him in return.

He looked at Ku Luo.

Ku Luo’s thin, tall body slightly shook atop the Spirit Hunting Beast. A tremendous, seeping soul energy that felt like dense air slowly covered the surrounding area, penetrating into the mountain and deep into the ground.

Riding the Spirit Hunting Beasts, Ka Meng, Duo Luo, and the quartet of Horned Demon warriors with five horns were silent and motionless.

They were waiting for Ku Luo to finish his soul detection.

Song Yu, Xie Yaoyang, and Nie Yun looked each other in the eyes and said nothing, instead quietly waiting for Ku Luo.

Beneath the night sky, formless ripples surged through the air, and anyone who was sensitive to the touch of the soul would know that Ku Luo’s immense soul was spreading around their bodies like a spider web.

A while later, Ku Luo looked beneath Song Yu’s feet.

Song Yu only needed to lock eyes with Ku Luo once to know what he meant. He immediately nodded at Song Siyuan and instructed, “Have the men take it out.”

Qin Lie, Ku Luo, and the others continued to sit on the Spirit Hunting Beast. The wings of the Spirit Hunting Beast, which were as black as a bat’s, continuously flapped in the air.

They did not immediately descend toward the desolate mountain.

“Open.”

Song Siyuan pressed a hand to the stony ground of the desolate mountain and exclaimed with a calm expression. Distinct cracks began to appear on the rocky mountain face, spreading out from his palm.

“Krak krak krak!”

Gigantic rocks shattered as Song Siyuan’s arm was like a drill that stabbed deep into the mountain.

After a loud bang, a deep, dark cave appeared at the top of the mountain. Ku Lu, withered, ghastly, and trapped inside of a cage made from cold iron, appeared from inside.

Blood stained chains penetrated Ku Lu’s shoulder blades and shackled him to the cage. Large steel nails pinned his feet to the ground so that he would not be able to move.

The stone cave shattered and Song Siyuan picked up the prison, which was as large as a house, and put it on top of the desolate mountain.

“Aooooo!”

Ku Lu, seeing the open sky once more and noticing Ku Luo, Ka Meng, and Duo Luo under the night sky, became angry instead of joyful. He actually howled madly at the trio.

“Uncle Ku Lu!”

Upon seeing his terrible visage, Ka Meng and Duo Luo cried out softly in the language of Nether Realm with wet eyes.

Ku Luo’s body shuddered as he stared blankly at his younger brother, examining the terrible wounds on his body and his horrible appearance.

He didn’t need a second look to know that his brother had been inhumanly tortured during his imprisonment.

The ghostfire in Ku Luo’s eyes stared darkly at Song Yu, Xie Yaoyang, and Nie Yun. The hatred behind it was obvious.

“Hmph!” Nie Yun, the Nie Family patriarch, smiled coldly under Ku Luo’s gaze. He obviously did not care about Ku Luo’s hatred.

“Aooooo!” Ku Lu cried out yet again.

Qin Lie lowered his head and noticed that there was a bright silver collar locked around his long, thin neck. The collar shone with a cold metallic luster and would constrict every time Ku Lu tried to speak.

Ku Luo obviously had something to say since he had howled twice upon seeing Ku Luo and the others.

However, the collar would immediately constrict when he howled, stopping him from uttering words no matter how much he tried. It was as if someone were gripping his neck.

“The three Profound Yin Nine Leaf Lotuses!”

Nie Yun’s eyes were cold. He frowned, staring at Ku Luo on the Spirit Hunting Beast. He looked as if he wanted this to be over with as soon as possible and did not wish to waste any more time.

“What do you mean by this?” Qin Lie asked with a cold expression.

Ku Lu did not have such a collar around his neck when they last saw him. Now that he was about to be released, Profound Heaven Alliance had actually put a collar on him, preventing him from even being able to speak.

“We can see that he is not willing to exchange his own life for the Profound Yin Nine Leaf Lotuses. To prevent him from disrupting this exchange, we had no choice but to prevent him from speaking.” Song Yu opened his arms and expressed his helplessness. Then he narrowed his eyes and pointed at Ku Luo. “Talk to him. Tell him we need to complete this exchange as soon as possible to avoid being noticed and attracting unnecessary trouble.”

“Ngggggggh…” Ku Lu struggled on the inside of the cage. His eyes were grim and he seemed like he wanted to say something.

“Qin Lie! Tell them to release the hostage first!” Ku Luo suppressed the manic anger in his heart. His shoulders shook, and it seemed as though wisps of souls were writhing within his eyes, burning with ghostfire.

His current appearance was extremely terrifying.

“Release the hostage first.” Qin Lie looked at Song Yu.

“Give us the Profound Yin Nine Leaf Lotuses first!” Nie Han said coldly.

Qin Lie did not look at him. He only looked at Song Yu with a dark expression, exclaiming in a low tone, “Alliance Chief Song!”

“Siyuan, release the hostage first!” Song Yu did not waste time on the matter and waved his hand, taking the lead to show good will.

Seeing that he had spoken, both Nie Yun and Xie Yaoyang no longer said anything.

Under everyone’s gaze, Song Siyuan opened the cage with a key and broke all of the chains around Ku Lu’s shoulder blades as well.

“There you go.” Song Siyuan was candid and he lifted Ku Lu with one hand, throwing him into the sky.

Ku Lu, who had almost exhausted all of his strength, was tossed up into the sky by Song Siyuan. Ku Luo personally rode the Spirit Hunting Beast over to grab him and ignored his furious struggling, forcefully pressing down on him to stop him from acting recklessly.

“The Profound Yin Nine Leaf Lotuses!” Nie Yun exclaimed yet again.

“Uncle!” Ka Meng looked at Ku Luo.

Ku Luo nodded and said, “Give it to him.”

So Ka Meng tossed out three black jade boxes in the direction of Song Yu, Xie Yaoyang, and Nie Yun. His face, however, was filled with cold hatred.

The moment they saw the boxes falling toward them, Song Yu, Xie Yaoyang, and Nie Yun could hardly conceal the mad joy in their eyes.

The trio extended their hands in unison, each taking a single black jade box. They carefully opened the lid of their respective box and took one glance inside before abruptly covering them.

They looked each other in the eye and saw satisfaction in everyone’s gazes.

“Qin Lie, thank you for referring us to the people of the Horned Demon Race.” In a good mood, Song Yu smiled calmly before saying, “If you still wish to return to the Song Family, you could become a Moon rank foreign delegate if you wanted. I would not overlook a single contribution point that I’ve promised you.”

“Return to Profound Heaven Alliance?” Qin Lie’s expression was odd. “Every martial practitioner in the Scarlet Tide Continent currently sees me as a traitor. Even if I dared to go back, would you really dare to accept me?”

“Why not?” Song Yu’s smile made him look cunning as he said cheerfully, “I will tell Joyful Union Sect and Eight Extreme Temple that you are the hero that Profound Heaven Alliance had arranged to infiltrate the Horned Demon Race. Furthermore, not only have you gotten us the Profound Yin Nine Leaf Lotuses, you’ve even assisted us by bringing the three elites of the Horned Demon Race to this place. This is a great achievement, son. Even Joyful Union Sect and Eight Extreme Temple cannot deny your worth or the help that you’ve been.”

“Alliance Chief Song, what do you mean by that?” Qin Lie felt that something wasn’t right.

Song Tingyu was also shocked as she exclaimed, “Father!”

At this moment, Nie Yun, the Nie Family’s patriarch, laughed wickedly. He said coldly, “An evil race is an evil race! Even if they have traded with us, the evil races are still the public enemies of the Scarlet Tide Continent! We, Profound Heaven Alliance, naturally have to slaughter every member of the evil races at any cost!”

“The exchange is now over. From now on, Profound Heaven Alliance and the evil races are still enemies!” Xie Yaoyang, the Xie Family patriarch who had been silent the entire time, said.

“Boom!”

Suddenly, a deafening roar came from the direction of Flame Volcano.

Although they were very far from it, every powerful individual present could still feel the earthshaking vibrations emanating from that area. The impact was so violent that it could crumble a mountain, sunder the land, and even destroy space itself!

“The Terminator Profound Bombs!”

Qin Lie and Song Tingyu screamed out at almost the same time.

“You!” Qin Lie roared in anger. His eyes immediately went blood red as he stared at Song Tingyu with an overwhelmingly cruel face.

Song Tingyu shuddered as if she had suffered a great blow before turning around and looking at Song Yu. She lost control and screamed, “Father, what have you done?”

A few days ago, she had exchanged the Scarlet Spirit Turtle’s blood and some rare spirit materials for some Terminator Profound Bombs from Qin Lie’s hands. When she returned to Profound Heaven Alliance, she immediately gave them to Song Yu.

At the time, while holding the Terminator Profound Bombs, Song Yu had happily declared that the heavens were on his side.

Song Tingyu did not think much of it back then.

Yet, as she listened to the deafening explosion from the direction of Flame Volcano, she immediately realized that Song Yu had already used the Terminator Profound Bombs.

—He had used the Terminator Profound Bombs to kill the evil races!

“Ah, Tingyu. The Terminator Profound Bombs you brought us were truly a great help,” Nie Yun laughed oddly as he answered for Song Yu. “The three strongest six horned warriors of the Horned Demon Race are all here making the exchange with us, so this is the moment that the evil nether passageway’s defenses are at their weakest. Hehe, this is why Eight Extreme Temple has seized this opportunity to destroy the evil nether passageway with the Terminator Profound Bombs, preventing the evil races of the Nether Realm from coming to the Scarlet Tide Continent, and stopping the evil race elites who are already here from ever returning!”

“Father!” Song Tingyu roared angrily.

Song Yu looked somewhat regretful as he comforted her. “You have shared hardship with Qin Lie in the Nether Realm. I was afraid that you would not cooperate with us, so I kept it from you. Profound Heaven Alliance, Eight Extreme Temple, and Joyful Union Sect have already come to an agreement to eliminate the evil races at all costs. Meanwhile, we have also acquired the Profound Yin Nine Leaf Lotuses from the six horned elites. Since we attacked them after the exchange was completed, it cannot be considered going back on our word.”

He smiled at Qin Lie and said, “Qin Lie, don’t worry. I will explain your connections with the evil races and say that you were just assisting us in striking at the heart of the evil races. You can return to Profound Heaven Alliance once this is over, no longer needing to worry about being the continent’s public enemy.”

Qin Lie’s expression, however, was one of absolute savagery as he stared at the three patriarchs of Profound Heaven Alliance with dead eyes, exclaiming harshly, “Good. Very good, Profound Heaven Alliance!”

“Uoooh!”

The Horned Demon elites, Ku Luo, Ka Meng and Duo Luo, all howled in anger and distress as they rode their Spirit Hunting Beasts, seeking to immediately return in the direction of the evil nether passageway.

“I’m sorry. Even after this exchange, we are still enemies.” Song Yu said indifferently.

Nie Yun was the first to laugh wildly.

……