Spirit Realm

“Sword Leaf Boat” was the actual name for Blue Star Association’s willow leaf boat. It was an Earth Grade two “sea spirit artifact,” and a boat like it cost up to two hundred Earth Grade spirit stones.

Sword Leaf Boats used spirit stones as fuel, and their exterior resembled fish swimming in the sea. They were light, easy to control, and fast.

The large ship that Qin Lie was riding wasn’t better just because it was several times bigger than a Sword Leaf Boat. If the two competed in speed, endurance, and destructive power, then the large ship would be far outmatched by the Sword Leaf Boat!

In fact, the value of one Sword Leaf Boat exceeded that of the ship beneath Qin Lie’s feet.

At this moment, there were many gigantic whirlpools in the sea before them, which was dyed a fiery red by the evening light. Enormous tidal waves were like mountains rising from the sea. A giant copper hand suddenly reached out from the center of a whirlpool. It continuously stirred the sea’s surface, creating many terrifying tidal waves.

One after another, the Sword Leaf Boats were overwhelmed by the gigantic waves that resembled sea demons.

The Blue Star Association martial practitioners immediately released terrible screams. Qin Lie concentrated and realized that, in the instant that the Sword Leaf Boats were touched by the giant hand, they would explode as if they had disintegrated.

The metallic body of the ship instantly shattered to pieces and floated on the water’s surface.

The giant copper hand continuously stirred the sea’s surface, causing many giant whirlpools to rampage like typhoons. They swallowed up countless numbers of Blue Association martial practitioners.

“Run away!”

Be it the Blue Star Association martial practitioners or the ones on the ship with Qin Lie, everyone was screaming and crying out loudly.

Standing atop the deck and watching the giant wave surging towards him, Qin Lie swiftly calmed down his mind.

He knew that it was already too late to escape.

This large ship carried both spirit materials and people, so its carrying capacity wasn’t bad. Its speed, however… did not deserve praise.

After a moment of observation, Qin Lie could see that the top speed of the Sword Leaf Boats far surpassed that of this large ship three or four times over!

Yet even the Blue Star Association martial practitioners on those boats could not escape while the giant copper hand was stirring the surface of the sea. How could this large ship possibly avoid it?

“Bang bang bang! Boom boom boom!”

The waves were like a gigantic sea demon opening its mouth, destroying, swallowing, and crushing the Sword Leaf Boats.

The Blue Star Association martial practitioners were all desperately screaming, terrified that they would be swallowed by the whirlpools. They wore expressions of intense fear on their faces, and they swam through the surface of the sea like their lives depended on it, trying to escape the gigantic whirlpools as fast as possible.

However, those whirlpools, which looked like giant flower buds, were swiftly sweeping through the area. It was as if they possessed basic consciousnesses as they searched everywhere for the scattered Blue Star Association martial practitioners.

One of the gigantic whirlpools suddenly paused as if it had found a new target!

The whirlpool on the sea’s surface was like a spinning abyss that quickly headed straight for the large ship that Qin Lie was on.

The faces of everyone on the ship went white. They all shouted loudly for the ship to go faster.

Seeing that the situation was grim, Qin Lie’s face darkened. Without hesitation, he became the first person on the ship to jump into the sea.

Wisps of cold, white mist emerged from his pores to form a white frost that shot at the sea water beneath him.

“Krak!”

The freezing power of Frost Arts swifty formed ice from the sea water.

Qin Lie landed on the solid ice, and without even looking at the ship behind him, he immediately pushed his spirit energy to his feet and quickly fled far away. The ice beneath him looking like a blade of ice across the sea.

He knew that the situation would not bode well for the martial practitioners who did not jump into the sea in time.

“Jump!”

“Jump!”

Someone cried out, diving head first into the sea while yelling.

With Qin Lie leading, many people also understood the situation and recognized that a cumbersome ship carrying spirit materials could not escape the waves and gigantic whirlpools.

They followed closely behind Qin Lie, jumping off the ship to grasp at even the tiniest chance of survival.

“Boom!”

A gigantic wave dozens of meters long suddenly crashed down while people were jumping from the ship.

The ship’s frail deck immediately fractured and exploded under its impact. The large ship fell apart…

…and the martial practitioners were exposed.

The gigantic whirlpool on the surging sea opened its giant, terrifying mouth once more and swallowed all of the martial practitioners who did not manage to leave the ship in time.

At this time, Qin Lie was only five hundred meters away from the ruined ship.

When he turned to look back, he noticed that most of the martial practitioners who had been on the same ship as him had all vanished into the center of the whirlpool.

He immediately withdrew his melancholic gaze, and without wasting any more time on thinking, left this tragic place as fast as he could.

He desperately rushed the entire time.

Fifteen minutes later, Qin Lie arrived in an area where the surface of the sea was calm. He listened carefully, also releasing his mind consciousness to investigate.

With a thought, his mind consciousness flew out of his Soul Lake like tendrils, writhing and extending like shapeless lightning toward an area of the sea in front of him.

The writhing tendrils were like the fingers of his soul, moving, sensing, and searching for danger.

Surprisingly, the terrifying commotion in front of him seemed to have slowly calmed down.

He could vaguely hear the voices of the Blue Star Association martial practitioners who survived the disaster. He could detect a tremendous number of life energies.

“It’s over?”

Qin Lie was speechless. After a moment of thought, he rode the solid ice beneath his feet and slowly drifted forward.

“Swish swish swish!”

Qin Lie heard numerous Sword Leaf Boats returning from every direction. They were also headed toward the area in front of him.

Those Sword Leaf Boats had escaped after recognizing the danger in time, just like he did earlier. The Blue Star Association martial practitioners must have learned that the commotion was over by now, which was why they had returned to check out the situation.

A Sword Leaf Boat suddenly appeared beside Qin Lie. Three martial practitioners who appeared tired were standing on top of this Sword Leaf Boat—they were the ones from earlier who had urged everyone to turn back.

“My friend, the commotion is over. It would be best for you to not continue any further. If possible, you should circle around this area and head toward Spirit Eagle Island later on. This commotion occurs every so often.”

The soft spoken Blue Star Association martial practitioner kindly advised Qin Lie from where he stood atop the Sword Leaf Boat.

“Just what is going on?” Qin Lie asked curiously.

“It’s nothing.” The guy smiled faintly, obviously refusing to answer him.

“I saw a giant copper hand emerge from a whirlpool. Just what was that thing?” Qin Lie did not give up and asked again.

“Kid, I suggest you suppress curiosity! This matter is a secret of our Blue Star Association, and it would be best for you to not ask about what you shouldn’t ask about!” The youth named Kong Xiang snorted coldly.

“Oh. I’ll go and take a look for myself then.” Qin Lie did not think anything of this person at all.

Qin Lie needed to go to the Land of Chaos, and to do that, he needed spirit stones to pay for the voyage. According to Xue Li’s explanation, he currently lacked a lot of spirit stones.

Before arriving at Spirit Eagle Island, it would be best for him to gather the spirit stones he needed as soon as possible before it got in the way of his journey.

Earlier, the explosion of the large ship caused many martial practitioners to be sucked into the whirlpool. A portion of these martial practitioners had also been killed by the waves, so there were a lot of fresh corpses floating on the surface of the sea.

He wanted to go and see if he could gather the spirit stones he lacked from the corpses.

This was why he insisted on going.

“Reckless fool!” Seeing that Qin Lie showed no appreciation for their kindness whatsoever, Kong Xiang’s face became cold, and he looked like he was going to attack Qin Lie.

“Never mind, never mind.” Qiu Yun waved his hands, stopped his hooting, and smiled. “We have more important business, remember?”

“You got lucky today, brat!” Kong Xiang snorted. The Sword Leaf Boat suddenly sped up and shot away like lightning.

Qin Lie grinned and let out a chuckle. He did not think anything of Kong Xiang’s threat. Controlling the solid ice beneath his feet with spirit energy, he calmly approached the area of the sea ahead of him.

Before long, he saw the remains of the boat he had ridden and numerous floating corpses.

There were also plenty of wrecked Sword Leaf Boats and corpses of Blue Star Association martial practitioners mixed in.

“Gather the Sword Leaf Boats and have our people carry the bodies on them. Inspect some of those corpses and see if there’s anyone alive,” the gentle Qiu Yun said loudly after arriving.

The Blue Star Association martial practitioners began to gather the unmanned Sword Leaf Boats. While directing the Sword Leaf Boats, they began to roam the area and stop beside every floating corpse, looting their riches and sneakily stuffing them into their pockets.

These dead people were originally heading to Sea Moon Island to purchase spirit artifacts and rare spirit materials.

These people carried either a lot of spirit stones, or precious spirit materials with them. The people of the Blue Star Association knew that the so-called corpse inspection to see if anyone was alive was, in fact, an excuse to profit from the riches of dead men.

“What the fuck are you doing? That’s my dead cousin! Get my cousin’s belongings out of your pockets!”

“That’s my nephew! The spirit materials we brought on this trip are on his body. Give me back what’s ours!”

“F*ck you! How dare Blue Star Association profit from the riches of dead men!”

Plenty of people had jumped into the sea after Qin Lie and survived by holding on to wooden boards. Just when they were counting their lucky stars for avoiding disaster, they discovered that the Blue Star Association martial practitioners were looting the floating corpses.

These people shared close connections with the deceased, and some of the riches on the deceased even belonged to them in the first place.

The moment they saw that the Blue Star Association martial practitioners were actually taking all of those riches for themselves, their eyes immediately became bloodshot as they cursed.

“Shut up, you f*ckers! You say that these floating corpses are related to you, but how are you going to prove it?” Kong Xiang was now riding a Sword Leaf Boat alone, and with a cold expression, he swore at the survivors holding on to wooden boards.

“Blue Star Association will gather and sort out all of these possessions so that the people who are truly related to the deceased can come and collect them,” Qiu Yun explained to the crowd with a gentle smile. “When you come to Sea Moon Island and are able to prove your connection to the deceased, we will then return their possessions to you.”

“Who do you think you’re trying to cheat? Do you really think we’re blind? We saw you stuffing everything into your pockets!”

“What are you doing? Do you think all of us are stupid?”

“Don’t you think you’re being too immoral?”

The survivors saw everything clearly, so there was no way they would be fooled by some words. They immediately hollered and swore loudly.

“Brother Yun, what do you think?” Kong Xiang came over and looked toward Qiu Yun after a moment of hesitation.

Qiu Yun, who had been presenting himself as a kindly person the entire time, frowned at this moment. Then he shook his head and sighed softly, saying, “If they insist on seeking their own deaths, the blame shall not fall on us. We will do it the old way.”

“Kill all of them in case they blabber about things in the future!” Kong Xiang laughed coldly.

The Sword Leaf Boats suddenly sped toward the survivors. The Blue Star Association martial practitioners took out their spirit artifacts, smiling coldly.