Spirit Realm

The lamps above everyone’s heads were shattered by the astral lightning and the sword rays. The originally bright hall was suddenly devoid of light.

The only light that remained came from the four open doors.

Li Rong screamed.

“What happened?”

A voice came from the second floor, and four figures appeared at the stairs. Of the four, one was Zhao Xuan of Joyful Union Sect, and one was Zhang Chendong of Eight Extreme Temple.

The one who had spoken was a middle-aged man with a face as white as jade. He was Han Xing, the president and founder of Blue Star Association.

Next to Han Xing was a youth in blue robes who was around twenty six years old. He also had the special insignia of Heavenly Sword Mountain on his chest.

His name was Luo Chen, and he was at the peak of the Netherpassage Realm. He was the leader of Heavenly Sword Mountain’s young generation.

Luo Cheng’s grandmother was Luo Nan, a wielder of one of the five “Heavenly Swords” of Heavenly Sword Mountain. She was one of Heavenly Sword Mountain’s most powerful individuals.

Li Rong and the other six martial practitioners had come here with Luo Chen.

Luo Chen had made a special trip to Sea Moon Island to see Zhao Xuan of Joyful Union Sect and Zhang Chendong of Eight Extreme Temple.

These two had become acquainted with Luo Chen with the help of their superiors at Eight Extreme Temple and Joyful Union Sect.

Luo Chen was meeting up with Zhao Xuan and Zhang Chendong for the Trial that was about to be held. Luo Chen was going to participate in the Trial as a ringer.

Zhao Xuan and Zhang Chendong each received a sword token from Li Mu and were qualified to participate in the Trial, but they were not confident that they would survive.

As a result, with Zhao Changsheng’s and Li Yi’s arrangements, they joined Luo Chen. They were going to become members of Luo Chen’s group and follow him in the hopes that their chances of survival would increase.

Luo Chen knew that the other Silver rank forces would also send ringers to enter the Trial.

In order to be the champion of the Trial, Luo Chen needed to recruit strong individuals, so Zhao Xuan, and Zhang Chendong could be considered a good match for him.

Today, with the arrangements of Blue Star Association President Han Xing, the three of them met for the first time on the top floor of this large hall.

They had been conversing happily, when they heard the sound of fighting from downstairs. Han Xing and Luo Chen were both cunning people. They did not pay attention to the battle below and continued to talk.

It was only when Li Rong screamed that Luo Chen frowned and stopped his conversation with Zhao Xuan and Zhang Chendong to descend from the top floor.

“Get a lamp!” Han Xing shouted.

New lamps floated from the entrance to the second floor and were once again above people’s heads.

The large hall became bright again.

“Hm?!

Exclamations of shock resounded throughout the hall as people turned to look at Li Rong.

Rubble covered the ground at the center of the hall. Three enormous pits that the hammer had made were clearly visible.

Li Rong’s chest was covered in blood. He was down on one knee, hate covering his face as he stared at his sword and howled in anger

His longsword had been smashed to pieces by the Astral Thunder Hammer.

This long sword was an Earth Grade One spirit artifact, and Li Rong had cherished it like it was his own life. Since the blade of the sword had been shattered, the spirit diagrams inside had naturally been destroyed. To Li Rong, this was a nightmare.

Along with his wounded body, Li Rong felt as if the sword being shattered had happened to him. He hated Qin Lie to the bone.

“Where is that person?” People searched for Qin Lie.

“Damn it! That person took the Astral Thunder Hammer when he left and didn’t even pay a single spirit stone!” Behind the crystal cupboard, Chang He started to curse.

“What happened?” Han Xing glared at Chang He.

“A boy wanted to buy the Astral Thunder Hammer. When he was trying to bargain with me, he offended Master Li, and the two fought…” Chang He wanted to cry as he looked at Han Xing dejectedly, explaining, “H-he slipped away in the darkness and also took the Astral Thunder Hammer.”

“President, all eighteen lamps were completely shattered. They were worth four thousand Earth Grade spirit stones,” a martial practitioner of Blue Star Association that was hanging up the new lamps carefully mentioned.

Han Xing, the present of Blue Star Association, wore an expression of fury on his face. He hollered, “Are all of you stupid? Don’t you know how to search? Find this person, damn it! I want him to pay for this even if I have to skin him!”

Numerous Blue Star Association martial practitioners shot away like lightning and went to search for traces of Qin Lie in every corner of Sea Moon Trade Group.

“Your sword has been shattered, Li Rong. You probably won’t be able to recover you original strength any time soon.” Luo Chen’s voice was cold. He looked at Li Rong with a frown and spoke bluntly. “It is more important for you to recover. Give up on the current Trial. Oh, hand over the sword token. I need to pick someone else.”

The other young martial practitioners of Heavenly Sword Mountain beside Li Rong looked at him with his shattered sword, experiencing some schadenfreude.

“Senior Brother Luo! I… I can still participate.” Li Rong panicked.

Luo Chen shook his head. His expression became slightly colder, and he extended a hand, saying, “The sword token!”

Li Rong pursed his lips. After a moment of thought, he did not dare to resist and meekly handed over a sword token.

“Brother Zhao, Brother Zhang, let us go up and continue what we were doing.” Luo Chen turned and nodded at Zhao Xuan and Zhang Chendong. He did not spare another look at Li Rong as he walked back to the upper level.

The other six Heavenly Sword Mountain martial practitioners ignored Li Rong as they followed Luo Chen up the stairs in a relaxed manner.

With his sword shattered, the wounded Li Rong didn’t seem like the person that had come in with them.

In their eyes, Li Rong had immediately become a stranger, and with an unspoken understanding, they excluded him.

Li Rong’s chest ached. He felt deep regret. Having ended up in such a terrible situation, he regretted offending Qin Lie.

……

Outside Sea Moon Trade Group.

Having returned to his actual appearance, Qin Lie wore a long black robe as he casually walked along a crowded street.

Song Tingyu had changed her appearance and was ten meters away from him. She bit her lip as she followed him, watching him with amusement.

The moment that the lamps inside of Sea Moon Trade Group’s hall had exploded, Qin Lie had taken advantage of the chaos to tear off his fox skin mask. When he passed by Song Tingyu, he notified her in a small voice.

Having always worked well together, the two left in the darkness one after the other. Before other people could react, they had secretly left Sea Moon Trade Group.

One hour later, the two met up at a Profound Heaven Alliance base.

“Qin Lie, oh Qin Lie, you are rotten to the core!”

Sing Tingyu pushed open the door to the room that Qin Lie was in. She took off her mask, a moving smile on her charming face.

Inside the room, Qin Lie smiled as he held the Astral Thunder Hammer and fiddled with it fondly. Without looking at her he said, “I like this Astral Thunder Hammer.”

“You didn’t pay a single spirit stone for it,” Song Tingyu said with a smile.

Qin Lie raised his head when he heard this, surprise on his face as he said, “What? Didn’t you say that you were going to pay for it on my behalf? Did you not throw down the spirit stones when you left? Are you that immoral?”

Song Tingyu was both irritated and amused. “You told me to leave quickly! When would I have had the time to throw down the spirit stones? What if I I return to the Sea Moon Business Association now and pay them?”

“Well, I think the value of those lamps is higher than that of this Astral Thunder Hammer. You can pay for those as well.” Qin Lie laughed strangely. He slapped his head and said, “Oh, I forgot! I also shattered that guy’s sword. Since you’re so generous, pay for that as well.”

“Bastard! I’m going to ignore you!” Song TIngyu giggled and rolled her eyes at him. “You’re so shameless!”

“That guy was the one who was asking for it, why are you blaming me?” Qin Lie grunted coldly and said, “I was fine where I was. He offended me! Wasn’t he asking for it?”

“Ah. Celestial Artifact Sect is searching for you everywhere, then you offended Heavenly Sword Mountain and Blue Star Association. If your identity is discovered, I don’t know how many people on Sea Moon Island will be trying to kill you,” Song Tingyu scolded.

“Don’t worry. We will immediately leave Sea Moon Island as soon as I fix the spirit diagrams inside of this Astral Thunder Hammer and forge Terminator Profound Bombs, ” Qin Lie said indifferently.

“You can fix the spirit diagrams inside of it?” Song Tingyu was surprised.

“If I couldn’t fix them, would I have wasted so much time on that person? Would that rabid mutt from Heavenly Sword Mountain have targeted me?” Qin Lie laughed happily.

“This Astral Thunder Hammer was originally an Earth Grade spirit artifact. If it could be fixed, would the artificers from Blue Star Association have ignored it?” Song Tingyu was even more surprised. “Qin Lie, even Mo Hai wouldn’t be able to! Why are you so confident?”

She could not believe it.

Qin Lie smiled and did not say anything.

……