Spirit Realm

Time passed, and yet another half a month went by.

Over the course of that half-month, Qin Lie had collected over two hundred Heavenly Flame Crystals of varying sizes, seven tokens, and seven spatial rings.

At this moment, he had tokens from Heavenly Sword Mountain, Black Voodoo Cult, Ten Thousand Beast Mountain, and the Xiahou Family. Using the tokens of these four forces, he would be able to sense the movements of their martial practitioners within a certain distance.

In the same way, the martial practitioners of the four forces could track him within a certain distance through the tokens in his possession.

When Qin Lie used the three drops of refined blood to seek out the Heavenly Flame Crystals, he often borrowed the tombstone to cultivate the Blood Spirit Art and enhance the purity of his blood spirit energy. By doing this, he continuously tempered his body and nurtured his True Soul.

“This land of fire stretches across several thousand kilometers. I’ve already gone through all of that and collected all of the Heavenly Flame Crystals and the tokens of victims I could find. This place has long since become devoid of life, so it’s about time for me to leave.”

When Qin Lie traveled throughout the entire land of fire and gathered enough Heavenly Flame Crystals and tokens, he was not able to sense anybody through the tokens.

So he went to a lush forest nearby that was the exact opposite of the land of fire.

Ancient trees made up this thriving forest. Every tree was at least several dozens of meters tall, and their branches and leaves resembled dark clouds that shrouded the sky. This made the forest seem mysteriously dark.

“There isn’t enough worldly spirit energy in this fresh air for me to use for recovery or cultivation Spirit stones still are my only option.”

Stepping into the vast forest, Qin Lie took out four tokens from Heavenly Sword Mountain, Black Voodoo Cult, Ten Thousand Beast Mountain, and the Xiahou Family. He hung them around his waist, preparing to sense activity in his surroundings at a moment’s notice.

He walked beneath the ancient trees alone, appearing both confident and relaxed.

The three refined blood that he had acquired from the land of fire were powerful weapons that he had at his disposal. He believed he would be able to deal Du Xiangyang and Xiahou Yuan a terrifying blow with just the blood essences if he encountered them again.

Two days swiftly passed.

Qin Lie didn’t sense any life in this seemingly lively forest—not even birds or insects. Everything felt strange.

“Ding!”

On his third day in the forest, the sword token that hung at Qin Lie’s waist softly rang out.

His expression changed as he lifted the sword token and examined the area with his mind

.

There was a sword token about thirty kilometers away from Qin Lie. The person who held that sword token was swiftly approaching him—most likely after sensing him nearby.

Having yet to encounter someone for such a long time, Qin Lie grinned and also ran in the direction of other sword token.

A short time later, a curse came from the leaves of an ancient tree in front of him. “Dammit, why is it you again?”

Du Xiangyang emerged from the bushes and looked at Qin Lie with a wretched expression. “What terrible luck. I thought I could meet someone from Luo Chen’s side, but it’s just you again. So, how did you manage to not die in the land of fire, madman? You should have been at the center of everything when the Fire Demons went on a rampage, right? How did you survive?”

“Heh. I was in that fiery landscape for the past half a month.” Qin Lie calmly walked to the ancient tree that Du Xiangyang was near. He narrowed his eyes and said, “You’re the first person I’ve seen in a while.”

“Well I had no intention of seeing you!” Du Xiangyang snorted coldly, then turned around and ran off into the distance.

Du Xiangyang had tested Qin Lie’s strength already and knew that he was incredibly difficult to deal with. He thought that Qin Lie was practically a battle-crazed nutjob.d

Having realized that Qin Lie was not a weakling, Du Xiangyang no longer had any desire to clash with Qin Lie. He did not want to provoke trouble.

“In the direction to your right, about one hundred fifty or two hundred fifty kilometers away, I came across a sword token. A faint fragrance that could only belong to a woman was on it. Very few women are representing Heavenly Sword Mountain in this Trial, and He Wei would not willingly part with hers. I figured that you might be familiar the woman who threw that sword token away.”

Du Xiangyang’s voice rang out in sporadic intervals, “I saw martial practitioners from Black Voodoo Cult not to long ago. They seemed to be pursuing someone. That person might be one of the women you know…”

He told Qin Lie all of this out of goodwill.

“Xie Jingxuan! Song Tingyu!” Qin Lie frowned.

Qin Lie was originally going to chase Du Xiangyang and take revenge for the attack in the land of fire, but after hearing his words, his expression immediately grew heavy.

Xie Jingxuan was in the middle stage of the Netherpassage Realm, and Song Tingyu was at the peak of the Netherpassage Realm. They could be considered some of the strongest youths in the Scarlet Tide Continent.

However, in the eyes of the Land of Chaos’ nine great Silver rank forces, and in comparison to their geniuses, their power might as well have been non-existent.

Song Tingyu was decent. In a one on one fight against a normal practitioner from a different force, she would at least be able to fight them to a standstill.

Xie Jingxuan, however, was slightly weaker than her.

If Xie Jingxuan accidentally encountered the experts of other forces, then her situation would become extremely dire. She could very well encounter some unfortunate circumstances.

“It has to be one of them!”

Qin Lie took a deep breath and immediately abandoned the thought of pursuing Du Xiangyang. He chose to move in the direction that Du Xiangyang had indicated.

Both Xie Jingxuan and Song Tingyu had more or less helped him back in the Scarlet Tide Continent.

When he was trapped in the Nether Realm, it was Xie Jingxuan who resolutely supported the Ling Family. When they had been oppressed by Seven Fiends Valley, she had been the one to ensure that they did not dare to go too far.

After Qin Lie had been betrayed by Profound Heaven Alliance, Qin Lie contacted Xie Jingxuan through Dark Asura Hall’s Liang Zhong and had her send word to Song Tingyu, who then gathered the Spatial Spirit Stones.

Both of these women had given him a helping hand when he was in danger, and they had never treated him wrongly.

“Between the two of them… who would it be?”

Qin Lie frowned deeply and took out the Black Voodoo Cult token. He constantly looked at the token while he rushed, hoping that it could provide some clues.

An hour later.

The token made by the Black Voodoo Cult suddenly emitted a shrill noise that sounded like the wailing of a ghost.

In spite of that, joy appeared in Qin Lie’s eyes as he hastily examined the area and tracked their location through the Black Voodoo Cult’s token.

“There are three Black Voodoo Cult martial practitioners! They’ve grouped together and are swiftly moving toward something! They’re chasing someone!”

Qin Lie immediately reacted and charged in the direction that the token was pointing at top speed.

“Twenty kilometers!”

“Seventeen kilometers!”

“Ten kilometers!”

“Almost there!”

Qin Lie cut through the forest, swiftly approaching the other party like a bolt of lightning.

“Swoosh!”

Suddenly, not far from him, a beautiful figure shot through the forest.

It happened in a flash, but it was enough to raise Qin Lie’s spirits—it was Song Tingyu!

“Stop!” Qin Lie yelled loudly, frenziedly chasing her from behind.

The beautiful figure immediately stopped running and shakily cried out, “Qin Lie! Is that you?”

“It’s me!” Qin Lie swiftly rushed to her.

The beautiful figure came to a stop beside the roots of a thick, ancient tree. She was crestfallen and black tendrils of smoke leaked from deep within her pupils every so often. Her eyes looked like they had been stricken by something. It was an incredibly strange sight.

When Qin Lie appeared, she tore at the mask on her face and revealed a beautiful, yet completely pale face. It was Song Tingyu.

She was breathing rapidly as if she were suffering from a terrible illness. As the black tendrils of smoke in her eyes grew darker, her shapely body trembled intermittently. She bit her white lips like her life depended on it, seemingly holding back tremendous pain.

“Run! They’ll be here soon! Run with me, Qin Lie!” Song Tingyu screamed in panic after spending a great deal of effort to overcome the intense pain she was experiencing. “Run! We must be quick! If we aren’t, then it will be too late!”

“Is it the Black Voodoo Cult?” Qin Lie’s face was cold and his eyes were murderous.

Song Tingyu was in horrible condition. He could sense clearly that her life force was gradually dissipating.

With his current understanding of blood and life energy, Qin Lie didn’t think that Song Tingyu had more than half a month before she lost all of her life force and died.

Qin Lie didn’t know what had happened, but the moment he saw Song Tingyu’s pitiful appearance, he felt like killing someone.

“Where’s Xie Jingxuan? Have you seen her?” Qin Lie sucked in a deep breath and continuously forced himself to calm down. “Is she okay?”

“Jingxuan?” Song Tingyu forced a smile that was even uglier than a crying face. “I don’t know. She might already be dead since she was cursed with this Voodoo Toxin even earlier than I was. If I’m unable to cure it, then it’ll probably be even more impossible for her.”