Spirit Realm

Chapters 461-480

Chapter 461: The Forest of Death

A dozen gray-brown tree branches as thick a fingers and long as a dozen meters gradually descended from the tree.

It looked as though this ancient tree was reaching out with long tentacles to grab something below.

But there was only Qin Lie under the tree.

At this moment, Qin Lie was still immersed in his own world. He was focusing his mind consciousness to reform his True Soul.

The third stage of the Heavenly Thunder Eradication was using thunder and lightning energy to temper the True Soul. It would cause the True Soul to contain the power of thunder and lightning and not have the weakness of being weak to attacks of lightning.

His cultivation was in a good state. If he continued like that, he would be able to finish this stage of the Heavenly Thunder Eradication in Netherpassage Realm.

When this stage of the Heavenly Thunder Eradication was completed, every thread of his mind consciousness would contain the power of thunder and lightning!

In the future when he fought other people, he could use his mind consciousness to permeate another’s mind and use thunder and lightning to destroy their True Soul!

Mind consciousness that contained the power of thunder and lightning would reach a faster speed by moving through the air. It would directly increase the offensive abilities of his True Soul.

The tree branches were like sharp swords. After a period of slow descent, just as they were about to come close to his head, they suddenly sped up!

Like arrows leaving bows, the dozen tree branches stabbed towards Qin Lie’s head, neck, organs, and other vital spots.

“Pop! Pop! Pop!”

Qin Lie’s body gave off a burst of popping as though he was attacked powerfully.

Bleeding wounds appeared at his head, neck and chest. Blood shot out.

“Argh!”

Qin Lie suddenly howled at the sky. His bones cracked and popped. A great power of blood suddenly erupted from his body.

The bright yellow power of the earth which carried intimidating frost energy erupted from every one of his pores. It formed a furious wave that cut off the dozen tree branches.

Qin Lie’s eyes suddenly became cold. He raised his head to look at the tree. “They say that all things are alive, today, I’ve finally confirmed that!”

“Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

Tens of thousands of tree branches filled the sky, falling like a rain of arrows.

All of them aimed at Qin Lie.

“No matter whether you are truly alive or being manipulated by Ye Yihao’s soul, I will destroy you completely!” Qin Lie snorted coldly, “Burn for me!”

Three drops of scarlet blood flew out of his hands. They turned into a great fire that filled the sky and lit up this ancient tree.

At the same time, blood flowed through Qin Lie’s blood vessels and like a streak of blood, he moved out from under the tree.

The rain of branches shot towards where he had originally been standing and completely covered this area with arrow like tree branches.

“Crack crack!”

After attacking with all of its might, the ancient tree was drowned in the sea of fire. All of the greenery, all of its vitality was burned away by the great fire.

At the same moment.

Yu Men and the martial practitioners of Ten Thousand Beast Mountain were moving in the woods and heading in the direction where Qin Lie and the others were gathering.

When they came to a dense patch of trees, the leaves that swayed in the wind and the branches suddenly came alive.

Those tree branches also turned into sharp arrows that shot madly at Yu Men, Niu Shaojun, and the others.

Caught off guard, two Ten Thousand Beast Mountain martial practitioners were unable to use their spirit power to protect their body in time. Their bodies were also not as strong as Qin Lie’s.

They were immediately poked full of holes by the tree branches.

“Damn it!” Niu Shaojun’s face darkened. He hurriedly avoided the wave of attacks and shouted angrily, “It definitely is Ye Yihao’s doing!”

“He cultivates a wood spirit art and does have the skill to manipulate ancient trees. This guy found the forest and hasn’t left because he wants to use the land here to eliminate all others.” Yu Men snorted. “He’d better not meet me!”

On the other side.

Chu Li, Du Xiangyan, Song Tingyu, and their group were also attacked by the ancient trees in another grove.

Fortunately, there was Du Xiangyan. He cultivated a flame spirit art and it was the perfect bane of the ancient trees in the forest. They had coincidentally been gathered together in a discussion so they had managed to avoid the attack in time.

Subsequently, Du Xiangyan attacked the nearest ancient trees with fire and burned all of them to black ash before he relaxed.

In a corner of the forest.

Ye Yihao sat under the ancient tree filled with vitality. Branches coiled around his body. There was a little ancient tree mark at the center of his forehead. It blinked as though it was communicating with him.

The martial practitioners of Black Voodoo Cult, Lin Dongxing, Xiahou Yuan, Su Yan and the others were also gathered around him.

They all looked at him with both awe and fear.

A long time later, Ye Yihao opened his eyes. His eyes were an eerie oily green as though tender tree seedlings were growing in his eyes. “I killed a few people but did not kill anyone important. It seems that we need to act ourselves.”

Xiahou Yuan and the others bowed slightly but did not speak.

“You should have recovered almost completely?” Ye Yihao asked.

Everyone nodded.

“Good, then follow behind the Tree God and search with me to find the nearest person to attack,” Ye Yihao shouted.

The branches coiled around him suddenly became as soft as cotton and pulled him up into the leaves.

The complex root network of this tree brimming with vitality started to slowly move.

The ancient tree was moving!

“Whoosh whoosh whoosh!”

Beside a burning ancient tree, Qin Lie suddenly appeared. With a glance, he saw Song Tingyu and others’ expressions of lingering fear.

“Were you also attacked by the ancient trees?” Qin Lie shouted.

“You too?” Song Tingyu was surprised.

“Mn.” Qin Lie’s expression was serious as he said, “Ye Yihao should have recovered. He cultivates a wood spirit art, an ancient voodoo spell of the Black Voodoo Cult, it is very eerie. Here, he seems able to control the ancient trees. We need to be careful from now on, and be wary of the flora around us!”

“It seems that it will not be so easy to walk out of this forest.” He Wei felt a headache coming on.

“Xue Moyan will come soon.” Du Xiangyan held a sword seal. After probing for a while, he said, “Luo Chen is also nearby.”

Everyone was surprised.

“We will discuss after they’ve come,” Qin Lie said.

“Mn.”

An hour later.

Xue Moyan of Illusory Demon Sect walked over with four young females. They all wore dim expressions and were in low moods.

“Have you also encountered trouble?” Du Xiangyan called out.

“One of our sisters is dead, we have not found the culprit yet, she was shot to death by tree branches,” Pan Qianqian said serenely.

“The culprit is Ye Yihao, there’s no need to search. You were not the only ones, we were also attacked.“ Du Xiangyan pointed at the burning trees. “They were the ones who attacked.” He then explained in detail.

After listening to Du Xiangyan’s explanation, the five women from Illusory Demon Sect gradually came to an understanding.

“Ye Yihao! Him again!” Xue Moyan gritted her teeth and her eyes were cold as she shouted.

“Luo Chen has also come!” He Wei said in a small voice.

Everyone turned their heads to look in the other way.

Luo Chen appeared in the distance with three other people. Other than Zhao Yuan and Zhang Chendong, there was another Heavenly Sword Mountain martial practitioner that he had found.

“We were also attacked, by trees!” Luo Chen said coldly.

Everyone nodded in understanding. They did not say anything more.

“We must stay here together or think of a way to leave this forest.” Song Tingyu stood next to Qin Lie. Her beautiful eyes gazed at the group and she suddenly said, “How did everyone get in? Do you know how to get out?”

“Are we lost?” Du Xiangyan grimaced.

He was like Qin Lie and had come from the Land of Fire. Not long after entering this vast endless forest, he had lost his direction.

He could not find the way back.

Song Tingyu looked at the others. He found that Xue Moyan, Chu Li, and the others were all shaking their heads as though they did not know the way out.

But Luo Chen who was standing the furtherest away from the group frowned. He suddenly said, “I know how to get out of this forest.”

When these words were spoken, everyone looked at him in joyful surprise.

“You do?” He Wei said in shock.

“I came from a place filled with thunder and lightning. Heavenly lightning would come down occasionally. Even I felt a headache there. When I found that the forest was peaceful, I naturally came in. I had not expected …” Luo Chen shook his head and said with a frown, “that this isn’t a good place either.”

“You know the way out?” Du XIangyan said in surprise.

“I know the general direction,” Luo Chen said proudly.

“What does everyone think?” Du Xiangyan looked at the group. “It is not wise to stay and fight against Ye Yihao here. Why don’t we first leave and then think it out?”

“Our Illusory Demon Sect is prepared to leave,” Xue Moyan expressed.

“I was dropped here from the beginning. I also want to visit other parts of the Graveyard of Gods.” Chu Li nodded.

“Qin Lie, you?” Du Xiangyang asked.

“Hah, of course I’m going with you,” Qin Lie said with a smile.

His eyes were bright. “A place full of thunder and lightning?”

Right now, his third stage of Heavenly Thunder Eradication, Thunder Lightning Soul Refinement, was at a crucial stage.

At this time, if he could find a place filled with thunder and lightning, and used this outside thunder and lightning to help him refine his soul, it would greatly increase his cultivation speed!

This Graveyard of Gods was clearly divided into different areas. Each area was filled with all kinds of wonders.

In the Land of Fire, there were meteors that rained down. He had also found the corpse of a Fire Qilin through the blank tombstone.

This dense forest seemed to hide evil tree spirits. The wonder of this place could be seen from how the ancient trees knew to attack them.

Would there also be other beings related to thunder and lightning in that area of thunder and lightning?

If there were, would they be of great benefit to him, someone that cultivated a thunder spirit art and needed thunder and lightning to refine his soul?

At the very least, in the area of thunder and lightning, he would have an absolute advantage like Ye Yihao in this forest.

At the very least, he was not afraid of being attacked by thunder and lightning!

“He would beg for a place of thunder and lightning!” Chu Li chuckled.

Coming from Terminator Sect, he knew the thunder and lightning spirit art that Qin Lie cultivated was extremely wondrous. He also knew that Qin Lie was refining his soul using thunder and lightning. He knew that Qin Lie would be like a fish in the water in the area of thunder and lightning.

In that place, even Ye Yihao would not be able to easily match Qin Lie!

“Luo Chen, lead the way for us!” loudly said Du Xiangyan as he saw that they reached a consensus.

Luo Chen nodded.

……

Chapter 462: Difficult to Avoid One’s Enemies

Everyone quickly found a common goal—leave this forest first.

Luo Chen was responsible for leading the way.

Every tree in the vast forest was more than a dozen meters tall. The trees covered the sky. When people walked through the forest, they felt only darkness and cold.

Especially when people realized that each of the ancient trees was a potential threat.

Luo Chen walked in the front of the group silently. Zhao Yuan, Zhang Chendong, and a martial practitioner from Heavenly Sword Mountain were following at a measured pace behind him.

Behind the Zhao Yuan and others were Xue Moyan and the females from Illusory Demon Sect.

These five young females were of few words. Their expressions were alert, paying attention to the ancient trees around them.

Qin Lie, Chu Li, Du Xiangyang, and their group were in the back, maintaining a distance from Xue Moyan up ahead.

“I feel that these trees have eyes. I feel like Ye Yihao can find our positions through them.” He Wei had been feeling discomfort along the way. Beneath the trees, she felt uncomfortable all over.

“Hss, hss, hss!”

As she spoke, she heard the sound of the leaves moving in the wind. The noise caused her to become nervous.

“Maybe I am just paranoid.” He Wei smiled in self-scorn.

“I hope it is so,” Du Xiangyang added with a helpless grimace. “This forest is full of trees everywhere. I cannot burn all the trees wherever I go. Hah, I am just a Netherpassage Realm martial practitioner. I do not have the ability to burn the entire forest using my fire spirit art. Also, flora here clearly has simple intelligence, so I would need to constantly add fire power.”

“We also do not have the time to wait for you to do that.” Chu Li’s brow creased and he snorted. He said, “Ye Yihao could only try to mount a sneak attack on us through these trees when we were unguarded. Now that we are on our guard, it will not be so easy if he wants to kill us.”

“I agree.” Du Xiangyang smiled.

Qin Lie and Song Tingyu walked side by side at the back.

“How are you?” Song Tingyu’s eyes were bright as she asked in a quiet voice.

“What?” Qin Lie was stunned.

“How has the formation of your True Soul been?”

“Almost done, I hope that we can reach the area covered by lightning and thunder as soon as possible. I have a feeling that the third stage of my Heavenly Thunder Eradication, and the progression of my realm will possibly be realized there.” Qin Lie’s eyes were filled with ambition.

“If you can enter the intermediate stage of the Netherpassage Realm, you will truly have the power to protect yourself in the Graveyard of Gods!” Song Tingyu said excitedly.

“Mn, only then might I be able to match those geniuses.” Qin Lie glanced at Luo Chen at the front of the group.

He had a general guess of Luo Chen’s true power.

Many days ago when Luo Cheng had fought against Lin Dongxing and Xiahou Yuan, he had focused and observed from the side.

Even exhausted and heavily injured, the power of Luo Chen’s sword strike was enough to create a deep mark on the hard ground. Qin Lie still clearly remembered that terrifying and sharp presence.

Luo Chen’s “Half Moon Slash” was like a crescent moon falling down. It was eye-catching and peerless in power. The power it contained surpassed even the strength of average Fulfillment Realm martial practitioners.

This was a move that could allow Luo Chen to fight above his level and kill early stage Fulfillment Realm martial practitioners. It was a terrifying sword art that would allow him to show his true power.

Qin Lie concluded that it wasn’t very likely for him to stop Luo Chen at full power in his current state.

Chu Li had killed two Su Family martial practitioners under the attack of five.

Then, he had showed his dominance among the barrage from five martial practitioners that were poisoned with the voodoo toxin.

After these two hard battles, he still showed himself when he entered into the battle against Ye Yihao.

Chu Li was also astounding in his battle capabilities.

He had not seen Xue Moyan fight at her true power, but he knew that Xue Moyan was still skilled in all the secret arts of Blood Fiend Sect that she had not used yet.

He believed that Xue Moyan was also terrifying.

Other than these three, Yu Men of Ten Thousand Beast Mountain and Feng Yiyou of Heavenly Artifact Sect were famous in the Land of Chaos. They were the winners of the explorations they had experienced within their own factions and were the best of their area.

They also could not be underestimated!

There was also a Ye Yihao that was recovering…

Qin Lie realized that there were many vicious beasts hidden around him. He needed to do everything possible to strengthen himself in order to live to the end of this bloody banquet.

Each step in this land was filled with danger.

There were some enemies that he had yet to encounter. He wasn’t sure if there were other beings in this secret realm called the “Graveyard of Gods.”

If he was so unfortunate to encounter them, how could he survive without sufficient power?

Without realizing it, they came to a place filled with trees and strange vines.

“Be careful, this place doesn’t feel right,” Du Xiangyang reminded everyone. He channelled his spirit art. Circles of orange-red flames suddenly sprouted from his body.

A clear orange-red shield of light wrapped around his body like a goose shell.

“Everyone, take care,” Xue Moyan called out as well.

The clothing of the Illusory Demon Sect members suddenly glowed. They seemed to be woven from rainbow light as they became a thin shield that protected their entire bodies.

He Wei and the people of Terminator Sect copied them and used spirit power to form a protective shield.

The group seemed to have become lanterns, each of them having bright glowing shields of light as they used spirit power to protect their bodies.

Only Luo Chen, Chu Li, and Xue Moyan, people that were absolutely confident in themselves were not so cautious. They did not act.

However, sharp sword intent came from Luo Chen’s body.

The spirit armor that Chu Li wore seemed to glitter with light and he was wary inside.

“Ah!”

A terrified shout came from the mouth of the Heavenly Sword Mountain martial practitioner at the front. The silver shield he had suddenly cracked like an egg.

The strange vines closest to him immediately turned into a demon. Countless vines wrapped around him.

At the same time, the nearby shrubbery became sharp saws that cut at him.

This person immediately was covered in wounds and blood.

Everyone looked at him. They all started to panic and shout in shock.

Subsequently, all of the strange vines and shrubs seemed to become bloodthirsty and furiously attacked them.

A strange atmosphere formed here and caused them to feel terror.

“Little Ye!” Pan Qianqian cried in pain.

This was a female from Illusory Demon Sect that was about twenty. She was tiny, adorable, and had a middle Netherpassage Realm cultivation.

She had been completely swallowed by a banana-like shrub. The enormous shrub seemed to chew, and Pan Qianqian, being close, could hear the sound of her bones cracking.

“Pew!”

At the front, the chest of Zhao Yuan, who came from Scarlet Tide Continent’s Joyful Union Sect, was penetrated by a vine. Blood spilled rapidly from the wound.

The light in his eyes quickly faded.

“Careful! Protect those around you!” Chu Li shouted furiously as he pulled He Wei next to him. His expression was savage. “Bomb the surroundings!”

Qin Lie hurriedly looked at Song Tingyu.

The strange vines were like tentacles as they moved and stabbed at Song Tingyu.

“Tingyu!” Qin Lie shouted.

“Don’t worry, I am not as weak as you think.” Song Tingyu smiled.

She could see the deep worry that Qin Lie felt for her from his face. This made her heart feel sweet.

“Rainbow Circle!”

A bright circle surrounded by clouds suddenly shot out of the rainbow cloud. The circle suddenly grew big and viciously hit the vines coming at her.

“Pa pa pa!”

Sparks flew on the vines and they exploded. Fragments of wood landed on the ground.

Song Tingyu pointed with a finger. The rainbow cloud circle radiated layers of light. The sound of explosions came from wherever the light passed.

The vines that came from nearby shrubs were minced into fine powder.

“Qin Lie! Come over here!” Chu Li shouted.

“Alright!” Qin Lin dashed like lightning next to Song Tingyu, grabbing her and quickly coming next to Chu Li.

“Bomb this!” Chu Li ordered.

Ren Peng and the other two martial practitioners from Terminator Sect took out the Terminator Profound Bombs from their spatial rings.

When the dozens of Terminator Profound Bombs came out, the females of Illusory Demon Sect screamed and hurriedly ran to hide in Luo Chen’s direction.

They knew the power of the Terminator Profound Bombs well.

“Boom! Boom boom boom!”

The dozen Terminator Profound Bombs furiously exploded around Qin Lie and the others.

The nearby vines and shrubs were turned to powder in this terrifying explosion.

Enormous, deep holes that covered dozens of square meters appeared.

“All of you, come here!” Chu Li beckoned at Luo Chen and Xue Moyan in the distance. He said, “My people will use the Terminator Profound Bombs to blast a way out of here!”

Even a person as proud as Luo Chen knew, that he could not match the Terminator Profound Bomb after seeing its power and came docilely from the front.

Xue Moyan sighed. She forced back the sorrow she felt and nodded minutely. She said, “Regroup with Chu Li first.”

They had lost another sister.

“Ren Peng! Use the Terminator Profound Bombs to make a path. I don’t believe Ye Yihao is undefeatable!” Chu Li cursed.

“Understood!”

“Boom! Boom boom!”

The Terminator Profound Bombs exploded in front of them. All of the shrubs and vines were blasted into powder in this kind of explosive barrage.

They moved forward relying on this method.

After six hours and thirty five Terminator Profound Bombs, they finally managed to struggle out of that patch of vines and shrubs.

“Aoo!”

All of them had the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain tokens hanging from their waists. When they charged out of the dangerous patch, howls came.

A group of Ten Thousand Beast Mountain martial practitioners was among a dozen broken trees. Their expressions were grave as they sat on the ground and panted.

Niu Shaojun was among them.

Qin Lie and the others that had just made it out raised their heads and saw the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain martial practitioners in the distance.

Yu Men naturally saw them as well.

Their gazes met in the air.

“It’s them!” Niu Shaojun shouted.

“Niu Shaojun!” Luo Chen smiled coldly.

It truly was difficult to avoid one’s enemies.

……

Chapter 463: Collision!

“Luo Chen, Chu Li, Xue Moyan!”

Yu Men of Ten Thousand Beast Mountain raised his head and saw the procession coming out of the area that was exploding. His craggy face was filled with a strange smile.

Niu Shaojun and the other Ten Thousand Beast Mountain martial practitioners were sitting in lotus position behind him.

There were a dozen old trees that were torn apart around them. Clearly, before Qin Lie and the others had arrived, they had also been attacked by Ye Yihao and had fought a hard battle.

At this time, for Qin Lie, Luo Chen, and the others, or for Yu Men of Ten Thousand Beast Mountain, it was not a good time to fight.

That would just benefit Ye Yihao.

However, for some, when they were angry, they would not care about the circumstances, or about what they should or should not do.

Luo Chen was also a person like that.

“Cold Moon Wheel!”

The silver sword beam of Luo Chen’s sword turned into a cold moon that was as large as a wagon wheel. It spun in the dark sky and then flew towards Niu Shaojun.

It seemed like a cold moon shooting at him.

“Niu Shaojun, in the eyes of I, Luo Chen, you are a small person not worthy of mention!” Luo Chen mocked cuttingly. “No matter if I am wounded or not, a small fry is a small fry. If I want to beat a dog like you, I won’t even care who your owner is!”

A few days ago, Luo Chen and Chu Li had endured a hard battle. Both had expended much energy and were heavily wounded.

At that time, Niu Shaojun and Situ Tong had tried to kill him and Chu Li for the fresh blood of the voodoo insect.

They had also said some words that Luo Chen had remembered hatefully.

Days later, Luo Chen had recovered. His pride had come back, and naturally, he wouldn’t be polite when he saw Niu Shaojun again.

The Cold Moon Wheel was like the moon falling. As it spun, rays of cold light were like swords that fell towards the people of Ten Thousand Beast Mountain.

Niu Shaojun’s face immediately darkened. He raised his head to look at the disk that was about to come down, but didn’t dare to move.

Because Yu Men had not said anything yet.

“Don’t even care who the owner is? Hmph!” Yu Men suddenly twisted his mouth.

His book-sized left hand was wrapped in a glove in the shape of a vicious beast head. It appeared as though a vicious beast was eating his left hand.

Just as the Cold Moon Wheel fell down, Yu Men’s left hand punched into the air.

“Aooo!”

That vicious beast head glove gave a furious howl. Circles of blue-purple light formed along with his punch above people’s heads.

The layers of blue-purple light rippled and spread into the surroundings.

They were like a clear and transparent mirror.

Among the ripples, it was possible to see the miniaturized forms of the remnants of beast souls that looked to be roaring.

Roars also occasionally sounded out.

“Bam bam bam bam!”

The Cold Moon Wheel that was formed from a sword beam continued to shoot at the purple lights. They created a spray of sparks that released rainbow lights.

Under the multiple layers of light, all the martial practitioners of Ten Thousand Beast Mountain remained unharmed.

“Beast Manifestation!” Yu Men shouted in a hoarse voice.

The blue-purple light suddenly changed.

All of the ripples of light coalesced into a dozens of meters long vicious beast with the body of a lion and the head of a snake.

The vicious beast’s feet were covered in bloody clouds. It roared furiously as it charged at Luo Chen.

At the same time, Yu Men’s entire skeleton started to pop and snake. His broad and powerful body that was almost two meters tall actually grew even taller.

Yu Men was like a human-shaped monster. He started to exude a vicious and savage aura, while his eyes filled with a bestial gleam.

“Roar!”

Yu Men’s body changed into mostly that of a beast. At that moment, he seemed to posses the power of hundreds of beasts, and his aura was terrifying.

Even Qin Lie, who was on the side watching, changed expression and showed seriousness.

Out of everyone present, he was probably the only one that would dare to fight this Yu Men in melee combat just using physical power.

Yu Men’s sudden eruption of power definitely came from his body, and a mutation of flesh!

Qin Lie who had once used beast blood in the blood pool to cultivate could smell the scent of a vicious beast from Yu Men’s body. This meant that both Yu Men’s blood and flesh had changed due to some terrifying spirit art.

“Seven Moon Slash!”

Seven new moons appeared and spun above Luo Chen’s head with a cool and sharp aura.

They seemed to have formed a complete circle.

As Yu Men roared and shouted, about to charge, the moons created for the sword beast suddenly fell down towards him.

The moonlight filled the sky and attracted everyone’s eyes!

“Ye Yihao is hurrying over… ”

Just as the two were about to start viciously fighting, the cool and pleasing voice of Xue Moyan of Illusory Demon Sect suddenly came over.

A slender and soft figure floated into the air between the two. Numerous blue, white, green, and indigo lights flew from her sleeves.

A strange field that was like quicksilver suddenly formed in the area between Luo Chen and Yu Men. A restraining power that blocked spirit power also appeared.

Both Luo Chen’s Seven Moon Slash and Yu Men, who was in his beast form, immediately felt it was difficult to advance when they touched the barrier.

“The Graveyard of the Gods Trial is still far from over. There will be many chances to battle in the future, there is no need to fight now,” Xue Moyan said in a cool voice between the two.

“Too many people have been entrapped by Ye Yihao in this forest. Why don’t we all rest first, and then eliminate him?” He Wei also came in. “At the very least, shouldn’t we make some distance to escape Ye Yihao’s perception?”

“Yes! We should rest!” Song Tingyu added.

The females came out to persuade everyone to be patient.

Qin Lie, Chu Li, and Du Xiangyan crossed their arms and were just watching. They didn’t try to act as peacemakers.

They acted as though it had nothing to do with them.

“Hm! You better keep control over your dog!” Luo Chen glared at Niu Shaojun and put away his sword art.

“We will have a fight sooner or later,” Yu Men gave a strange laugh.

His strong bestial aura gradually faded. It seemed that he also knew this was not a good time to have a fight to the death with Luo Chen. In addition to that, Xue Moyan had personally come out to act as a peacemaker, so he stopped fighting.

The two geniuses that had just engaged in a fight retreated back to their original positions.

“Let’s go.” Yu Men waved his hand and moved forward first.

The group of Ten Thousand Beast Mountain martial practitioners closely followed him.

“Yu Men shouldn’t be offended. This guy is the same as Chu Li, he loves to cause trouble and doesn’t submit to anyone.” He Wei grimaced as she shook her head.

“Who likes to cause trouble? If you want to curse Yu Men, do it, but why drag me into it?” Chu Li rolled his eyes.

“Within the Land of Chaos, who has caused the most trouble among the contenders from the Silver factions?” He Wei glared at him fearlessly. “There was a period of time when even the forefather couldn’t stand you and imprisoned you. It was only then that you became docile. Otherwise, just the love debts you caused are irritating enough for Terminator Sect!”

When she mentioned love debts, Chu Li immediately became docile. He smiled uncertainly, rubbed his nose, and said, “There aren’t any… you are the only one in my heart, don’t you know that?”

He Wei snorted and ignored him.

“Qin Lie, that Yu Men… his body is very strong. He might be a great enemy for you.” On the other side, Song Tingyu reminded him in a low voice.

Qin Lie nodded inside.

Of the geniuses from the forces that had attended, other than seeing Feng Yiyou of Heavenly Artifact Sect, he had came into contact with the other eight.

Of these eight, Lin Dongxing, Su Yan, and Xiaohou Yuan of the three families were clearly a bit weaker. The three great families clearly did not have enough of a foundation which caused Su Yan, Lin Dongxing, and Xiahou Yuan to be slightly weaker.

The five, Luo Chen, Chu Li, Ye Yihao, Xue Moyan, and Yu Men who had just appeared were all extremely powerful.

After secretly observing, Qin Lie felt that these five had power that was not weaker than a martial practitioner in the early stages of the Fulfillment Realm, and might even be a bit stronger.

Of the five, Luo Chen, Chu Li, Ye Yihao, and Xue Moyan did not focus on the cultivation of their bodies. Their great battle abilities came from spirit artifacts or special spirit arts.

Yu Men was the only exception.

Just now, he had closely observed Yu Men’s fighting style. He found that this person, when he attacked, would always charge towards his enemy.

It was clear that he was very skilled in close combat. His powerful body and his animalistic intuition caused him to have an advantage in close combat.

This was someone that had a battle style similar to his.

“Yu Men cultivates the Hundred Beast Art of Ten Thousand Beast Mountain. From childhood, he lived and ate together with all kinds of vicious beasts, absorbed the savage energy of hundreds of beasts, fought against them, and tempered his body.” Du Xiangyan suddenly started to explain, “This guy might be the most accomplished in this generation of Ten Thousand Beast Mountain! He was born with the skill to speak to beasts, and can converse with them just through his gaze. He also understands the personalities of the beasts. Fortunately, this is the Graveyard of Gods and there are no places where beasts gather. Otherwise, it is likely no one could beat Yu Men.”

“How do you know that the Graveyard of Gods doesn’t have any places where beasts gather?” He Wei glared at him. “It is just that you did not see it! If it was as your inauspicious mouth said, and Yu Men found a place like that, he probably would be scarier than Ye Yihao!”

When she said this, everyone became shocked.

Just a sheer thought of a possibility made people feel anxious.

“You say that Ye Yihao is about to come? How do you know when he is arriving?” Luo Chen asked at the front.

“I don’t know when he will come.” Xue Moyan shook her head. “I only know that he is definitely heading towards our position!”

“I suggest for everyone to leave this forest as soon as possible!” Du Xiangyan shouted.

“Ithink the same!” He Wei expressed her opinion.

“Luo Chen, continue leading the way.”

“Yes, lead the way!”

“Alright.”

In a patch of forest hundreds of miles away from the group.

There was an enormous and ancient tree with a great canopy that was moving rapidly through the forest. It appeared to be floating in an ocean and it flashed by along with the ripples of the ground.

On the branches of the ancient tree, Ye Yihao’s expression was dark. There were tree branches inserted into his body, and a little mark of a tree that flashed on his brow.

He was communicating with the god tree.

“What? They are about to get out of the forest? How could they recognize the way out?” Ye Yihao suddenly became restless.

“Whoosh whoosh whoosh!” The leaves of the ancient tree shook as though it was objecting.

“Quick! Faster! Use your power to move the nearby trees and stop them!” Ye Yihao shouted.

“Crack! Crack!”

Branches of the ancient tree suddenly snapped. The emerald green branches suddenly flew into the distance.

As the branches passed, the trees along the way started to move.

Chapter 464: The Wooden Sculpture’s Change!

Qin Lie’s group abruptly came to a stop.

A shabby village suddenly appeared before them. The village looked as if it was hidden within the ancient trees, its flat stone floor covered with grass, leaves, and dust.

The group became dumbstruck as they stared blankly at the village ahead of them, then at Luo Chen with strange looks on their faces.

Luo Chen’s eyes were filled with puzzlement as well as he shook his head beneath their gazes, “When I came here, it was probably through this path. But I did not notice that there was a village along the way.”

“Are you… lost?” Du Xiangyang taunted him bluntly.

Surprisingly, Luo Chen did not object to his accusation. After frowning for a moment, he said honestly, “I might be.”

The crowd immediately broke out in a clamor.

“Luo Chen! What the f*ck are you doing?” Chu Li was the first one to voice his frustrations as he scolded, “Do you know the road or not? We’ve ran into countless troubles and lost a few men along the way, but you brought us to this place instead? Do you have a hidden agenda or something?”

The Illusory Demon Sect girls all turned anxious and worried. They looked everywhere with doubtful gazes.

Qin Lie was also angry on the inside.

However, he did not join in. He knew very well that Luo Chen absolutely could not stand his angry rebukes.

He did not wish to fight against Luo Chen right then, so the best course of action would be to keep his silence and find out what exactly was going on first.

“Luo Chen, do you still recognize the path? Are you still confident that you can lead us away from this place?” He Wei asked for confirmation.

Luo Chen appeared to be a little hesitant.

“Why is there a village in the forest? This is the Graveyard of the Gods, the ultimate battlefield where experts fought and were buried in this strange land. Why is there a village in this place?”

Puzzlement and confusion appeared in Xue Moyan’s clear eyes. After a moment of ponderment, she suggested, “Let’s go in and take a look.”

Everyone agreed to her suggestion.

Luo Chen was the only one who did not speak. He took out a pocket-sized silver sword from his spatial ring and rubbed its blade with his palm.

The palm-sized silver blade glittered with silver light and let out a crisp sword ring.

“Ring!”

Several hundred meters away, an identical sword ring resonated and vaguely heeded the call of this small silver sword.

While he was doing this, the group’s attention fell on him once more.

“Wait for me!”

After throwing down such a line, Luo Chen headed in the direction of the sword ring, seemingly wanting to test something.

The group did not walk into the strange village and waited for Luo Chen. They wanted to see what kind of answer he would give them.

Luo Chen went swiftly, and returned just as quickly.

Before long, he held up another small silver sword and appeared before the group once more.

“The direction of our path is probably correct.” Luo Chen pointed at a location, “As long as we continue in that direction, we should be able to leave this forest. I have used this small sword to confirm my path. These are small swords that can transmit signals with each other, and they’ve been forged by the same person who made Heavenly Sword Mountain’s sword tokens. It was my grandmother who entrusted him to help forge another batch of these small blades for me…”

Luo Chen explained to the group.

There were a total of thirty five Sound Summoning Swords. They could sense and communicate with one another within fifty kilometers.

This batch of Sound Summoning Swords came from the same person who forged the Heavenly Sword Mountain sword tokens.

Ever since Luo Chen entered the forest from the thunder-filled zone, he had been stabbing Sound Summoning Swords into ancient trees and marking his path this way.

He had prepared a path of retreat for himself since the beginning.

The reason he had confidence that he could lead the group away from the forest and into the thunder-filled land wasn’t because he had a terrific sense of direction. It was purely because he had many Sound Summoning Swords to lead the way.

After listening to his explanation, the people who suspected his motives earlier no longer said anything.

“The reason I didn’t find this village before is because the ancient tree I stabbed with a Sound Summoning Sword had moved elsewhere on its own. However, it hadn’t moved too far away. It is at the edge of the village right now. I am still confident about the approximate path of retreat…” Luo Chen said.

“So this is how it is.” He Wei nodded and smiled apologetically, “It seems that we have blamed you wrongly.”

Everyone saw with their own eyes that the ancient trees in the forest could move. Naturally, they no longer suspected Luo Chen’s explanation.

“There is another Sound Summoning Sword fifty kilometers to the front. There is no mistaking the direction.” Luo Chen withdrew the two small silver swords and turned around to glance at the shabby village. He said indifferently, “Ye Yihao may be rushing towards us. Would you like to leave as soon as possible, or enter this village and look around for a bit?”

“Let’s head in and have a look,” said Chu Li, rubbing his chin.

“This village is very strange. I also think that we can go in and inspect it for a bit. Maybe we’ll discover something.” Xue Moyan agreed.

“What about you guys?” He Wei looked at Qin Lie and Du Xiangyang.

“I’m fine. I’m just going to follow the biggest crowd no matter what. I have no intention of facing that Ye Yihao alone,” Du Xiangyang nonchalantly shrugged.

“With our joined numbers, I do not believe that Ye Yihao and the people of the three great families can do anything to us!” Qin Lie grinned and looked just as unconcerned, “Let’s go in and take a look!”

“What about you, Luo Chen?” He Wei said again.

“I’m fine with whatever.” Luo Chen’s expression was indifferent.

“Then let us go into this strange village and have a look.” He Wei had also become interested.

“Let’s go!”

Therefore, due to the change in movement of the ancient trees, the group of people who passed by the village formed their respective colorful light shields with spirit energy and carefully stepped in.

The village’s limestone floor was filled with dead leaves. It was as thick as snow, reaching all the way up to one’s knees.

The many ebony houses were only one or two stories high. They gave off a simple and crude feeling.

With cautious expressions, the group investigated the many small wooden houses while being on guard against potential danger.

“Creak!”

A wooden house’s doors were pushed open by Du Xiangyang, letting out a creak that suggested it could not bear the heavy force.

Qin Lie followed closely behind.

The wooden chairs and beds inside the house were covered in thick dust. The place had probably been devoid of life for thousands of years.

All furniture appeared to be simple and crude, they could not be considered fine or delicate at all.

It was as if tools used to carve them were an entire era behind those used by the Silver forces of the Land of Chaos.

“There is no life here. There’s nothing at all.” Chu Li’s voice came from a wooden house.

“There’s nothing here as well,” Xue Moyan also said loudly.

“There’s no need to go through them one by one. Let’s just go to the center of the village and see if there is anything unusual. If not, let us leave as soon as possible,” Luo Chen said impatiently.

“Alright,” the group answered him in succession.

The group of people walked out of their respective wooden houses and gathered together once more. They headed straight into the deeper areas of the village.

“Sha sha sha!”

There were only the sounds of their feet pressing against dried tree leaves inside the silent village.

“The front! Look in front!” He Wei screamed.

The group looked towards the indicated direction.

There was a stone well and a floor of corpses at the center of the village.

Those corpses obviously did not belong to humankind.

They had gray brown skin and their bodies were as dry as logs. Upon closer inspection, it was as if the trees had suddenly grown consciousness and turned from tree trunks into humanoid beings.

These corpses had four limbs and a head just like a human being. However, they felt like wooden sculptures.

Were they wooden men?

“They are clansmen of the Wood Race. The Wood Race is an ancient race of forest elves. They are highly intellectual and capable of cultivation just like us. However, they can only cultivate the power of wood,” Xue Moyan explained in a soft voice.

The Wood Race?

A bolt of inspiration suddenly flashed past Qin Lie’s mind. A blurry memory gradually grew clearer in his head.

It was a memory related to the Wood Race…

He did not say anything. Instead, while frowning and narrowing his eyes, he slowly combed through the memory in his mind.

He didn’t know why, but he had subconsciously taken out the wooden sculpture his grandfather left him from the spatial ring as he watched the Wood Race corpses.

Li Mu once told him that he had seen a corpse covered in mist from the memory of a person condensed into a Memory Fragment Crystal. There was also an identical wooden sculpture beside that corpse.

Li Mu could not identify the corpse’s face, nor did he know where the corpse was. He only saw the wooden sculpture clearly.

The wooden sculpture in Qin Lie’s hand suddenly lit up!

He hadn’t combed through the memories of the Wood Race completely, but he could clearly sense that there was something causing the change of his wooden sculpture in the nearest wooden house beside the stone well at the front!

Everyone noticed the abnormal change on Qin Lie.

“Qin Lie, you?” Chu Li asked him with wide open eyes.

Qin Lie looked at the wooden house beside the stone well and walked step by step towards it with an intimidating look in his eyes.

Everyone in the group was staring at him with shock.

……

Chapter 465: Demon Sealing Tombstone!

The wooden sculpture in Qin Lie’s hand had started up a couple of times before. Once, it was at the Nether Realm when he first met Ku Luo of the Horned Demon Race.

It was caused by another wooden sculpture in Ku Luo’s possession.

The other time was when he saw the white bone nether spirit altar at the back of Herb Mountain. He had obtained the Nine Hell Evil Scripture and a soul message from another member of the evil race that time.

This was the third time now.

The gray brown wooden sculpture was emanating with gray, wood colored light. It wasn’t especially bright, but it was very eye catching.

It was a thing inside the wooden house beside the old well at the front that triggered the wooden sculpture’s change.

Qin Lie’s footsteps quickened!

Chu Li, Luo Chen and Du Xiangyang also chased after him.

While stepping on many wood clan corpses, Qin Lie charged into the wooden house and knocked it open.

A person who absolutely shouldn’t show up at this place suddenly entered Qin Lie’s eyes—it was Xie Jingxuan!

On the bed inside the shabby wooden house, Xie Jingxuan, dressed in white, sat alone like a ghost.

The voodoo toxin on her body obviously hadn’t fully dissipated yet. Black tendrils still remained within her pupils.

But she was still hanging on to life!

Not only was she alive, she was even gripping a wooden sculpture that was a size smaller, but exactly identical to the one he had in his hand!

This shocked Qin Lie greatly.

However, just when Qin Lie was about to question her, Xie Jingxuan suddenly charged at him from the bed like a beam of cold light.

A cold and immense energy that was filled with the refined scent of plants enveloped the entire wooden house.

In an instant, the terrifying feeling where he was entangled tightly by thousand of vines gripped Qin Lie. The shackling power made even his breathing difficult.

Since when did Xie Jingxuan master such a terrifying power?

Qin Lie looked at her in utter shock.

Black and white spots appeared deep within Xie Jingxuan’s dark gray pupils. A blank expression appeared on her face.

It was as if she didn’t recognize him at all.

Just when Qin Lie was about to cry out, Xie Jingxuan forcefully snatched the wooden sculpture tightly gripped in his hand and turned blurry.

A cold and white mist spread eerily throughout the entire wooden house. Qin Lie could feel the invisible vines shackling him swiftly dissipating inside the room.

Very soon, Qin Lie recovered. The white mist inside the room had also dissipated.

Xie Jingxuan had vanished as well.

There was an open window beside the wooden bed. It seemed to be the path where she left from.

All of this had happened in the blink of an eye. It was so quick that Qin Lie did not even manage to react or let out a cry of shock.

When Chu Li, Luo Chen, Xue Moyan and the others had come over and walked into the wooden house, they neither saw anything or noticed anything amiss.

They only saw Qin Lie’s pale face and the huge shock in his eyes. He appeared to have been greatly shocked by something.

“What is it?” Song Tingyu came in and asked gently.

“Who do you think I saw just now?” Qin Lie’s expression was odd to the extreme.

“Who is it?”

“It’s Xie Jingxuan.”

“Ah?!”

Song Tingyu covered her mouth and exclaimed softly, “She’s… she’s still alive? How did she manage to hold out after being infected by the voodoo toxin for so long?”

He Wei had also cried out in surprise, “She was already going to collapse when I last saw her. Logically speaking, she should’ve been dead a long time ago.” She was also wrought in disbelief.

Meanwhile, Xue Moyan and the rest of the people looked confused by the situation.

“Not only is she alive, she even hid in this wooden house on purpose and waited for my arrival while holding the wooden sculpture. The second I walked in, she shackled me with a great power and immobilized me in an instant. After she snatched the wooden sculpture from my hands, she then escaped through that window!” Qin Lie sucked in a deep breath and exclaimed, “I dare not say if she is still the Xie Jingxuan I know. The aura she unleashed and that immense power was absolutely far greater than her peak form!”

“Just what on earth happened to her?” Song Tingyu was incredibly shocked.

“Why didn’t you go after her?” Chu Li asked.

“Go after her?” Qin Lie smiled bitterly, “I know I can’t catch up to her. The reason she lured me with the wooden sculpture was for the wooden sculpture I possess. I’m confused as to what happened and I want to know what happened to her as well. I want to know if the… current her is still the real her!”

The group fell into a momentary silence.

While frowning deeply, Qin Lie carefully inspected everything inside the wooden house to see if there were anything out of the ordinary.

Later on, he retreated in helplessness.

According to He Wei’s explanation, Xie Jingxuan had been deeply infected by the voodoo toxin earlier. The voodoo toxin would absorb her soul and life energy every second until she was empty and passed away.

Looking at the time, there was probably no chance that Xie Jingxan could survive to this point if a miracle hadn’t happened.

But now that he met her again, Qin Lie discovered that she was still fine despite still being infected by the voodoo toxin inside her body.

It was as if Xie Jingxuan had a huge amount of life and soul energy to be expended.

“The Wood Race, the Wood Race,…”

He recalled the memory that had appeared in his mind when he experienced a flash earlier and combed through it again carefully.

At the same time, after he walked out of the wooden house, he summoned the blank tombstone from his spatial ring with a thought.

The tombstone containing seven bolts of rainbow light instantly appeared in front of the group, causing everyone’s faces to change instantly.

“This tombstone came from the God Corpse’s bellybutton. It is said to be related to the Graveyard of Gods.” Qin Lie explained, “The seven divine lights inside the tombstone probably came from the other seven God Corpses, and this tombstone… had supposedly belonged in Luo Chen’s possession. Previously, it had flown towards me on its own and even led me to the Fire Qilin’s body at the land of fire…”

For the first time, he explained everything that had happened after he discovered the God Corpse, how he obtained it from Jiang Tianxing and how he lost and recovered it later. He also explained about the blank tombstone’s powers.

He looked towards the group and asked, “Does any one of you know anything relating to the Graveyard of Gods and this tombstone?”

He observed everyone’s faces one by one.

He saw doubt and confusion on Luo Chen’s face, and he saw indescribable surprise on Du Xiangyang and He Wei’s faces as well.

It was obvious that these people did not know anything about the tombstone and the Graveyard of Gods.

Qin Lie then looked at Chu Li.

Chu Li was rubbing his chin while his eyes shone with the light of ponderment. He seemed to be sorting out the thoughts in his mind.

Meanwhile, the translucent eyes of Illusory Demon Sect’s Xue Moyan were shining with many crisscrossing lights. It was as if there were many secrets contained behind them.

She knew something about this!

Qin Lie’s expression changed, and he put all of his attention on Xue Moyan. As his eyes grew brighter and brighter, he exclaimed, “I have taken out the tombstone and showed you my sincerity. What do you know about the Graveyard of Gods and the tombstone?”

After the wooden sculpture he left behind had been snatched away by Xie Jingxuan in an odd fashion, a huge doubt surged inside Qin Lie’s heart.

He desperately wanted to know what kind of secrets was hidden in the Graveyard of Gods and the tombstone.

Right now, he felt like a headless fly flying around without aim or direction inside the Graveyard of Gods. He felt like he was trapped in a thick mist and was completely baffled by the events around him.

While Xue Moyan was still hesitating, the seven brilliant rainbows inside the blank tombstone standing in front of Qin Lie began to twist and turn like a snake.

A godly and magical energy abruptly spread out.

“Glug glug! Glug glug!”

An odd sound of water flowing came from inside the stone well surrounded by the wood clan corpses.

The stone well actually contained water!

The people closest to the stone well immediately looked at the well. Among them was Qin Lie.

Inside the stone well, the dark green well water was bubbling like it had been boiled.

After the bubbles had broken apart, a grass green mist floated up and filled the air around the well.

It was an energy that was full of life and full of the refreshing and natural aura of refined wood energy. This grass green-colored mist was spreading towards them.

“The ageless spring, also known as the Spring of Life, can replenish one’s life energy and greatly increase one’s lifespan.” Xue Moyan suddenly spoke up, “The reason that Xie Jingxuan managed to hold out until now after she was infected by the voodoo toxin was probably because she drank from this Spring of Life. It maintained her life force at a full state, and since the rate at which her life is dissipating is slower than the rate at which her life is replenished, she is able to continue surviving…”

“The Spring of Life!” Chu Li’s eyes lit up.

Luo Chen and Du Xiangyang immediately became spirited as well.

“Sister Xue, the holy medicine you’re looking for is the spring water of the Spring of Life, am I right?” Pan Qianqian asked.

“Correct. The reason I came to the examination is because I hoped to find the Spring of Life.” Xue Moyan was lost in thought as she stared at the stone well beside her and frowned, “However, it would seem that the spring water of this Spring of Life has been tainted. There seems to be something unclean inside the well.”

“What is it?” The group of people attempted to clear up the situation.

“Swoosh swoosh swoosh!”

Inside the tombstone, the seven dazzling bolts of divine light began to twist madly like chains.

The picture of a sapling vaguely appeared on the smooth surface of the tombstone. The sapling shook continuously as if it were trying to struggle out of its bindings, but the chains formed by the seven godly lights kept it firmly shackled.

“The wood spirit inside the Demon Sealing Tombstone is changing! Ye Yihao is about to arrive!” Xue Moyan’s face was filled with severity.

“Wood spirit? Demon Sealing Tombstone?” After a surprised pause, Qin Lie exclaimed, “How much did you know?”

“I didn’t think that you would have the Demon Sealing Tombstone.” Chu Li also sighed.

“What did you know?” Luo Chen also exclaimed.

“Chu Li!” He Wei yelled angrily.

Chu Li and Xue Moyan matched each other’s eyes before Chu Li spoke, “We do know something about the secrets of the Graveyard of Gods and the Trial. Once we’ve dealt with Ye Yihao’s attack, we will tell you everything we know.”

“Alright!” Qin Lie snorted.

“Withdraw the Demon Sealing Tombstone first! During the short time you exposed the tombstone, the wood spirit had probably sensed it already. Quickly!” Xue Moyan urged him.

Qin Lie looked at Chu Li. He trusted Chu Li.

“Listen to her!” Chu Li yelled.

Only then did Qin Lie withdrew the blank tombstone.

“We wait for Ye Yihao’s arrival. He will be very happy to know that there is a Spring of Life here.” Xue Moyan sighed quietly.

Both her and Chu Li obviously knew a bit more than the rest about the Graveyard of Gods and the Trial. However, they did not explain its secrets for now.

That was why Qin Lie and the others were still completely clueless.

Chapter 466: Wood Spirit

There was only a single stone well at the center of the numerous wood clan corpses that were as dry as rotten wood. The dark green water in the well was currently boiling up and bubbling.

Every time a bubble burst, wisps of grass green smoke seeped out and filled the air with the refreshing scent of plants and life.

Everyone was gathered around the stone well.

Qin Lie looked down and noticed that the dark green water inside the well was filled with black-and-white spots.

They were literally the same as the spots that appeared deep inside Xie Jingxuan’s pupils.

This caused Qin Lie to experience a strong feeling of oddness—did these black-and-white spots appear because Xie Jingxuan drank from the well?

What did these black-and-white spots mean?

He realized that he had far too many questions during his journey into the Graveyard of Gods. He, Luo Chen, He Wei and Du Xiangyang obviously lacked in understanding about the Graveyard of Gods.

“Pak pak pak!”

The sounds of destroyed wooden houses gradually came from afar. The people beside the stone well were all paying attention to their surroundings.

“There are a lot of trees that are moving towards this village.”

Du Xiangyang stood on the rooftop of a wooden house and was looking into the distance. His face was riddled with surprise.

The group flew to taller wood houses one after another looked into the distance with narrowed eyes.

Many black and densely packed trees slowly filled up the village in succession. It was as if the forest itself was slowly shifting towards them.

Among them, the biggest ancient tree was over a hundred meters tall. It had lush leaves and branches, and it was moving across the ground like a little hill.

It was coming at them at top speed!

“That’s the wood spirit!” Xue Moyan sucked in a deep breath, “Ye Yihao probably communicated with the ancient trees of this forest through the wood spirit. If the wood spirit is here, then Ye Yihao is among them as well!”

“Wood spirit?” Qin Lie’s eyes were filled with confusion.

“It is an ancient tree that was worshiped and gifted faith by the wood clan for over ten thousand years as a god. Gradually, the ancient tree gained intelligence and a blurry consciousness of its own. It evolved to have a wooden spirit body and was called a wood spirit from that point onward.” While composing her words, Xue Moyan explained slowly, “The Fire Qilin you saw at the Land of Fire is the fire spirit.”

“I still don’t really understand.” Qin Lie shook his head.

“It’s hard to explain in such a short time.” Xue Moyan was also helpless, “Let’s wait until we’ve gone through Ye Yihao.”

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!”

Many big, ancient trees swiftly approached the crowd’s location as tree leaves were scattered everywhere.

Ye Yihao appeared on top of the tallest ancient tree. His body has been pierced with countless tree branches that were so green they looked like they would ooze color. A small tree’s imprint flashed on top of his forehead, and his eyes shone with a strange greenness.

The refreshing scent of plants emerged from the ancient trees from every direction. It spread throughout the entire village.

“Glug glug! Glug glug!”

The water in the stone well behind Qin Lie boiled even stronger and bubbled non-stop.

“We meet again.” Ye Yihao let out an odd grin and laughed.

Lin Dongxing, Xiahou Yuan, Su Yan and the martial practitioners of the three great families appeared one after another from behind the ancient trees. They all looked spirited and recovered.

“How many of you were killed by the Tree God?” Ye Yihao laughed brashly.

Luo Chen and Xue Moyan’s faces were green.

“You think that you can dominate the Graveyard of Gods just because you formed a contract with the wood spirit and controlled this forest?” Xue Moyan bit her teeth and fished out the Illusory Demon Orb.

“Maybe I can’t dominate the Graveyard of Gods, but at the very least I can fully unleash my powers inside this forest!” Ye Yihao said confidently.

He tore off the shirt on his chest and revealed the Eight-winged Centipede Queen lying around his heart. Beneath his translucent skin, the Eight-winged Centipede Queen’s eight wings had reconnected with its main body and made the creature appear as if it had never taken any damage.

“Bzz zzz zzz!”

The voodoo insect within Ye Yihao’s skin and flesh whistled shrilly, seemingly howling and explaining something madly to Ye Yihao.

Ye Yihao listened closely to its words.

At the same time, the ancient tree imprint before his forehead twisted fiercely as if it was issuing orders to its subordinates.

Ye Yihao’s eyes focused onto Qin Lie, and his face was riddled with shock, “The one who broke my queen’s wings is you. The one who holds the Demon Sealing Tombstone is also you!”

Through the voodoo insect and wood spirit, Ye Yihao seemed to know everything.

“Just who is this guy?” Xiahou Yuan’s bald head was shiny, “He was the one who caused the massive change in the lava pond at the Land of Fire. He used the Demon Sealing Tombstone to pull the Fire Qilin’s body forcefully from the depths of the lava pond!”

“Who knows!” Lin Dongxing snorted.

“Qin Lie, if you see Ye Yihao weakening and find an opening, remember to release the Demon Sealing Tombstone and seal the wood spirit!” Chu Li suddenly messaged Qin Lie, “Just like how you sealed the fire spirit earlier and sucked the Fire Qilin into the Demon Sealing Tombstone!”

Sealing the fire spirit? Sealing the wood spirit? The Demon Sealing Tombstone?

Qin Lie slowly figured out the key point from these bits of words. He understood that the Demon Sealing Tombstone he owned existed to seal the strange spirit bodies inside the Graveyard of Gods.

The Fire Qilin was a fire spirit, and this ancient tree who could control trees was a wood spirit.

Were there other spirit bodies then?

As if noticing the doubt in his mind, Chu Li explained again, “If my information is correct, there are seven such spirit bodies in the Graveyard of Gods…”

Seven spirit bodies?

Was this what the seven divine rainbow lights inside the Demon Sealing Tombstone meant?

“It is incredible that you guys managed to find the Spring of Life’s location, but unfortunately you are unable to drink it the way it is right now.”

Ye Yihao looked at Xue Moyan, clicked his tongue, and said, “Xue Moyan, the holy medicine you sought inside the Graveyard of Gods was probably the Spring of Life, wasn’t it? Heh, if you can drink a pure portion of the spring of life then maybe you’d really be able to live longer. But now…”

Ye Yihao shook his head and laughed derisively, “You are just wasting your time.”

“Sister Xue, wh-what did he just say?” Pan Qianqian exclaimed in surprise.

Another Illusory Demon Sect girl also turned pale with surprise as she exclaimed, “Sister Xue, what’s the relationship between the Spring of Life and your life?”

Huang Zhuli was the only one who did not seem surprised. She seemed to know about the inner details.

Luo Chen, Chu Li, and the others also wore confused looks on their faces.

But Qin Lie understood his meaning.

The problem that confounded Xue Moyan was her lifespan. She had expended too much of it inside her mother’s womb, which led to her being born with a life force that was almost depleted.

The Spring of Life could replenish one’s life force. As long as she drank even a portion of it, she would be able to extend her life and truly live.

This was the reason she entered the Graveyard of Gods.

“Before I die, I will take revenge for Little Wan and the others. I will do my best to kill as many Black Voodoo Cult people as possible, and you.”

“You have no chance here,” Ye Yihao said arrogantly.

“I don’t understand what you guys are talking about, and I’m not interested in listening further!” Luo Chen had gotten impatient.

A cold and bright crescent moon formed from a sword beam suddenly fell from the sky like a dazzling disc.

Luo Chen’s back straightened, and like a sword that had exited its sheath, his body immediately overflowed with sword will.

Then, a wisp of silvery sword light rose right into the air with amazing force like a fire beacon.

The sword ray transformed in midair and formed crescent moons one after another.

“Seven Moon Slash!”

Seven cold crescent moons crashed down upon Ye Yihao like many shiny wheels that were emanating with deadly sword will that could cut the sky and shatter the earth itself.

Thousands of silver sword beams fell like rain from the sky onto the ancient trees that were everywhere.

“Crack crack!”

Many ancient trees were broken and blasted away by the sword rain’s rainbow ray impact.

“Heh, as expected of Luo Chen. You truly are impressive.” Ye Yihao praised him before censuring him, “However, this is my domain!”

“Whoosh whoosh whoosh!”

At the ancient tree he was on, the thin, long tree branches that were as green as jade were glowing with the luster of gemstones.

Wisps of visible green energy flowed through every tree branch and looked astonishingly like the spirit energy in a human’s body.

A great and invincible dark green energy instantly enveloped the surrounding area like a dome of light screen.

The sword rain fell on the dark green light screen and exploded into many dazzling explosions, but they were unable to break through the green light screen.

“Break the walls!” Chu Li yelled.

Xue Moyan, Du Xiangyang, He Wei, and the others all unleashed their spirit weapons and attempted to destroy the green wall formed by the ancient tree and damage Ye Yihao himself.

However, there was one person who was faster than all of them!

A white light streaked by, and a person appeared out of nowhere and stabbed fiercely at the green wall while using a wooden sculpture as a spear.

It was Xie Jingxuan yet again!

Chapter 467: Spring of Life

“Jingxuan!”

Song Tingyu abruptly cried out.

He Wei also wore a look of surprise as she stared disbelievingly at the Xie Jingxuan who had appeared out of nowhere like a ghost.

Besides Qin Lie, only Song Tingyu and He Wei were familiar with Xie Jingxuan and knew that her True Soul was infected by the voodoo toxin, and that she could be killed by it at any moment.

When Qin Lie said earlier that Xie Jingxuan was not only alive, but filled with extraordinary strength, both Song Tingyu and He Wei were frankly half believing and half doubtful of his words.

But now they believed him completely.

Xie Jingxuan’s soft and jade-like hands were gripping a wooden sculpture each, and a careful glance would reveal that her palms had turned dark green. The nerves and blood vessels beneath her skin were also green and were like delicate tree branches.

While gripping the wooden sculptures and stabbing them fiercely at the green wall, rays of green light blossomed from her whole body like a peacock spreading its tail.

She was as dazzling as a green sun!

The two wooden sculptures seemed to have turned into the sharpest spears in the world and displayed an unbelievable amount of elegance.

The tip of the wooden sculpture, the place where the piece of wood was carved into the shape of Qin Shan’s head, stabbed powerfully against the green light screen formed by the ancient tree.

“Rip!”

Two narrow and long cracks instantly split open at the thick and solid green wall like it was a thin film.

“Pak pak pak!”

The many green and tender tree branches of the ancient trees instantly exploded and shattered into smithereens like jade stones on the floor.

Ye Yihao was currently enshrouded by the ancient tree’s lush leaves and branches. The distinct small tree imprint on Ye Yihao’s forehead suddenly turned dim.

Ye Yihao’s face had obviously paled a little as well.

“Lowly servant! How dare you act savagely even after you were infected by the voodoo toxin!” Ye Yihao yelled harshly.

“Bzz zzz zzz!”

The Eight-winged Centipede Queen lying around his heart suddenly howled angrily. The shrill whistles pierced through everyone’s ear drums like a bladed weapon.

Even those who were not poisoned by the voodoo toxin felt their scalp crawl and were unable to hear anything around them for a time.

Xie Jingxuan, who took out the ancient tree’s green wall with a single strike suddenly bled from all seven apertures and looked absolutely horrible to the extreme.

The voodoo toxin was still inside her True Soul, and even if she had acquired a sudden burst of godly power and strength, she could not completely escape the voodoo toxin’s eroding effects.

Naturally, there was a unique and fearful reason the Black Voodoo Cult’s ancient voodoo art, their signature voodoo toxin was famed throughout the entire Land of Chaos and stuck terror in many people.

“Whoosh whoosh whoosh!”

The wood spirit that had wrapped around Ye Yihao with its tree leaves began to shake its trunk violently, causing its branches to shake wildly.

Ye Yihao’s eyes abruptly concentrated at the stone well behind the group.

“Glug glug! Glug glug!”

Inside the stone well, the spring water of the Spring of Life boiled violently like it was being boiled.

“Good! Very good! The spring water of the Spring of Life has begun its purification process under the effects of the Demon Sealing Tombstone!” Ye Yihao opened his mouth and laughed loudly, “That taint should’ve been purified and kept from causing trouble a long time ago!”

Qin Lie turned his head to look behind himself.

The dark green Spring of Life inside the stone well was bubbling non-stop.

A bubble burst, and a thin wisp of wood green smoke seeped out and hovered about two meters above the well.

There was nothing unusual if one were to look at them with their eyes. However, when Qin Lie attempted to sense it with his own soul consciousness, he discovered that the thin smoke floating above the well was filled with fragment souls and shattered thoughts.

The tiny black and white spots inside the well seemed to be decreasing as the well continued to boil up.

The black and white spots were the taint Xue Moyan and Ye Yihao were speaking of. Those black and white spots had also appeared deep within Xie Jingxuan’s pupils once.

Qin Lie couldn’t help but feel that they shared a connection with each other.

“The Wood Race, the Spring of Life, the taint, the purification, the cleansing…”

The words flashed across his mind one after another as he frowned deeply while pondering. He was attempting to sort out a memory that had suddenly entered his mind.

“Kill Ye Yihao!” Luo Chen called loudly.

Chu Li, Xue Moyan and Du Xiangyang all rushed towards that direction.

“Kill them all!” Ye Yihao also issued his order.

Xiahou Yuan, Lin Dongxing, Su Yan and the rest of the martial practitioners of the three great families also charged out from behind the ancient trees to cut off the crowd.

Colorful spirit light barriers, dazzling but harsh lightning, and countless magical and exquisite spirit artifacts filled the air for a time.

A bitter battle between Qin Lie and Ye Yihao was drawn in an instant.

“Qin Lie! Don’t forget to find a chance to seal the wood spirit with the Demon Sealing Tombstone!” Chu Li did not forget to message Qin Lie again even in battle.

At the same time, everyone around him including Song Tingyu had participated in the battle.

While standing beside the stone well and staring at the floor of wood clan corpses around it, he frowned deeply and crouched on the ground. He stretched a hand and touched the closest corpse beside him.

He touched the corpse’s arm.

The arm was like rotted, wilted wood devoid of any luster or green color at all. It was gray, dry, and very dead.

It was as if something had extracted all of its life force and energy.

The corpse’s eyes sockets were sunken, and its entire being gave off the impression of despair, anger and fear. It was as if this person had gone through something horrific while they were still alive.

“The Spring of Life!”

An inspiration flashed across his mind and sent a shudder through Qin Lie’s body. Suddenly, the memory became clear in his head.

It was a memory relating to the wood clan!

He looked at the giant ancient tree wrapping around Ye Yihao and said suddenly with a dark face, “The Spring of Life inside this well had originated from the surrounding Wood Race clansmen’s life essences. They were refined alive and all of their life force and energy were extracted to form the Spring of Life inside this well!”

“Hehe, it looks like you know quite a lot, don’t you kid?” Ye Yihao chuckled strangely.

Tree branches that were like long spears and sharp blades shining with a green and exuberant luster swung all around where Ye Yihao was to create a sky full of green light and shadow, whipping at Xue Moyan and Luo Chen.

He was obviously borrowing the wood spirit’s strength.

He was no longer met with any danger that came close to the time when Xie Jinxuan shattered the wood spirit’s green wall with a single strike and damaged both him and the wood spirit.

Despite Xue Moyan, Chu Li and Luo Chen’s ferocious attacks, they were actually unable to get close to him at all. They were unable to charge through the lush bushes and truly land a strike on him.

He appeared to be far more collected than anyone else in the area.

The Wood Race was a powerful race of the ancient times, and they were well versed with the spirit energy of wood.

It was rumored that there was an ancient tree of life standing between heaven and earth, and the Wood Race was a highly intellectual race that had relied on the tree of life to evolve to what they were.

Every Wood Race clansmen addressed the tree of life deferentially as “Mother.” It was said that the emerald green leaves of the tree of life formed the Spring of Life after they were squeezed into juice.

The Spring of Life contained life energy, and they could replenish a living creature’s life energy and extend their lifespan greatly.

Besides that, the life energy contained within the Spring of Life could literally raise the dead and rob the world’s very own fortune.

Legend said that as long as a living creature still had a breath of air left in their lungs, then no matter how severe the damage to their physical body, they could be saved by the Spring of Life.

The Spring of Life was the Wood Race’s panacea in ancient times!

Normally speaking, the Spring of Life was created by plucking the tree leaves of the tree of life and squeezing them into juice.

However, after a long time passed and countless racial wars, clansmen of the Wood Race were now extremely rare, and even the tree of life’s very existence was questionable.

It was gradually growing impossible to obtain a Spring of Life through this method.

Therefore, a second method had appeared…

The Wood Race clansmen who were of high realm and pure blood could obtain energy from the tree of life and strengthen themselves continuously while cultivating wood spirit energy.

A small amount of the Spring of Life would remain inside their blood. By using some extreme methods and refining them alive to their deaths, it was possible to obtain the Spring of Life from their blood.

There was a flaw to this method, however—the Spring of Life they obtained this way was not pure.

The Wood Race clansmen were high level living creatures after all. They had intelligence, and they had souls and memories. There were fragment thoughts and souls inside their very own blood.

Just like how Jiang Zhuzhe and the others would absorb impurities when they drank another person’s blood to cultivate the Blood Spirit Art, the Spring of Life obtained from a wood clan member’s blood after refinement would contain such impurities as well.

These so-called impurities were in actuality the wood clansmen’s unyielding soul fragment and will!

These black and white spots were these impurities.

If they could not be purified completely, the person who drank the Spring of Life directly would be affected by the unyielding will and soul fragments contained inside the blood of the wood clansmen who were cruelly refined to death.

Xie Jingxuan had obviously drank the tainted Spring of Life after being driven to a dead end by the voodoo toxin. Therefore, she was corrupted by the wood clansmen’s soul fragments and will.

“Kid, the Demon Sealing Tombstone in your hands can purify the taint inside the Spring of Life! Heh, the well water boiled because the wood clansmen’s remaining will was being purified, and when the Spring of Life in this well was purified and absorbed by the Tree God, it will have this tiny bit of chance to evolve into a tree of life!” Ye Yihao grinned and laughed loudly, “And I will be able to acquire a breakthrough speed unmatchable by any man alive through the Tree God!”

“These wood clansmen who were refined to death were actually the deeds of your so-called Tree God, weren’t they?” Qin Lie smiled coldly.

“If the Tree God wants to walk out of this forbidden area of the wood, if the Tree God wants to walk out of the Graveyard of Gods, then it must do so!” Ye Yihao’s expression was cruel. “The seven great spirit bodies and eight God Corpses have suppressed and sealed the Graveyard of Gods for far, far too long. Now that its entrance has been discovered, and we have entered into the Graveyard of Gods, this place is no longer the peaceful place it once was. The seven great spirit bodies have long since lost their obligation to continue suppressing this place!”

After he had formed a contract with the wood spirit, Ye Yihao had an understanding of the Graveyard of Gods that far exceeded everyone else.

“The Tree God and I are connected by soul now. It will not be as easy as you think if you wish to seal the Tree God with the Demon Sealing Tombstone!” Ye Yihao grinned sinisterly, “Even worse for you is that you are in the forbidden area of wood! Here, the Tree God and I are the real masters!”

“Ooooo!”

While the duo were speaking, Xue Jingxuan howled in pain in a low tone while still gripping the two wooden sculptures and pressing the back of her hand against her forehead.

Her life and soul energy were being swiftly extracted.

No matter how powerful she was, she could not avoid the voodoo toxin’s erosion as long as the voodoo toxin was still in effect and the Eight-winged Centipede Queen was screeching shrilly.

This was especially true when she was so close to the voodoo insect.

The voodoo toxin was far scarier than the wood clansmen soul fragments that had invaded her mind!

“Qin Lie! Cure her with a drop of voodoo insect blood!” Chu Li messaged him.

Qin Lie’s spirit shook at the thought.

……

Chapter 468: Seal!

Xie Jingxuan’s previous attack had instantly shattered the wood spirit’s wall and dealt a terrible blow to both Ye Yihao and the wood spirit.

This was an attack Chu Li and the others wouldn’t have been able to accomplish.

Regardless of whether Xie Jingxuan had been corrupted by the soul fragments of the Wood Race clansmen or not, at least her current targets were Ye Yihao and the wood spirit—she could really wound them!

The only thing keeping her from doing that was the voodoo toxin that had seeped into her True Soul!

The moment the voodoo toxin was cured, Xie Jingxuan would be able to torment Ye Yihao and the wood spirit!

Qin Lie quickly understood Chu Li’s idea of using Xie Jingxuan to deal with Ye Yihao.

This idea would definitely work!

“Spurt!”

A thin, tender branch that forked from the Tree God’s larger branches pierced Zhang Chendong’s chest like a jade green sword.

The chest of Zhang Chendong, who had been fighting alongside Luo Chen, was completely pierced by the thin branch. Like a water pump, it sucked the blood and essence inside his internal organs out of his body and sent them gushing into the Tree God.

At this moment, Luo Chen’s last comrade was mercilessly killed.

“The direction you were escaping in was perfectly fine. If you hadn’t entered this village or stopped to rest, maybe you would have actually been able to leave the Forbidden Land of Wood.” Ye Yihao laughed coldly and shook his head. “How unfortunate. It’s regrettable that you failed to suppress your curiosity and instead entered this place.

“Strangle them to death!”

All of the trees in the area twisted toward Qin Lie and the others; as far as the eye could see, branches of all shapes and lengths shot at them from every direction, resembling strange snakes seeking to wrap around them and kill them.

These tree branches seemed to possess basic intelligence, specifically avoiding the people of the three great families and Black Voodoo Cult and only attacking the martial practitioners of Illusory Demon Sect and Terminator Sect.

“Qin Lie!” Chu Li exclaimed abruptly.

Qin Lie, who was guarding the stone well behind him, finally reacted to Chu Li’s voice and bolted toward Xie Jingxuan like lightning.

His spatial ring flashed, and the jade bottle that contained a drop of voodoo insect blood appeared in his hand.

“Whoosh!”

The jade bottle rolled through the air and headed toward Xie Jingxuan like a falling star.

“That’s a drop of voodoo insect blood!” Qin Lie exclaimed softly.

At the same time, three drops of blood resembling bloodstones flew out of his palm and transformed into three burning Fire Qilins.

The three Fire Qilins roared as their intense flames formed a raging inferno barrier that defended Xie Jingxuan.

“Put the drop of blood in your forehead!” Song Tingyu instructed loudly.

“The blood can cure the voodoo toxin!” He Wei shouted.

Xie Jingxuan had drunk the spring water of the Spring of Life and used the life energy in it to maintain her life force. However, she was corrupted by the unbending, fragmented will of the Wood Race clansmen inside the Spring of Life and left in a state of unconsciousness.

They were worried that Xie Jingxuan was unable to think and didn’t know how to use the voodoo insect blood, so they pointed out how it worked.

“Boom boom boom!”

Thunder surged through Qin Lie’s body as he swung the Astral Thunder Hammer and spread intense lightning everywhere to shatter the branches that were heading in his direction.

On top of that, he was also doing his best to protect Xie Jingxuan.

The black and white dots deep inside of Xie Jingxuan’s eyes suddenly flickered with an unusual light.

Her face surged with immense life force, and her lifeless expression changed.

Xie Jingxuan gripped the wooden sculpture and used it to accurately strike the jade bottle that was falling toward her head. The jade bottle shattered as a drop of blood appeared in the air.

Xie Jingxuan reached out with her free hand and made a pulling motion.

A beam of light that was a grassy green emerged from her hand and wrapped around the drop of blood like soft green ribbons.

The voodoo insect blood flowed downward and came to rest on her forehead like a tiny cinnabar mole.

Wisps of black and brown smoke rapidly escaped from her eyes. They stuck to the voodoo insect blood as if magnetically attracted.

The drop of blood turned black after absorbing the voodoo insect toxin, becoming viscous and then solid. An evil, intimidating aura gushed from it.

“Plop!”

The now solid drop of blood fell from Xie Jingxuan’s forehead, her cries of pain having stopped long ago.

Her eyes that had been covered in black and white spots regained their intimidating, evil light, and dark green haloes rippled from her body like those of the deep sea.

“Whoosh whoosh whoosh!”

Xie Jingxuan opened her mouth, pointed in the direction of the stone well, and inhaled.

All of the thin green mist above the well, still mixed with chaotic energy and the soul fragments of the Wood Race clansmen, rushed into Xie Jingxuan’s mouth.

Xie Jingxuan’s eyes shone with unnatural green light.

Gripping a wooden sculpture in her other hand, she floated in midair like a green ghost. Then, resembling a demon, she flew through tiny gaps in the attacking branches and instantly arrived next to Ye Yihao

The two wooden sculptures she held unleashed a terrifying light and resembled two immeasurably sharp, unbreakable godly swords.

“Crack! Crack!”

As if wielding two swords, Xie Jingxuan continuously slashed at the wood around Ye Yihao’s body, chopping through and breaking numerous jade green branches.

“Bite her to death! Bite her to death now!” Ye Yihao screamed.

The Eight-winged Centipede Queen burst through his skin and flew out of his chest yet again.

The voodoo insect howled as it flew toward Xie Jingxuan to bite her. Its eight wings glowed with a cold black light, making them look like eight sharp blades.

“Burn it! Burn it with fire!” Xue Moyan yelled.

Qin Lie and Du Xiangyang acted in unison.

The fire sword in Du Xiangyang’s hand suddenly burned significantly hotter as it transformed into a fire dragon and rushed at the voodoo insect.

At the same time, Qin Lie ordered the three lifeblood essences.

The three drops of blood transformed into Fire Qilins that were several meters tall and surged with towering flames, shooting toward the voodoo insect as well.

Xie Jingxuan’s white clothes were completely stained in soil and dust, her white skin was just as filthy, and she hadn’t bathed in half a month. She had already lost her simple elegance, and instead she had grown more and more ruthless

Her combat power, however, had risen by several levels!

Even the two wooden sculptures she held exuded a terrifying might.

It was as if she knew how to manipulate their power!

Dazzling green divine light shot out of the two wooden sculptures like the blades of heavenly gods.

The light cut outward, seeming to actually contain a spatial energy that was capable of slashing through everything in this world.

Upon being cut apart by the dazzling green light, the wood spirit’s branches that were tightly wrapped around Ye Yihao broke like ropes.

Soon enough, Xie Jingxuan sheared away every tree branch that connected the wood spirit and Ye Yihao.

“Their souls have been separated! Qin Lie, get the Demon Sealing Tombstone out now!” Chu Li roared explosively. “The wood spirit’s soul is no longer connected to Ye Yihao’s, so it will not be able to resist the sealing powers of the Demon Sealing Tombstone!”

“Sha sha sha!”

All of the tree branches on the Tree God’s body twisted madly and resembled tens of thousands of strange snakes. Every single one of them wanted to reconnect with Ye Yihao’s body.

They wanted to rebuild the soul connection with Ye Yihao.

It was at this moment that, following Chu Li’s words, Qin Lie summoned the tombstone.

The tombstone floated into the sky the moment it appeared, the seven divine lights on its surface growing impossibly bright. Like seven rigid chains, they extended from the tombstone’s surface.

The seven divine lights were as long as a heavenly river and resembled chains that connected heaven and earth. They anchored themselves to the wood spirit’s huge body.

The wood spirit was nearly a hundred meters tall and several acres wide. It shrouded the sky and covered the land.

On the other hand, the seven divine lights were like the divine river deep within the blue dome of heaven. They stretched out and forcefully shackled the huge body of the wood spirit.

“Creek crack!”

The dazzling divine light and terrifying power radiating from these seven long chains made everyone tremble in shock.

“No!” Ye Yihao cried out in pain.

Although its roots were embedded deep underground, the wood spirit that resembled a ten thousand year old tree demon was shackled by the seven divine lights and uprooted.

It was being pulled toward the tombstone bit by bit!

The tombstone wasn’t large. In fact, from its position suspended above the giant tree, it looked like a tiny cloud in the sky.

Yet at this moment, the godly might and massive, unrivaled strength that it unleashed would inspire awe in anyone.

Just like how it had absorbed the body of the Fire Qilin, the seven divine lights that shot out of the Demon Sealing Tombstone wrapped around the wood spirit and slowly absorbed it into its surface.

Everyone raised their heads and looked toward the heavens. They were all watching the wood spirit slowly shrink until it completely disappeared within the Demon Sealing Tombstone.

The wood spirit of the Forbidden Land of Wood was sealed by the Demon Sealing Tombstone, just like what had happened to the fire spirit of the Land of Fire.

The branches that were heading over from every direction suddenly stopped moving after the wood spirit had been sealed.

It was as if they had just returned to normal.

“Follow me!” Ye Yihao’s cold voice rang out.

Thick clouds of voodoo toxin appeared where he stood, and the poisonous clouds swiftly spread to the surroundings.

Luo Chen, Chu Li, Xue Moyan, and everyone else that had gathered in the area hastily avoided the clouds in shock and fear.

On the other hand, Lin Dongxing, Su Yan, Xiahou Yan, and their men hastily entered the area shrouded in voodoo toxin, afraid that they would become targets of the people outside.

“I shall wait for you at the Land of Buried Gods!” Ye Yihao’s voice echoed from within the voodoo toxin.

The black voodoo toxin smoke that enveloped Ye Yihao and his people shifted under everyone’s gaze and swiftly retreated from the village.

Chu Li, Xue Moyan, and Luo Chen were unable to do anything and could only watch Ye Yihao leave.

They all knew how terrifying the voodoo toxin was, and no one dared to go into the voodoo toxin and fight Ye Yihao in it.

Although Qin Lie wasn’t afraid of the voodoo toxin, he wasn’t arrogant enough to think that he could fight Ye Yihao and the elites of the three great families alone. Therefore, he also couldn’t do anything but watch them leave.

The seven divine lights returned to the tombstone and went quiet, and the blank tombstone suspended above Qin Lie’s head returned to its tranquil state once more.

Xie Jingxuan, eyes covered in black and white dots, watched the tombstone and how it sealed the wood spirit inside itself once more. It felt as if the soul fragments within her were finally able to rest in peace.

Traces of thin, grassy green smoke emerged from Xie Jingxuan’s eyes, nose, and ears before gradually vanishing into the world.

Her long lost soul seemed to have pushed away the clouds and finally seen the light of day again.

The black and white spots in her eyes slowly disappeared, and her gray dark eyes eventually regained their light.

“Jingxuan!” Song Tingyu softly cried out, hoping to awaken Xie Jingxuan and that she would regain her true self.

After a long moment, Xie Jinxuan suddenly exclaimed, “Sister Tingyu!”

She was surprised, as if she had just woken up from a deep, nightmare-plagued slumber.

……

Chapter 469: Difference in Opinion

The best news for Qin Lie was Xie Jingxuan’s awakening.

“Where did your wooden sculpture come from?” Qin Lie urgently asked as he walked over, his eyes shining.

The main reason he said yes to Li Mu and came to the Graveyard of Gods was the wooden sculpture.

He wanted to use the wooden sculpture to find news of his grandfather and learn more about his past.

“Wooden sculpture…”

Xie Jingxuan’s brow furrowed. She thought long and hard, then pointed at the desiccated body of a Wood Race clansman next to the stone well.

“Him?” Qin Lie’s gaze flashed.

Chu Li and the others also looked at the corpse of the Wood Race clansman.

This was a thin Wood Race clansman. His grayish brown skin was like the trunk of a rotten tree that had no light or signs of life.

It was clear that the wood spirit had sucked the blood and life energy from this Wood Race clansman and refined it into the Spring of Life.

He had been dead for many years.

After drinking from the unpurified Spring of Life and being controlled by the soul fragments of the Wood Race clansmen, Xie Jingxuan had taken the wooden sculpture from the Wood Race clansman’s body.

“What do you remember?” Qin Lie’s expression was serious.

“Let me think.” Xie Jingxuan rubbed her head and painfully tried to remember.

“Give her a bit of time,” Song Tingyu said in a soft, comforting voice.

Qin Lie nodded. He looked at Xie Jingxuan deeply and didn’t continue to press her.

At this time, everyone’s gazes gathered on the stone well and the Spring of Life within it.

The spring water of the Spring of Life gradually stopped boiling and bubbling. No more grass green smoke came out of it.

When the wood spirit was sealed by the Demon Sealing Tombstone, all the lingering souls of the Wood Race clansmen seemed to have been put to rest, gradually dissipating.

Within the stone well, the Spring of Life was no longer black and white. It seemed as though it had truly been purified.

Qin Lie looked down into the well.

Having been completely purified, more than half of the Spring of Life had disappeared.

The stone well was not deep.

Since the Spring of Life had been purified, the well water was clear, and Qin Lie could see to the bottom of it.

The stone well was actually very shallow. From the mouth of the well to its bottom, it was probably a little over a meter in distance. Rather than call it a well, it might have been more accurate to call it a large stone basin.

The purified Spring of Life was a clear dark green. There was only about a bucket of water at the bottom of the well.

This was significantly less than everyone had expected.

“The Spring of Life can replenish life energy. Not only does it aid cultivation and the refinement of the body, it can also bring someone back to life.” Chu Li’s eyes lit up.

“Just one bucketful of spring water from the Spring of Life.” Luo Chen’s eyes narrowed. He looked down and then suddenly said, “Heavenly Sword Mountain, Terminator Sect, and Illusory Demon Sect. The three of us have people here, so how are we to share it?”
“Sister Xue, is this the holy medicine you wanted to find?” Pan Qianqian asked. “Is it enough?”

Without a word, Xue Moyan’s calm eyes focused on the Spring of Life within the well.

“One kind of Spring of life is obtained from the sap of the Ancient Life Tree. That kind of Spring of Life is pure and contains great life energy.” Qin Lie suddenly interjected. “The other kind is a Spring of Life obtained by refining the blood essence of Wood Race clansmen. Even after being purified, the life energy contained this Spring of Life is not as dense and pure as the kind from the Ancient Life Tree.”

He looked at Xue Moyan.

Xue Moyan sighed.

This bucketful of spring water did not come from the Ancient Life Tree, and the amount of life energy it contained was limited. Even if all of it were given to her, it would only solve the problem for her and her mother.

The life force of her mother, Mo Lingye, was about to run out, and just like Xue Moyan, she needed enormous amounts of life energy to replenish it.

Since Xue Moyan had stayed inside of her mother’s body for too long, half of her lifespan had been prematurely used up and resulted in it being limited from birth.

She also needed a great amount of life energy in order to survive.

Yet this Spring of Life did not belong to her alone. Luo Chen, Chu Li, Du Xiangyang, He Wei, and the others knew just how rare and precious the Spring of Life was. Who would be willing to step aside and let her have it?

If everyone split it equally, each receiving a small portion of the Spring of Life, Xue Moyan would not have enough to save herself, much less her mother.

Just as everyone was heatedly discussing how to divvy up the Spring of Life, Xue Moyan gritted her teeth and said in a small voice, “I-I need the spring water of the Spring of Life to save my life. Can this spring water… be given to me?”

She wore a conflicted expression.

She knew that her request was outrageous, and according to fairness, she definitely could not have the spring water of this Spring of Life to herself.

The Spring of Life belonged to everyone here.

“Give all of it to you?”

Ren Peng of Terminator Sect had a part of his life force sucked away because of the voodoo toxin and had yet to recover.

He earnestly wanted to use the Spring of Life to replenish that life force and return to peak condition in preparation for future battles.

He Wei, Song Tingyu, the two martial practitioners of Terminator Sect, and even Pan Qianqian had been infected with the voodoo toxin.

Everyone that had been poisoned would have had their life energy sucked away by the Eight-winged Centipede Queen. It would be impossible to quickly replenish that energy.

Such a thing required a long period of time.

Spring water from the Spring of Life could shorten this recovery period and directly help them replenish the energy that was lost.

“We admit that you, Xue Moyan, also participated, and it is reasonable for you to take a portion of the spring water,” Another Terminator Sect martial practitioner said coldly. “Yet you want all of the spring water? All of it! You’re being too unreasonable!”

“For those of us that were afflicted with the voodoo toxin, the Spring of Life can quickly aid us in replenishing life energy. Life energy is not spirit power; it isn’t something we can recover using spirit stones. It’s the energy of the body—energy that takes a long time to recover!” Ren Peng snorted coldly. “You think you can just take all of it for yourself?”

“Let’s split the spring water based on the number of people,” He Wei suggested. “Wouldn’t that be reasonable?”

At this time, Terminator Sect had Chu Li, He Wei, and three other martial practitioners, making up five people in total.

They were the largest group. Luo Chen was only one person, and so was Du Xiangyang. If this were split based on number of people, it would undoubtedly benefit Terminator Sect the most.

As for Xue Moyan’s group, they had four people left including her. If this were split evenly between each person, they would not lose much.

Qin Lie had Song Tingyu and Xie Jingxuan. They were also three people and would not lose too much.

The true loser would be Luo Chen.

He Wei was protecting the gains of Terminator Sect, Qin Lie, and Xue Moyan. Her method of dividing the spring water based on the number of people was relatively fair.

She had also been infected with the voodoo toxin. She needed to get spring water from the Spring of Life for her, Song Tingyu, Ren Peng, and the others in order to recover.

“What do you say, Luo Chen?” Chu Li shouted.

“I want two extra shares of the spring water. Two of my people died here, but they also contributed!” Luo Chen snorted and said coldly, “I alone should count as three people. Otherwise, I will not lead you out of this forest!”

Everyone’s expressions darkened.

“Du Xiangyang!” Chu Li prompted.

Du Xiangyang casually shrugged. “I don’t have any objections. One part is fine, I wasn’t poisoned with the voodoo toxin and none of my friends were either.”

“How about you, Qin Lie?” Chu Li asked about Qin Lie’s opinion.

At this moment, after defeating the threat of Ye Yihao, Terminator Sect was the strongest group.

In Chu Li’s mind, he grouped Qin Lie, Song Tingyu, and Xie Jingxuan on his side. If their opinions were the same, he could ignore Luo Chen and Xue Moyan.

As a result, the opinion that he valued the most was Qin Lie’s.

In this period of time, Qin Lie’s actions had won Chu Li’s respect. Chu Li was a person that valued friendship and virtue, and he treated Qin Lie as a brother.

“I…” Qin Lie took a deep breath.

“Brother, why are you hesitating? What can we not say between us?” Chu Li was shocked.

Luo Chen, Du Xiangyang, and Xue Moyan’s groups all focused on Qin Lie.

They knew that, once Qin Lie and Chu Li expressed the same opinion, the division of the spring water from the Spring of Life would most likely be settled.

Terminator Sect had five people, Qin Lie had three, and Du Xiangyang was also on good terms with Qin Lie and He Wei, so he was definitely on their side.

Their forces were enough to fight against Luo Chen and the four people from Illusory Demon Sect.

“Big Brother Chu, I-I feel it would be best to give the spring water to Xue Moyan,” Qin Lie said.

As soon as these words were said, everyone was shocked. Ren Peng and the other people from Terminator Sect immediately exploded and shouted.

“Why? Illusory Demon Sect did contribute, and it isn’t wrong to give them a share of the Spring of Life, but it definitely cannot be all of it!”

“We also had the voodoo toxin. We need the Spring of Life to replenish our life energy! Why should we give all of it to them?”

“Qin Lie, is something wrong with your head?” He Wei also shouted.

Terminator Sect’s people weren’t the only ones who were in astonished.

The people of Illusory Demon Sect were even more shocked. Xue Moyan covered her mouth with her hand as she looked at Qin Lie in disbelief.

She never imagined that Qin Lie would say such a thing. Was Qin Lie actually in favor of giving all of the Spring of Life to her?

Even she thought that she heard wrong.

Before all of this, she hadn’t known Qin Lie at all. Before entering the Graveyard of Gods, she had studied every force and their participants. As far as she could remember, Qin Lie hadn’t been one of them.

The first time she encountered Qin Lie was when two of her Illusory Demon Sect sisters had been controlled by the voodoo insects and Qin Lie had burned them to death. She had wrongly assumed that Qin Lie was a monster and took Pan Qianqian along to pursue and kill him.

Considering that debacle, it was already good enough news that Qin Lie hadn’t teamed up with Chu Li to take the share of the Spring of Life that belonged to Illusory Demon Sect.

She never would have dreamed that Qin Lie wouldn’t be against them, but he even favored giving the Spring of Life to them!

Xue Moyan couldn’t believe that what she heard was true.

“Brother Qin, I know that Miss Xue is very beautiful, but isn’t it outrageous for you to hold beauty above friendship and disregard our troubles just to win her favor?” Terminator Sect’s Ren Peng mockingly asked.

He only thought that Qin Lie was trying to garner her favor because she was beautiful. He couldn’t think of any other reason why Qin Lie would help Xue Moyan.

The moment he said this, the expressions of Terminator Sect’s people, and those of Luo Chen, Du Xiangyang, He Wei, and the people of Illusory Demon Sect grew strange

They examined Qin Lie and Xue Moyan with peculiar gazes.

People even thought, “Isn’t Song Tingyu clearly right next to them?”

Then all of them felt scorn.

Chapter 470: Beauty Over Friendship?

Aside from those who knew the truth, other people thought that Qin Lie said to give the water from the Spring of Life to Xue Moyan to gain her favor.

This made Ren Peng and the others to feel scorn toward him.

Qin Lie’s decision would damage their benefits. If all of the spring water were given to Xue Moyan, it would take a long time to recover the life energy they lost.

As a result, their bodies would not be in peak condition that entire time.

Xue Moyan and the other women of Illusory Demon Sect didn’t know the truth. They didn’t know that Qin Lie was just doing this for Xue Li and helping Xue Moyan whenever he could.

“Sister Xue, this Qin Lie… is most likely pursuing you,” Huang Zhuli said in a small voice.

Her voice was quiet, but in the abrupt silence, many people still heard what she said.

Pan Qianqian and another of the Illusory Demon Sect women agreed, nodding as though it were true.

They didn’t think that Qin Lie was deeply in love. Instead, they actually thought that Qin Lie was shameless… because Song TIngyu was right next to him!

“I misjudged him…” Pan Qianqian thought.

Previously, in order to help the poisoned Song Tingyu, Qin Lie fearlessly charged into the area shrouded in voodoo toxin to fight the voodoo insect. He had had refined the voodoo insect to cut off its eight wings and get the blood drop antidote.

At that time, the Illusory Demon Sect women felt moved.

They had thought that Qin Lie was a faithful lover and felt that, even if Song Tingyu died, it would be worth it to have such a man willing to risk his life for her.

Qin Lie’s previous actions had won all of them over.

Now, however…

Pan Qianqian shook her head. When she looked at Qin Lie again, she felt an unspeakable disgust.

“Tingyu! You should control him!” He Wei shouted. “No men are good. I finally understand that now!”

She hatefully glared at Chu Li.

Chu Li innocently spread his hands with a wry grimace.

“I’m on his side.” Song Tingyu covered her mouth and laughed freely as though she didn’t care. She embraced Qin Lie’s arm, appearing docile and seductive. “Even if he wants three wives and four concubines, I will accept it.”

The men were dumbstruck.

“Qin Lie, I really, truly respect you!” Du Xiangyan gave a thumbs up and said, “You are great!”

The women of Illusory Demon Sect were all astonished by Song Tingyu’s response.

He Wei’s face twisted. She stomped her foot and scolded, “Tingyu, are you stupid as well?”

“Regardless of what he does, it is always right in my eyes,” Song Tingyu said with a smile.

Qin Lie felt completely at ease.

Song Tingyu knew Xue Moyan’s identity and that she needed the Spring of Life more than any other person. However… she had been poisoned too and lost a portion of her life energy as well.

She didn’t have any connection to Xue Moyan.

Yet, at this moment, she could ignore her own needs and stand by his side without hesitation.

She knew that Xue Moyan’s origin as someone of Blood Fiend Sect was sensitive, so she helped hide it. She pretended to be the stupidest woman who unconditionally trusted him…

“Big Brother Chu, can you give me some face?” Qin Lie asked seriously.

“Chu Li!” He Wei screamed.

“Senior Brother!” Ren Peng shouted.

The Terminator Sect martial practitioners were alarmed.

Chu Li thought that Xue Moyan was Qin Lie’s fiancée. He had learned early on through Xue Moyan and Ye Yihao’s exchange that the holy medicine she had worked so hard to find was the Spring of Life.

He also guessed that Xue Moyan had a reason for needing to obtain the Spring of Life.

“Loss of life energy cannot be recovered in moments—it requires time.” Chu Li paused and looked at He Wei, Ren Peng, and the others as he said seriously, “But at least one can recover! If you are infected by the voodoo toxin, your death is certain! Ren Peng, He Wei, both of you were poisoned. The reason you are alive is because Qin Lie risked his life to go into the area shrouded in voodoo toxin and get the blood of the voodoo insect for you!”

Chu Li inhaled deeply, snorted, and said, “All of you owe Qin Lie your lives!”

When those words were said, He Wei, Ren Peng, and the other two Terminator Sect martial practitioners immediately went silent, their expressions full of guilt.

“Think of it as paying Qin Lie what you owe him!” Chu Li shouted.

He Wei and the others were reluctant, but after Chu Li expressed his opinion, they could only keep silent.

This could be considered agreeing with this.

Qin Lie looked at Du Xiangyang. “I will give you ten Heavenly Flame Crystals!”

Du Xiangyang naturally understood the meaning of Qin Lie’s words. Du Xiangyang nodded with a grin and said, “I love helping others! Using all of the Spring of Life to win a woman’s favor… haha, Qin Lie, you’re amazing! I bow to you, I really bow! Your woman didn’t even say a thing, so what can I say?”

Qin Lie also nodded.

Without another word, Qin Lie took ten Heavenly Flame Crystals out of his spatial ring and tossed them to Du Xiangyang.

After receiving them, Du Xiangyang’s smile became even happier. “Haha, I respect you even more.”

Finally, Qin Lie looked at Luo Chen.

Luo Chen smiled coldly. “I’m not so easy to appease!”

“I’ll owe you a favor!” Qin Lie said with a frown.

“A favor isn’t enough!” Luo Chen said with a cold snort. “I don’t believe that you are asking everyone to give up the Spring of Life just to gain her favor. A reason! I need an actual reason!”

Xue Moyan, standing at the other side of the village, looked at him as she spoke. “I also need a reason. I don’t want to owe you, and I don’t believe that I am worthy of you doing so much for me…”

She thinking the same thing as Luo Chen. She also didn’t believe that Qin Lie was asking everyone to give up the Spring of Life and help her just because of her beauty.

The time that she and Qin Lie had known each other was very short.

However, she was almost certain that a person who could be extremely cruel and insane to themselves would not be so amazing as to do everything to help a stranger just for her beauty.

That was not realistic.

“What do you want?” She asked again.

She thought that, in doing this, Qin Lie had something to ask of her or Illusory Demon Sect.

What do you want?

Many other people, such as He Wei, Du Xiangyang, and Luo Chen, were thinking this as well. They all looked at Qin Lie.

“You will know why in the future,” Qin Lie said calmly.

“Our cooperation ends now!” Luo Chen looked over coldly. Seeing that Qin Lie did not intend to explain, he nodded and turned to leave.

He naturally would not guide them any longer.

“Let’s go, Chu Li.” He Wei snorted.

“Go? Go where? Wait for Qin Lie!” Chu Li said in bewilderment.

He had not detected He Wei’s anger.

“If you don’t go, we’ll go!” He Wei glared at him. “The wood spirit is sealed and Ye Yihao is no longer a threat. What are you doing with this fellow that puts beauty above friendship? Chu Li, decide for yourself. Are you going to be with him or me?”

After making this declaration, He Wei turned and walked out of the village without looking back.

“Senior Brother!” Ren Peng and the others also started to urge him.

Just as they saw that they could use the Spring of Life to replenish their life energy, Qin Lie interfered. As a result, they had to completely give up on the Spring of Life.

After this, they bore ill will toward Qin Lie. It was difficult to pretend that nothing had happened, and it was hard to continue traveling together.

Chu Li also saw the division between them and Qin Lie. He knew that He Wei was still unhappy with what Qin Lie did and didn’t want to stay with Qin Lie.

“Brother, this…” He looked at Qin Lie with a conflicted expression.

“Big Brother Chu, go. I understand. This matter is my problem, I apologize.” Qin Lie grimaced.

“Let’s split up for now and wait for He Wei’s anger subside before meeting up again.” Chu Li scratched his head, was slightly embarrassed. “Women have to be talked to. Give me some time.”

“Go.” Qin Lie smiled honestly.

So Chu Li led Ren Peng and the two other Terminator Sect martial practitioners to split from Qin Lie and hurried to find He Wei.

He was worried that He Wei would be in danger on her own.

“How about you, Brother Du?” Qin Lie asked.

“Ha! If you don’t mind, how about I come with you?” Du Xiangyang smiled.

“My pleasure!” Qin Lie nodded joyfully.

Song Tingyu stood by Qin Lie’s side with a determined smile.

Xie Jingxuan’s eyes were still closed as she focused on thinking back to her previous experiences. She hadn’t paid any attention to what had just occurred.

Xue Moyan stood by the mouth of the well. Before she moved to take the spring water from the Spring of Life, she asked again, “Many people have left. Now can you tell me the reason why?”

“You will know in the future.” Qin Lie smiled, waved his hand, then left.

He was afraid that Xue Moyan would keep asking and he would still be unable to answer. He was afraid that he would expose Xue Moyan’s identity as a survivor of Blood Fiend Sect.

Chapter 471: A Present from the Demon Sealing Tombstone!

In the old, decrepit village, after Qin Lie and the others left, Huang Zhuli stared at the Spring of Life in the well. Confused, she said, “This Qin Lie is a really strange person. I have no idea what he’s thinking.”

“Why does he want to gain Sister Xue’s favor?” Pan Qianqian was also confused.

“Regardless, this is not detrimental to us. We are about to get the Spring of Life.” Huang Zhuli’s expression was excited.

Xue Moyan’s expression was indifferent. She did not respond to the two, instead standing there in a daze and looking in the direction that Qin Lie had left.

“Why did he do this?”

She also didn’t understand why Qin Lie hadn’t just given up his share of the Spring of Life, but insisted that Terminator Sect, Du Xiangyang, Luo Chen, and the others give up their shares of the Spring of Life as well.

She knew that she had no connection to Qin Lie.

“Sister Xue. In my opinion, he’s obviously pursuing you!” Huang Zhuli laughed.

“It’s very likely.” Pan Qianqian also nodded.

“No, that definitely isn’t the case…” Xue Moyan shook her head. She still couldn’t think of a reason after considering the matter for a while, so she ordered, “Secure the Spring of Life for me.”

“I’ll do it!” Huang Zhuli said, taking the initiative.

“Mn, be careful.”

“Don’t worry! I’m simply getting the Spring of Life. It’s nothing major. Sister Xue, Qianqian, you two rest first. You can leave this to me.”

Huang Zhuli’s eyes were bright.

……

Peace returned after the wood spirit in the Forbidden Land of Wood was sealed. The ancient trees no longer became monsters that attacked people.

The shrubbery that had razor sharp leaves lost their frightening viciousness and became friendly plants again.

The previously dangerous Forbidden Land of Wood became incomparably tranquil. There were no other incidents of plants killing people.

The martial practitioners split up according to the forces they belonged to, each faction travelling through the forest and searching for a way to leave it.

In an area of lush, vibrant trees, Qin Lie, Song Tingyu, Du Xiangyang, and Xie Jingxuan slowly made their way through the woods
The direction in which they were moving was the general direction that Luo Chen had previously indicated.

“Qin Lie, you really shouldn’t have been in a hurry to leave. At the very least, shouldn’t you have asked Xue Moyan about the mysteries of the Graveyard of Gods?” Song Tingyu suddenly asked. “Only Chu Li and Xue Moyan seem to be familiar with the details about it. Furthermore, they agreed to tell you what they knew after the problem with Ye Yihao had been solved”

“There’s no need to dig any further. Because of Chu Li and Xue Moyan’s discussion, as well as what Ye Yihao said, I have a general understanding of the mystery behind the Graveyard of Gods.” Qin Lie stopped walking.

He turned his head to look back at Xie Jingxuan.

Xie Jingxuan had been silently deep in thought ever since they left the village in the Forbidden Land of Wood.

She was still trying to make sense of her hazy memory.

Qin Lie sighed.

“I actually want to know more about this wooden sculpture.”

Leaning against an old tree, he took the two wooden sculptures out of his spatial ring and caressed them with his finger. He released his mind consciousness to inspect them.

Xie Jingxuan had given both wooden sculptures to Qin Lie after she came to her senses. Between the two sculptures, the one that Qin Lie’s grandfather had left for him was clearly bigger.

Xie Jingxuan had found the other, slightly smaller sculpture beside the corpse of the Wood Race clansman that the wood spirit had refined to death. The remainder of that clansman’s soul and thoughts had taken over Xie Jingxuan, allowing her to use the power of the wooden sculpture in battle.

“She might need a long time to think about and understand what happened when she was unconscious,” Du Xiangyang theorized. “It’s possible that she won’t be able to remember.”

“Can you learn anything from that wooden sculpture, Qin Lie?” Song Tingyu asked.

Qin Lie shook his head. “I tried, but there aren’t any messages or memories. Just a spirit diagram.”

“Then we can only wait for Jingxuan to remember.” Song Tingyu was also out of ideas.

Du Xiangyang carefully observed Xie Jingxuan.

“She doesn’t seem okay…” After a moment of hesitation, Du Xiangyang’s eyes flashed and he cautiously said, “She seems to be in a wondrous state. Look at her… although she wears a dazed expression, powerful flucuations are clearly radiating from her.”

Upon having this pointed out to them, Qin Lie and Song Tingyu focused and turned their attention to the state that Xie Jingxuan was in.
Green waves would occasionally emanate from her, making her life force seem even more lively.

A strong blood energy came from her body. Every cell, blood vessel, and muscle seemed to contain a significant amount of life force.
Xie Jingxuan’s soul was at peace, and her body incessantly moved as though it were transforming in a certain way.

“This should be some sort of life cleansing process. Life energy is the energy of the body. Her life energy is receiving a considerable boost. She probably consumed a substantial amount of the Spring of Life. The spring water in that well was formed from the blood energy of the Wood Race clansmen. Those very clansmen had taken control of Xie Jingxuan’s soul and thoughts. Her body is changing… I cannot ascertain why.”

“Gaaaaah!!”

Xie Jingxuan suddenly gripped her head, unleashing a horrible scream.

She seemed to be in great pain.

“What’s happening?!” Song Tingyu’s expression twisted in worry.

Tendrils of smoke came out of Xie Jingxuan’s body. The smoke was a grassy green and filled with the energy of nature. If one looked closely, they would find that the smoke constantly changed into strange, curved threads.

They resembled the shapes of leaves and trees. They were complex and exquisite and felt as though they contained the laws of the universe.
“Her face!” Du Xiangyang shouted.

An invisible brush seemed to be painting the patterns on her body, carefully carving her.

The exquisite green patterns were on her face, her neck, and all of her exposed white skin. They flashed with green light.

“This is a wondrous inheritance method!” Du Xiangyang exclaimed with an expression of shock.

“Inheritance? The inheritance of the Wood Race clansmen?” Qin Lie was also shocked.

“Yes!” Du Xiangyang inhaled sharply, his expression grave. “She has gained a blessing in disguise. Although I don’t know the details, I’m sure that this is some kind of inheritance of the Wood Race clansmen. The patterns of leaves and trees that are appearing on her skin are all transformations of the wood spirit art and an expression of life energy!”

“Let’s protect her.” Qin Lie laughed.

“This is great!” Song Tingyu wore a happy expression.

“An inheritance means the acceptance of a spirit art, inherited memories, and duties. If she’s lucky, she may also learn about the history of the Wood Race and what happened in the recent past.” Du Xiangyang rubbed his chin, interest piqued. “She might actually obtain information about the origin and powers of that wooden sculpture that you so desire.”

Qin Lie’s eyes lit up.

“Let’s guard Jingxuan while we recover our spirit energy.” Song Tingyu’s smile was happy and relaxed.

She sat down next to Xie Jingxuan with her legs in the lotus position. She took spirit stones out from her spatial ring. With her eyes half-closed, she started to absorb the power of the spirit stones.

“Good idea.”

Du Xiangyang also sat down with a smile. He took out a Heavenly Flame Crystal and started using it to replenish his fire spirit energy.
Seeing these two become quiet, Qin Lie did not speak. He smiled and moved a bit further from them two before taking out the Demon Sealing Tombstone once more.

Qin Lie wanted to cultivate using the Demon Sealing Tombstone and learn about its mysteries. He wanted to see the state of the wood spirit sealed inside of it.

Extending a finger, he moved to touch the surface of the Demon Sealing Tombstone and was about to examine it with his mind when a vast, lively presence suddenly flooded out of it!

This presence was wood spirit energy. It was great and vast and made him feel as though he were suffocating.

At the same time, an intense heat came from his chest.

That heat was the presence of the Fire Qilin!

“Ah!” Qin Lie exclaimed in shock.

He saw three drops of emerald liquid slowly being squeezed from the surface of the Demon Sealing Tombstone.

—just like the three drops of Fire Qilin blood!

The three jade-like drops of liquid resembled spring water from a deep mountain, faded green and clear.

The three drops of emerald liquid flashed, coming to a sudden stop in Qin Lie’s palm.

It was as if the Demon Sealing Tombstone were giving him a present!

The three drops of liquid rippled with light. Three tiny tree seedlings could be seen inside of them.

They were tiny yet beautiful, and were just like the Fire Qilin shapes within the three blood essences.

Just as shock and confusion struck Qin Lie, the three drops of emerald liquid entered his hand and flowed into his blood vessels.

His blood immediately exuded a dense life energy. In that moment, Qin Lie felt that his life energy had begun to surge and flourish.

Qin Lie’s eyes lit up with happiness. He became excited and almost couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

These were the lifeblood essences that the Demon Sealing Tombstone extracted from the wood spirit after refining it!

Qin Lie owned the Demon Sealing Tombstone and used it to seal the wood spirit. He helped the Demon Sealing Tombstone in fulfilling its wish, so it gave him a reward—

—just like when he used the Demon Sealing Tombstone to absorb the Fire Qilin and create the three blood essences in the process.

Qin Lie came to a sudden realization.

If he could locate the body of a spirit within the Forbidden Lands and seal them, he would be able to reap rewards.

He immediately identified a goal to strive for.

“Just like with the Fire Qilin blood, since the wood spirit’s lifeblood essences are inside of my blood, I can refine it with the Blood Refinement Art and have them become my own blood essences!” Qin Lie was excited.

Qin Lie sat down next to the Demon Sealing Tombstone. Concentrating on sensing the drops of emerald liquid, he used his own blood to slowly envelop them.

He gradually released his soul consciousness, using it to slowly enter the wood spirit’s lifeblood essences like invisible tentacles and permeate them.

This was the Blood Refinement Art recorded in the Blood Codex.

Chapter 472: Hallucination

The three drops of emerald liquid had been created after the Demon Sealing Tombstone refined the wood spirit.

These droplets melted into Qin Lie’s blood, causing a strong, seemingly infinite amount of vitality to awaken inside of his flesh and blood, making his entire body feel extremely relaxed.

He immediately tried to refine it with the Blood Refinement Art.

The Blood Refinement Art recorded in the Blood Codex allowed one to increase the purity of their blood, turning it into magical, everlasting blood essence.

This process could, to an extent, purify blood that lacked residual will. By gradually immersing the blood in one’s body with their own soul consciousness, one would be able to imprint their own will upon the purified blood and form blood essence.

The three drops of refined Fire Qilin blood had been slowly refined and transformed in this way.

Not only would the three drops of refined Fire Qilin blood be considered his own purified blood essences, they also contained his soul imprints

That was the only reason why he could communicate with and control them with his mind.

Qin Lie was now beginning that process once more.

Since the emerald drops of liquid did not contain impurities, residual souls, or memory fragments after being refined by the Demon Sealing Tombstone, they could already be considered pure lifeblood essences that were extremely suitable for refinement.

As Qin Lie thought about this, the thick, viscous blood in his veins and arteries moved in according to the Blood Spirit Art and quietly converged on the center of his palm.

His palm slowly turned a strange sanguine color as blood vessel after blood vessel became visible, faintly revealing the feverish red blood within.

Thin currents of blood gathered at Qin Lie’s palm. At the same time, he focused his mind and began to meditate, dividing all of the memories and thoughts in his Soul Lake into separate wisps.

These soul wisps resembled invisible spirit lines as they dissolved into the thin currents of his blood and marked them with his soul energy and soul imprints.

“Glug glug!”

As the strange sound of boiling blood emanated out from within Qin Lie’s blood red palm, it seemed to become a roiling spring of blood.

Like blindingly bright stars, three emerald dots of light flashed inside of his palm.

Those lights were the drops of the wood spirit’s lifeblood essence that had emerged from the Demon Sealing Tombstone!

“With my blood as the fire and my soul as the guide, Blood Refinement Art!”

A crimson glow suddenly shone in Qin Lie’s eyes as a streak of bloody light shot out from the crown of his head like a bloody rainbow piercing through the sky.
Wave after wave of fierce blood energy fluctuations continuously surged outward from his body, saturating the area around him with a wild, violent energy.

Blood red smoke began to escape from Qin Lie’s palm as his blood frenziedly burned and boiled.

Within his blistering blood, wisp after wisp of his unique soul imprints slowly penetrated the three emerald drops of liquid, like faint smoke infusing into three immature, delicate seedlings.

Time swiftly passed.

Within the silent forest, Qin Lie refined the blood essences using the Blood Refinement Art. In the distance, Xie Jingxuan was in the process of receiving an ancient inheritance, while Du Xiangyang and Song Tingyu were recovering spirit energy and guarding her at the same time.

Six more hours passed by quickly.

Du Xiangyang was the first to finish recovering. He glanced at Xie Jingxuan beside him, then looked up and observed Song Tingyu who was still recovering. He eventually stood up quietly.

“What is it?” Song Tingyu opened her eyes.

“It’s been quite a while since there was any movement in the area that brat Qin Lie is in. I’m going to go take a look,” Du Xiangyang said, clearly confused.

Although Qin Lie had left by himself to cultivate with the assistance of the Demon Sealing Tombstone, Du Xiangyang had long since detected the intense waves of blood energy created by Qin Lie’s usage of the Blood Refinement Art to refine the lifeblood essences.

In spite of this, Du Xiangyang had spent all this time enduring, refraining from asking questions or going over to pry.

He knew that everyone had secrets. For Qin Lie to deliberately move so far away, it was clear that this secret was something he didn’t want anyone to know about.

Du Xiangyang was very disciplined. He had not gone and troubled Qin Lie, nor had he tried to get to the bottom of this.

But now, six hours later, the intense waves of blood energy coming from the direction that Qin Lie was in had not shown any signs of stopping and had instead grown even more turbulent. This shocked Du Xiangyang quite a bit.

“I’m afraid that fellow may have encountered some trouble,” Du Xiangyang said, his heart filled with concern.

Song Tingyu’s brows furrowed.

Since Xie Jingxuan was still undergoing her inheritance transformation and temporarily couldn’t be disturbed, it would be best for them to stay by her side and guard her.

Song Tingyu was completely aware of the Blood Spirit Art that Qin Lie cultivated, and had also felt the intense waves of blood energy emanating from his direction. She had originally planned to leave guarding Xie Jingxuan to Du Xiangyang while she went to check on Qin Lie’s condition.

After a moment of deep thought, however, she realized that she didn’t actually understand Du Xiangyang that well. In fact, she was not familiar with him at all.

She couldn’t trust him.

“Qin Lie shouldn’t be having any problems. You don’t need to worry about him. He… probably doesn’t want anyone to disturb him,” Song Tingyu eventually said.

Du Xiangyang went blank for a moment, then nodded.

“Alright then,” he said as he sat down again.

Under an ancient tree.

On top of the Demon Sealing Tombstone that stood behind Qin Lie, seven rays of divine light mingled together to form a flickering, blinding radiance. Because of this, the Demon Sealing Tombstone, which wasn’t that tall, radiated an incomparably mysterious feeling that permeated the forest.

Completely focused on refining the three drops of lifeblood essence in his palm, Qin Lie continuously consumed ray after ray of bloody light that floated above him. He didn’t dare to relax for even a moment.

He was currently on the verge of succeeding.

Suddenly, an elegant shadow approached the area. The figure seemed to have wanted to pass by quickly, but it came to an abrupt stop after inadvertently glancing around and seeing Qin Lie, who was clearly in a critical situation, under the Demon Sealing Tombstone.

“Hm?!”

Huang Zhuli stopped in her tracks, not daring to get too close to Qin Lie as she quickly hid herself behind a tree and secretly observed the scene before her.

She stood there and observed Qin Lie’s every move.

After quietly snooping around for a while, her eyes shone with a cold luster as she came to a few realizations. “Such an intense, fiendish blood energy! This Qin Lie clearly cultivates the evil arts of Blood Fiend Sect—he must be a remnant of that sect! No wonder he risked his life to protect Xue Moyan. So it was actually like this…”

After observing for a while, Huang Zhuli silently sneered. The corners of her mouth dripped with murderous intent as she silently began to circulate the spirit arts of Illusory Demon Sect.

Streaks of flowing light gathered on her face as if drawn on by a mysterious divine brush. A moment later, her appearance had become that of Xue Moyan.

Her cold, frosty eyes transformed into a pair that were bright and clear. In an instant, even her grace and aura had transformed to be similar to Xue Moyan’s.

Taking out a crystal mirror, Huang Zhuli made several more modifications to her appearance until even she couldn’t even see any flaws. Then, she quietly approached Qin Lie.

Within the Graveyard of Gods, the air was completely devoid of spirit energy. This resulted in the spirit sense of practitioners being greatly stifled.

In this place, there were times where one’s own eyes were even more useful than one’s spirit sense.

Therefore, Qin Lie only sensed Huang Zhuli’s subtle movements when she was ten meters away from him. He immediately opened his eyes.

“Xue Moyan!” Qin Lie was surprised at first, then immediately regained his calm as he casually chuckled and asked, “Do you finally understand?”

Since Qin Lie was still in the process of refining the lifeblood essence using the Blood Refinement Art, he assumed that Xue Moyan had, like last time, been drawn by the intense blood energy fluctuations.

“I understand. So you’re a part of my Blood Fiend Sect.” Huang Zhuli gently nodded, then asked, “What I’m curious about is, how did you obtain the Blood Spirit Art that I cultivate, and how do you know that I’m from Blood Fiend Sect?”

“Haha, the ties between us are much deeper than you think. I’m not helping you simply because I cultivate the same Blood Spirit Art,” Qin Lie frankly said, believing the person before him to be Xue Moyan. “I’m helping you because of your father! Before I entered the Graveyard of Gods, your father begged me to do everything I could to help you. Your father… he is still alive.”

A strange shine suddenly emerged from Huang Zhuli’s eyes.

Blood Fiend Sect’s former sect leader, Xue Li, who had turned the heavens and the earth upside down a thousand years ago was still alive?

Her mind was filled with shock.

“Do you not believe my words?” Qin Lie grinned, then nodded. “Frankly speaking, it is certainly quite hard to believe, but don’t worry. I have something that can prove my words!”

As he spoke, he took the first half of the Blood Codex out of his spatial ring.

“This is Blood Fiend Sect’s founding scripture, the basis for all of its spirit arts—the Blood Codex!” Qin Lie exclaimed.

Huang Zhuli’s eyes took on a bright glow as she asked, “Can I look at it for a moment?”

“Of course.” Qin Lie handed the half of the Blood Codex over without thinking twice.

From his point of view, he was facing Xue Moyan, the true heir of Blood Fiend Sect and Xue Li’s biological daughter.

She was definitely the most qualified person to hold the Blood Codex.

Qin Lie didn’t have any doubts whatsoever as he handed the first half of the Blood Codex over to Huang Zhuli.

The glow in Huang Zhuli’s eyes became even brighter as she received the Blood Codex, her hands trembling.

As the founding scripture of Blood Fiend Sect, the Blood Codex was a treasure that Black Voodoo Cult had been secretly searching for all this time!

Very few people were aware of this, but Blood Fiend Sect and Black Voodoo cult were the two oldest forces to exist in all of the Land of Chaos.

Blood Fiend Sect was founded by the Blood Progenitor, whereas Black Voodoo Cult was founded by the Voodoo Progenitor. Even in ancient times, the two forces had been enemies. That competitive relationship still continued today.

The eradication of Blood Fiend Sect could be blamed on Jiang Zhuzhe, the Su Family, the Lin Family, and the Xiahou Family, but Black Voodoo Cult was the true culprit. They had been secretly pulling the strings the entire time.

“What luck! I’ve actually managed to get my hands on the Blood Codex!” Huang Zhuli celebrated inwardly.

Chapter 473: Hidden Pawn!

The Blood Codex was a blood red bone piece of jade. It was as big as a person’s palm and as translucent as a bloodstone. Bloody light circulated within it.

The moment Huang Zhuli received the Blood Codex, she could not suppress the joy that leaped to her eyes. Her lips also curled into a satisfied smile.

No one knew that she secretly belonged to Black Voodoo Cult. No one was aware that she had been keeping in touch with Ye Yihao either. She was the reason why Illusory Demon Sect’s Little Wan and Little Die had been bitten and controlled by voodoo insects.

She was also the first one to blame Qin Lie for that.

“This half of the Blood Codex was personally given to me by your father. It is the foundation of Blood Fiend Sect,” Qin Lie said solemnly.

“Very good! You’ve done very well!” Huang Zhuli could not contain her joy.

Not only did she manage to steal a bucketful of water from the Spring of Life from Xue Moyan, she now obtained the Blood Codex from Qin Lie’s very hands.

She felt that her good luck was currently overflowing.

She no longer needed any rewards from the Graveyard of Gods. As long as she leave the Trial alive and give the first half of the Blood Codex to Black Voodoo Cult, she would immediately get everything she ever wanted!

She was drawing up beautiful delusions in her mind.

It was at this moment that a scarlet, bloody light erupted from the first half of the Blood Codex, blinding Qin Lie and Huang Zhuli!

“Boom!”

As if a flash flood were occurring on a mountain or a bloody dragon were breaking free from the shackles that imprisoned it, a powerful shockwave erupted.

Rays of scarlet light and the stench of blood spewed from Huang Zhuli’s hand.

“Crack!”

Huang Zhuli’s hands echoed with the sound of bones breaking.

When Qin Lie turned his attention to the sound, he was surprised to discover that the bones of one of “Xue Moyan’s” hands had exploded. The first half of Blood Codex, in the shape of a bone fragment, shot back to Qin Lie’s side like a beam of bloody light.

“Zzzt zzt zzzt!”

Rays of bloody light remained on “Xue Moyan’s” body, continuously attacking it and damaging an illusory power on it that was maintaining her appearance.

Amidst a spray of bloody light, “Xue Moyan’s” translucent skin cracked and shattered apart like an egg shell breaking to pieces, slowly revealing a different face.

“You’re not Xue Moyan! You’re the girl that was by her side!” Qin Lie’s face turned cold.

When Xue Li passed the Blood Codex on to him, he said that the Blood Progenitor had left behind an imprint inside of it. The imprint could detect and confirm the aura of those who cultivated the Blood Spirit Art.

Only those who cultivated the Blood Spirit Art and exuded a stench of blood could hold the Blood Codex.

As the all-important heir of Blood Fiend Sect, the real Xue Moyan would definitely cultivate the orthodox version of the Blood Spirit Art. This fact was indisputable!

No matter how good Huang Zhuli’s disguise was, she had never cultivated the Blood Spirit Art. Qin Lie hadn’t been able to tell, but the Blood Codex had discovered the truth.

As a result, the Blood Codex had directly broken Huang Zhuli’s Illusory Demon Sect illusory art.

When she saw Qin Lie’s face darken, she immediately flashed him a soft smile and said to Qin Lie in a gentle voice, “I’m Huang Zhuli. I was just kidding with you, so don’t be mad.”

She said this because she was hoping to find another chance to seize the Blood Codex.

“Just a joke, huh?” Qin Lie’s eyes glowed with a bloody light. “Have fun with this, then!”

“Roar!”

The scarlet red beams formed a bloody dragon that roared and moved to bite Huang Zhuli.

“Blood Dragon’s Roar!”

Qin Lie gave a sinister grin as bloody light shot from two of his fingers and compressed to form Blood Weeping Ghost Claws.

Alongside the blood dragon, two bloody claws that resembled steel anchors swiped at Huang Zhuli.

A bloody energy immediately enveloped the space where Huang Zhuli was standing, making her feel as if she were sinking deep into a pool of blood.

“Why are you acting like this?” Huang Zhuli coquettishly protested, gritting her teeth and refusing to give up. “Sister Xue told me to come find you. She wanted to leave with your group. I thought you were pretty interesting and just played with you a little. Don’t you think you’re being a little too sensitive?”

“Then I’ll restrain you and wait for Xue Moyan to arrive. She can explain things to me personally!” Qin Lie snorted coldly.

This girl had taken on Xue Moyan’s appearance and pointed out that he cultivated the Blood Spirit Art to get close to him.

She even knew about Xue Moyan’s true identity!

This was obviously too strange. Qin Lie had seen the fear in her eyes when the Blood Codex broke her illusory art.

He immediately guessed that something about her wasn’t right.

The bloody dragon, seemingly made of blood, angrily roared and tore toward Huang Zhuli, a visage of terror and evil.

It attempted to tear Huang Zhuli to pieces.

At almost the same time, Du Xiangyang and Song Tingyu cried out as they swiftly approached Qin Lie and Huang Zhuli from a distance.

Huang Zhuli instantly realized that she was in trouble.

The bitter smile on her face quickly disappeared, and her eyes gradually became cold. Even her heartbeat took an extremely bizarre turn.

A terrifying voodoo insect openly appeared on her snow white neck. It was a black scorpion with a hook-like tail that was cold and sharp.

The voodoo insect seemed to have been hiding in her body this entire time, feeding on her blood to survive.

At this moment, the pitch black scorpion flew out of her flesh and suddenly emitted a sharp whistling sound.

An evil soul-twisting aura spread from the scorpion’s body and spread in every direction like a wave.

“Pak pak pak!”

The blood dragon formed from Qin Lie’s blood spirit energy exploded in midair and shattered into numerous rays of bloody light, fading from existence.

The immense, evil energy even brushed the Blood Weeping Ghost Claws aside.

“Black Voodoo Cult!” Qin Lie yelled.

Accompanied by thunderous rumbling, the Astral Thunder Hammer flew out and gathered thick bolts of lightning, falling toward Huang Zhuli.

“Split the earth!”

Qin Lie summoned the power of the earth and caused an earthquake in front of him, constantly rocking Huang Zhuli.

In addition to that, the three blood essences that resembled bloodstones shot out, attempting to kill the voodoo insect

“Qin Lie!”

As they got closer, Du Xiangyang and Song Tingyu’s voices urgently rang out.

“Consider yourself lucky this time!” Huang Zhuli snorted with a cold expression.

Carrying the scorpion in her mouth, she turned around and left.

With a shake of her body, a black light blossomed from her back. Like a scorpion manipulating its tail, the light enabled her to escape like a flash of pitch black lightning. She vanished in the blink of an eye.

However, just from the vigor she displayed in that instant, she probably wasn’t any weaker than Ye Yihao!

It was clear that she was a hidden pawn of Black Voodoo Cult!”

Du Xiangyang and Song Tingyu rushed to Qin Lie’s side. Upon arrival, they discovered that Qin Lie was the only one around.

“What happened?” Song Tingyu asked anxiously.

“It was a girl from Illusory Demon Sect called Huang Zhuli or something. She almost fooled me.” Qin Lie chose not to pursue Huang Zhuli. Instead, he frowned and said, “She’s probably from Black Voodoo Cult. She has a voodoo insect in her, and judging from the rank of that voodoo insect, it might not be any weaker than Ye Yihao’s Eight-winged Centipede Queen.”

“She’s been hiding in Illusory Demon Sect all this time?” Du Xiangyang’s expression changed as he yelled, “This is bad! She’s probably harmed Xue Moyan and the other girls by the village!”

Qin Lie’s heart sank.

As of this moment, Huang Zhuli had obviously parted ways with Illusory Demon Sect. There could only be two explanations for this: either her identity was exposed or she had killed Xue Moyan and everyone else.

“She probably exposed her identity for the Spring of Life!” Song Tingyu said.

“That’s probably the case!” Du Xiangyang was thinking the same thing.

“No one is with Xie Jingxuan!” Qin Lie frowned and immediately ran in the direction she was in.

Du Xiangyang and Song Tingyu rushed to follow him.

“Whoosh whoosh whoosh!”

The earsplitting sound of spirit energy being discharged erupted from where Xie Jingxuan was.

Qin Lie’s group grew more and more anxious. They rushed toward Xie Jingxuan at top speed.

“Dammit! This is another tough nut to crack. She’s even harder to deal with than Xue Moyan’s group!” Huang Zhuli’s curse echoed from afar.

When Qin Lie arrived, he discovered that Huang Zhuli was trying to escape by walking in a strange manner that resembled a scorpion’s movements.

No one knew when Xie Jingxuan had woken up.

Her eyes glowed with a strange, emerald light. The spirit energy that formed around her was as flexible as vines and spirit snakes, extending and probing in every direction.

Every ribbon of green spirit light was filled with shocking amounts of energy!

“Whoosh whoosh whoosh!”

Like an ancient tree, the green vines around Xie Jingxuan’s body twisted, causing a crackling sound to spread through the air.

It seemed as though Huang Zhuli hadn’t been able to find any chances to attack Xie Jingxuan and, consequently did not manage to get anything from her. Seeing that Qin Lie and the others had rushed over, she had no choice but to back off.

Once Huang Zhuli escaped, the green halo in Xie Jingxuan’s eyes gradually subsided. The green ribbons of light extending from her body withdrew into her body one after another.

She seemed to have really awakened.

“The person that this wooden sculpture belonged to was called Ya Ji. He had used a gap in space to enter the Graveyard of Gods outside. He came here to search for something, and after he had arrived in the Forbidden Land of Wood, the wood spirit found him, captured him, and refined him.” Xie Jingxuan stared at Qin Lie calmly and said, “Those two wooden sculptures were made using an ancient wood like that of the wood spirit.”

Chapter 474: Black Crystal Sky Scorpion

Xie Jingxuan was obviously a bit different after she had awakened. Her body was surging with strong refined life energy, and her bright, glittering eyes were full of confidence.

“Jingxuan, have you made a breakthrough?” Song Tingyu’s eyes lit up.

“Mn. I am rather fortunate to be able to smoothly enter the late stage of the Netherpassage Realm,” Xie Jingxuan said calmly.

Prior to participating in the Trial in the Graveyard of Gods, she had been at the middle stage of the Netherpassage Realm. Her realm was a bit stronger than Qin Lie’s and slightly weaker than Song Tingyu’s.

On this trip, Qin Lie, Song Tingyu, Gao Yu, and Xie Jingxuan were participating in the Trial together.

Although Qin Lie and Gao Yu’s realms were slightly weaker than Xie Jingxuan and Song Tingyu’s, the spirit arts they cultivated were strange and unpredictable. Their true strength was actually quite formidable.

Song Tingyu was at the peak of the Netherpassage Realm. Her realm was the highest among everyone in the group. She was capable of protecting herself and possessed many spirit artifacts.

Xie Jingxuan had actually turned out to be the weakest among them.

In reality, she had been infected with the voodoo toxin not long after she entered the Graveyard of Gods and was the first to fall.

If she hadn’t accidentally stumbled upon the village and drank the impure water of the Spring of Life, she probably would’ve died a long time ago.

Now it could be said that she had gained something from all of the setbacks.

Not only had she received the Wood Race’s inheritance, she had even entered the late stage of the Netherpassage Realm in a smooth manner. Both her realm and her strength had massively increased.

This was why, even though Huang Zhuli had wanted to kill Xie Jingxuan while escaping, she had failed to get even the tiniest bit of benefits from her body. In the end, she could only curse while retreating.

After the inheritance was complete, Xie Jingxuan seemed to recall certain memories, so she immediately told Qin Lie about the wooden sculpture.

“Ya Ji? The wood used to make the wooden sculptures is the same as the wood spirit’s?” Qin Lie became excited. “What else did you find out? Can you recall anything else about Ya Ji and the wooden sculptures?”

“Ya Ji brought this wooden sculpture into the Graveyard of Gods He entered through a gap in space.” Xie Jingxuan’s tone was calm as she spoke of what she knew. “Ya Ji was an elite of the Wood Race. Someone trusted him to bring this wooden sculpture into this place. He also seemed to be looking for something. He called the person who gave him the wooden sculpture… Venerable One.”

Qin Lie’s mind reeled.

Ku Luo of the Horn Demon Race and other people called his grandfather Venerable One as well. The Horned Demon elite with eight horns who left the Nine Hell Evil Scripture inside of the White Bone Nether Spirit Altar also called Qin Lie’s grandfather Venerable One.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the person who gave the wooden sculpture to Ya Ji and instructed him to enter the Graveyard of Gods to search for something was most likely his grandfather, Qin Shan!

Qin Lie let out a sigh of relief.

Before he entered the Graveyard of Gods, he had been worried that the person who died there and became covered in thick layers of mist was his grandfather.

When his grandfather quietly left Ling Town and vanished without warning years ago, Qin Lie had already been worried that his grandfather might have gotten into an accident.

Although Qin Lie did not get any solid information from Xie Jingxuan, at the very least it was proven that Qin Shan wasn’t dead. This alone was good news to Qin Lie.

“What did Ya Ji hope to find in the Graveyard of Gods?” Qin Lie calmed down and changed the subject. “Do you have any idea?”

“After Ya Ji was refined, his soul and thought fragments were mixed with the Spring of Life. I have only drunk a portion of the Spring of Life, and the memories I obtained were also scattered and chaotic. I can only remember so much.” Xie Jingxuan shook her head.

“After the wood spirit was sealed by the Demon Sealing Tombstone, the Spring of Life inside the stone well was refined. Because of this, all of his soul and thought fragments have entirely dissipated. We may no longer be able to extract more memories.” Song Tinyu thought for a moment and sighed softly. “That Huang Zhuli girl abandoned Illusory Demon Sect. She must have fought against Xue Moyan and the others. Perhaps she even stole their Spring of Life…”

“That’s extremely likely!” Du Xiangyang yelled.

“Qin Lie, do you… want to return to the village and check?” Song Tingyu knew that he promised Xue Li to do his best to help Xue Moyan. That’s why she asked him this.

“Never mind.” Qin Lie shook his head and frowned. “Too much time has passed. If something did happen, it happened a long time ago. Plus, if Xue Moyan and the others are still alive, they won’t necessarily be at the village still. They might be searching everywhere for Huang Zhuli.”

“That’s right.” Du Xiangyang nodded.

“Let’s go. The Forbidden Land of Wood is no longer worth staying in. We will head to the land covered in lightning,” Qin Lie exclaimed softly.

Song Tingyu and the others nodded in agreement.

……

A dozen or so kilometers away, Xue Moyan and Pan Qianqian walked through tall bushes with icy expressions on their faces.

“I can’t believe that Little Li is actually a member of Black Voodoo Cult!” Pan Qianqian ground her teeth until they popped. “Not only did she kill Manman, she even stole the Spring of Life. Even I was nearly infected with the voodoo toxin. S-she…”

A trace of blood on Xue Moyan’s left arm stood out. She had obviously been injured in combat.

“It wasn’t just Manman. She may have killed Little Wan and Little Die as well,” Xue Moyan said harshly, pursing her lips. “She wasn’t much weaker than Ye Yihao. The voodoo insect inside her body is the Black Crystal Sky Scorpion. Just like the Eight-winged Centipede Queen, it is one of Black Voodoo Cults unusual breeds of voodoo insects. It has an intelligence comparable to a human’s, must be raised with its practitioner’s own blood, and shares a connection with its practitioner’s soul! This type of voodoo insect can only be obtained, bred, and raised by the most important disciples of Black Voodoo Cult.”

“Sister Xue, are you saying that Huang Zhuli has an incredibly high status in Black Voodoo Cult?”

“Her status probably isn’t any lower than Ye Yihao’s!” Xue Moyan said with an icy expression, softly gritting her teeth “She is even more hateful than Ye Yihao!”

Including Little Die and Little Wan, a total of six Illusory Demon Sect girls were killed one after another.

In Xue Moyan’s eyes, these six sisters had all been directly or indirectly killed by Huang Zhuli.

She was the true culprit behind everything!

“Sister Xue, s-she took the Spring of Life. Will that affect you?” Pan Qianqian asked softly.

Xue Moyan’s eyes went dim as she quietly said, “It’s fine. It is of little short term consequence. At the very least, I will be fine without the Spring of Life while in the Graveyard of Gods.”

“Sister Xue, you insisted on entering the Graveyard of the Gods for the Spring of Life, didn’t you?” Pan Qianqian asked.

“Let’s not bring this matter up again. Right now, finding the rest of our sisters is the most important thing. We must not let Huang Zhuli find them first!”

“Ah!” Pan Qianqian’s expression changed.

She had also thought of the worst case scenario.

The girls in their group were not the only Illusory Demon Sect participants who had entered the Graveyard of Gods. Some were scattered to other locations upon entering.

At a certain distance, Huang Zhuli would be able to sense other Illusory Demon Sect participants using the sect’s unique token. The moment she discovered the scattered members, there probably wouldn’t be any chance of the Illusory Demon Sect girls surviving her evil hands.

They would be killed one after another, just like their six dead sisters.

……

At the center of six large trees.

Ye Yihao and the martial practitioners of the three great families were seated cross-legged on the ground and recovering using spirit stones.

The crowd’s expressions were immeasurably dark.

At first they thought that they’d be able to do whatever they wanted in the Forbidden Land of Wood after Ye Yihao and the wood spirit formed a soul contract.

In the end, the wood spirit had actually been sealed by the Demon Sealing Tombstone, and the rest of them weren’t able to do anything to the combined forces of Terminator Sect, Illusory Demon Sect, and Heavenly Sword Mountain. They had no choice but to helplessly retreat.

This was the second time they suffered such a terrible defeat.

The first time, they lured Luo Chen in and surrounded Chu Li. Using the voodoo toxin’s influence, they forced Xue Moyan, Ten Thousand Beast Mountain, and Heavenly Sword Mountain to stand by and watch.

If it weren’t for Qin Lie’s sneak attack with the intense Fire Qilin flames, forcing the Eight-winged Centipede Queen to lose control of the people who had been poisoned, they would’ve already won at that time.

“It was all because of that bastard Qin Lie!” A faint wound marred one side of Su Yan’s face, spoiling her beauty. Su Yan’s eyes shone with a hateful light, and with a cold face, she said, “If it weren’t for Qin Lie’s flames, and later on the blood he took from the Eight-winged Centipede Queen, those people would’ve been severely injured if not dead!”

“This time, it was because he had the Demon Sealing Tombstone as well!” The bald Xiahou Yuan snorted coldly.

“If he hadn’t cured the voodoo toxin afflicting Xie Jingxuan with a drop of voodoo insect blood, that woman would not have been able to hurt the wood spirit. You also wouldn’t have failed a second time!”

It was at this moment that Huang Zhuli’s voice rang out from an ancient tree nearby.

Her eyes were cold, and she overflowed with arrogance. She actually walked towards the crowd calmly.

“She’s that girl from Illusory Demon Sect!” Su Yan smiled coldly.

“You’re looking to die, huh?” Xiahou Yuan laughed sinisterly as he got ready to attack.

“You bunch of trash!” Huang Zhuli snorted. “What have you three great families been doing? If Xue Moyan doesn’t die here and manages to obtain the Spring of Life, she’ll be able to save her mother and revitalize Blood Fiend Sect! Her father has also returned from overseas. When Blood Fiend Sect emerges once more, it will also signify the end of the three great families of the Heavenly Calamity Continent!”

Her words shocked Su Yan and the others.

Some Black Voodoo Cult martial practitioners were also looking at her in surprise.

Ye Yihao was the only one whose expression didn’t change. “Why have you come, senior sister? Have you finished off everyone at Illusory Demon Sect?”

The moment he said this, the three great families, and even the martial practitioners of Black Voodoo Cult, were shocked by his words.

Senior sister?

Huang Zhuli was actually Ye Yihao’s senior sister?!

“I only managed to get the Spring of Life and kill another Illusory Demon Sect girl. Xue Moyan and Pan Qianqian are still alive. Xue Moyan… isn’t so easy to deal with,” Huang Zhuli said with a sinister expression, then snorted. “I’ve killed six Illusory Demon Sect members throughout the Trial. What about all of you? Despite the fact that there are so many of you, have you succeeded in anything at all?”

Ye Yihao frowned in silence.

The three great families and the martial practitioners of Black Voodoo Cult had already recovered from their earlier surprise. Upon hearing her words, they all looked ashamed and were unable to say anything in response.

“Something interesting happened after you guys left. That Qin Lie… he told everyone to give their share of the Spring of Life to Xue Moyan. Do you know why?” Huang Zhuli looked everyone in the group in disdain.

This news shocked all of them.

“He’s a surviving member of Blood Fiend Sect, just like Xue Moyan! Blood Fiend Sect’s Blood Codex is in his possession!” Huang Zhuli laughed coldly. “But the funny thing is, you people don’t know anything about this!”

“Please guide us, senior sister!” Ye Yihao said solemnly.

“From here on out, I will take charge of this group!” Huang Zhuli snorted. “I will also take care of our future plans!”

“Alright.” Ye Yihao was the first to nod in agreement.

Chapter 475: Forbidden Land of Thunder

“We finally got out!”

Outside the lush forest, a vast wilderness stretched out into the distance.

Surveying the view before her, Song Tingyu wore a look of joy on her face as if their days of hardship had finally come to an end.

“We walked in the direction that Luo Chen pointed out to us for the past ten days. At long last, we know that we were not on the wrong path.” Du Xiangyang also smiled. “After the wood spirit was sealed, the forest returned to normal as well. The ancient trees no longer move around on their own. That’s why we didn’t get lost and were able to leave this forest!”

“Is this wilderness the Forbidden Land of Thunder that Luo Chen previously mentioned?” Song Tingyu asked doubtfully.

“What do you think, Qin Lie?” Du Xiangyang asked with a smile.

“We’ll reach the Forbidden Land of Thunder after we’ve passed through this wilderness!” Qin Lie said affirmatively.

“How do you know?” Xie Jingxuan could not help but ask.

“I sense the powerful fervor of a thunder lightning field!” Qin Lie said excitedly.

The Forbidden Land of Wood and Forbidden Land of Thunder were separated by a field of wilderness. At the other end of the wilderness was an intense thunderous commotion.

He knew that they were heading in the right direction.

“Then let us pass through this wilderness,” Du Xiangyang said cheerfully.

“Let’s go!”

A day later.

Upon passing through the wilderness, a swampy area covered in a torrent of rain and crisscrossing lightning became visible to them.

At first glance, there were all kinds of ponds, puddles, and swamps along with mountains of various heights.

“Prak prak prak!”

Bolts of light blue lightning accompanied by thunderous rumbling would reverberate from every direction of the swampy area every so often. They were deafening.

“This is the Forbidden Land of Thunder!” Qin Lie’s eyes gleamed with an odd light as he broke out into a smile. “How wonderful! This place is great!”

“What’s so great about it?” Du Xiangyang asked with curled lips.

“It’s good for my cultivation! Hehe!” Feeling happy, Qin Lie didn’t say anything else to Du Xiangyang and stepped into the forbidden land.

Du Xiangyang and the others had no choice but to follow.

The Forbidden Land of Thunder was a place where wind, rain, rumbling thunder, and lightning would frequently appear. Its weather was extremely nasty.

Ponds, puddles, and swamps filled every corner of the area. A single misstep might lead to someone sinking deep into the ground.

Qin Lie’s group could hardly find a place that was dry along the way. There was rarely a time when the sky wasn’t filled with rain or lightning.

“There isn’t much to be worried about. As long as we aren’t struck by lightning, we’ll be fine.” Qin Lie kept comforting the group. “We simply need to replenish our spirit energy with the spirit stones for now, that’s all.”

A shield of scarlet light surged to cover Du Xiangyang’s body. Xie Jingxuan’s shield of light was green, whereas Song Tingyu’s was a rainbow of color.

They formed the barriers of light with spirit energy from inside their bodies, using them as precious clothing that covered their entire being and nullified the lightning that would occasionally strike from the sky. The shields protected them from actual harm.

However, maintaining the shields of light required energy, and every once in a while, they would have to recover that energy using their spirit stones.

Qin Lie was the only one exposed to the elements, completely wet.

He only wore short, animal-skin pants, baring his nude upper body while calmly walking amidst the raging storm.

Lightning would strike his body every so often, causing huge sparks to appear. The energy from the lightning would then vanish into his body.

It was as if his body were absorbing it.

Sometimes he would grin and laugh aloud, looking incredibly comfortable and relaxed. It was obvious that this Forbidden Land of Thunder suited him greatly.

When they arrived at the foot of a small mountain, Qin Lie examined its peak and saw that it was covered in dense thunder and lightning energy. He was immediately attracted to it.
“I’m going to cultivate for a while. You guys go dig out a cave and hide inside of it.”

“Do whatever you want.” Du Xiangyang shrugged his shoulders.

He took out the sword that burned with scarlet flames and began to dig a hole in the body of the mountain. He was the first to slip inside.

Song Tingyu and Xie Jingxuan looked each other in the eye before taking out their own weapons, digging their own caves, and hiding in them as well.

This way, they did not need to get wet in the rain or be on guard against random lightning strikes. This allowed them to breathe a bit easier.

For the time being, this was how they recovered their strength.

At the peak of the small mountain.

Wearing a pair of leather pants and exposing a large portion of his body, Qin Lie quietly sat in the thick of the raging thunderstorm.

At the third stage cultivating Heavenly Thunder Eradication, Qin Lie needed to temper his soul with thunder and lightning. He would need to borrow the power of thunder and lightning to support his cultivation. This meant that, the more that thunder and lightning were gathered in one spot, the faster he would be able to progress through this stage of his cultivation.

Qin Lie had previously used the power of his thunder Natal Palace in his dantian’s spirit sea to temper, shatter, and reform his soul.

In reality, this method wasn’t very efficient and wasn’t where the true magic of this stage of the cultivation occurred.

Qin Lie ultimately needed actual thunder and lightning for this stage of his cultivation. He needed to be tempered by natural lightning bolts!

The Forbidden Land of Thunder was mired in perpetual rumbling thunder and crisscrossing lightning. For Qin Lie, this was the cultivation paradise he always dreamed of.

Just like how the ultimate blood ground could greatly benefit those who cultivated the Blood Spirit Art, the Forbidden Land of Thunder could also improve the efficiency at which he cultivated Heavenly Thunder Eradication to the maximum!

Qin Lie began circulating Heavenly Thunder Eradication and attempted to draw thunder into his own body.

“Boom boom boom!”

With a thought, every organ in his body and every pore on its surface began to rumble with the indistinct sound of thunder.

The lightning bolts that were gathered above this small mountain all focused on the spot that Qin Lie sat like magnets that were attracted by one another, or spirit snakes that smelled the scent of blood.

From time to time, the deafening roar of thunder would resonate nearby. The increasingly oppressive giant web of lightning that covered the sky slowly descended.

Lightning twisted and turned in midair, dancing like serpents and dragons while filling this land with dazzling electrical light.

“Prak prak prak! Boom!”

A sudden bolt of lightning as thick as a pail descended from the sky, striking Qin Lie’s shoulders.

Tendrils of lightning and waves of thunder surged into his body and soul..

Violent, berserk thunder energy instantly flooded his entire body, causing it to involuntarily tremble.

“Good!” Qin Lie grinned amidst the raging thunderstorm and howled angrily like a beast. “Again!”

Bolts of lightning descended from the sky and mixed with the sound of thunder.

Like earthworms or spirit snakes, numerous lightning bolts reached his sea of consciousness and Soul Lake, blasting his True Soul.

Qin Lie’s True Soul was like a spirit artifact that had been tossed into a furnace and refined. It was constantly tempered and refined by an obscene amount of lightning bolts and explosive thunder.

As that thunder and lightning tempered his True Soul, it became immeasurably tough, resembling a piece of fine iron that had been tempered hundreds and thousands of times.

It was as if the impurities inside of his soul were gradually being burned away by the power of lightning and thunder.

Even Qin Lie’s Soul Lake grew clearer and clearer as his True Soul underwent this strengthening process. The wisps of his soul consciousness and thoughts became compact and pure, as if they were being tempered by a flaming iron hammer.

The third stage of Heavenly Thunder Eradication, where one tempered their soul with thunder and lightning, was obviously a miraculous soul tempering art that was mysteriously profound.

To top it all off, this was a soul tempering process that used thunder and lightning, the bane of all souls!

Amidst the raging storm of rain and lightning, Qin Lie was half naked as he sat at the peak of the small mountain. He relentlessly tempered his True Soul, releasing odd howls from time to time.

Once this cultivation begun, it was as if it would never stop. Day by day, time passed. Song Tingyu, Xie Jingxuan, and Du Xiangyang had recovered a long time ago, and every time they awakened and walked out of their stone caves, they would inwardly click their tongues.

Qin Lie, who was attracting thunder and lightning into his body, caused every trace of the two in the surrounding area to gather. This made the strength of the thunder and lightning in this particular area become nearly ten times more frightening than any place nearby!

The second Song Tingyu and the others left their stone caves, they would be met with an apocalyptic deluge of lightning strikes. This made all of them grumble on the inside.

They weren’t even able to climb up to the peak of the small mountain and check on Qin Lie’s condition. They could only hide in their caves and wait for the moment that Qin Lie stopped cultivating.

They ended up waiting for nearly half a month.

“It stopped! It finally stopped!” Du Xiangyang cried out, poking his head out of his cave one day.

Song Tingyu and Xie Jingxuan followed suit and appeared from their own caves.

The thunder and lightning, which had only intensified for the last half month, had completely disappeared.

The previously raging storm no longer plagued the area either.

The world seemed to have found peace in this instant, causing the three who had been painstakingly waiting all this time to finally let out a sigh of relief.

They hurriedly ran up to the peak.

Qin Lie still sat atop this small mountain, back straight, unmoving, and half naked.

After half a month of hard cultivation and being assaulted with thunder and lightning countless times, not only did Qin Lie’s body not appear to be scorched, it was even filled with a jade-like luster.

Threads of fine electricity casually swam across his dazzling skin while the somewhat melodious sound of thunder occasionally rumbled from within his body. The sounds didn’t evoke any fear or discomfort.

Qin Lie suddenly smiled and opened his eyes.

Two bolts of dark blue electricity shot out of his eyes like electric snakes.

This immediately surprised Song Tingyu, Xie Jingxuan, and Du Xiangyang.

There was no mistake. It wasn’t a gaze that just looked like lightning. Lightning actually shot out of his eyes!

“Qin Lie, you… have you made a breakthrough?” Du Xiangyang cried.

“Mn. I have entered the middle stage of the Netherpassage Realm.” Qin Lie grinned.

“Congratulations.” Xie Jingxuan’s tone was calm.

“Oh you, the speed of your progress is also pretty amazing!” Song Tingyu’s eyes were filled with joy.

“I heard that you shattered your soul twice in order to destroy Black Voodoo Cult’s voodoo toxin, forcing your realm to fall from the Netherpassage Realm to the Manifestation Realm.” Du Xiangyang had a strange look in his eyes. “You shattered your soul twice and dropped to the Manifestation Realm twice, but now you’ve taken a step further and directly entered the middle stage of the Netherpassage Realm. This is… inconceivable.”

“For me, shattering my soul is but a process in my cultivation that I must go through.” Qin Lie calmly stood up with a gentle smile.

He noticed that he was obviously a little different than before. After this duration of tempering his soul with thunder and lightning, it was as if the many negative emotions in his soul had been purified.

He suddenly felt as if his mind had become remarkably calm.

It felt like he was returning to his original self from the abnormal state he had recently been in.

“How strange… The feeling you’re currently giving me is so strange…” Xie Jingxuan frowned and stared at him deeply. She took a moment to solemnly think to herself before saying “The feeling you’re giving me is very similar to the one I felt when I first met you. I remember you being a simple apprentice of Li’s Shop at the time.”

“That’s right! That’s exactly it!” Song Tingyu exclaimed softly.

“What do you mean?” Du Xiangyang looked confused.

“Give me some time to think.” After zoning out a little bit, Qin Lie gradually came to a realization and closed his eyes to ponder.

The third stage of Heavenly Thunder Eradication, Thunder Lightning Soul Refinement, was the tempering of one’s True Soul with thunder and lightning. Through repeated lightning strikes, Qin Lie’s True Soul would be purged of impurities so that it would become clean and spotless, as would his mind…

“Other than the fact that Heavenly Thunder Eradication by itself is an exotic spirit art, grandfather took me to Ling Town, taught me this spirit art, and told me to diligently cultivate it because… it could also purify my soul!” Qin Lie finally understood.

Previously, when he had been fighting Fan Le in the poisonous bog of Armament Sect, Qin Lie was accidentally invaded by the past memories of his soul and influenced by them.

Now that his soul was tempered and baptized by thunder and lightning, those negative emotions seemed to have been burned away as well.

In other words, he had removed the influence of the past “him.”

“This is actually very good for you,” Xie Jingxuan said quietly.

“This is the real you.” Song Tingyu gave him a soft smile.

Chapter 476: Hunter!

It constantly raining cats and dogs inside the Forbidden Land of Thunder. Thunder, lightning, wind, and rain were seldom absent.

Under the dark gray sky was a dangerous swampy land littered with ponds and pools of muddy water.

“We need to find the true location of the Land of Buried Gods,” Du Xiangyang said with a gloomy face. “According to Chu Li, Xue Moyan, and that Ye Yihao, the Land of Buried Gods is the real key to the Graveyard of Gods. Supposedly covered with the remains of ancient elites, it’s where the true essence lies and where the biggest secrets can be uncovered!”

“And you know where it is?” Song Tingyu cast a glance at him.

Du Xiangyang gave her a bitter smile. “If I knew, I would’ve led you guys there a long time ago.”

Today the location they were in wasn’t experiencing heavy rain or thunder, but it could still be considered a wetland.

Du Xiangyang and the two women did not need to summon their spirit energy shields of light. This rare moment of relaxation allowed them to leisurely discuss their future plans.

Qin Lie calmly followed them with a smile on his face. He only listened quietly, not expressing any opinions.

Qin Lie felt that he was currently in excellent condition, and after going through half a month of True Soul tempering, he discovered that his soul consciousness now contained the might of thunder.

It was initially very difficult for a martial practitioner to sense the surrounding spirit energy in the Graveyard of Gods since there wasn’t any worldly spirit energy to sense.

Now, however, he could.

This was the Forbidden Land of Thunder. From the moment that Qin Lie’s True Soul was tempered by lightning, his consciousness contained the power of lightning. He could use it to sense the tiniest of movements in the Forbidden Land of Thunder.

He could even attract the thunder and lightning in the sky, easily manifesting the might of thunder to strike at the surrounding area.

In this Forbidden Land of Thunder, Qin Lie’s strength was definitely much stronger than it had been in the Forbidden Land of Wood. If he ran into Ye Yihao again, he was confident that the current him, which had broken through to the middle stage of the Netherpassage Realm, tempered his True Soul, and was able to use this land to his advantage, would not be at a disadvantage if he forcefully clashed against Ye Yihao.

“What do you think, Qin Lie” Mid-discussion, Song Tingyu turned around to look at Qin Lie.

Qin Lie smiled calmly and said, “The supposed fire spirit of in the land of flames was the Fire Qilin. Even though it was just a corpse when I found it, the Demon Sealing Tombstone still sealed it away. I can feel that the Demon Sealing Tombstone became a bit different after doing that.

“In the Forbidden Land of Wood, the Demon Sealing Tombstone sealed the wood spirit. The wood spirit still possessed its sentience and soul, and after sealing it, the Demon Sealing Tombstone once again changed slightly.” Qin Lie paused for a moment, then seriously said, “There should be a thunder spirit inside the Forbidden Land of Thunder as well. If we can find it and seal it, I believe that… it may be useful to our journey in the Graveyard of Gods!”

In reality, Qin Lie had some thoughts about the Demon Sealing Tombstone’s gift.

After sealing the fire spirit, he obtained three refined blood essences from the Fire Qilin. After sealing away the wood spirit, he acquired three emerald drops of immense life energy. Would he obtain another reward if he sealed the thunder spirit as well?

“What kind of strange creature would the thunder spirit be?” Du Xiangyang asked after a moment of pondering. “And how do we find it?”

“Let’s keep moving. As long as this thunder spirit exists, I should be able to detect it within a certain range.” Qin Lie smiled confidently.

“Are you saying that consecutively sealing the fire spirit, wood spirit, and thunder spirit has something to do with the Graveyard of Gods?” Du Xiangyang’s eyes gradually grew brighter.

“Chu Li and Xue Moyan both said something about seven spirits. They should be talking about the seven types of spirits in seven great forbidden lands. The Forbidden Land of Fire has a fire spirit, and the Forbidden Land of Wood has a wood spirit. Naturally, there is a thunder spirit at the Forbidden Land of Thunder as well.”

“What?” Du Xiangyang’s expression shook.

“I think that the Demon Sealing Tombstone is the actual key to the Land of Buried Gods!” Qin Lie softly exclaimed.

“Hahaha!” Du Xiang laughed and nodded, saying, “That makes sense… that makes a lot of sense! Before I coming here, I asked around and learned that the martial practitioners of all nine great Silver rank forces were searching for this tombstone. They had shackled all eight god corpses together and trapped them in an underwater island before allowing us to enter the Graveyard of Gods. The Demon Sealing Tombstone came from one of those eight god corpses, so it’s probably closely connected to the Land of Buried Gods!”

“What are you so happy about?” Song Tingyu was confused.

“I’m just happy that I made the right choice. Right now I’m in your group, so maybe I’ll be able to obtain something from the Land of Buried Gods through Qin Lie!” Du Xiangyang said, appearing quite pleased with himself.

“I owe you a favor, so if we really find the Land of Buried Gods and are able to obtain rewards through the Demon Sealing Tombstone, we naturally won’t forget yours!”” Qin Lie smiled and promised.

“Heh heh!” Du Xiangyang nodded over and over. “I don’t know why, but I on feeling like the current you more trustworthy! So… I trust you!”

Xie Jingxuan glanced at Qin Lie and also nodded slightly. “I think so too.”

Qin Lie was surprised by their reactions.

It was at this moment that a strange ripple of energy came from the token at Song Tingyu’s waist.

“Eh, it’s token of Celestial Artifact Sect. There are Celestial Artifact Sect martial practitioners in the area.” She took a moment to inspect the token, then said, “They’re very close!”

“It can’t be that Situ Tong and his ilk, can it?” Qin Lie frowned.

“There’s only one person,” Song Tingyu said. After another brief moment of surveilling their surroundings, she declared, “They’re swiftly approaching us.”

“We’ll wait for them!” Qin Lie smiled.

The Graveyard of Gods had always been filled with cruel competition. When martial practitioners of different forces encountered each other, bloodshed would often follow.

Powerful forces would acquire the tokens of rival forces by hunting and killing other martial practitioners. They would then use those tokens to find and kill more of them—.

—all for the sake of exterminating the opposition.

“The four of us currently have tokens of the other eight great forces in our possession. This means that, wherever we go in the future, we’ll be able to immediately detect martial practitioners of those eight forces.” Du Xiangyang smiled bitterly. “Of course, they will be able to detect us as well, so if their strength exceeds ours, then we’ll be the ones out of luck.”

The martial practitioners of eight great Silver rank forces—the three great families, Black Voodoo Cult, Heavenly Sword Mountain, Ten Thousand Beast Mountain, Terminator Sect, and Celestial Artifact Sect—had been killed one after another.

Qin Lie happened to participate in all of those killings.

Except for Xue Moyan’s Illusory Demon Sect, Qin Lie and company now held one or several tokens of eight of the great Silver rank forces.

“If we were anywhere else, I wouldn’t dare to think of us as hunters. However, in this Forbidden Land of Thunder, we definitely aren’t prey!” Qin Lie grinned. “This is especially true since I’ve broken through to the middle stage of the Netherpassage Realm!”

“Feeling confident, are we?” Du Xiangyang chuckled strangely.

“Even if we ran into Luo Chen, Ye Yihao, or Yu Men, I’m certain that I’d win by a small margin!” Qin Lie said full of confidence.

“That’s great!” Du Xiangyang grew increasingly happy. “In that case, the four of us can go anywhere we want in the Forbidden Land of Thunder!”

Du Xiangyang himself was only a bit weaker than Luo Chen, Chu Li, and other ringers. Song Tingyu was at the peak of the Netherpassage Realm, and even Xie Jingxuan’s strength had largely increased after she acquired an inheritance and stepped into the late stage of the Netherpassage Realm.

Adding Qin Lie, a martial practitioner who could control thunder and lightning, to their midst, they truly were a force to be reckoned with in the Forbidden Land of Thunder.

They almost didn’t need to be afraid of anyone!

“Let’s see who it is. If it’s Situ Tong, we’ll just kill him outright!” Song Tingyu snorted coldly.

“As we should!” Du Xiangyang laughed loudly.

Not only did their group of four not move away, they even approached the newcomer of their own accord.

An hour later, an unfamiliar Celestial Artifact Sect martial practitioner appeared in front of them, a look of shock on his face.

He was a martial practitioner at the middle stage of the Netherpassage Realm with treacherous eyes and a nose shaped like a bird’s beak. He looked to be around thirty years old and wore the uniform of Celestial Artifact Sect.

The second he came near and discovered that the person with the Celestial Artifact Sect token wasn’t a Celestial Artifact Sect martial practitioner, and that there were actually four people, his expression immediately changed.

“You people…” Zhang Sheng frowned, gripping his Celestial Artifact Sect token. “Why do you have tokens of my sect?”

“Why do you think we would have them?” Du Xiangyang countered with a smile.

Zhang Sheng frowned.

The answer was clear. These four people must have killed martial practitioners of Celestial Artifact Sect and robbed them of their tokens.

“He isn’t one of the people we saw working with Situ Tong. Should we…?” Song Tingyu turned around to look at Qin Lie beside her.

“This is the Graveyard of Gods. When martial practitioners of opposing forces meet, bloodshed often follows.” Qin Lie’s tone was indifferent. “I don’t really like the way he looks.”

“Same here,” Xie Jingxuan said calmly.

“Then let’s kill him.” Song Tingyu let out a beautiful smile.

“Hey, Qin Lie, didn’t the two beautiful ladies say you became more benevolent? Why are you acting the same?” Du Xiangyang asked in surprise.

“Benevolent?” Qin Lie shook his head and smiled calmly, saying, “That depends on the person. I’m getting a bad vibe from this person, and I feel that killing him will save us a lot of trouble.”

“Alright!” Du Xiangyang wore an odd expression, but he accepted it in the end. “Leave him to me.”

The moment he said this, he took out his Scarlet Fire Sword. A soul-burning fiery light gradually formed at the tip of his sword.

After a moment of amazement, Zhang Sheng hastily screamed, “Situ Tong and I are not of the same group! I am here to find people who will work with my young sect master. We have have discovered a strange land and are sure that there are good things inside of it. We can’t handle the situation alone, so we need allies!”

“Strange land? Good stuff?” Du Xiangyang hesitated.

“What strange land? Also, by young sect master, you mean Feng Yiyou, right?” Song Tingyu frowned.

“That’s right, Feng Yiyou is the young sect master of Celestial Artifact Sect. He is also our leader in this Trial! As for that Situ Tong, he’s only pretending to be friendly with our young sect master. We aren’t working together. The land we discovered is filled with incredibly dense lightning, powerful life energy, and sentient beings!” Zhang Sheng shouted loudly. “We need allies!”

“What do you think, Qin Lie?” Du Xiangyang turned around.

“This guy’s probably up to no good.” Xie Jingxuan said to Qin Lie in a low voice.

Qin Lie shrugged. In a relaxed, confident manner, he said, “Lead the way!”

“Lead the way?” Zhang Sheng looked dumbfounded.

“We are your allies! Now lead us to Feng Yiyou and the strange land you discovered!” Qin Lie’s smile was warm. “We can fight side by side.”

Chapter 477: Having Ulterior Motives

The Forbidden Land of Thunder.

Lightning would occasionally strike in this gray, gloomy swampland. Wet pieces of land resembled islands in the watery landscape that looked like a broad sea.

Six Celestial Artifact Sect martial practitioners wearing clothes with the emblem of a furnace were gathered at a wet hill that looked like a small island, grimly staring at the scene before them.

Several thousand meters ahead of them, the thunder and lightning were clearly more violent than usual. The view was filled with a distorted field of lightning.

Lightning bolts descended through the dark gray sky like bead curtains. They flooded into the violent, energy-filled area.

“Have the corpses been dealt with?” Feng Yiyou stood underneath a large umbrella.

“They won’t be a problem. Nine people have died at the perimeter in the past month. We are also unable to actually enter,” someone answered.

“You don’t say! If that place could be entered so easily, I would’ve gone in a long time ago. Why else would I painstakingly search for sacrifices?” Feng Yiyou snorted.

The Celestial Artifact Sect clothes that Feng Yiyou wore were obviously a bit different than those that the others wore. His clothes had been made from some unknown material that constantly released a gentle spirit energy.

This spirit energy was absorbed into the pores all over his his body, like a person inhaling clean air.

He was the only person here who did not need to use spirit stones to gradually recover his spirit energy.

Feng Yiyou wasn’t tall. His appearance could be considered handsome, and the precious spatial rings that he wore on all ten of his fingers showed the immense wealth he possessed.

As the young sect master of Celestial Artifact Sect, Feng Yiyou was an artificer. Not only was he well versed in the construction of all sorts of spirit diagrams, he was also good at forging spirit artifacts.

Many spirit artifacts of different grades were stored inside of his spatial rings. He had personally forged some of these spirit artifacts, and others came from famous master artificers of Celestial Artifact Sect.

That wasn’t all. The spirit artifacts in the spatial rings of the people around him were also of higher grade and rarity than the ones that most martial practitioners would have.

“Why hasn’t Zhang Sheng returned yet?” Someone frowned.

“He probably hasn’t found anyone else. We’ve been traveling everywhere and inviting every group we encounter to enter the strange land. All of them end up as sacrifices,” another person answered. “There probably aren’t any other people in the area.”

The six people chatted amongst each other, frowning and staring at the area filled with chaotic thunder and lightning several thousand meters away.

A long while later.

A token at Feng Yiyou’s waist suddenly flared with energy, and after he touched it, his eyes lit up and he smiled. “Zhang Sheng had found fresh sacrifices! There are actually four of them this time!”

“Wonderful!” Everyone else chuckled strangely.

Two hours later.

Following Zhang Sheng, Qin Lie’s group arrived in a swampy area filled with water. They immediately saw Feng Yiyou’s group of six.

“Our Young Sect Master had been looking forward to meeting you for some time now.” Zhang Sheng’s back promptly straightened.

Along the way, Zhang Sheng had carefully played the role of a meek person, afraid that he would evoke the ire of Qin Lie and his people and would be killed before reaching Feng Yiyou.

In the Graveyard of Gods, martial practitioners of different forces needed to keep their guard up for every moment they spent together.

From the beginning, many of the people who entered the Graveyard of Gods had used all sorts of underhanded tactics to plot against others..

Zhang Sheng was afraid that he would easily be killed.

“Young Sect Master!” Zhang Sheng cried out before he quickening his space, leaving Qin Lie’s group in a hurry.

The moment Zhang Sheng saw Feng Yiyou and the other people from Celestial Artifact Sect, he became relaxed. He no longer needed to worry that Qin Lie and the others would suddenly make a move and kill him.

“Du Xiangyang! I know you!” From a distance, Feng Yiyou glanced in their direction and immediately broke into a cheerful smile. “Out of all the Heavenly Sword Mountain Trial participants, your strength is only second to Luo Chen. Even compared to He Wei, you’re slightly better. Hehe, very good. With you as an ally, things will definitely go much smoother!”

“Thank you for the praise.” Du Xiangyang smiled harmlessly, then loudly asked, “Brother Feng, I heard that you’re looking for allies?”

“Come, let’s talk.” Feng Yiyou beckoned.

Du Xiangyang glanced at Qin Lie.

“Are they martial practitioners of Heavenly Sword Mountain as well?” Feng Yiyou was surprised. “Brother Du, can you introduce them to us?”

“They are Qin Lie, Song Tingyu, and Xie Jingxuan. The three of them came in with the support of Heavenly Sword Mountain, but they are not Heavenly Sword Mountain martial practitioners, so you might not be familiar with them.” Du Xiangyang chose not to purposefully hide this fact.

“I heard about this. I heard that, for this Trial, Heavenly Sword Mountain recruited five participants from their vassal forces. They are three of those five right?” Feng Yiyou’s eyes shone with obvious contempt.

The moment they heard that Qin Lie’s group were from vassal forces of Heavenly Sword Mountain, the rest of the Celestial Artifact Sect martial practitioners were stunned, harboring disdain in their hearts.

In their eyes, martial practitioners of Copper rank forces couldn’t possibly be powerful even if they reached the Netherpassage Realm.

“That’s correct. They are three of those five participants.” Du Xiangyang did not object.

“Come talk, talk!” Feng Yiyou continued gesturing for them to come closer.

“Qin Lie, including Feng Yiyou, there are seven of them in total.” Song Tingyu sized up both sides and gradually became anxious. “The second a fight breaks out, we… might not have the advantage.”

Xie Jingxuan stayed where she was and did not move.

She hadn’t expected the opposing group to have six people aside from Feng Yiyou. This made her feel that the situation was a bit too dangerous.

From the very beginning, Zhang Sheng hadn’t given her a good impression. She kept feeling that he was harboring evil tricks in his stomach, seemingly trying to trick them into do something.

Earlier, when she had suggested that they kill Zhang Sheng, it was to avoid that danger.

Yet when Zhang Sheng revealed Celestial Artifact Sect’s discovery, Qin Lie changed his mind and even let Zhang Sheng led them to this place.

The second they arrived, they encountered Feng Yiyou and his group of six Celestial Artifact Sect martial practitioners. Furthermore, a large majority of these people were at the late stage of the Netherpassage Realm!

Xie Jingxuan realized that they might not be able to gain the upper hand against them, so she began feeling uncertain about whether or not they should step foot into these muddy waters.

It was at this moment that Qin Lie took the first step and calmly walked toward the other party.

As soon as he did, both Song Tingyu and Du Xiangyang cast their hesitation away and immediately followed him.

Xie Jingxuan had no choice but to follow.

When Zhang Sheng arrived, his treacherous eyes gleamed with an evil light as he bowed his head and said in a low voice, “Young Sect Master, there are four of them in total, but two of them are beauties of exceptional quality!”

The eyes of the other five Celestial Artifact Sect martial practitioners lit up, their minds wandering like a cantering horse. Feng Yiyou was the only one whose expression did not change.

“Shut up!”

Feng Yiyou snorted softly, his expression frigid.

The evil light in the eyes of Zhang Sheng and the others instantly disappeared. They regained their cool and put up a dignified facade.

Once they walked over to Feng Yiyou, Du Xiangyang raised his voice and tentatively asked, .“Brother Feng, I heard that you of Celestial Artifact Sect have found an interesting place?”

Feng Yiyou pointed at a place several hundred meters behind him that was filled with violent, chaotic lightning, saying, “The thunder spirit of the Forbidden Land of Thunder should be in there! I’ve detected more than one biomagnetic field within, so there should be other creatures as well!”

Thunder spirit?

Qin Lie’s group of three exchanged glances. The wheels in their minds involuntarily turned, and they quickly guessed that Feng Yiyou knew about the secrets behind the Graveyard of Gods, just like Chu Li, Xue Moyan, and Ye Yihao.

“What thunder spirit? I don’t understand what you’re talking about.” Qin Lie, who had kept quiet all this time, spoke up on his own accord, displaying curiosity on his face.

“How much do you know about the Graveyard of Gods?” Feng Yiyou felt disdain in his heart.

“Nothing,” Song Tingyu answered honestly.

“Before we decide to cooperate, can you dispel our doubt? Can you tell us what’s inside the Graveyard of Gods?” Du Xiangyang’s expression became straightforward.

“Sure, why not?” Feng Yiyou nodded.

In his mind, he had already sentenced these four people to death, so he didn’t mind wasting a bit of breath to get them to obediently join him.

“The Graveyard of Gods is the place where the remains of elites are buried. The Land of Buried Gods contains the bodies of elites of all sorts of races and the remains of ferocious beasts from ancient times. These elites and beasts were once existences of immeasurable power, so even after their souls were extinguished, their bodies preserved their tremendous energy. Their remains are the most precious materials in artifact forging!” Feng Yiyou explained some of the secrets.

“If these dead elites were buried in the outside world, they would have been discovered by other intelligent races. Their remains would have been dismembered and used to temper powerful spirit artifacts. Their souls also wouldn’t have been able to rest.

“To prevent this from happening and ensure that these once powerful existences would leave behind an intact corpse, the Graveyard of Gods was born.

“The Graveyard of Gods is a secret realm independent from Spirit Realm. It’s a small world, the purpose of which is to bury the ancient, reputable elites who have perished, and prevent their bodies from being disturbed.”

Chapter 478: The Seven Spirits!

Feng Yiyou, Celestial Artifact Sect’s young sect master, explained some the Graveyard of Gods to the group. He also told them about the divine nature of the land.

“So the Graveyard of Gods is just a resting place where all of the elites from bygone eras were buried?” Du Xiangyang gradually understood. “Is it open to the public?”

“It can be considered as such. In ancient times, when certain experts perished, their relatives and friends would bury them here to prevent their corpses from being disturbed.

“There are instances in which a person’s lover perished and they didn’t have the time to look after the grave. As a result, the body was buried here so it would remain undisturbed.

“Furthermore, even the most powerful of forces would encounter times of growth and decline. In light of that, some families would bury their ancestors in this resting place instead of their own burial grounds. In the event that their families was taken over, or if the strength of their families ever weakened, this would prevent the possibility of enemies breaking into the graves of their ancestors and defiling their corpses!”

“……”

Feng Yiyou wore a dignified expression as he continued. “The Graveyard of Gods is an independent secret realm. It is extremely well concealed, and a series of formations seals it from the inside and outside. It is normally impossible for living people to enter. Upon entering this place of rest, dead practitioners no longer have to worry about people pillaging their corpses or the possibility of being found by evil practitioners and having their bones forged into spirit artifacts.”

“Who created the Graveyard of Gods?” Du Xiangyang asked. “I presume that a price must have been paid to create a place where the remains of elites could be laid to rest.”

A glimmer of light flashed through Feng Yiyou’s eyes as he nodded and replied, “I don’t know who created the Graveyard of Gods. Whoever did definitely had to pay a price. After all, ways in and out are sealed. Furthermore, it’s an independent secret realm specifically made to be used as a resting place. Whoever created it definitely made it with profit in mind.”

This entire time, Qin Lie had been silently watching Feng Yiyou’s eyes.

He saw the expression in Feng Yiyou’s eyes change at that very moment. Qin Lie surmised that Feng Yiyou was hiding some secrets and that he knew who had created the Graveyard of Gods.

It seemed like Feng Yiyou was determined to keep any matters regarding that person’s identity hidden.

“What are the seven spirits?” Du Xiangyang asked.

“The seals of the Graveyard of Gods are divided into two categories: inside and outside. Outside, the eight god corpses suppress the aura of the seals. This makes it nearly impossible for outsiders to find the entrance to the Graveyard of Gods and go inside.” Feng Yiyou laughed gently. “Furthermore, all of you might not believe it, but this secret realm is constantly changing. Because of that, the entrance… is always moving.”

“A constantly changing secret realm?” A strange glow emerged in Qin Lie’s eyes.

“Correct. Before the eight god corpses were bound, the entrance of the Graveyard of Gods was always moving. This was caused by the fact that the eight god corpses were in the depths of the sea. Since these god corpses were constantly releasing energy fluctuations from their positions, the Graveyard of Gods was always moving in the area between them. In addition to that, the entrance was also always changing,” Feng Yiyou explained.

“No wonder this Graveyard of Gods hadn’t been discovered after all these years. It was constantly moving, and its entrance is always changing. Since it never stays still, it would indeed be hard to search for,” Song Tingyu exclaimed in a small voice.

“Of course. It is only because we bound the god corpses together one by one that we were able to anchor its position, find the entrance, and get inside. The Graveyard of Gods was so difficult to find because the eight god corpses act as its outer seal!”

Feng Yiyou snorted, then continued. “With the eight god corpses as the outer seal, the seven spirits would be the inner seal of the Graveyard of Gods. Each spirit represents one of the great forbidden lands, Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Ice, and Thunder. Their locations in the Graveyard of Gods form the shape of the Big Dipper.”

As Feng Yiyou spoke, he crouched down and used his fingers to accurately draw the the Big Dipper in the dirt.

Qin Lie and his group carefully watched him do so.

“The Northern Dipper is composed of seven stars: Celestial Pivot, Celestial Jade, Celestial Pearl, Celestial Balance, Jade Tube, Sun Opener, and Twinkling Brilliance. Of these, the Celestial Balance Star is located in the central position.” Feng Yiyou extended a hand as he spoke, pointing at where the Celestial Balance Star would be in the dirt constellation. “The true Land of Buried Gods is here.”

Shocked expressions appeared on everyone’s faces.

“Here, in the Forbidden Land of Thunder, we are at the position of the Jade Tube Star, which is very close to the Land of Buried Gods.” Feng Yiyou began to laugh.

Since Qin Lie had spent a period of time at Armament Sect, he had a clear understanding of constellations so, he was able to understand after a brief moment of observation.

The locations of the seven great forbidden lands formed the Northern Dipper. Of them, Twinkling Brilliance, Sun Opener, Jade Tube, and Celestial Balance formed a straight line. Twinkling Brilliance was the Forbidden Land of Fire, Sun Opener was the Forbidden Land of Wood, and Jade Tube was the Forbidden Land of Thunder.

Once they passed through Jade Tube, they would reach the position of Celestial Balance, which was where the Land of Buried Gods was located.

“The Celestial Balance Star is the Forbidden Land of Ice. The Land of Buried Gods is in that exact area.” Feng Yiyou chuckled faintly, then continued. “To be honest, the seven forbidden lands are actually an ancient formation where each section is guarded by a spirit. These spirits could each be a cluster of souls, a fierce beast, or perhaps even a special creature. However, they all have one unique quality: they have the same characteristics as their respective forbidden land!

“The seven spirits preside within their corresponding forbidden lands and are responsible for maintaining the environment of those lands, just like the formation eye of strange formations. The seven great forbidden lands conceal the Land of Buried Gods by preventing outsiders from entering its depths, seemingly maintaining it.

“The seven spirits may have originally been very weak, but because they were born with inherent potential related to a specific attribute that matches their forbidden lands, they are able to control said lands. Furthermore, they are intelligent.

“Essentially, after such a long period of time, these originally weak spirits have definitely experienced a gradual change. Some spirits may have died for some reason, while others may have continued growing, gradually becoming powerful. After growing to a certain point, these spirits may have even decided that they no longer wanted to be bound to the Graveyard of Gods, harboring disloyalty and wanting to leave…

“These changes and betrayals of the seven spirits destroyed the balance of the Graveyard of Gods and the flow of the forbidden lands.”

Feng Yiyou’s explanation continued.

“The changes that have occurred to the seven spirits, their struggles and resistance, are the real reason why the eight god corpses emerged from the depths of the sea in the first place, finally revealing the Graveyard of Gods.”

“What about the people who created the Graveyard of Gods? Don’t they care?” Du Xiangyang asked, stunned.

“Them? It’s been far too long. In fact, all of them may have already died. The Graveyard of Gods is a land of secrets and mysteries. Even if some of their descendents survived, they might not even know that the Graveyard of Gods exists, let alone where it’s located.” Feng Yiyou shook his head. “However, it seems like the people who created the Graveyard of Gods always knew that, over time, the seven spirits would eventually progress to a point where the forbidden lands would no longer be able to restrain them.

“Therefore, they prepared a backup plan. Inside of the eight god corpses that form the outer seal, there seems to be something capable of sealing the seven spirits. Ten Thousand Beast Mountain and my Celestial Artifact Sect both searched for said thing, but we have yet to find it,” Feng Yiyou said regretfully.

Du Xiangyang and the other three inconspicuously glanced at Qin Lie.

It was obvious that the thing Feng Yiyou was talking about was the Demon Sealing Tombstone in Qin Lie’s possession.

“Regarding your request for help, what do you mean by cooperation?” Du Xiangyang asked, warmly laughing.

“This is the Forbidden Land of Thunder. The thunder spirit should be presiding in the violent lightning and thunder field behind us.” Feng Yiyou smiled slightly, then narrowed his eyes as he said, “The thunder energy there is extremely powerful, and there’s an extremely strong thunder barrier in place. We’ve tried to break through it, but failed repeatedly. I believe that if you join us and lend us your strength, we might be able to break through the barrier.”

“What’s behind the barrier? Just the thunder spirit?” Du Xiangyang furrowed his brow and waved a hand apathetically. “I don’t cultivate any thunder spirit arts, so this thunder spirit doesn’t interest me.”

“The thunder spirit isn’t the only thing behind the barrier, there are other fluctuations of life as well. Other than the thunder spirit, there may also be spirit artifacts. Other than the Land of Buried Gods, this place could be considered the second-most divine land within the Graveyard of Gods!” Feng Yiyou said confidently.

“Why do you say that?” Song Tingyu asked, curiosity piqued.

“I apologize for being dramatic.” Feng Yiyou chuckled softly. “I’m only telling you four after all. The Forbidden Land of Thunder is different from other forbidden lands. This place isn’t just a forbidden land—it’s also a smelting pool! The land behind us, the one in which the thunder spirit resides, is also a smelting land!”

“What does that mean?” Du Xiangyang asked, his brow creased.

“Haha, don’t be so anxious. As we cooperate and delve into its depths, all of you will gradually come to understand.” Feng Yiyou narrowed his eyes. “What I have told you is already more than enough.”

“How do you wish to cooperate?” Qin Lie interrupted.

Feng Yiyou glanced at Qin Lie, then quickly withdrew his gaze and turned to Du Xiangyang once again, saying, “We just need to work together to break through the thunder barrier.”

It was clear that Feng Yiyou held no regard for Qin Lie.

“How are we going to break through it?” Du Xiangyang asked as he inwardly laughed.

“This requires everyone to think up their own ways.” Feng Yiyou furrowed his brow. “Everyone should be well aware of the terrifying, destructive effect of thunder energy on souls. The thunder barrier is covered in thunder and lightning. As soon as any of it enters your consciousness, your soul will be promptly extinguished.”

“Your Celestial Artifact Sect has been here for quite some time. Have you found any weak points yet? Has there been any progress at all?” Song Tingyu asked.

“We have yet to find a way to crack it. Why don’t you go and study it? Perhaps you can find a good way,” Feng Yiyou said, his expression full of helplessness.

“I will go and take a look at it,” Qin Lie said out of the blue.

Without even glancing at him, Du Xiangyang, Song Tingyu, and Xie Jingxuan immediately nodded in agreement.

“By yourself?” Feng Yiyou asked, stunned.

“Mn. I’ll just go over there and observe the situation.” Qin Lie smiled casually, his solitary figure starting its trek toward the area behind them where thunder and lightning flared.

“This…” Zhang Sheng’s expression went cold.

“It would be best if all of you went with him. Just him by himself… may be a little too dangerous,” Feng Yiyou benevolently suggested.

“No need. If he wants to go by himself, let him do so.” Du Xiangyang laughed as he shook his head.

Song Tingyu and Xie Jingxuan also wore calm expressions.

“Ah, I think kind of understand now.” Zhang Sheng began to laugh coldly. “It seems like the rest of you stopped seeing eye to eye with this person at some point and can’t wait for him to die, right?”

“What do you mean? Do you believe that, in entering the thunder barrier, he’s sentencing himself to death? ” Song Tingyu’s pretty face suddenly turned icy. “Are you trying to get us to go in together because you want all of us to go in and die? Do you want us to just kill ourselves?”

Du Xiangyang and Xie Jingxuan coldly glared at Zhang Sheng.

Zhang Sheng realized that he had said something he shouldn’t have.

“Shut your mouth!” Feng Yiyou shouted, his expression incomparably cold.

“I was only messing around, don’t mind me.” Zhang Sheng apologized, lowered his head, and stopped speaking, yet his eyes still harbored treachery.

Chapter 479: Thunder Lagoon

All by himself, Qin Lie moved directly toward the area of raging thunder and lightning.

Behind him, Song Tingyu and Zhang Sheng had already stopped quarrelling, and Feng Yiyou and the rest had gone silent. Everyone’s eyes were glued to his back.

Cold light emerged in the eyes of the Celestial Artifact Sect martial practitioners as all of them secretly sneered in their minds.

It was as if they considered Qin Lie a goner.

Song Tingyu, Xie Jingxuan, and Du Xiangyang all wore indifferent expressions on their faces and weren’t very worried about Qin Lie. They knew that Qin Lie was skilled in the power of thunder and lightning, and that he had just tempered his soul with it.

Of all the people in the Graveyard of Gods, Qin Lie would be the one person who would be safe and sound within a storm of raging thunder and lightning.

Song Tingyu and the others were well aware of the fact that Qin Lie had no equal when it came to enduring the attacks of thunder and lightning on one’s soul. Even the martial practitioners of Terminator Sect, who were proficient in the power of thunder, couldn’t compare.

In light of this, all of them were quite relaxed.

“Zzt zzzt zzt! Boom boom boom!”

Bolts of lightning violently flashed in every direction as thunder furiously rumbled. The lightning bolts mingled together to form countless connections between the sky and the ground, increasing in ferocity and intensity.

A specific area with an incredible amount of of thunder and lightning gradually came into Qin Lie’s field of view and slowly grew clearer.

An enormous, bowl-shaped hole with a vast quantity of thunder of lightning intertwined at its lip became visible. Blindingly bright bolts of lightning as thick as water buckets crisscrossed like giant vines, rising directly from the earth of the Forbidden Land of Thunder and reaching into the heavens.

At a glance, it was as if a waterfall of lightning were descending from deep within the clouds and collecting in that abyssal hole, forming a lagoon.

It also looked as if a tornado of thunder and lightning were continuously twisting and clashing, rotating as it went straight into the clouds.

This thunder lagoon covered an area of about sixty five square meters and was connected to the heavens by lightning. The surrounding lightning coiled around it, forming a ferocious thunder barrier.

As Qin Lie stood beside the thunder lagoon and carefully looked around, he could feel his skin constantly spark with electricity. He knew that the power of thunder gathered at the top of this thunder barrier was enough to shatter and extinguish the soul of a Netherpassage Realm martial practitioner.

Qin Lie turned around and looked behind him.

Feng Yiyou and the rest of the people from Celestial Artifact Sect wore cold expressions, traces of excitement flickering through their eyes.

It seemed as though they were secretly expecting something to happen.

Puzzled, Qin Lie calmed himself as he tried to release his soul consciousness.

A strand of soul intent flew out from his Soul Lake and silently touched the thunder barrier.

“Zzzt!”

Sparks of electricity splashed from the top of the thunder barrier as his soul intent attempted to merge with it.

Then, out of nowhere, Qin Lie’s eyes lit up and he immediately sensed something he wasn’t familiar with. Only then did he realize just how marvelous the Third Stage of Heavenly Thunder Eradication was.

If a martial practitioner of Terminator Sect that was proficient in thunder spirit arts wanted to use their soul consciousness to feel out the thunder lagoon by touching the violent thunder barrier, their soul intent would have instantly been annihilated.

Their soul intent definitely wouldn’t have been able to survive the violent fluctuations of thunder and lightning.

And this would have only been the case for martial practitioners proficient in thunder spirit arts.

If a member of Celestial Artifact Sect, Du Xiangyang, or one of the others had sent strands of their soul consciousness out to touch this thunder barrier, theirs would have been annihilated even faster.

Only Qin Lie’s soul consciousness was capable of surviving something like that. His soul consciousness had endured thunder and lightning assaults, gaining a thunder imprint through that baptism. In addition to that, his True Soul had been electrostatically tempered, and his soul origin contained the power of thunder and lightning.

Furthermore, since his soul consciousness and soul origin had the same type of energy and source, his soul consciousness was able to touch the thunder barrier without harm. It entered the barrier like a river meeting the sea.

In all of Terminator Sect, only one person was capable of and would dare to temper their soul with thunder and lightning in a similar way—Forefather Terminator. He was probably the only other person who could use his soul consciousness to observe this place.

“The Forbidden Land of Thunder is definitely a blessed land for me! I can control it even better than Ye Yihao could control the Forbidden Land of Wood!”

The corners of Qin Lie’s mouth rose, a happy smile appearing on his face. He released a few more strands of soul consciousness that probed the thunder barrier like invisible tentacles, attempting to further investigate the mysterious nature of the thunder lagoon within.

“Eh?” Qin Lie’s head turned all of a sudden.

Inside of the barrier formed from ferocious thunder and lightning, Qin Lie’s strands of soul consciousness could feel something other than the terrifying power of thunder that acted as a thick curtain sealing the thunder lagoon.

Closing his eyes, he sat down beside the thunder barrier and began to carefully examine it.

The thunder barrier resembled a tornado made up of violently twisting lightning. This made the magnetic field inside of the barrier extremely chaotic, releasing extremely distorted waves of energy.

There shouldn’t have been any physical things or other fluctuations inside the field that the barrier surrounded.

However, the strands of Qin Lie’s soul consciousness that had flown inside of the barrier encountered several urns filled with bone ash. There were a total of fourteen urns, each of which had the unique mark of Celestial Artifact Sect on it—the word “furnace.”

The fourteen bone ash urns were semi-translucent, and released a dark, icy glow reminiscent of moonlight. The material they were made of was unknown as they were neither gold nor jade.

Of these fourteen, nine of them each had a soul cluster sealed inside.

They were the True Souls of nine Netherpassage Realm martial practitioners!

The fourteen urns which constantly glowed, ignoring the twisting, turning lightning and thunder that whirled around inside of the thunder barrier.

However, a faint wave would occasionally move back and forth between them. It was clear that they were connected in a mysterious way.

The waves released by the nine bone ash urns that contained True Souls were especially intense, as if the True Souls were constantly being prodded. It seemed like the purpose of the urns was to make the True Souls go insane until they ultimately exploded.

“Th-this is…” Qin Lie’s expression went cold.

Since he was also an artificer, one that could personally forge Terminator Profound Bombs, he was knowledgeable about many terrifyingly powerful spirit artifacts.

The fourteen bone ash urns which casually flew around the interior of the thunder barrier were most likely artifacts similar to the Terminator Profound Bomb, an explosion type spirit artifact. The difference, however, was that these urns didn’t use the explosive power of thunder and lightning, and they weren’t crafted from spirit materials of those kinds.

Instead, the main component of these spirit artifacts were souls!

Souls would be sealed into the bone ash urns and then constantly be tortured by vicious fluctuations of energy so that they would enter a crazed state.

The souls within each urn would ultimately self destruct, increasing the explosive strength of the urn.

Each urn would store the power of a soul’s explosion, and the sudden and complete release of that power was an extremely terrifying prospect.

Perhaps this power would be enough to tear the thunder barrier apart!

Qin Lie understood Celestial Artifact Sect’s plan. The bone ash urns had definitely been put here by Feng Yiyou, and the nine souls imprisoned with them were probably the “allies” who had been recruited by Celestial Artifact Sect just like they had recruited Qin Lie’s group. These so-called “allies” were merely sacrifices.

Yet Feng Yiyou had no idea about Qin Lie’s proficiency in the power of lightning and thunder. He also didn’t know that Qin Lie’s True Soul had been tempered with thunder and lighting, and that his soul consciousness could penetrate the thunder barrier and search for information.

As a result, Feng Yiyou had not been the slightest bit concerned about someone discovering the secret within. Feng Yiyou was probably gloating silently, waiting for Qin Lie to die to the thunder barrier and have his True Soul sealed within a bone ash urn as another sacrifice.

“So that’s how it is.” Qin Lie understood the entirety of Feng Yiyou and Celestial Artifact Sect’s plans.

Now he knew why they weren’t in a hurry to recover their soul consciousness and check the traps that Feng Yiyou had placed. Qin Lie concentrated his soul and consolidated his dispersed wisps of soul consciousness.

Having put all the pieces together, Qin Lie slowly used his soul consciousness to pass through the thunder barrier and fly deeper into its depths.

When he did, he suddenly sensed several faint soul fluctuations, making him extremely excited.

The numerous souls that the fluctuations came from were extraordinarily ancient, devoid of memories, consciousness, or residual thoughts. They were just a cluster of pure, flawless souls that, like a pool of crystal clear water, contained no impurities.

Qin Lie knew exactly what this meant—these soul crystals might be of the highest grade possible!

When he had been hunting spirit beasts with Xie Jingxuan in the past, Liang Zhong taught Qin Lie about soul crystals.

Soul crystals and spirit stones were similar in function. While spirit stones contained spirit energy, soul crystals contained soul energy.

Higher realm martial practitioners were more attracted to the possibility of obtaining soul crystals that could nourish their soul since they could be of enormous benefit to their cultivation.

From the Netherpassage Realm onward, martial practitioners also had to cultivate their True Souls. Every realm after it represented a qualitative growth of the soul.

Improving the quality of a soul was many times harder than increasing spirit energy and also much slower. There were many ways to increase spirit energy, but very few ways to improve the quality of a soul.

Soul crystals were one of the few ways in which one could improve the soul. These crystals originated from the souls of powerful beasts and living beings which, after being refined, could be condensed into a crystal that contained their soul energy.

If a soul crystal wasn’t pure, their insides would be muddled with impurities or residual memories. Even soul consciousness could linger. Therefore, impure soul crystals were a lot of effort and trouble to use and also required the user to cleanse themselves twice after each use. It would waste a lot of time and energy.

Souls crystals devoid of memories, consciousness, and residual thoughts, however, were truly precious.

Like drinking water, a True Soul could directly use this kind of soul crystal. Energy extracted from such a soul crystal would be absolutely pure.

If a Netherpassage Realm martial practitioner were to use such a pure soul crystal to nourish their True Soul with soul energy, breaking through to the next realm definitely wouldn’t be a dream.

“I’m afraid that, in this world, only thunder and lightning this violent could possibly refine soul crystals this pure!”

Qin Lie examined the pure soul fluctuations coming from the thunder lagoon and was certain that there were soul crystals inside of it. This realization immediately made him jump for joy.

At this time, the soul consciousness he had released already began to show signs of fatigue.

Qin Lie gradually retracted his soul consciousness without venturing deeper into the thunder lagoon. After all, he was in no hurry to fight the thunder spirit.

Qin Lie stood up, opened his eyes, and turned around to look at Celestial Artifact’s Feng Yiyou and those beside him.

“This place is too dangerous. I’m afraid I can’t think of any way to enter. I’m sorry, but I don’t think we’ll be able to cooperate.” Qin Lie’s expression was solemn as he shook his head and sighed. “Let’s give up here, Du Xiangyang.”

“Okay. If it’s too dangerous, let’s forget about it,” Du Xiangyang agreed, nodding his head.

He knew that Qin Lie had definitely discovered something.

“Let us take our leave. We will withdraw and entrust this area to our friends from Celestial Artifact Sect for exploration.” Qin Lie began to walk away.

“Young Sect Master!” Zhang Sheng raised his head, his eyes cold and dark.

The other martial practitioners of Celestial Artifact Sect all looked at Feng Yiyou, killing intent clearly cascading from their bodies.

“My friends, don’t be in such a hurry to leave!” Feng Yiyou shouted.

Chapter 480: Breaking the Facade

“Don’t be in such a hurry to leave, we can continue negotiating. You mustn’t give up halfway.”

Feng Yiyou frowned, his expression deteriorating severely. He looked at Qin Lie, confusion surfacing in his eyes.

Qin Lie was actually unscathed?

Feng Yiyou had been paying attention to that area the entire time. He saw Qin Lie take a seat next to the thunder barrier and had even witnessed Qin Lie release his soul consciousness.

To his knowledge, if anyone touched the the thunder barrier with their soul consciousness, it would instantly be reduced to ash. There was no way of escaping it.

In addition to that, the thunder barrier could even adjust to the owner of the soul consciousness and assault them with terrifying thunder and lightning.

In other words, Qin Lie should have already been blasted to death by the violent energy that pouring from the thunder barrier.

His soul should have also been instantly absorbed by those bone ash urns, converted into a sacrifice.

Feng Yiyou sensed that something was definitely amiss.

He wanted to know what had happened to Qin Lie why he was safe and sound.

“Let’s head over there. I wish to discuss how profound this place is with you.” Feng Yiyou walked over to Qin Lie.

Qin Lie had initially prepared to turn away, having told them the he wanted to leave with Du Xiangyang, Song Tingyu, and Xie Jingxuan, yet he couldn’t help but stop his feet when he saw Feng Yiyou approaching.

He had stopped right next to the thunder barrier.

Du Xiangyang and the two others suddenly looked at Qin Lie, their eyes questioning whether or not they should head over as well.

Qin Lie shrugged, signaling that it didn’t matter.

Only then did Du Xiangyang and the others move closer.

In just a few moments, the seven martial practitioners of Celestial Artifact Sect and Qin Lie’s group arrived next to the thunder barrier.

“Your name is Qin…?”

“Qin Lie.”

“Oh, Qin Lie.” Feng Yiyou nodded, barely taking note of his name just then. “I saw you sense the barrier with your soul consciousness earlier. Did you find anything? Everyone here can have an open conversation, and we might be able to find a way to pass through the barrier that way. What do you say?”

“I didn’t find anything. My wisp of soul consciousness was exterminated by thunder and lightning the instant it entered.” Seeing that Du Xiangyang and the others had arrived, Qin Lie hurriedly informed them. “The three of you must not attempt to do this. The thunder and lightning here… they’re deadly. If you don’t want to die, it would be best if you didn’t carelessly release your soul consciousness.”

Du Xiangyang, Song Tingyu, and Xie Jingxuan were all frightened.

When they came over, they had released their soul consciousness out of habit and prepared to investigate the profoundness of the thunder barrier.

The moment they heard Qin Lie say that it could be deadly, they no longer dared to be careless.

“You released a wisp of soul consciousness and had it enter the barrier?” Zhang Sheng’s face was one of confusion.

The martial practitioners of Celestial Artifact Sect all wore expressions of suspicion, finding his testimony to be strange.

They had spent a very long time studying the thunder barrier. Of the people that came before Qin Lie’s group, every single one that released so much as a strand of their soul consciousness had been instantly annihilated.

Every person who attempted to explore the thunder barrier would immediately be killed by the violent thunder energy within.

There was no exception to this!

Yet, after Qin Lie released his soul consciousness, he was still standing here alive and well. This clearly made no sense.

“I tried earlier and realized that there’s really no way to breach this barrier. I’m sorry, but I don’t think we can be any help.” Qin Lie wore a look of regret. He sighed, then helplessly declared, “I believe it’s time for us to leave.”

“Can’t we have a calm, peaceful negotiation?” Feng Yiyou’s expression became grim.

“We really can’t be of any help to you,” Qin Lie said with a shake of his head, announcing their intention to leave.

“Young Sect Master!” Zhang Sheng shouted.

Feng Yiyou pondered for a moment, then suddenly said, “I’ve explained just how profound the Graveyard of Gods is to you, told you so many secrets, yet you suddenly want to leave? Isn’t that a little too inappropriate?”

“Too inappropriate?” Du Xiangyang smiled. “What’s inappropriate?”

“I refuse to have told you people so many things for nothing in return.” Feng Yiyou became even less polite than before. “Since you’ve have learned about all of that, you must participate. You suddenly want to leave? That’s no longer possible!”

Qin Lie chuckled. “Now you’re forcing others into becoming your allies?”

“Young Sect Master, since the easy way didn’t work, why don’t use the hard way? Stop wasting your breath on them already!” Zhang Sheng smiled coldly.

The other five martial practitioners from Celestial Artifact Sect had looked rather humble earlier. Upon seeing that they were about to break the friendly facade they had put up, the eyes they were looking at Song Tingyu and Xie Jingxuan with promptly filled with lust.

Zhang Sheng included, the eyes of the six people revealed an immoral light. Their gazes were like the venom released by a snake, rushing toward the bewitching bodies of the two women.

“Heh… it needs to be said; although they hail from Copper rank forces, these beauties sure are excellent. Even in Land of Chaos, women with such top tier beauty and body figures are extremely rare finds.” One of them took the initiative to tease them.

“It would definitely be a waste if they died too quickly. Right, Young Sect Master?” Zhang Sheng laughed dryly. He subconsciously licked his lips, intense lust flowing out of his eyes.

Feng Yiyou frowned, but did not speak up.

It looked like he was about to let the vulgarity of his subordinates loose.

The moment they saw Feng Yiyou’s attitude, Qin Lie and Du Xiangyang instantly understood. They knew that this short period of peace had already disappeared.

Song Tingyu and Xie Jingxuan’s faces both turned ice-cold. A sharp, cold glow radiated from their charming eyes. The two understood that a bloody battle was about to unfold.

“Qin Lie, I shall ask you one last time. What did you discover inside?” Feng Yiyou snorted coldly.

“I discovered fourteen bone ash urns and nine sealed souls. Those nine souls were chaotic could explode at any moment,” Qin Lie said with a grin. He couldn’t be bothered to waste his breath on Feng Yiyou either. “Are we supposed to become four new souls to be sealed in those urns?”

“How did you find out?” Feng Yiyou face twisted into a grave expression.

The other martial practitioners of Celestial Artifact Sect looked at Qin Lie in shock, their expressions turning grim as well.

“You think I’d tell you?” Qin Lie wore an indifferent expression.

“I know what that is! It’s the Consecutive Soul Splitting Formation!” Du Xiangyang shouted harshly. “By using fourteen artifacts to seal fourteen souls, the artifacts force the souls into a frenzied state. Once the souls are pushed to the utmost limit, they’d explode at the same time, instantly erupting with terrifyingly destructive power! You’ve been attempting to breach the barrier this entire time, but you just don’t have enough sacrifices! We’re the sacrifices you’re looking for, aren’t we?”

Song Tingyu and Xie Jingxuan’s expressions changed.

Nine people before them had apparently fallen for Feng Yiyou’s scheme already, and after their bodies were disintegrated, their souls were absorbed by the artifacts.

These bastards from Celestial Artifact Sect had essentially been searching for nearby martial practitioners non-stop, and with the pretense of becoming allies, would lure people in by revealing the profoundness of the thunder lagoon. Those people would then be murdered, turning them into sacrifices for their artifacts.

“Feng Yiyou! You’re undeniably evil!” Flames of fury burned within Du Xiangyang.

“You have truly exceeded my expectations.” At this moment, Feng Yiyou wasn’t sending so much as another glance in Du Xiangyang’s direction, but was instead sizing Qin Lie up. “I’m very interested in the mysteries dwelling within your body. I’m not going to let you die too quickly.”

After a moment of consideration, Feng Yiyou indifferently issued orders. “Kill Du Xiangyang first, then you can capture the two girls alive. I’ll give you six hours with them once they’ve been captured. After six hours, clean them up as best as you can and have their souls thrown into the thunder barrier. As for this Qin Lie… I want you to imprison him and store his memories with a Memory Fragment Crystal. I want to know what he’s gone through!”

“Please be at ease, Young Sect Master. We’ll definitely deal with everything properly!” Flames of lust burned in Zhang Sheng’s eyes. He licked the corners of his lips again, pointed at Song Tingyu, then said, “I like this girl, she suits my tastes!”

“You have six people, while they only have four. There shouldn’t be any problems,” Feng Yiyou impatiently said with a wave of his hand. “Deal with them quickly. With the addition of the four of them, we’re still lacking a soul. There are still matters for us to attend to.”

“Yes!”

A fierce light shone in the eyes of Zhang Sheng and the other five Celestial Artifact Sect martial practitioners. Surging with killing intent, they retrieved their spirit artifacts from their spatial rings. The place was suddenly filled with the dazzling light of treasure as exquisite, eye-catching spirit artifacts appeared one after another.

The types of spirit artifacts that were present included machetes, swords, long spears, silver tridents, shields, and bone pikes. All of them had been forged by master artificers of Celestial Artifact Sect, and every single one of them seemed to be around Earth Grade One and Two. All of them had exquisite, refined spirit patterns that carried dense spirit energy fluctuations.

As expected of Celestial Artifact Sect, they were indeed the richest and most lavish force in the Land of Chaos.

Zhang Sheng alone was wearing dark azure spirit armor. This spirit armor was engraved with a turtlesnake pattern and flashed with a dim, azure glow.

He held a spirit artifact in each hand, a shield and a pike. The spirit energy that poured from his body had a fascinating resonance with the shield and pike, as though the spirit artifacts perfectly complemented the spirit art that he cultivated.

The other five people wore unique spirit artifacts as well, with each of them wielding one or two spirit artifacts each. Intense spirit energy fluctuations continuously emanated from their bodies.

“What the hell! Using their spirit artifacts to suppress people, they’re bastards of Celestial Artifact Sect alright!” Du Xiangyang cursed in a low voice.

“The thunder and lightning fluctuations here are extremely turbulent!” A loud roar suddenly resounded from a distance.

“Such dense thunder fluctuations. The thunder spirit of the Forbidden Land of Thunder is definitely here!” Yu Men’s voice rang out.

The expressions of Feng Yiyou and his men instantly changed.

Qin Lie was also stunned.

“There’re people here. Investigate them with the token!” Yu Men of Ten Thousand Beast Mountain commanded.

“Zzng zzng zzng! Whoo whoo whoo!”

Strange whistling sounds rang out from a few of the tokens at Qin Lie’s and Song Tingyu’s waists. The same thing occurred in a few of the at Feng Yiyou’s waist.

“Heh! Things have gotten interesting.” Niu Shaojun laughed dryly.

Yu Men and the crowd accompanying him had also slaughtered several martial practitioners. They had many tokens on them—

—just like Qin Lie and Feng Yiyou over on this side.

In using their tokens to investigate, it caused a chain reaction of whistles to erupt from the tokens with Qin Lie, Feng Yiyou, and the rest. They immediately understood that subtle implications of the situation.

With the appearance of Ten Thousand Beast Mountain’s Yu Men and his group, the two groups of people that were originally going to start trading blows abruptly stopped.

After a few minutes, Yu Men, along with Niu Shaojun and the rest of the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain martial practitioners, rushed over, leaving a cloud of dust in their wake.

“Feng Yiyou!” The moment Yu Men arrived, he grinned strangely, and an intense desire to do battle flowed from his eyes.

Both Ten Thousand Beast Mountain and Celestial Artifact Sect resided in the Heavenly Fissure Continent. As the most talented members of the two forces’ younger generation, Yu Men and Feng Yiyou had fought many times, both out in the open and in secret.

Whenever, it often meant a new battle would take place. There hadn’t been a single exception to this in many years.

“Du Xiangyang! Qin Lie!” When Niu Shaojun came over, he was momentarily stunned. Then a strange, sinister smile spread across his face as well.

“Eh? You people know each other too?” Zhang Sheng clearly surprised.

“Indeed! Of course we know each other!” Niu Shaojun smiled coldly as he retrieved a Ten Thousand Beast Mountain token from his waist. Using his mind consciousness to contact another person, he said, “Situ Tong, you can come over here now.”

“Situ Tong!” Feng Yiyou’s expression went ice-cold.