Spirit Realm

Qin Lie crouched low in the snow.

Streaks of lightning, claps of thunder, flashes of frost, and rays of earthy light continuously surged from his body, an element-ridden chaos.

Nobody in the group could take their eyes off of him.

At this moment, it became clear that the three different spirit energies in Qin Lie’s body had begun clashing with one another.

Qin Lie’s brow furrowed deeply as if he had entered a meditative state, making everyone around him grow increasingly worried.

Within Qin Lie’s spirit sea, his nine natal palaces resembled dazzling suns as they shot countless rays of light, fiercely clashing with one another.

The intense fluctuations of energy made the surface of his spirit sea roil, as if it could burst at any second.

“What should I do…?” Qin Lie murmured, his mind racing.

“Qin Lie! Try returning to your former state!” Xue Moyan suddenly chimed in. “The discord between the three types of spirit energies inside of you started because of the sudden change in your frost natal palaces and ongoing increase of your power of frost. Maybe you can restore balance to your nine natal palaces by dispersing the frost energy, and by extension, the power of frost in your spirit sea!

“What a good idea!” Du Xiangyang cried.

Xue Moyan’s suggestion sent Qin Lie’s thoughts into overdrive.

Taking a deep breath, he withdrew his wisp of soul consciousness from his spirit sea and immediately stopped circulating any spirit arts. He also stopped analyzing the diagram of the absolute frost concept.

He also stopped using soul crystals and the Demon Sealing Tombstone to replenish his soul energy and blood, attempting to enter the state of Thoughtless Tranquility.

His mind consciousness began to wander as his head became devoid of thought. His breathing gradually slowed, and he soon stopped thinking about the chaotic situation in his spirit sea…

“Eh?” A look of disbelief surfaced on Luo Chen’s icy face as he shook his head slowly, his brow furrowed.

As far as he could tell, Qin Lie seemed to have abruptly disappeared from reality. His body no longer showed any signs of life or gave off any soul fluctuations.

Qin Lie looked as if he had turned into a block of ice and become one with the Forbidden Land of Ice.

This was the same for everyone else.

“The chaotic fluctuations within his spirit sea are slowly calming down. He seems to have found a way after all…” Xie Jingxuan said quietly.

Everyone narrowed their eyes, attentively gazing at Qin Lie. They realized that the lights of lightning, frost, and earth that had been wildly discharging from Qin Lie’s body had actually begun to retreat back within him.

Turbulent waves of energy no longer radiated from Qin Lie.

The tension gradually faded from everyone’s bodies as they scattered around Qin Lie and sat down, taking out spirit stones to start their own recovery.

An hour later, Qin Lie opened his eyes. A cloud of icy mist emerged from his mouth as he exhaled. His mind had finally settled down for the time being.

Qin Lie took another look at his spirit sea and discovered that his frost, thunder, and earth natal palaces had long since stopped clashing and returned to a state of calm.

Three natal palaces filled with frost energy, which looked like crystalline spheres of ice, continuously radiated a glacial sheen. It seemed as if the spaces inside of them were still expanding in order to contain even more frost energy.

As for the thunder and earth natal palaces… no obvious abnormalities could be seen.

“In the Manifestation Realm, one opens a total of nine natal palaces. Once those nine are completely established, will they remain like that forever or can they continue to expand?”

Qin Lie directed this question to Du Xiangyang, who had already finished recovering by then.

“According to my knowledge, once the nine natal palaces are established, they’ll expand every time you break through to the next realm. Once from the Netherpassage Realm to the Fulfillment Realm, then another time from the Fulfillment Realm to the Fragmentation Realm. Your natal palaces change with each great breakthrough.”

Du Xiangyang thought to himself for a moment, then continued to explain. “However, cultivation during the Netherpassage and Fulfillment Realms is primarily focused on tempering and developing the soul. They don’t really focus on the natal palaces. When a breakthrough happens, though, the natal palaces will benefit just the same.”

“So… you’re saying that natal palaces only expand to contain more power when one breaks through a higher realm?” Qin Lie asked, rubbing his chin.

“I believe so.” Du Xiangyang nodded.

“You don’t really need to worry about your natal palaces,” Xue Moyan added. “You’ll be destroying them once you reach the Fragmentation Realm anyway.”

“I’ll be… destroying them?” Qin Lie asked with a blank stare.

“Of course,” Xue Moyan said, looking at Qin Lie in surprise. Her expression lasted for moment, then she continued, “The Fragmentation Realm is where a martial practitioner fails in order to succeed. Not only is that the realm where you destroy your nine natal palaces one by one, you also fragment your True Soul. This is done so you can fuse your natal palaces into one and can also reform your True Soul.”

“That’s right,” Du Xiangyang agreed.

Qin Lie suddenly went still.

When in the Manifestation Realm, a martial practitioner would work hard to establish a total of nine natal palaces in order to break through to the Netherpassage Realm.

Yet, upon reaching the Netherpassage Realm, one no longer had to think about these natal palaces and instead only had to focus on tempering and nourishing their True Soul. This would be the case until after the Fulfillment Realm.

However, upon entering the Fragmentation Realm, a martial practitioner would have to destroy their nine natal palaces and merge them together, allowing that martial practitioner to find another opportunity to break through…

“Each realm has its own requirements and focuses, but you don’t need to worry about them too much. Everything will come to you naturally once you reach those realms,” Du Xiangyang said with a grin, then stood up. “We still have a long, difficult path ahead of us. Since we currently have no need for it, let’s not think about reaching the Fragmentation and Nirvana Realms just yet.”

“If you don’t have anything else to say…” Luo Chen said coldly. “Let’s move out.”

Qin Lie couldn’t help but scratch his head because of the strange events that occurred in his dantian’s spirit sea. As if possessed by a devil, he continued to go over everything in his head.

In the state of Thoughtless Tranquility, he seemed to be able to adapt his mind and calm down. He could distance himself from the danger.

Since the crisis had been solved for the time being, Qin Lie put it out of his mind and nodded in response, saying, “Let’s go.”

He once again took out the Demon Sealing Tombstone.

As soon as the Demon Sealing Tombstone appeared, it began trying to fly in a certain direction. Qin Lie allowed the tombstone to pull his hand, and once he determined which way it wanted to fly, he said, “That way!”

Everyone’s eyes lit up. Now that their course had finally been set, they all hurried to follow.

In another area of the Forbidden Land of Ice, Xiahou Yuan caressed a token.

“They’re moving!” he cried icily.

The group consisting of martial practitioners from Black Voodoo Cult, the three great families, Celestial Armament Sect, and Ten Thousand Beast Mountain were less than twenty five kilometers away from Qin Lie’s group. As a result, their tokens immediately notified them of their movements.

“Ye Yihao still hasn’t returned. Should we wait for him?” Su Yan asked.

“We wait!” Huang Zhuli ordered harshly.

Feng Yiyou and Yu Men remained silent, brows furrowed as they continued recovering their spirit energy.

A few minutes later, Ye Yihao returned with a smirk on his face.

“I didn’t find Sen Ye and his black barbarians, but I did encounter white barbarians led by a woman. The moment I told her where Qin Lie’s group was, she immediately moved to pursue them! It seemed like she already knew that Qin Lie had the Pure Soul Springs.””

“Let’s wait for them to get a head start,” Huang Zhuli said.

Relying on the faint connection between all of the tokens in the area, they silently stayed where they were. Only after confirming that the white barbarians left to find Qin Lie’s group did they finally move out.

A day later, following the guidance of the Demon Sealing Tombstone, Qin Lie and his group of people found themselves rushing along a path within the Forbidden Land of Ice when, all of a sudden, a token at Qin Lie’s waist began to sound off.

“It can’t be Black Voodoo Cult and their people, so it must be the eastern barbarians! Based on the detection of the token, they’re behind us. They must already be on our tail. Should we speed up and try to throw them off?” Du Xiangyang asked.

“The eastern barbarians are a mixed group of skilled and unskilled martial practitioners. Many of them don’t posses high realms. If we increase our speed, their lower realm martial practitioners shouldn’t be able to keep up with us.” Song Tingyu thought for a moment, then continued, “This way, even if the higher realm martial practitioners catch up to us, their number will definitely be smaller. If we really end up having to fight, this will at least reduce the pressure on us somewhat.”

“Then let’s increase our speed!” Qin Lie said.

Everyone quickly reached a tacit agreement and immediately picked up the pace.

Four hours later, they reached a forest of cedar trees. Snow covered each enormous tree, forming a blanket of pure white on top of them.

Using their tokens, they knew that the eastern barbarians were hot on their trail. However, the majority of them had fallen further behind, unable to keep up because of their lower realms. This left around ten of them in pursuit.

Qin Lie’s group silently heaved sighs of relief.

“Hehehe!”

A soft chuckle resounded from a dozen or so meter tall tree right in front of them

Everyone quickly swung around to look at its source.

A slim girl leisurely stood under the cedar tree in front of them almost as if she had been waiting for them. She wore a mixture of white fur and leather clothing, and her skin was as white as snow.

Beside her, hands and neck imprisoned in a silver pillory, was Gao Yu.

Bound by a leash that the girl gripped in her hand, he resembled a prisoner awaiting execution. His head was lowered, but a cold darkness filled his eyes.

“Gao Yu!” Qin Lie exclaimed in shock.

“You know him?” The white barbarian girl laughed as she gestured toward Qin Lie’s group and said, “This… Gao Yu fellow told me he was Qin Lie’s friend. Then Sen Ye told me that very same Qin Lie had taken the Pure Soul Springs our people had long since planned to acquire…”

She then took out a silver sword of ice, the blade of which was two fingers wide, and held it to Gao Yu’s throat. She flashed Qin Lie a smile and asked, “This person… is he worth three Pure Soul Springs to you?”