Spirit Realm

Having landed on the island with the Xing siblings, Qin Lie pulled an assortment of colorful bones, whole and broken, from his spatial ring. They crashed to the ground and exuded varying amounts of spirit energy. All of them clearly came from many kinds of beings.

These bones came from the bodies of ancient elites that the Voodoo Progenitor’s body and Jiang Zhuzhe in the blood demon destroyed in their struggle against the Demon Sealing Tombstone. Qin Lie had managed gather them as the Graveyard of Gods collapsed into nothingness.

These bones couldn’t compare to intact bodies of ancient elites and no longer held the hidden power, inheritances, and secrets they originally did. In spite of that, they still contained an immense amount of incredible refined spirit energy, far more than that which a spirit stone normally would. A martial practitioner could take a bone with energy that matched the attribute they cultivated and absorb that energy to increase the limits of their strength.

“Those four deserve entire bodies of ancient elites and the precious benefits that lay within them,” Qin Lie said calmly. “You did not fight in the Graveyard of Gods, but you may choose from these bones as a reward for becoming a vassal force of Blood Fiend Sect. However, there is no need to be envious… there is more than one Graveyard of Gods. I may be able to find more of them in the future, so if you loyally serve Blood Fiend Sect until that time comes and make a worthy contribution, you will be rewarded just like them.”

“That’s true,” Qin Yumiao agreed. “In this world, you work for your food.”

“Each of you may choose ten bones each,” Qin Lie said, then looked at Xing Shengnan and smiled. “Big sister, I would like to talk to you alone.”

A strange light flashed in Xing Yuyuan’s eyes, a smile playing at the corner of his lips. Xing Yumiao felt excited as well. Both brothers figured that Qin Lie probably had something else in mind for Xing Shengnan.

Before long, Qin Lie and Xing Shengnan boarded a crystalline war chariot and put some distance between them and the others.

He then asked, “Are there any bodies down there that suit you, big sister?”

Joyous light shone from Xing Shengnan’s tiny eyes. “Little brother, you…”

“I also entered the Graveyard of Gods as a Trial participant,” he said. “I have the right to choose from these bodies of ancient elites as well. If any of them interest you, I… can help you break their seals.”

“I-I can’t!” Xing Shengnan exclaimed. “This is too much!”

Qin Lie attempted to persuade her otherwise. “It’s okay, big sister. I might not be able to make use of them anyway. They might go to waste, so I’d rather have some go to you.”

“No!” Xing Shengnan shook her head firmly. “I absolutely refuse to take what is rightfully yours!”

In the end, Qin Lie had no choice but to give up on persuading her.

……

Within the territories of Heavenly Sword Mountain, Luo Nan cultivated at the peak of a lonely mountain in silence. Dazzling sword beams tore through the air around her like a school of fish swimming inside of an invisible aquarium. This sharp onslaught cut the surrounding space to pieces, creating indistinct yet terrifyingly beautiful rifts in space. It was the epitome of chaos.

A long while later, as this unnatural phenomenon subsided, Luo Nan calmed down.

“Chen’er… Chen’er…!” she muttered over and over. Loneliness filled her eyes, and she radiated an incredibly mournful aura.

“Ding!”

All of a sudden, a broadsword that had been stabbed into the mountain peak near her emitted a low, resounding note. As it echoed throughout the mountain, sparkling words began to appear on the surface of the blade.

Luo Nan immediately shook off her grief and hurried over the the broadsword. Staring at the words that now adorned the blade, she became increasingly agitated. Before long, her entire body was trembling.

“Chen’er is alive!” she exclaimed to herself, her eyes turning red as they shone brightly. “Not only is he alive, he’s even obtained bodies of ancient elites!”

She pointed at the sword, a wisp of light suddenly shooting from her finger. The light entered the sword and it began emitting a sharp, high-pitched noise.

“Shiiiiiing!”

Multiple martial practitioners with sharp auras and longswords strapped to their backs emerged from grand palaces in the area.

“What’s going on, grandmother?” the martial practitioners asked as they arrived one after another, kneeling respectfully.

“Ready the spatial teleportation formation immediately!” Luo Nan ordered. “Prepare to follow me to the Heavenly Slaughter Continent. We’ll be heading to the Setting Sun Islands!”

At almost the exact same time, atop another lonely mountain, the eyes of another of the five Heavenly Swords lit up.

That Heavenly Sword, Yan Baiyi, leaped to his feet.

“Xiangyang is still alive!” he exclaimed. “He’s even told me to visit the Setting Sun Islands to select a body of an ancient elite…”

After giving a series of curt instructions and making various arrangements, he headed toward the spatial teleportation formation just like Luo Nan was.

……

Within the boundaries of Terminator Sect territory, lightning more violent than the lightning of the Forbidden Land of Thunder in the Graveyard of Gods filled a miraculous land. An enormous ball of lightning hovered in the sky high above that land, bubbling with electric energy. Bubbles rippled across that lightning ball’s surface, sometimes emerging and bursting like the bubbles inside of a lightning pool.

The restless sky of this land seemed as if it were connected to the Nine Heavens themselves. Dragons made of potent lightning rushed through the sky, rising and falling like sky-shaking waterfalls.

This miraculous land was actually a valley where thunder and lightning energy remained in perpetual chaos.

This was the Thunder God’s Roar, Forefather Terminator’s personal cultivation area.

At the center of this valley, numerous Thunderblitz Trees formed a dense forest. Each and every one of them was over a thousand years old, thicker and larger than the slabs of Thunderblitz wood that Qin Lie had taken from the eastern barbarians. They had been placed in a specific manner, spread out to form a base that held up an altar made of extraordinary crystals. Electricity coursed through that altar.

An old man with unkempt hair and messy clothes sat atop that altar with his eyes closed, breathing out from his nose every so often. He had a long, straight beard, and since he was sitting down, it managed to touch the floor.

Thunderous rumbling resounded through the air as though an avalanche of enormous rocks were occurring. Giant dragons of pure lightning constantly descended from the clouds and assaulted the altar, striking the old man dead-on.

Billions of tiny electric serpents writhed through the old man’s hair and beard. He radiated an aura of shocking might.

“Come forth!” the old man roared in a booming voice.

Countless threads of thunder and lightning energy condensed in front of him and transformed into a voltaic rift that rent the sky itself. This violent power of thunder and lightning made the fabric of space in front of him break open, revealing twisting streams of space.

A young man wrapped in thunder and lightning energy floated within those chaotic spatial streams. He spun aimlessly, adrift in rivers of starlight.

This was the chaotic, twisted domain that existed in between space, a zone that all beings under the Imperishable Realm were forbidden from entering.

Chaotic energies buffeted Chu Li within his ball of thunder and lightning energy.

Numerous pitch black spheres appeared around him and erupted, unleashing their star-destroying power. The force of these spheres exploding made the ball protecting Chu Li flicker from time to time, but it never truly dissipated.

Curled up inside of that ball of thunder and lightning energy, Chu Li sensed a strange feeling. Hope filled his eyes and he cried, “Forefather!”

Countless threads of lightning appeared before him, forcefully tearing open a narrow rift in space. Endless amounts of violent thunder and lightning energy could be seen through that rift. Roaring thunder exploded from that rift as if it resonated from the lightning pool of the Nine Heavens.

“Whoosh!”

An incredible sucking force gushed from the spatial rift and instantly swallowed up Chu Li’s ball of thunder and lightning energy.

“Bang!”

The force wrenched Chu Li out of the chaotic spatial streams and back into Spirit Realm.

“Forefather!” Chu Li cried as he emerged from the life-saving ball of thunder and lightning energy that had saved his life. He walked toward the old man and dropped to his knees, bowing his head and exclaiming, “I failed, master!”

After parting ways with Qin Lie in the Forbidden Land of Thunder, Chu Li had gone to the Forbidden Land of Ice in an attempt to find Qin Lie again and search for the Land of Buried Gods.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to find the Land of Buried Gods under the protection of the ice spirit. He ended up wandering the Forbidden Land of Ice until the Graveyard of Gods collapsed.

He obviously hadn’t experienced the final battle in the Land of Buried Gods and had no idea what happened right before the Graveyard of Gods collapsed. When it actually did collapse, he immediately realized that this subworld was done for, took out the ultimate treasure the Forefather Terminator had given him, and used it to protect himself.

This was how he avoided the shockwave of the spatial collapse and found himself drifting through chaotic streams of space. After drifting aimlessly for what seemed like an eternity, Forefather Terminator finally found him and pulled him back to Spirit Realm and Terminator Sect.

“If the Thunder Pearl didn’t have a wisp of my soul consciousness, I wouldn’t have been able to find you within the chaotic space. Forefather Terminator snorted, then said, “Speak. Why are you the only one left?”

Chu Li let out a cynical laugh and bowed his head, recounting everything that occurred within the Graveyard of Gods. He didn’t withhold a single detail.

Some time later, Forefather Terminator suddenly shouted, “What? A kid capable of tempering his soul with thunder and lightning while still in the Netherpassage Realm?”

“This is undoubtedly the truth.” Chu Li nodded.

“Where is this kid now?” Forefather Terminator asked, a strange light shining in his eyes. “You must find that kid no matter what! I want to see him for myself!”

“I don’t know where he is right now.” Chu Li shook his head.

“Forefather!” a loud voice boomed from outside the valley, just as thunderous as the chaos within. “Illusory Demon Sect’s Shu Xiuling sent us a message! They said that there are three bodies of ancient elites at the Setting Sun Islands near the Heavenly Slaughter Continent. She said they belong to us… that Chu Li deserves them.”

“Q-Qin Lie!” Chu Li sputtered. “That must be Qin Lie’s doing!”