Spirit Realm

When Qin Lie realized that it was impossible for him to leave that place and gave up completely, staying obedient.

He knew that he had to recover as much as he could before the old man’s return. Only then would he be able to endure the next wave of torture.

He looked towards the skinned Purple-eyed Flame Lion King that he had drunk all the blood from. Then, he quietly took out a few Heavenly Flame Crystals, ignited them, cut the Purple-eyed Flame Lion King’s body with the Thunder Soul Blade, and finally propped it up for roasting.

While he was roasting the lion’s body, he scanned his entire body with his soul consciousness and paid attention to every minute detail.

His eyes suddenly lit up.

Inside the heart of the ancient spirit diagram of the silver moon mark imprinted to his shoulder, one of the moons was actually completely filled up with moon energy and shone as brilliantly as a diamond.

Other than that, the second moon exuded dim light as well.

There were nine moon pictures inside the heart of the ancient spirit diagram. Originally, only one of them was being charged with energy and brightened up slowly.

According to his own estimate, it would have taken him three nights in Boluo Realm or fifty-four days in Spirit Realm before he could fill up the moon with moon energy completely.

However, the first moon had actually finished charging while he was being tortured by the old man, barely conscious.

Even the second moon was starting to glow slightly and gather moon energy.

The process of the nine moons in the silver moon mark brightening up bit by bit was practically the exact same as the nine moons rising gradually in Boluo Realm.

Going by Spirit Realm’s time, it would take nine days for the nine moons of Boluo Realm to rise one by one until they were all full.

Normally, it would take at least three Boluo Realm nights before the first moon of the silver moon mark on his shoulder could be completely charged. The rest… he had no idea how long it would take.

But after the old man had tortured him, the speed at which the silver moon mark absorbed the moon energy had become at least several times faster!

This alone made his hatred towards the old man subside by a lot.

After that, he noticed a change in his own dantian’s spirit sea and body.

Inside his spirit sea, there was a bright yellow earthen ball surrounded by many wisps of vast and pure earth spirit energy. These wisps looked like streams that had been compressed to the absolute limit.

There were hundreds of stream-like wisps of earth spirit energy swimming around the earthen ball.

They had actually increased the power of earth inside the earthen ball threefold!

Originally, the natal palaces formed from earth spirit energy were the weakest natal palaces that existed in his spirit sea.

But now, the power unleashed by the earthen ball was actually catching up to the natal palace formed from the power of frost.

However, they were still much weaker compared to the thunder natal palaces.

However, this was just the spirit sea.

Even more earth spirit energy was gathering inside his body. This was especially true for the pores all around his body.

Many tiny gray vortexes were swirling inside his pores, seemingly trying to push them wider and open a tiny world of their own.

This discovery stunned Qin Lie greatly.

Previously, when he had guided the lightning pool fluid of the Ninth Heaven with the Thunder Emperor Mark, it took him a long time of refinement before he managed to open up three pores in his body to store just a tiny bit of liquid.

After that, it was only when he was engaged in combat that he realized just how scary those tiny droplets were when used together with Heavenly Thunder Eradication.

At the time, he already had a feeling that he would gain a shocking amount of strength if he managed to open a tiny world in every one of his pores and fill them up with the lightning pool liquid.

However, he never thought that the old man’s torture would result in so much earth spirit energy gathering inside his pores.

Moreover, he could feel that this earth spirit energy was there to forcefully open a new world inside them!

This discovery finally dispelled the last bit of hatred he held towards the old man.

By now, the first piece of Purple-eyed Flame Lion King meat had already been fully roasted.

He began eating heartily.

One meat chunk after another swiftly entered his stomach and was digested into refined flesh and blood energy.

His body absorbed the refined flesh and blood energy greedily!

Right now, his body was like a giant sponge that absorbed all refined flesh and blood energy in an instant!

He had obviously improved a little from his previously dispirited and listless state.

In just a short while, the faint scars on his body had become so tiny that they were unnoticeable.

Qin Lie grew more and more spirited.

After that, he finally realized that the old man probably didn’t hold any ill will towards him.

That was why he relaxed and ate whatever he wanted.

A giant Purple-eyed Flame Lion King was completely devoured under Qin Lie’s ferocious gorging before the moon had completely faded away from the sky.

All that was left before him was the Purple-eyed Flame Lion King’s translucent skeleton.

His spatial ring flashed as he put away the rank six spirit beast’s skeleton. He could use it to feed the fire attribute Spirit of Void and Chaos later.

“The improvements are too apparent. Even if I were to die from this I would have no regrets!” He made up his mind.

When the last moon gradually lost its luster, the old man that had been gone for a while suddenly appeared beneath a pillar.

The old man wriggled his nose and took a sniff of the air. After casting a glance at Qin Lie and muttering incomprehensibly beneath his breath for a bit, he pointed at the dark abyss and was about to throw Qin Lie inside.

But before he could use his power, Qin Lie’s mouth split open into a martyr-bitter smile. Then, he dove head first into the dark abyss.

His action obviously caught the old man by surprise. It was only then he let out a snort and said, “Guess you have a bit of tact in you after all.”

Not long after Qin Lie had entered the dark abyss, the final moon sank beneath the horizon. Then, just moments after they were gone, three incredibly hot suns appeared on the sky at the same time without any warning at all.

The blazing sunlight that seemed capable of burning up the entire Boluo Realm looked like actual flames on the ground.

The old man chuckled oddly again.

Again, the prism-shaped crystals on top of the pillar absorbed much sunlight and reflected it, gathering it all at one point—Qin Lie’s body.

Qin Lie, who just recovered from the “baptism” of the nine moons for a short time was tortured once more.

In just an extremely short amount of time, Qin Lie’s skin began to fester under the burning sunlight that was several times stronger than before.

Qin Lie’s bloodline began to boil uncontrollably.

Inside his bloodline, countless tiny blaze divine characters flew as a certain kind of terrifying power gathered all of the refined flesh and blood energy inside his body and forcefully regenerated those festering wounds.

Qin Lie’s entire body was smoking like the Purple-eyed Flame Lion King he roasted earlier. In fact, tiny flames were dancing amidst those thick smokes.

The thin old man simply watched Qin Lie burn with a wide smile on his face.

He quickly discovered that, as Qin Lie’s bloodline boiled and the unknown divine characters sparkled, the concentrated fiery energy of the sun was gradually absorbed into Qin Lie’s skin like it was paraffin.

The earth spirit energy of the dark abyss was so thick that it could drive a person crazy, but it was also the energy the old man valued the most. It too was being absorbed into Qin Lie’s skin.

It was the key to unlocking a human body’s pores.

An entire day passed. Qin Lie hovered between life and death as sunlight burned him and an immense amount of earth spirit energy gushed madly into his body.

It was only when the sky gradually turned dark before the old man scooped Qin Lie out of the dark abyss and hunted a Rank Six Fire Crow for him. “I will return when the third moon rises. Prepare yourself.”

Qin Lie was barely breathing, but he hadn’t fainted from the pain like the last time. He was able to consciously drink the Fire Crow’s blood—it was just that he didn’t have the strength to speak.

……

At the Dark Shadow Race’s village.

You Qianlan, Lin Jie, and nearly a hundred Serene Moon clansmen had shown up while riding on crescent-shaped flying spirit artifacts.

“Please tell us. Where on earth has that young human gone?” You Qianlan asked.

“I really don’t know.” Eddie shook his head bitterly with a slightly downcast look on his face. “The truth is that we’ve been looking for him too as of late. However, just like you we were unable to find anyone even though we combed through the nearby area.”

He was telling the truth.

Qin Lie’s sudden disappearance had caused all these Dark Shadow clansmen to grow anxious.

In their eyes, Qin Lie was an important figure that had been sent over to their race by the Venerable One. They believed that he was here specifically to bring them back to Spirit Realm.

He was the sign of the Venerable One’s great love towards their race.

If something really were to happen to Qin Lie in Boluo Realm, they wouldn’t be able to face the Venerable One even if they did manage to return to Spirit Realm.

That was why they had been searching for Qin Lie for these past few days.

Unfortunately, their efforts were futile just like the Serene Moon clansmen’s.

“You once told me that he vanished with a human old man while the two of you were dizzy.” The wise old lady of the Dark Shadow Race called Yuria walked forward and said, “He is most likely with that human old man right now. I believe that you should work from here.”

“We have already investigated. A person like this probably doesn’t exist among the six great human forces.” Lin Jie sighed.

After she had left the Serene Moon Race’s territory, she used the power of Lunar Temple to investigate every human expert who often visited Boluo Realm.

She didn’t find anyone who matched the old man’s description, however.

“That old man is probably not a human himself; he just transformed to look like one. That’s why I wanted to know more about that human youth and see if he was related to some foreign race,” You Qianlan said sincerely.

“I’m sorry, but our understanding of him is just as shallow as yours. We may not be able to help you here,” Eddie said with a sympathetic but helpless look on his face.

“If you are willing to help us find him, I promise that we will help you beat back Sun Palace’s invasion even if you ultimately choose not to ally with Lunar Temple.” Lin Jie suddenly said.

“What? What did you just say, Miss Lin?” Eddie’s expression changed.

“I got news that Sun Palace will probably show up in a short time in attempt to slaughter every last one of you,” Lin Jie said seriously.

The moment she said this, great fear appeared on every Dark Shadow clansman’s face.

“When I came over, exposed Jun Hongxuan’s lies and gave you a better offer, he already knew that there is no way that you will approve of Sun Palace.” Lin Jie sighed softly before continuing, “This is because Lunar Temple controls a secret realm entrance of their own. Sun Palace believes that you will definitely ally with us after you’ve turned them down, or you will be hard-pressed to leave Boluo Realm. Moreover, Lunar Temple and Sun Palace are sworn enemies. If you were allowed to return to the Spirit Realm and regain your strength, you would become a great threat to Sun Palace. That’s why…”

“That’s why they want to kill every last one of us while we are still weak and still in this world. That way, all their troubles are solved and they don’t need to worry about a new threat to them rising in Spirit Realm, is that it?” Yuria said through gritted teeth.

“Albeit very cruel, it is the truth.” Lin Jie nodded.