Spirit Realm

On the deep ice land at the bottom of the Arctic Mountain Range.

The ice peaks stood, and the ice glaciers never melted. A cruel, cold energy covered this place and caused it to be frozen without life.

Qin Lie was sitting on the top of a small glacier like a statue made from ice as he studied the frost picture scroll inside the Soul Suppressing Orb with his eyes closed. He was feeling the cold essence in the picture scroll and silently understanding the changes inside his dantian’s spirit sea.

In the early stages of the Natal Opening Realm, the spirit sea would form three Natal Palaces. Only when the three Natal Palaces were all filled with power would one have the qualifications to create new Natal Palaces and step into the middle stage of the Natal Opening Realm.

At present, he had not comprehended the core of the frost concept, but whenever he studied the frost picture scroll inside the Soul Suppressing Orb, the two Natal Palaces inside him would absorb the icy energies of this icy land which would condense into cold spirit energy and gather in his Natal Palaces.

Of the three Natal Palaces, one was filled with furious lightning and thunder while the other two were extremely cold, filled with a special cold energy.

“For the middle stage of the Natal Opening Realm, I will need to create three more Natal Palaces…”

An unknown amount of time later, Qin Lie opened his eyes. His gaze was bone-chillingly cold as he quietly murmured with a creased brow, “If I can’t comprehend the essence of the frost picture scroll, I can’t grasp the method of channeling frost power. Consequently, I can’t use the power of the two frost Natal Palaces. This might possibly… become a chain on me. If I cannot break this restraint, I will be unable to create new Natal Palaces and break through to the middle stage.”

What entered his eyes were the cruel and cold glaciers. Within them were ancient spirit beasts that were frozen inside.

“Are these spirit beasts… dead or alive?” A thought suddenly rose in Qin Lie’s mind. He looked at the shadows of the enormous spirit beasts inside the glaciers and couldn’t help but feel coldness. “If the ice here melted, I wonder if these ancient spirit beasts, which have been frozen for so many years, would open their eyes?”

When he thought of this, Qin Lie’s expression became grave. Then, as he looked at the colossal spirit beasts inside the glaciers, he felt a sliver of uncertainty.

Within the scope of his knowledge, these enormous spirit beasts that were like little mountains must possess immeasurable power.

“Rank Five? Rank Six? Or Rank Seven?

He didn’t dare to imagine it, nor did he dare to imagine which force on this continent could stand up against these spirit beasts if they woke up. Who would face the onslaught of these terrifying spirit beasts?

“They should be dead…”

After reassuring himself, he estimated the time. He took out the Eye of Frost and activated the crux.

The cold energy wrapped around him as though it was intelligent. With a strong wave of dizziness, his figure slowly disappeared.

Ten seconds later, he appeared inside a little yard in Armament City. Then, he put away the Eye of Frost and took his spirit tablets, spirit stones, and clothing with him as he walked to Armament Sect’s outer sect.

This was the third day and also the day he was to go to Armament Sect to report in.

“Sir, who are you?” questioned two guards in front of the sect gates of Armament Sect.

“Qin Bing, reporting in,” responded Qin Lie as he stood at the gates of Armament Sect.

“What is your number?”

“Two hundred and thirty.”

“Two hundred and thirty?” A guard froze and then suddenly chuckled. He nodded and said, “Go in, someone will take you to your residence.”

Qin Lie nodded aloofly.

A while later, an outer sect disciple of Armament Sect lead Qin Lie past beautiful buildings to Flame Volcano’s base.

Rows of stone towers made from limestone stood at the base of Flame Volcano. In addition, there was a large lake in the center of the crowd of towers. The lake water was clear enough that the bottom could be seen with many fish swimming around.

There was a circular plaza beside the lake that was paved in limestone, and twelve stone pillars stood above that very plaza. There were many exquisite patterns and diagrams of flora and fauna carved on the pillars which appeared extremely beautiful and seemed to hold a special meaning.

Many outer sect disciples of Armament Sect were scattered around the pillars on the plaza as they focused on the diagrams on the stone pillars. They seemed to be concentrating on inscribing something with the spirit tablets on their hands…

After Qin Lie came over, he also looked at the inscriptions on the stone pillars. His eyes lit up and he thought, “Are these also spirit diagrams?”

“What are you looking at?” The outer sect disciple leading Qin Lie had a clear expression of disdain as he mocked, “Can you even understand the diagrams inscribed on the spirit pattern pillars on the plaza?”

This person then had an expression of reverence on his face. “These spirit patterns were personally carved by Armament Sect’s first sect leader and contain great profoundness. Only those with true intelligence can comprehend the profound meaning from the inscriptions of flora and fauna.”

“Supposedly, the spirit patterns on the spirit pattern pillars were ones that the sect founder had copied from other places. He imprinted them onto the spirit pattern pillars for himself and the disciples of the sect to understand, so they could feel the wonders of the diagrams on the spirit pattern pillars…”

“Armament Sect was founded nine hundred years ago. Generations have passed, and we have taken in new disciples annually. After all these years, there have been more than thirty thousand people that have come here to experience the wonders of the spirit pattern pillar’s diagrams. Some people stayed for decades by these pillars… but there has only been twenty-seven people that have gained from the spirit pattern pillars in these nine hundred years!”

“All twenty-seven of these people were outstanding artificers in Armament Sect’s history and are the pride of Armament Sect. They are the true foundation of Armament Sect on this land!” This person’s expression was grave. “At present, every spirit diagram of Armament Sect is the product of the genius of these twenty-seven people, formed through slowly comprehending the diagrams on the spirit pattern pillars.”

“These twelve spirit pattern pillars are Armament Sect’s foundation. All the spirit diagrams of Armament Sect come from them. The strength of Armament Sect also originates from these,” he said lowly.

Listening to the other’s explanation, Qin Lie’s expression shifted, and he looked even more attentively at the twelve spirit pattern pillars.

The twelve spirit pattern pillars were positioned at various parts of the plaza. Their location seemed to contain a hidden meaning. Qin Lie looked closely and his eyes suddenly lit up.

In the past in Herb Mountain at Ling Town, his grandpa, Qin Shan, had once set up eight stone pillars. The stone pillars reached the ceiling of the cavern and guided the weakened lightning power to help him cultivate Heavenly Thunder Eradication.

The setup of the eight stone pillars inside Herb Mountain’s cavern was an octagon and not exactly the same as the position of these twelve spirit pattern pillars. But he looked closer at the twelve spirit pattern pillars on this plaza and found that the position of the central eight pillars also seemed to be a faintly discernible octagon.

“Is there any special meaning?” He was slightly curious and noted it down before he looked at the diagrams on the spirit pattern pillars.

The twelve spirit pattern pillars were all more than ten meters tall. They were also extremely thick and would need five people linking hands to surround it.

Different diagrams and lines were inscribed onto each spirit pattern pillar to form all kinds of strange spirit beasts, mountains and rivers, flowers, and beasts in flight. The irregular diagrams did not contain any meaningful lines and even had pictures of demons and evil spirits… it included thousands of things.

Qin Lie gazed for a while and found the diagrams did not have any connection to normal spirit diagrams, but they seemed to hold the same meaning as the frost picture scroll inside his Soul Suppressing Orb.

“In the last thirty years, only two people have comprehended the wonders of the spirit pattern pillars and gained new understandings from three of the twelve spirit pattern pillars.” This person looked coldly at Qin Lie. “One of them is Elder Mo Hai. Twenty years ago, he sat under the spirit pattern pillars for three whole years. He comprehended a new diagram from one of the spirit pattern pillars… right now, Mo Hai is the First Elder in the inner sect! The second is Senior Sister Tang Siqi. Four years ago, she miraculously entered the world inside the spirit pattern pillar when she was looking at the diagrams. She also entered the inner world inside two different spirit pattern pillars one after another…”

This person’s expression became even colder. “We do not know what Senior Sister Tang gained from that. Only Sect Leader and Elder Mo Hai knows what Senior Sister Tang gained. We only know that after that, Senior Sister Tang became the most talented disciple in Armament Sect. She can use all the rare spirit materials in the sect as she wishes. Sect Leader and Mo Hai teaches her personally and uses the power of the entire sect to nurture her.”

“She is the greatest treasure of Armament Sect and we definitely do not allow those with ambitious and ruthless hearts to disrupt the calm of her inner heart!”

Qin Lie’s brow creased as he snorted with a cold face, but did not say anything.

The person lead Qin Lie to a stone tower near the plaza and gave him his identity card. Then he said, “In the future, you will be here. Your contribution points depend on how much you contribute to Armament Sect. The sect will have elders lecturing about artifact forging at regular intervals. If you want to listen to the class, you must pay contribution points. You can also use contribution points to pay for the books on forging and spirit materials in the outer sect…”

He introduced the rules of Armament Sect’s outer sect. Qin Lie listened indifferently. He found that it was almost the exact same as Nebula Pavilion’s and there was no novelty.

“How do I obtain contribution points?” Before this person left, Qin Lie asked his only question.

“Work to accumulate contribution points.” This person’s expression was impatient. “Cutting spirit materials, smelting simple artifacts, preparing spirit herbs, spirit stones, and other things to gain contribution points. You do not need to worry, Senior Sister Tang will plan missions for you. Each mission will have a corresponding number of contribution points. As long as you can complete them in the time allotted and reach the amount required…” He left with a strange laugh.

Qin Lie circled around inside the stone tower. He found that the tower had two floors. The upper level was a resting room and had a wash room and bedroom. There was also a very small cultivation room.

The lower level had a storage room and a forging workshop. Inside the workshop, there were some simple tools. In addition, there was a small guest room.

Just as he was examining the stone tower, he smelled a strong stench from the stone tower next to his. Yi Yuan’s sighs occasionally could be heard. “This vicious woman actually is making me do this kind of thing. How much do you hate me?”

Qin Lie was shocked. He put his clothing down and went next door. Then, he saw Yi Yuan was squeezing the bile from a spirit beast’s gall bladder in the little workshop. The stench was coming from that black bile…

There were many spirit beast gall bladders next to Yi Yuan. The stench inside the little workshop was extremely powerful. When Qin Lie neared, he felt his guts wanting to heave.

Seeing him appear, Yi Yuan squeezed out a smile that was uglier than crying. “This is the mission that Lian Rou has arranged for me. It is going to be terrible. I don’t know how long I will stink for. Brother Qin, did you just arrive? Ha, Tang Siqi will definitely not rest. I think your missions definitely won’t be more comfortable than mine…” Yi Yuan’s eyes were full of schadenfreude as though he wanted Qin Lie to immediately suffer together will him.