Spirit Realm

“ARGH!”

The moment Qin Lie fell into the pool of blood, he instantly let out a terribly shrill scream. It was like the cries of a dying wild beast, struggling defiantly against its fate.

“Glub glub! Glub glub!”

Blood bubbles the size of fists popped up continuously from inside the pool. They quickly popped as wisps of thick crimson mist also spread out.

The thick stench of blood spread around the pool, causing the air they breathed in to feel as if it was mixed with blood foams.

Qin Lie’s entire body had turned red as his muscles shook continuously. Green veins popped on his neck, forehead, and arms, causing him to look extremely hideous and terrifying.

“AAAO!”

Like a demonic beast at the final end of its ropes, Qin Lie roared madly while a breathtaking blood red appeared within the deep ends of his pupils. It was like a man devouring demon who was peeking into the human land from the depths of hell.

“What’s this?” Ying Xingran stared in shock at Feng Rong.

Feng Rong was also shocked. Under Ying Xingran’s gaze, she said in slight excitement, “This is a pool of blood created specifically for martial practitioners at the middle stage of the Manifestation Realm! The density of spirit blood is incredibly high. Normally speaking, only those who are at the middle stage of the Manifestation realm and have soaked in the previous pools for three to five years would be allowed to cultivate in this type of pool.”

“Then what are you waiting for? Get him out already!” Ying Xingran roared angrily at her and Lang Xie.

“I’ve said it before. If he thinks he can’t take it, then he can walk out himself.” Lang Xie was expressionless. He even ignored Ying Xingran’s orders and simply stared deeply at Qin Lie.

“He’s even slightly stronger than Pang Feng. Not even Pang Feng dared to enter this pool. His powerful body was tempered by the Golden Stone Art, but even he could not hang on for more than a moment. Pang Feng was the most talented person among this group of newbies too. This Qin Bing is even scarier than I had imagined,” Feng Rong thought quietly.

“If anything happens to him, then Armament Sect will not have a future!” Ying Xingran was as anxious as he was on fire.

Lang Xie continued to stay silent.

Feng Rong also pretended that she didn’t hear him.

Qin Lie was now experiencing the most terrifying tempering in his life as he resisted the pool of blood’s terrifying corrosion with his body.

He felt as if he had been thrown into a pool of lava and was being drowned by the volcano’s turbulent magma. The heat inside these boiling pools of blood was enough to instantly cook a normal person and would melt any metal or stone which had low melting points.

There was even an unspeakable corrosive power inside the terrifying heat. This very power could seep right into a person’s flesh and blood.

He could clearly feel that the fibers in his flesh and cells were swiftly decomposing, as if there were invisible explosions happening inside his flesh and blood!

Amidst this faint-inducing pain was also another warm energy that would restructure his cells and join them back together after the corrosion and explosions...

His consciousness slowly blurred, and he had the very strange feeling that he was first being smashed into smithereens by a massive hammer or grinded to dust by a huge mountain. Then, he was reformed and glued back together bit by bit.

After that, he would then be smashed to smithereens again before being pieced back together once more.

Again and again.

This kind of pain was much more terrifying, much more frightening than being struck by thunder and lightning!

That was why he was constantly crying out in pain and roaring at the top of his lungs. That was why he was giving it everything he got!

“Soul shift!”

As his mind worked, wisps of his soul consciousness turned into beams of light that fell into the Soul Suppressing Orb like meteors.

He had entered the state of Thoughtless Tranquility.

Pain continued to shoot from every bone, every nerve and every piece of flesh and blood inside his body. Even in the state of Thoughtless Tranquility it was as if he could still feel that unforgettable pain.

However, compared to before his resistance against pain had increased massively.

His soul was at a strange state. To be able to look at his body with his mind and greatly decrease his sensory awareness towards his body was the magic of Thoughtless Tranquility. This was also the key to his success in cultivating Heavenly Thunder Eradication.

His bloodcurdling cries gradually calmed down as he entered the state of Thoughtless Tranquility.

Ying Xingran, who had been tense this entire time, was afraid that Qin Lie would be burned alive. He suddenly turned deathly pale when he saw that Qin Lie had turned quiet. “Has, has he lost it?” Ying Xingran’s gaze immediately turned into one of complete disbelief and terror as if a demon was about to be unleashed from inside him. His emotions were clearly going to go out of control.

“He’s fine.” Lang Xie was also surprised on the inside as he took the initiative and answered, “He has gotten used to this blood pool.”

“Gotten used to it?” Ying Xingran looked dumbfounded.

Lang Xie nodded under Feng Rong and Ying Xingran’s shocked gazes and responded, “Not only does he learn incredibly quickly, even the tempering of his body is equally outstanding. Even Pang Feng is two or three levels weaker compared to him.”

After having paused for a moment, Lang Xie exclaimed solemnly, “Sect Master, if you’re willing to give him to me, in fifteen years at the latest, he’ll be able to take over Blood Spear from me. In thirty years, he will exceed me with a seventy percent chance of breaking through to the Fulfillment Realm!”

Feng Rong and the two Blood Spear martial practitioners suddenly looked at Qin Lie with incredibly passionate gazes after hearing that.

“Give him to you?” Ying Xingran humphed coldly, “Don’t even think about it!”

“His talent in artifact forging has exceeded even the founding sect master several times over! He is a person who can truly lead Armament Sect to become a Copper force. It is practically a reckless waste of God's gifts for him to waste his efforts on the martial way!”

Once finished, Ying Xingran had waved his sleeves and left. He did not give Lang Xie the opportunity to persuade him.

“It’s nearly impossible for you to get Qin Bing,” Feng Rong suddenly said.

Lang Xie frowned, “There’s no one more suitable than him to take over Blood Spear. Not even Pang Feng or Yi Yuan will be enough. This can be seen from the fact that he was willing to ignore all risks to kill Liang Shaoyang.”

“The sect master won’t give him to you,” Feng Rong said again.

Lang Xie nodded and did not discuss this topic any further. “Liang Yangzu should have arrived outside the city. I will go out for a moment while you watch over Qin Bing.”

“No problem,” Feng Rong gladly replied.

With that, Lang Xie left.

“Both of you, go get a fresh bucket of Metal Wing Golden Horn Lizard spirit blood and add it into Qin Bing’s pool. Lang Xie had just left, and Feng Rong was already cheerfully ordering the two Blood Spear martial practitioners about.

The duo’s faces changed slightly as one of them asked, “Won’t that be an overdose?”

“He won’t die, I’m here aren’t I? Stop wasting time!” Feng Rong’s expression turned cold and the color of blood slowly appeared in her eyes. Her temperament had changed unexpectedly.

“Got it.” The two Blood Spear martial practitioners bowed their heads and immediately began working as she had ordered. They didn’t dare to speak another word.

A bucket of freshly filled Metal Wing Golden Horn Lizard spirit blood—still hot—was poured right into the pool in which Qin Lie was cultivating. The moment it was poured in, Qin Lie, who was still in the state of Thoughtless Tranquility immediately felt that even his soul had been submerged in terrible pain.

It was like countless golden, metallic needles had stabbed straight into his mind and deep into his soul.

“Boom!”

Under the great shock, he actually could not hold onto the state of Thoughtless Tranquility. His soul immediately scattered and returned to his body.

Then, a pain twice as terrible as the one before immediately wracked his entire body.

Just as he was about to roar out in pain, Feng Rong cheerfully interrupted, “After observing you for a while, I realized that you actually have not channeled your spirit art to resist the pool of blood’s power. It looks like your potential has not been completely unleashed yet, so I had no choice but to add some fire for you.”

Qin Lie abruptly reacted.

Spirit art! That’s right, he should channel his spirit art to resist this!

With a thought, he first channeled the Frost Arts and cultivated the frost energy inside his ice ball Natal Palace.

“Prak prak prak prak!”

The frost energy seeped out from his pores and continuously clashed with the bloodwater’s energy seeping in from his pores. They actually clashed against each other in a strange manner.

Inside the pool of blood, it was as if Qin Lie had firecrackers strewn on him as explosive sounds rang all over his body. This caused Feng Rong and both blood guards to be shocked.

“Qin Bing, your entire body isn’t exploding, is it?” Feng Rong quickly said, “If your innards are also exploding, then… maybe you can stop for a while. You don’t need to rush it.”

Even she was a little anxious, but her words still revealed the madness in her heart.

The two blood guards’ faces couldn’t help but twitch a little.

“Who else can survive after their innards have exploded? This is Instructor Feng alright. No wonder she’s the only one senior Blood Spear who can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Sire…” both of them inwardly thought.

“I’m fine, I’m fine!” Inside the pool of blood Qin Lie grit his teeth with a hideous expression before madly channeling his spirit art.

He had switched from his Frost Arts to Heavenly Thunder Eradication.

“Boom boom boom boom boom boom!”

Lightning intersected, and the sounds of thunder rumbling were even more powerful than before!

Every bone in his body was about to explode!

His expression changed as he yet again switched his spirit art from Heavenly Thunder Eradication to Records of Geocentric Magnetism.

The moment the spirit art was channeled, the continuous explosions inside his body immediately calmed down. The turbulent and powerful energy inside the pool had also surprisingly calmed down.

Another immense and turbulent force surged little by little from beneath his feet!

“The power of earth?” Qin Lie thought. He could actually clearly sense the changes going on underground. He could sense a hot aura from it.

His gaze turned to one of shock as he suddenly asked, “What’s beneath this blood pool? Can, can it be that the reason the blood pool is so hot is because there’s fire burning from underneath it?”

“What are you talking about, If there wasn’t fire, then how can the blood pool be so hot?” Feng Rong scorned his ignorance and said in a matter of fact tone, “If the temperature of the bloodwater isn’t high enough, then how can the spirit blood and dozens of medicines and spirit herbs mix together nicely? And you call yourself an artificer, don’t you know that, without boiling hot temperature, the energy inside the bloodwater cannot seep into your flesh and bones at all?”

“That’s not right! The fire underneath is too great! Th-this is geocentric fire!” Qin Lie was shocked greatly.

He finally understood, through the miraculous reaction of Records of Geocentric Magnetism, what kind of fire was burning underneath the pool of blood.

The earthfire of Flame Volcano was used to heat the furnace and temper spirit artifacts!

And these people actually used it to burn the pools of blood!

No wonder the bloodwater inside the pool was so hot that it was practically unheard of. No wonder even he almost failed to endure it.

“Now you’re showing some sensibility. You actually guessed that we’re burning the pool of blood with geocentric fire. Hmm, you’re not too stupid I guess.” Feng Rong chuckled, “This method of tempering a martial practitioner’s body with a pool of blood was actually thought up by the sect master a few generations ago.

“In fact, this is also a method of forging artifacts. They’re artificers after all, aren’t they?

“The blood pool is just like a furnace, with the geocentric fire as the fire source, your body as the main material, and the spirit blood and tens of medicines and spirit water as the supplement materials. Naturally, the supplement materials are to be merged into the main material, that is to say, they should be absorbed into your flesh and bones inside your body.

Feng Rong let out a very carefree laugh, “Qin Bing, oh Qin Bing. You are also a man who will become an artificer, you can’t just forge only artifacts, you know? Won’t you regret the rest of your life if you don’t try turning your body into an ‘artifact’ and experience the feeling of being ‘forged’ by someone else?”

She chuckled, “The reason I have come specifically from A’Hai’s place was to leave you no regrets. I have purposely come to ‘forge’ you.”

Qin Lie suddenly had a bad feeling about this.