Spirit Realm

After that, Qin Lie and Song Tingyu continued to advance in the direction of the Nether Battlefield.

Pursuers from the Horned Demon Race continued to appear and attack them.

Yet, in front of Song Tingyu who was extremely strong offensively, the closest waves of Horned Demon warriors were mercilessly killed.

After killing those people, she would use the Memory Fragment Crystal to extract their memories and allow Qin Lie to analyze them.

Qin Lie gradually realized that analyzing the memories inside the Memory Fragment Crystal and experiencing the lives of other people was extremely helpful for forming his Soul Lake. He could quickly establish himself and step into the Manifestation Realm.

In order to break through to the Manifestation Realm, one needed to see tens of thousands of manifestations of life. They needed to experience something that moved them and accumulate those experiences.

When Yi Yuan reached the peak of the Natal Opening Realm, he had chosen to leave Purple Mist Sea and travelled a great distance to come to Armament Sect. He had accompanied Lian Rou with the identity of an outer sect disciple. He did this because of his affection for Lian Rou.

Yi Yuan also did it for an unforgettable experience. He needed an experience that was not from Purple Mist Sea to help him step into the Manifestation Realm.

Martial practitioners that reached the Natal Opening Realm would usually choose to go on a long journey.

They would leave their familiar environment behind to go to a new place and interact with strangers or go through a dangerous experience. They would seek new life experiences. Through these experiences, they would find the way to step into the Manifestation Realm.

Yi Yuan went to Armament Sect for this experience; Pang Feng accompanied his sister to Armament Sect. Other than their original goal, they had come to experience a new environment and accumulate their experiences in life. Their goal was to prepare to enter the Manifestation Realm.

Qin Lie had experienced a string of events in Armament Sect. He helped Armament Sect fight against the five forces, summoned Xue Li, forged the Terminator Profound Bomb, and used the Terminator Profound Bomb to kill the invaders of the five forces. Then he opened the evil nether passageway and negotiated with Profound Heaven Alliance and Eight Extreme Temple before falling into the Nether Realm. To use the Memory Fragment Crystal to further reflect on life...

The experiences and scenery he had never seen were a kind of accumulation—the accumulation of life.

Qin Lie’s accumulation of life had never been little. Adding on what he had experienced through the Memory Fragment Crystal, his accumulation was nearly complete.

Today, he once again used the Memory Fragment Crystal to experience the life of a Horned Demon martial practitioner. Then he sank into a state of silence for a long time.

There was a small clear lake in his mind that seemed to be made from his mind consciousness and a part of his soul. That clear lake was as smooth as a mirror. It seemed like it could reflect all kinds of scenes.

Qin Lie only needed to think and could see his nine Natal Palaces from the surface of the lake. He saw the thunder, the lightning, the ice, and the magnetic waves that filled the nine Natal Palaces. He could also see his dantian’s spirit sea.

It was as if, with just a thought, he could see any detail inside his mind using that lake.

This was the Soul Lake, a projection of his soul, and a sign that he was stepping into the Manifestation Realm!

The formation of his Soul Lake meant that he had successfully broken through to the Manifestation Realm. He had the power of the early stages of the Manifestation Realm.

When Qin Lie’s Soul Lake formed, it was as though his mind and soul had powered up. Even his perceptive abilities had increased as well. He discovered that it was easier to detect changes in the surroundings, the flow of the air, the vitality of the plants, and the biomagnetic field of living beings...

Opening his eyes, he saw Song Tingyu look at him brightly. From Song Tingyu's expression, he saw a sliver of praise...

"You formed your Soul Lake?” Song Tingyu's lips moved. Her beautiful face had a dazzling smile.

"Mn, many thanks, Miss Song, for letting me use the memories in the Memory Fragment Crystal. If not for those experiences, I probably would not have entered the Manifestation Realm so early." Qin Lie thanked her sincerely.

The Soul Lake was the projection of the soul. It could help the soul recognize itself more clearly and feel the changes in the world more easily. This helped martial practitioners to notice details and further their cultivation.

Once his Soul Lake formed, the condition in which the memories caused his soul to become lost and panicked stopped occurring.

He clearly recognized that he was him. He was Qin Lie, the one and only.

He was no longer affected by the mess of memories.

"There are many wondrous uses of the Soul Lake. You can slowly explore them. As your understanding of the Soul Lake increases, you will gradually improve and move towards the mid and later stages of the Manifestation Realm." Song Tingyu smiled brightly and raised her head to look in the direction of the Nether Battlefield. "I do not want you to become a burden on me which is why I helped you improve quickly. Right now, the reason that we have not been pursued by powerful martial practitioners is because... the truly powerful of the Horned Demon Race are going through the evil nether passageway and the Nether Battlefield. A stronger portion of the Horned Demon Race has either already entered the Scarlet Tide Continent or are furiously attacking the Nether Battlefield. This has caused the number of elites in their homeland to be much lower.”

Qin Lie was shocked. “Does this mean that the state of the Scarlet Tide Continent is not an optimistic one?”

"Mn, the strongest of the Nether Realm have either already reached Scarlet Tide Continent or they are at the evil nether passageway and the Nether Battlefield, waiting to kill their way into the Scarlet Tide Continent." Song Tingyu said worriedly. "If that were not the case, we would not have been able to survive until now. We would have already been killed by the strongest of the Horned Demon Race.”

Qin Lie knew that what she said was the truth.

When they had entered the evil nether passageway, he had almost suffocated in the terrifying presence of the nether beast he had slipped past as well as the evil race that was rode it.

He believed that, if it was that person pursuing them, he and Song Tingyu would not have had any hope of survival.

Several days later, when the two were hurrying in the direction of the Nether Battlefield, they passed through a town of Horned Demons.

"Do you want to see a town of Horned Demons?" Song Tingyu suddenly stopped and asked.

The two stood at a little mountain peak. The peak was bare and nothing grew. From this little peak, they could see that there was a little town nearby.

"A Horned Demon town? Are you interested in seeing one?" Qin Lie was puzzled.

"I've never seen one before, so I’m interested. The strongest people of the Horned Demon Race have either entered the Scarlet Tide Continent or are preparing to do so. There should not be any strong individuals left in the town." Song Tingyu became alert. “There shouldn’t be any trouble as long as we are careful.”

"Oh, then there should be no harm in looking." Qin Lie nodded.

"Then we shall go." Song Tingyu's eyes flashed with interest. She walked ahead and killed off vicious plants along the way.

The two sneaked towards the town of Horned Demons.

"There is a large tree there. After I cut off the vitality inside it, we can climb the tree to look directly into the town." Song Tingyu's eyes were bright as they quickly moved to the tree that was more than ten meters tall.

When they arrived, the branches of the large tree that were covered in thorns and sharp serrated leaves seemed to detect an uncomfortable vitality. It then started to shake violently.

The plants of the Nether Realm held an innate animosity toward beings that contained spirit energy fluctuations.

Song Tingyu laughed lightly. She raised her long sword and avoided the attacks of the branches, strongly stabbing the trunk of the tree a few times.

Dashes of vicious rainbow light ran deep inside the ancient wood and, in a short while, killed off the ancient tree. Then Song Tingyu used her rainbow wings to carry Qin Lie to the top of the tree. Obscured by its dense foliage, they could observe this Horned Demon town which didn’t look all too special.

This little town was neither large nor small. There were slightly more than one hundred buildings. Some were made from wood. Others were built from bones, giving them an extremely crude appearance. The architecture was bland. All the buildings were square in shape and had no sense of beauty.

There were many female and elderly Horned Demons. There were also some young mature Horned Demon fighters that were active inside the city. They seemed to be preparing supplies for a great war, storing up food and dried meat. It seemed that those supplies would be transported somewhere else.

Inside the city, there were many nether beasts. Spirit Corroding Beasts, Demon Armor Insects, Spirit Hunting Beasts, and Nether Giant Tailed Lizards could be seen. These nether beasts were clearly tame.

There was a little plaza at the center of the town where enormous stone slabs stood. Ancient demon pictures were engraved on these slabs and many members of the Horned Demon Race were kneeling in front of them, worshipping them with expressions of reverence. Their faces were pious as though the slabs depicted gods they believed in.

Qin Lie looked over and saw a figure of a demon that seemed familiar. Two large curved horns protruded from the head of the demon, a pair of pitch black wings that could covered the sky behind him, and his surroundings were shrouded in a thick, pitch black energy...

After studying it for a while, Qin Lie's expression changed slightly. He remembered where he had seen this demon before.

Back in the natural stone forest, it had formed above Gao Yu's head and hovered high above him. The Demon God's shadow!

The Demon God's shadow released by Gao Yu!

The Demon God that was considered pure evil in Scarlet Tide Continent was being worshipped as a god in this Horned Demon town.

It was revered as their protector!

Qin Lie suddenly realized that the spirit art Gao Yu cultivated and the Ogre-faced Rings in his hands were probably not from the Scarlet Tide Continent.

They were from the Nether Realm!

He suddenly felt worried on Gao Yu's behalf. He was concerned that if Gao Yu continued to cultivate, he would one day walk on the path of evil and the Demon God would corrupt his soul.

"What, you have seen the Ancient Demon God before?" Song Tingyu had been paying attention to the change in his expression. She found that when he looked at the stone slab, his expression changed dramatically and she couldn't help asking.

"No, no. I'm just a bit shocked." Qin Lie hid his thoughts.

Then he noticed that Song Tingyu went silent. He felt a wave of bloodlust emanate from her. This bloodlust was extremely sharp, making him feel as though he were sitting on needles, making him feel uncomfortable all over.

"Damn those Horned Demons!" Song Tingyu growled in a low and cold voice, her expression icy.

This shocked Qin Lie who looked to follow her gaze. Then his face also grew cold.

In a corner of the town, a few dozen humans appeared. There were both males and females, all of them completely naked.

Their bones showed through their skin and their eyes were devoid of life. Their bodies were covered in whip marks, blisters from burns, and bite wounds. Some of the people had crisscrossing scars that were frightening to see.

These people were holding the reins of nether beasts and gave off an aura of death. They seemed to be restricted in some unseen way. When they walked, their bodies would occasionally convulse.

There were several females whose lower bodies were swollen, blood and other fluids spilling out. Their breasts showed horrific teeth marks, some of which were fresh with blood.

Song Tingyu looked at them and knew what they had experienced. She had an expression of great anguish. She gritted her teeth and said in a low voice, "If there ever comes a day that the Scarlet Tide Continent is conquered by the Horned Demons... you, me, and all of our friends and relatives will become nothing more than slaves to be treated like animals.”

Qin Lie looked at these people, trembling at Song Tingyu’s words.