Spirit Realm

The seven divine lights resembled a calm breeze, thin rain, or soothing spring water sprinkling down onto Qin Lie, quickly alleviating the burning heat inside of his blood vessels.

His roars of pain came to a sudden halt.

The three drops of refined Qilin blood that were like bloodstones diffused into his blood and flowed throughout his body.

Previously, all of the blood blood in his body felt as if it were on fire. Now, however, only the areas in which the three drops of blood roamed were burning hot.

Yet, compared to before, the heat had greatly diminished to the point that Qin Lie was able to endure it.

He focused his senses and noticed that seven strands of scattered lights had seeped into his body, entering the three drops of refined Qilin blood.

“Refined blood! The Blood Refinement Art… refining one’s own blood into blood essence!”

A thought appeared in Qin Lie’s mind. He raised his eyebrow, eyes shining with a dazzlingly bright light.

Inside of the half of the Blood Codex that Xue Li had given him, a “Blood Refinement Art” was recorded. This Blood Refinement Art was used to temper the blood inside of one’s body, cleansing and concentrating it into a purer, more powerful “blood essence.”

This Blood Refinement Art was similar to the brewing of alcohol. It took the purest, most refined energies in an individual’s blood and tempered them, turning them into blood essence!

Every drop of “blood essence” contained a tremendous amount of power and the essence of the Blood Spirit Art, and could complement the secret arts of the Blood Codex to unleash a terrifying amount of power.

According to the records of the Blood Codex, not only did blood essence have a myriad of uses, it could greatly enhance a martial practitioner’s combat power as well.

One of its simplest uses was the swift recovery of a martial practitioner’s injuries. If a body part were pierced by a sharp weapon, and the bone within had been destroyed, the wound would quickly recover on its own with just one drop of blood essence enveloping it!

When unleashing Blood Arts: Explode with blood essence inside of his body, Qin Lie could even cause a huge change in the blood of another person, killing them by rupturing their blood vessels.

At this moment, the three drops of refined Qilin blood continuously flowed through his blood vessels, yet it was neither diluted nor merged with his blood.

The three drops of blood were also a type of blood essence. They contained an incredibly powerful blood energy that was remarkably refined.

“Let’s try refining them into three blood essences of my own! Blood Refinement Art!”

Unwavering determination appeared in Qin Lie’s eyes. Throwing the potential threat of Xiahou Yuan and Du Xiangyang to the back of his mind, he began to summon his blood energy right beside the giant lake of fire, wrapping the three drops of Qilin blood inside of his blood vessels with his own blood.

Qin Lie channeled the Blood Spirit Art, and a large amount of blood energy gushed toward the three drops of Qilin blood. He began tempering the blood with the Blood Refinement Art recorded in the Blood Codex.

“Swoosh swoosh swoosh!”

Flames that resembled meteors fell from the sky, streaking downward into the land of flames.

The burning sky suddenly became a hundred times fiercer, and the occasional descent of meteoric fire intensified into a full-fledged storm of terrifying meteoric flames.

At a glance, it seemed as if the burning sky had collapsed. A storm of countless blazing meteors leaving trails of dazzling flame rained throughout the sky and scorched the land.

“Rrrrmb!”

The small volcanoes exploded while spewing lava and draconic flames.

The earth shook as the ponds of lava and rivers of fire began to bubble.

Since the Fire Qilin’s corpse had been extracted from the lake of fire, this land of fire was currently undergoing a shocking transformation.

Xiahou Yuan, Xiahou Shang, Xiahou Ta, Du Xiangyang, and other martial practitioners in the area noticed this and felt shocked to their very cores.

Anyone who was struck by a falling fiery meteor would be unable to escape death. They would immediately be burned to ash.

A few people in the secluded areas of the land of fire had suffered such a fate.

However, even though he was beside the fiery lake at the center of the land of fire, Qin Lie was unaffected for some reason.

The storm of blazing meteors only landed near him. Some of them were clearly headed toward him, but as if detecting some kind of aura in the process, they would change direction and avoid him.

“Crack! Crack!”

Strange voices rang out from the lake of fiery lava next to Qin Lie. As someone who was refining the Qilin blood with the Blood Refinement Art, he knew about the strange things that were happening around him. However, he did not act.

He simply examined everything with his soul consciousness.

Qin Lie saw numerous creatures that were made of fire and stone. They were about four to five meters tall with lava flowing from their bodies and fire burning all around them. They simply walked out of the giant lake of lava, each sporting a pair of Heavenly Flame Crystals for eyes that shone with ghastly flames.

“Fire Demons!” Qin Lie exclaimed out of shock.

It was said that, at the heart of volcanoes and lands of fire, creatures made of fire and stone would sometimes be born.

These creatures were called Fire Demons.

A Fire Demon’s life energy was determined by the flames it was shrouded in. It only had a simple consciousness and could not be considered intelligent. It could only act according to its instincts.

The places that could give birth to a Fire Demon, however, were often covered in lava and flames. They were usually an unbelievably high temperature. A Fire Demon could run amuck in such a place, doing whatever they wanted. This made them extremely frightening.

Fire Demons did not fear pain or death. They would only obey their basest instincts to kill and chase away all other living creatures who stepped into their domain. It was only when they killed all beings that were not Fire Demons that they would become calm.

A Fire Demon’s size alone determined their strength and power.

The bigger a Fire Demon was, the scarier they were, and the more difficult it would be to deal with them.

While Qin Lie was refining the Qilin’s blood with the Blood Refinement Art, more than a dozen of Fire Demons that were each around four to five meters tall had climbed out of the lake of fire one after another. Creaking sounds emanated from their stone limbs as they moved.

They seemed to have been peacefully resting inside of the fiery lake all this time, slumbering along with the Fire Qilin’s body. That is, until the tombstone forcefully dragged out the body out, forcing them to wake up in anger.

Dozens of Fire Demons wildly charged in every direction amidst the blazing meteor shower and erupting volcanoes.

Fire and lava scattered from their bodies as they ran, spewing everywhere. The fire on their stone limbs blazed as they moved, making them appear extremely intimidating.

When Qin Lie detected the rampage of the Fire Demons with his soul consciousness, he started to panic and prepared to temporarily stop the Blood Refinement Art to avoid them.

The fire energy that the Fire Demons contained was comparable to that of Netherpassage and Fulfillment Realm martial practitioners. They were not very intelligent, nor did they have extraordinary techniques or spirit artifacts. They relied purely on their instincts.

If this were anywhere else, a Fire Demon would not be that scary, but in a land of fire like this one, a Fire Demon was free to do whatever it wanted. It did not need to fear the burning liquid, ponds of lava, or even the showers of fiery meteors. Here, their combat power ascended to an entirely new level and made them significantly scarier to deal with.

Just as Qin Lie was about to escape, he discovered that the Fire Demons that were headed his way actually passed by him as if they did not detect his presence at all.

Qin Lie froze.

A while later, he came to a sudden realization. “The aura of the refined Fire Qilin’s blood!”

The three drops of Fire Qilin blood that he was currently refining with the Blood Refinement Art were currently in his bloodstream. Naturally, he would have the aura of a Fire Qilin.

These Fire Demons had slumbered deeply alongside the Fire Qilin within the fiery lake. They had partially been born because of the subtle connection they shared with the Fire Qilin’s dissipated soul. This was why they instinctively treated Qin Lie as their own kind.

They completely ignored Qin Lie.

This both shocked Qin Lie and filled him with joy. After confirming his conclusion once more, knowing that none of the Fire Demons would harm him, he eventually relaxed and continued refining the Qilin’s blood.

What he didn’t know was that many Fire Demons that overflowed with burning liquid were also climbing out of the lava ponds all over this land of flames.

These Fire Demons were simply acting according to their instincts, hunting and slaughtering any martial practitioner of the nine great forces who appeared in this area.

In their simple minds, this was their home and their world.

They would not allow any creature that wasn’t one of them to freely move about the area. Therefore, they moved to kill all who had basically invaded their land.

Xiahou Yuan’s group, Du Xiangyang, and martial practitioners from other Silver rank forces who had accidentally stumbled into this fiery landscape were suddenly being hunted by Fire Demons.

The Fire Demons were essentially cleaning out the entire region!

The martial practitioners who thought themselves powerful quickly realized how difficult it was to fight Fire Demons.

The Fire Demons knew neither pain nor death. Their fire forged stone bodies were incredibly tough, and every movement they made splashed their surroundings with fire and burning liquid. Every time a fiery meteor struck the Fire Demons, their power didn’t weaken—rather, the Fire Demons became even stronger than before.

Those who fought the Fire Demons were quickly slaughtered by them. Martial practitioners who were smart like Du Xiangyang immediately escaped the moment that they noticed the situation was not to their advantage.

Fire Demons could be seen hunting down any living being that had entered the land of fire.

Figures fled from the burning environment, afraid to remain in it any longer.

The foolish few who had fought the Fire Demons were now humanoid shapes of burning charcoal left forgotten beside streams of fire. They were all completely and utterly dead.

Meanwhile, Qin Lie leisurely refined the Qilin’s blood beside the lake at the center of the land of fire. He was unaware of the bloody slaughter that was taking place throughout the area.

In just a day’s time, Qin Lie was the only martial practitioner left in the entire region.

The fiery meteor shower that rained through the sky seemed to have finally stopped as the sky became a dark gray. The sky was no longer burning.

The numerous small volcanoes had erupted, causing lava and flames to spread everywhere. This had formed new lava ponds and twisting streams.

After the Fire Demons confirmed that all foreign beings had either been eliminated or chased away, they roamed for a little longer before returning to the bottoms of the fiery lakes, seemingly intent on restoring their spent strength within the lava.

However, this land of fire had still become a forbidden land. Despite the fact that the region had quieted down, those who had escaped did not dare to enter again.

Time passed swiftly.

Seven days passed in a flash, and the land of fire was peaceful and quiet.

There were no falling meteors of flame, no volcanic eruptions, and no roaming Fire Demons.

On the seventh day, countless flaming sparks flew out of the land of fire’s lava ponds and bubbling streams, heading toward the center of the region as if every single one had a simple consciousness of their own.

It was as if there were hundreds of thousands of flaming butterflies flying through the air.