Spirit Realm

“It’s been a while since we got together, and we’re all at the Fulfillment Realm too. Anyone interested in a spar?”

Under the moon, Du Xiangyang finished his wine, stood up and suggested smilingly while overflowing with the desire to fight someone.

Luo Chen’s eyes lit up as deadly sharp sword intent burst out of his pores, making him seem like a heaven-piercing sword.

He stared straight at Qin Lie.

Chu Li chuckled and winked at Qin Lie, saying, “It looks like these two have a beef to pick with you!”

Qin Lie smiled wryly in response.

“It’s only been a year or so since we parted ways at the Graveyard of Gods, so where in the Spirit Realm did you learn that fire spirit art?” Du Xiangyang looked eager as clumps of flames appeared from inside his palms. They colored his excited face in red. “Come on, let’s fight already! Let me test that new fire spirit art you learned and see just how powerful it is to hurt someone like Senior Sister Tian Yu!”

“That will be fun.” Chu Li couldn’t wait for them to get started.

“I’ll wait for you guys to end your battle!” Luo Chen said.

All three of them assumed that Qin Lie had used a fire spirit art to produce a special kind of flame to burn Tian Yu.

They didn’t know that it was the power of bloodline.

Since Du Xiangyang also cultivated a fire spirit art, he was especially curious about the lava-like blaze. He wanted to know just how much Qin Lie had improved since last year.

“I’m not too familiar with that spirit art yet. I have something else for you to test, if you don’t mind.” Qin Lie laughed softly.

“Something else?” Du Xiangyang asked doubtfully.

“Something like this, for example!”

Wisps of blue electricity abruptly shot out of his body like dozens of spirit snakes.

They appeared incredibly bright under the curtain of night as they instantly arrived before Du Xiangyang’s chest.

“Scarlet Flame Circle!”

Clumps of red fire took on the shape of a ring in front of Du Xiangyang.

“Crackle!”

The electricity landed inside the fiery circle and caused some spirit energy explosions.

“Did you learn it from Forefather Terminator?” Du Xiangyang laughed loudly without moving. “It’s pretty average!”

“Is it?” Qin Lie answered.

Du Xiangyang was just about to say something when his expression abruptly changed. He involuntarily jumped backwards from the spot.

“Boom!”

A thunderous boom abruptly resounded from the web of electricity. The explosive power of heavenly thunder instantly scattered the fiery ring into sparks.

Qin Lie had concealed the aura of the power of thunder completely inside the electricity. That was why Du Xiangyang thought that the lightning his conjured didn’t contain any power of thunder.

The sudden explosion of thunder forced Du Xiangyang to dodge out of the way as soon as possible.

“I’m coming.”

Qin Lie smiled coolly and dashed across the air like a bolt of lightning. He dragged a dazzling tail of electricity behind him and charged towards Du Xiangyang like a meteor.

“Boom boom boom!”

The muffled sounds of thunder could be heard erupting deep inside the clouds on the sky. It was as if they were responding to Qin Lie’s attack.

Both Chu Li and Luo Chen looked astonished by Qin Lie’s movements.

That was because Qin Lie’s electrically-charged jump actually propelled him tens of meters into the sky instantly.

Utilizing the power of thunder, he jumped into the air and shot towards Du Xiangyang like a thunderous meteor even though he was still at the Fulfillment Realm.

Sky battle was a combat tactic that only Fragmentation Realm martial practitioners possessed. Therefore, they couldn’t help but be surprised when Qin Lie executed this technique while he was still at the Fulfillment Realm.

“Five Flames Flowing Light Sword!”

A sword flew out of Du Xiangyang’s sleeves. Flames of red, orange, purple, black and blue color flew out of the sword at once.

A prismatic sea of flames suddenly appeared above Du Xiangyang’s head.

The five flames were fused together in a strange fashion and burned in accordance to some kind of worldly law.

Like a thunderous meteor, Qin Lie charged violently into the sea of flames while attracting lightning bolts and explosive thunders all around him.

The second he charged into the sea of flames, all five flames burned bright and engulfed Qin Lie completely.

“Bang!”

He crashed heavily into the five-layered wall of flames, losing his clothes to the flames in the process.

“You’ve definitely grown a lot!” Qin Lie laughed loudly inside the sea of flames.

While laughing, a layer of ice swiftly appeared beneath his skin and protected his body from the flames.

At the same time, he pressed both his palms together.

“Thump! Thump! Thump!”

A dazzling sphere of thunder and lightning appeared over his palm, accompanied by loud heartbeats.

Chu Li’s expression changed as he exclaimed, “The Profound Thunder Heart!”

Luo Chen’s eyes also lit up brightly.

“Thump! Thump thump! Thump thump thump!”

Booms of thunder resounded nonstop from the thunder lightning ball in Qin Lie’s palm like the heartbeat of a person.

A terminating, desolate, and sad intent appeared from Qin Lie’s palm and struck Du Xiangyang in the chest through the sounds of thunder.

“Bang!”

Du Xiangyang looked like he was struck by a heavy blow as an abnormal, electrifying reaction suddenly erupted inside his heart.

Every time the thunderball let out a thunderous boom, Du Xiangyang felt like his heart was blasted by a surge of thunder.

The five-colored sea of flames he worked so hard to create abruptly dissipated as he lost control over his spirit energy.

He could no longer maintain the fiery barrier, so it crumbled in an instant.

“Whoosh!”

Qin Lie passed through the flames and stood still above a reef. He was still holding the ball of thunder firmly.

“Thump! Thump thump!”

Thunder boomed inside the ball as the noise was spreading to the surroundings through some mysterious method.

Du Xiangyang wasn’t the only one who was suffering. Even Chu Li and Luo Chen were forced to gather spirit energy inside their chest.

Their hearts were affected by the thunderous noise too. They felt as if the sound of thunder was hitting them in the chest again and again.

“Thump!”

A dull explosion resounded once more as the thunder lightning ball in Qin Lie’s palms abruptly turned bright.

Du Xiangyang let out a light snort as blue electricity surfaced from inside his own body. They started wrapping around him like binding ropes.

“Bastard!”

He swore once before swinging his sword. The slashes turned into flames that burned the electricity into nothingness.

He took another few step backwards until he was standing on a reef dozens of meters away from Qin Lie. It was only then he finally yelled, “Alright, I concede!”

Qin Lie smiled as the lightning started to slowly dissipate and go back into his palm. After a short while, the last thread of lightning was retracted back into his body.

“The Forefather Terminator actually taught you the Profound Thunder Heart? Are you actually his illegitimate son or something?” Du Xiangyang complained.

“Dammit, Du Xiangyang, you just can’t control your mouth, can you? You can shame Qin Lie all you want, but don’t you involve my master, you hear?” Chu Li scolded while laughing. “Do you know why my master is called Forefather Terminator? That’s because he never had a love relationship with anyone his entire life. Obviously he wouldn’t have an illegitimate son. His entire life has been cultivation and cultivation only. He doesn’t even care about the internal matters of Terminator Sect and left them all to Senior Uncle Lei Yan and Elder Shen to manage. He is obsessed with the martial way, and there are no emotional bonds that can stop him from pursuing greater heights.”

“But the Profound Thunder Heart is your master’s unique spirit technique,” Luo Chen exclaimed in astonishment.

“How would I know how that came to be?” Chu Li’s mouth twitched as he pondered for a moment. Then, he looked at Qin Lie and asked, “Have you really become my junior brother, Qin Lie?”

“That has to be the case, right?” Du Xiangyang let out an odd cry. “He even taught him the Profound Thunder Heart. If this doesn’t qualify him as a disciple then what is? If I remember correctly, not even your seniors brothers were taught this spirit technique, were they?”

“That is true,” Chu Li also exclaimed.

The Profound Thunder Heart was a miraculous spirit art that Nan Zhengtian learned after spending countless years researching the power of thunder and lightning.

By condensing thunder and lightning into a ball and holding it in his palms, he could build a strange connection with his opponent’s heart, causing it to resonate with the thunder booms.

This was a technique that only Nan Zhengtian possessed.

For many years, he had used this mysterious spirit technique to defeat countless opponents equal to or even stronger than him.

Countless martial practitioners who cultivated the thunder spirit art dreamed of learning Profound Thunder Heart one day, and there were plenty of elite martial practitioners who tried to discover this technique’s secrets and execute it themselves.

Unfortunately, no one else but Nan Zhengtian had successfully executed the “Profound Thunder Heart.”

Even his direct disciples never had the experience of using the Profound Thunder Heart against an enemy. This made a lot of people think that the Profound Thunder Heart was a spirit technique that Nan Zhengtian taught no one but his true successor.

“Old Monster Nan couldn’t possibly have chosen you as the future successor of Terminator Sect, could he?” Du Xiangyang exclaimed.

But he suddenly shut up the moment the words tumbled out of his mouth. A trace of panic passed through his eyes.

Luo Chen cast an odd glance at Chu Li after a brief moment of astonishment.

Chu Li’s expression suddenly turned a little unnatural.

He was Forefather Terminator’s direct disciple, so there were many people who thought that he would succeed Forefather Terminator to become the sect master of Terminator Sect in the future.

Chu Li thought so too.

Even though he didn’t cultivate a thunder spirit art.

In fact, Forefather Terminator himself had declared to the outside world again and again that the successor of Terminator Sect didn’t necessarily need to cultivate the thunder spirit art. He also said that the thunder spirit art wasn’t the core spirit art of Terminator Sect.

Moreover, the sect masters prior to Forefather Terminator all cultivated the spirit art Chu Li was cultivating right now—the Starry Arts.

Chu Li knew that there were plenty of seniors inside the sect who thought well of his chances. For example, there were Xu Ran and Tong Zhenzhen, Lei Yan, and Shen Kui.

He always thought that he was the most likely person to succeed Terminator Sect.

But today, he witnessed with his own eyes Qin Lie executing the “Profound Thunder Heart.” No matter how close he was to Qin Lie, he couldn’t help but feel discomfited by it.

After all, the current sect master of Terminator Sect was Nan Zhengtian. His influence was bigger than combined influence of Xu Ran, Tong Zhenzhen, Lei Yan, and Shen Kui put together. Forefather Terminator’s place in his disciples’ hearts’ was irreplaceable, and they all considered him a living deity.

If Forefather Terminator truly wanted to raise Qin Lie as his successor, Chu Li knew that his chances would be slim at best.

And so he suddenly fell silent.

Du Xiangyang and Luo Chen realized the implication and conflict boiling inside Chu Li’s heart. They too fell into the same silence.

Qin Lie was surprised when he noted their sudden silence. A moment of thought later, he also came to the same realization.

He couldn’t help but feel a headache.

“If my master truly wishes to raise you as the future sect master of Terminator Sect, then it only proves that my strength was insufficient to begin with,” Chu Li forced a smile and pretended that he was fine with the whole thing. “Worse comes to worst, I’ll take follow Senior Uncle Xu’s example and journey all across the world with a woman I love. I can come back every couple hundred years and see how far you’ve developed Terminator Sect.”

Everyone present could see that Chu Li was forcing the smile on his face.