Spirit Realm

The scythe lightly spun, drawing elegant and beautiful crescents that brought up bloody pieces of spirit beast flesh.

The rain of blood fell down and splashed Ban Hong and the others so they were covered in blood. But at the front, Xie Jingxuan did not wait for the storm of blood to land and shot up ahead.

Her black and dense Blackscale Armor was still untouched by blood as the Profound Nether Beast under her body seemed to fly.

“Awoo!”

The high rank spirit beasts hiding in the surroundings seemed to be infuriated by her and howled loudly as they furiously charged.

At this time, all the spirit beasts that were guarding this place came out from every direction, regardless of their level.

“Sit tightly, don’t fall down!” Liang Zhong shouted, “Ban Hong, you guys be careful on the flanks, I’ll take the end!”

This Profound Nether Beast’s speed slowed and went from the front to the back. Xie Jingxuan, who was at the very front, disappeared from Qin Lie and Gao Yu’s field of view.

Long cold blades, sharp long spears, heavy silver hammers...

One after another of exquisite spirit artifacts were revealed in the hands of Ban Hong and the others. Each spirit artifact rippled with spirit energy, and glowed when they came into the open.

Following the activation of each spirit art, the spirit artifacts seemed to come alive and released a surge of energy vibrations.

Ban Hong held a snake spear that was engraved with a purple ringed pattern. The snake spear shook, and a purple spirit snake nimbly came out from the two finger thick spear tip.

The purple spirit snake was condensed from spirit energy and was lively and nimble. It could easily avoid the direction the spirit beasts were attacking from, and then burrow into the bodies of the spirit beasts from their mouths, eyes, and ears.

The mouth of a Rank Two Golden Crag Beast was wide open and a purple spirit snake charged in.

Three seconds later, that Golden Crag Beast suddenly wailed harshly, its healthy body quickly withering as its blood and flesh seemed to quickly dissolve. In a short while, it had almost shrunk in half.

“Zing zing zing!”

Ban Hong’s left hand rhythmically moved the snake spear as circles of dark purple spirit energy followed his arm into the snake spear.

At the tip of the snake spear, purple spirit snakes flew out one after another. Each purple spirit snake seemed to have simple intelligence, and could find openings on spirit beasts, burrowing through their noses and ears into the inside of the spirit beast and quickly cause a spirit beast to die as its organs rotted.

“Are those purple spirit snakes alive?” Gao Yu noticed Ban Hong and said suddenly after observing for a while.

“The purple spirit snakes are not alive, they only have the mind consciousness that Lord Ban Hong has put in them. There is a thread of Ban Hong’s mind intent inside each purple spirit snake. By relying on the connection between the mind consciousness and his soul, he can control the movements of every purple spirit snake. So each spirit snake twists in the air and appears to be alive.

Qin Lie’s eyes were narrowed as they flashed with an odd light. He focused on feeling it as he explained for Gao Yu.

He wasn’t the same as Gao Yu.

Gao Yu was outstandingly sensitive towards dead souls and vengeful spirits.

Because his soul was different than an ordinary person’s, his mental perception was much better than Gao Yu. Thus, he was stronger in detecting souls, consciousness and vital energies.

Gao Yu was sensitive towards dead beings, and he was sensitive towards living beings.

Because of this, he was able to feel the boundless vitality of the spirit beast horde coming near in battles with the spirit beast horde and judge which spirit beasts horde they could attack or had to avoid. This allowed him and Gao Yu to never encounter a beast horde that could threaten them.

This time, he was focusing on his perception. He could clearly feel Ban Hong’s mental consciousness inside every purple spirit snake.

The purple spirit snakes that flew out of Ban Hong’s snake spear were made from spirit energy and a special spirit technique. They all had a wisp of Ban Hong’s mind intent, and could communicate with his soul to become easily controlled. This caused every spirit snake to be extremely vicious and dangerous.

“So that’s how it is.” When Gao Yu finished hearing his explanation, he also understood. “This scared me to death. I had thought that every spirit snake had their own life, and thought he had caged these spirit snake souls in the spirit artifact to release them in battle.”

“Spirit energy animation is a technique of the legends. Forget about you two brats, even I have never seen it before.” Liang Zhong rolled his eyes. “A column of divine light is released, connecting the heaven and earth, and bestowed life and consciousness, transforming into a new species in a short amount time... Many have heard of such a miraculous technique, yet whether or not it really exists, still needs research and confirmation.”

Liang Zhong’s brow creased as he said, “As least, on our Scarlet Tide Continent, no martial practitioner knows this godly technique.”

“Spirit energy animation...”

Qin Lie and Gao Yu exchanged a look, their faces bright as they showed clear longing.

“Don’t even dream about it!” Liang Zhong snorted coldly and then looked strangely at Qin Lie. “Kid, you haven’t even reached the Natal Opening Realm, but you can actually understand the spirit art that Ban Hong, who is in Manifestation Realm, is using. You also were not confounded by the appearance and directly stated the true essence... Kid, you are not simple at all.”

“Am I not suppose to understand?” Qin Lie was shocked.

“You didn’t see through this, but felt it with your soul. This means that your soul... is much more sensitive than other people.” Liang Zhong also found it strange and muttered, “Such a weirdo, you’re just a kid in the Refinement Realm so you might not even know what the soul is, but your perception is so astounding. Strange, so strange...”

“Howl!”

An enraged cry came from the Dragonhorn Rhinoceros behind the Profound Nether Beast. Two Dragonhorn Rhinoceroses charged shoulder-to-shoulder with many Rank One spirit beasts behind them.

Responsible for the rear, Liang Zhong stopped his deep pondering. He turned his head and a strange dark azure color appeared in his eyes.

Liang Zhong opened his mouth and spat out an azure crescent from under his tongue.

The crescent was just the size of a fingernail but it quickly changed after flying out. In a short ten breaths, the azure crescent became the size of a plate. The edges of the crescent were sharp like blades as it spun quickly and flew into the spirit beast horde behind them.

After a string of hair-raising, bone-breaking cracks, howls came from the beast spirit horde behind them.

Qin Lie and Gao Yu looked back and both of their expressions changed.

The plate-sized azure crescent was nimbly spinning, the edges shooting out rays of sharp azure light. The azure lights were like spinning swords that mutilated the rampaging spirit beasts, causing them to become corpses without any life.

In these short ten seconds, the greater half of the spirit beast horde pursuing them had died.

“Return!”

Liang Zhong shouted lightly. His tongue moved as if he was going to swallow something.

The azure crescent that had rampaged for a round lightly danced as it returned. After shrinking, it was placed back under Liang Zhong’s tongue.

“It is called Azure Moon, a Profound Grade Five spirit artifact,” Liang Zhong introduced. “Spirit artifacts that are profound grade or higher can enlarge and shrink at will if there is an ‘illusory form’ spirit diagram inside. My Azure Moon wasn’t at its true form just now. Its final form is even larger than that.”

“Illusory Form spirit diagrams can enlarge and shrink spirit artifacts at will, interesting...” Qin Lie’s eyes were slightly bright.

“We’re going to enter soon, you two be careful.” Liang Zhong’s gaze gradually became serious. “It is fortunate that Xiong Ba, Tu Ze and the other kids drew away the main portion of the spirit beast horde away, otherwise, we will not have this so easily, and would have to spend more energy on going though. When we enter the valley later, you two listen to me and do not make any unnecessary moves.”

Qin Lie and Gao Yu nodded. At this time, the two of them also noticed there weren’t any spirit beasts gathering around them.

They had heard Liang Zhong mention before that spirit beasts had the notion of territory. Low level spirit beasts would not usually enter the territories of high ranking spirit beasts. That Soul Devouring Beast was not a spirit beast of the Arctic Mountain Range, but because it was Rank Three, and was extremely close to rank four, the spirit beasts in the surroundings only dared to gather nearby to absorb the world’s spirit energy, but didn’t dare to go close to its location.

This was a spirit beast’s instinct.

Right now, no other spirit beasts appeared nearby. This meant that they entered the area the Soul Devouring Beast was active.

“If you two kids are of great help and can help us kill this Soul Devouring Beast, not only would Nebula Pavilion give great rewards, we would also not be amiss.” They were going to enter the dangerous grounds now and Liang Zhong started to raise morale. “We can give each of you a set of Beastskin Armor like what Ban Hong has. With that armor, you would not be greatly wounded if you have to face Natal Opening Realm martial practitioners.”

“And what else?” Qin Li was interested.

“If the Soul Devouring Beast is killed, there would be... good stuff smelted from its body. Those things would be very beneficial for the two of you.” Liang Zhong looked at Gao Yu. “Especially you, they should be very beneficial to the spirit art that you cultivate. If we can truly process the Soul Devouring Beast to death by fire, you will return with full pockets.”

After his words, Qin Lie and Gao Yu were excited and started to feel anticipation.

“Awoo!”

Suddenly, an earth-shaking beastial howl came from the depths of the stone forest.

When this howl came out, the stone forest seemed to quake. The stone peaks shook violently as though they were going to break and explode.

Qin Lie and Gao Yu felt their heads suddenly hurt as though an evil power had charged into their heads. They had to cover their ears with ashen faces to slightly deflect the aftershakes of the howl.

Liang Zhong’s expression changed. “It’s the Soul Devouring Beast!”

“Whoosh!”

The Profound Nether Beast under his body suddenly raced forward at full speed. Like a bolt of lightning, it passed through a narrow path and entered a strange mountain valley.

There were stone pillars erected around the mountain valley. The stone pillars on the outside were more than ten meters tall, and the deeper it goes, the shorter they become.

The shape of the entire mountain valley was like a bowl. The tallest stone pillars on the outside of the valley were the rim of the bowl, and the center of the valley was the bottom of the bowl.

At the place that was akin to the bottom of the bowl was a black stone cavern. The stone cavern seemed to be directly connected to the depths of the earth. At this moment, the mouth of the cavern was expelling a cold and dark aura. That earth-shaking howl had also come from the stone cavern.

“Such dense nature spirit energy!”

When the Profound Nether Beast stopped, Qin Lie exclaimed after inhaling in a breath. He then looked around.

In the bowl-like valley, there were pillars that increased in height as it went outwards. Qin Lie’s eyes moved and looked at one of the stone pillars, shouting, “The division of the pillars is not natural, it was done through manual movement by people who came after. There are many Spirit Gathering Boards embedded inside the stone pillars which have caused the spirit energy here to become dense.”

“You, kid, have pretty good eyes,” Liang Zhong said.

……