Spirit Realm

The force of three Terminator Profound Bombs exploding at once threw Zheng Yun backward. Blood streamed from his mouth, making the scene eerie and bloody.

But he did not die immediately.

Qin Lie charged through the smoke of the explosion amongst shards of wood and metal, his body surrounded by a dense net of lightning.

“Boom!”

A ferocious, muted sound resounded from Qin Lie. Xing Yao, still restrained by chains of lightning behind him, felt as though a raging volcano were hidden inside of his body. He radiated a furious, mind-numbing presence.

Lightning balls that resembled tiny suns emerged from Qin Lie’s body. They shot toward Zheng Yun even faster than Qin Lie could move, surging with power.

At this moment, Zheng Yun’s body was still flying backward and had yet to hit the deck of the ship.

Qin Lie clearly sought to kill him!

“You dare!?” the three Fulfillment Realm elders of Black Cloud Palace shouted. They summoned all of their power to try and extinguish Qin Lie’s fury, disregarding Qin Lie’s identity and Forefather Terminator who loomed behind him.

Xiahou Chang’s eyes widened, a strange look appearing in them.

“Why does he hate him so?”

He originally thought that they were fighting over Xing Yao, a plaything.

“Woosh!”

A pitch black flag rushed out from behind Zheng Yun and into the air.

Vicious beasts had been sown into this enormous flag, all of which struggled wildly. Long dark green tentacles stretched from the flag’s cloth and lashed at the air, making snapping sounds.

The tentacles lashed at the six fist-sized balls of lightning as they shot toward Zheng Yun. When they hit them, they exploded in a spray of sparks.

Yet the lightning balls still continued onward, swiftly soaking into Zheng Yun’s arms, ears, eyes, and nose.

“Zzzt zzzt zzzt!”

The instant they made contact with him, lightning arced from Zheng Yun’s body. His hair and flesh quickly charred and became pitch black. His energetic eyes became devoid of light.

“Boom!”

The Astral Thunder Hammer descended upon Zheng Yun and smashed into his chest, forcing it to cave in with a bone-shattering crunch.

The last bit of light in Zheng Yun’s eyes went out. He no longer showed any signs of life.

Amidst the lightning, Qin Lie continued to charge toward Zheng Yun’s lifeless body. Then, all of a sudden, he changed directions and arrived next to Xing Shengnan.

This chain of events stunned Xing Shengnan. She looked at Qin Lie with her beady eyes, puzzlement flashing through them, unable to speak.

Xiahou Chang suddenly spoke up, his expression darkening.

“Whose side are you really on, little brother?” he asked.

Zheng Yun had been killed. The three peak Fulfillment Realm elders of Black Cloud Palace wanted to kill Qin Lie, but now that he stood next to Xing Shengnan, they didn’t dare to make any rash moves.

Xing Shengnan was in the Fragmentation Realm. Although she was wounded, they wouldn’t be able to survive clashing with her if she decided to sacrifice herself.

They didn’t dare to take the risk.

So they waited for Xiahou Chang to move first.

Another person that had been stunned by this shocking development was Xing Yao. She realized that, when Qin Lie had attacked Zheng Yun, the chains of lightning restraining her had wondrously loosened.

She had regained her freedom.

Now she just stood there gazing at Qin Lie, a confused, complex look on her face.

She realized that she just couldn’t understand Qin Lie. She had no idea what this person, who had showed up out of nowhere and posed as a member of the Xing Family, was thinking.

Only Guo Yanzheng and Qi Jing had a slight understanding of what was going on because they thought that Qin Lie was a member of Blood Fiend Sect.

But they couldn’t actually tell what Qin Lie was thinking either.

“Little… little brother.” Xing Shengnan hesitantly asked, “Whose side are you actually on?”

“Well, since you’re calling me little brother…” An unfathomably open and happy smile spread across Qin Lie’s face. “I’m obviously on your side.”

Xing Shengnan’s eyes lit up at his response, her bulky body trembling slightly.

In the next moment, however, she grew somber again. Despair and anguish showed in her face as she shook her head and said, “I feel your good intentions, but… the Xing Family won’t be able to overcome this obstacle. We won’t be able to escape this calamity.”

She sighed deeply, already hopeless.

Black Cloud Palace, Heavenly Sea Pavilion, the Xiahou Family, and Xiang Xi’s treacherous band. These four factions had allied with each other to destroy the Xing Family.

How could they possibly fight back?

In the face of today’s situation, she believed that all of the Xing Family would probably die here.

She took comfort in the fact that Qin Lie still chose to make his position known, but she knew that it wouldn’t change anything. It couldn’t possibly change the fate of the Xing Family. It would just result in one more meaningless death.

—That was a result she didn’t wish to see.

The expression on Xiahou Chang’s face darkened even further.

“I’ve never heard of Forefather Terminator having any ties to Gold Sun Island…”

The moment they heard Xiahou Chang mention Forefather Terminator, terror filled the eyes of the three Black Cloud Palace elders, and any thoughts they had of attacking Qin Lie fled their minds.

“Forefather Terminator?”

Xing Shengnan, Xing Yao, Guo Yanzheng, Qi Jing, and everyone else on the Xing Family’s side felt confused. After a bit of thinking, however, they suddenly grew excited.

The chains of lightning that Qin Lie used to restrain Xing Yao! The Terminator Profound Bombs he used to attack Zheng Yun! The balls of blazing lightning he summoned!

They were all things unique to Terminator Sect!

Was it because...

When everyone glanced at Qin Lie once more, he was bathed in a very different light!

Qin Lie just shrugged in response, clearly relaxed. He then turned to Xing Shengnan and said, “Sit down first, big sister. Rest and recover.”

The grim look in Xiahou Chang’s eyes deepened, the corners of his mouth slowly curving into a vicious, ruthless smile.

“Obviously, I wouldn’t dare attack a direct disciple of Forefather Terminator…” he said, menace on his tongue. “But I can kill everyone except you! All the members of the Xing Family! Any martial practitioners from Gold Sun Island! Anyone on this ship, all dead!”

Then he paused and glanced at the three Black Cloud Palace elders behind him.

“This person killed the young master of your palace,” Xiahou Chang said. “Are you going to ignore that?”

Conflict and indecision played out on the faces of the three Fulfillment Realm experts, reflecting their turbulent thoughts.

“No one can help you, Xing Shengnan. No one will rescue you.” Xiahou Chang took a deep breath, calming down once more. He walked toward her, blood dripping from his sword. “Accept your fate.”

As he looked at her with murder in his eyes, the depth of coldness in that frigid stare penetrated into her soul and washed over her.

Every single hair on Xing Shengnan’s body stood on end. She didn’t dare to hold anything back, using every last bit of her concentration to gather her remaining spirit power and face Xiahou Chang.

“Drip! Drip!”

Her nervousness made the wounds on her arms open up again. Blood spilled from them in a small stream and drip onto the deck of the ship to form a small puddle.

Xing Shengnan’s face slowly turned pale, indicating that she had lost too much blood and that her endurance was gradually decreasing.

It was clear for all to see that Xing Shengnan did not possess the power for this fight. Forcing herself to attack was a definite path to death.

“Rest, big sister,” Qin Lie said in a deep voice.

“No! Even at the cost of my life, I will leave a mark on his body!” Xing Shengnan shook her head as she proclaimed this, and finished with a sad smile. Her fate was determined, and she had decided to face death.

“Auntie!” Xing Yao cried out in pain from the other side of the ship.

She could tell that Xing Shengnan intended to die here. She knew that, in the next moment, Xing Shengnan would use a self-destructive secret art. In order to deal a great blow to Xiahou Chang, she would give up her life.

Qin Lie suddenly grinned and said, “Protect me, big sister.”

In that instant, the world went still.

In the next, an abnormally tall body that looked extremely strange appeared out of thin air to stand in front of Qin Lie.

Blood energy erupted from it like a vast ocean, flooding over everyone present and making the energy inside of them tremble. They felt as though their blood would go out of control and gush from their bodies.

Everybody on the ship, including Guo Yanzheng, Qi Jing, Xing Shengnan, and their enemies from Black Cloud Palace, was forced to gather their spirit energy to calm their minds and suppress the restless blood within them.

Even Xiahou Chang was not exempt.

All eyes were frozen upon the body of the Blood Progenitor. It hovered in the air with its eyes closed, standing tall as blood energy streamed from it. A potent blood aura radiated from it, flaring up and filling the sky.

In that instant, Qin Lie sat down beside Xing Shengnan. He willed his True Soul to become a stream that flowed into the Blood Progenitor’s body.

The Blood Progenitor’s tightly shut eyes trembled slightly, and then they suddenly flew open.

A sanguine pair of eyes were revealed to everyone present.

“Aoooooo!”

A sea of blood suddenly materialized out of thin air and a bloody bone dragon emerged from it, roaring furiously and shocking everybody.

Its target was Xiahou Chang!

“Th-that’s the ultimate treasure of Blood Fiend Sect… the Bloodthirsty Dragon!” Guo Yanzheng shouted in awe.

Qi Jing dropped to the deck, panting profusely as if he had seen a ghost in broad daylight.

Xing Yao felt as though she were in a dream. She had a dazed look in her eyes, seemingly examining something illusory and unable to distinguish reality from fantasy.

“The Bloodthirsty Dragon… that’s the Bloodthirsty Dragon!” Xing Shengnan screamed in shock. She couldn’t believe her eyes and definitely didn’t dare to believe what was happening.

Xiahou Chang was just as shocked and terrified as the others. He inadvertently yelped and retreated.

“Splash!”

Xiahou Chang immediately turned and dove into the ocean. He didn’t dare to face the Bloodthirsty Dragon’s fury or oppose the vast sea of blood that accompanied it.

He was a member of the Xiahou Family, which had been a vassal force of Blood Fiend Sect a thousand years ago. He knew just how terrifying the Bloodthirsty Dragon, the ultimate treasure of Blood Fiend Sect, could be. As soon as he saw this vicious weapon, he immediately concluded that it couldn’t be defeated and chose to fall back.

Qin Lie, inside of the body of the Blood Progenitor, turned his head to Xing Shengnan.

“Please watch over my actual body, big sister,” he said gravely.

A strange feeling welled up inside of Xing Shengnan. She had trouble discerning what was real and what wasn’t, but still, she nodded.

This strange man before her radiated blood energy that was so strong, it completely surpassed what she was capable of imagining.

Yet this man referred to her as big sister...

She felt like she was in a dream.

“The Bloodthirsty Dragon!”

“What a terrifying, fiendish blood aura!”

“Below us!? What’s happening down there?”

The Fragmentation Realm martial practitioners that had been battling in the sky detected the earth-shaking fiendish blood energy at the same time.

Their gazes traveled over to the Wavebreaker where they saw the Bloodthirsty Dragon bellowing furiously and Qin Lie who had taken over the body of the Blood Progenitor.