Chapter 370: Counterattack from Dire Straits!
Chapter 370: Counterattack from Dire Straits!
While Qin Lie was diligently studying the mysteries of the spirit pattern pillars within the belly of Herb Mountain, wanting to thoroughly understand the secret of inscribing spirit pattern pillars in mid air, he didn’t know that every influential organization in the Scarlet Tide Continent, and every martial practitioner was terribly busy.
Everyone was searching for the whereabouts of Qin Lie and the Horned Demon Race.
Inside the poisonous bog, around Purple Mist Sea, beside Armament City, near Ling Town, within Nebula Pavilion, and even the Arctic Mountain Range, every martial practitioner was busy.
Starting at Flame Volcano, the experts of Profound Heaven Alliance, Joyful Union Sect, and Eight Extreme Temple, carried out a sweeping search, digging up three feet of land just to ferret out the Horned Demon Race.
Luckily, Qin Lie was hiding inside of Herb Mountain’s cave all this time. If he had dared to loiter around Ling Town recently, there would have been a considerably high possibility of him being discovered by the martial practitioners from the three great forces.
Within the poisonous bog inside the new Armament Sect, the holy master of Eight Extreme Temple announced, “Qin Lie has a spatial spirit artifact in his possession. With the help of the spatial spirit artifact, he must’ve transported the Horned Demon clansmen away.”
“Earlier, if we had known Qin Lie was the key, we wouldn’t have let him live and return to Flame Volcano!” Nie Yun wore a gloomy expression.
“As long as we can find Qin Lie, we should be able to find the Horned Demon Race and end this battle!” Mo He said.
“Find Qin Lie!”
“Keep an eye on everyone that has close relations with him!”
“Go where he was active at in the past and examine it layer by layer!”
Everyone shared the same opinion.
Ling Town.
The Flowing Cloud Rainbow Butterfly descended, landing at the town entrance that was devoid of people. Two women of differing temperaments disembarked from the body of the Rainbow Butterfly.
“Coming to Ling Town at this time is not appropriate at all. The martial practitioners from Eight Extreme Temple and Joyful Union Sect have recently been wandering the area.” Song Tingyu wore a bright colored dress. With a relaxed posture, she walked on the floor made from stone slabs and furrowed her brow.
Immediately after getting ten Spatial Spirit Stones from overseas, she followed Qin Lie’s messages and rushed to Ling Town in an exhausting journey.
Knowing that she had purchased Spatial Spirit Stones from overseas, Xie Jingxuan requested to go with her as well. She said that, together, they could pull the wool over everyone’s eyes.
Song Tingyu didn’t refuse and brought her to Ling Town.
“Qin Lie said if you’ve obtained Spatial Spirit Stones, go to the location of the strange diagram that the two of you found in Ling Town’s Herb Mountain.” Xie Jingxuan wore plain white martial practitioner garb on her body. With a lucid expression, both of her eyes looked cold and detached, lacking any trace of human warmth.
“The place that the strange diagram was discovered…”
Song Tingyu beautiful pupils started to ripple, her mind shifted, and she immediately reacted.
“There’s someone nearby!” Xie Jingxuan suddenly exclaimed softly.
Song Tingyu sensed it as well. She couldn’t help but look to the southern side of Ling Town in the distance.
Both of them stopped talking, silently waiting to see who had come.
After a while, the figures of Liu Yuntao, the pavilion master of Nebula Pavilion, Ye Yangqiu of Discipline Hall, and Yan Wenyan, the Manor Lord of Shattered Ice Manor,, emerged one after another.
Apart from them, there were some martial practitioners from Purple Mist Sea and Cloud Sky Mountain. It was as though these people were scattered throughout the surroundings of Ling Town. They gathered here after seeing the Flowing Cloud Rainbow Butterfly flying through the sky.
“Are you Miss Song?” Liu Yuntao brought his subordinates. All this time, they had been carefully patrolling the surroundings of Ling Town , according to orders that Dark Asura Hall had recently transmitted.
Dark Asura Hall ordered that, when suspicious people were discovered, or once Qin Lie and any evil races were found, it needed to be reported immediately.
They had kept watch for five to six days and hadn’t seen a single person. Upon seeing Flowing Cloud Rainbow Butterfly appear, they all gathered here out of curiosity.
Based on Liu Yuntao’s status, he was already qualified to know what the Flowing Cloud Rainbow Butterfly signified. Therefore, after coming over, he was extremely respectful.
Ye Yangqiu, Yan Wenyan, and the other martial practitioners from the poisonous bog and Cloud Sky Mountain more or less knew about of Song Tingyu’s status and also appeared to be considerably careful.
“That’s me,” Song Tingyu said with a smile after waiting for everyone to come over. “You’ve all worked hard.”
“No, no.” Everyone cupped their hands and hurried to bow.
“We came to Ling Town to look and see if it was possible to discover anything.” Song Tingyu smiled gently in a restrained manner, wanting to find a suitable excuse to make these people go away.
“Let us handle things over here for the time being. All of you are dismissed!” Xie Jingxuan was even more straightforward. With an ice cold expression, she straightforwardly made everyone get out of the way.
Liu Yuntao and Yan Wenyan were well aware of Xie Jingxuan’s status. After letting her say that, their expressions became awkward. They had originally wanted to suck up to Song Tingyu and Xie Jingxuan, but just gave up in the end. Each and every one of them departed in succession.
“These people have been in the area recently, which is why I wanted to come along. I hope to be of some help.” Xie Jingxuan’s expression looked apathetic. “You go and find the location he spoke of. I will help you watch the people who have gathered and prevent them from coming too closely.”
“Thanks a lot.” Song Tingyu was blunt as well.
Song Tingyu didn’t descend to Herb Mountain with the Flowing Cloud Rainbow Butterfly because she was afraid of exposing the exact location. Seeing that Xie Jingxuan was covering for her, she figured that she might as well head toward Herb Mountain alone.
Herb Mountain and Ling Town definitely weren’t separated by a great distance. With her current profound realm, and indomitable strength, it only took her an hour of rushing to arrive at Herb Mountain.
Releasing her mind consciousness, Song Tingyu carefully searched the surroundings. After finding that there were no soul fluctuations around, she went behind the mountain, toward the location that she and Qin Lie had discovered White Bone Nether Spiritual Altar.
She quickly arrived at the White Bone Nether Spiritual Altar.
“Cough cough!” Song Tingyu coughed softly.
Within the belly of Herb Mountain, Qin Lie did not continue to cultivate. Instead, he remained in the state of Thoughtless Tranquility.
Under the effects of Thoughtless Tranquility, his heartbeat, blood, and even his soul flucations were all extremely weak.
This way, he could avoid the soul detection of powerful existences.
Seven days ago, when he realized that there were strong individuals roaming about Ling Town, he became aware that the experts of Profound Heaven Alliance, Joyful Union Sect, and Eight Extreme Temple might come to Ling Town to frequently search for traces of him and the Horned Demon Race.
In light of this, Qin Lie stopped his cultivation and maintained the state of Thoughtless Tranquility all this time Within these few days, he knew that at least six strong individuals that were in the Netherpassage Realm had come to Ling Town and swept the area.
Unless he constantly stayed in the state of Thoughtless Tranquility, he knew that he would definitely be found.
“Cough cough!” Song Tingyu’s soft coughing echoed sporadically.
Qin Lie gradually emerged from the state of Thoughtless Tranquility.
He could tell that the sound had originated from Song Tingyu.
Once his eyes brightened, Qin Lie immediately went in the direction of the cave entrance. Not long after, he arrived at the entrance. After a moment of thought, he made a small gap in the entrance by moving the boulder that blocked it. He softly exclaimed through the crack, “I’m here.”
Song Tingyu’s charming face became filled with joy. Her enchanting body moved to the stone wall like a butterfly, gracefully landing beside the small gap that had opened up.
Song Tingyu moved to the small gap at the opening of the cave and looked at Qin Lie who had revealed half of his face, immediately explaining, “Qin Lie, I didn’t know anything about my father’s decision. I’ve never thought of lying to you.”
“If I didn’t believe you, I wouldn’t have let Xie Jingxuan communicate with you or let you help me look for Spatial Spirit Stones,” Qin Lie said with a heavy voice.
Song Tingyu’s beautiful pupils flickered with splendor. This entire time, she felt she had let Qin Lie down and kept thinking that she was the one who led Qin Lie into a crisis. She initially thought that her trip to Qin Lie had caused his death.
She had even thought of leaving Profound Heaven Alliance and running away from the Scarlet Tide Continent. She wanted to escape to a far away place to avoid everything.
At least she had... until Xie Jingxuan found her and told her that Qin Lie was asking her for help. She then knew that the situation at Flame Volcano had undergone a tremendous change. She then knew that Qin Lie had returned from dire straits, surprisingly alive and well.
At this moment, hearing Qin Lie say with his own mouth that he still believed in her, Song Tingyu’s agitated heart had finally calmed down.
“Here! The Spatial Spirit Stone that you wanted!” Song Tingyu’s face blossomed with astonishing brilliance. From within the spatial ring, she handed several transparent spirit stones that were around the size of a fist and released dizzying rays of white light over to Qin Lie, one after another.
Once the Spatial Spirit Stones had been taken out, the space between the two of them started to oscillate with strange ripples. Small cyclones mischievously agitated the space and made tangible traces appear out of invisible space.
Threads of electric light that emanated the power of space swiftly shot from the interior of spirit stone. To Qin Lie, this felt similar to the evil nether passageway.
“Thank you.” Qin Lie tossed the ten Spatial Spirit Stones into his own spatial ring. Upon receiving them, he finally looked Song Tingyu in the eye, thanking her seriously.
“You don’t need to thank me. I was the one who almost caused your death.” A fine rainbow flashed over Song Tingyu’s beautiful pupils. She looked at Qin Lie deeply, and said softly, “What do you need the Spatial Spirit Stones for? Are you… preparing to leave the Scarlet Tide Continent?”
“Maybe.” Qin Lie frowned.
Song Tingyu’s gentle, lily-white hands reached out and grabbed his arm all of a sudden, her beautiful pupils glistening. “Qin Lie, I’m very happy to have known you.”
Qin Lie went blank. He looked at Song Tingyu for a while, startled. Then he smiled and laughed. “Why? It can’t be that Miss Song has fallen for me and can’t bear to see me leave, can it?”
“I have not fallen for you. I just feel an indescribable sadness knowing that a good friend is about to leave.” Song Tingyu sighed softly.
“Tingyu, you don’t need to feel sad. He won’t be going away.” After a voice rang out, a plump silhouette gradually solidified and Song Zhi soon showed himself. He faced Song Tingyu’s charming face that had abruptly changed and said, “When you left Profound Heaven Alliance with Jingxuan and went in the direction of Ling Town, I had already been watching you. Hehe. I’ve sent people to closely watch everyone that is acquainted with or related to Qin Lie because I knew that there would definitely be a new development.”
“You!” Song Tingyu’s face went pale.
“I didn’t think that the receiving end of your spatial spirit artifact would be the belly of Herb Mountain. Heh, I have carefully asked around to learn everything about you, Qin Lie. I know that you lived inside this cave for many years, is that right?” Song Zhi walked over, chuckling.
“Boom boom!”
Qin Lie pushed the boulder that was blocking the stone entrance. His entire person emerged from the cave.
His expression looked unusually calm He wasn’t struck with panic like the first time he had been plotted against by Profound Heaven Alliance.
After getting a hold of the Spatial Spirit Stones, he furrowed his brow while looking at Song Zhi, listening to his chatter and praise. He said, “It seems that you know me quite well, huh?”
“Hehe, I know a lot more.” Song Zhi’s entire face was smiling. He climbed halfway up the mountain and stood on top of a protruding stone, facing the wind with a chuckle. “The people from the Horned Demon Race... they should all be inside of the cave, right? The moment I saw your head emerge, I passed the discovery of this place. Soon enough, the experts from Profound Heaven Alliance, Eight Extreme Temple, and Joyful Union Sect will gather here.”
“Sigh, I wasn’t determined to do this. From the very beginning, I didn’t want to cause too large of a commotion because I didn’t want to put all the living beings in the Scarlet Tide Continent through such misery,” Qin Lie said gravely. “Well, since things have come this far and you came knocking on the door again when we wanted to leave, it seems that I no longer have a choice. I hope you guys are already prepared.”
Finished speaking, Qin Lie touched the Eye of Frost and teleported directly to the land of frost.
“Qin Lie! How was it?”
“Qin Lie, have you found a Spatial Spirit Stone?”
Ku Luo and Ku Lu hastily asked once they saw Qin Lie suddenly appear.
“I’ve found Spatial Spirit Stones. However, the spatial teleportation formation inside of Herb Mountain has also been discovered by Profound Heaven Alliance,” Qin Lie said calmly.
Once this had been said, the face of every Horned Demon clansmen and every Ling Family clansmen looked disheartened.
“Could it be that the heavens themselves want to exterminate us?” Ku Lu asked in despair.
“No. The heavens don’t want to exterminate the Horned Demon Race, but it definitely wants to exterminate Profound Heaven Alliance, Eight Extreme Temple, and Joyful Union Sect.” After saying those words, Qin Lie broke the ice wall with a single fist, walking out from the interior of the compound.
“Break!”
He held the Eye of Frost and shouted violently.
From the center of the field of ice, the gigantic ice walls exploded piece by piece
Every Horned Demon clansman that’s situated within suddenly all enlightened as they could see the glaciers a short distance away.
They could also see the giant beasts that were sealed inside the glaciers.
“Good lord! What is all this?”
“What are these?”
“What exactly is happening?”
“Where is this?”
Everyone loudly shouted in succession.
“Qin Lie!” A flash of lightning suddenly shot over and solidified into a python in front of him. Mang Wang shouted angrily, “What the hell are you doing? You broke open the ice walls, and now my race will be exposed! What did you promise me?!”
“There is no need to hide anymore,” Qin Lie said calmly, facing Mang Wang who was overflowing with rage. “All of you will be able to break the seal immediately.”
Once this was said, Mang Wang couldn’t have been more shocked.
“I only have one request—help me eliminate Profound Heaven Alliance, Eight Extreme Temple, and Joyful Union Sect. I want the three great forces to completely disappear from the Scarlet Tide Continent.
“I, Mang Wang, representing every member of the Giant Spirit Race, swear to help you accomplish this!”
