At the heart of an enormous volcano.

Li Ye and Pei Qiqi’s master, Zhen Huilan, was switching between exquisite incantations to refine the flame power she had summoned from the earth’s core, and using it to refine the huge axe repeatedly.

Qin Yi stood in a corner and looked closely at the golden axe without blinking.

WHOOSH!

A slender wisp of golden aura flew out of Zhen Huilan’s cuff and slowly approached the huge axe.

Like a slithering snake, the wisp of aura was the soul she was going to vest the golden axe with.

Once it successfully merged with the axe, the axe would possess its own spirit and awareness, and thus enter the ranks of Spirit Channeling grade spiritual tools.

However, just as the wisp of golden aura was about to make contact with the golden axe, Zhen Huilan made a slight mistake with her hand seals.

PHOOH! PHOOH!

The wisp of golden aura was burned away by fierce flames due to the incompletion of one of the spell formations within the golden axe.

The detailed and beautiful patterns on the surface of the golden axe instantly went from bright and clear to blurry and dim.

“I failed,” Zhen Huilan said with a bitter expression. As she reached out her hand and grabbed in the air, the large golden axe flew into her hand.

She stepped back into the cave holding it, shook her head, and said to Qin Yi with an apologetic tone, “I can’t believe I would make a mistake after months of effort, and ruin everything. Sorry for wasting so many of your precious spiritual materials.”

Qin Yi grabbed the golden axe that Zhen Huilan was handing to him, and said with a frustrated expression, “It’s not your fault. I’m out of luck.”

With a frown, Zhen Huilan said, “I don’t know why, but I constantly felt ill-at-ease during the past few days, which distracted me a lot when I was casting fire incantations. I’ve been forging spiritual tools for so many years, and my cultivation base is by no means inadequate. It shouldn’t have been like this. I wonder what happened that made me so uneasy.”

After a moment of silence, Qin Yi said, “Actually, your feelings are well-founded... Something big has indeed happened in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation.”

Days ago, when Hua Mu had come over, he had intentionally concealed his aura. Adding in that she had been devoted to the equipment forging process, she hadn’t noticed a thing about his arrival.

Later, in order for her to focus on forging that spiritual tool, Qin Yi hadn’t told her about the reappearance of Zhao Shanling and the Death Reign.

He had assumed that she would have been able to forge that huge golden axe successfully, since she hadn’t known about any of the things going on in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation. Who would have thought she would fail anyway?

“What happened?!” Zhen Huilan exclaimed.

She was very confident about her equipment forging attainments. Her instincts told her that something had been causing her uneasiness and difficulty in concentrating.

“Your second senior martial brother is back... with his Death Reign,” Qin Yi explained.

“The Death Reign is back in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation?!” Zhen Huilan gasped with astonishment.

She finally found the reason why she had been feeling uneasy lately. “And Zhao Shanling is back too?! It was because that damn Death Reign of his that master died. I can’t believe he’s still alive!”

“The Death Reign is moving towards the Tool Sect,” Qin Yi added.

“Oh, no!" Without saying another word, Zhen Huilan flew out of the cave and shot towards the Tool Sect.

Qin Yi sped off after her.

The pale-gray smoke continued to float towards the Tool Sect at a fast speed.

Wherever it passed, no life was spared. Every Qi warrior who was engulfed by it died within a very short time. Not a single one survived.

At this moment, three Profound realm experts from the Tool Sect were following it from a safe distance.

They had long since informed their sectmaster, Qi Bailu, about the Death Reign.

However, many foreign equipment forgers were still forging spiritual tools in the cluster of volcanoes not far ahead on the Death Reign’s path, hoping to achieve good results at the assessment assembly.

At the mouth of a mountain valley on the Death Reign’s path.

The sectmaster of the Tool Sect, Qi Bailu and a few powerful experts were waiting with grave expressions.

“The Death Reign, Zhao Shanling, and Xia Yi from the Flame God Sect...” Qi Bailu thought to himself as he gazed off into the distance. Upon seeing the gradually approaching Death Reign, his expression grew especially grim.

He had learned that it was Xia Yi and his men from the Flame God Sect that had been gathering earthflame essence in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation.

Zhao Shanling and his Death Reign had showed up at the exact same time when Xia Yi had led his men to the Realm of Unbounded Desolation to gather earthflame essence.

Qi Bailu was convinced that Zhao Shanling had reached some kind of agreement with Xia Yi.

“Establish wards!” Qi Bailu called out. “We’ve got to stop the Death Reign from going through this mountain valley! Behind this very valley are equipment forgers who have come from other realms to attend our assessment assembly. If we fail to stop the Death Reign, inform the supervising disciples to stop them immediately and evacuate them to Desolate City as quickly as possible!”

Each and every powerful Tool Sect expert beside him looked as if they were facing formidable foes.

“I can’t believe this traitor has actually come back alive!”

“Now that he dares to return to the Realm of Unbounded Desolation, we’ll make sure this is a one-way trip for him. Kill him to avenge our former sectmaster!”

“Zhao Shanling plunged the people in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation into an abyss of misery. It’s hard to believe he would come back again.”

Many powerful experts from the Tool Sect vented their indignation as one spiritual tool after another rose into the air, forming light screens of various colors at the mouth of the mountain valley in an attempt to stop the Death Reign from going any further.

However, they all cowered behind the wards they formed, clearly scared of the Death Reign.

…

In the area filled with extinct volcanoes.

Nie Tian glanced around at a large number of huge craters and asked, “What’s up with these craters?”

Dong Li glanced around and said, “The Bonebrutes’ bone palaces used to sit in these craters. The Bonebrutes built their bone palaces with the bones of spirit beasts and other creatures. Since the bones they used to build those bone palaces still contained power when they were discovered, people tore them down and took the bones away for equipment forging.

“I told you before we came that this whole area has been repeatedly explored and searched by Qi warriors from all over the Domain of the Falling Stars. They didn’t even leave a single bone behind.

“You can drop your fantasy of finding anything here. We might as well find a place and sit out this turbulent period in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation.”

With these words, she went straight forward to find a comfortable place to practice cultivation.

Nie Tian, however, stood in place, his eyes narrowed.

As soon as he had arrived in this area, the green aura in his heart had started to grow increasingly restless. The bright green spots in some of the crystal-like chains started to flicker increasingly frequently.

Before, the green spots would only flicker after the green aura had absorbed flesh power from spirit beast meat, and quiet down soon afterwards.

However, since he had come to this place, the green spots in those few crystal-like chains hadn’t stopped flickering.

Therefore, he was convinced that the thing causing the abnormal changes to those green spots must exist somewhere in this area.

With this thought in mind, he walked around while sensing the green flickering spots in those crystal-like chains, hoping to find what was interacting with his bloodline.

Other than the numerous extinct volcanoes in this area, enormous craters were the only things people could see.

Each of them had been used to support a magnificent bone palace, but now everything had been torn down and taken away, and not a single piece of bone was left.

Nie Tian roamed about without a destination as he repeatedly sensed with his bloodline, yet found nothing.

At first, Dong Li assumed that he was only looking around because he was curious about these Bonebrute relics, and thus ignored him.

However, after noticing that he had been wandering around for a long time, Dong Li realized that he must be trying to find something.

Then, she came up to him and said with a discouraging tone, “Don’t tell me that you’re trying to find something valuable left by the Bonebrutes. Don’t you think people would have already discovered them and taken them away after thousands of years of exploration? I suggest you stop wasting your time, Nie Tian. You’ll never find anything.”

Nie Tian ignored her as he continued to probe around with the green spots within those few crystal-like chains, with his eyes narrowed.

His nine Heaven Eyes were also spread out and scanning the vicinity for any anomalies.

However, to his surprise, the green spot gradually stopped flickering as he did.

Deeply puzzled, he took out and consumed some more spirit beast meat. As the meat was converted into pure flesh power and absorbed by the green aura in his heart, he started his search again.

After his previous attempts, he had already discovered that, every time the green aura consumed copious flesh power, the green spots within it would grow very active.

It was no exception this time.

After absorbing every last wisp of flesh power from the spirit beast meat, the green aura still seemed unsatisfied and full of desire.

At that moment, the green spots started flickering again, as if they had a direction again.

He immediately sent a wisp of thought into those green spots, and started sensing wholeheartedly.

A while later, his eyes snapped open, and he found himself facing another remote area.

For the second time, the green spots had led him to a location, but it was clearly not the same as the first time.

This meant that whatever was causing his bloodline to stir was not stationary, but rather constantly on the move!

Nie Tian was shocked by his new finding.