Chapter 421: The Tombstone That Flew Back On Its Own!

A spirit stone in Qin Lie’s hand turned grayish-white, its spirit energy completely exhausted.

“Crack!” The spirit stone shattered to pieces.

Qin Lie didn’t pay attention to it, instead continuing to absorb spirit power from other spirit stones and fill his dantian’s spirit sea with spirit energy.

Wisps of refined spirit energy were slowly extracted from his dantian’s spirit sea like rays of light or streaks of lightning before melting into his blood.

Other than enhancing his blood spirit energy through the blood pond, cultivating the Blood Spirit Art could also convert the spirit energy inside his dantian’s spirit sea and fuse it with his blood.

At this moment, Qin Lie channeled the Blood Spirit Art and absorbed the spirit energy within his dantian’s spirit sea into his blood to replenish the blood he used for Blood Escape.

The blood in every one of his blood vessels energetically flowed like rivers that extended in every directions.

An extremely thin mist of blood quietly seeped from his pores, making it look like Qin Lie was covered in bloody smoke. It was incredibly strange.

Then, all of a sudden, Qin Lie’s blood began to boil!

It was as if the activity in his blood had triggered something from extremely far away.

A thick blood energy a great distance away was unleashed. It felt as if it had reached right into Qin Lie’s mind.

“The blank tombstone!”

Qin Lie shook, opening his closed eyes. They shone with a strange light.

His blood seemed to have triggered a change in the blank tombstone, and even from a far distance, he was able to sense the aura of his own blood!

Qin Lie suddenly recalled that, when he took the tombstone, he had spat a mouthful of blood on its surface. Furthermore, the blood had immediately soaked into the tombstone’s seven divine lights and turned them into the color of blood.

In the Graveyard of Gods, Qin Lie was actually able to sense the blood aura within the tombstone from afar while channeling the Blood Spirit Art and absorbing spirit energy into his blood.

What was going on?

Qin Lie was surprised.

At the other end of the Graveyard of Gods.

There was a strange land covered in poisonous clouds that kept all martial practitioners inside of it from seeing more than a dozen or so meters of their immediate area.

Luo Chen was seated on a bush that was knee height. His face was grim, and his eyes stared directly at the tombstone in front of him.

He had attempted to touch the blank tombstone many times, standing tall amidst the bushes, but he would be repulsed by the force inside the tombstone every time.

“It’s still not working!”

He originally thought that, by bringing the blank tombstone into the Graveyard of Gods, he would be able to trigger a change in it tombstone and decipher its secrets.

Yet, after trying to do so multiple times, he discovered that he was still unable to touch the tombstone. Even staying close to it would generate such a strong repulsive force that made it hard for him to breathe.

“Perhaps that Qin Lie lied to me from the start!” Luo Chen’s expression was icy as he inwardly thought, “He must have done something to it! That must be why I have been unable to approach the tombstone this entire time!”

“Boom!”

A blurry bloody light abruptly shone from the blank tombstone. The seven godly lights inside of it became bright with color.

Luo Chen grew excited. “It’s reacting! It’s finally reacting!”

He was utterly overjoyed.

However, just as he was about to try and touch the tombstone again, it suddenly flew into the sky. The tombstone that had been standing tall amidst the bushes turned into a ray of rainbow light and flew off into the distance.

Luo Chen screamed at the top of his lungs and pursued relentlessly the tombstone like a flying sword.

Unfortunately, the blank tombstone flew faster and faster—to the point where he was unable to even track it with his soul consciousness.

Ultimately, Luo Chen could only watch the tombstone farther and farther until it completely vanished from his sight and the range of his other senses.

“What’s going on? What’s going on?” Luo Chen refused to give up. With a dark expression, he continued to chase the tombstone in the direction it had disappeared.

He believed that the direction which the tombstone had flown in harbored huge secrets. Perhaps the Graveyard of the Gods’ essence was there!

In the fiery land.

Qin Lie’s sword token rang again, indicating that yet another person with a sword token had found him.

“How persistent.” His expression turned cold as he stood up from the ground. The spirit stones in his hands had completely shattered.

Qin Lie thought that Du Xiangyang had come to fight him again after regaining his strength, so he prepared for battle.

“Boom!”

At this moment, a rainbow light descended from a distance and landed right in front of him.

Qin Lie initially thought it was a fiery meteor and was caught off guard. However, after looking at it closely, he froze.

It was actually the blank tombstone he had lost!

Standing upright in front of him, the tombstone shone with blurry bloody light. It had actually flown back to him.

This surprised and delighted Qin Lie. He rushed next to the tombstone, prepared to put it back into the spatial ring.

However, just as he was about to raise his hand, the blank tombstone actually flew up into the air once more and off into another direction.

Qin Lie was surprised. He did not know what was going on, nor did he understand the situation.

He only knew that the tombstone seemed to be kind of different after entering the Graveyard of Gods.

Seeing the tombstone floating into the distant sky like a lantern, he didn’t think too much and simply hurried to follow it.

Qin Lie followed the tombstone as it flew leisurely, a frown on his face.

At the same time.

Xiahou Yuan’s group of four had locked onto Qin Lie’s position with a sword token and were rapidly approaching.

Having recovered significantly, Du Xiangyang noticed that another disciple with a Heavenly Sword Mountain sword token had already found him and Qin Lie. That person was closing in on Qin Lie.

Du Xiangyang smiled cheerfully. “It must be one of Luo Chen’s men.”

He was happy to watch a show from the sidelines, so he rushed toward Qin Lie’s position while tracking him with his own sword token.

If someone were to look at this fiery land from a bird’s-eye view, they would see a strange sight.

A tombstone was leisurely soaring through the air toward a certain direction while a person that wore an expression of surprise was below, struggling to follow it.

Another two groups of people were approaching toward the tombstone’s location with excited expressions, as if they were about to begin a hunt.

One of the groups was even crying out, making weird noises and yelling, “We’re close! We’re almost there!”

This chase had been going on for four entire hours, stretching over hundreds of kilometers.

Suddenly, the tombstone stopped above a giant lake.

This lake, the endpoint of countless fiery streams, was at the center of a gushing volcano.

Fiery liquid ferociously burned inside of the giant lake. Every so often, the lake would bubble with flame and lava, creating waves of heat and causing explosions

Standing beside the lake, Qin Lie had to continuously exhaust his power of extreme frost just to barely be able to endure the terrifying heat.

He did not know why the tombstone had come here.

Concentrating on the lake, Qin Lie discovered that he could not see through the boiling heat, serpentine outpours of fire, and constant explosions.

Suspended above the fiery lake, the tombstone abruptly shone with seven godly lights that penetrated deep into the liquid of the lake below.

“Boom boom boom!”

Giant waves of fire rose from the lake’s interior. As if the lake itself was roaring, the explosions grew more and more intense.

Deep within the lake, the seven divine lights formed a shield of light around a particular object.

The seven divine lights resembled dazzling ropes that continuously twisted upward, slowly pulling the foreign object that had been submerged in the lake toward the surface.

“A Fire Qilin! Oh my god, that’s actually the corpse of a Rank Eight spirit beast, a Fire Qilin!”

At the other side of the lake, Du Xiangyang lost his composure and cried out, his eyes shining with extreme desire.

He stared dead-eyed at the body that had appeared from deep within the lake.

The corpse of a Fire Qilin, a creature with the head of a dragon that had four limbs and a fiery tail similar to those of a majestic lion, was slowly pulled to the surface by the seven divine lights. Its body burned with bright flames.

Qin Lie was also completely stunned by the sight.

A Rank Eight spirit beast like a Fire Qilin was the equivalent of an Imperishable Realm martial practitioner. This was a legendary beast with unstoppable strength and fire all over its body. It could also fly through the air.

This Fire Qilin’s body had been submerged within this giant lake for god knows how many years. Its soul had long since disappeared, yet its body still burned with such a terrifying, stifling pressure.

“Could this lonesome Fire Qilin corpse be the reason why this land of fire, with its endlessly erupting volcanoes, is so terrifying?” Qin Lie subconsciously thought.

“A Fire Qilin! It’s the body of a Fire Qilin, a Rank Eight spirit beast!”

At this moment, Xiahou Yuan’s cry rang from the other side of the lake.

The eyes of the other three Xiahou Family martial practitioners were bloodshot, as were Xiahou Yuan’s. Like leopards and wolves that smelled blood, their eyes shone with the red light of greed.

Chapter 422: Bitter Battle!

Du Xiangyang and the Xiahou Family arrived one after another and immediately saw the spectacle at the center of the burning lake.

A tombstone was suspended high above the lake’s center, and it shone with seven dazzling, divine lights.

The divine lights resembled ropes and chains, firmly wrapped around the Fire Qilin that burned with brilliant flames.

The corpse of the Rank Eight spirit beast was gradually being dragged out of the lake. The seven divine lights entangling the Fire Qilin were like ribbons that seemed to be draining something.

“A Fire Qilin!”

“The Rank Eight spirit beast… Fire Qilin!”

Du Xiangyang exclaimed in shock.

Xiahou Yuan screamed as well.

The eyes of both groups blazed with desire as they stared intensely at the tombstone and the Fire Qilin. They looked so anxious that it seemed like they could hardly control themselves, yet they did not know how to approach these treasures.

Qin Lie in particular was frowning in shock at the spectacle.

The tombstone and the Fire Qilin were both quietly suspended above the center of the lake.

Everyone stood beside the lake and felt incredibly uncomfortable in the terrifying heat. Qin Lie and Xiahou Yuan aside, even Du Xiangyang, who cultivated a fire spirit art, did not dare to jump into this lake.

The burning lake and its roiling flames were more than enough to melt him into a pool of blood!

It was in this way that the three factions were scattered at the edges of the lake, staring at the tombstone and the Fire Qilin’s body hovering above the lake’s center, wracking their brains to try and come up with a plan.

Unable to think of anything, everyone was surprised to discover that the wild flames on the Fire Qilin shrunk at a shocking rate, slowly dying out.

Everyone’s gazes focused.

They immediately discovered that the seven divine lights shooting down from the tombstone seemed to be devouring some sort of energy from the Fire Qilin’s corpse. They watched as the divine lights inside of the tombstone grew brighter and brighter until the tombstone itself glowed with dazzling divine light.

The Fire Qilin’s body, on the other hand, seemed like it was being drained of its aura and flesh.

The flames on its body gradually went out, and the dazzling light hovering above its scarlet body also faded bit by bit.

Everyone could see that the huge amount of energy inside the Fire Qilin’s body was being absorbed by the tombstone.

The tombstone, which had been suspended in midair for so long, suddenly moved again.

It moved in the direction of Qin Lie!

Du Xiangyang and Xiahou Yuan immediately grew excited. They stared dead-eyed at the tombstone and walked toward Qin Lie at the same time.

“Xiahou Shang! Xiahou Qiang! Xiahou Ta! Kill that person from Heavenly Sword Mountain!” Xiahou Yuan roared, pointing at Du Xiangyang in the distance.

The three Xiahou Family experts laughed cruelly as they rushed toward Du Xiangyang like three gusts of wind.

Du Xiangyang’s face darkened as he wordlessly unsheathed the Scarlet Fire Sword. His skin was a frightening red that resembled that of a cooked prawn.

A terrifying aura filled with fiery energy burst from Du Xiangyang’s body. The Scarlet Fire Sword in his hand transformed into a blazing dragon, spitting a tongue of flame that was half a meter long.

“Hehe… as long as you’re not Luo Chen, you’re basically dead!” Xiahou Shang chuckled strangely.

Xiahou Qiang, Xiahou Ta, and Xiahou Shang each took out a three meter long flag. The flags depicted pitch black clouds, purple flames, and dark green skulls. It looked incredibly bizarre.

“Whoosh whoosh whoosh!”

Wisps of pitch black smoke emerged from the flags. Icy cold purple flames and dark green skulls were mixed into the smoke.

A bloodcurdling aura instantly enveloped Du Xiangyang and everything around him like a huge, dense web.

The pitch black smoke also shrouded Xiahou Shang and the other two. They laughed, channeling their spirit arts together.

Smoke engulfed Du Xiangyang.

As that was happening, the Xiahou Family’s ringer Xiahou Yuan charged toward Qin Lie. His bald head was shiny, and his laughter was sinister. “Too bad you didn’t meet up with Luo Chen as soon as possible. Tough luck, kid! Say goodbye to the world of the living!”

Xiahou Yuan wore exquisite, purplish red gauntlets on his fists that were covered in extraordinary gash marks.

He continuously swung his fists as he charged at Qin Lie. A pair of violent, fearsome energies surged into his gauntlets, and his arms expanded like balloons.

“Whoosh whoosh!”

Two purple dragons suddenly erupted from his fists. They looked as if they were alive, and strange horns were visible on their heads.

The tombstone was currently floating above Qin Lie’s head, slowly moving to him while dragging the Fire Qilin’s body.

Qin Lie didn’t know why the tombstone was returning to him or how it found the Fire Qilin’s body. He also didn’t know why it dragged the Fire Qilin’s body from the depths of the lake or why it absorbed the energy that remained inside of it.

He was only certain of one thing—since the tombstone returned, it belonged to no one else but him!

“Heh… I dare you to try and take what’s mine,” Qin Lie said, grinning.

The Astral Thunder Hammer suddenly flew out of his spatial ring. The sound of booming thunder and crackling lightning resounded from his body as numerous thick bolts of electricity flooded into the Astral Thunder Hammer.

A shocking explosion flared as dense patterns of lightning appeared above the Astral Thunder Hammer. Numerous motes of light that resembled stars flew out of the hammer and shot toward the area in front of Qin Lie.

“Boom! Boom! Boom!”

The astral thunder struck the two purple dragons and exploded, reducing them to countless purple spirit lights that scattered everywhere.

The explosion also scattered the fiery liquid of small lava ponds nearby. Xiahou Yuan snorted coldly, yet could not help but temporarily stop his swift charge.

Only when all of the lava had fallen from the sky did Xiahou Yuan say, “Hmph. A mere brat in the early stage of the Netherpassage Realm dares to try fighting me? What a fool. Surrender the tombstone then cut your own neck. If you do that, I’ll leave your corpse intact. If not, I won’t leave any trace of you!”

“Oh, really?” Qin Lie licked the corner of his lips, his eyes shining with the light of excitement. “I’m standing right here. I dare you to show me how you’ll leave no trace of me!”

“Fine!”

Xiahou Yuan laughed wickedly as he took a giant bow out of his spatial ring. He nocked a silver arrow and aimed at Qin Lie from afar.

The bow was even taller than Xiahou Yuan. Strange, tiny symbols were engraved into the silver arrow. These runes resembled ancient, knife-shaped characters that radiated simple but severe pressure.

At the peak of Netherpassage Realm, Xiahou Yuan was the ringer of the Xiahou Family. Not only was his realm astonishingly powerful, he also had plenty of precious spirit artifacts at his disposal.

The Divine Wood Spirit Bow was one of the spirit artifacts that he possessed. This bow was an Earth Grade Two spirit artifact. The arrows it used were made with Immortal Wood as the main component. Each one was carefully crafted and engraved with numerous extraordinary spirit markings that enhanced the penetrating capability and destructive power.

“Creak!”

Xiahou Yuan drew the bow to its limit and stared at Qin Lie with eyes as sharp as an eagle’s. A terrifying aura that felt as though it could obliterate everything flowed from his body.

Qin Lie’s pupils shrank. Feeling Xiahou Yuan’s sharp aura, he could not help but be cautious.

“Swoosh!”

A silver arrow soared like a rainbow, intent on piercing Qin Lie’s face. It carried a frightening aura of intimidation that pained Qin Lie’s soul.

The arrow was imbued with all of Xiahou Yuan’s strength, immense refined spirit energy and the strange energy of the ancient markings.

“Crack!”

Qin Lie instantly formed wall of solid ice in front of him. It exploded when the arrow struck it, scattering ice in every direction

Yet the arrow continued to fly as powerful as ever.

“Bang!”

A thick wall of yellow earth appeared, and as the power of earth faded immediately afterward, it exploded.

The tip of the arrow shook, but the force of the arrow still hadn’t been exhausted.

There was a thunderous rumble as the Astral Thunder Hammer hurtled downward to smash the silver arrow into smithereens.

When the sharp arrow exploded, Xiahou Yuan laughed coldly and took out another one.

Qin Lie, however, chuckled strangely in return, his eyes staring into Xiahou Yuan’s with icy cruelty.

Xiahou Yuan suddenly realized that something was wrong.

—Then he saw several metallic silver balls by a pool of lava near his feet. These metallic balls seemed to have landed there when the wall of solid ice, the wall of yellow earth, and his own silver arrow exploded.

He had initially thought that they were sword fragments.

However, now that he lowered his head and examined the metallic balls, he felt thunderous energy inside of them.

“Terminator Profound Bombs!”