“Austin said she’s inside the Chaos Soul Realm. How did she suddenly come here?”

Qin Lie was stupefied by the sight of the Geocentric Motherlode. He didn’t have a clue what was going on.

Ling Yushi was affected by Tian Qi’s power of fate. She had slipped into a fiendish rebound while she was absorbing the former Nether Monarch’s soul secrets.

Qin Lie paid close attention to her condition after that.

Later on, her soul changed again, and Qin Lie was told by Austin that Ling Yushi had somehow entered the Chaos Soul Realm.

The Chaos Soul Realm was the most mysterious place in the entire universe. Only a couple of lucky people had been chosen to enter in the last millions of years.

The Imperial Soul Monarch, Castor, and the brothers Auston and Austin all had gone to the Chaos Soul Realm, learned a special secret of the soul and returned successfully.

The Imperial Soul Monarch mastered the power to enslave and control millions of souls. Castor mastered the secret art of refining dead souls.

The brothers Auston and Austin mastered the secret technique to refine living souls and improve their soul power.

All the powers they obtained from the Chaos Soul Realm were related to the soul.

Ling Yushi was one of the very few fortunate ones who got pulled into the Chaos Soul Realm in the past million year or so. In Auston’s opinion, it would take her a very long time to break free from the Chaos Soul Realm.

That was the only reason Qin Lie chose to leave Nether City and Nine Hells Purgatory.

He never imagined that he would encounter Ling Yushi’s soul inside Spirit Realm’s Geocentric Motherlode. She was supposed to be trapped inside the Chaos Soul Realm right now.

He didn’t know what happened to her.

“Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh!”

Inside the Geocentric Motherlode, the Soul Hell–like whirlpool Ling Yushi’s soul had transformed into continued to pull in more and more light into herself.

Qin Lie could feel her aura filling up the center of the crystal slowly.

Stunned, Qin Shan said, “Her aura is spreading out of the crystal veins!”

“What?” Qin Lie exclaimed.

“Her aura is appearing in all the crystal veins at this geocenter,” Qin Shan said seriously.

“You mean?” Qin Lie’s expression changed slightly.

“She’s fusing with the Geocentric Motherlode in a way that none of us understands… It’s not refining though.” Qin Shan sucked in a deep breath before continuing, “I don’t sense any depletion to the Geocentric Motherlode or change to Spirit Realm itself. Her soul is inside the Geocentric Motherlode, that’s all… But the whirlpool she transformed into is definitely absorbing some sort of lawful power from the Geocentric Motherlode. Not even I understand what’s going on with her.”

Qin Lie thought to himself for a moment before saying, “Grandpa, please take us back to where we were. Let’s try asking An Hao and the others and see if they know anything about this.”

“But she’s inside the Geocentric Motherlode. Is it… safe?” Qin Shan asked worriedly.

Qin Lie shot the Geocentric Motherlode one last glance before shaking his head, answering, “I think she’s fine.”

Qin Shan nodded and said, “Alright.”

Qin Shan could enter and exit this place anytime he wanted to, so he wanted to pick the God Race patriarchs’ brains first before returning to Ling Yushi.

He wanted to know why Ling Yushi had appeared inside the Geocentric Motherlode.

“Let’s go!”

Light wrapped around the both of them before bringing them back to the crystal veins in an instant.

The Flame Emperor, the Ice Emperor and the others were discussing about something after the duo left. The discussion was still ongoing even after they returned.

Everyone’s attention was diverted toward Qin Shan and Qin Lie when they showed up.

“So? Have you obtained the Geocentric Motherlode?” the Flame Emperor asked first.

The God Race patriarchs were looking curiously at them as well.

Qin Shan shook his head and replied, “Something unexpected happened.”

“What is it?” The Ice Emperor asked.

Qin Shan shot a look at Qin Lie, and the young man straightened his expression before looking at An Hao, Lieyan Zhao and Han Che, “What does it mean if a soul suddenly appears inside the Geocentric Motherlode?”

Confused, Han Che replied, “I don’t understand what you mean.”

“My fiancee was absorbing the former Nether Monarch’s secrets of the soul at Nine Hells Purgatory. However, she slipped into fiendish rebound due to Tian Qi’s power of fate…”

Qin Lie explained what had happened earlier before getting to the point. “But just now, her soul had suddenly appeared inside the Geocentric Motherlode!”

Shocked, An Hao asked, “Didn’t you say that your fiancee was stuck inside the Chaos Soul Realm?”

Qin Lie nodded and said, “Yes, but she’s no longer inside the Chaos Soul Realm. Not only is she inside the Geocentric Motherlode, she’s absorbing some sort of strange light that exists inside.”

“Heavens, how did this happen? Is the girl refining the Geocentric Motherlode?” Hua Tianqiong asked.

“If the Geocentric Motherlode is being refined, then… does that mean Spirit Realm is going to die soon?” Ji Dan asked urgently.

The last thing he wanted to see was the depletion of Spirit Realm’s Geocentric Motherlode, the death of Spirit Realm and the destruction of the human race’s foundation.

In his eyes, anyone who does that was the public enemy of Spirit Realm.

Ji Dan was clearly growing anxious.

“No. The Geocentric Motherlode showed no signs of depletion, and the energy that courses through the crystal veins hasn’t weakened in the slightest,” Qin Shan said seriously. “Spirit Realm hasn’t changed in the slightest. The only difference is that her aura is starting to permeate from the crystal veins somehow. Our knowledge of the Geocentric Motherlode is too shallow, and we need a clear answer before doing anything.”

The question was directed at the three God Race patriarchs.

He noticed that they had fallen silent after Qin Lie had explained the ins and outs to them.

All three of them were wearing thoughtful expressions.

It made him realize that the trio probably knew something about this strange occurrence.

“You are the most outstanding artificer in Spirit Realm. Have you ever thought that the Geocentric Motherlode… may be a special, intelligent lifeform?” An Hao asked a question instead of answering them directly.

Qin Shan thought for a moment before replying, “I did feel that way sometimes, yes.”

An Hao nodded before shooting another question, “What will the Geocentric Motherlode be if we pretend that Spirit Realm is a giant spirit artifact?”

“It will be the artifact soul!” Qin Shan subconsciously replied.

“The reason a Divine Grade spirit artifact is divine is because it has an artifact soul. If the artifact soul perishes, would the spirit artifact degrade massively and become just a common artifact?” An Hao asked again.

Qin Shan thought carefully again before replying, “If the artifact soul of a Divine Grade artifact were to perish, degradation wouldn’t be its only problem. It may outright crumble into nothing.”

“Correct. If the Geocentric Motherlode is refined, it’ll be like the death of a Divine Grade spirit artifact’s soul,” An Hao said.

Qin Shan trembled once before asking, “B-but why Spirit Realm unchanged even though Girl Ling is absorbing the Geocentric Motherlode right now!?”

“Well, that’s even simpler to explain. What happens when an artifact soul acknowledges someone as its master?” An Hao said with a smile.

Qin Shan abruptly realized what he meant and yelled, “A-are you saying that…?”

“Correct. The Geocentric Motherlode has acknowledged her as its master. When the process is complete, she’ll become the master of Spirit Realm,” An Hao said with a sigh.

“Super-sized realms with a Geocentric Motherlode in it such as Spirit Realm is the natural creation of the universe itself. It is a natural birth by the artificer known as the ‘Heavens’.” Han Che said while staring at the translucent crystal veins. “The work of the Heavens is beyond our imagination. We learn our truths, laws and powers by perceiving the world through our bloodline and other senses. So what we call artifact forging is really the packaging of the power of nature and certain laws into an artifact form through the method of bloodline and power.”

“However, the absolute best artificer in the world is still nature itself.”

“The stronger you are, the more you’ll come to realize this.”