Chapter 280: Return

Dazed, Qin Lie felt as if his entire body was submerged in water. His clothes were all wet.

Slowly opening his eyes, he realized that he was inside a very shallow puddle. The water was very muddy and it wasn’t deep. It only reached up to his waist.

There were aquatic plants about a man’s height growing out of the seemingly boundless puddle at first glance. The plants were dark green and delicate, dancing to the wind.

“You woke up?” Song Tingyu’s attractive and gentle voice came from the aquatic plants behind him.

Qin Lie turned around to look and saw her part the dense overgrowth of plants and walked over from in between.

Her perfect bodice was covered by an orange dress. Her long skirt was not completely drenched by water and it stuck closely to her enchanting body. It highlighted the attractiveness of her partially concealed voluptuous curves, causing one to feel their blood rushing on the inside.

Yet her complexion didn’t look too good. She seemed to be a bit pale and even her usually breathtaking eyes seemed to be somewhat dim and lightless.

He only needed a glance to know that her injuries were probably severe. “Where did you go?”

“I woke up before you and I was worried that the Horned Demon elites would come after us, so the moment I woke up, I walked around in a circle.” Song Tingyu looked tired. Her beautiful legs swayed in the water as she gradually arrived beside Qin Lie and said, “We have arrived at the fourth level. Do you feel anything different about your breathing?”

Qin Lie sucked in a breath and softly exclaimed with a strange light in his eyes, “There’s a bit of nether demonic energy in the air, but it is very thin. The aura in this place… are the nature spirit energy and nether demonic energy coexisting with each other?”

“Mn. From this level onwards, the nether demonic energy and nature spirit energy will mix and reach every corner. This is also why the Nether Realm’s evil races and our human race can coexist in this place.” Song Tingyu pointed at the aquatic plants beside her. “This is the Demon Cleansing Orchid. They absorb nether demonic energy and release air that we can breathe normally. The Demon Cleansing Orchid and Demon Armor Insects function as polar opposites. This kind of grass has powerful reproductive capabilities. We only need to plant tens of Demon Cleansing Orchid in a puddle we’re in and, in just a few months, they will cover tens of acres.”

Listening to her words, Qin Lie couldn’t help but pay serious attention to the aquatic plants beside him. When he looked closely, he realized that there were many small holes on the leaves of this kind of aquatic plant.

These small holes seemed to inhale and exhale constantly, like a human’s mouth and nostrils.

Qin Lie put his nose closer and smelled. His eyes brightened slightly as he said, “How miraculous.”

The Demon Cleansing Orchid was absorbing thin nether demonic energy while releasing fresh air. No wonder the air in this puddle made him feel so comfortable.

While he was observing the Demon Cleansing Orchid curiously, Song Tingyu’s eyes were also quietly focused on him…

Inside the tornado on the level below, Song Tingyu had suffered the continuous attacks of the Horned Demon elites. They had used stones, giant trees, and all kinds of unknown pieces of sharp iron to attack her indiscriminately. The Flowing Rainbow Shield, which had powerful concealment abilities but average defensive power, instantly exploded. Her back suffered multiple heavy attacks. Caught off guard, she was severely injured in an instant.

At the time, the spirit energy on her body was about to collapse. She wasn’t able to summon even the last bit of her strength. Just when she thought that she would die for sure, it was Qin Lie who had hugged her tightly in his arms, using his own body to endure those attacks instead…

At that moment, she was completely covered up by Qin Lie. Amidst the raging tornado, her face was pressed tightly against Qin Lie’s chest, and she actually felt unimaginably safe and secure… she had never felt this kind of feeling before.

She knew that a huge rock had hurtled towards the back of her head. She knew that it was the only place unprotected by Qin Lie.

She saw Qin Lie twisting his body, suddenly shifting his position with all his strength and using his back to bear the killing blow in her place…

It was then that Qin Lie’s entire body shook greatly and he spat blood, fainting from the blow immediately. The raging shockwave caused her own body in Qin Lie’s embrace to shake as well.

Yet she knew that, at that moment, there was another part of her that shook slightly… her own heart.

“What’s wrong?” Qin Lie looked at her in surprise and asked doubtfully, “Why aren’t you speaking? You look strange. What is it? Are your injuries too severe?”

“They are quite severe. I’m afraid that I can’t freely use my powers for a short while. I must nurse my dantian’s spirit sea before I can fight again.” Song Tingyu recovered and asked softly, “How about you? You fainted even earlier than I did inside that tornado. How are your injuries?”

Qin Lie went blank and only recalled now that he was injured himself. He quickly checked his own body condition.

His mind consciousness looked inside his body. All the miniscule changes of his innards, muscles, nerves, bones, and so on—they were all reflected in his Soul Lake. With his Soul Lake acting as a mirror, he could clearly view everything inside his body.

Then he realized that his back bones were clearly cracked. The skin and flesh at the center of his back were in tatters, the nerves all over his body were in pain, and even his dantian’s spirit sea was in great turmoil…

He let out a bitter laugh and said helplessly, “I am hurt pretty badly as well. Be it my body or my dantian’s spirit sea, they have all suffered a huge blow. The energy that the enemy had infused into the huge stone had even rushed into my dantian’s spirit sea after it struck my body. It disturbed my spirit sea and it has not calmed down. I also need some time to sort it out before I can channel spirit energy and recover.”

“You knew that the person attacking us was a Horned Demon warrior with six horns and you knew that his target was probably just… me. Why? Why did you protect me? That final strike… was incredibly frightening. It was enough to even take your life. Why did you block it for me?” Song Tingyu’s eyes were immeasurably deep. She had a confused and complicated expression and asked Qin Lie, staring at him quietly.

“Why?” Qin Lie went blank for a moment before shaking his head, somewhat at a loss. Under her deep gaze he said, “I don’t know either. I didn’t think about it at the time and I didn’t have the time to think about it. I just did it.”

A ripple appeared in Song Tingyu’s heart. The light in her eyes brightened bit by bit as her voice grew gentler and gentler. “So you’re saying that you didn’t think about it at all. You just instinctively did it?”

“Yeah, that’s probably the case. I’m not really sure.” Qin Lie answered casually.

However, Song Tingyu suddenly turned silent.

She no longer looked at Qin Lie. Instead, her head was slightly bowed and an indecipherable expression appeared on her beautiful face. She seemed to be confused, pleasantly surprised, tense, and excited… it was unclear.

Seeing that she was quiet, Qin Lie also did not ask any further questions and instead stood in the puddle. He was already beginning to nurture his dantian’s spirit sea to heal his body’s injuries.

The mess in his dantian’s spirit sea needed to be sorted out slowly. Otherwise, a poor flow of spirit energy could become a factor that led to the instability of his Realm. Therefore, it needed to be resolved first.

However, when Qin Lie was ready to stabilize his dantian’s spirit sea, he realized with a thought that the blood in his body had poured out a tremendous amount of blood spirit energy.

Inside in his Soul Lake, he could see traces of scarlet blood energy that evaporated and rose from inside his blood with a sweet smell. It began flowing into the cracks of his bones, the tattered skin and flesh at the center of his back, and the nerves throughout his entire body.

The pain on his body swiftly abated as the traces of blood energy spread.

The blood spirit energy was like a spirit medicine that warmed the wounds, flowing inside his body constantly, helping him to treat the injuries inside his body and soothe the weakness in his nerves…

Although his dantian’s spirit sea was still distressed, his physical injuries had swiftly stabilized under the effects of the blood spirit energy…

An exuberant blood energy emanated from his body once more. Not only did it cause him to feel pleasantly surprised on the inside, but even Song Tingyu had detected the changes inside his body. She subconsciously raised her head to look at him and said, “Your blood energy is swiftly recovering. Blood energy is the force of life itself. It is the foundation of flesh and blood. Blood energy is the best at recovering one’s physical injuries. The Blood Spirit Art you cultivate is truly a very magical spirit art…”

Qin Lie’s eyes suddenly lit up as he exclaimed softly, “Blood energy is the force of life itself. It can recover the severe injuries of one’s physical body, nurture the body, and stabilize one’s wounds. Heh, it looks like that old man Xue Li didn’t lie to me after all. This Blood Spirit Art is pretty impressive!”

“Do you know the main reason why Eight Extreme Temple and Profound Heaven Alliance wanted to eliminate Armament Sect?” Song Tingyu rolled her eyes at him.

“It’s obviously because Armament Sect threatened your positions.” Qin Lie said bluntly.

“That’s right. I is because Armament Sect threatened our positions. However, if those artificers had only poured their hearts into forging artifacts, how could they possibly become a threat to us?” Song Tingyu’s expression grew serious. “What we’re truly afraid of is Blood Spear—of Lang Xie himself! Blood Spear’s continuous growth, Lang Xie’s power, and his terrifying potential are what we’re truly afraid of. All of this was born from the Blood Spirit Art you cultivate. It is this spirit art that made Blood Spear, made Lang Xie, and gave Lang Xie the qualification to threaten us!”

Qin Lie’s expression shuddered.

“A blood spirit art, one that was tampered with no less, had caused Fire Spear to evolve into Blood Spear and become the most terrifying force on this continent. From this, we can see exactly how magical and frightening this spirit art is. The reason we wanted to eliminate Armament Sect was to obtain this Blood Spirit Art…” Song Tingyu looked at him, “Now do you know how powerful and terrifying this spirit art is?”

Qin Lie nodded lightly.

“Someone’s coming.” Song Tingyu’s eyebrows shot up as she looked in another direction, while rubbing the bracelet on her arm.

Qin Lie’s expression changed slightly as he subconsciously took out a Terminator Profound Bomb, ready to use it against the newcomers.

“Don’t be too tense. These newcomers should either hail from Eight Extreme Temple or be martial practitioners from their subordinate forces.” Song Tingyu sensed slightly and said, “Their cultivation isn’t high either. They’re only at the Natal Opening Realm or the Manifestation Realm.”

Qin Lie inwardly let out a sigh of relief.

“Let’s go. We will close in on their position and ask them about this place. We will find out the location of the tornado to go up another level.” Song Tingyu pointed in a direction before frowning slightly. She softly instructed, “Don’t tell them that you’re Qin Lie from Armament Sect. As for me, I am not Song Tingyu from Profound Heaven Alliance. You have killed too many people from the five forces back in Armament Sect. If they discover who you are, there may be some trouble. As for me, my status in Profound Heaven Alliance is special and I have offended quite a lot of people from Eight Extreme Temple. This may cause problems as well…”

“You are afraid of Natal Opening and Manifestation Realm martial practitioners?” Qin Lie looked surprised.

Song Tingyu rolled her eyes at him and said quietly, “I obviously would not usually be afraid of them. However, my current condition is terrible and I haven’t had the time to fully recover. There is no way I can act carelessly, so it’s best if there is no conflict at all.”

“Oh.” Qin Lie understood her meaning.