Chapter 383: Long Journey

A month later, on the surface of a rippling sea, a large ship departing from Scarlet Tide Continent leisurely headed east.

This ship had three floors in total. The bottom floor was filled with ores and spirit materials, and the second and third floors had little rooms where martial practitioners of all forces and realms were living.

The Scarlet Tide Continent had always been trading with the eastern side of the Flowing Cloud Continent and Heavenly Fate Continent. All three were able to profit through the trade of spirit materials.

As a result, such ships often came and went between the three continents.

The ships carried cargo and people. As long as one paid the required amount of spirit stones, anyone could book passage on them.

At the rear of the ship, in a room on the second floor, there was only a bed and a small washroom. Qin Lie was seated right on top of the bed. He had stayed in his room for more of the past month than than he had walked outside, rigorously cultivating day by day.

As of this moment, he was in the late stage of the Manifestation Realm. His Soul Lake was clear and clean, his mind was calm, and he would concentrate on cultivating every day, purifying his Soul Lake over and over.

He was using this opportunity to stabilize his mind, intent on breaking through his limits as soon as possible and stepping through the door that was the Netherpassage Realm.

Breaking through from the Manifestation Realm to the Netherpassage Realm was an incredibly difficult process. Many martial practitioners earnestly cultivated for their entire lives and were stuck at this obstacle, unable to break through. This lasted until the day their life ended, and they would ultimately pass away full of regret.

Qin Lie had paid fifty Profound Grade Six spirit stones to board this ship headed to the eastern side of the Heavenly Fate Continent. For the past month, he had been cultivating in hopes of finding a shortcut that would allow him to break through to the Netherpassage Realm.

A slight soul ripple emanated from the Soul Suppressing Orb inside his mind. Xue Li transmitted a message that he wished to get a breath of fresh air.

Qin Lie nodded slightly.

A blood red thread shot out of his forehead, twisting and writhing before it slowly turned into Xue Li’s soul shadow.

Xue Li consciously withdrew his aura so that people nearby would not notice his existence. Then he said, “Kid, how many spirit stones do you have left?”

“Let me check.” Qin Lie’s wisp of mind consciousness slipped into his spatial ring.

The incredibly eye-catching wooden sculpture left behind by his grandfather was in the spatial ring. There were also Phantasm Stones, Froststar Stones, Fate Crystals, Ethereal Jades, and the fresh blood of Scarlet Spirit Turtle. These were all spirit materials that Xue Li had once requested.

Other than that, there was also a portion of materials which were used to forge Terminator Profound Bombs, the Eye of Frost, and finally a small pile of spirit stones.

Qin Lie had acquired these spirit stones back when he was still in Armament Sect. He swept a glance over them. It wasn’t much. A rough estimation told him that there were a hundred or so spirit stones at best. Most of them were Profound Grade Six or Seven, and a dozen or so were Earth Grade Two or Three.

He rubbed his spatial ring, and there was a bright flash of light. The pile of spirit stones inside the spatial ring appeared on the bed all at once.

“I have only this much left,” Qin Lie said frankly.

“Spirit stones excavated in the Land of Chaos are all reprocessed and remanufactured before use. They are not divided in a complicated way like on the Scarlet Tide Continent.”

“Explain.” Qin Lie frowned slightly.

“The spirit stones that are excavated in your Scarlet Tide Continent, as well as in the nearby Flowing Cloud Continent and Heavenly Fate Continent, do not undergo any processing whatsoever, and are directly used as currency. This is why you’ve divided spirit stones into seven grades, just like spirit artifacts and spirit pills, based on how much spirit energy a spirit stone contains. This is actually quite troublesome and cumbersome when they are used for trading,” Xue Li said.

Qin Lie nodded. “This is true.”

He also felt that dividing spirit stones, whether they were Common or Profound Grade, seven more times was too complicated when there was no need for such complexity.

“Truthfully, the Scarlet Tide Continent and the Flowing Cloud Continent are backward and do not have a good way to process spirit stones.” Xue Li’s words were frank and pointed right at the heart of the matter.

“However, the Land of Chaos is different. After excavating spirit stones, they are able to directly extract the spirit energy from them and merge them into other spirit stones of the same grade, but different level. They have a simpler way to categorize spirit stones, only dividing them into five overarching grades—Common Grade, Profound Grade, Earth Grade, Heaven Grade, and Divine Grade. The difference in spirit power between each grade is exactly one thousand times.”

Xue Li looked at him while explaining carefully, “Every grade of spirit stones follows a clear standard because they performed the processing before creating each category.”

Qin Lie immediately understood.

The Land of Chaos treated spirit stones like the currency of the mortal realm. They would thoroughly process spirit stones that they excavated so that every spirit stone of the same grade would contain the same amount of spirit energy. This made it convenient to use spirit stones for trading.

This was just like the mortal realm where countries processed the gold, silver, and copper that they excavated into uniform ingots and bars.

The spirit stones of the Land of Chaos were all processed after being excavated. They were only split into five overarching grades. Every Profound Grade spirit stone would have spirit energy equal to that of one thousand Common Grade spirit stones. This was a proportionate conversion of one to one thousand among spirit stones.

“Using the differentiation of the Land of Chaos, the spirit stones you currently have are only around the value of forty Profound Grade spirit stones and five Earth Grade spirit stones. If you wish to reach the Land of Chaos swiftly, it will be difficult with just this amount of spirit stones.” Xue Li frowned.

Upon hearing his words, Qin Lie froze. “It’s that expensive?”

“First you have to take a boat all the way to the eastern side of Spirit Eagle Island, then take another boat from Spirit Eagle Island to Sea Moon Island. After passing through Sea Moon Island’s teleportation formation, you will have to go through another five intermediate teleportations before being able to finally reach the Heavenly Wither Continent. The boat ride from Spirit Eagle Island to Sea Moon Island will already cost five Earth Grade spirit stones, and the intermediate teleportations from Sea Moon Island will cost another eighteen Earth Grade spirit stones. The spirit stones you have right now are far from enough,” Xue Li said, shaking his head.

“Is this how you previously went to the Heavenly Wither Wilted Sky Continent?” Qin Lie asked in shock.

“Mn.”

“Did you have spirit stones at the time?”

“Not a single one.”

“Then how did you do it?”

“I robbed others, of course,” Xue Li said bluntly.

Qin Lie grinned and nodded. “I understand.”

“Do you still have the materials I told you to prepare last time?” seeing Qin Lie’s smile, Xue Li relaxed and asked seriously.

“Take a look.” Qin Lie laid out the Phantasm Stones, Froststar Stones, Fate Crystals, Ethereal Jades, and the fresh blood of Scarlet Spirit Turtle. Then he frowned and said, “Blood Spear is still at the bottom level of the Nether Battlefield right now. I really regret leaving without saying a word.”

“If you hadn’t left, what could you do?” Xue Li curled his lips and smiled coldly. “Even though Profound Heaven Alliance and Eight Extreme Alliance would no longer trouble you because of Heavenly Sword Mountain’s orders, that doesn’t mean they would just swallow their anger forever. Staying in the ultimate blood ground is the best choice for Blood Spear. They will be able to cultivate using the ultimate blood ground and swiftly increase their realms and strength. Furthermore, Profound Heaven Alliance and Eight Extreme Temple will not be able to trouble them, so there’s no need for you to worry.”

“What about in the future?” Qin Lie sighed.

“Once we step into the Land of Chaos, and if we are able to return to the Blood Fiend Sect, we will be able use these materials to build a teleportation formation capable of directly reaching the ultimate blood ground at any time!” Xue Li chuckled strangely. “I already made the necessary preparations before I left the ultimate blood ground with you. When I had Lang Xie go down there, I also left him some instructions. Once you have settled down in the Land of Chaos, as long as you are willing, you will be able to build the teleportation formation and welcome them. You will enable them to step into the Land of Chaos, so what is there to worry about?”

“A teleportation formation built from these materials will be able to connect to the ultimate blood ground from even the Land of Chaos?” Qin Lie immediately became excited.

Didn’t this mean that he would also be able to easily return to the Scarlet Tide Continent?

“I told you long ago that the ultimate blood ground is kind of special. It is situated right in the middle of the Scarlet Tide Continent and the Nether Realm. That space is chaotic, and the formation I built is specifically meant for that unique condition.” Xue Li was full of confidence.

Qin Lie completely relaxed.

“A crystalline war chariot! Two crystalline war chariots! The two great sect masters of Joyful Union Sect are flying above us!” It was at this moment that the rooms of the ship that were facing toward the sea instantly opened up. A great deal of martial practitioners were even running up on deck and excitedly staring at the two glittering war chariots in the sky.

Qin Lie also opened his window, sticking his head out of it. He saw Ruan Zhantian and Zhao Changsheng’s crystalline war chariots flying several hundred meters above them.

“Only Copper rank forces can enjoy such flying spirit artifacts. I’m so jealous. If only I could join Joyful Union Sect.”

“Dream on, man. Joyful Union Sect will not accept just anyone into their fold!”

“So what if it’s Joyful Union Sect? I heard that those ancient beasts from the Scarlet Tide Continent flattened Profound Heaven City and Skypiercing Mountain. Even if they went over there, wouldn’t Joyful Union Sect be unable to do anything?”

“Sigh. Joyful Union Sect is just a Copper rank force. If it was a powerful Silver rank force, then even those ferocious beasts would not dare to act so savagely!”

“Naturally!”

Many martial practitioners on the ship were looking at the crystalline war chariots flying through the sky and having heated discussions about them.

After staring at the sky for a bit, Qin Lie closed his window. Since the people from Joyful Union Sect had left, he knew that matters in the Scarlet Tide Continent must have finally wrapped up.

He inwardly guessed that the Armament Sect in the poisonous bog probably attached themselves to Joyful Union Sect and became their vassal force.

He did not feel much regarding this matter. Blood Spear had left anyway. Tang Siqi and Mo Hai had also left. Even Lian Rou and Tong Jihua seemed to have listened to his suggestions and left Armament Sect.

After experiencing the betrayal of Ying Xingran and the three great reverends, he already had no goodwill toward Armament Sect. When he later discovered that the founder of Armament Sect was actually just a failure from the Land of Chaos’ Celestial Artifact Sect who stole their twelve spirit pattern pillars, and later arrived at Flame Volcano and founded Armament Sect, he grew even less fond of Armament Sect.

Ten days later, this ship that carried plenty of spirit materials from the Scarlet Tide Continent docked at the Flowing Cloud Continent and unloaded some cargo. After loading up yet another portion of spirit materials and personnel, it departed toward the Heavenly Fate Continent once more.

Then, half a month passed. The large ship stopped at the Heavenly Fate Continent for a day before heading toward Spirit Eagle Island.

This was the only ship that was slowly sailing on this vast, boundless sea, getting closer and closer to Spirit Eagle Island with every day.

Qin Lie was hidden inside his own room all this time and did not hear about anything happening outside his room. He diligently cultivated every day.

It was only during evenings that he would open his window and rest for a bit, looking at the sea that was dyed red by the evening sunlight.

However, every time he opened his window in the past three evenings and looked toward the sea, he would discover floating corpses.

At first there were only one or two corpses. Later on, the number of corpses increasingly grew. Today, after staring out the window for a while, he noticed that there were at least thirty corpses floating in a certain area. There were even floating boards of wood in the sea that were obviously the broken remains of a deck.

He gradually noticed that something was amiss.