Chapter 419: Friend or Foe?

Qin Lie quietly sat atop a dark red rock. He held six Earth Grade spirit stones, three in each of his hands.

Wisps of thin smoke rose from the translucent spirit stones. The spirit energy inside them was slowly being absorbed into the nerves in his palms, which were like strings that led straight to his dantian’s spirit sea.

Absorbing a spirit stone’s energy obviously felt kind of different from absorbing worldly spirit energy. The energy of a spirit stone was considerably thicker and more refined than worldly spirit energy, and it was also much easier and more comfortable to absorb.

The six Earth Grade spirit stones contained a huge amount of spirit energy, and when he absorbed it all at once, he could clearly sense his dantian’s spirit sea once again filling with energy.

Qin Lie was completely absorbed in the process.

“Ding!”

The sword token at his waist continuously rang with the crisp sound of a bell as if heralding his death. It could definitely frustrate and bother someone.

Qin Lie, however, was unmoved by it.

As the urgent ringing sound grew louder and louder, he knew that a martial practitioner with a sword token was swiftly heading in his direction.

This person could be Song Tingyu or Xie Jingxuan, but it was more likely to be a talented youth from Heavenly Sword Mountain.

Qin Lie needed to recover his spirit energy as soon as possible to be able to deal with this potential trouble. He needed to be in peak condition!

As he absorbed the spirit stone’s power, Qin Lie attempted to release his mind consciousness and sense if there was any soul activity in the area.

However, he was quickly disappointed, realizing that his mind consciousness was greatly affected by this burning land.

It was incredibly difficult for his mind consciousness to search an area that had no worldly spirit energy. It was like a breeze blowing through the depths of a jungle—it would encounter with many obstacles and be greatly slowed.

When Qin Lie realized that his mind consciousness could not spread as far as it was capable of in the outside world, he became calm and quietly waited for the person to arrive.

The power contained within the spirit stones was easier and more convenient to absorb. Although it wasn’t capable of instantly restoring one’s strength like pills could, it was still a lot faster than normally recovering with the world’s spirit energy.

The translucent and shiny surfaces of the six Earth Grade spirit stones slowly dimmed as the energy within them faded.

With that, the spirit stones gradually became grayish white.

The three frost natal palaces inside his dantian’s spirit sea were now filled with power.

“Prak! Prak!”

The sound of feet thudding against stone could already be clearly heard.

Qin Lie opened his eyes.

They blazed with dazzling lightning, and the icy barrier covering his body radiated a powerful icy energy.

He sat still atop the rock, coldly staring ahead.

Large rocks that had rolled down from the mountains beside the twisting rivers of lava were in front of him. Many of these rocks were covered in lava and were as red as hot iron. They emanated with shocking heat.

Qin Lie did not dare to stay on these red rocks for too long. When he passed them earlier, he had immediately jumped away the second he stepped on them.

However, a young man was currently stepping on these crimson rocks, calmly walking toward him.

The young man was not in a hurry, and sometimes he would even look to the side and pause to crouch, gazing into the streams of lava.

“Splash!”

The young man suddenly stuck his hand into a stream and held up a shiny Heavenly Flame Crystal.

“Here’s another one!” Du Xiangyang grinned and carefully put the Heavenly Flame Crystal into his spatial ring. His eyes shone with a light of satisfaction.

The sword token around Du Xiangyang’s waist that shook every so often was proof of his identity as a Heavenly Sword Mountain martial practitioner.

He was very lucky.

As a cultivator of a fire spirit art, the first place he was thrown into after going through the passageway was a land of flames.

In this place, skyfire meteors would crash every so often, the sky constantly burned, and the small volcanoes continuously spewed liquid flame like fire dragons.

Fire, streams of lava, and fire ponds formed from liquid flame were everywhere.

This place was incredibly dangerous for many people, and most had to form a light barrier to protect themselves from the corrosive fire.

Du Xiangyang, however, did not have this trouble at all.

On the contrary, he found the heat in this place incredibly soothing. Breathing in the dry, hot air, he felt as if every pore of his body were singing.

What amazed him even more was the discovery of the Heavenly Flame Crystals!

He knew better than anyone exactly how useful a Heavenly Flame Crystal was to someone who cultivated a fire spirit art like him!

He had found seven Heavenly Flame Crystals along the way, and his eyes had been burning with desire for a long time now. He increasingly felt better, and excitement shone in his eyes more and more.

When he learned that there was another Heavenly Sword Mountain participant in this area using the sword token, he grew even more excited.

However, when he finally made his way over and found that the fellow with a sword token was a complete stranger, he suddenly froze.

Du Xiangyang and Qin Lie were several hundred meters away from each other, separated by flowing streams of lava and bubbling fire ponds.

Du Xiangyang examined Qin Lie from head to toe before smiling. “I know who you are now.”

Qin Lie frowned. “I’ve never seen you before.”

“You are called Qin Lie, right?” Du Xiangyang did not move closer. With narrowed eyes, he calmly said, “Heavenly Sword Mountain forged fifteen sword tokens in total. Five of them were sent to the Scarlet Tide Continent to be held by Qin Lie, Xie Jingxuan, Song Tingyu, Zhao Xuan, and Zhang Chendong. I already saw Zhao Xuan and Zhang Chendong before entering the Graveyard of Gods, and among all the participants, there are only three people I haven’t met yet. That would be you and the two women.”

After a momentary pause, Du Xiangyang said, “You’re obviously not a woman.”

“That’s correct. I am Qin Lie.”

When he was at Sea Moon Island, Qin Lie once saw Luo Chen bring seven trial-goers with him. Li Rong was only one of them.

Five of the fifteen sword tokens were distributed to the Scarlet Tide Continent. When Qin Lie was at Sea Moon Island, he had encountered the other eight Heavenly Sword Mountain participants including Luo Chen. Du Xiangyang was not among them. He was clearly one of the remaining two people that Qin Lie hadn’t seen.

“Heh, you’re lucky that you ran into me.” Du Xiangyang smiled. “Luo Chen already told everyone to kill you the moment they found you after entering the Graveyard of Gods. Luckily for you, I find Luo Chen disagreeable…”

After a moment of surprise, Qin Lie suddenly grinned and laughed oddly. “I was ready for a war.”

“Oh?” Du Xiangyang lifted his eyebrows and nodded, saying, “Since you’re ready to fight… we might as well give it a go then!”

Just as he finished speaking, Du Xiangyang’s handsome white face abruptly turned crimson.

Hot, fiery waves shot out of every pore of his body. His eyes resembled a pair of blazing bonfires, and it was as if his entire person had instantly turned into a fireball.

He slapped toward the giant, fiery crimson rocks on both sides of him.

The fiery rocks that were the shape of discs rose from the bed of the lava river and rolled toward Qin Lie under the command of Du Xiangyang’s fiery power.

“Whoosh whoosh!”

The giant rocks rolled through the air, burning like two enormous fireballs.

Qin Lie was still.

His eyes suddenly burst with thunderous light, and if someone were to look closely, they would see numerous dense, crisscrossing lightning bolts.

“Rrrmb!”

A deafening roar resounded from within Qin Lie’s body. He stood still as he watched the two burning rocks roll toward him. Then he threw his fists forward.

“Crak crak!”

Bolts of dazzling lightning that were the size of human arms blasted the fiery rocks with a booming rumble.

The two giant rocks were shot down by the lightning bolts, and the fire on them dispersed.

The fiery power surrounding the rocks was completely purified by the lightning.

However, the rocks themselves were still rolling toward Qin Lie with tremendous force!

Du Xiangyang wore a calm expression, never looking away from Qin Lie.

He had no ties with Qin Lie whatsoever. From the bottom of his heart, he believed that the participants from the Scarlet Tide Continent—Qin Lie, Zhao Xuan, Song Tingyu and the others—were unworthy. Du Xiangyang even thought that Qin Lie and the others had completely wasted five of their slots for nothing.

“Rather than letting you be killed by martial practitioners of other forces and have them look down on Heavenly Sword Mountain’s strength, I might as well kill you myself!”

That was what Du Xiangyang thought.

If Qin Lie was weak, then he would show no mercy and kill him immediately.

He believed that was better than allowing him to shame Heavenly Sword Mountain!

“Get out of my way!”

Qin Lie roared and thrust his palms out in front of him. The terrifying physical strength concentrated in his palms erupted outward.

“Crack! Crack!”

After losing their fiery energy, the two giant disc-shaped rocks instantly shattered when they were slapped by Qin Lie’s palms.

They exploded into rocky shards and fell to the ground.

Qin Lie had tempered his body for a very long time. He had used only the eruption of his physical strength and a small amount of the Blood Spirit Art’s energy to shatter the rocks.

Du Xiangyang’s eyes widened as the giant rocks exploded.

He looked surprised. He did not see the light of spirit energy light come from Qin Lie when he slapped the rocks.

This meant that Qin Lie had relied on pure physical strength to shatter them!

To think that an early stage Netherpassage Realm martial practitioner was capable of destroying the rocks he threw with his physical body alone…

Du Xiangyang was kind of surprised.