Chapter 550: Return

Eight people lay on the beach of a lone island. Breathing in salty, yet refreshing air, they rejoiced at their close escape from disaster, celebrating their new lease on life.

Within the seven-level soul pagoda in the Blood Progenitor’s sea of consciousness, Qin Lie’s True Soul was almost completely empty of soul energy.

Time passed by slowly.

Qin Lie stopped moving and did not attempt to control the Blood Progenitor’s body. He stayed, unmoving, for an interminable amount of time, recovering his soul energy bit by bit.

Before even thinking about leaving the Blood Progenitor’s body and returning to his own, he waited until he regained some soul energy.

“Fwoosh…”

The moment the thought appeared in his mind, Qin Lie’s True Soul abruptly floated away from the soul pagoda as an indistinct bloody figure. It flowed along the Blood Progenitor’s translucent blood vessels and emerged from the space between his eyebrows.

Hidden deep within the space between Qin Lie’s own eyebrows, the Soul Suppressing Orb suddenly generated a powerful vacuum. A strong summons resonated from his Soul Lake.

His True Soul instantly entered the sea of consciousness of his actual body, returning to his Soul Lake.

A loud rumble echoed throughout Qin Lie’s mind, and he suddenly opened his eyes. They shone with a strange light.

“You’re awake?” Song Tingyu cried in surprise.

She hadn’t been able to get close to the Blood Progenitor’s body, so she could only watch over Qin Lie’s body. The second he opened his eyes, she noticed.

Her right hand had been grasping Qin Lie’s left hand this entire time. She could feel the strong, powerful beat of his heart.

Upon hearing her cry out in surprise, everyone nearby looked over to them.

Gao Yu, who sat by himself far from the others, also subconsciously looked in that direction.

“Mn. I’m fine now. How is everyone else?” Qin Lie tried to sit up, but he quickly discovered that he was out of soul energy.

His soul didn’t have the strength to even control his own body.

“You almost depleted all of your soul energy. For the time being, it would be wise not to make any careless movements. You need time to recuperate.” As she spoke, Song Tingyu took out multiple soul crystals and gave them to Qin Lie. “Use these soul crystals to replenish your power as soon as possible.”

“Mn.” Qin Lie didn’t even try pretending he was fine. Gripping a soul crystal, he immediately released his mind consciousness and extracted the soul energy inside of it.

At the other end of their group, Xue Moyan was staring at the Blood Progenitor’s body. She discovered that the potent blood energy that it originally radiated had instantly vanished. It was as if the Blood Progenitor had fallen asleep as soon as Qin Lie’s soul left it.

She examined the body with her soul consciousness and discovered that no trace of blood energy remained within.

The Blood Progenitor’s body seemed to possess some kind of strange, secret way to withdraw and conceal its aura, one that allowed it to avoid the soul perception of experts.

This discovery left Xue Moyan inwardly surprised.

“All of you may relax and recover,” Qin Lie said as he replenished his soul energy using the soul crystals. He made sure to remember to inform them of the situation. “When I was still inside of the Blood Progenitor’s body, I used the his power to scan the area. I didn’t find any sign of activity belonging to intelligent beings within two hundred and fifty kilometers of this region of the sea. We can take it easy.”

“This is a remote, desolate area. Of course they wouldn’t be any experts around,” Du Xiangyang interjected. Then his face took on a serious expression as he said, “Qin Lie. A lot of bodies of ancient elites escaped the Graveyard of Gods with us, right?”

“That’s right,” Qin Lie answered.

“And they’re…” Du Xiangyang started speaking, but he stopped. He looked like he really wanted to say something.

Realizing what Du Xiangyang was getting at, Luo Chen, Xie Jingxuan, and Pan Qianqian grew excited. Their eyes sparkled with bright light.

“All of the bodies that made the trip with us are scattered across these islands and throughout this region of the sea. Searching for them will take time.” Qin Lie sighed, then continued, “I know you guys plan on looking for them, but it’d be best for us to wait until I find the Demon Sealing Tombstone and make sense of the situation.”

“O-of course…” Du Xiangyang chuckled foolishly.

At this point, all of them knew that the Graveyard of Gods was completely gone. This Trial would also end in a very strange fashion…

The deadline of the Trial hadn’t arrived yet, but almost all of the participants were dead since the Graveyard of Gods had collapsed. Qin Lie’s group hadn’t returned using normal means either. In light of all of this, how would the outcome of the Trial be determined?

In Du Xiangyang’s opinion, the fates of Feng Yiyou and Yu Men weren’t auspicious. In that case, they would be the only martial practitioners of the nine great Silver rank forces who participated in the Trial and succeeded in surviving.

The most valuable precious treasures of the Graveyard of Gods were undoubtedly the Pure Soul Springs, the soul crystals, the Spring of Life, and the remains of ancient elites.

Qin Lie had taken all of the Pure Soul Springs, and the other had obtained large amounts of soul crystals. It could be said that the rest of them benefited from just associating with him.

If they were able to obtain one or two bodies of ancient elites and bring them back to their sects, or even use them to improve their own cultivation, they would be considered the ones who profited the most.

At this moment, the numerous bodies of ancient elites scattered across the islands and deep within the sea presented them with an opportunity that only came around once in a blue moon.

They naturally wouldn’t want to miss out on such an opportunity.

“Think about how the ringers of Black Voodoo Cult met their ends!”

Gao Yu, who was sitting a distance away from everyone else, unexpectedly spoke up.

“Recklessly approaching those ancient remains without the proper way to obtain them is suicide!”

The moment he said this, everyone’s excited eyes abruptly froze over.

Puzzled looks appeared on the faces of Du Xiangyang and the others. Recalling the horrific ends of Ye Yihao and Huang Zhuli, all of them calmed down, growing increasingly wary.

“Let us think about our next move after I am able to move again,” Qin Lie said with a frown.

With that, everyone went silent and sat down on the beach in spots of their choosing. All of them closed their eyes and kept quiet.

After a moment of thought, Qin Lie spoke up again, a serious expression on his face.

“For now… I hope that none of you make contact with anyone and expose our location.”

He threw a heavy glance at Pan Qianqian.

Pan Qianqian currently gripped a translucent, fist-sized blue gemstone with her petite hands. Her bright eyes sparkled with a strange light. She seemed to be preparing to contact someone.

The Heavenly Slaughter Continent happened to be near the islands they were currently at. Illusory Demon Sect resided in the Heavenly Slaughter Continent. This meant that, of the nine great Silver rank forces, they were closest to Illusory Demon Sect.

The transmission stone that Pan Qianqian held in her hand sparkled with a bright, blue light. This meant that she could use this gemstone to communicate with her sect and inform them of the current situation.

She seemed prepared to do just that.

After being scolded by Qin Lie, Pan Qianqian stuck out her tongue and reluctantly put away the transmission stone. She then pouted and muttered in a soft voice. “Fine, I won’t use the transmission stone. You know, our sect master is actually a good person. She would never…”

“Qianqian, be quiet!” Xue Moyan chastised her junior sister.

Pan Qianqian finally fell silent.

Luo Chen and Du Xiangyang glanced at each other, a cold layer of sweat covering their bodies.

In this region of the sea, the three great families were the closest to the Heavenly Slaughter Continent. The next closest force was Illusory Demon Sect.

The Demon Sealing Tombstone and the remains of ancient elites, which had escaped from the Graveyard of Gods, were here. This place could be considered full of many precious treasures!

If Pan Qianqian leaked this information, there was no telling if Illusory Demon Sect would send out all of their experts to snatch the bodies of these ancient elites for themselves.

In that case, not only would Qin Lie’s group not get anything, everyone aside from Xue Moyan and Pan Qianqian might be eliminated to keep this a secret!

“Senior Sister Xue. Control your junior sister. We do not wish for a calamity to befall us.” Qin Lie frowned slightly.

A look of shock appeared on Pan Qianqian’s face, then she suddenly felt a rush of humiliation flood over her.

“What do you mean by that, Big Brother Qin?” she complained. “Do you really think I’d do anything to harm everyone? Don’t you think I know that, if it weren’t for you, Luo Chen, and Du Xiangyang’s protection, I wouldn’t have even survived the whistling attack of the Viridian Blood Toad? If it weren’t for everyone’s care, I would have died long ago. Do you really think I don’t understand that?”

“Then why are you still preparing to send a message to your sect?” Du Xiangyang asked.

“I-I just want to find someone to help us. Our sect master isn’t what you think she is. She’d never be so shameless.” Pan Qianqian gritted her teeth. “Everyone is severely wounded, and the Graveyard of Gods just collapsed. I’m afraid that my family is worried for me, and I just want to borrow the sect’s strength to achieve everyone’s objectives, that’s all. I-I really don’t intend to harm anyone.”

“Naive!” Gao Yu’s icy voice rang out from afar.

Du Xiangyang laughed bitterly and echoed Gao Yu’s sentiment. “Your thoughts are idealistic, but reality definitely won’t go the way you think it will. The second you reveal this to the world, every treasure in this place will be taken by Illusory Demon Sect. As for the rest of us… heh! The best case scenario is that we don’t die. There is no way we’ll be getting anything else out of such a deal.”

“All of us dying is the most likely scenario.” Luo Chen echoed.

“Sister Xue, tell them that our Illusory Demon Sect isn’t like that!” Pan Qianqian began to panic.

“Qianqian, give me the transmission stone. I’ll hold on to it for now.” Xue Moyan said gravely, extending a hand.

“Sister… Sister Xue?” Pan Qianqian exclaimed in disbelief. “Even you don’t trust me?”

“I believe in our sect master… and I believe in you as well. But I do not believe some of the people in our own sect!” Xue Moyan said seriously.

“Either she gives us the transmission stone, or we capture her. What do you guys think?” Du Xiangyang’s face darkened.

Luo Chen, Song Tingyu, Xie Jingxuan, and Gao Yu all nodded in agreement.

Everyone knew that their location definitely couldn’t be revealed to the outside world yet.

They had no intention of allowing Pan Qianqian’s naivety kill them. They had no choice but to treat this seriously.

This was the Land of Chaos. Martial practitioners who were active here were no longer just in the Netherpassage Realm. There were countless Fulfillment Realm, Fragmentation Realm, Nirvana Realm, and even Imperishable Realm experts. If Pan Qianqian had drew an Illusory Demon Sect Fragmentation Realm expert to them and that person harbored ill intent in their heart… they would be capable of eliminating everyone here!

They could not take this risk!

“I… I…” Pan Qianqian seemed to notice the severity of the situation. Under everyone’s serious gazed, she panicked and finally told the truth. “I… I actually sent a transmission just now, but it really was just one message! Just one!”

She hurriedly pushed the transmission stone into Xue Moyan’s hands and retreated. Fear and panic filled her face.

“Who did you send this transmission to?!” Xue Moyan’s expression abruptly changed.

The moment she held the transmission stone in her hands, she immediately discovered the root of the problem. A message had indeed been transmitted just now.

Pan Qianqian knew that Xue Moyan would discover this the second the transmission stone fell into her hands. With no way to hide this, she told everyone the truth.

Everyone’s expressions changed as they stared at Pan Qianqian with gazes that made it seem as if they wanted to swallow her whole.

“She did it on purpose.” Song Tingyu sighed.

Qin Lie nodded and narrowed his eyes, saying nothing. He noticed that Pan Qianqian’s eyes were devoid of actual panic.

Pan Qianqian clearly knew exactly how serious the situation could become!

“You didn’t send a message to Illusory Demon Sect, but to your… to your uncle, Pan Tong, am I right?” Realization suddenly dawned on Xue Moyan’s petite face, and she cried, “I remember… your uncle should be near this region of the sea. You sent the message to him, didn’t you?”

Pan Qianqian screamed and retreated into the distance.

She proved their assumptions with her own actions.

……