Spirit Realm

The wooden sculpture in Qin Lie’s hand had started up a couple of times before. Once, it was in the Nether Realm when he first met Ku Luo of the Horned Demon Race.

It was caused by another wooden sculpture in Ku Luo’s possession.

The other time was when he saw the white bone nether spirit altar at the back of Herb Mountain. He had obtained the Nine Hells Evil Scripture and a soul message from another member of the evil races that time.

This was the third time.

The sculpture was emanating with dark wood-colored light. It wasn’t especially bright, but it was very eye-catching.

It was a thing inside the wooden house beside the old well that triggered the change in the wooden sculpture.

Qin Lie’s footsteps quickened!

Chu Li, Luo Chen and Du Xiangyang chased after him.

Stepping over many wood clan corpses, Qin Lie charged into the wooden house and smashed the doors open.

A person who absolutely shouldn't have shown up at this place suddenly entered Qin Lie’s eyes—it was Xie Jingxuan!

On the bed inside the shabby wooden house, Xie Jingxuan, dressed in white, sat alone like a ghost.

The voodoo toxin in her body obviously hadn’t fully dissipated yet. Black tendrils still remained within her pupils.

But she was still hanging on to life!

Not only was she alive, she was even gripping a wooden sculpture that was a size smaller, but exactly identical to the one he had in his hand!

This shocked Qin Lie greatly.

However, just when Qin Lie was about to question her, Xie Jingxuan suddenly charged at him from the bed like a beam of cold light.

A cold and immense energy that was filled with the refined scent of plants enveloped the entire wooden house.

In the next instant, a terrifying feeling of being entangled tightly by thousands of vines enveloped Qin Lie. The shackling power made even his breathing difficult.

Since when did Xie Jingxuan possess such a terrifying power?

Qin Lie looked at her in utter shock.

Black and white spots appeared deep within Xie Jingxuan’s dark gray pupils. A blank expression appeared on her face.

It was as if she didn’t recognize him at all.

Just when Qin Lie was about to cry out, Xie Jingxuan forcefully snatched the wooden sculpture tightly gripped in his hand and turned blurry.

A cold and white mist spread eerily throughout the entire wooden house. Qin Lie could feel the invisible vines shackling him swiftly dissipating inside the room.

Qin Lie soon recovered a short while later. The white mist inside the room had also dissipated.

Xie Jingxuan had vanished as well.

There was an open window beside the wooden bed. It seemed to be the path where she left from.

All of this had happened in the blink of an eye. It was so quick that Qin Lie did not even manage to react or let out a cry of shock.

When Chu Li, Luo Chen, Xue Moyan and the others had come over and walked into the wooden house, they neither saw anything nor noticed anything amiss.

They only saw Qin Lie’s pale face and the huge shock in his eyes. He appeared to have been greatly shocked by something.

“What is it?” Song Tingyu came in and asked gently.

“Who do you think I saw just now?” Qin Lie’s expression was odd to the extreme.

“Who was it?”

“Xie Jingxuan.”

“Ah?!”

Song Tingyu covered her mouth and exclaimed softly, “She’s... she’s still alive? How did she manage to hold out after being infected by the voodoo toxin for so long?”

He Wei had also cried out in surprise, “She was already about to collapse when I last saw her. Logically speaking, she should’ve died a long time ago.” She was also wrought in disbelief.

Meanwhile, Xue Moyan and the rest of the people looked confused by the situation.

“Not only is she alive, she even hid in this wooden house on purpose and waited for my arrival while holding the wooden sculpture. The second I walked in, she shackled me with a great power and immobilized me in an instant. After she snatched the wooden sculpture from my hands, she then escaped through that window!” Qin Lie sucked in a deep breath and exclaimed, “I dare not say if she is still the Xie Jingxuan I know. The aura she unleashed and that immense power was absolutely far greater than her peak form!”

“Just what on earth happened to her?” Song Tingyu was incredibly shocked.

“Why didn’t you go after her?” Chu Li asked.

“Go after her?” Qin Lie smiled bitterly, “I know I can’t catch up to her. The reason she lured me with the wooden sculpture was for the wooden sculpture I possessed. I’m confused as to what happened and I want to know what happened to her as well. I want to know if the… current her is still the real her!”

The group fell into a momentary silence.

While frowning deeply, Qin Lie carefully inspected everything inside the wooden house to see if there was anything out of the ordinary.

Ultimately, he retreated in helplessness.

According to He Wei’s explanation, Xie Jingxuan had been deeply infected by the voodoo toxin earlier. The voodoo toxin would absorb her soul and life energy every second until she was empty and passed away.

Taking timeline into consideration, there was no way for Xie Jingxan to survive up to this point if a miracle hadn’t happened.

But now that he met her again, Qin Lie discovered that she was still fine despite still being infected with the voodoo toxin.

It was as if Xie Jingxuan had a huge amount of life and soul energy to be expended.

“The Wood Race, the Wood Race,…”

He recalled the memory that had appeared in his mind when he experienced the flashback earlier and carefully combed through it again.

At the same time, after he walked out of the wooden house, he summoned the blank tombstone from his spatial ring with a thought.

The tombstone containing seven bolts of rainbow light instantly appeared in front of the group, causing everyone’s faces to change instantly.

“This tombstone came from the God Corpse’s bellybutton. It is said to be related to the Graveyard of Gods.” Qin Lie explained, “The seven divine lights inside the tombstone are probably related to the other seven God Corpses, and this tombstone… had been in Luo Chen’s possession for a short time. Then, it had flown towards me on its own and even led me to the Fire Qilin’s body at in the Land of Fire…”

For the first time, he explained everything that had happened after he discovered the God Corpse, how he obtained it from Jiang Tianxing and how he lost and recovered it later. He also explained blank tombstone’s powers.

He looked towards the group and asked, “Does any one of you know anything relating to the Graveyard of Gods and this tombstone?”

He observed everyone’s faces one by one.

He saw doubt and confusion on Luo Chen’s face, and he saw indescribable surprise on Du Xiangyang and He Wei’s faces as well.

It was obvious that these people did not know anything about the tombstone and the Graveyard of Gods.

Qin Lie then looked at Chu Li.

Chu Li was rubbing his chin while his eyes shone with the light of ponderment. He seemed to be sorting out the thoughts in his mind.

Meanwhile, the translucent eyes of Illusory Demon Sect’s Xue Moyan were shining with many crisscrossing lights. It was as if there were many secrets contained behind them.

She knew something about this!

Qin Lie’s expression changed, and he put all of his attention on Xue Moyan. As his eyes grew brighter and brighter, he exclaimed, “I have taken out the tombstone and showed you my sincerity. What do you know about the Graveyard of Gods and the tombstone?”

After the wooden sculpture he left behind had been snatched away by Xie Jingxuan in an odd fashion, a huge seed of doubt grew inside Qin Lie’s heart.

He desperately wanted to know what kind of secrets were hidden in the Graveyard of Gods and the tombstone.

Right now, he felt like a headless fly flying around without aim or purpose throughout the Graveyard of Gods. He felt as if he was trapped in a thick mist, completely baffled by the sudden developments around him.

While Xue Moyan was still hesitating, the seven brilliant rainbows inside the blank tombstone standing in front of Qin Lie began to twist and turn like a snake.

Imposing magical energy abruptly spread out.

“Glug glug! Glug glug!”

An odd sound of water flowing came from inside the stone well surrounded by the Wood Race corpses.

The stone well actually contained water!

The people closest to the stone well immediately looked at it. Qin Lie was among them.

Inside the stone well, the dark green water was bubbling as if it was being boiled.

After the bubbles popped, they released a grass-green mist that floated up and filled the air around the well.

This energy was full of life and natural, refreshing aura of refined wood. This green-colored mist was spreading towards them.

“The ageless spring, also known as the Spring of Life, can replenish one’s life energy and greatly increase one’s lifespan.” Xue Moyan suddenly spoke up, “The reason that Xie Jingxuan managed to hold out until now after she was infected by the voodoo toxin was probably because she drank from this Spring of Life. It maintained her life force at a peak state, and since the rate at which her life was dissipating was slower than the rate at which her life was replenished, she was able to survive until now…”

“The Spring of Life!” Chu Li’s eyes lit up.

Luo Chen and Du Xiangyang immediately became spirited as well.

“Sister Xue, the holy medicine you’re looking for is the spring water of the Spring of Life, am I right?” Pan Qianqian asked.

“Correct. The reason I came to the examination is because I hoped to find the Spring of Life.” Xue Moyan was lost in thought as she stared at the stone well beside her and frowned, “However, it would seem that the spring water of this Spring of Life has been tainted. There seems to be something polluted inside the well.”

“What is it?” The group of people attempted to make heads or tails of the situation.

“Swoosh swoosh swoosh!”

Inside the tombstone, the seven dazzling bolts of divine light began to twist madly like chains.

The picture of a sapling vaguely appeared on the tombstone’s smooth surface. The sapling shook continuously as if it was trying to struggle out of its bindings, but the chains formed by the seven godly lights kept it firmly shackled.

“The wood spirit inside the Demon Sealing Tombstone is changing! Ye Yihao is about to arrive!” Xue Moyan’s face was filled with severity.

“Wood spirit? Demon Sealing Tombstone?” After a surprised pause, Qin Lie exclaimed, “Just how much did you know?”

“I didn’t think that you would have the Demon Sealing Tombstone.” Chu Li also sighed.

“What did you know?” Luo Chen also exclaimed.

“Chu Li!” He Wei yelled angrily.

Chu Li and Xue Moyan matched each other’s eyes before Chu Li spoke, “We do know something about the secrets of the Graveyard of Gods and the Trial. Once we’ve dealt with Ye Yihao’s attack, we will tell you everything we know.”

“Alright!” Qin Lie snorted.

“Withdraw the Demon Sealing Tombstone first! During the short time you exposed the tombstone, the wood spirit had probably sensed it already. Quickly!” Xue Moyan urged him.

Qin Lie looked at Chu Li. He trusted him.

“Listen to her!” Chu Li yelled.

Only then did Qin Lie withdrew the blank tombstone.

“Now we can only for Ye Yihao’s arrival. He will be very happy to know that there is the Spring of Life here.” Xue Moyan sighed quietly.

Both her and Chu Li obviously knew a bit more than the rest about the Graveyard of Gods and the Trial. However, they did not immediately explain its secrets, so Qin Lie and the others were still completely clueless.

……