Spirit Realm

The footsteps of the eastern barbarians continued while everyone hesitated. The barbarians swiftly gathered and moved to form a ring surrounding the thunder lagoon. Then, they brandished their bows and eyed them savagely.

The martial practitioners of every force from the Land of Chaos wore expressions that were as grim as tainted water. Every so often, they would look at the thunder lagoon behind them, still struggling to make a decision.

“Retreat for now!”

Qin Lie gritted his teeth, becoming the first person to turn away. He reluctantly moved in the opposite direction which the eastern barbarians had yet to reach.

“Damn it!” Du Xiangyang cursed angrily, also turning around.

Luo Chen said nothing, his expression somber.

Xue Moyan and Pan Qianqian sighed helplessly.

Chu Li simply hugged He Wei’s corpse tightly, refusing to move.

“We have to go now, Chu Li. We’ll come back later,” Qin Lie said softly.

Chu Li abruptly raised his head to look at Qin Lie, harsh, icy light shooting from his eyes. A frightening killing intent welled up inside of them.

Qin Lie nodded. “Despite entering the fastest, the forces that went into the thunder lagoon failed to acquire a single Pure Soul Spring. Instead, they left eight corpses behind. This means that seizing the Pure Soul Springs isn’t as easy as everyone imagined.”

Qin Lie’s words brought hope to their faces, and they quickly came to agree with him.

Even Chu Li wordlessly got to his feet.

“We’re the ones farthest from the eastern barbarians! Let’s go!” Qin Lie exclaimed.

Becoming the first group to retreat, everyone followed Qin Lie’s lead and left without another glance at the thunder lagoon.

“Qin Lie’s group has retreated!” Su Yan yelled in surprise.

The leaders of the three remaining forces focused their sharp gazes on Qin Lie.

Feng Yiyou, Yu Men, Huang Zhuli, and Ye Yihao paused for a moment, exchanging glances, then gritted their teeth and yelled, “Retreat!”

The three forces under their control turned and headed in the direction that Qin Lie’s group had escaped in. They moved like lightning, afraid of being left behind.

In the opposite direction, Sen Ye, leader of the eastern barbarians, grinned and laughed wickedly.

“Pursue them for two hundred and fifty kilometers!” he yelled.

Dozens of eastern barbarian obeyed his command, charging toward their enemies and roaring like a herd of violent beasts.

The Forbidden Land of Thunder was once again the location of an extraordinary occurrence. The four forces representing the Land of Chaos made a mad dash for the swamplands under the lead of Qin Lie.

Black Voodoo Cult, Celestial Artifact Sect, and Ten Thousand Beast Mountain followed his group closely, afraid of being left behind.

Farther back, dozens of eastern barbarians drew their giant curved bows, raining arrows down upon them like a meteor shower. The continuous rain of arrows emitted shrill whistling noises, shooting toward the three forces of the Land of Chaos.

Blood curdling screams rang out as martial practitioners of the three great families fell victim to the rain of arrows and died wretched deaths.

“Hahaha, these are the so-called elites of the Land of Chaos? They practically die in one shot!”

“One day, we eastern barbarians shall enter the Land of Chaos and bathe them in blood!”

“The nine great Silver rank forces of the Land of Chaos have killed too many of our clansmen. They must pay for their despicable deeds with blood!”

“Cut their heads from their bodies and give them to me. They are our trophies!”

The eastern barbarians hooted and yelled as they ran, occasionally shooting arrows and killing the martial practitioners at the back of the escaping group.

Qin Lie’s group was in the front of that group and out of firing range, so none of them were hit.

This merry chase lasted for several hundred kilometers before Qin Lie arrived at a short, desolate hill and came to a sudden stop.

He closed his eyes and sensed the area, then said, “We’re fine now!”

Everyone in his group slowed to a stop, taking positions around him. From their elevated vantage point, they looked back and watched Black Voodoo Cult, Celestial Artifact Sect, and Ten Thousand Beast Mountain. The martial practitioners of the three forces were still frantically fleeing from the pursuing onslaught of arrows.

“The eastern barbarians are extremely skilled in archery. Their proficiency has reached such a high level that nearly every single one of them is an amazing marksman,” Xue Moyan explained in a soft voice. “The eastern barbarians live in a world rampant with violent beasts and evil races. The horrid environment they are born into forces them to become brave, strong fighters that are unafraid of death.”

“Between the Land of Chaos and the eastern barbarians, who holds the advantage?” Qin Lie asked.

“We do, of course!” Du Xiangyang smiled proudly. “The eastern barbarians may be formidable and unafraid of death, but the martial practitioners of the Land of Chaos aren’t pushovers either. We have a more diverse range of spirit arts and more advanced spirit artifacts. The advantages provided by our powerful spirit artifacts alone can suppress the eastern barbarians and leave them no room to breathe, not to mention the fact that we’re smarter.”

“The eastern barbarians are a warmongering people, but all of their invasions against us has ended terribly for them.” Pan Qianqian lifted her head and said, “The eastern barbarians don’t have skilled artificers, so they are unable to forge high grade spirit artifacts for themselves. They lack flying spirit artifacts, offensive spirit artifacts, and large-scale defensive spirit artifacts.

“As a result, the eastern barbarians haven’t been able to gain the upper hand in many battles. In fact, we’d chase them all the way back to their territory. Unfortunately, their territories have special terrain and unknown forbidden lands that allow them to escape our grasp. They can even use them to catch us off guard from time to time, ambushing us.”

“So the eastern barbarians aren’t as scary as we think?” Qin Lie asked.

“But there’s still a lot of them,” Pan Qianqian said bitterly.

“Then we’ll split them up and kill them slowly!” Luo Chen exclaimed harshly.

“That’s right.” Qin Lie smiled.

Chu Li put He Wei’s body down gently and stepped forward.

“What’s your plan, Qin Lie?” he asked in a grim voice, watching the other three forces running toward the top of the hill they were currently standing on.

“What do you think we should do, everyone?” Qin Lie narrowed his eyes.

“There are too many eastern barbarians. With our numbers, it’ll be too difficult to deal with over two hundred of them at once.” Du Xiangyang rubbed his chin, quietly staring at Xue Moyan before saying, “Perhaps, we should put our feud with Black Voodoo cult to the side for now. What do you say?”

“I understand.” Xue Moyan nodded slightly.

“Then let us kill the eastern barbarians first!” Qin Lie declared.

“Alright!”

From their position at the top of the hill, Qin Lie’s group looked down at the dozens of martial practitioners bringing up the rear of the three great forces. All of them belonged to Black Voodoo Cult and the three great families.

“Too bad I’m all out of Terminator Profound Bombs! Otherwise, I would have let them all die horribly despite there being two hundred eastern barbarians!” Chu Li hissed in a raspy voice.

As he spoke, Chu Li unleashed his spirit artifact. His clothing transformed, becoming armor adorned with stars that shone brilliantly and radiated intense spirit energy.

Now clad in spirit armor shining with starlight, Chu Li hovered into the air, suspended above the short hill.

Suddenly, specks of light emerged from within his armor.

“Flowing Sandstorm!”

Tens of thousands of glittering miniscule stars flowed from every pore of Chu Li’s body, swiftly forming a violent tempest around him.

However, the chaos only lasted for a moment before Chu Li twisted the golden sandstorm toward the eastern barbarians.

In the eye of the violent storm, countless specks of golden light resembling fine sand surrounded Chu Li. However, this gold sand possessed a sharp, bladelike aura.

“Swoosh! Whoosh!”

Chu Li had essentially become a golden sandstorm that spun through the air with destructive force.

The golden storm met the rain of arrows descending down upon the three forces, instantly crushing the projectiles into particles of light on contact.

The moment Song Tingyu saw Chu Li’s attack, she couldn’t help but softly exclaim, “I-is this Chu Li’s true strength?”

The sight astonished Qin Lie and Xie Jingxuan as well.

Clad in star spirit armor, Chu Li clearly cultivated a spirit art related to stars. Yet the three of them from the Scarlet Tide Continent never thought he’d soar into the sky and create a violent storm, intending to use its might to go on a rampage.

Chu Li was clearly more proficient in using a sandstorm spirit art

Qin Lie subconsciously looked to Luo Chen, Xue Moyan, Du Xiangyang, and the others. He noticed that all of them wore calm expressions, obviously not surprised at all.

It seemed like they had already known about Chu Li’s true capabilities and that his strength and fame did not originate from the Terminator Profound Bombs alone.

“Chu Li is definitely the strongest of all the ringers who entered the Graveyard of Gods!” Du Xiangyang exclaimed softly.

Qin Lie silently nodded.

Soon after Chu Li took action, Luo Chen channeled spirit energy into the sharp sword he wielded. Then it shot toward the eastern barbarians like a beam of light.

Light emerged from the tip of the sword, becoming several dozens of meters long. It contained a peerless sharpness, resembling a blade that could cut through space, and its aura was just as terrifying.

Then, Xue Moyan suddenly sat on the ground. The Illusory Demon Orb in her hands floated away from her, rising high into the air. Once it reached a certain height, it seemed as if a pair of bright eyes had appeared in the sky, taking in the scene happening below.

A beautiful, indistinct figure could be seen inside of the orb. If one looked at it closely, they would realize that the figure was Xue Moyan.

Her visage in the orb looked like a white ghost.

Of the eastern barbarians beneath the Illusory Demon Orb, those who raised their heads to look at it underwent a strange change..

Their faces went blank, a dazed look in their eyes.

They looked as if they had seen a person dear to them within the Illusory Demon Orb.

Xue Moyan’s beautiful appearance in the Illusory Demon Orb seemed capable of influencing the hearts of anyone who gazed upon it, miraculously taking on the appearance of thousands of people at once.

Many eastern barbarians lost themselves in the illusion, even the one that was more than two meters tall, had skin as tough as granite, and carried the basket of human heads on his back.

“Mother…” the enormous barbarian muttered to himself in a low voice, suddenly coming to a stop. Tears actually welled in his eyes.

At least half of the dozens of eastern barbarians lost their minds to the Illusory Demon Orbs magical powers and froze where they were, unable to move any farther.

Chu Li’s golden sandstorm and Luo Chen’s peerlessly sharp blade seized the opportunity that Xue Moyan’s Illusory Demon Orb had created, charging into the midst of the eastern barbarians.

Animalistic shrieks rang out as the first eastern barbarians were swallowed by the sandstorm, resulting in the dazed barbarians waking up one after another.

At this point, the martial practitioners of Black Voodoo Cult, Celestial Artifact Sect, and Ten Thousand Beast Mountain finally reacted, abruptly turning around to unleash their respective spirit artifacts and counterattack.

“Uooooooooooh!”

Waking up from the illusion-induced daze, the giant eastern barbarian howled at the sky like a beast that had lost its mother.

Immediately afterward, he pounded the ground with his fists.

The giant barbarian’s stony fists pummeled the ground, scattering bright yellow spirit energy and creating strange rumbling noises.

“Crack!”

The gray, muddy soil on the surface of the swampland transformed into countless sharp arrows that shot into the area in front of the eastern barbarian giant.

These dark gray arrows carried a terrifying amount of energy. They resembled snakes as they veered toward the three forces of martial practitioners, also targeting the center of the sandstorm where Chu Li was.

The eastern barbarian giant howled continuously, going into a rage and stampeding toward the three forces that had just turned around.

He slammed into a Lin Family martial practitioner like a massive boulder, crushing the man’s bones.