Chapter 516: Out of Control
The combined group of Black Voodoo Cult, the three great families, Celestial Artifact Sect, and Ten Thousand Beast Mountain had eagerly rushed over to oppress Qin Lie’s group, but the terrifying events that took place resulted in a huge blow to their morale.
“Sister Xue! Is that truly the Spring of Life?” Pan Qianqian asked in pleasant shock.
“Yes! This is, without a doubt, the Spring of Life!” Xue Moyan replied, tightly gripping the dark green bottle as joy filled her small face. Like Pan Qianqian, she couldn’t believe that the Spring of Life, which Huang Zhuli stole from them, would be reclaimed so easily.
“Thank you, Qin Lie,” she said softly, her eyes flickering with a strange light.
“Why did you let them leave, Qin Lie?” Du Xiangyang asked. He seemed confused as he observed the mists of frost energy that surrounded them. “Compared to how you acted in the past, letting them go is much more mild. You actually didn’t start a great battle…”
“A battle?” Qin Lie replied with a bitter laugh.
Immediately after he laughed, the dense mist of frost energy that lingered around them quickly dispersed. The raging gusts of frigid air suddenly changed direction, vanis.h.i.+ng just as fast as the mist.
At the same time, Qin Lie went limp and fell over, the blood draining from his face. It was as if he had suddenly been overwhelmed by exhaustion.
“Qin Lie!”
“Qin Lie, what’s wrong?”
Everyone quickly surrounded him.
Qin Lie lay on the snowy ground, the silvery white glow in his eyes gradually fading.
The intense, freezing air emanating from his body also receded like waves of seawater during low tide, quickly disappearing.
To the rest of the group, Qin Lie currently resembled someone who had fallen gravely ill. He seemed extremely feeble. His eyes had glazed over, and his usually strong aura had all but disappeared.
Compared to when he had intimidated Huang Zhuli into leaving, Qin Lie’s current state was like the darkness that followed a bright flash of light. It felt like even the slightest breeze could make him fall, let alone a casual attack from an enemy.
“What’s going on?” Song Tingyu rushed over anxiously, wrapping her arms around Qin Lie from behind and helping him to his feet.“ Your aura was fine earlier. Why did it get so weak in the blink of an eye?”
Everyone else also had the same question on their minds.
Qin Lie sighed subconsciously.
While he had been refining fresh blood using the Demon Sealing Tombstone and using soul crystals to recover his soul energy, Qin Lie used a wisp of his soul consciousness to examine the painting of the absolute frost concept inside of the Soul Suppressing Orb.
As if attracted by him doing this, all of the frost energy in the Forbidden Land of Ice quietly gathered from every direction.
As a result, the area around him abruptly became bone-chillingly cold.
As he examined and comprehended mysteries of the painting, wisps of the frost energy entered the pores of his body and penetrated into his dantian’s spirit sea and three frost natal palaces.
Since he was at the late stage of the Manifestation Realm, his three frost natal palaces had already completely formed and filled with frost energy.
There shouldn’t have been any new developments related to them.
However, large amounts of the intense frost energy within the Forbidden Land of Ice were relentlessly surging toward the frost natal palaces in his spirit sea, causing the three crystalline natal palaces to surprisingly undergo yet another transformation.
With that continuous influx of frost energy, the three frost natal palaces gradually grew larger and larger. The tiny s.p.a.ce inside of each of them also underwent a brand new stage of growth.
Normally, this would be a good thing.
However, Qin Lie discovered that he was slowly losing control over the entire spirit sea in his dantian. The gradual refinement of frost energy inside of his frost natal palaces, along with their sudden growth, resulted in an intense disparity between the energies.
The frost energy seemed to be trying to take over his dantian’s spirit sea and turn it into a s.p.a.ce ruled by frost.
The frost energy was also beginning to affect the other six natal palaces, threatening to transform the thunder and earth natal palaces into frost natal palaces and force his dantian’s spirit sea to become a single attribute, turning it into a world of frost.
In response, the thunder and earth energies within his body started fighting back. All three types of energies clashed within Qin Lie’s dantian.
When Qin Lie first awoke, his aura had been shockingly powerful because the frost energy had been erupting in his dantian’s spirit sea. This was also the reason why the frigid air had gathered around him.
When he was threatening Ye Yihao, in reality, Qin Lie was bitterly trying to secretly use the frost energy to keep the thunder and earth energies from exploding out of his control.
However, that suppression had consumed huge amounts of his energy.
If Ye Yihao and Huang Zhuli hadn’t been so terrified of him and instead chose to attack, he would have immediately lost control.
Fortunately, the two were terrified of Qin Lie and were afraid of making a mistake like they had in the Forbidden Land of Thunder. So, upon sensing the frost energy emanating from his body and seeing his control over the frigid air, they gave up the Spring of Life and fled.
The moment the three forces left, Qin Lie could no longer suppress the surging energy in his dantian’s spirit sea. The thunder and earth energies immediately burst forth and began to clash with the frost energy.
This completely disrupted Qin Lie’s control over his dantian’s spirit sea. The Soul Suppressing Orb had already cut the amount of soul energy and blood inside of him by half. In his already weakened state, the current condition of his dantian’s spirit sea, where it could collapse at any moment, momentarily paralyzed him.
“So… the aura you radiated earlier was just an empty sh.e.l.l that you used to scare them off?” Du Xiangyang asked, stunned.
Qin Lie smiled bitterly, then nodded and said, “If Huang Zhuli and Ye Yihao had been a little more brave and decided to make a move instead of retreat, I would have instantly been exposed.”
The second his words came out, everyone started looking at each other and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“How do you feel right now?” Song Tingyu asked worriedly.
“My spirit sea is a total mess. The frost, thunder, and earth energies are at war inside of me, and it feels like it’ll never end.” Qin Lie took a deep breath, then continued, “I need to calm them down as soon as possible!”
Not bothering to chat anymore, Qin Lie closed his eyes and condensed a wisp of his now weakened soul consciousness to go check on the situation within his spirit sea.
Within Qin Lie’s spirit sea, his nine natal palaces hung in a roiling sea of clouds like nine brilliant suns of different colors. They floated in the sky of the dantian, releasing dazzling, iridescent light.
Of the nine natal palaces, three released tranquil blue light reminiscent of electricity, three radiated bright yellow earthen light, and the remaining three unleashed a torrent of pure white icy light. The icy light resembled a mult.i.tude of sharp, hundred-meter-long swords. They sc.r.a.ped the sky, forming a frigid rainbow as they constantly fought for dominance over Qin Lie’s spirit sea. As a result, Qin Lie’s spirit sea seemed blindingly bright due to the flas.h.i.+ng and dazzling tumult of energies.
Cloud after icy cloud bloomed and released frost energy, wrapping around the three natal palaces to form a cl.u.s.ter of clouds.
With the help of the frost energy from the Forbidden Land of Ice, the three frost natal palaces continued to grow in size while releasing an increasingly intense icy light. As this occurred, the frost, thunder, and earth energies intermingled, continuing to clash with no end in sight.
Qin Lie’s wisp of soul consciousness, which had condensed into an avatar of himself, appeared to have entered an ancient battlefield. Energy flashed like cold steel as he observed the intense three-sided battle unfolding before him.
However, all three sides were technically on the same side him. If they continued to fight, he would be the only loser.
Electric, frosty, and earthen lights crashed against each other over and over, each attempting to subdue the other two. Qin Lie could clearly feel the consumption and dispersal of energy every single time.
As the clashes between the three types of energies and their various fragments of colored, shooting lights intensified, the fluctuations of Qin Lie’s spirit sea grew increasingly violent. It seemed as if his spirit sea could collapse at any moment.
This implication made Qin Lie’s terror skyrocket.
Unable to stop the cataclysmic chaos occurring around it, Qin Lie’s soul shadow wandered between the nine natal palaces within his spirit sea.
He had spent too much soul energy and lost too much blood. His body was also extremely weak. Considering how fierce the fighting in his spirit sea was on top of all that…
It was obvious that he’d completely lost control of this situation.
“What should I do? What should I do!?” Qin Lie wracked his brain trying to think of something.
At the same time, the three forces plodded along in gloomy silence, having withdrawn from the icy peak that Qin Lie’s group was at.
A strange depressing atmosphere surrounded them.
They walked back in the direction they had come from with their heads lowered and their faces icy. Silence reigned.
All of them were thinking about the humiliation they had suffered at Qin Lie’s hands.
“Ding ding ding!”
A few minutes later, a harsh series of sounds resounded from a token at Ye Yihao’s waist.
In the same moment, everyone else’s tokens emitted harsh sounds as well. Without even looking at each other, everyone’s expressions twisted in anxiety as they all shouted in unison, “Eastern barbarians!”
“They just won’t leave us alone!” Su Yan gritted her teeth.
Ye Yihao’s eyes brightened as he said, “Sen Ye has been searching for Qin Lie’s group this entire time! Ever since they stole the Pure Soul Springs out from under him, finding them has been Sen Ye’s top priority!”
“You mean?” Feng Yiyou asked in sudden realization, his lips curving into a grim smile.
“I’m going to find Sen Ye and tell him where Qin Lie is. Let’s have the eastern barbarians deal with him!” Ye Yihao began to laugh.
“Good plan!” Yu Men exclaimed in antic.i.p.ation. “We’ll be the fisherman, waiting until the eastern barbarians have fought Qin Lie’s group and then swooping in for the spoils!”
“Qin Lie! I’ll personally see to it that those savages tear your corpse into ten thousand pieces!” Huang Zhuli shrieked in an unforgettably bone-chilling voice.
“ I, Ye Yihao, have never received an insult as terrible as the one I received today. Qin Lie must never rise again!”
Huang Zhuli and Ye Yihao’s hatred for Qin Lie had already sunk deeply into their bones.
There were willing to do whatever it took to kill him.