Chapter 1148: The Burning Army

A peak expert of the God Race could destroy an entire realm single-handedly.

A peak expert like this normally had many weaker kin or even foreign experts as subordinates.

Every time they attacked a realm and gained the right to rule that place, they would often be able to suppress the foreign experts of said realm and turn them into their subordinates.

Thirty thousand years ago, after the Blaze Family had dominated Spirit Realm, the entire Evil Dragon Race had sworn loyalty to the leader of the Blaze Family.

It was very common for a group of people to serve the strong.

However, Qin Lie was just a rank seven bloodline warrior. Even if they were to judge him by the human race’s standards, he was just a Nirvana Realm cultivator.

Logically speaking, he should be surrounded by subordinates who were even weaker than he was.

Any Imperishable or Void Realm martial practitioner could kill Qin Lie with ease. So why were they willing to serve Qin Lie instead of the other way around?

Yan Feng and everyone else was stunned beyond words.

If these words hadn’t come out of Gan Xing’s mouth, they wouldn’t believe it.

A rank seven bloodline warrior who had Imperishable Realm and Void Realm subordinates—and more than one too—just sounded too fantastical to them.

“My situation is a little complicated.” Qin Lie let out a dry laugh before continuing, “I don’t make my men obey through pure strength. I er… win them over to my side by virtue.”

“You win them over by virtue?”

Liu Yang, Wu Sha and Yan Feng all wore astonished looks on their faces.

The weak only served the strong within the God Race. There was no one who would bow their heads to something as illusory as “virtue”.

Qin Lie turned a little red as everyone stared at him in bewilderment. He grew even more unsure as to how he should explain himself.

The soul servants led by Curtis believed that the Soul Beast avatar was their true master.

To this day, Curtis still believed that the Soul Beast was the master of the two bodies.

The reason Miao Fengtian served him was because the Corpse Progenitor was fully refined by the Soul Suppressing Orb. Therefore, Miao Fengtian had no choice but to serve him if he wished to obtain the Corpse Progenitor’s body.

Neither Curtis nor Miao Fengtian had come under his banner because of his “virtue”. Naturally, his explanation was full of holes to say the least.

Alas, he couldn’t think of a better reason to give on the spot.

“There’s no need to fuss over such trivial details, is there?” Gan Xing smiled a little before continuing in a meaningful tone, “We only need to know that Qin Lie can help us greatly in terms of hunting down the Abyss Devils.”

Liu Yang giggled as light danced across her eyes, “Does that mean we’ll be kinda working under him in the future?”

“That’s right,” Gan Xing responded with a smile.

Liu Yang smiled at Qin Lie, bumped her shoulder against Qin Lie’s before pressing her eyebrows together seductively, saying, “In that case, please take good care of us from hereon.”

“You too,” Qin Lie replied with a smile.

As they were conversing, Qin Lie’s eyes strayed off to other places inside the valley.

There were a lot of lava pools inside the valley. A lot of Blaze Family bloodline warriors had submerged themselves inside the lava pools, absorbing fiery energy or eating the Abyss Devils’ flesh to recover their strength.

He only needed a quick glance to know that there were roughly a thousand men inside this valley.

Lieyan Wang with his rank nine bloodline was the commander of this thousand strong legion. Ten men made up one squad, and one hundred men made up one company. In that order, ten squads made up one company, and ten companies made up one legion.

Squad, company, legion. The army was clearly differentiated.

Ten legions made up a corp, and a corp was led by a general—a rank ten bloodline expert who was also the strongest bloodline warrior in the Blaze Family.

There were a total of four corps in the Blaze Family, and they were all led by a peak rank ten bloodline expert each.

The legion led by Lieyan Wang belonged under a corp called the Burning Army. The general of the Burning Army was none other than the rank ten bloodline warrior Lieyan Zhong himself.

Qin Lie had seen this person in his bloodline memories before…

Thirty thousand years ago, Lieyan Zhong had been ordered to annihilate the Heaven Ghoul Race.

At the time, Lieyan Zhong was probably just a rank nine bloodline expert. However, his legion was powerful enough to carve out a river of blood from the routing of Heaven Ghoul Race.

The Heaven Ghoul Race had no choice but to escape to the chaotic streams of space because of him.

However, Lieyan Zhong had seized the moment to slip a burning river of molten lava into the dimensional crack the Heaven Ghoul clansmen opened and imprinted countless God Race divine characters into their blood.

As a result, many Heaven Ghoul clansmen were forced to suffer intense corrosive pain.

For example, if Lieyan Zhong ran into Mathew of the Heaven Ghoul Race, he only needed to activate his Blaze Family bloodline to trigger the imprint in Mathew’s blood and severely wound him.

Although tens of thousands of years had passed, Mathew, Bhutto, and most Heaven Ghoul Race experts still suffered from the burning imprints to this day.

Currently, Lieyan Zhong was now a general of the Burning Army. Lieyan Wang’s legion was one of the ten legions under the Burning Army.

Right now, Qin Lie had been temporarily recruited as a member of the Burning Army by Lieyan Wang.

“Lieyan Zhong, the general of the Burning Army, a rank ten bloodline warrior…”

Qin Lie felt a little dazed as he watched the brawny God Race clansmen chatting amongst themselves inside the burning valley. Suddenly, he felt unsure about his own identity.

Am I a human? Or am I a God?

He didn’t know the answer…

“Qin Lie!”

Liu Yang gave him a tiny push and broke him from his reverie.

He abruptly returned to himself and stared at Liu Yang in confusion, “What is it?”

“I got you some food, that’s all.” Liu Yang passed him a five kilogram heavy Devil Flame Golden Lion meat and said, “This meat belongs to a rank seven Devil Flame Golden Lion, the refined flesh and blood energy it contains is a lot richer. Don’t waste it!”

“Thank you!” Qin Lie accepted the offer with a smile on his face.

Nearby, Yan Feng looked up and threw the duo a glance. He subconsciously muttered something indiscernible.

Liu Yang raised an eyebrow, but the smile on her face didn’t fade. “Yan Feng, oh Yan Feng, how long are you going to keep this up? If Qin Lie wants to, he can challenge you directly and take the vice captain position from you directly, or am I wrong?”

Yan Feng’s expression changed.

Gan Xing was sitting next to Wu Sha and conversing with her. When he heard this, a wry smile sprung to his face as he spoke in an embarrassed tone, “If you do this, I won’t be able to be the captain of the squad too.”

“I’m not good enough to lead you all,” Qin Lie hurriedly expressed his stance.

Yan Feng snorted once and maintained his silence. The jab had left his expression a little ugly.

Gan Xing let out a dry laugh before declaring, “Everyone, we’ll be heading out solo very soon, so please recover your strength as soon as possible. Uncle had informed me that we are free to hunt as we wish, and that we no longer need to standby for orders.”

“That is for the best,” Liu Yang said happily.

……

At the underground cave under Boluo Realm.

Qin Lie’s Soul Beast avatar directed its emotionless gaze at Acarus.

Light slowly returned to the peak rank eight Abyss Devil’s gray dark eyes.

A while later, Acarus woke up from his slumber and inspected himself. He discovered that a strange, tree-like network had covered his soul entirely, and that he was completely enthralled by its mysterious power.

Acarus quickly acknowledged the reality of his fate with a bitter smile. He obediently knelt before the Soul Beast and said quietly, “Well met, master.”

“What do you need to improve your bloodline to rank nine?” Qin Lie asked.

“I need the flesh of my kin. The living flesh of a rank eight Abyss Devil will be just perfect,” Acarus answered obediently.

The pupils of Qin Lie’s Soul Beast suddenly glowed brightly. “What about the body of a rank nine Lord of the Abyss?”

Acarus shuddered once before yelling, “If it is a Lord of the Abyss, I only need to consume one third of their flesh to reach rank nine without fail!”

“Do you know any Lord of the Abyss near your area that presents themselves as an easier target?” Qin Lie asked again.

“I’m not strong enough.” Acarus hurriedly shook his head. “I’m strong enough to challenge another kin at the same rank and devour their flesh for my evolution, but there’s no way I can beat a rank nine Lord of the Abyss unless they are severely wounded to begin with.”

“Just pick a target. I’ll think of a way to take down this Lord of the Abyss and bring you one third of their body,” Qin Lie said indifferently.

Acarus’s mind went blank for a moment before he replied, “In that case, I choose Atkins.”