Chapter 252: Negotiation

“Qin Lie, although the evil races of the Nether Realm are officially invading now, we will not be getting involved for a short while. Both Profound Heaven Alliance and Eight Extreme Temple did not appear to have any thoughts of acting against us at the moment, and all of the Terminator Profound Bombs had been forged successfully as well.”

Chief Reverend Luo Zhichang pondered for a moment before saying, “The sect should not be facing any danger anytime soon. Maybe… it’s time to consider unfreezing Xingran and see if his life can be saved?”

Before the great war, Xue Li had inspected Ying Xingran’s injuries and told Qin Lie that he could still be saved.

After acquiring Ying Xingran and the three great reverends’ agreement, Xue Li had injected a wisp of thick blood energy to maintain the strength of Ying Xingran’s life magnetic field. Then Qin Lie took over and froze Ying Xingran into an ice sculpture to delay dispersal of his soul.

At the time Xue Li had said it very clearly: as long as he had time and the materials were prepared, he would be able to save Ying Xingran.

Now that Armament Sect had gained a valuable period of time, the three great reverends thought of Ying Xingran’s matter and so asked for Qin Lie’s opinion.

Under their hopeful gazes, Qin Lie smiled bitterly, “You’ve all seen Senior Xue Li leave. If he isn’t around, who else can I find to save the sect master?”

“Why did Senior Xue Li have to leave?” Second Reverend Fang Qi asked.

Qin Lie shook his head, “I don’t know.”

“Then Xingran…” Jiang Hao sighed deeply.

“Let me think of a way.” After pondering for a moment, Qin Lie returned to his personal small wooden house, closed the door and focused his mind consciousness into the Soul Suppressing Orb, contacting other half of Xue Li’s soul.

“Kid, don’t disturb me whenever you’re free! I have a lot of things to do as of late. I’m in a hurry right now!” Xue Li’s other half of the soul answered.

No matter how far apart they were, anywhere or anytime, both of Xue Li’s souls were connected to each other. Whatever his original body was doing could be felt by this half of the soul as well.

Qin Lie could hear frustration from Xue Li’s tone. It would seem that whatever Xue Li was doing wasn’t going too well.

He didn’t know that Xue Li had passed down the secret cultivation arts of Blood Fiend Sect to Lang Xie before he left—just in case.

That was to say, Xue Li might very well be killed during this journey.

“Congratulations, Senior. Judging from the energy of your soul, you are recovering swiftly.” Qin Lie said with discretion with his mind, “However, I do have something I need to ask you. My sect master’s mind and soul were damaged, and you once said that you have a way to treat it. What is it?”

“The method’s very simple. I will forcefully extract a martial practitioner’s mind and soul before sealing and forming it into a state that suits him. Then I’ll teach him a secret art that will allow him to absorb that mind and soul’s powerful soul magnetic field to restore his soul’s injuries. Then he will be able to recover swiftly.”

Xue Li explained briefly before saying, “But I have to be there to do it. But since I’m not, that method wouldn’t work. So just keep that sect master of yours frozen. If I come back alive, then I’ll be able to help him recover anytime.”

“Where did you go, senior? With your level of cultivation, there is actually a threat to your life?” Qin Lie was surprised.

“Hmph! How narrow-minded!” Xue Li replied, “The world outside is so wide that you’ll only understand it after you have seen it yourself. If I screw up during my trip my soul will be completely destroyed, so you’d best not rely on me.”

“Your soul will be destroyed…”

Qin Lie sat in the wooden house with a shocked look on his face. After a long while, he suddenly said, “Senior Xue Li, if you can return at this moment and help save my sect master, I can release the other half of your soul. How is it?”

Xue Li had helped him kill Blood Shadow, Yuan Tianya and Liang Yangzu and resolved the first wave of his crisis.

After that, Xue Li had trapped Xie Zhizhang, causing his second wave of attack to fail and stopped Song Siyuan, Xie Zhizhang and Zhan Tianyi from interfering with the fight as well… In truth, Xue Li had helped him quite a bit.

Now, with the opening of the evil nether passageway, Profound Heaven Alliance and Eight Extreme Temple completely abandoned the thought of exterminating Armament Sect.

Armament Sect’s crisis was resolved temporarily. There was actually not much use to trapping Xue Li’s other half of the soul any longer. Basing off the fact that Xue Li had helped him quite a number of times, the thought of freeing Xue Li came to his mind.

“Don’t! You must not take out the other half of my soul!” Surprisingly, the moment Xue Li heard that Qin Lie was going to release the other half of his soul he turned shocked instead of joyful, “You mustn't! My soul had recently examined closely the interior of this orb and discovered that, although this orb is shackling me, it is also a kind of protection at the same time. Moreover, there is another use to this orb… it has a pulling effect on the other half of my soul.”

Qin Lie was confused, “What does that mean?”

“It means that there is a high chance that I will die in this journey, and if I‘m not completely dead yet, I can slip out of my mortal body and possibly borrow this orb’s function to pull my faraway soul directly into it. Therefore, even if my mortal body is eliminated, my two souls would still join as one inside this orb.”

Xue Li explained to him in detail, “Even in the worst case scenario where both my body and soul that had left Scarlet Tide Continent were eliminated, I still have half a soul inside this orb. As long as my soul imprint isn’t completely eliminated, I may be able to come back in the future. Thus, you must not release this half of my soul no matter what!”

“So, you’re begging for me to imprison you right now?” Qin Lie said in a strange tone.

“Guess so. What can I say, your orb is a little special, and there’s a high chance that I may perish on this journey. I have to cover every base, so I’ll be borrowing your orb and stay inside it for a while, leaving an escape route for myself,” Xue Li said.

“You can’t just use me for free, can you senior?” Qin Lie suddenly said.

Xue Li snorted coldly before thinking for a moment. He said, “Kid, tell me the latest news on your side and I’ll help you sort things out. Let’s see if I can give you some suggestions and resolve some of your troubles. Just take this as a payment for borrowing your orb…”

“Now that’s what I’m talking about.” Qin Lie was waiting exactly for these words. Once he had expressed his attitude, Qin Lie immediately told him the recent changes about the evil races of Nether Realm taking root at Armament Sect to nibble at Scarlet Tide Continent little by little, about Armament Sect, Profound Heaven Alliance, and Eight Extreme Temple’s current relationship, and about Armament Sect’s somewhat difficult situation right now.

After he had explained everything, Xue Li thought for a moment before saying, “I have several suggestions to give you.”

“This junior is listening closely.” Qin Lie’s expression straightened.

“First, you must befriend at least one force, be it Profound Heaven Alliance or Eight Extreme Temple. You must be acknowledged by at least one of them. Of course, if you can have them both be satisfied and relaxed around your Armament Sect then that will be best.”

“Yes, I understand your meaning, senior.”

“Because I left, both of these forces now have the power to eliminate Armament Sect at any moment. After acquiring one force’s acknowledgement, the other force will find it inconvenient to harm you. You will be safe for a short period of time.”

“What then?”

“Then have Lang Xie develop his powers and improve his strength as soon as possible. While Nether Realm is invading, and Profound Heaven Alliance and Eight Extreme Temple are focusing all their thoughts on dealing with the evil races, Armament Sect must swiftly utilize this timing to develop themselves. You must remember that the moment the threat from the Nether Realm is resolved will be the moment when Profound Heaven Alliance and Eight Extreme Temple attack you again—unless you have already accumulated enough power that they dare not act carelessly.”

“Thank you for your advice. What other suggestions do you have?”

“Your own strength is too weak. You must continuously improve yourself, and it will be best if you can enter the Netherpassage Realm. Only by entering the Netherpassage Realm and possessing a powerful enough soul would you be able to truly wield the twelve spirit pattern pillars. Only then can you rely on the formation formed from the twelve spirit pattern pillars to have the right to speak when facing against two Copper forces.

“Of course, if you can forge a higher ranking Terminator Profound Bomb, one that can completely blast both Copper forces into smithereens in an instant… then you can do whatever you want on Scarlet Tide Continent. No one can stop your footsteps, and no one would dare interfere with your matters.

“In the end it comes down to the fact that Armament Sect’s strength is still insufficient and my cultivation being too weak. That’s why I have to borrow strength against strength, borrow the timing of Nether Realm’s invasion to accumulate as much power as possible, develop the sect, and improve myself… is that right?

“Not bad. I guess you aren’t too stupid. Oh, right, if you want to save your sect master, you can ask the two Copper forces to think of a way. A force of that rank should have a method to repair one’s psyche.”

“Thank you for your teachings, senior.”

“Hmph, just take it as rent for living inside your orb.”

Qin Lie cut off the communication between him and Xue Li.

He began to exert great effort into cultivating in accordance to Xue Li’s advice. He first had to improve himself.

Two days later, the trio of Xie Zhizhang, Song Siyuan, and Zhan Tianyi arrived together at the poisonous bog where Armament Sect was at and informed that they wanted to meet him.

And so Qin Lie came out to negotiate.

“Do you still have the item named Terminator Profound Bomb?” Song Siyuan said openly.

“I have just forged some.” Qin Lie answered.

Joy appeared in Song Siyuan’s eyes as he said, “Great! We, Profound Heaven Alliance, can buy according to the price Tingyu had set. Oh, right, Tingyu came by earlier, right?”

“She did.” Qin Lie smiled and said, “The Terminator Profound Bomb can be sold, but I do not want to trade them for Earth Grade spirit stones. Instead, I’d like to ask Profound Heaven Alliance a favor.”

“Do tell.”

“My sect’s sect master injured his psyche when he was forging artifacts years back. I hope that Profound Heaven Alliance can help cure him.”

“His psyche? No problem. I can represent Profound Heaven Alliance and guarantee that Sect Master Ying will recover fully.”

“One more thing. The ignition of the Terminator Profound Bombs must be done by me. Of course, those who are well-versed with the secrets of lightning and have a certain level of knowledge about the Terminator Profound Bombs can do this as well.”

“You can do it!” Song Siyuan said seriously, “I need you to go up to the skies of Armament City and throw the Terminator Profound Bombs to blast the entire city. The best direction to throw them would be where Armament Sect was formerly, starting from the former location of the twelve spirit pattern pillars!”

“I don’t have a problem with that, but how do we get there?” Qin Lie frowned.

“Let me bring you over, okay?” Song Tingyu’s pleasant and melting voice came from inside a faraway dark green miasma.

Qin Lie was surprised for a moment before he answered immediately, “Sure.”

“Heh, then it’s decided. I will bring you over.” Song Tingyu smiled slightly.

The beautiful figure of the Flowing Cloud Rainbow Butterfly suddenly flew out of the green poisonous miasma and flew towards Qin Lie’s side.