Chapter 552: Following Him Like a Shadow

“Crack!”

Another glowing soul crystal crumbled to powder in Qin Lie’s grasp.

Without even opening his eyes, Qin Lie’s spatial ring lit up as he willed two more soul crystals into his hands.

He continued to focus on extracting soul energy from the soul crystals.

After half a day of rest and the consumption of three soul crystals, the soul energy that Qin Lie previously used up was quickly replenished.

The power of the soul was a mental one. It meant releasing one’s consciousness, connecting it to one’s spirit sea, predicting the actions of an opponent, and feeling the miniscule fluctuations of spirit energy. All of this required soul energy.

The souls of strong individuals, when concentrated to the very limit, had the terrifying power to destroy mountains and reduce metal to dust.

Shapeless, colorless soul energy barely visible to the naked eye emerged from one of the soul crystals, slowly gathering at Qin Lie’s True Soul.

When Qin Lie’s True Soul emerged from the body of the Blood Progenitor and returned to his Soul Lake, it had been blurry and indistinct.

Having used up most of his soul energy, Qin Lie’s True Soul resembled a transparent shadow even within his Soul Lake.

A transparent True Soul signified that the soul energy within a person was nearly depleted. Such a soul wouldn’t be able to even control that person’s body.

As threads of soul energy gathered at Qin Lie’s True Soul, it gradually grew more distinct like a ghost manifesting a physical body.

As his True Soul became clearer and more defined, Qin Lie’s tired mind recovered. His withered, pale complexion returned to normal.

He regained control of his body, and his perception of the world around him slowly returned.

“Hoo…”

Qin Lie let out a long breath and finally opened his eyes. They had regained their usual liveliness.

After spending an entire day and night turning four soul crystals to dust, he recovered eighty percent of his soul energy.

The sun’s burning light shone through the bright blue sky hit the surface of the sea. Like the scales of a fish, the water shimmered with golden light.

Since he had been sitting on the beach for a long time, Qin Lie stretched his neck and shoulders as he got to his feet.

The sun had just began to rise, its bright rays shining down from above. Qin Lie took a deep breath of the humid air. He suddenly felt as though his True Soul and Soul Lake were clean and pure.

It felt as if the bits of filth that had been hidden inside of his Soul Lake had been cleansed by some kind of power.

“You’re about to have a breakthrough,” Xie Jingxuan suddenly said, surprise on her face.

She had been secretly watching Qin Lie all this time. She felt the purity of his soul, how dense and concentrated his soul energy was. She could tell from his eyes that the changes in his True Soul had helped his mind consciousness grow considerably.

Ever since Xie Jingxuan had obtained the inheritance of the Wood Race and cultivated it, her perception of life force had improved profoundly.

Changes in a martial practitioner’s True Soul would result in the growth of their mind consciousness, the evolution of their life force, and the increase of their lifespan.

She could tell from the slight changes in Qin Lie’s life force that he would soon surpass his current level and break through to the late stage of the Netherpassage Realm.

“I feel that way as well.” Qin Lie flashed a bright smile, then turned to look at Xue Moyan who was nearby. “How long do we have before the Pan Family arrives, Senior Sister Xue?”

After a moment of mental calculation, Xue Moyan answered.

“Even if they use their crystalline war chariots and move as fast as possible, it’ll take them at least seven to eight days. That’s the best case scenario for them. The crystalline war chariots will be travelling through the clouds, so if the Pan Family is unlucky and encounters cyclones on their way here, their speed will be greatly affected. If that happens, it’ll probably take them half a month or longer to reach us.”

Qin Lie rubbed his chin. “It seems like we still have a decent amount of time.”

“So what if we have time?” Du Xiangyang grimaced. “We don’t have flying spirit artifacts, there aren’t any flying beasts in the area, and there clearly aren’t any ships. Even if we have time, we still won’t be able to leave this place. All we can do is wait here. A few days won’t change anything.”

“That may not be the case.” Qin Lie snickered.

After saying this, he suddenly walked into the waves ahead of them. Water immediately swallowed him up until only his head remained above the surface.

“Qin Lie…” Song Tingyu called out to him softly.

“I’m going to find the Demon Sealing Tombstone. Don’t worry about me,” Qin Lie shouted back. He didn’t turn around, and instead continued swimming forward. “Don’t do anything reckless while I’m gone. Even if you find any of the bodies of the ancient elites… try not to touch them.”

Everyone watched as he slowly moved into the distance, becoming a tiny speck on the sea. Nobody followed him.

All of them knew about Qin Lie’s connection to the Demon Sealing Tombstone. Even if they did follow him, they probably wouldn’t be any help. The tombstone could even mistake them as enemies and attack them.

They would only be able to do something when Qin Lie found the Demon Sealing Tombstone, learned about its mysteries, and made sense of the seals on the bodies of the ancient elites.

So they just waited patiently as they watched Qin Lie leave. As they gradually recovered their strength, they started searching the island they were on for the bodies that had crash-landed.

Qin Lie swam amongst the desolate islands, sending out signals with his mind consciousness.

The Demon Sealing Tombstone had his blood energy. Channeling the Blood Spirit Art allowed him to sense his blood energy in a wondrous manner. If the Demon Sealing Tombstone were near him, he’d be able to sense it.

“Hm?” Qin Lie suddenly turned his head, flinching with fright.

In the water behind him, he could see a sanguine shadow. It was clearly following him.

He immediately came to a stop.

After a while, as the sanguine shadow drew closer to him, he discovered that it was actually the body of the Blood Progenitor.

The Blood Progenitor should have been at the beach with Xue Moyan. He never would have expected that, upon his departure, the body of the Blood Progenitor would follow the aura he exuded and follow him.

This realization shocked Qin Lie.

The body of the Blood Progenitor, which resembled blood gemstones molded into a human shape, eventually caught up to him.

The body floated on the surface of the water facing upward. It didn’t exude any trace of an aura.

Were it not for the fact that the body appeared special, no one would have believed that it belonged to the progenitor of Blood Fiend Sect, the creator of the Blood Codex.

Qin Lie originally needed to use spirit energy to move through the sea. Upon seeing the body of the Blood Progenitor approach, an idea occurred to him.

The Blood Progenitor’s body silently floated on the surface of the water in a strange manner. It didn’t even sink by a hair.

So he sat on its stomach.

Having a thread of blood energy enter the Blood Progenitor’s body, Qin Lie tried manipulating it like it was a ship.

The Blood Progenitor's body was actually used like a bloody jade board as it traveled across the sea.

“Rise!” Qin Lie yelled.

Qin Lie tried to use his blood energy to stir the vast sea of blood energy within the Blood Progenitor’s sea of consciousness.

Qin Lie thought back to the time that his soul sank into the sanguine seven-level pagoda in the Blood Progenitor’s sea of consciousness and controlled the Blood Progenitor’s body.

He did the same as before, except this time he willed the body to fly through the sky.

“Whoosh!”

The body of the Blood Progenitor miraculously rose into the air and hovered ten meters above the sea.

“Awesome!” Qin Lie cried happily, clapping his hands. He nodded in satisfaction, then said, “It seems that, even if the Pan Family does come, I won’t have to sit around and wait for death.”

When he manipulated the Blood Progenitor’s body, it became a flying spirit artifact that could be ridden… and it was fast!

“Not bad!” he exclaimed. “Now it’ll be much easier to find the Demon Sealing Tombstone.”

So Qin Lie sat on the body of the Blood Progenitor, flashing through the air above the sea and the desolate islands like a bolt of bloody lightning.

𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Seven minutes later, he arrived at an island full of mountains and bare of any vegetation and immediately sensed the Demon Sealing Tombstone.

The Blood Progenitor’s body immediately shot toward it.

At the base of one of the island’s desolate mountains, in a valley that didn’t even have a single plant, numerous stones lay scattered around.

The Demon Sealing Tombstone sat next to a grayish-brown rock. It looked dim, as if it had used up a lot of power.

Like the rocks scattered around the valley, the god heads, which were the size of enormous boulders, lay around the Demon Sealing Tombstone.

The god heads also didn’t shine like they originally did. They were dim and pale.

Qin Lie flew off of the Blood Progenitor’s body and moved forward to pick up the Demon Sealing Tombstone with his hand.

He tried sensing the Demon Sealing Tombstone and discovered that the strange power within it was still circulating. The seven godly lights that had disappeared from its surface were going through a complex transformation.

“This is…” Qin Lie murmured.

After a moment of thought, his eyes lit up and an excited expression leaped to his face.

The Demon Sealing Tombstone was refining the earth, metal, and water spirits!

He knew that the Demon Sealing Tombstone would soon give him the essences of these three spirits, just like it had done with the fire, wood, and thunder spirits!