Chapter 597: The Die Is Cast

“Miss Xue, is it really you?”

A strange expression covered Xing Shengnan’s face. She looked at Qin Lie. Then she looked at Xue Moyan, suddenly recalling the incident from a few days ago.

That day, she had pushed Qin Lie into enjoying fleshly pleasures with his wives. She had even been able to clearly sense him become one with Song Tingyu.

Since that happened, and if all three women really were Qin Lie’s wives just as they had claimed in the beginning, did that mean Qin Lie shared a physical relationship with the direct disciple of Illusory Demon Sect’s sect master as well?

—That’s what Xing Shengnan wanted to know about the most.

“Yes, it is.” Xue Moyan smiled brightly.

A realization struck Xiang Xi. “You’ve… returned from the Graveyard of Gods?”

“That’s right.” Xue Moyan laughed softly and pointed at Luo Chen and Du Xiangyang. She introduced them, saying, “These two are the trial participants as well. They are Luo Chen and Du Xiangyang of Heavenly Sword Mountain.”

“Luo Chen?!”

Everyone collectively gaped in surprise, their expressions growing incredibly solemn. As they watched these youths, their hearts grew heavy as well.

Like Xue Moyan, Luo Chen was an illustrious prodigy known throughout the Land of Chaos. In fact, he had an edge against Xue Moyan—

—Luo Nan was his grandmother.

Xiang Xi slowly gave in to his fate. “I guess we really can’t get away anymore.”

“I suppose I no longer have to put on this act.” Qin Lie started to feel his consciousness blur, a clear indication that he had lost too much soul energy. A bloody gleam flashed through his eyes as he quickly directed the Blood Progenitor’s body to fly back to his actual body.

His True Soul was just in the Netherpassage Realm after all. He had a limited amount of soul energy that he lost every second his True Soul stayed inside the Blood Progenitor’s body.

Forcefully controlling the body of an elite was already extremely difficult for a weaker soul to begin with.

In exchange for extraordinary power, Qin Lie would inevitably lose soul energy and experience extreme discomfort.

He couldn’t unleash the true potential of the Blood Progenitor’s body like this, but if a stronger soul were to possess a weaker body, it would be a whole different story.

The soul of an expert would be able to increase a body’s capacity for power, displaying strength far beyond what its owner was originally capable of.

For example, if Xue Li took over the body of a Netherpassage Realm martial practitioner, he would be able to use it to unleash the power of a Fulfillment Realm martial practitioner!

This was because Xue Li’s soul was in the Nirvana Realm!

But Xue Li would ultimately find such a method pointless and absolutely undesirable. Even if he could use a Netherpassage Realm martial practitioner’s body in such a way, such strength paled in comparison to the level he desired to reach.

The Blood Progenitor’s body, on the other hand, was different.

If Xue Li managed to merge his soul with the body of the Blood Progenitor, he wouldn’t necessarily be able to unleash all of its power—he might be able to use sixty, maybe just thirty percent of it.

—Even that much would be beyond the level of power that he would’ve been capable of at his peak!

However, Xue Li needed time to truly merge his soul with the Blood Progenitor’s body. He also would never be able to surpass the realm that the Blood Progenitor reached before death.

That was the price he would have to pay.

Even in an ideal situation where a weaker soul dominated a stronger body, the best-case scenario would be for that soul to reach the realm of the body’s previous owner.

The possibility of a weaker soul exceeding the realm of the body it possessed was basically nonexistent.

Qin Lie gave up on the Blood Progenitor’s body for two reasons. First, his soul was far too weak. There was no way it would be able to merge into a such powerful body. Second, Qin Lie still had his youth. His future was still limitless. With enough time, he might even be able to surpass the realm that the Blood Progenitor had reached. He had no intention of prematurely restricting his growth and putting a cap on his future.

“Whoosh…”

Qin Lie’s True Soul emerged from the Blood Progenitor’s body and flew back into his own. As the Blood Progenitor’s eyes closed, no longer rippling with soul energy, Qin Lie awoke on the Wavebreaker.

He took in his surroundings with a weary gaze. Seeing that Xing Shengnan, other Xing Family clansmen, Guo Yanzheng, Qi Jing, and other Gold Sun Island experts had gathered around him, he sat down, took out two soul crystals, and began replenishing his soul energy.

Xiang Xi, Xu Changsheng, and Xu Jiadong floated nearby as well; they just hadn’t disembarked from their crystalline war chariot yet.

Xing Yao stood off to the side, the look in her eyes infinitely more conflicted than ever before. She felt as though a stone were inside of her heart.

In the beginning, she wholeheartedly sought Qin Lie’s death. She had no doubt in her mind that Qin Lie had ulterior motives for posing as a Xing Family clansman and believed that those motives only involved harming the Xing Family. She wanted to prevent him from manipulating her aunt and taking advantage of her trust.

𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Yet Qin Lie was the one to stand up and save the Xing Family when it was on the verge of destruction.

This was why she currently had no idea how to treat Qin Lie.

“Little brother… this body possesses astonishingly powerful blood energy…” Xing Shengnan said. The longer she looked at the Blood Progenitor’s body, the more she felt as if she had heard about it a long time ago. “Who…?”

“That is the body of the Blood Progenitor,” Xue Moyan said, her voice ringing out from the side of the ship.

Everyone trembled at her words, their eyes shining with disbelief.

“Th-the Blood Progenitor?” Xing Shengnan asked in a shaky voice.

Xue Moyan nodded slightly, thinking to herself, then said, “This is the progenitor of Blood Fiend Sect, the creator of the Blood Codex. He… is also the one who created the spirit art I cultivate.”

“The spirit art that… you cultivate?” Xing Shengnan cried out.

“That is correct,” Xue Moyan said. Blood energy coursed through her as she channeled the Blood Spirit Art, her eyes slowly turning a glossy sanguine. The thick stench of iron emanated from her body.

This time, everyone was shocked to their very cores. They couldn’t believe that the direct disciple of Illusory Demon Sect’s sect master cultivated the Blood Spirit Art.

What in Spirit Realm was going on?

In the eyes of Xiang Xi and his men, today’s events just kept becoming stranger and stranger.

“My mother’s name is Mo Lingye,” Xue Moyan said calmly. “My father’s name… is Xue Li.”

Since Yu Men, Feng Yiyou, and Jiang Tianxing had left the Graveyard of Gods alive, she knew that it was only a matter of time before her identity was exposed. Even if she tried to hide it, they would still expose her at an opportune time. It wouldn’t be long before all of the Land of Chaos knew that she cultivated the Blood Spirit Art and condemned her as a remnant evil of Blood Fiend Sect.

That was precisely why she decided to reveal it herself.

“I can’t believe it,” Xing Shengnan said, the information weighing heavily upon her heart. “You? A member of Blood Fiend Sect? Not only that… you’re the most genuine successor there possibly could be.”

She paused for a moment, thinking to herself, then said, “Would it be possible for us to discuss this after big brother and second brother come back?”

“I understand.” Xue Moyan nodded, a sympathetic smile spreading across her face.

“The Setting Sun Islands are your domain, Enforcer Xiang,” Xing Shengnan said. “Would you mind taking care of matters here?”

Xiang Xi smiled bitterly. “Alright.”

And just like that, Xiang Xi’s men and the other Gold Sun Island martial practitioners followed Xiang Xi’s commands, getting to work cleaning up the islands and surrounding region of the sea.

Some people cleaned the area of debris and traces of battle, some collected corpses strewn across the islands and littering the sea, and some gathered the wealth from those corpses.

Others directed each of the three Flowing Gold Fire Phoenixes to land in empty sections of certain islands, and the five ships made port one after another and weighed anchor.

Qin Lie’s companions stayed by his side and waited for him to recover his soul energy as fast as possible.

Two days passed in the blink of an eye, and not a single trace of the great battle that had occurred could be seen. The evening sun bathed the Setting Sun Islands in golden light. They looked extraordinarily calm and peaceful.

Qin Lie spent the past two days absorbing energy from the soul crystals to replenish everything he had used controlling the Blood Progenitor’s body.

The Xing brothers worked with the eight god corpses and continued fighting throughout those two days. They would briefly communicate with Qin Lie every so often and inform him of their situation.

Xiang Xi kept his subordinates on a short leash, forbidding any of them from leaving the Setting Sun Islands or spreading any information.

Xing Shengnan kept in constant contact with her brothers. She took note of all the latest developments as she waited for the situation to stabilize.

On the third day after the battle, early in the morning, Qin Lie sat atop a reef that protruded just above the surface of the sea near a small island.

The Demon Sealing Tombstone hovered in the air before him, with traces of bloody light connecting them both.

Since the god corpses continued to move further away from him, he needed to use the Demon Sealing Tombstone to give them orders.

“Whoosh!”

The Demon Sealing Tombstone slowly shrank until it completely vanished into his spatial ring.

Qin Lie had learned that the hunt for Jiang Hao, pavilion master of Heavenly Sea Pavilion, had finally come to an end. The Xing brothers and the eight god corpses would take no more than a day to return to the Setting Sun Islands.

Qin Lie had everything under control.

Then, all of a sudden, Gao Yu arrived. He spoke to Qin Lie, making his intentions known in a clear, concise manner.

“I’m leaving, Qin Lie.”