Chapter 1014: Trapped (1/2)

Realm number thirteen wasn’t a vast one.

Any Void domain expert would be able to cover its surface within days without relying on air-transportation spiritual tools.

Saint domain experts would be able to travel through it within a day.

Of course, it would take longer if they were going to search for disciples of the Nether Spirit Society.

A few hours later, a message from Huang Jinnan came through.

Nie Tian, Pei Qiqi, and the late Saint domain expert from the Void Spirit Society received the message through their Sound Stones simultaneously.

SHEW!

The late Saint domain expert from the Void Spirit Society returned and stood beside Pei Qiqi in a split second.

Pei Qiqi rose to her feet. “Let’s go take a look.”

As her fingers scraped across the air, a spatial rift appeared. The three of them entered.

In a secluded mountain valley that seemed like a huge tear in the earth.

Huang Jinnan’s face was very grim. Gold flames of fury seemed to be burning in his eyes as he exclaimed, “Even death cannot atone for the Nether Spirit Society’s crimes!”

A ravine in the mountain valley was filled with dead humans.

After a quick glance, Nie Tian realized that there were tens of thousands of human corpses in the ravine.

The actual number might be even higher, since they didn’t know how deep the ravine was.

Pei Qiqi frowned deeply. “Was this the Nether Spirit Society’s doing?”

Huang Jinnan gnashed his teeth. “Who else could it be? We’ve examined the bodies. They belong to sects from different domains. Those sects got along with each other well a few years ago. I don’t know what happened recently, but it seems to have ignited all of their old grudges.

“In just a few years, the war between those domains took millions of lives, Qi warriors and commoners alike.

“The fact that their bodies have shown up here means that the Nether Spirit Society probably prompted this war in secret. They must have done that so they could harvest the souls of the dead, refine them into soul crystals, and sell them to the Phantasms.

“And since these bodies are still piled here, this means they’re probably colluding with the Bonebrutes as well.”

In an icy voice, Pei Qiqi said, “It’s the Bonebrutes again!”

“Outsiders can’t reproduce as efficiently as humans do, and it takes very long for their bloodlines to upgrade,” Huang Jinnan said. “This contributed to us gradually gaining an upper hand in our interracial wars. We have a much larger population than they do, so those of us who have the potential to become cultivators also account for a great number.

“Once humans set foot on their path of cultivation and are provided with enough cultivation resources, it’ll be easy for them to grow stronger and stronger.

“Even though we also suffer heavy losses in interracial wars, since we have a much larger base, we can easily make up for those we lose.

“The outsiders, however, are naturally disadvantaged in this aspect.

“For races like the Phantasms, which rely on soul crystals to strengthen themselves, the main source of their soul crystals is dead humans.

“Also, soul crystals apply to not only Phantasms, but Demons, Fiends, and many other powerful races as well. They can all use soul crystals to strengthen their souls.

“For this reason, soul crystals are traded among many outsider races.

“Meanwhile, Bonebrutes need corpses to build burial grounds, which can provide their people with death power and help upgrade their bloodlines.

“If there are no mishaps, these dead humans are what the Nether Spirit Society disciples have prepared for the Bonebrutes.”

After Huang Jinnan said these words, both Nie Tian and Pei Qiqi fell silent.

Only after a while did Pei Qiqi ask, “Have you spotted any Nether Spirit Society disciples?”

Huang Jinnan shook his head. “No. I suspect that they must understand that we would send our powerful experts to the Domain of Nether Heaven soon after the deaths of three of our elders. So they must have evacuated to safe places.

“But they probably left in a hurry, so they didn’t have a chance to finish their transaction with the Bonebrutes.”

WHOOSH!

Zhao Heng, who was at the late Saint domain, flew over. Upon seeing Huang Jinnan, he reported, “I covered the whole realm, but didn’t capture any spiritual or soul auras. However, I found a number of graveyards very much like this one, all of which are filled with dead humans.”

“From the look of it, we’re not going to find any Nether Spirit Society disciples in this realm,” Huang Jinnan said with a cold, frustrated tone.

He had originally planned to slay the Nether Spirit Society disciples himself to vent his anger after finding them.

Days passed...

Huang Jinnan’s Void and Saint domain subordinates returned successively, and they all shook their heads upon seeing him.

They had searched every corner of realm number thirteen, but failed to find a single Nether Spirit Society disciple.

“Burn the bodies, all of them!” Huang Jinnan ordered.

Under his command, experts who were well-versed in flame incantations or held fire-attributed spiritual tools flew off to the graveyards to burn the dead humans to ashes.

They did that to prevent the Nether Spirit Society from recovering them after they left. They didn’t want them to fall into the Bonebrutes’ hands and become their source of power.

“Let’s move on to the next realm,” Pei Qiqi said. “The closest one to us is realm number nine.”

After another spatial rift split open in the sky, everyone streamed into it.

...

In realm number nine in the Domain of Nether Heaven.

Pei Qiqi’s expression flickered as soon as she flew out of the spatial rift.

WHOOSH!