Spirit Realm
Chapter 780: The Big Picture

“Is it Yao Tian?”

Forefather Dark Wind’s subordinate, Lu Heng flew up from Dark Wind Island while his sleeves was bubbling with bluish green flames. He was full of smiles.

Qin Lie and the evil dragons led by Gilbert had to reached Dark Wind Island.

“Haha, I’ve come to visit Senior Dark Wind.” Qin Lie’s entered Lu Heng’s view from behind Gilbert’s neck.

“The Forefather has been waiting for you. Please, come inside!” Lu Heng said loudly.

“Whoosh!”

Fierce astral wind spread towards the surroundings above the island right after Lu Heng said this.

“Just wait for me outside the island.” Qin Lie got up a crystalline war chariot and said to Gilbert, “Forefather Dark Wind and I know each other. He won’t try to kill me, so you may relax.”

“Alright.” Gilbert allowed him to go in alone.

And so, the evil dragons descended from the sky and waited for Qin Lie’s return at a spot next to the island.

The reason they accompanied Qin Lie was because they were afraid that Gu Tuo and Chi Yan would try to intercept and kill him midway.

They were interested in Qin Lie and Forefather Dark Wind’s conversation, nor wanted to know about the details.

Under Lu Heng’s guidance, Qin Lie flew his crystalline war chariot into Dark Wind Island.

The moment he entered Dark Wind Island, he immediately sensed rich world energy washing him over. Qin Lie noticed that the island was planted with many rare ancient trees in a nine square pattern.

The ancient trees were at least a hundred meters tall, and their leaves and branches were swaying under the wind. They seemed capable of gathering world spirit energy.

Many wooden towers built from immortal wood could be found scattered in a specific pattern on the island too.

The walls of these wooden towers were inscribed with pictures of mountains, rivers, ancient trees and all kinds of spirit beasts. These complex and exquisite patterns had obviously been made with specific purpose in mind.

“The Forefather is right there.” Lu Heng pointed to the front.

At the top of a seven-level wooden palace that was dozens of meters tall, a skinny old man could be see standing as straight as a bamboo pole near the window. It was Forefather Dark Wind. Upon noticing Qin Lie, he let out a somewhat eerie chuckle. “Hehehe, long time no see. How are you doing, my young friend?”

Forefather Dark Wind’s chuckle was objectively unpleasant, but to Qin Lie it sounded amiable and dear.

He still remembered the day Forefather Dark Wind had interjected at a critical moment and held down both Gu Tuo and Chi Yan forcefully at Frost Island. If he hadn’t done so, La Pu and Qin Lie wouldn’t have been able to leave the Ruined Lands alive.

He owed Forefather Dark Wind a great favor.

“Well met, Forefather.” Qin Lie jumped off the crystalline war chariot and gave him a bow. He said sincerely, “A year ago, La Pu and I would’ve died if not for your help, Forefather.”

“It was but a small matter.” Dark Wind waved and motioned for Qin Lie to sit down.

Qin Lie sat down in a relaxed manner.

“Should I call you Yao Tian, or… Qin Lie?” Dark Wind asked with the hint of a smile poking out of his face.

Qin Lie smiled. “Whichever you prefer, senior.”

It had been four months since he left Prism Continent. Naturally, those who were paying attention to the bigger picture of the Land of Chaos had their own ways of acquiring the news they wanted.

The fact that he had summoned fourteen evil dragons from the Absolute Yin Graveyard at Prism Continent was not a secret to those resourceful people.

Right now, the evil dragons had appeared in the Ruined Lands, and Yao Tian was the only person living next to them. It was only natural for Dark Wind to guess his identity.

“You must think that I’ve learned about your identity only recently, don’t you?” Dark Wind saw through his thoughts with a smile before shaking his head. “That is not true. I already knew who you are way back at Frost Island. Why else would I have done so much to save you back then?”

“Oh?” This time Qin Lie was really surprised. “You already knew who I am back at Frost Island? Then why have you helped me? Please forgive me for being slow and not knowing the answer.”

“There are very few people who know about my origin.” Dark Wind’s face turned gloomy as he quietly pulled out a jade token from his shirt.

When Qin Lie paid close attention to the token, he was secretly surprised to find the emblem of Heavenly Sword Mountain etched on it.

Yan Baiyi, Yan Dong and I had participated in the trial of Heavenly Sword Mountain and became its disciples in the same year. You can say that Wang Enze and the rest… are my senior brothers and sisters as well,” Dark Wind said in reminiscence.

His surrounding subordinates had left his side a long while ago.

They left so that Forefather could chat privately with Qin Lie by the window.

“Ah, so senior belongs to Heavenly Sword Mountain,” Qin Lie said respectfully.

“I haven’t been one of them for a long time already.” Dark Wind shook his head. “It was a terrible joke. Back then, we took our trials and went to Heavenly Sword Mountain to pick a flying sword together. I discovered that a flying sword I found contained an evil secret art that I couldn’t resist cultivating. Since then, I succumbed more and more into the evil art and experienced a fiendish rebound several times. While my mind was addled, I killed some of my seniors and juniors.”

“It didn’t take long before the Heavenly Sword Mountain disciple with a bright future ahead of him was treated like an evil demon.”

“Heavenly Sword Mountain laid down an order to kill me.”

“I had no choice but to run away and hide my identity.”

“I needed greater strength in order to survive, so I worked even harder to cultivate that evil secret art.”

“Heavenly Sword Mountain lost a very talented martial practitioner. A hundred years later however, the Ruined Lands… gained a new evil spirit who had given himself a new name, Dark Wind.”

Dark Wind sighed deeply.

Qin Lie didn’t say anything. He simply listened quietly and carefully to everything Dark Wind said.

“I know who you are because of Li Mu. When you left the Setting Sun Islands and headed towards the Terminator Sect, Li Mu once told me to take care of you on his behalf if I happened to run into you in the Ruined Lands.” Dark Wind looked up.

“It’s Uncle Li again.” Qin Lie exclaimed in astonishment.

“As the ‘Sixth Heavenly Sword’ of Heavenly Sword Mountain, Li Mu’s greatest responsibility was to deal with the sect’s traitors. I was once a target he was tasked to eliminate.” Dark Wind smiled oddly as he said this, “I desperately ran from place to place in order to avoid his pursuit, but he still found me in the end. I thought he would kill me, but… when he figured out the entire situation and confirmed that I had killed my fellow sect members while my mind was muddled, when he learned that I haven’t killed another sect member despite being pursued by Heavenly Sword Mountain for many years, he actually decided to let me live.”

“Had he insisted on killing me back then, there was no way I could’ve resisted him.”

“Li Mu is the strangest man in Heavenly Sword Mountain. I must admit that I owe him a great favor.”

Dark Wind told him everything.

“So that’s how it is.” Qin Lie finally understood the ins and outs of the entire situation.

“I’ve tried to send some of my people to visit you several times at Seven Eye Island.” Dark Wind said.

“I was cultivating in seclusion, so I didn’t know this until this morning. I came immediately after I woke up.” Qin Lie explained.

“Li Mu asked me to pass on a message and inform you that your Setting Sun Islands are in trouble. He said that you should seek out Evil Infant Boy of Evil Infant Island to build a teleportation formation that connects from Seven Eye Island to the Setting Sun Islands,” Dark Wind continued.

“He wants me to build a teleportation formation that connects to the Setting Sun Islands? But what is it for? Setting Sun Islands do not have a teleportation formation of their own, and even Blood Fiend Sect only possesses one teleportation formation that connects to the ultimate blood ground. That particular teleportation formation is limited, it can only be connected to one place.” Qin Lie frowned deeply.

“Flaming Sun Island does have a smaller teleportation formation that can teleport a person right now. Of course, that teleportation formation cannot sustain cross-continent teleportation.” Dark Wind said.

“It does? How did it come to be?” Qin Lie exclaimed.

“I have no idea.” Dark Wind shook his head.

“Does Evil Infant Boy really know how to construct a teleportation formation?” Qin Lie asked again.

“He does.” Dark Wind looked certain when he said this.

Qin Lie’s amazement was growing by the second.

It was very difficult to construct a teleportation formation. It took a formation master who was well-versed in the power of space to draw the lines of space with the help of spirit materials in a unique natural environment.

Duan Qianjie was completely focused on battle, so even if he was well-versed in the power of space, he couldn’t construct a teleportation formation.

It took someone like Luo Han who both understood the power of space and wielded the knowledge of artifact forging to set it up.

The number of people in the entire Land of Chaos who could construct teleportation formations could be counted on two hands.

Experts of this caliber were treated like ultimate treasures even by the nine great Silver rank forces. It was nearly impossible that a sect would ever allow a person like this to leave.

He never thought that the Evil Infant Boy of the Ruined Lands would be a person of such caliber.

“Evil Infant Boy used to be Luo Han’s junior brother. But because he is a… dwarf, he was discriminated against since a young age until his mind gradually became twisted. When he returned to the Land of Chaos after his study was complete, he committed many shocking acts that eventually caused Celestial Artifact Sect to kick him out of their sect.” Dark Wind turned serious. “But although Evil Infant Boy has a problematic personality, his ability to construct teleportation formations is only a step or two behind Luo Han. In fact, it is rumored that he would probably be the best Celestial Artifact Sect artificer in constructing teleportation formations, if he wasn’t kicked out from his own sect.”

“Is he really that good?” Qin Lie’s eyes lit up.

“Without a doubt.” Dark Wind nodded.

“Have you had any dealings with him?” Qin Lie’s interest was growing visibly.

“Dealing?” Dark Wind laughed dryly. “We have fought each other a couple times, sure. He is an extremely independent and difficult fellow to deal with. Don’t count on me to persuade him on your behalf.”

A moment of pause later, Dark Wind continued, “I don’t know why Li Mu wants you to ask for his help. In my opinion at least, I just can’t see a way for you to persuade him to help you.”

“Speaking of which, how is the Land of Chaos doing?”

“Not too good, I’m afraid.”

“How so?”

“The outsiders at Prism Continent are relatively quiet. Perhaps Forefather Terminator had taught them such a terrible lesson that they ceased any thoughts of causing trouble.”

Dark Wind frowned deeply. “I heard that the outsiders have slowly moved their base of operation away from Prism Continent after discovering that they were unable to punch through Terminator Sect’s defense lines. The outsiders that should’ve been operating around that area had split into two forces, and began attacking the Heavenly Calamity Continent and the Heavenly Slaughter Continent wantonly.”

“The three great families of the Heavenly Calamity Continent were able to stand their ground against the outsiders thanks to Black Voodoo Cult’s aid, but they suffered great casualties as a result.”

“However, the situation on the Heavenly Slaughter Continent is even worse.”

“The outsiders led by the Blue Ghoul Race are currently attacking Illusory Demon Sect’s territory. Illusory Demon Sect and Black Voodoo Cult are enemies to begin with, and Black Voodoo Cult had already sent out a few experts to save the Heavenly Calamity Continent. Naturally, they didn’t do anything to aid illusory Demon Sect.”

“Illusory Demon Sect is currently embroiled in a civil war, and they seem to have offended the other four Silver rank forces back at Prism Continent. At any rate, they’re weary dealing with the outsiders right now.”

Dark Wind explained what was going on as of late with the world.

“Oh, in that case everything’s still fine.” Qin Lie found himself pleased by the news.