Chapter 711: Infamy
“No problem. I can find someone to process it as long as you supply the meat yourself and pay the fee. I guarantee that the results will be to your satisfaction,” Lu Kun said.
“Good.” Qin Lie finalized the deal.
After that, he took out a lot of rank four and rank five spirit beast flesh and five thousand Earth Grade spirit stones and passed them to Lu Kun.
Rank four and rank five spirit beasts were relatively common on Prism Continent. Rank six spirit beast flesh had greater value, but as a result it also had the unfortunate effect of drawing suspicion.
After roaming the world and tempering himself for so many years, Qin Lie had become cautious in both behavior and conduct.
Once he had passed over the spirit beast flesh to Lu Kun, Qin Lie temporarily stayed inside “Silent Moon”.
On one hand, he was waiting for Lu Kun to finish processing the spirit beast meat. On the other, he was cultivating and refining the lifeblood essences he had used up while he was in the frost cave under Frost Island.
Originally, he could only refine thirty-eight lifeblood essences in total and not one more.
These thirty-eight lifeblood essences were mostly used up after he fought an intense battle against the Ice Phoenix, Lin Liang’er.
To him, lifeblood essences were worth storing as spare energy because they contained the domineering and violent divine power of his bloodline. They could always be put into play during critical moments to achieve astonishing effects.
Therefore, he wanted to refine as many lifeblood essences as possible.
Lifeblood essences were the equivalent of strength and power!
A few days later, he discovered that he actually didn’t feel like he had approached his limit yet despite having refined thirty-eight lifeblood essences.
It was something he never felt when he was cultivating before. It felt like… he could keep refining more lifeblood essences.
His eyes gradually grew brighter.
Six days later, he successfully refined another fourteen lifeblood essences before he reached his limit. After adding them to the original thirty-eight lifeblood essences he already possessed, he now possessed a total of fifty-two lifeblood essences!
He shook his shoulder once, and fifty-two lifeblood essences that looked like translucent blood gems instantly flew out of his body.
The lifeblood essences contained rich and refined blood spirit energy, the sulphuric scent of flames, and the tiny “blaze” divine characters. They floated around him as his mind commanded and dragged out many blood threads.
“Blood threads, lifeblood essences, spirit threads, spirit diagrams…”
Qin Lie smiled from the bottom of his heart as he let his mind soar freely as he watched the lifeblood essences dance around him.
A novel idea flashed past his mind.
Qin Lie grabbed onto idea firmly.
“I wonder if it’ll be effective to inscribe a spirit diagram using my lifeblood essences as the blood thread?” he thought.
For the longest time, he had been using a combination of spirit energy and a small amount of soul energy to inscribe spirit diagrams on a spirit tablet. This was how he researched the secrets of various spirit diagrams.
Spirit energy and soul energy were two different kinds of energies. His lifeblood essence was also a kind of energy; a kind that was even more mysterious and no less unfathomable.
“What would happen if I used my lifeblood essence to inscribe a spirit diagram?”
The moment this thought sprouted inside his heart, he couldn’t hold it back no matter what. He wanted to try out his idea immediately.
Lifeblood essences were unlike spirit energy. They were created by refining one’s blood and gathering the bloodline powers through the Blood Refinement Art.
His lifeblood essences were different from those of Blood Fiend Sect members!
His lifeblood essences contained the power of his bloodline and were thus stranger and more complicated than others. They were imprinted with the special divine character “blaze”, which had its own mysterious uses.
Moreover, it wasn’t easy for him to refine the lifeblood essences.
“Wouldn’t it be a waste? I spent a lot of time and effort to refine these fifty-two lifeblood essences…” Another voice appeared in his head.
“It’s okay to just test it out.”
“Maybe there’ll be a surprise?”
He convinced himself so and took out a spirit tablet. He started by inscribing the simple spirit diagrams he learned from Armament Sect.
These spirit diagrams had more simplistic networks that were made up of only a few dozens of spirit threads. This meant that he would be using up even less lifeblood essences to compose the diagram.
A drop of lifeblood essence gathered at the tip of his finger. It slowly transformed as it fell towards the spirit tablet.
A bit of blood seeped into the tablet.
“Boom!”
The spirit tablet was instantly ignited and exploded in Qin Lie’s palm. The object had exploded into dust.
“This is no good! A spirit tablet can’t endure the violent fiery energy of the lifeblood essences!” Qin Lie frowned.
He took out a random assortment of spirit materials from his spatial ring. He looked at them and thought for a moment before he picked up the Fire Demon Stone that could be used to refine fire attribute spirit artifacts.
The Fire Demon Stone was a Profound Grade Six spirit stone that could endure high temperatures. With the Fire Demon Stone as his base ingredient, Qin Lie sent out a bit of blood from a lifeblood essence, blended it with his own soul energy and imprinted it onto the Fire Demon Stone.
The Fire Demon Stone spat fire after coming in contact with the lifeblood essence too. However, it didn’t explode into dust immediately.
His expression shook, and he began inscribing on the Fire Demon Stone using his lifeblood essence as ink.
Not long after, an extremely simplified version of the Spirit Gathering diagram appeared inside the two lifeblood essences.
He quietly stared at the Fire Demon Stone in hope that it would cause some changes and attract some spirit energy.
However, the burning Fire Demon Stone didn’t show any signs of abnormality.
The Fire Demon Stone wasn’t able to endure the blaze attribute of the two lifeblood essences for too long, so it too exploded after burning for a moment.
“Maybe it’s because the spirit material was too weak. Maybe it’s because the way I did it was incorrect. There’s no need for haste, I should test things out slowly.” He comforted himself and took out a few more fire attribute stones. He first used spirit energy to draw a simple Spirit Gathering diagram on the spirit materials. He found that they were all effective, and that they were all able to draw in small amounts of spirit energy towards them.
However, when he replaced the spirit threads with the blood threads made of his own lifeblood essences and inscribed them onto a fire attribute spirit material of the same quality, he noticed that the spirit diagram wouldn’t function as he hoped to, and the spirit materials would explode shortly after.
Before he knew it, he only had ten lifeblood essences left with him.
“This is no good.” Helpless and disappointed, he had no choice but to halt his experiment and continue refining his lifeblood essences.
Time passed in a blink of an eye, and he had stayed at “Silent Moon” for more than a month.
He had almost never left the stone tower he rented during this period. If he was hungry, he would grab some frozen spirit beast flesh from his spatial ring and used the kitchen to cook some food for himself. If he was tired or sleepy, he would sit in a meditative stance and rest.
Today, while he was still refining more lifeblood essences, the six Spirits of Void and Chaos who had been slumbering for a very long time finally awakened.
Qin Lie didn’t move from the cultivation room he specially reinforced, restricted and refortified using his own methods and allowed the six little fellows to come out of the Soul Suppressing Orb.
The six Spirits of Void and Chaos flew out into the open.
After being isolated for such a long time, the six little fellows obviously looked listless and tired. Their bodies were as small as ever, a clear sign that they were not growing during their deep slumber.
“Yiya, yiya…”
The moment they came out, the six little fellows patted their stomachs and indicated that they were feeling especially hungry.
Qin Lie brought out all of the spirit materials of the six attributes he stored inside his spatial ring and allowed the six Spirits of Void and Chaos to eat to their heart’s content.
The six little fellows entered into the pile of spirit materials and ate with all their might while cheering as usual.
The spirit materials lessened bit by bit. The tall pile of spirit materials slowly grew shorter until it completely disappeared in just half a day’s time.
However, the six little fellows didn’t look like they were full yet.
They complained and cried out in dissatisfaction for a while, but after seeing Qin Lie frowning with a look of headache on his face, they gradually calmed down.
They climbed onto Qin Lie and used his body as a toy. After playing around for a moment, the six little fellows looked tired and vanished into the Soul Suppressing Orb once more.
Qin Lie frowned deeply.
He thought for a moment and put the Demon Sealing Tombstone outside the cultivation room. He summoned the Ice Phoenix, Lin Liang’er, and told her of his troubles, “Those six little guys’ appetites suddenly grew a lot bigger. The amount of spirit materials I’ve given them was already several times bigger than normal, but still they weren’t satisfied with the amount they ate. Something’s not right.”
As of late, he would summon Lin Liang’er and ask her a little about the ancient times while he was bored and idle.
In reality, Lin Liang’er never had any experiences herself, but her mother had gone all across the world alongside the Ice Emperor. Her mother hadn’t left in a hurry after she was born, and she would often tell her about the vastness of the world and the secrets of many races.
Therefore, Lin Liang’er knew far more about the ancient times than Qin Lie despite never leaving her home.
She passed the knowledge her mother gave her to Qin Lie so as to expand his horizons.
“I think that their increased appetite is one of the reasons, but it’s also probably because that the spirit materials you prepared are low grade despite their amounts. Am I right?” Lin Liang’er answered after thinking for a moment.
“That is true. The last of my spirit materials were all random stuff of low grade,” Qin Lie answered.
“Then there’s your answer,” Lin Liang’er deduced. “They’re not picky as they can absorb all energies that correspond to their attribute. However, I believe that the better the grade of a spirit material is, the more energy it contains. To the Spirits of Void and Chaos, the real food they is that energy, and only it can fulfill their growing appetite. I believe that six pieces of Earth Grade Seven spirit materials would contain the same amount of energy as the pile of spirit materials you’ve prepared earlier. Therefore, six pieces of high grade spirit materials alone should be enough to fulfill their appetite.
“That makes a lot of sense!” The answer suddenly became clear to Qin Lie.
A few days later, he finally walked out of “Silent Moon” and began roaming through the stores of Moonstone City’s spirit material market. With the spirit stones he had amassed, he bought many spirit materials of the six attributes he needed.
He didn’t try to be choosy either. He bought any spirit material of the six attributes that were available, regardless of their grade.
During this period, he carried the Ice Phoenix’s true body with him all the time.
It didn’t take long before he attracted some people’s attention and earned some ugly sounding titles.
He quickly realized that the gazes people were throwing at him grew more and more disdainful and disgusted.
Some self-important people would avoid the places he went as far as they could, and some bold people would ridicule him behind his back or even laugh openly.
“Shouldn’t a guy like him be hanging around a dark place like the Ruined Lands? How dare he show his face in Moonstone City and operate within the borders of Terminator Sect?”