Chapter 863: Drifter Realm
“Mn. In fact, I heard that Sky Mender Palace originally wanted to charge into Nether Realm and exterminate them to the last. But for whatever reason, Sky Mender Palace suddenly changed their minds and simply exiled all of them back to the Nether Realm, forbidding them from taking another step into Spirit Realm ever again. They haven’t made the ultimate decision.”
Yuan Shan also seemed to have heard about this. He said excitedly, “I heard that someone had plead on their behalf.”
“Mn. I heard that Sky Mender Palace didn’t slaughter them to the last because of a certain someone,” Yuan Chuan said.
“Who could possibly be this influential?” Yuan Shan grew curious.
“I don’t know.” Yuan Chuan continued after shaking his head, “It has been three thousand years, and these Nether Realm races seemed to have learned their place. They had never entered Spirit Realm since.”
“Haha, at the very least, the Dark Shadow clansmen living in this the Drifter Realm are definitely obedient.” Yuan Shan laughed loudly.
Yuan Chuan also smiled in response and looked down towards the image of a demon dragon’s head at his chest, saying, “With this old fellow around, of course they have no choice but to be obedient.”
“You are right,” Yuan Shan said proudly.
The two brothers spoken openly as if Qin Lie wasn’t sitting right next to them, but unfortunately none of them had talked about the key person of the subject, Qin Shan, also known as the person who had plead to Sky Mender Palace.
Qin Lie was hoping that the Yuan brothers could help clarify his grandfather’s true identity, and he couldn’t help but feel disappointed on the inside.
Still, he learned from the Yuan brothers that this place was called the Drifter Realm.
“We’ve eaten some of your Scarlet Spirit Turtle, but we also helped scare away those Dark Shadow clansmen for you. Our debt is settled.”
A while later, Yuan Shan stood up while rubbing his tummy and picking his teeth. He looked like he was ready to leave.
Qin Lie nodded and said calmly, “That’s that then.”
He was planning to wait until the Yuan brothers were gone before moving towards the direction where the Dark Shadow clansmen had retreated. He planned to seek out these people first and see if he could learn about the the Drifter Realm using Qin Shan’s identity.
Yuan Chuan also stood up while looking at Qin Lie. A moment of thought later, he said, “The Dark Shadow clansmen live down that direction.” He pointed at the direction where the Dark Shadow clansmen had left.
Then, he pointed at another direction and said, “That is where the Demon Dragon Race is living.”
Then, he pointed towards the direction where Qin Lie had come from and revealed a hint of fear from his eyes. “That is where the ancient beasts of rank eight and above live. It is best if you stay away from that area as much as possible.”
Finally, he pointed towards a fourth direction and suggested kindly, “If you head down there, you will find that the spirit beasts are of lower rank. If you’re lucky, you should be able to survive there.”
“Goodbye.” Yuan Shan grinned, waved his hand and strode towards the demon dragons’ domain alongside his brother.
Qin Lie had only just met and shared a meal with them. The fact that they were willing to point out a path to survival to a stranger like him was a proof of their good character.
Qin Lie was unfamiliar with this place because he had only just arrived here. He understood that it would take time to integrate himself into this world.
He wasn’t in a hurry.
Inside the valley, he devoured the remaining Scarlet Spirit Turtle meat.
When there was only one moon left on the sky, and the night was about to turn into day, he tidied things a little and left leisurely.
He walked towards the direction where the Dark Shadow Race was.
The final moon on the sky faded as the rays of the sun suddenly pierced through the dark sky.
At first, there were only a few rays of concealed light. But three blazing suns quickly hung high on the sky like giant fireballs and scorched the land in just two hours’ time.
The way the three suns appeared was completely different from the nine moons that rose from the horizon one after the other. Before Qin Lie could react, the world had once again become as hot as a furnace.
When the final moon vanished, the silver moon mark on his shoulder lost its final trace of coolness.
This meant that there was no longer any moon essence energy for it to absorb.
After a period of research, Qin Lie came to know that the silver moon mark absorbed the moon energy the fastest when all nine moons were present in the sky.
The fewer moons there were on the sky, the less moon energy the silver moon mark could absorb.
Right now it was day time, and the three blazing suns were hanging high in the sky. Therefore, the silver moon mark on his shoulder wasn’t able to absorb even a trace of moon energy.
He checked the mark with his soul consciousness, and he discovered that the first moon at the heart of the imprint actually hadn’t accumulated enough moon energy yet.
This surprised him a little.
He continued to walk towards the Dark Shadow Race’s settlement while the three suns scorched the land. Surprisingly enough, he hadn’t met a single Dark Shadow clansman along the way.
Some time later, he arrived at the foot of a mountain and saw many small wooden buildings.
It was obviously the settlement of an intelligent race.
At the center of the wooden buildings, there was also a very small temple where the wooden sculptures of several Demon Gods were worshipped.
He only needed to look at them once to know that this settlement was probably where the Dark Shadow Race lived.
However, he didn’t find a single Dark Shadow Race clansman in this rather small village.
He observed his surroundings while frowning.
Then, he noticed that there were caves on the walls of the mountain peak.
There were several stone stairs leading from the foot of the mountain to those caves.
He immediately understood where they were.
He walked up a stone stair while yelling, “My name is Qin Lie, people of the Dark Shadow Race. Have you heard of the name Tate, La Pu, Ku Luo, Ku Lu, Qin Shan…”
He was yelling in the Nether Realm’s language, and he was raising the wooden sculpture left behind by his grandfather up high to raise attention from the people above.
Inside a stone cave, the few Dark Shadow clansmen who came after him earlier quietly poked their heads outside.
The moment those people were touched by the terrific sunlight, they subconsciously shrank back as if they weren’t used to its ferocious intensity.
“That’s the guy who snatched our Scarlet Spirit Turtle!” A person accused loudly inside the cave.
Several elderly Dark Shadow clansmen were also gathered inside other cave entrances. When they heard Qin Lie’s yell, they abruptly shook and shouted loudly, “He knows Tate and the Venerable One’s name! He calls himself Qin Lie!”
“He holds the Venerable One’s keepsake!”
“It is the Venerable One’s keepsake!”
“Summon the clan elder quickly!”
For a time, the Dark Shadow clansmen gathered at the cave entrances grew excited.
Even the three juniors who had accused Qin Lie of thievery earlier wore stunned looks on their faces. A look of mad joy quickly overwhelmed their expression.
“Who are you to the Venerable One?” An old man appeared shakily from a cave entrance while holding a wooden sculpture of his own.
“Qin Shan is my grandfather,” Qin Lie said loudly.
“The Venerable One, has the Venerable One come together with you?” The old man’s murky eyes shone brightly.
“No, I am the only person who has come over,” Qin Lie answered.
The moment he said this, many of the excited Dark Shadow clansmen turned dejected and disappointed immediately as if someone had poured a bucket of cold water on their heads.
“So you are the Venerable One’s grandson. Come up, and we will talk later.” The old man beckoned before explaining, “The three suns of the Drifter Realm are too terrible, and we, the Dark Shadow Race, ae unable to acclimatize with it despite living here for many years. That is why we move away from the village at the foot of the mountain and hide in these caves until all three suns have completely disappeared. We only return to our small village when night arrives.”
“I have figured that out myself.” Qin Lie nodded.
Invited by the old man, Qin Lie climbed up the stone stairs until he finally entered the cave the old man was in.
“Come in. The other old fellows are probably waiting inside already.” When Qin Lie came in, the old man bumped the wooden sculpture he was holding against Qin Lie’s. It was only then he seemed to finally relax and led Qin Lie straight into the mountain.
He was doing his best to avoid the sunlight and heat that had slipped in from the cave entrance.
Qin Lie followed him inside.
Very soon, a rather large stone cave appeared before his eyes.
The cave was about one hundred fifty meters wide, and there was a faint blue pond inside the cave. Inside the pond, some blue brown stones brimming with faint nether demonic energy could be seen on the water surface.
A dozen or so Dark Shadow clansmen were currently gathered inside the wide cave. They were all old men and women with crooked bodies.
The moment Qin Lie came in, these elderly people’s gazes were instantly trained onto him. Their eyes were filled with complicated emotions.
Qin Lie couldn’t help but frown deeply when he walked next to the pool and looked at these old Dark Shadow Race’s elders.
He could sense that these old men and women were cultivators of extremely high realm, but for some reason, he couldn’t feel any fear towards them at all.
He even probed them secretly with the Blood Spirit Art for a bit, and he felt that these people were like ancient trees that were about to wilt. Their life forces were extremely weak.
This was obviously an illogical phenomenon.
Normally speaking, a living being of an extraordinary cultivation should possess equally vast life force.There was no way their life force would weaken or become depleted just because they were getting old.
Moreover, as one of the powerful races of Nether Realm, the Dark Shadow Race possessed a very long lifespan.
Tate, La Pu, and Ku Luo were Nether Realm’s natives who had lived for at least three thousand years. Not only did they manage to maintain their youth, each of them emanated with vast and terrifying life force.
Moreover, despite being one of the Nether Realm most powerful races, they cultivated the same way as those highly intelligent races of Spirit Realm.
This meant that they cultivated the same way as Qin Lie, progressing from the Refinement Realm to the Natal Opening Realm and so on.
The only difference was that the source of their energy was nether demonic energy and not worldly spirit energy.
“Why… are you the way you are?” Qin Lie asked the question in his mind.
“You want to know why we look so lifeless, right?” The old man who led Qin Lie in smiled wryly.
Qin Lie nodded.
“There is no nether demonic energy in the Drifter Realm. The plant seeds and Demon Armor Insects we brought from Nether Realm back then were unable to survive the extreme environment of this place either.” The old man shook his head and sighed deeply. “Since neither the plants nor the Demon Armor Insects of Nether Realm could survive, we were unable to convert the world spirit energy of this place into nether demonic energy. Without nether demonic energy, we can neither cultivate nor restore our strength. That is how we became the way we are.”
“What in the world happened?” Qin Lie asked in astonishment.
“Three thousand years ago, our three races lost the war against Sky Mender Palace horribly. In order to ensure the continuity of our race, we, a group of Dark Shadow clansmen were forced to migrate into the the Drifter Realm.”
“The coordinates of this secret realm entrance were given to us by the Venerable One, and we have come straight here through a secret realm entrance on the Nether Continent.”
“At the beginning, we lived among the powerful Ancient Beast Race. This secret realm entrance is hidden inside a mountain cave in their territory.”
The old man explained.
Qin Lie remember something and said, “I have come through that secret realm entrance.”
“You’ve come from the Nether Continent too?” The old man grew excited. “From what I know, after our group had left the Nether Continent, the secret realm entrance there should’ve been destroyed to prevent the people of Sky Mender Palace from finding us through it!”
“No, I have not come from the Nether Continent.” Qin Lie shook his head.
“I should’ve guessed.” The old man let out a wry laugh. “The truth is we’ve tried to return to the Nether Continent through that secret realm entrance not long after we had arrived here. Unfortunately, we failed, and it was also through this failure that we learned that the secret realm entrance on the Nether Continent had been truly destroyed.”
“Why are in such a hurry to return?” Qin Lie frowned. “After you left, my grandfather came to an agreement with Sky Mender Palace. Although you are allowed to return to the Nether Realm, you are forbidden from ever setting foot in the Spirit Realm.”
“We don’t know what happened after after migration. The reason we wish to return is purely because we are barely able to survive in the Drifter Realm,” the old man said helplessly.
“Why is that?” Qin Lie asked.
“There is no nether demonic energy in the Drifter Realm, and its extreme environment keeps the plants and Demon Armor Insects we brought from the Nether Realm from growing. We have no choice but to use the spirit stones we’ve brought with us and convert the spirit energy inside them into nether demonic energy in this nether pool.”
“However, our spirit stones are limited.”
“Moreover, there are plenty high rank ancient beasts where the secret realm entrance is.”
“It is inevitable that people of different races will clash against one another. In order to fight for the right to live, the experts of our race had engaged those powerful ancient beasts in battle not long after we arrived.”
“Unfortunately, our group’s strength wasn’t high to begin with, and due to a lack of nether demonic energy, the strength we used in battle could only be replenished through spirit stones.”
“We ran out of spirit stones not long after that.”
“Soon after, we learned that world spirit energy does exist in the Drifter Realm, but it is so impure that this world cannot give birth to spirit stones of pure energy.”
“We couldn’t even replenish our spirit stones.”
“After that, we kept on losing and lost the ability to counterattack completely.”
“We were unable to guard that secret realm entrance or live there anymore, so we had no choice but to migrate outside.”
“We had moved all the way to this place.”
“But even here, the Demon Dragon Race resides. Thankfully, the Demon Dragon Race and Ancient Beast Race were hostile towards each other. Having no other choice and in the face of our heavy losses, we decided to submit to demon dragon Barett and we finally… managed to survive, just barely.”
“For many years, we had no choice but to grow the herbs the demon dragons need and mine the ore veins nearby. We use these to exchange for some spirit stones from them so that our newborns may cultivate.”
“The herbs we grow and the ores we mine are then exchanged by the demon dragon to their kin, the Yuan Family.”
“The demon dragon doesn’t actually need spirit stones. He procured them from his kin only after we begged him with all our might.”
“That is how we survived...”
“...to this very day.”