Chapter 1235: Was That Him?
While Qin Lie was busy in the Chaos Blood Realm, his companions were utilizing the special environment around them to study the secrets and powers of the bloodline.
They stored their Darklight Stones into their spatial rings because the absolute darkness made concentrating easier.
They had no idea that an outsider had snuck between them.
Cang Ye, clad in heavy armor and a ghastly mask emerged from the darkness.
She stared at the crowd quietly.
"Gan Xing, Nan Qi, and Xuan Luo are all here…?"
Cang Ye observed them one by one without revealing herself.
Suddenly, her gaze stopped and glittered when she saw Qin Lie.
"His soul is inside the Chaos Blood Realm!"
She was a God Race clansman, so Qin Lie's unusual state caused an echo in her bloodline as well. She immediately recognized that Qin Lie was studying the God Race's secret bloodline arts inside the Chaos Blood Realm.
"Was that him earlier?"
Cang Ye didn't make any noise or take out her Darklight Stone to avoid alerting anyone.
She simply watched Qin Lie silently from the darkness.
She quietly moved between the crowd.
Her heavy armor didn't seem to affect her movements at all. In fact, she looked almost weightless as she walked slowly towards Qin Lie.
Since Gan Xing, Xuan Luo, and the others were busy studying their own bloodline secrets, no one had detected her arrival.
"How did this idiot survive until now?" Cang Ye exclaimed in her own head.
Members of the Darkness Family had the ability to see in the dark.
But even then, there were only seven people remaining in her squad.
The unfortunate three who died… had been ambushed prior to their deaths.
By now, she had gotten very close to Qin Lie and Gan Xing, but no one noticed her presence at all.
However, it would seem that the Blaze Family had only lost one member so far.
This outcome puzzled her a bit.
"Zzzt! Zzzt!"
Suddenly, tendrils of lightning gathered in front of her and transformed into a strange, glittering beast.
The strange beast crouched in front of Qin Lie and watched her cautiously with lightning-filled pupils.
"Finally!" Cang Ye thought.
"Whoosh whoosh!"
Suddenly, the wood spirit, metal spirit, and earth spirit also change their intangible state and manifested themselves in front of Qin Lie's chest and at the back of his head.
Every single one of them was staring at Cang Ye and unleashing a sizable amount of power.
Cang Ye was shocked.
From their reaction, she knew that these strange beasts could see her in the dark and detect her soul presence.
This meant that these strange beasts were completely unaffected by the Origin World's environment. The darkness couldn't impair either their soul perception or their eyesight at all.
Suddenly, Cang Ye realized that these strange beasts were the main reason so many of the Blaze Family had survived.
In other words, Qin Lie was the reason the Blaze Family was mostly unharmed despite this strange environment.
—Of course, she was well aware that Gan Xing and the rest of the Blaze Family didn't have such strange creatures.
"There's something around us!"
The Spirits of Void and Chaos manifesting and making noises finally woke Gan Xing from his state.
He, Nan Qi, and Xuan Luo hurriedly took out the Darklight Stones they'd put away earlier.
Once the Darklight Stones had brightened their surroundings Gan Xing exclaimed in pleasant surprise when he saw Cang Ye.
Nan Qi and Xuan Luo also relaxed when they saw that the intruder was Cang Ye.
"Sister Cang Ye, where on earth did you come from? You're so quiet it scared the hell out of me!" Liu Yang pressed a hand to her breast and complained in exaggerated fashion.
Xuan Luo of the Profound Ice Family stared at her before his expression abruptly changed. "Are you alone?"
His words was like a blanket that smothered everyone's joy. They were replaced with shock and fear instead.
It took a while for Cang Ye to understand what he meant. "The rest of my squad should show up pretty soon."
"I see." The serious look on Gan Xing's face didn't fade away, however. He hesitated for a moment before asking, "How… many people are left in your team, sis?"
"We are seven including me." Cang Ye said indifferently.
Gan Xing shot a glance at Xuan Luo before replying, "At least you're doing well…"
Xuan Luo's eyes turned cold. "We wouldn't have lost this many people if we hadn't run into that hunting squad at the Origin Sea!"
Cang Ye had always been a rival to him. He had no intention of losing to her in any way.
But this time...
"If Qin Lie wasn't with you guys, I'm sure you would've lost a lot more people!" Hong Kai also let out a snort.
"He's right," Xuan Luo said tauntingly.
Gan Xing's face turned stiff.
Surprisingly, Nan Qi, Levy, and the others lowered their head all of a sudden and didn't reply.
Cang Ye knew this since a while ago. She looked away from Gan Xing and stared at the four Spirits of Void and Chaos, "It's thanks to them, right?"
Gan Xing smiled wryly before admitting, "He's right. We would've suffered huge losses if Qin Lie's strange pets haven't protected us."
Cang Ye fell silent.
A while later, she finally said, "Not long ago, a Blaze Family member had attacked the Spirit Race, the Bone Race, and the Winged Race alone. And nearly succeeded in killing the leader of the Spirit Race."
Gan Xing and the others shook when they heard this.
"One person? Are you sure you aren't mistaken, Sister Cang Ye?" Liu Yang looked shocked.
Xuan Luo and Nan Qi were surprised as well.
Did that attacker have a death wish or something?
"Yes, they were alone, and I'm saying they almost succeeded!" Cang Ye snorted coldly.
"Does that Spirit Race leader happen to be a young girl?" Gan Xing asked seriously.
Cang Ye nodded.
"But that young girl seemed to possess all four attributes of Spirit Race bloodline!" Gan Xing exclaimed.
"It looks like you've noticed that as well." Cang Ye narrowed her eyes as she continued coolly, "I have no doubt it was a member of the Blaze Family. In fact, the attacker escaped intact after dealing a serious blow to the Spirit Race leader."
"Did this happen right in front of the Spirit Race group?" Xuan Luo couldn't help but ask.
"Mn." Cang Ye nodded.
"How is this possible?" Xuan Luo stared at Gan Xing, Nan Qi and the others. "None of them had left earlier, not to mention that they are no match for the Spirit Race even if they were to attack her all at once!"
Xuan Luo could still remember how scary that young girl named Indigo was after she unleashed her bloodline secret arts.
He refused to believe anyone from the Blaze Family could deal a serious blow to that girl.
"What about him? Did he leave your side?" Cang Ye stared at Qin Lie.
Xuan Luo was caught off guard, but he answered, "He had left our side for a moment, but only for a moment. After he returned, his soul had entered our race's Chaos Blood Realm, and he had remained like this until now."
"Sis, do you suspect that Qin Lie is that attacker? Did you get a good look at the attacker's face?" Gan Xing asked urgently.
"They were covered in flames from head to toe, so I couldn't see their appearance at all. However…" Cang Ye examined Qin Lie closely before finally answering, "That person looked taller and brawnier than Qin Lie. Their bloodline power far exceeded Qin Lie's current level as well."
"I don't think it was Qin Lie." Gan Xing pondered for a moment before answering, "He wasn't gone for too long."
"Was there anyone else from the Blaze Family who entered this secret realm?" Cang Ye asked another question.
"You came in here with us, you know very well that we're the only ones who came in." Gan Xing smiled wryly.
Cang Ye nodded. "You're right."
While they were discussing about the identity of the mysterious attacker, the rest of the Darkness Family squad finally showed up.
They were all holding a spirit artifact that looked like a tiny conch. It looked like a communication device.
"Take this, one for each person. We can use this to communicate with each other with this."
After her squad members had arrived, Cang Ye took out more conches from her spatial ring and passed them to Gan Xing, Nan Qi, Xuan Luo, and the others.
"It looks like you guys are more prepared than we are." Xuan Luo nodded after he accepted the artifact and figured out how to use it.
"You should save that praise for those Abyss Devils who're holding the Origin Sea right now. In fact, they're close to controlling this Origin World," Cang Ye replied coolly.
"Sis, did you run into Hao Jie and Ming Xu?" Gan Xing asked.
"No, I haven't." Cang Ye shook her head. "But I'm sure they'll come to us in no time. Also, they probably fared better than Xuan Luo and I."
She was indirectly admitting that the teams of Bloodthirst and Light Families were stronger than hers.
"Hopefully, we can meet up as soon as possible." Nan Qi sighed.
"It's not that simple. Even if Hao Jie and Ming Xu have gotten close to the Origin Sea, it's not like we can find them immediately." Cang Ye pointed out calmly.
Nan Qi shot a glance at Qin Lie, looking like he wanted to say something.
Cang Ye caught on and asked in surprise, "Can he help us?"
Nan Qi didn't want to admit this, but he still answered honestly, "The range of these beasts' perception exceeds our imagination by quite a bit."
Joy finally entered Cang Ye's eyes. "Finally, some good news."