Chapter 864: Bringing Hope!
The dozen or so Dark Shadow Race’s elders couldn’t stop sighing with shadowy looks when they recalled the past.
Following the old man’s finger, Qin Lie looked into the nether pond inside the cave and noticed that there were only dozens or so unevenly sized spirit stones at the bottom of the pond.
The grade of most of these spirit stones wasn’t too high, and their number was limited to say the least. But this was literally all the cultivation resources the Dark Shadow Race possessed right now.
“We old fellows are all at the Imperishable Realm, but we’ve all used too much nether demonic energy. It takes far, far more than just this for us to recover ourselves.” The old man who was speaking cast a glance at the nether pond. His expression was incredibly bitter. “The spirit stones inside the pond aren’t enough for any of us to regain even three tenths of our strength.” He sighed. “In that case, we may as well leave it all to our juniors and focus on preserving the Dark Shadow Race’s vitality and inheritance.”
“You are all… at the Imperishable Realm?” Qin Lie’s eyes flashed for a moment.
The dozen or so old men and women of the Dark Shadow Race nodded slightly in response to his gaze. Their eyes were filled with helplessness and embarrassment.
An Imperishable Realm martial practitioner was a power that wouldn’t be underestimated no matter where they were. If there were no big surprises, they should all lead a comfortable life.
It was true that a martial practitioner at this level might find themselves running out of rare spirit materials while they were constructing their Soul Altars.
However, he had never heard of an Imperishable Realm martial practitioner who lacked even cultivation spirit stones.
At the very least, it was impossible for this to happen in the Spirit Realm or the Land of Chaos.
He never thought that these Soul Altar experts, a collective strong enough to cause worry among all Silver rank forces in the Land of Chaos, would fall to such an ugly state in the Drifter Realm.
“Actually… there is a Void Realm elder among us who’s still alive.” The old man who was speaking all this time looked incredibly ashamed. He kept his head low and avoided Qin Lie’s gaze. “Back then at the secret realm entrance, he was injured while fighting against the ancient beast elites and exhausted too much nether demonic energy. He is incredibly weakened right now. If we had a huge amount of spirit stones, or if we had been able to convert the world spirit energy here into nether demonic energy using our Nether Realm plants or Demon Armor Insects, he would’ve been able to absorb them and restore his battle prowess a long time ago.”
“Unfortunately…”
The old man shook his head and sighed deeply. “Unfortunately, we are unable to supply him with that amount of spirit stones, nor are we able to convert the world spirit energy here into nether demonic energy. That is why he sealed himself with a secret art and remained in a slumbering state all this time.”
“The energy loss rate is the smallest when he is in that state, so all he could do was slow the loss of nether demonic energy in his body to be able to live.”
Inside the cave, the dozen or so Dark Shadow Race’s elders all bowed their heads in terrible shame.
“We once promised to awaken him after we’ve managed to accumulate sufficient spirit stones and convert them all into cultivation energy stones that he can use to cultivate within the nether pond.”
“But to this day, we haven’t been able to accumulate this many spirit stones for him. That is why we cannot awaken or face him.”
This Dark Shadow elder never looked up. He seemed to be suffering from great pain.
Qin Lie frowned.
He didn’t think that the Dark Shadow clansmen here would be leading such a terrible and difficult life.
The Drifter Realm didn’t have pure world spirit energy, so no spirit stones could be nurtured in this place. The extreme environment also killed all the Nether Realm plants and Demon Armor Insects the Dark Shadow clansmen had brought to this world, thus preventing them from restoring their strength or cultivating.
They had no choice but to submit to the Demon Dragon Race and serve the demon dragons, exchanging their contribution for an extremely small amount of spirit stones.
The spirit stones they exchanged were so few that it was utterly inadequate for their restoration. That was why they weren’t willing to use them on themselves.
Instead, they gave them all to their descendents and juniors instead.
“My grandfather didn’t come back after he sent you here, did he?” Qin Lie asked.
The old Dark Shadow clansman nodded with a wry smile on his face, saying, “It is likely… that not even the Venerable One realized that the environment of Drifter Realm would be so cruel to us.”
“Young Master Qin, how has the Nether Realm been after our departure?” Another Dark Shadow elder interrupted.
“Not long after you left, the Sky Mender Palace promised my grandfather not to commit genocide and allowed all members of the three Nether Realm races living in the Spirit Realm to return to the Nether Realm. They’ve also forbidden them from ever returning to Spirit Realm. That was the conclusion of the war. However, after three thousands years had passed, it would seem that Sky Mender Palace had become less strict than before. Not only are there Nether Realm races’ clansmen who are operating in Spirit Realm once more, some Nether Realm denizens had returned to the Nether Continent too.”
He didn’t speak of the Ling Family, nor did he mention that the Horned Demon clansmen had already returned to the Nether Continent through the teleportation formation inside Herb Mountain.
This was because he hadn’t seen them since the Ling Family clansmen and the Horned Demon Race including Ku Luo had left Spirit Realm. He didn’t how they were doing over there.
“Do you mean that our time of hardship has passed, and that we can finally return to Spirit Realm and live there?” The old man suddenly grew excited.
“You, you came from Spirit Realm, didn’t you? Will you be able to take us back?” Another old man abruptly stood up.
“As long as we can return to the Spirit Realm and restore ourselves with nether demonic energy, as long as we can continue to cultivate, we absolutely won’t be as miserable as we are now!”
“Please take us back to Spirit Realm, Young Master Qin!”
“Please, Young Master Qin!”
The dozen or so Dark Shadow elders stood up shakily and bowed towards Qin Lie while pleading.
The years they spent in the Drifter Realm were literally the darkest and most despairing days they’d lived in their entire lives. They desperately wanted to escape this place.
These Imperishable Realm experts knew very well that they and their Void Realm elder would be able to establish themselves as long as they could return to Spirit Realm.
At worst, they could return to their homeland, the Nether Realm.
“I can take you back to the Spirit Realm, but it can only happen after a year has passed. We must wait until the void worms at the Land of Chaos and here have recovered before we can reopen the secret realm entrance.” Qin Lie pondered for a moment before adding, “That secret realm entrance is also situated at the habitat of high rank ancient beasts. If we go over en masse, we will probably draw the ancient beasts’ attention. We can’t be short-sighted.”
The moment he said this, the excited Dark Shadow Race’s elders gradually calmed down.
“That’s true. That was where we migrated from, and it is true that that place is full of dangers.” Someone sighed.
“It’s all because Drifter Realm doesn’t have nether demonic energy. If we have enough nether demonic energy to cultivate and restore ourselves and our clan elder, and if we move carefully without drawing the ancient beast experts’ attention, there is a high chance that we’ll be able to return to the secret realm entrance and depart for Spirit Realm.”
“We’ve been troubled by the lack of nether demonic energy for three thousand years. It’s not a problem that we can solve easily.”
“That’s true.”
“...”
The dozen or so Dark Shadow elders discussed amongst each other for a moment before sighing again. In the end, the lack of nether demonic energy was still the crux of the problem.
It was at this moment Qin Lie pointed at the nether pond and asked, “The water of this pond can convert the world spirit energy in spirit stones into nether demonic energy, right?”
“Yes, but there must be spirit stones first before any conversion can be done,” An old man answered.
“Oh, I see. In that case you guys are pretty lucky. I brought a lot of spirit stones with me when I came over to this world.” As he said this, the spatial ring on Qin Lie’s finger glowed brightly with white light. Then, many translucent spirit stones started falling into the nether pond like it was hailing.
Suddenly, the eyes of every Dark Shadow elders inside the cave lit up. They were so excited they actually started dancing.
“Spirit stones! Earth Grade spirit stones! These spirit stones are of far higher grade than the ones given to us by the Demon Dragon Race!”
“I haven’t seen such a pure spirit stone in three thousand years!”
“A thousand, tens of thousands, there are at least a hundred thousand spirit stones in the pond already!”
The amount of spirit stones falling into the nether pond was so great that the pond itself was about to overflow. The elderly Dark Shadow Race clansmen laughed so much that even tears were trickling down their cheeks.
“Enough! That is enough!” A while later, an elders hurriedly stopped Qin Lie before saying, “Don’t let the water spill out!”
It was only then Qin Lie stopped putting more spirit stones into the nether pond. He then cast a glance at the spirit stones inside the nether pond before saying, “Then we’ll stop at four hundred thousand spirit stones for now.”
“Young Master Qin, how… how many Earth Grade spirit stones have you brought with you?” an elder asked with a dry throat.
After probing his spatial ring with his soul for a bit, Qin Lie said, “I’ve brought about seven million with me.”
When he chased away Helian Zheng and He Qian at Turin Cave, he had looted the place and gained many spirit stones.
Later on, after Song Tingyu heard that he was about to leave Spirit Realm for a while, she too forked out a portion of the spirit stones accumulated by Flaming Sun Island to him.
That was why the number of spirit stones in his spatial ring was so shocking.
“Seven million! Are they all as high quality as these?” The old man’s voice was practically shaking.
Qin Lie nodded smilingly.
“The heavens have mercy!”
“Thank the Demon God!”
“The Demon God hasn’t abandoned us!”
“We’ve held out here for three thousand years, and hope has finally arrived!”
For a while, these Dark Shadow elders were all crying their hearts out or kowtowing in gratitude.
Three thousand years ago, this powerful race once dared wage a bloody war against the Gold rank force, Sky Mender Palace, lost, and was forced to migrate to the Drifter Realm. For the past three thousand years, not only had they suffered all kinds of humiliation and lost their former pride, they even had to submit to the Demon Dragon Race.
They had suffered far too much pain for far too long.
There were a lot of people among them who even thought to end their lives so they could escape this petty life.
They thought that they would live despairingly to the moment they died.
But today, everything changed!
Today, Qin Lie had taken out hundreds of thousands of high quality spirit stones and threw them all into the nether pond, and he even told them he still had several million spirit stones in stock!
This pitiful race that was nearing its dead end finally saw the hope to change their fates in this moment!
“Young Master Qin! You and your grandfather are the Dark Shadow Race’s most respected friends! I, Eddie, swear right now that if you are able to take us back to Spirit Realm, this Dark Shadow clan of ours shall serve you from then onwards!” The Dark Shadow elder who called himself Eddie pressed a hand to his chest and the other hand to his forehead before swearing a solemn oath in an ancient language.
Under his lead, even more Dark Shadow clansmen knelt on one knee and swore the same oath inside the cave.
“Dozens of Imperishable Realm experts and a Void Realm clan elder… this power…” Qin Lie’s eyes lit up in thought.