Chapter 316: Determining the Direction
The Song Family’s foreign delegate division was much bigger than Qin Lie had expected. In his eyes, the entirety of the foreign delegate division was pretty much the equivalent of Icestone City.
The stone towers built from grayish-brown stones sat in rows. Many of the towers had pictures of stars, crescents, or suns carved at the top.
Those who lived inside the foreign delegate division were not just the Song Family’s foreign delegates. It also included their wives, children, and even older generations.
“A Star rank foreign delegate is allowed to bring ten relatives into the foreign delegate division. Not only would the Song Family guarantee the safety of their lives, but they would also provide necessities and accommodations for free. Of course, the Song Family would not supply any materials related to cultivation.” After Song Tingyu came over, she continued to explain to Qin Lie, “A Moon rank foreign delegate can bring up to fifty relatives to the foreign delegate division, whereas a Sun rank foreign delegate can bring up to a hundred. Of course, their necessities and accommodations are all free and Profound Heaven Alliance and the Song Family guarantees their safety as well.”
Qin Lie nodded on the inside.
The reason the Song Family did this was to set the minds of foreign delegates at ease so they would not need to worry about their families.
This was because plenty of martial practitioners did not cultivate alone. It was very common for plenty of martial practitioners to have families, including parents, spouses, and children.
By joining Profound Heaven Alliance and becoming a foreign delegate of the Song Family, their own relatives could also be brought into the Song Family, guaranteeing their safety and livelihood.
On one hand, this was done to win the hearts of the people so that the foreign delegates would acknowledge the Song Family. On the other hand, it was to make the foreign delegates wary. If they did anything that was detrimental to the Song Family, then the relatives within the foreign delegate division would pay the price for their actions.
For the Song Family, this was the equivalent of killing multiple birds with one stone. They only needed to provide the proper necessities and accommodations. This was literally nothing to the wealthy Song Family.
Before long, Song Tingyu led Qin Lie to a seven story tower at the center of the foreign delegate division.
Sun, Moon, and Star rank foreign delegates, identity registration, contribution point exchanges, mission acceptance, and other matters were all processed inside this seven story building.
“Uncle An!” Song Tingyu cried out the moment she arrived at the door.
There were a few Manifestation Realm martial practitioners in front of the building’s entrance. They seemed to recognize her, and the moment they saw her coming over, they all raised their heads and puffed their chests. They carried themselves with respect.
“The Miss is here, eh?” Song An smiled and came down from the building’s upper floors. He said loudly, “I’ve got what you asked for. I’ve even prepared Qin Lie’s identity card already.”
The moment the middle-aged scholar Song An came over, he first greeted Song Tingyu before nodded slightly at Qin Lie. There were traces of arrogance on his face.
He took out a palm-sized pentagonal identity card and threw it at Qin Lie, saying, “Qin Lie, from now on you are no longer the sect master of Armament Sect, but a Star rank foreign delegate of our Song Family. I hope that you will know your place and act as such.”
Qin Lie accepted the Star rank identity card, glanced at it, and discovered that his name was carved into the back.
“Uncle An, Qin Lie may have disrupted our plans for Armament Sect and opened the evil nether passageway, but… that is all in the past,” Song Tingyu said gently.
Song An sighed softly before saying, “If Armament Sect was dissolved, then we would have one less terrible enemy to worry about. We would have even been able to use Armament Sect’s artificers to increase our strength. The evil nether passageway would not have been opened, and we would have a lot less problems…” He shook his head, looking like he still couldn’t let it go.
This was because the Nether Battlefield was in the Purple Mist Sea, within Eight Extreme Temple’s territory. Therefore, the biggest headache they had when battling against the evil races of the Nether Realm was Eight Extreme Temple.
It was said that the reason why Eight Extreme Temple’s power is incomparable to Profound Heaven Alliance’s was because their experts were mostly lost in conflicts with the evil races.
In the past, Profound Heaven Alliance would send people to head to the Nether Battlefield to assist Eight Extreme Temple in defending against the Horned Demon Race. Yet, during moments when they would truly have to fight to the death, Profound Heaven Alliance’s people would often preserve their own strength.
Eight Extreme Temple would definitely be the first to suffer if the evil races broke through, after all.
Since Profound Heaven Alliance was rather far from the Nether Battlefield, they would simply gloat most of the time, wanting nothing better than for Eight Extreme Temple and the evil races to continue killing each other to constantly reduce the strength of Eight Extreme Temple.
However, since the evil nether passageway was opened, large groups of evil race elites had appeared directly from Armament Sect.
In this short half year alone, the Song Family and the evil races had battled each other a few times and suffered significant losses. This caused Song An, as a member of the Song Family, to be extremely worried… and Qin Lie was the cause of it all. It naturally wasn’t very realistic to expect him to treat Qin Lie well.
“It’s fine. He’s now a Star rank foreign delegate of the Song Family. What else can I say?” Song An gave a strained smiled before saying, “I will take care of Qin Lie’s arrangements as per usual. Miss, you should have a lot of things to do now that you’ve come home. You should probably… pacify those subordinates of yours properly. Go and get busy.”
“Mn. Thank you, Uncle An.” Song Tingyu gave a cute smile and chatted with Qin Lie a bit before taking her leave.
Once she left, Song An’s expression became serious as he said to Qin Lie, “I will explain a few things that a foreign delegate should pay attention to.”
“I am all ears.” Qin Lie’s expression was calm.
“A Song Family foreign delegate’s main task is to assist the Song Family’s operations against foreign elements, such as the battle against the evil races, the policing and observance of vassal forces, the clandestine disposal of certain people within vassal forces that have ulterior motives, and some of our secret clashes against Eight Extreme Temple.” Song An said with a harsh look, “Furthermore, a foreign delegate also hunts specific spirit beasts, captures specific spirit birds, searches for the spirit materials needed by the Song Family, resolves certain overseas conflicts, so on and so forth. We will define the difficulty of each mission and assign them to the different ranks of foreign delegates to perform…”
Song An spoke in detail, explaining to Qin Lie all the things that a foreign delegate needed to pay attention to. Qin Lie listened seriously and memorized some important points.
“I’ve told you all that you need to know. Just pay attention and you’ll be fine.” Song An paused for a moment before calling the guards outside, saying, “Bring him to his accommodations.”
“Understood.”
Fifteen minutes later, Qin Lie sat inside a three story stone tower. This tower had a cultivation room, a washroom, a bedroom, and a small living room.
There were also a few single story stone houses beside this three story stone tower. Those houses were prepared by the Song Family for a foreign delegate’s relatives. Since Qin Lie was alone, these stone houses were left empty.
Standing beside the third floor window, Qin Lie looked at his surroundings and saw a couple of towers that were similar to his own. Those stone towers had distinct carvings of a star on top of them, signifying the identity of the occupant as a Star rank foreign delegate.
After looking for a moment, he discovered that there were humans who did not cultivate or practice martial arts working in the stone houses beside those stone towers. There were also some young children who had spirit energy on them. They were probably be the sons of the Star rank foreign delegates and had already come in contact with the secrets of the martial way.
Qin Lie quickly withdrew his gaze and shut the window. He sat down inside the cultivation room meant for him alone.
A wisp of bloody light seeped out of his forehead and slowly took the shape of Xue Li. After Xue Li appeared, he said candidly, “A lot of rare materials are needed to build a teleportation circle leading straight to the ultimate blood ground. A portion of these materials cannot be supplied by Lang Xie or Blood Spear, and only a great force like Profound Heaven Alliance could obtain them.”
“You are absolutely certain that we can build a teleportation formation capable of reaching the bottom level of the Nether Battlefield from deep within the poisonous bog?” Qin Lie asked seriously. “You are confident about this?”
“I have discovered an abnormality in the ultimate blood ground… I have long since prepared for this. As long as the spirit materials are ready and as long as you’re willing to help me, I have no doubt that the teleportation formation can be completed!” Xue Li said.
“The ultimate blood ground is at the bottom of the Nether Battlefield. Horned Demon experts frequently operate around that area. Have you considered the consequences of letting the Blood Spear martial practitioners cultivate in that area?”
“That’s why I did my best to help you persuade Song Yu to communicate with the evil races of the Nether Realm. I wanted to relieve the tension between them and preferably achieve a cooperative understanding.”
“And here I was, wondering why you were so passionate when persuading Song Yu to the point that I felt like you overdid it.”
“Heheh, relax. Song Yu cannot resist the temptation of the Profound Yin Nine Leaf Lotus. He, Xie Yaoyang, and that Nie Yun are all in the Fragmentation Realm. These Fragmentation Realm martial practitioners are terrified of Nirvana Fire. They know the terror of ascending into a new realm better than anyone!”
“You knew that there’d be no way they would turn this down, didn’t you?”
“Of course! As long as they still desire power… as long as they do not want to die horribly the instant they try to ascend, then they would definitely consider this offer seriously. Just watch, they will definitely attempt to communicate with the evil races.”
“This… I agree.”
“You should forge some Terminator Profound Bombs, earn contribution points with Profound Heaven Alliance, and exchange those contribution points for the spirit materials needed to build the teleportation circle.” Xue Li thought for a while before speaking up again, “Profound Heaven Alliance is a Copper force. They should have a lot of scriptures in storage and at least three common spirit arts of frost, earth, and thunder and lightning. You should also use your contribution points to briefly scan through those scriptures and study their secrets, enhancing your knowledge on the three types of power, and accumulate more combat experience.
He paused for a moment before speaking again, “It is just as that girl says… without borrowing external power, you are just a middle stage Manifestation Realm martial practitioner. You may be able to defeat a late stage Manifestation Realm martial practitioner, but if a Netherpassage Realm martial practitioner wanted to kill you, you may not necessarily be able to save yourself!”
Qin Lie’s expression was heavy as he said, “I know this very well.”
“Also, you should spend some time on the inscription of spirit diagrams. I feel that your emotions have recently been a bit unstable. Your heart may be slightly disturbed because your soul is starting to merge…”
“Mn, I know.”
After interacting with Xue Li for a moment, Qin Lie finally determined the direction he should be heading in as of late. After Xue Li sank back into the Soul Suppressing Orb, he took out the furnace and the spirit materials Song Tingyu had given him before from the spatial ring and placed them inside the cultivation room.
He began forging Terminator Profound Bombs.
“You useless piece of garbage! Everything you eat and drink comes from my father, but look at the shit you forged! It isn’t even Common Grade Six! What else could I need you for?” It was evening. Qin Lie heard noise coming from outside while forging the Terminator Profound Bombs.
Tranquility and silence were a must for forging. Noise was absolutely unwelcome.
Hearing the noise coming from outside and seeing that the furnace wasn’t going anywhere, Qin Lie felt impatient and went up to the window. He looked out to see what was going on.
To his south, he saw a three story tower. There was a young man at the middle stage of the Natal Opening Realm and five to six middle-aged men and women holding a brown yellow short sword looking unsatisfied. The young man was scolding a fat man who was bent over.
The fat man had his back to Qin Lie. His back seemed a little familiar, but Qin Lie frowned and could not recall who he was off the top of his head.
“My father is a Star rank foreign delegate and he only has ten spaces. You are not part of our family, and it is only because you said that you knew how to forge artifacts that my father accepted you. Yet look at you, what the hell is this shit that you’re forging? A Common Grade Five spirit weapon is only something a Limestone force martial practitioner would use. What is this place? This is Profound Heaven Alliance!” The young man said with a cold face, “Who would use a Common Grade spirit weapon in this place?”
The young man slapped the fat man’s face with the brown yellow short sword in his hand. It was incredibly loud.
“Young Master, I… the reason I cannot forge a high grade spirit weapon is because I don’t have a high rank spirit diagram.” The fat man did not dare to resist as he bowed his head. He bent his back and softly said, “My lord had promised me that he would find a high rank spirit diagram for me, but he hasn’t been able to find one all this time. As for myself… I have no ways of obtaining a high rank spirit diagram, which is why I am unable to break through in the art of artifact forging.”
Qin Lie wore a look of impatience and was about to tell the people outside to shut up, but the moment he heard the fat man speak, his expression suddenly shook.
It was Yao Tai’s voice!
Back at Nebula Pavilion, he had worked as an assistant for Yao Tai at Li Mu’s suggestion, learning to identify spirit materials with him.
However, because Liu Yuntao had risen to the position of pavilion master, Yao Tai had no choice but to be swept out of Nebula Pavilion because of Liu Ting’s pressure.
Before Yao Tai left, he had talked to Qin Lie and passed down to him almost all of his knowledge and understanding of spirit materials.
Strictly speaking, Yao Tai was the mentor who showed Qin Lie the light when it came to artifact forging, and he owed him a great debt.