"Who are these death spirits?" the four hunters of Team Zenith asked.
Li Qianlin replied, "Among the three thousand worlds that make up the third realm, there are ten superior ones. The most mysterious and frightening among the ten is governed by the death spirits."
Yang Ze seemed very surprised. "Even bigger than large worlds like the one you're from?"
Li Qianlin nodded, her face uneasy. "The ten superior worlds have existed for tens of thousands of years, and they're basically permanent fixtures in the realm. No other world can come close to eclipsing their strength.
In the history of the realm, all sorts of worlds, large and small alike, rise and fall in time. Only the ten superior worlds have survived the relentless passage of time."
Zhang Lie explained, "The black spirits Fang Yi had to deal with are subordinate to the death spirits."
Li Qianlin asked, "Just how did all of you end up provoking the death spirits, anyway?"
"Are they troublesome foes?" Sun Mengmeng questioned.
Li Qianlin clutched her head. "It's not a matter of trouble—the death spirits simply aren't an enemy you want to make!"
Dong Mingxing sighed. "Zhang Lie, I know you're very strong, but there are some enemies that even you can't afford to make."
Although she had witnessed Zhang Lie killing the king of the west for himself, the death spirits were the most frightening among the ten races in charge of the superior worlds. Having such a race as an enemy was akin to shooting yourself in the foot.
When she saw only confused faces around her, Li Qianlin continued explaining, "The death spirits are the most mysterious among the ten races. All the worlds that have ever gone against the death spirits have been extinguished, and not even a single living lifeform has made it out alive."
Dong Mingxing continued, "All the worlds around the death spirits' world, be they large or small or medium-sized, have been annihilated by the death spirits—to the last."
The death spirits brokered no treatises and forged no alliances. All they had were enemies. contemporary romance
Li Qianlin took over. "Not only will the death spirits kill all the life on the worlds they take over, they even consume the will of the world—permanently crippling the world from sustaining life, and turning it into a pitch-black desert."
Fang Yi added, "The black spirits' world was such a desert. I didn't see any plants during my incursion there, nor any other native life."
Yang Ze's focus was different. "Even the will of the world can be consumed?"
Li Qianlin shook her head. "I'm not clear on the specifics, but allegedly, the will of the world can't be sensed in any of the worlds that the death spirits have conquered.
"This is the proof of kingship from the black spirits' world." Fang Yi revealed the cracked mask that he had retrieved at significant cost.
Yang Ze exclaimed, "It's cracked!"
Sun Xiaowu asked, "Just how intense was the battle for you to be able to crack the proof of kingship?"
Zhang Lie pointed at the axe that Sun Xiaowu had brought back. "Isn't your proof of kingship chipped as well?"
Sun Xiaowu smiled in embarrassment. "Ah, I suppose that's true... but surely not as badly as Fang Yi's."
The mask that Fang Yi had brought back had clear cracks running through it; it looked as though it would break in half if just a little force were applied.
Li Qianlin and Dong Mingxing looked over all the hunters of Team Zenith again. They thought that Zhang Lie was the only notable hunter among the humans, but even his subordinates were no joke. They had never heard of anyone being able to crack or chip a proof of kingship before.
After all, the proof of kingship was supposed to represent the world itself; it could hardly be damaged or destroyed.
Zhang Lie replied calmly, "Though there is a connection between the black spirits and the death spirits, they aren't one and the same. From the glow coming from the proof of kingship, it's clear that the will of the world isn't completely extinguished—just very weakened.
"Well, I suppose it makes sense. The black spirits are akin to a band of scouts for the death spirits, and they're the precursor to the death spirits' invasion. If they drain the will of the world completely, they wouldn't be able to maintain a wormhole into that world."
"The black spirits are a precursor to invasion?" The members of Team Zenith were shocked—as well as Li Qianlin and Dong Mingxing, who had yet to make that connection.
Zhang Lie explained, "The death spirits annihilate every world close to them, and not a single world has escaped that fate. Because of the death spirits' overexpansion, the other nine superior worlds banded together against them. As an attempt to fly under the radar, as it were, the death spirits began to employ the help of the black spirits."
Li Qianlin seemed to understand. "To avoid the other nine worlds' detection while continuing their plan of conquest by means of the black spirits... I see."
Fang Yi frowned. "But the void spirits that populate the world are only as strong as mutated-grade lifeforms, and the black spirits themselves don't seem particularly strong. The only troublesome foe I encountered in the black spirits' world was the king of the black spirits. If the black spirits are just a disguise for the death spirits, rulers of a superior-grade world, shouldn't they be stronger?"
Zhang Lie shrugged. "It's very likely that the only true death spirit you encountered was that king of the realm—the other black spirits might well be derivative existences, like clones, in a sense. The death spirits themselves are an unusual form of life, and they defy common logic."
Li Qianlin hmmed. "I've never heard of these black spirits or void spirits under the death spirits' control. All I've heard about are the death spirits' soldiers."
"What's that?" the four hunters of Team Zenith asked simultaneously.
"Something like cannon fodder for the death spirits," Li Qianlin responded.
Zhang Lie clarified, "We'll have to discuss the relationship between the void spirits and black spirits in more detail, then. First, the black pyramid that Fang Yi saw isn't a building, but rather an artifact that the death spirits possess: a battleship of sorts. It has some defensive capabilities, but its main purpose is to serve as an altar."
Sun Mengmeng didn't understand. "A sacrificial altar for religious rituals?"
"No—for creating derivative spirits." Zhang Lie continued, "The black and void spirits are produced from that altar. As for what they're made of—have all of you considered what happened to the original inhabitants of these worlds?"
Li Qianlin and the others gasped. "You mean—"
Zhang Lie nodded. "The void spirits are made out of the corpses and souls of the dead, and the black spirits the elite counterparts made from mutated- and higher-grade souls. Of course, there's some opportunity for void spirits to evolve into black spirits during this process as well."
Fang Yi frowned. "You mean that the spirits I had to kill were the original inhabitants of the world?"
They didn't seem to have any feelings or conscious will, and Fang Yi would have hesitated to call them life. They were artificial creatures who shouldn't have existed in the universe.
"Not just those inhabitants, but also the souls and bodies of any warriors from other races who perished in battle against the death spirits. If I'm not mistaken, there's about a thirty percent chance regular-grade lifeforms can morph into black spirits, and about a fifty percent chance for mutated-grade lifeforms."
Yang Ze asked, "What happens to the failures?"
Zhang Lie shrugged. "They turn into void spirits who patrol the endless deserts, attacking any living lifeforms they encounter."
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