“Where’s Qin Lie?” Tian Qi asked quietly.

The group exchanged glances with each other. Everyone suddenly stopped talking because of his question.

“He’s at Flaming Sun Purgatory of course,” Qin Shan replied indifferently.

Tian Qi smiled and shot another question while staring at the demon dragon Abrit. “In that case… where is his avatar? I’m pretty sure his Dark Soul Beast avatar hasn’t left Spirit Realm for a long time. Can I speak with him?”

“There’s no need,” Qin Shan replied impatiently.

Tian Qi looked at Qin Shan for a long time before choosing his words carefully, “If the shadow beings didn’t exist, you would undoubtedly be my enemies. Everything I have ever done was for the betterment of the Spirit Race, and you becoming powerful is of no benefit to my goal.”

“However, the shadow beings are the bane of all living things in our universe! They will destroy everything, including my race!”

“This means that we share a common enemy. Naturally, I am on your side when the shadow beings are involved.”

“I know better than to let petty grievances stand in the way of what is truly important. I will never allow the shadow beings to destroy our universe.”

Tian Qi sounded serious and sincere.

Surprised by Tian Qi’s attitude, Qin Shan fell silent for a moment before deciding to reveal the truth. He didn’t try to hide any details from Tian Qi. “When the returnees came back, they had immediately tried to enter the ultimate realm. Little Lie believes that they’d all been bewitched by the Saint God, so his subsoul entered Abrit’s soul sea in attempt to…”

A series of expressions fleeted across Tian Qi’s face after listening to Qin Shan’s full explanation.

“I’m sure he isn’t just working on Abrit. Although Qin Lie’s main body is currently at Flaming Sun Purgatory, he must’ve split up his soul to deal with the rest of the returnees.”

“I heard that the rank ten soulline experts of the Soul Race are all injecting their soul energy into the Soul Pavilion.”

“This means that Qin Lie is aware that his soul energy is insufficient.”

“He’s the Imperial Soul Monarch, but even he’s running out soul energy. That must mean that Abrit isn’t his only opponent!”

“H-how did you know...?” Qin Shan sounded shocked.

Although there were rumors claiming that Qin Lie was the Imperial Soul Monarch, no one had dared to verify the truth.

The experts of Spirit Realm knew the truth only because Qin Lie had admitted it himself.

They thought that they were the only ones who knew this for sure.

But…

“Heh, I’m probably the first person to confirm his true identity. I’m the one who spread those rumors,” Tian Qi said with a smile on his face.

“You!” Qin Shan yelled angrily.

Tian Qi gestured for Qin Shan to calm down before saying, “As I said earlier, we’d be enemies if the shadow beings didn’t exist. You can’t fault me for working toward the benefit of myself and my race. However, the shadow beings are invading, and they’re probably coming in full force this time! For now, this means that we’re allies, not enemies! I promise you I won’t do anyone any harm until the shadow beings are repelled completely. Please believe me on this!”

“Fine.” Qin Shan forced himself to agree.

“Qin Lie must’ve done a good job invading the returnees’ minds without anyone noticing. So far, I didn’t hear any commotion from any patriarchs at all,” Tian Qi said while thinking.

A while later, he added, “Please keep what Qin Lie is doing a secret, we need to ensure stability if we want to gather every race together and fight against the shadow beings.”

“After all, all these returnees are very respectable within their own races. They also represent their race’s hopes and dreams of entering the ultimate realm.”

“It doesn’t matter how justifiable Qin Lie’s action is, they will be unhappy if they learn that Qin Lie is attacking the returnees.”

“So please, keep this a secret from everyone.”

Qin Shan snorted once before saying, “Of course I know that.”

“Alright,” Tian Qi said with a nod. “With that in mind, in the name of Qin Lie, please notify the patriarchs of all races that the shadow beings are invading again. Also, please tell the patriarchs of all powerful races to come to Sky Bearing City so that we may discuss how we can work together and chase away the shadow beings!”

“Qin Ye, please return to Sky Bearing City right away!” Qin Shan instructed.

Tian Qi added, “We should head over immediately as well.”

He then looked at Qin Hao and said, “There’s nothing you can do to help Qin Lie even if you stay here since none of you are well-versed in the battles of souls. Right now, the best thing you can do to alleviate Qin Lie’s burden and keep him focused on the Saint God is to kill as many shadow beings as possible!”

“He’s fighting the Saint God already?” Qin Hao exclaimed in shock.

Tian Qi smiled bitterly and replied, “To be more precise, the Saint God made his move the moment the returnees returned from the Dark Shadow World. Qin Lie has no choice but to face it head on whether he likes it or not.”

“The Saint God probably predicted that Qin Lie would split his souls and fight the returnees all at the same time.”

“He’s using these returnees to exhaust Qin Lie’s soul energy as much as possible. He wants Qin Lie weakened when they finally clash.”

“And this is assuming that Qin Lie can find the imprints he left in the returnees’ minds and destroy all of them.”

“Qin Lie will be wounded and weakened even if he manages to save all the returnees. This fight is not equal from the start.”

“If Qin Lie loses, he will die of soul exhaustion before the Saint God even shows up.”

“In that case, there is no one in our universe who can stop him.”

“Sigh.”

Tian Qi sighed while shaking his head. He said, “It’s no wonder that the returnees call the Saint God the sage. He didn’t kill these peak experts when he had them imprisoned. He left them alive so that he could study their power, and he left an imprint in their soul without them knowing under the pretense of teaching them the secret art to enter the ultimate realm. Everything he’s done was to create obstacles for the reborn Imperial Soul Monarch.”

“The Saint God is a terrifying entity. All we can do is kill the weaker shadow beings so that Qin Lie can focus completely on his battle against the Saint God.”

“From the very start, this hasn’t been a fair fight. I hope Qin Lie won’t falter from this.”

“If he loses, if the Saint God is allowed to enter our universe, no one will be left alive, and our universe will be devoured by the Dark Shadow World.”

All the experts inside the valley fell silent after hearing his analysis.

Everyone felt like there was a mountain weighing inside their hearts. Everyone was gripped by a terrible sense of crisis.

“Let’s go to Sky Bearing City and kill as many shadow beings as possible. Let’s make it so that Qin Lie can focus all his energy on his fight against the Saint God,” Tian Qi said.

“Let’s go!” Qin Shan also urged.

It was ironic that Tian Qi, the villain who had been plaguing everyone’s lives would become their backbone at a time of great crisis like this.