At a secluded realm near the Soul Race.

The large cracks spreading across the dark sky made it looked like an exquisite porcelain that was breaking apart.

A plethora of dead volcanoes littered the ground. They had been dormant for at least several million years.

But today, fire was flowing out of these dead volcanoes and into the spatial rifts on the sky after their core was ignited.

Four wizened old men with bluish green eyes floated on the sky and stared at the spatial rift in puzzlement.

“Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh!”

Suddenly, the flames that left the realm returned from the spatial rift.

They looked like meteors as they hit the plethora of volcanoes on the ground.

The ground was burning, and lava was flowing. It was as if the volcanoes had come back to life.

“This unusual phenomenon… is a fire expert seeking to achieve a breakthrough?”

One of the old man stared coldly at the spatial rifts and said, “Something similar had happened when the King of Flame Devils was on the verge of a breakthrough. At the time, the volcanoes of this realm were all active.”

“That’s right. The fire energy of this land was extracted because he entered the ultimate realm. All of the volcanoes were drained of fire energy, and the leftovers were buried deep within the center of the earth… until now,” another old man added.

“The only fire expert left who can trigger a universal phenomenon and enter the ultimate realm is Lieyan Yuan!” The first old man thought to himself for a moment before adding, “But the departed flames had returned to our realm. Does this mean that…”

He hesitated for a moment before saying unsurely, “Had he failed to enter the ultimate realm?”

“Of course he failed. If he succeeded, there’s no way the flames he stole would have returned, would they?”

“But our monarch is dead. Who else could stop him?”

“Who knows?”

The four old men were Soul Race clansmen. They had transformed their Soul Beast puppets into humanoid forms. Their expressions were dark and thoughtful.

“It can’t be that Qin Lie… right?” an old man said hesitatingly.

“The Flaming Sun Monarch has been quite famous recently, but I don’t think he’s at Lieyan Yuan’s level yet,” another old man replied. “Lieyan Yuan is the creator of the Perfect Blood after all. It’d be unbelievably ironic if he fell to his own creation’s hands.”

“I can’t believe it either.”

“If Flaming Sun Monarch enters the ultimate realm and becomes the Abyss Master, then… our race will be in a bit of a pickle.”

“Speaking of which, I still think that that Thamur is a bit strange. Even though he has the monarch’s aura in him.”

“He still is the monarch’s descendant, and he’s our patriarch now that the monarch is gone. By right we should help him.”

“Maybe, but I can’t shake the feeling that something’s wrong.”

“…”

The four Soul Race old men continued to whisper among themselves as they watched the unnatural phenomenon happening around them.

“You all noticed something strange with Thamur too? As expected of my four great Apostles!”

Suddenly, a voice came from one of the spatial rifts. Qin Lie’s Blood Soul Beast avatar came through in the next moment.

“Who are you?” an old man asked loudly.

“Qin Lie! He’s the Flaming Sun Monarch! I’ve seen his portrait before!”

“The Flaming Sun Monarch! Why are you here?”

“He’s our enemy!”

All four Soul Race old men were rank ten bloodline experts. Right now, they were the Soul Race’s most respected and trusted elders.

The four of them used to be the Imperial Soul Monarch’s apostles. Their job was to manage the Soul Race’s affairs on behalf of the Imperial Soul Monarch.

After the Imperial Soul Monarch had gone missing, they became to Soul Race’s most powerful figures. However, they never stopped plotting and working for the benefit of the Soul Race.

“Don’t you recognize me?” Qin Lie said with a smile.

“Whoosh!”

His Soul Tree flew out of the Blood Soul Beast avatar and floated above its head.

Bluish green flames filled with mysterious Soul Race characters appeared from inside the Soul Tree.

The green flames then joined together to form a profound and cryptic advanced ancient spirit diagram.

As the four Soul Race Apostles watched in astonishment, the green flames containing the Soul Race’s secrets split up and rejoined each other to form yet another mysterious advanced ancient spirit diagram.

“Whoosh whoosh!”

The green flames kept changing from one advanced ancient spirit diagram to another.

The ancient diagrams contained both the Soul Race’s soul secrets and the strange laws of nature.

Every time a new ancient diagram appeared, the four Soul Race clansmen would experience a new wave of fear and shock.

When the last ancient diagram was formed, it abruptly exploded into a shower of profound runes and entered the four Soul Race old men’s eyes.

Qin Lie’s Soul Tree then returned to his Blood Soul Beast avatar and watched the four old men quietly.

The Apostles all released their Soul Trees and absorbed the profound characters into themselves.

The familiar feeling caused them to go mad with joy.

“It’s the monarch!”

“It really is the monarch!”

“Now this is the monarch we know!”

“Welcome back, monarch!”

The four Soul Race old men were so overjoyed that they were crying and dancing on their feet.

The crazed light in their eyes was something that only a zealot would possess. If Qin Lie told them to commit suicide, they would obey his order without hesitation.

“You’ve worked hard while I was gone,” Qin Lie said softly.

His Apostles actually teared up when they heard his gratitude.

“Everything we do is for our monarch and our race.”

“Speaking of which, h-how in the world did you become Qin Lie?”

“Did you take over his body?”

“Haha! Did you replace Castor and claim this perfect puppet for yourself?”

The four Apostles chirped excitedly.

“No. I am Qin Lie, and Qin Lie is I.” Qin Lie fell quiet for a moment before explaining, “After my battle against the Saint God of the shadow beings, I realized that I lacked a perfect body. It so happened that Lieyan Yuan was tackling the Perfect Blood project at the time, so I used him to create the perfect body for myself. It is the only way I could be sure that I’d defeat the Saint God during our second battle.”

“Today, my plan has more or less been fulfilled. I’ve killed Lieyan Yuan, and the perfect body is almost complete.”

“But before I meet the Saint God one last time, I need to take out the spy in our race, that Soul Race clansman you call Thamur.”

“What? Thamur is a pawn of the Saint God?” one of the elders exclaimed in surprise. “He has your aura, so we thought… that he was one of your descendants.”

“Thamur might be another him. He had a complete grasp of my aura during our first battle, so I’m sure he could mimic my aura if he wanted to,” Qin Lie said.

“Are you saying that he’s the Saint God of the shadow beings?”

“That is my guess.”