Chapter 456: A Difficult Situation
If Nie Tian didn’t have the nine fist-sized fragmentary stars in his soul, and hadn’t mastered the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace’s Starshift technique, he might have already been badly injured or killed.
Nie Tian, who had already grown used to killing opponents with higher cultivation bases than his, thought he would have been able to overtake this man with ease, relying on his formidable battle prowess.
Therefore, he hadn’t gone all-out or exercised discretion when the battle had first started.
This battle taught him an important lesson: every Qi warrior might have their trump card. If he didn’t treat every battle seriously in the future, he would probably suffer great losses.
After pulling the Flame Star out from Ji Kuang’s back, he gazed over at Dong Li and Tao Pu, who were now engaged in a fierce battle.
Dong Li was smiling as she brandished her cyan awl.
WHOOSH!
The shadow of the black phoenix suddenly flashed across the depths of her pitch-black pupils.
As it did, strange psychic power fluctuations instantly shot into Tao Pu’s mind.
Tao Pu’s shifting body suddenly stiffened; the look in his eyes also froze.
Dong Li curled her lips and said, “It’s laughable that the Bone Sect’s little remaining evil actually dares to make waves in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation.”
Then, she took the opportunity, while Tao Pu was temporarily bewildered, infused her cyan awl with her dark spiritual power, and drove it into Tao Pu’s body.
Tao Pu’s airborne body shuddered in midair and then plunged to the ground.
FIZZ!
Like black flames, wisps of dark spiritual power consumed Tao Pu within seconds.
Just like that, the middle Greater Heaven stage Tao Pu was killed by Dong Li in a battle that turned out to be quite short.
Ping Yao, who was fighting Feng Luo, saw that Nie Tian and Dong Li had killed Ji Kuang and Tao Pu effortlessly. His face turned pale with fright.
Without any delay, he ended his battle against Feng Luo and fled in the direction he had come from.
Feng Luo, who had swallowed a Blood Strengthening Pill, was wreathed in a rich, bloody aura, and his eyes were also filled with sinister strands of blood.
Watching Ping Yao flee, Feng Luo panted heavily, as if he were hesitating over whether he should go after him.
“You have things to talk about. Leave him to me.” With a chuckle, Dong Li flashed gracefully after Ping Yao like a dancing butterfly.
Ping Yao’s cultivation base was one minor stage lower than that of Tao Pu, the man she had just slaughtered. Furthermore, she hadn’t even summoned her black phoenix yet.
Perfectly aware of her cunning and vicious nature, Nie Tian didn’t show the slightest intention of helping her, watching her dash after Ping Yao. In his eyes, Ping Yao was already a dead man.
Struggling to stabilize the surging bloody aura inside of him, Feng Luo looked down at Ji Kuang’s corpse. “Awesome, Nie Tian! I knew you could kill him. You were able to kill the Yuan Clan’s clanmaster in Black Cloud City when you were only at the Heaven stage. It must have been a piece of cake for you to kill this bastard now that you’ve entered the Greater Heaven stage.
Yu Tong stepped over and asked concernedly. “Are you okay, Uncle Feng? I saw that you consumed a Blood Strengthening Pill.”
Feng Luo waved his hand and forced a smile onto his face. “I’m okay. It’s just that I’m afraid I won’t be able to fight within a period of time. But now that Nie Tian is here, I finally don’t have to worry about your safety anymore. It’s just that the sectmaster and your master. They...”
He shook his head, laden with worry.
A surprised expression spread across Nie Tian’s face. “Sectmaster Li is also in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation?”
Feng Luo smiled bitterly. “She’s trapped in the Bone Sect’s ruins, which is not far from here.”
“What happened?!” Nie Tian asked with a grim expression.
He had always had good feelings towards the Blood Sect.
Back when he had vanished from the Blood Sect in the Realm of Flame Heaven years ago, they had taken in An Shiyi and An Ying, who hadn’t been able to make a living in the Spiritual Treasure Sect anymore, which had been a big favor to him.
Aside from that, Li Jing had also taught him the Blood Refining Incantation, which was one of the Blood Sect’s secret magics. She had even expressed that she would allow Nie Tian to take away the Bone Blood Demon that he had awakened.
Therefore, it was understandable that he was deeply concerned after hearing that Li Jing and Shen Xiu had run into trouble in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation.
Feng Luo sat down directly and explained, “We didn’t come to the Realm of Unbounded Desolation to attend the Tool Sect’s assessment assembly this time. After all, we have very few equipment forgers in our sect. We came for the corpse of a Bonebrute. Our sectmaster received word that surviving members of the Bone Sect had discovered the corpse of a powerful Bonebrute, so we came to the Realm of Unbounded Desolation in an attempt to purchase it.
“Our sectmaster only agreed for Little Tong and I to tag along so that Little Tong could broaden her horizons at the assessment assembly.
“Ji Kuang, the man you just killed, met us in Desolate City. It didn’t take long for him and our sectmaster to agree on the price, but he proposed that we complete the transaction in the Bone Sect’s ruins with the excuse that the Bonebrute’s corpse would attract too much attention if they brought it to Desolate City.
“Our sectmaster had heard that the current Bone Sect was nothing but a bunch of headless cultivators, without a single Profound realm expert among them, and thus agreed to go.
“However, when we arrived at the Bone Sect’s dilapidated headquarters, we discovered that wasn’t the case at all.
“Not only was one of them at the Profound realm, but they had even invited another Profound realm expert. The two of them wanted to team up and kill us all among the Bone Sect’s ruins.
“The two of them were both at the middle Profound realm, which is the same as our sectmaster.
“Our sectmaster had to deal with them single-handedly. She was in a very unfavorable situation. Even though Elder Shen was also there, she couldn’t do much to help. Our sectmaster risked her life to distract the two Profound realm experts and create a escape path for me and Little Tong.
“However, on our way out of the Bone Sect’s ruins, we ran into Ji Kuang and the other two, who were waiting at the perimeter.
“That was when we realized that the reason why those two Profound realm experts didn’t do their utmost to stop us was because they had deployed others at the perimeter.”
Feng Luo’s expression grew graver as he continued, “If we didn’t happen to run into you, Little Tong and I would have been done for.
“Apparently, those bastards from the Bone Sect didn’t plan to do business with us at all. They only lured us there to rob us of our valuable belongings.”
After hearing Feng Luo’s description of the events, Nie Tian’s eyebrows knitted, not sure what to do.
Even though he had successively saved Feng Luo and Yu Tong, he knew he wouldn’t be able to provide Li Jing and Shen Xiu with much help in their battle against those two Profound realm experts.
After all, the Profound realm was the highest realm the experts from the Realm of Flame Heaven had ever achieved. Even in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation, Profound realm experts should be among the most powerful Qi warriors.
There were two major stages between the Greater Heaven stage and the Profound realm. Even though he possessed the Flame Dragon Armor and a number of special techniques, he wouldn’t stand a chance fighting even the weakest Profound realm expert.
He was fully aware of this.
Meanwhile, both Feng Luo and Yu Tong knew that as powerful as Nie Tian was, it would be almost impossible for him to help Li Jing and Shen Xiu in their difficult battle. Therefore, they both remained silent.
“Sorry, as much as I want to help Sectmaster Li, I...” Nie Tian sighed, deeply frustrated.
“You don’t need to blame yourself.” Feng Luo said with a pale face. “We understand. I just hope that, now that our sectmaster and Elder Shen don’t need to worry about us anymore, they can break free from the joint attacks of those two Profound realm experts and escape with the help of her Blood Lotus.”
With a sigh, he added, “The Realm of Flame Heaven is too weak after all. We haven’t even produced a single Soul realm expert yet. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been stomped on by a crappy sect like the Bone Sect.”
Nie Tian’s eyebrows rose as he asked, “Did you notice any anomalies when you left Desolate City? Did you see the Death Reign or Flame God Sect experts fighting Tool Sect experts on your way to the Bone Sect?”
Looking puzzled, Feng Luo said, “No, we intentionally steered clear of the cluster of volcanoes the Tool Sect had set aside for the assessment assembly. We took a detour to avoid attracting attention from the Tool Sect, so it took us a while to get to the Bone Sect.”
“What’s a Death Reign? And why would the Flame God Sect fight the Tool Sect?” Apparently, Feng Luo had no idea regarding the turmoil that was happening in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation.
At that moment, Dong Li’s voice rang out, “You actually made a nice move by taking a detour.”
After returning to Nie Tian’s side, she took out a piece of white gauze to wipe off the blood on her cyan awl. “If you chose to go through that cluster of volcanoes, you’d most likely have run into the Death Reign. If you did, none of you would have even made it to the Bone Sect.”
Nie Tian took a glance at her and knew that she must have finished off Ping Yao.
Failing to think of a plausible rescue method, Nie Tian chose to turn to Dong Li for help. “You’re always full of stratagems. Can you help me think of a way to help my two revered seniors from the Blood Sect? If you can help me this time... I’ll owe you another favor. What do you say?”
Dong Li rolled her eyes at him and said with a sarcastic laugh, “Not calling me cunning or vicious this time, huh?”
Nie Tian was slightly embarrassed.
Instead of continuing to taunt Nie Tian, Dong Li pondered for a while and said, “There is a way that might work.”
Nie Tian’s eyes lit up as he hastily asked, “What’s that?”