Countless stars seemed to s.h.i.+ne through from the cat"s platinum eyes. It looked curiously at its audience and raised its foot to step on Qing Ming"s head, striking a glamorous pose. But it hurriedly licked its paw, perhaps because some of the ghoul king"s blood had gotten on it, a look of full-on disgust on its face.
"Well? Do you accept the trade offer or not?!" Meow Meow snapped with much annoyance.
The tribulation elders" expressions were frozen stiff, many of them on the brink of tears.
"Everyone, don"t panic. It"s just an illusion."
"That could be!"
"Yeah! Ghoul King Qing Ming is definitely far more powerful than that!"
However, their voices grew weaker and weaker. At their level, they could easily tell what was an illusion and what wasn"t. If even they found it hard to believe their own words, there was no way anybody else could.
"You won"t? Fine! Your poor sods... you don"t have even a single piece of dried fish." Meow Meow took the ghoul king"s head in its mouth and turned around, its tail raised to show its b.a.l.l.s, then zipped away with the corpse of the greenvoid skydevourer. As the others watched the corpse shrink as it neared the horizon, they went mad with fervor.
"Get it!" Long Cangyuan cried, his face completely contorted. He gave chase himself. Even if we can"t kill the cat, we have to take the ghoul king"s remains back! he thought. He knew that Tianming was trying to lead them away from the black hole star, but all of them were grieving the death of Qing Ming.
"There"s no need to split our troops between two stars. We"ll just go to the next one. It’s too dangerous to risk being separated."
The death of the ghoul king had completely shaken everyone and Long Cangyuan gave chase, with thousands more following behind him.
"c.r.a.p, they"re really serious about giving chase!" Meow Meow zipped around even faster, swinging the skydevourer’s corpse to fly left while it went right, the ghoul king"s head still in its mouth. That way, a group of tribulation elders would go for the corpse instead.
"Don"t think you can run!" Long Cangyuan cried. Though, he wasn"t really giving it his all during the chase, either. It wasn"t his place to get mad from the death of the ghoul king. In fact, he was a little worried as he wasn"t much stronger than Qing Ming to begin with. I shouldn"t try too hard to earn any credit under such circ.u.mstances. While he would give it a try if Xue Yi was nearby, it wouldn"t benefit him to give it his all and risk himself now.
"Catch!" Meow Meow suddenly flung the head of Qing Ming far away. As it was rather small, it was flung rather far away. Quite a lot of people split off to chase the head instead, leaving the main group.
"This cat really is terrifyingly fast within the Kilostar Domain." Long Cangyuan could do naught but sigh. If they were outside, he would easily be able to catch Meow Meow, unlike now. "I wonder where Li Tianming is...."
As he focused on the direction Meow Meow was traveling in, he soon saw a white-haired youth. That instant, Meow Meow took its Regal Chaosfiend form and Tianming rode off on it. While there were many people with them, few could actually keep up with Meow Meow"s speed. Not to mention, their group had split a few times. Tianming wasn"t trying to engage them; he only wanted to split them apart so he would have an opening to charge to reach the black hole star. While many of them tried to catch up, others had had no choice but to stop.
Near the black hole star, Tianming turned back and met Long Cangyuan"s gaze. "A lackey like you will eventually be abandoned!" Tianming mocked.
"Don"t get so happy so soon. We"ll see who has the last laugh when the Nonahall Divine Realm gives you what you deserve," Long Cangyuan said. Even though he said that, he felt torn when he turned to look at Qing Ming"s decapitated head. The old man had lived for three centuries and was already a famous and impressive ghoul king when Long Cangyuan was still in his youth. "I didn"t think he"d die at the hands of a brat in his twenties."
He could only watch as Tianming glared at him and entered the eighth black hole star.
"So he wants to save the world in his early twenties, eh.... Let"s see how the Nonahall Ghost Sect reacts to that!"
......
After entering the pathway, Tianming noticed that the scenes of war were much clearer than before. He even heard war cries.
"I wonder whose memory this is."
He could feel the pa.s.sions and hards.h.i.+ps of the times. Chaos was all over the place, and there were rivers of blood and mountains of corpses. The brave heroes marched forward to their deaths, fighting their merciless enemies with their heads held high. Their foes were all individually powerful, and each one required hundreds of beastmasters and lifebound beasts to take on.
"The demon race used to dominate the Flameyellow Continent, while humans were just mere ants.... Great Emperor Xuanyuan and the warriors of the time really rendered an immense service to all of us."
He finally reached the end of the pathway and saw the number eight appear. Taking a deep breath, he prepared himself for his reemergence. All of a sudden, the number eight turned into a line of words that read "I"ll be waiting for you at the ninth black hole".
Tianming was shocked. The words only appeared for a split second before they were nowhere to be seen. Then, the s.p.a.ce around him twisted and bent and he found himself back within the Kilostar Domain. He looked around and hurriedly hid himself; he was actually near the exit of the domain! The tribulation elders of Hexapath and Biritual had retreated to somewhere nearby, but n.o.body from Nonahall could be seen here.
......
Near the ninth black hole, everyone waited without making a sound. The atmosphere was tense, and they were all more than displeased. If it weren’t for Tianming, they would have been having a good time during their treasure hunt. The mere thought of that filled them with anger and humiliation.
Right then, a pink-eyed woman dressed in white came flying toward them. Her beautiful hair fluttered as it trailed behind her. Her body seemed soft and precious, but her expression was cold and stiff. Despite that, many found the contrast rather irresistible. She wasn"t intentionally trying to charm anyone, but her looks and the innate allure from the depths of her soul were impossible to mask. With her looks and aura, she would attract lots of attention even if she wasn"t a cultivator. She was none other than Li Caiwei.
She came to Xue Yi and the rest and said, "I heard Li Tianming claimed two treasure troves and even killed Ye Bodhi."
"That’s correct," Xue Yi affirmed.
"Isn"t that a little hard to believe? I have some idea of how strong he is."
"Don"t be so sure. You"ll see for yourself soon."
"While I can"t be too sure what level he was truly at when he entered, he was about as strong as a sixth-level life phase samsaran. You"re telling me that he managed to grow the equivalent of four whole levels within a short month?"
"That"s right. And we"re talking about growth in the middle phase of the Samsara stage, not the Earth or Sky Saint stages."
"Hehehe...."
"Are you regretting not killing him in the very beginning?" Xue Yi asked.
"What"s there to regret? He"s a brat at the end of the day. You already brought Yi Xingyin here with you. Not to mention, with Ying Zi here, this matter is as good as settled. Though, I must say, it"s pretty humiliating for so many people to be forced to lie in wait here for him, unable to do anything else."
She thought back to the brat that was under her complete control as she dragged him out from the Archaion Sect. How could he manage to dominate the Kilostar Domain within such a short time? It was something she wouldn’t believe until she saw it for herself. Right after that, someone came to make a report.
"Ghoul Kings, Sect Master Li, Sect Master Changsun, Sect Master Long Cangyuan, and Ghoul King Fu You have been sighted leading everyone else toward us, leaving the black hole behind."
"What"s the meaning of this?" Xue Yi"s expression grew colder. The moment he asked that, Long Cangyuan and Fu You already reached them. Now, the three ghoul kings and sect masters were gathered at once place.
"What’re you doing?" Xue Yi asked. He had seen the two"s odd expressions. The other tribulation elders that were with them seemed dejected and conflicted.
"Did something happen again? Who is it this time?" Ying Zi asked.
Li Caiwei furrowed her brows when she saw the greenvoid skydevourer behind them. She couldn"t believe herself and doublechecked to make sure it was a corpse! The greenvoid skydevourer was definitely dead. "Where’s Ghoul King Qing Ming?"
Xue Yi and the rest awaited the answer to the question with heavy dread.
"Here," Long Cangyuan said as he handed over Qing Ming"s head, shocking everyone into silence.
"What’s that?"
"I don"t know. It"s too far."
Others were beginning to wonder what was happening. Xue Yi stretched his hand out and held the head at eye level. Qing Ming was dead, without a doubt. "Who?" His voice and hands shook as he uttered the word. The name he desperately wanted to hear was Dugu Jin"s.
Yet Long Cangyuan said, "We don"t know who did it for sure, but Li Tianming was the one that brought the corpse over to us. He used the chaos that ensued to enter the eighth black hole star. Right after that, I brought the rest to join up with you."
"It must be Li Tianming then," Changsun Shenqiong said.
"Li Tianming...."
Xue Yi, Li Caiwei and a few others repeated the name, feeling a blade cut through their heart as they did so.
"Qing Ming...." Xue Yi took a deep breath. He knew the Nonahall Divine Realm was going to become a huge mess when word of this spread.