The bone had been about fifteen meters long when he had first obtained it.
After he had fused it with his Blood Essence, it had gone through one change: it had started to channel power from the starry river by itself.
However, now that three years had pa.s.sed, the bone had somehow grown five meters longer.
Twenty meters long, it now looked like an exceptionally long spear.
Not just that, but he also heard a soul cheer the moment it flew into Nie Tian’s palm.
As he held it, countless wisps of flesh power that he exuded were sucked into the bone.
As he examined it with rapt attention, he even sensed that it had a strong desire for his Blood Essence.
Nie Tian’s expression flickered with astonishment. “It’s yearning for more of my Blood Essence!
“It seems that my Blood Essence will trigger changes in it, but it still has to rely on the various energies in the starry river to grow.
“If I leave it in a secluded area of the starry river, will it be able to grow by itself over decades, centuries, or even millennia?
“If that’s true, does it mean it’ll be able to grow its whole body back some day?”
With this question in mind, he returned to the Vast Heaven Pavilion.
Three days later...
He walked out of the Vast Heaven Pavilion and found that Fang Yuan was already there waiting for him. Gathered around him were three Saint domain experts and a dozen Void domain experts.
Fang Tianyi, who he had helped before, wasn’t among them.
“We’re ready to go, Nie Tian,” Fang Yuan called out to him. “Sikong Cuo and his subordinates have already left for the Void Spirit Society’s headquarters.”
All of his subordinates bowed slightly towards Nie Tian upon seeing him.
Some of them were from the Fang Clan, who had been grateful to him ever since they had learned that Nie Tian had helped Fang Tianyi get rid of the Blood Warden’s residual flesh power.
“He’s really going by himself?” Some of them whispered with complicated looks on their faces.
“I’m all set. Let’s go,” Nie Tian said to Fang Yuan.
...
In the Realm of Void Spirit, where the Void Spirit Society’s headquarters was located.
A number of magnificent palaces stood above the clouds. Time had left its marks on each and every one of them.
Floating in the sky, they looked like stars that would never fall.
Surrounding the floating palaces were numerous spatial rifts, which were very similar to the spatial rifts in the watery curtain over the Realm of Maelstrom. They seemed to connect to any human domain people might want to visit.
Some of the spatial rifts emanated the special auras of s.p.a.ce disruption zones.
A s.p.a.cious platform made of jade could be seen floating by an active spatial rift. The platform was filled with people with solemn faces, as if they were waiting for something.
SHEW! SHEW! SHEW!
Figures dressed in different robes flew out of the spatial rift from time to time, and landed on the jade platform.
Standing beside Mo Heng, the grand elder of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace, were Sikong Cuo and his subordinates, all of whom were at the Saint or Void domain.
At this moment, Mo Heng was speaking to two experts from the Five Elements Sect and the Void Spirit Society, their faces grim.
SHEW!
Another figure flew out of the spatial rift and landed on the platform. Mo Heng ended his conversation with the other two experts. A bit of light flickered in his deep, cold eyes.
Eyebrows flickering, a skinny old man from the Void Spirit Society followed Mo Heng’s gaze to look at the person who had just arrived. “Brother Mo, is that your sect’s seventh Son of the Stars?”
Mo Heng nodded.
“He’s at the late Profound realm...” The vice sectmaster of the Void Spirit Society muttered.
At this moment, Huang Jinnan and Lou Hongyan from the Five Elements Sect suddenly called out from afar, “Nie Tian!”
Nie Tian, who hadn’t had a chance to take a good look at the Void Spirit Society, turned around upon hearing their call, and spotted a number of familiar faces.
Huang Jinnan, Lou Hongyan, and their subordinates were all nodding towards Nie Tian with faint smiles.
Nie Tian had met Yang Fan, Zhao Heng, and many of them during their exploration of the Lizardman domain.
“How come you’re here too?” Nie Tian asked with a smile. With these words, he left Fang Yuan’s side and walked to Huang Jinnan and Lou Hongyan. “You were summoned to join this operation in the Domain of Nether Heaven as well?”
Huang Jinnan nodded slightly. “My senior martial sister was. As for me, I asked to join her after learning that you were going.”
With these words, he turned to an old man sitting behind him and said, “Senior Lu, this is the Nie Tian I told you about.”
The old man had been talking to Mo Heng earlier. Upon hearing this, he smiled towards Nie Tian and said, “This old one is Lu Jiefeng. Jinnan and Hongyan have told me a lot about you. Every time your name came up, those two little ones would go on and on about how amazing you are.”
“Greetings, Senior Lu!” Nie Tian said with great respect.
After returning to the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace from the Lizardman domain, he had asked about the Five Elements Sect, and learned that the heads of the metal, wood, water, fire, and earth element sects were all G.o.d domain experts. Aside from them, there was one more G.o.d domain expert in the Five Elements Sect.
That expert was none other than Lu Jiefeng, who was at the early G.o.d domain, and well-versed in metal power.
It was said that Lu Jiefeng was martial brothers with the current head of the metal sect.
Back in the day, he had given up his opportunity to compete for the head of the metal sect, and given the position to Huang Jinnan’s master.
Rumor had that Lu Jiefeng’s cultivation talent was every bit as outstanding as Huang Jinnan’s master’s. The reason why he was only at the early G.o.d domain, while Huang Jinnan’s master was late G.o.d domain, was because the sect had tipped cultivation resources in Huang Jinnan’s master’s direction after Lu Jiefeng had backed out of the power compet.i.tion.
Because of this, Huang Jinnan’s master had been grateful to him over the years.
Lu Jiefeng’s status in the Five Elements Sect was only lower than the heads of the five sects. Even the Divine Sons and Daughters had great respect for him.
At this moment, Mo Heng beckoned him over and said, “Nie Tian, this is Ji Yuanquan, the vice sectmaster of the Void Spirit Society.”
Nie Tian bowed respectfully. “Greetings, Senior Ji.”
Ji Yuanquan waved his hand. “No need to stand on ceremony.”
Then, he took a deep look at him and added, “Someone has been waiting for you for a long time.”
“Who?” Nie Tian asked.
Ji Yuanquan chuckled softly and said, “I think you know.”
At this moment, a figure in blue robes suddenly flew out of a distant palace and landed on the jade platform in the blink of an eye.
“Senior Martial Sister Pei!” Nie Tian exclaimed.
“Long time no see.” Pei Qiqi looked as cold as she always was, but little sparks could be seen in the depths of her eyes. “You’ve entered the late Profound realm. So you’re not too slow.”
Dumbfounded, Nie Tian asked, “Have you entered the middle Soul realm already, Senior Martial Sister Pei?!”
Pei Qiqi nodded. “Our sect has spent a lot of resources and efforts on me. Of course I won’t disappoint them.”
Some people in the crowd started whispering to each other. Clearly, they didn’t know much about Pei Qiqi.
“Who’s that?”
“That woman doesn’t look familiar at all. I don’t think I’ve seen or heard about her.”
“I don’t know, but since Ji Yuanquan introduced her himself, she must be someone very important.”
“How does she know Nie Tian?”
Ji Yuanquan, the vice sectmaster of the Void Spirit Society, cleared his throat and stepped to the center of the platform. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Pei Qiqi, our sectmaster’s legacy disciple.
“Like Nie Tian, the seventh Son of the Stars of the Fragmentary Star Palace, she’s also from the Domain of the Falling Stars.
“You might be unfamiliar with the name Pei Qiqi, but I bet you’ve heard about the Heaven Nourished grade spatial treasure that appeared in the Shatter Battlefield. It voluntarily merged with her and acknowledged her as its master.
“This time, she’ll go with us to uproot the Nether Spirit Society’s surviving members in the Domain of Nether Heaven.”
After Ji Yuanquan’s introduction, everyone present realized what a high status Pei Qiqi had in the Void Spirit Society.
As a legacy disciple of the sectmaster of the Void Spirit Society, her status matched that of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace’s Sons of the Stars and the Five Elements Sect’s Divine Sons and Daughters.
Furthermore, the sectmaster of the Void Spirit Society had taken in three legacy disciples before her, and announced that he wouldn’t take in more disciples many years ago.
Apparently, he had broken his word by taking Pei Qiqi in.
This proved how important and unique he thought she was.
The fact that many in the crowd hadn’t heard anything about Pei Qiqi before indicated that the Void Spirit Society had kept her a secret this whole time. The reason why she was going to the Domain of Nether Heaven this time was probably because she had gained the core legacies and come to brand new understandings of s.p.a.ce power after learning from the sectmaster for a period of time.
The sectmaster probably wanted her to use this experience to test what she had learned.
“Pei Qiqi, the fourth legacy disciple of the Void Spirit Society’s sectmaster,” Sikong Cuo muttered to himself. “The Domain of the Falling Stars... It’s hard to believe a remote corner that I’ve never heard of had such hidden dragons and crouching tigers.” (Idiom: concealed talents)
“The Domain of the Falling Stars sounds like quite a place!” Someone in the crowd exclaimed softly.
A clamor focused on Pei Qiqi and Nie Tian rapidly took over the crowd.
Even though Nie Tian’s name had spread far and wide recently, not many had seen him in person.
He and Pei Qiqi soon had everyone’s attention.
At this moment, Ji Yuanquan said aloud, “Elder Mo Heng from the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace, Senior Lu Jiefeng from the Five Elements Sect, and I will lead this operation in the Domain of Nether Heaven.
“Like the Nether Spirit Society, their sectmaster has come back to life. According to what we’ve learned, he’s more powerful now than ever. We must do a thorough job with this cleansing operation. We can’t allow a single wisp of his true soul escape this time!
“Now, we’re all here. If there aren’t any objections, we’ll move out now.”
As he said these words, more than a dozen Saint and Void domain experts flew over from the other palaces and stood beside Pei Qiqi.