The battle against the Phantasms ended within a short time.
Three Phantasm ancient stars.h.i.+ps split one after another, filling the dark starry river with debris.
Nie Tian’s Star Boat was filled once again, but this time with dead Phantasms, including three eighth grade ones and a few dozen seventh grade ones.
Nie Tian and Pei Qiqi were the main forces in this battle, while Huang Jinnan a.s.sisted them.
After the battle ended, the three of them returned to the dead realm, where Nie Tian retreated to a secluded location to refine the Phantasm corpses one by one with Life Drain.
Three days later, Nie Tian had a total of nine drops of transcendent Blood Essence in his heart.
RUMBLE!
Lands shook and mountains toppled in the nearby dead realm.
The moment the realm fell apart, Grand Patriarch Bone Crusher shot out of it with Pergson on his shoulder.
At this point, the Bonebrute stars.h.i.+p they had come on had already crashed into that dead realm. All of the Bonebrutes had been killed, except for Grand Patriarch Bone Crusher and Pergson.
Curious sparks flickered in Pei Qiqi’s eyes as she communicated with Fan Wen using a secret magic of the Void Spirit Society. “Failing to see any reinforcements, Grand Patriarch Bone Crusher has finally decided to leave.
“Sikong Cuo and his lackeys turned out to be even fiercer than I thought. Even though he has a bad reputation, his battle prowess is far beyond ordinary. You’d better be careful when you see him.”
Huang Jinnan sighed. “Sikong Cuo and his men’s performance in battle is impressive indeed.”
“Yeah, he won, but I’m more concerned with his losses,” Nie Tian said.
A cold smile appeared at the corner of Pei Qiqi’s mouth as she said, “An early Saint domain expert was killed by Grand Patriarch Bone Crusher, and of all his Void domain subordinates, only three survived. Sikong Cuo’s men killed all of the eighth grade Bonebrutes in this fierce battle. It was impossible for him to not pay a heavy price.
“I’m afraid it’ll take him quite some time to recover.”
Huang Jinnan laughed broadly. “Even one of his Saint domain subordinates was killed. That must hurt. However, if we hadn’t intercepted and killed those Demons and Phantasms, his losses would have been even greater.”
“He still doesn’t know we did all that, right?” Nie Tian asked.
Pei Qiqi shook her head. “No, he doesn’t.”
Moments later, Pei Qiqi narrowed her eyes and said, “Sikong Cuo is asking Elder Fan to cast Void Travel and get them out of that dead realm. He’s worried that Grand Patriarch Bone Crusher will summon other powerful outsiders and come back for him.”
“It’s about time we left here too. It’s not safe for us to stay here for long either.” Nie Tian said. “Also, we’d better avoid contact with Sikong Cuo, lest he suspect that we had something to do with what happened to him. Come on. Let’s go. Grand Patriarch Bone Crusher may actually come back.”
“Okay.” Pei Qiqi agreed.
She cast Void Travel and split open a spatial rift, through which the three of them left the dead realm where they had been hiding.
...
The aura of Void domain experts’ shattered domains and the Bonebrutes’ unique aura of death filled a large area of the starry river.
The exploded dead realm had become countless floating meteors, which would turn into falling stars once caught by the mysterious gales in the starry river.
At this moment, Sikong Cuo was standing on a large meteor, looking coldly at Fan Wen.
“Can you cast Void Travel now?” He asked.
Fan Wen remained expressionless as she nodded. “Yeah.”
“I hope nothing will go wrong this time!” Sikong Cuo’s voice was filled with suppressed anger.
Standing beside him, Zou Qing, who was at the late Saint domain, was holding a handful of Soul-storing Stones.
Each and every one of them held the soul of a killed subordinate of Sikong Cuo’s.
The purpose of the Soul-storing Stones was to prevent their souls from being annihilated while they traveled in the starry river.
As long as their souls didn’t perish, Sikong Cuo would be able to find suitable hosts for them to reincarnate in after returning to his subordinate domains.
However, not all of his dead subordinates’ souls had been preserved.
Some of them had shattered when the dead realm had exploded.
Sikong Cuo had indeed suffered heavy losses this time.
He had lost nearly half of the subordinates he had spent years gathering. Even if he could reincarnate them later, it would take centuries for them to return to their peak state.
This was none other than a heavy blow to him.
Just as Fan Wen was going to cast Void Travel, Zou Qing’s eyebrows flickered as he exclaimed, “Wait!”
Fan Wen then canceled the spell.
Zou Qing morphed into a bolt of lightning and shot off the drifting meteor they were on.
He flew to another area of the dark starry river, where he saw a large piece of stars.h.i.+p debris.
Apparently, it had drifted to this place after Nie Tian had split the Demon stars.h.i.+ps with the Star Behemoth bone.
“This is from a shattered Demon stars.h.i.+p. Did a battle take place in this area?” Zou Qing went blank for a moment before flying off again. After circling around in the vicinity for a bit, he found even more Demon stars.h.i.+p debris.
Baffled, he returned to Sikong Cuo’s side and said in a low voice, “Master, I think a battle broke out in this area while we were fighting the Bonebrutes.”
“Spread out and see what else you can find!” Sikong Cuo ordered.
He summoned his Star Boat and jumped on board, s.h.i.+elding off the mixed energies in the starry river with his domain.
Since all of his surviving subordinates were at the Saint domain or late Void domain, they could all soar freely under the protection of their domains in the starry river.
Therefore, they spread out to look for things worth noting.
After searching for a while, Zou Qing and the others returned to Sikong Cuo’s side and reported what they had found with confused looks in their eyes.
“There’s a lot of debris that seems to be from shattered Phantasm stars.h.i.+ps.”
“Who destroyed those Demon and Phantasm stars.h.i.+ps?”
“Since there aren’t any Demon or Phantasm corpses around, someone must have taken them away.”
“But where did they go? They didn’t leave any traces behind.”
Sikong Cuo also seemed rather confused as he said, “Perhaps those Demons and Phantasms were summoned by the Bonebrutes. Earlier, when we were fighting Grand Patriarch Bone Crusher, I noticed that he would look into the starry river from time to time, as if he was waiting for something. I suppose he was waiting for these Demon and Phantasm reinforcements.
“But who killed them? Also, if people were here killing these Demons and Phantasms, they should have been able to sense our battle against the Bonebrutes.
“This is odd...”
With these words, Sikong Cuo suddenly fixed his eyes on Fan Wen and said suspiciously, “Did you not receive any messages from other elders of your sect? I know that your sect has a secret magic that allows you to communicate with each other within a domain.”
Fan Wen shook her head. “I joined the battle myself. I didn’t have a chance to sense this heaven and earth to receive any messages.”
“Forget it.” Sikong Cuo waved his hand, urging Fan Wen to take them to the edge of the Domain of Nether Heaven so that they would be able to get out of this mire as soon as possible.
“I won’t be able to get you to the edge of this domain by casting Void Travel just once,” Fan Wen said. “I can only get you there bit by bit.”
Looking rather impatient, Sikong Cuo said, “Do what you can then.”
Fan Wen started casting the spell.
...
The Domain of Nether Heaven covered a vast area of the starry river. Even Pei Qiqi couldn’t reach the closest location on its perimeter in a single attempt.
She had to cast Void Travel three times in a row to get Nie Tian and Huang Jinnan to a dead realm on its perimeter.
Standing on the dead realm, they gazed ahead, and couldn’t see another realm.
Behind them were the numerous dead realms they had crossed to get to this place.
“This is as far as I can take us,” Pei Qiqi said, looking somewhat depleted. “I’m afraid we’ll have to rely on my Voidheaven Boat to get out of the Domain of Nether Heaven. Only after I get my strength back will I be able to cast Void Travel again.”
Apparently, their plan concurred with Sikong Cuo’s. Considering that the Domain of Nether Heaven had been sealed by multiple outsider grand patriarch flesh auras, they had to find ways other than Void Travel to escape.
As powerful as they were, those grand patriarchs weren’t omnipotent. Their flesh auras grew thin after they spread them over the entire domain, and they couldn’t stop air-transportation spiritual tools like the Voidheaven Boat from crossing the domain border.
“Are Sikong Cuo and his men behind us?” Huang Jinnan asked.
Pei Qiqi nodded. “Yeah, even though Elder Fan’s cultivation base is much higher than mine, she can only cast Void Travel once. From the look of it, the outsiders won’t be able to find us here, unless they have hidden teleportation portals in this area. We’re safe for now.”
Therefore, the three of them left the dead realm and flew towards the domain border on the Voidheaven Boat.
Days pa.s.sed...
Pei Qiqi suddenly sprang to her feet. The light of excitement flickered in her eyes as she said, “A spatial rift has split open in the vicinity. It must be one of the elders from my sect!”
She immediately cast a secret spell.
“It’s Elder Qi!” Pei Qiqi exclaimed softly. “He got Lou Hongyan here!”
“My senior martial sister!” Huang Jinnan exclaimed in high spirits. “Are they far from here?”
“No.” Comprehending his thoughts, Pei Qiqi steered the Voidheaven Boat in another direction, and headed towards the new arrivals.
Before long, they reached Lou Hongyan and her team’s location. Huang Jinnan saw her from afar, and his expression flickered. “How come you only have this few people left on your team? What happened?”
“I can’t believe you’re still alive!” Lou Hongyan exclaimed with a sad look in her eyes.