Wei Botao nodded slightly and backed out of the great hall.
Shortly afterwards, he returned with Chai Longge and Chai Fengwu.
The brother-sister pair didn’t rank very high among the chosen ones of the Martial Spirit Sect.
The strongest chosen one of the Martial Spirit Sect was Tao Shuwen, who was at the late Soul realm.
However, even he wasn’t allowed to enter the great hall at this moment.
Having survived their tribulation in the Shatter Battlefield, Chai Longge was now at the early Soul realm, while Chai Fengwu was at the late Profound realm.
The two of them stepped nervously into the great hall, and were deeply surprised to see Nie Tian.
Chai Longge couldn’t help but exclaim, “Nie Tian! It’s really you!”
Back when they had met Nie Tian in the Shatter Battlefield, since Nie Tian hadn’t finished the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace’s path of stars yet, his status as the seventh Son of the Stars hadn’t been officially acknowledged.
Even so, they had suspected that the Nie Tian they had met in the Shatter Battlefield was none other than the seventh Son of the Stars, who was now like the sun at high noon. (Idiom: at the apex of one’s power, career, etc)
However, considering that Nie Tian and the girls had annihilated Qiu Ji and his team of Earth Spirit Sect disciples in the Shatter Battlefield, and Qiu Ji had been the only son of Qiu Hanshan, the sectmaster of the Earth Spirit Sect, they had only briefly described their encounters with Nie Tian after their return.
After all, they were worried that Qiu Ji’s death would put Nie Tian in trouble.
Luckily, since Qiu Ji’s entire team had died, Qiu Hanshan didn’t know who had killed his son in the Shatter Battlefield till this day.
Nie Tian smiled. “Congratulations. It seems to me that both of you have made significant breakthroughs in your cultivation. I’m very impressed.”
“You’re the one who’s truly impressive,” Chai Longge said, his face filled with amazement. “I still remember that your cultivation base was very... unimpressive back when we first met in the Shatter Battlefield. Now, not many years have pa.s.sed, but you’ve already at the late Profound realm. It seems to me that you’re only one step away from entering the Soul realm.”
Chai Fengwu, who was standing beside him, gave Nie Tian a sweet smile. “Greetings, Big Brother Nie.”
Seeing that the two of them knew Nie Tian so well, Wei Botao, the sectmaster of the Martial Spirit Sect, was rather pleased, and expressed his grat.i.tude once again.
After briefly catching up with the brother-sister pair, Nie Tian turned to Hou Chulan again, to inquire of the situation in the Domain of Heaven’s Origin. From her, he learned that the Martial Spirit Sect and the Earth Spirit Sect had detected three outsider teleportation portals. However, they had failed to locate them even after extensive searches.
“Martial Sister Hou, I’m afraid those teleportation portals are guarded by outsiders,” Nie Tian said. “I’m hoping to have the corpses of the outsiders we kill.”
Hou Chulan chuckled softly and nodded. “You want outsider corpses? No problem. Not just the ones you kill, you can have all of the dead outsiders we kill in the Domain of Heaven’s Origin. I’ll only take dead Floragrims if we end up killing any.”
Hou Chulan was the Divine Daughter of the wood element sect of the Five Elements Sect, and the incantations she practiced were all wood power-related.
For that reason, Floragrim corpses were the only outsider corpses she valued. As for Demon, Phantasm, and Fiend corpses, since they would be of no use to her even if she obtained any, she would only give them to her sect.
Surprised and delighted, Nie Tian said, “That’d be great. Many thanks.”
Considering that Luo Wanxiang was currently in charge of his sect’s internal affairs, he didn’t think he would receive a fair amount of contribution points after finis.h.i.+ng this mission in the Domain of Heaven’s Origin.
Instead, what he valued the most in this operation was the outsiders that might be guarding those teleportation portals.
By killing outsiders and obtaining their corpses, he would be able to provide the green aura in his heart with the rich flesh power it needed. This was what he had deemed to be his priority task.
Of course, if he found an opportunity to break through into the Soul realm during his battle against the outsiders in the Domain of Heaven’s Origin, that would be the best.
“Instead of waiting for my men to feed us more information, we might as well take up the matter ourselves,” Hou Chulan suggested. “We can head out to the areas where those teleportation portals appeared and conduct thorough searches ourselves.”
“I agree,” Nie Tian chimed in.
Upon hearing this, Wei Botao, the sectmaster of the Martial Spirit Sect, made arrangements right away.
It wasn’t long before Hou Chulan, Nie Tian, and the others teleported somewhere in the starry river in the Domain of Heaven’s Origin through a teleportation portal in the Martial Spirit Sect’s headquarters.
One after another, they appeared on a berthed ancient stars.h.i.+p that belonged to the Martial Spirit Sect.
Standing at the prow, Nie Tian gazed off into the distance. He saw a nearby realm, and numerous flickering stars.
In the dim starry river, another ancient stars.h.i.+p that seemed to have been forged from a huge meteor was berthed not far from the one he was on.
Seeing Nie Tian laying his eyes on the ancient stars.h.i.+p that looked like a meteor, Hou Chulan explained, “That ancient stars.h.i.+p belongs to the Earth Spirit Sect. Qiu Hanshan, the sectmaster of the Earth Spirit Sect, is also my subordinate. He’s well-versed in earth power. He forged that ancient stars.h.i.+p from a special kind of dirt with extremely high density, which made it very solid.”
“The Earth Spirit Sect...” Nie Tian muttered with a faint, meaningful smile.
“Have you heard of such a small sect as the Earth Spirit Sect?” Hou Chulan asked, looking surprised.
“As a matter of fact, I have,” Nie Tian answered. “Chai Longge and Chai Fengwu told me about it.”
As much as Wei Botao wanted Chai Longge and Chai Fengwu to deepen their friends.h.i.+p with Nie Tian, he knew that their cultivation bases and strength didn’t allow them to partic.i.p.ate in an operation at such a level. Therefore, he hadn’t allowed them to come along.
Hou Chulan nodded, not looking surprised by his answer. “I see.”
Then, she turned to the old woman behind her and nodded meaningfully.
Immediately afterwards, the old woman delivered her order, and the Earth Spirit Sect’s ancient stars.h.i.+p started to approach theirs.
Moments later, Qiu Hanshan, the sectmaster of the Earth Spirit Sect flew off his stars.h.i.+p. Enveloped in his domain, he approached Hou Chulan with a greasy smile. “Greetings, Divine Daughter!”
Hou Chulan waved her hand. “No need to stand on ceremony. Let me introduce you. This is Nie Tian, the seventh Son of the Stars of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace.”
Qiu Hanshan was a burly man dressed in dark-yellow robes. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing his muscular forearms.
He took a deep look at Nie Tian, a strange look appearing in his eyes. “Nie Tian...”
He rapidly looked down and said very respectfully. “Greetings, seventh Son of the Stars. I’m Qiu Hanshan, the sectmaster of the Earth Spirit Sect.”
“Please be at ease,” Nie Tian said, raising his hand.
Back in the day, he had been surrounded by a band of Earth Spirit Sect disciples in a Stoneman city in the Shatter Battlefield.
That was when he had met Chai Longge and Chai Fengwu for the first time. Thanks to them, the Earth Spirit Sect disciples had eventually let him walk away.
Now, many years later, when he came to the Domain of Heaven’s Origin, even the sectmaster of the Earth Spirit Sect had to greet him by bowing respectfully.
Such changes in the way he was treated originated from his status as a Son of the Stars, and the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace at his back.
“Your sect discovered those three teleportation portals first, didn’t you?” Hou Chulan asked.
Qiu Hanshan nodded. “Our sect happens to be based in a nearby realm.”
With these words, he pointed at the nearby realm Nie Tian had seen earlier. “Our disciples detected unusual spatial fluctuations while they were pa.s.sing by, and informed me of their discovery. However, they disappeared shortly afterwards.
“After that, I talked to the Martial Spirit Sect, and both our sects arranged for disciples to come search this region, but they disappeared too.
“Seeing this, Sectmaster Wei and I could only come here to check things out ourselves. I thought this was only a trivial matter, and didn’t expect you to come here yourself, Divine Daughter.”
“Normally, I wouldn’t muster forces just to examine some teleportation portals that suddenly appeared,” Hou Chulan said. “However, times are different. We’re now in a sensitive time, when outsiders are launching ma.s.sive invasions. Under such circ.u.mstances, we’ve got to be extra careful when teleportation portals suddenly appear out of nowhere.”
“Thanks you for coming to our aid, Divine Daughter,” Qiu Hanshan said. “With you here, we’ll definitely be able to destroy those teleportation portals and restore peace to the Domain of Heaven’s Origin.”
While Hou Chulan talked to Qiu Hanshan, Nie Tian felt a bit bored. He glanced around and unleashed his soul awareness to scan his surroundings.
All of a sudden, he received a soul call from the Spirit Pearl. His eyebrows flickered slightly as he started soul communication with it.
His face gradually dropped as he stared coldly at Qiu Hanshan. Killing intent filling his eyes, he exclaimed, “Senior Jing, kill this man for me!”
He pointed at Qiu Hanshan.
In a flash, everyone fixed their gazes on him.
Both Wei Botao from the Martial Spirit Sect and the old woman’s expression instantly flickered. None of them knew what was happening.
However, Jing Feiyang threw himself towards Qiu Hanshan upon receiving Nie Tian’s order without saying anything.
“What are you doing, Nie Tian?!” Qiu Hanshan exclaimed in fear and trepidation.
Then, he turned to Hou Chulan and implored with an anxious expression, “Divine Daughter, I’ve never offended him before. You’ve got to preside over justice for me!”
At this moment, the old woman stepped forward. “What do you think you’re doing, Nie Tian?!”