On the mountaintop, a small area around Nie Tian had become bone-piercingly cold.
However, as long as people didn’t enter a ten meter radius around him, they wouldn’t feel even the slightest bit of cold. As much as Mo Li and Mo Qinglei wanted to rescue Nie Tian, once they approached and felt the frigid coldness...
CRACK! CRACK!
Mo Qinglei felt as if he was going to freeze, and thus had to step away from him.
Mo Li, who was at the early Saint domain, also attempted to approach Nie Tian. However, as he did, even his domain started to freeze and show signs of cracking from the cold.
He suddenly realized that if he dared to meddle with Ling Bingyun’s business, the cold power she inflicted on him would multiply.
Therefore, he stopped right away and adopted another approach.
“Sectmaster Ling!” he called out. “Nie Tian is the seventh Son of the Stars of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace. You know that very well! While your sect’s strength has greatly declined, Nie Tian has come to a lofty status in the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace, and even the entire human world.”
Face cold, Ling Bingyun said without the slightest flicker in her eyes, “I know that.”
“Then why are you...?”
A hint of a taunt appeared at the corner of Ling Bingyun’s mouth. “You think I wanted to kill him? I was only checking something here.”
“What do you want to check?”
“I wanted to see if this Son of the Stars is truly extraordinary, or if his abilities were exaggerated.” With these words, Ling Bingyun seemed to lose interest, and added, “But I think I got my answer.”
Then, she prepared to withdraw the frigid power she had infused into Nie Tian.
However, that was when she suddenly noticed that a curious orange flame spark flickered in the depths of Nie Tian’s eyes, which were dead fixed on her.
It was the flame spark within Nie Tian’s flame power core!
Its reflection somehow appeared in the depths of Nie Tian’s pupils.
The moment they appeared, Ling Bingyun had a peculiar feeling that the frost power wards she had created to freeze and seal the small part of heaven and earth around Nie Tian were being melted by some unknown force.
In the next moment, the flame sparks started to shake violently within Nie Tian’s pupils.
FZZZ! FZZZ!
One stream of fiery light after another burst through his meridians to every part of his body.
BOOOOM!
His flesh power, flame power from the Flame Dragon Armor, his flame power core, the flame spark...
All sorts of raging fiery auras burst forth at the same time!
The ultimate flame power released by the flame spark made even Ling Bingyun uneasy.
Her jaw dropped slightly in amazement, as she discovered that all of the restrictive spells and frigid wards she had cast on Nie Tian seemed to be burned away.
It was as if a cl.u.s.ter of flames was burning furiously within Nie Tian and neutralizing her profound cold power that carried her soul awareness.
“S-such a strong aura...” Ling Bingyun’s expression flickered strongly as she suddenly remembered a nightmarish experience from the past.
It was when she had first advanced to the early Saint domain and come to a profound mastery of cold power. She had taken a trip to the Domain of Flame’s End, where she wandered among the charred dead stars.
In an aggressive and unscrupulous manner, she had unleashed cold power from her domain to freeze the dead stars.
However, after a while, an accident had happened when she had engulfed an unknown dead star with her cold power in an attempt to derive new enlightenment about the laws of cold power.
Violent flame power had suddenly burst forth from the heart of that dead star.
That flame power seemed to have been mighty enough to burn the heavens, destroy the earth, and reduce everything to ashes.
Her various frigid incantations that had carried the so-called profound truths of cold power had been so fragile that they hadn’t even been able to last a second in the face of that devastating flame power.
Eventually, she had been forced to admit defeat and leave that dead star, however reluctantly.
Only after she had returned to the Ice Soul Divine Sect and sought help from her sect seniors had she learned that a spark of Divine Flame had been hiding in the Domain of Flame’s End after the great calamity.
Even the head of the fire element sect, who was at the late G.o.d domain, had failed to capture it in the Domain of Flame’s End.
The head of the fire element sect and many other strong Qi warriors who practiced flame power had honored that cl.u.s.ter of flames with the name ‘the spirit of all flames’!
It was an unpleasant but unforgettable memory for Ling Bingyun.
At this moment, she was astonished to discover that she was sensing the same aura from Nie Tian!
She was having the same terrifying feeling that it was going to burn the heavens and destroy the earth, along with every living being in them. An overwhelming fear that had been branded in her bones forced her to withdraw her power right away.
SHEW! SHEW! SHEW!
Rays of sparkling light that were only sensible to Saint domain experts flew from Nie Tian’s surroundings.
“Ice Soul Divine Light!” Qi warriors from across the Domain of Endless Thunder exclaimed in shock as they watched the rays of sparkling light that carried frigid auras fly from Nie Tian’s surroundings and disappear into Ling Bingyun’s domain.
CRACK!
The ice trapping Nie Tian shattered and rapidly vaporized under the blazing flame power.
In a rising mist, Nie Tian shot a confused, stern look at Ling Bingyun before frowning and saying, “Do you have a problem with me, Sectmaster Ling?”
Ling Bingyun shook her head. “No.”
A fierce look gradually filled Nie Tian’s eyes. “But upon arriving, you...”
After summoning his Flame Dragon Armor and the Star Behemoth bone from within his ring of holding, he locked his eyes on Ling Bingyun and said slowly, “Including you, the Ice Soul Divine Sect has three late Saint domain experts and about ten early and middle Saint domain experts.
“Among my subordinates, Xie Qian and Master Blood Spirit are at the late Saint domain. I think Master Blood Spirit would have no problem defeating you in battle.
“Xie Qian and the sectmaster of the Heavenly Thunder Sect, who has entered the G.o.d domain, will also fight for me when called upon.
“I can have you killed and your Ice Soul Divine Sect annihilated without even using the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace’s power, though I may have to pay a price to do so!
“Not to mention that I can also ask for my friends from the Five Elements Sect and the Void Spirit Society to send their powerful elders to my aid.”
Face growing dark and ferocious, Nie Tian didn’t try to hide the killing intent in his eyes and the threat in his tone.
Ling Bingyun’s expression flickered slightly. With a somewhat grim look in his eyes, she said, “I only wanted to see for myself if your battle prowess was exaggerated.”
“Who do you think you are?” Nie Tian asked with a sarcastic tone. “Do you think you’re Qu Yi or Chu Yuan from the Heaven Span Pavilion? You think you’re so mighty that you can make a move against me without even expressing your intentions first?”
Ling Bingyun didn’t know what to say, her expression flickering.
WHOOs.h.!.+ WHOOs.h.!.+
Two figures, an old man and an old woman, hastily flew from the berthed stars.h.i.+p.
Both of them were at the late Saint domain.
“This old one is Han Qiong.”
“This old one is Kong Shuangjing.”
Both of them were elders of the Ice Soul Divine Sect. They were from the same generation as Ling Bingyun’s master, but had been stuck at the late Saint domain for ages.
In contrast, Ling Bingyun, who was much younger than them, had made rapid breakthroughs in her cultivation and joined them at the late Saint domain.
In their eyes, the future of the Ice Soul Divine Sect lay with her.
She had a good chance at becoming their first sectmaster to enter the G.o.d domain in recent generations.
Whether the Ice Soul Divine Sect would be able to recover its glory and rejoin the ranks of the powerful human sects that came second only to the four great sects would depend on her.
Meanwhile, they were no strangers to her temperament, and would sometimes find it problematic.
However, they knew that she usually wouldn’t rush into decisions.
They had only taken this trip here because Ling Bingyun had heard that Nie Tian had helped Mo Qianfan enter the G.o.d domain, and hadn’t believed a word of it, and had thus come to seek verification.
It was just that they hadn’t expected Ling Bingyun to seek verification by testing Nie Tian’s battle prowess herself.
Then, they hadn’t found her approach completely unacceptable.
Who would have thought that Nie Tian would react so strongly?
It sounded as if Nie Tian was even ready to summon all of his subordinates and commendable forces to kill Ling Bingyun and annihilate the Ice Soul Divine Sect right now.
The two of them thought that if Nie Tian actually mobilized all of his forces to fight the Ice Soul Divine Sect, regardless of its long history and high reputation in the human world, then...
They knew that they couldn’t sit back and watch any longer, and thus flew over in a hurry.
“Nie Tian, we’re in the wrong in this unpleasant incident.”
“We meant no harm though. All we wanted was to see whether, as the most highly reputed Son of the Stars, you’re as strong as people say you are.”
“We can guarantee that our sectmaster didn’t mean to harm you.”
“It was nothing but a little test. We’d like to apologize to you and offer you compensation. We hope you’ll forget this little incident.”
Before Ling Bingyun could say anything, Han Qiong and Kong Shuangjing, two late Saint domain experts, were so scared that they apologized repeatedly, hoping that Nie Tian wouldn’t make a big deal out of this incident.