In the far north of the Nether Realm.
The Nether River floated in the sky, stretching as far as the eye could see. Countless soul symbols, evil spirits, and sparkling rays of light could be seen flickering within the misty cyan river.
However, due to the upheaval that had swept across the Spirit World, even the Phantasm Qi that the Nether Realm depended on was dissipating.
The energy exhaustion of the Spirit World seemed to be irreversible.
A spatial altar made from cyan jade sat among the five towering stone statues, with Phantasms leaving and arriving through it from time to time.
Some of the Phantasms looked sad and dreary, while others looked elated and cheerful.
Some of the old and conservative Phantasms were reluctant to leave the Nether Realm for the Void World even though they knew that the origin of their bloodlines lay with the Netherspirits, and that the Spirit World was withering.
A wrinkled old female Phantasm with a dim prismatic crystal on her forehead gazed up absorbedly at the Nether River. A reluctant look filled her murky eyes as she sighed and said, “These changes the Spirit World is going through... Even the Nether River seems to be more and more distant from us... Back when Soul Ferry broke through to the late tenth grade, even the Nether River seemed to be cheering. That spectacular scene was simply unprecedented.
“However, when Unholy Wind joined the ranks of the late tenth grade grand monarchs, the Nether River didn’t show even the slightest changes.”
She seemed to be overtaken with emotions.
Apparently, she didn’t approve of Grand Monarch Unholy Wind, and was still convinced that the bright future of their race had lain with Grand Monarch Soul Ferry, their high chieftain who had probably died in the Void World.
She approved of his stance on the matter of the Netherspirits. Even though he was aware of the profound bloodline connections between them and his people, he had kept his distance and refused to join them.
In contrast, she was deeply discontent with what Grand Monarch Unholy Wind had done since he had a.s.sumed power.
Even so, the Phantasms, along with the Demons and Bonebrutes, had already attached themselves to this war chariot that was the outsiders from the Void World. Even Grand Monarch Unholy Wind had been killed by Nie Tian. Because of this, the entire Phantasm race didn’t have a presentable leader now.
PHEW! PHEW!
A few elegant, skinny figures arrived through the spatial altar.
One of the arrivals glanced around with her fierce, icy eyes before finally laying them on the old female Phantasm and saying impatiently, “I’m Barbara, a Netherspirit from the Void World. Grand Monarch Thousand Spirits ordered you to evacuate the Nether Realm as soon as possible. Why are you still here?”
The old female Phantasm cast her gaze down. “We find it hard to abandon our home. There’s an emotional attachment after all.”
Barbara laughed coldly. “Even the Nether River branch here is fading and merging into ours in the Void World. What’s left for you to miss?
“As for those five...” A vicious, murderous look filled her eyes as she turned to look at the five towering statues of the evil G.o.ds. “They don’t deserve to be wors.h.i.+pped! As the master’s five most capable subordinates, they’ve already gathered their soul fragments from the three worlds, yet they’re taking orders from a stranger. They’re traitors!”
She hated the evil G.o.ds to the bones.
After she said these words, the few ninth grade Netherspirit grand patriarch that had followed her here dashed back and forth in the air, dropping sparkling magical b.a.l.l.s on the mountain-like statues of the evil G.o.ds.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
With heaven-rending, earth-crus.h.i.+ng explosions, the statues were bombarded by b.a.l.l.s that contained countless lightning wisps.
After the violent energy dissipated, the Phantasms looked with rapt attention, and discovered that the statues had toppled, but hadn’t really shattered.
“Quite st.u.r.dy they are.” Barbara gave a cold harrumph and ordered the Netherspirits to keep going.
She herself, however, flew towards the Nether River branch.
Her soul was the soul of the Spirit Scepter, which was used to channel and draw power from the Nether River. Now that she had lost the scepter and suffered serious injuries to her soul, she wanted to see if she could recover her strength with the numerous evil spirits in this branch of the Nether River.
Down on the ground, many Phantasms had grim expressions, as they couldn’t bear to see the statues of the G.o.ds they had wors.h.i.+ped for generations be toppled down.
They hadn’t been to the Void World. They had lived in the Nether Realm their entire lives, and those statues had been treated as G.o.ds since they had been old enough to remember.
Many of them had even derived exquisite soul magics from those statues.
Many elder Phantasms felt deeply attached to them. Seeing them being toppled and damaged by the Netherspirits, the old female Phantasm couldn’t help but ask, “Would it be possible that you spare the statues?”
One of the ninth grade grand patriarchs snorted disdainfully and cast her a cold look. “Shut up! Even though you carry our bloodlines, you’ll always be our inferiors! Remember to address us respectfully from now on. Your bloodline is impure. Even though you can derive soul wonders from the Nether River, you’re bound to be our va.s.sals.”
The other Netherspirits also had arrogant expressions, as if this was exactly how things should be between them.
Hearing this, the Phantasms grew even grimmer and sadder.
They just realized that to the Netherspirits in the Void World, they were nothing but inferiors that carried an impure bloodline.
They had originally been a native species. It was true that only after being influenced by the power of the Nether River for many generations had they developed their current bloodline and great resemblance to the Netherspirits.
However, they were still excluded by the Netherspirits, despite the fact that their bloodline had come from the Nether River and Grand Monarch Heavenly Spirit.
All of a sudden, the Phantasms present started to miss their high chieftain, Grand Monarch Soul Ferry, and the days when they had been a proud and unprejudiced race.
The toppled statues suddenly started exuding flowing cyan light.
The few ninth grade Netherspirit grand patriarchs that had come with Barbara stood aghast, unsure what was happening. “What the...?”
Even Barbara, who was flying up towards the Nether River, exclaimed, “The Nether River!”
She suddenly sensed the presence of the Spirit Scepter!
Then, the Nether River branch seemed to be channeled by the Spirit Scepter, as it left the Nether Realm and flew off somewhere very far away with a shocking speed.
RUMBLE!
Almost at the same time, the five mountainous statues appeared to be lifted by some force, and flew off after the Nether River one by one.
“The stone statues and the Nether River!”
The Phantasms shuddered violently as they suddenly remembered the ancient legends, which said that those statues and the Nether River had been first carried to the Nether Realm by some force.
From there, the Phantasms had been born and grown into a powerful race of the Spirit World.
Now, the Nether River had left, followed by the statues. What did this mean?
After being dumbfounded for a while, Barbara snapped to a realization. “Nie Tian! Dammit! I can’t believe he’s in the Spirit World!”
...
In the dim starry river outside the Floragrims’ main realm.
Nie Tian’s true soul held the Spirit Scepter in one hand and the Spirit Pearl in the other. The five evil G.o.ds had already swirled out in their fleshly forms, and were letting out heaven-shaking, earth-shattering summoning howls with their heads thrown back.
He sensed with great clarity that the Nether River branch in the Nether Realm had answered the Spirit Scepter’s summons, and was flying towards him.
At the same time, Nie Tian’s star domain and star power sub-soul were making an attempt to channel star power from every star in the Spirit World.