Five miles from the gate of Shatter City...
Standing on the barren land, Nie Tian took his time to summon the Bone Blood Demon from his ring of holding. Then, he climbed onto its chest and cut his hand to let his blood that contained rich life force drip onto its enormous heart.
In the next moment, the heart of the Bone Blood Demon, which was lying on the ground, completely bereft of life, absorbed Nie Tian’s blood like a sponge absorbing water.
He knew that his special bloodline had vested each drop of his blood with the most profound life power in this world.
The life power within his blood could ignite the Bone Blood Demon’s extinguished flame of life, therefore restoring life to the Bone Blood Demon, which had been at the eighth grade when it had been alive.
Soon, the grayish-brown eyes within its enormous skull started to flicker with ghostly, green light.
It looked as if they were two oil lamps that had burst into green flames.
With its flame of life reignited, blood started running in the veins that were hidden within the Bone Blood Demon’s bones.
Even though the Bone Blood Demon still didn’t move at all, Nie Tian sensed with great clarity that it was gradually awakening, and a curious connection was being reestablished between him and it.
He knew that it was none other than the unique life power within his blood that was causing these incredible changes.
“This... This is the Bone Blood Demon you talked about?!” Dong Li asked with a shocked expression.
Her curvaceous body was enveloped by a spherical, dark ward, which gave her a mysterious look.
Nie Tian nodded slightly. “Exactly.”
Standing beside them, Li Langfeng looked calm and composed even though he didn’t try to protect himself from the tainted spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth at all.
After years of reckless cultivation, his body had already been ravaged by countless deadly toxins.
Compared to the toxins in his system, the tainted spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth in the Realm of Split Void was much weaker.
Because of this, he didn’t feel a thing, even though he was exposed to the tainted spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth.
After reigniting the Bone Blood Demon’s flame of life, Nie Tian, who had been surrounded by a cyan ward created by the cyan jade bracelet on his wrist, thought briefly, and then took the bracelet off.
Then, like Li Langfeng, he was also exposed to the tainted spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth.
Dong Li gasped with astonishment. “Nie Tian! What are you doing?!”
Fizzing sounds constantly came from the dark ward around her as a few dark sparks sputtered off the ward from time to time. This was caused by the corrosive effect of the tainted spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth on her protective ward.
She had to continuously draw upon her dark spiritual power to resist the increasingly strong toxic and corrosive energies.
She was astounded by the fact that Nie Tian had voluntarily deactivated his protective ward and exposed himself to this harsh environment.
However, Nie Tian didn’t answer her. He stood still in the tainted spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth and sensed it with his eyes closed.
As soon as the cyan ward was canceled, the tainted spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth that contained all kinds of corrosive and toxic impurities engulfed him.
To his surprise, he found that the fleshly aura he released instantly formed an invisible layer directly over his skin, warding off all of the toxins and impurities.
He even felt that wisps of filtered spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth were starting to penetrate his skin and flow into his spiritual sea, as if they were naturally drawn to his spiritual sea.
“Exactly as I expected!” he muttered.
After he had refined it with Heavenly Wood Heal, his body had already become similar to that of an outsider, since he was now able to resist the tainted spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth in the Realm of Split Void.
All he needed to do was to form a layer of fleshly aura over himself.
Not only that, but he could even extract energies that benefited him from the tainted spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth.
As he conducted a deep scan of himself, he discovered that not only were wisps of pure spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth flowing into his spiritual sea, but there was also a small amount of wood power as well.
Even though the wood power he was now receiving was much fainter than when he had cultivated on the two islands in that other dimension, it was richer than most places in the Domain of the Falling Stars.
He soon figured out the reason. “Considering that Floragrims used to live on the top continent, it’s only natural that there is wood power there. This explains why the mixed Qi that is leaking into the Realm of Split Void contains wood power.”
“A-are you alright?” Dong Li asked with her eyes wide.
Li Langfeng also had a confused expression as he looked deeply at him. Apparently, neither of them saw through how he was able to remain unharmed in the harsh environment of the Realm of Split Void.
Nie Tian didn’t explain. He put the cyan jade bracelet back on, and after he was once again enveloped in a cyan ward, he said, “You were right. The environment has indeed gone through great changes. The outsiders will find it quite agreeable after they swarm into the Realm of Split Void. Of all the realms of the Domain of the Falling Stars, this one will be their most ideal battlefield.”
With these words, he turned around and sat down, gazing coldly in the direction of Shatter City.
Soon, he saw a few figures flying towards him from that direction.
Even though he didn’t unleash his Heaven Eyes, he could tell that they were all Profound realm experts, since they were able to fly through the sky.
He gave a cold harrumph and summoned the Bone Blood Demon with a thought.
As he did, the Bone Blood Demon slowly sat up and rose to its feet, ghostly, green light flowing within its grayish-brown eyes.
Nie Tian sprang up into the air and landed steadily on the Bone Blood Demon’s shoulder.
BOOM! BOOM!
As the Bone Blood Demon stepped forward, the ground trembled, giving rise to deep, resounding sounds that he could feel in his chest.
It wasn’t very long before the five rogue cultivators arrived before him. Three of them were at the late Profound realm, and two were at the middle Profound realm. All of them had been bought off by the Spirit G.o.d Sect, the Poison Sect, and the Heaven Expanse Sect.
One of them, who seemed to practice fire-attributed incantations, laughed wildly and called out, “Nie Tian! We’ve waited for an opportunity like this for a month. Now, you"re finally out of Shatter City!
“All of his earthflame essence, earthflame crystal strings, and other fire-attributed spiritual materials will be mine!”
“I’ll take his wood-attributed spiritual materials!” Another one chimed in.
“His ident.i.ty is very sensitive. We need to finish him off, take his ring of holding, and leave the Realm of Split Void as quickly as we can.” The last late Profound realm expert seemed to be more prudent than the others. “Don’t waste our time anymore. We don’t want to wait until those experts who are protective of him return from the Void Illusion Mountain Range for us.”
“Good point!” The first man to speak said, nodding.
With a fling of his arm, a blazing hammer shot out of his hand. It made crackling sounds and created a sea of raging flames as it flew directly towards Nie Tian.
BAAAM!
The Bone Blood Demon that was as large as a mountain swung its long arm and slapped the blazing hammer hard.
The blazing hammer, which was a seventh level Premium grade spiritual tool, failed to withstand the terrifying force, and exploded instantly.
The man let out a m.u.f.fled groan. His expression flickered drastically as he stared blankly at the Bone Blood Demon.
He had discovered it the moment they had arrived, but he hadn’t attached any importance to it.
After all, he had never heard of any puppet that possessed such devastating power throughout the Domain of the Falling Stars.
Being at the late Profound realm himself, how would he fear a soulless thing like that?
“Kill them all,” Nie Tian whispered with a vicious smile.
With a surprisingly swift move, the Bone Blood Demon lunged forward, and brought its sharp, blade-like left hand down from the air towards the head of the late Profound realm expert who practiced fire-attributed incantations.
The man let out a furious roar as he burst into flames. With the raging flames, he rapidly formed a blazing ward.
However, like a great sword that could shatter heaven and earth, the Bone Blood Demon’s left hand went right through his blazing ward and cut the man in half.
Just like that, a late Profound realm expert was slain by the Bone Blood Demon with a single strike.
“What the...?! Why does this puppet possess such devastating power?!”
“Its battle prowess can easily match that of an early Soul realm expert!”
“d.a.m.n those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds! They fed us the wrong information!”
Now that the Bone Blood Demon had received Nie Tian’s order, it completely ignored those people’s exclamations. It swiftly slashed its arms, which seemed as if they were forged from pure steel, a few more times across the air.
PUFF! PUFF! PUFF!
Its incomparably sharp hands shattered the Profound realm experts’ defensive wards and spiritual tools, and eventually their fleshly bodies.
Nie Tian, however, only held on tightly to the Bone Blood Demon as he watched his enemies being torn to pieces. Horror and confusion could still be seen on their faces after they perished.
At that time, a few other rogue cultivators arrived, all of whom were at the Worldly realm. They saw the b.l.o.o.d.y scene the moment they arrived, and thus ran for their lives without the slightest hesitation.
The fact that the Bone Blood Demon had killed five Profound realm experts within such a short time shocked them to their very core, and made the idea of stealing Nie Tian’s valuables shoot right out of their minds.
Nie Tian gave a cold snort. “A bunch of clowns!”
He didn’t command the Bone Blood Demon to chase after them because he wanted them to spread word about what they had seen.
While the rogue cultivators fled in different directions, Dong Baijie, Qin Yan, Xuan Ke, and the other chosen ones rushed to the site.
“Nie Tian!!”