Soon after leaving Yu Tong, Nie Tian felt warm currents being gradually surging out from his stomach. Yet, he had only consumed several kilograms worth of dried meat from Yu Tong’s leather pouch!
“Wow, such strong surges of power! This must be second grade spirit beast meat!”
Only the meat of a second grade spirit beast would be able to produce such copious amounts of energy. Perhaps, this second grade spirit beast was even more formidable than the Lurker Lizard!”
He suddenly came to a realization.
When they first arrived in the Green Illusion dimension, there had been four second grade spirit beasts. The Frost Python had been the most powerful, and had recently reached the third grade, whereupon it teleported out of the dimension.
As for the rest of them, the Lurker Lizard had already been slaughtered by Jiang Lingzhu’s group, and Zheng Bin’s group had probably killed another one in the volcano area.
If he guessed right, the dried meat inside Yu Tong’s leather pouch should be from the last of the second grade spirit beasts.
At that moment, currents of warmth started to disperse to every corner of Nie Tian’s body. Under the nourishment and replenishment of the energy, his exhausted body rapidly recovered.
Since he had been marching on at a fast pace, he didn’t have a chance to sit down and quietly channel the energy into his spiritual sea.
However, the energy that had dissipated into his blood and muscles filled him with vigor to the point where he no longer felt the heaviness in his steps.
He knew very well that once Yu Tong recovered the ability to move, she would hunt him down at all costs. Therefore, he didn’t dare to stop and replenish his dried up spiritual sea with spirit stones.
Every once in awhile, he would take out the map he had obtained from Yuan Feng, set a direction, and rush forward, regardless of anything else.
He had already given up on heading towards the border between the desert and volcano area to meet An Ying, Jiang Lingzhu, and the others. He only wished to return to the entrance of the Green Illusion dimension.
He knew that it was very possible that the disciples of the Ghost sect and Blood sect were still frantically chasing and killing survivors from the Cloudsoaring sect and Spiritual Treasure sect in the depths of the desert. If he headed in that same direction, it was very likely that he would encounter the Ghost sect and Blood sect disciples.
After forcibly using the rage punch, he was still in a poor condition. His spiritual sea was empty, and he feared that if he were to run into people from the Ghost sect and Blood sect, he would easily be slaughtered.
Furthermore, Yu Tong would also go all out in pursuing him once her condition stabilized and she recovered the ability to move.
He would definitely not choose the path of certain death.
Relying on the scant amount of dried meat that he had obtained from Yu Tong, Nie Tian gradually recovered his physical strength, but he didn’t dare to stop and rest, and kept marching on.
After an unknown period of time, he saw numerous glaciers in the distance, and knew that he would be leaving the desert soon.
“I’m almost there,” he thought to himself. “I’ll recover my power with the spirit stones when I enter the glacier area!”
Two hours later...
He finally dragged his depleted body out of the desert and into the bitterly cold glacier area.
As soon as he arrived at the bottom of the first glacier, he found a secluded valley and covered himself with a pile of snow, before starting to recover his strength with spirit stones.
Without the spirit stones, and only relying on the faint spiritual Qi in the Green Illusion dimension, it would probably take Nie Tian quite a few days to fully recover the spiritual power that he had consumed.
But spirit stones, even the low grade variety, carried pure and refined spiritual power.
Therefore, with their help, the process of recuperation could be sped up by a great extent!
Strands of pure and refined spiritual power were channeled from the spirit spirit stones into his spiritual sea. That pleasant feeling almost made Nie Tian cheer out loud.
“No wonder those guys all had spirit stones with them when they entered the Green Illusion dimension. Cultivating with the spirit stones’ help truly is so much smoother and more relaxing!”
Before long, one spirit stone was drained of its spiritual power, and cracked as it was reduced to an ordinary stone.
He immediately took out another.
In only an hour, he drained seven spirit stones, and his formerly dried up spiritual sea once again brimmed with spiritual power.
As soon as he completely recovered, he regained his confidence, knowing that he would no longer fall prey to anyone.
However, he didn’t dare to return to where he had come from, mainly because he didn’t wish to face Yu Tong again.
After a few minor adjustments, he crawled out of the pile of snow, and marched on forward.
He only wished to return to the gate of the Green Illusion dimension, and wait for other survivors there.
With the Frost Python gone, the glacier area was no longer dangerous. The scattered first grade spirit beasts had been killed by the disciples from the Spiritual Treasure sect and Grayvale sect.
Originally, he planned to capture a first grade spirit beast, and expand his spiritual sea with its meat, but as it turned out, he couldn’t find a single spirit beast along his way.
Time flew...
One day, Nie Tian finally pa.s.sed through the glacier area and returned to the entrance, thanks to the guidance provided by Yuan Feng’s map.
At the foot of the unknown mountain, ash-colored bones sat in the midst of a pile of rubble.
Next to a smooth stone wall sat nine white-garbed young men and women, who were gathered in a huddle, munching on spirit beast meat while simultaneously talking and laughing with one another.
“White clothes... The Mystic Mist sect...”
With a single glance from afar, Nie Tian was sure that those nine people were trial takers from the Mystic Mist sect.
However, seeing them made Nie Tian both elated and worried.
He was elated because, with those nine to help him, even if Yu Tong were to follow him here, he wouldn’t fear her.
With Zheng Bin and his group as his backup, Nie Tian, who had recovered his strength, would definitely be able to beat Yu Tong if she were to come to this place by herself.
He no longer needed to worry about his own safety.
However, them showing up here meant that An Ying, Jiang Lingzhu, and their group must have failed to meet with them at the border of the desert and volcano area.
With only An Ying and Jiang Lingzhu’s power, he feared that they wouldn’t be able to match up to the Ghost sect and the Blood sect. He didn’t know how many of them had already been killed.
While he was deep in thought, a pretty girl from the Mystic Mist sect spotted him.
“Yee?!”
To this point, he still remained unclothed from waist up, and there were also numerous thin wounds crisscrossed across his body, which had long since formed into scabs.
Moreover, he had been on the run, and thus didn’t have the chance to take care of his appearance. His ash-covered face, together with the wounds, that after forming into scabs resembled thin snakes, gave him a sinister look.
Zheng Bin sprung to his feet and stared coldly at him from afar. “Who’s there?”
The white-garbed Zheng Bin was born with a handsome face and had grown into a composed young man, who now, compared to the bedraggled Nie Tian, seemed to be radiating rays of sunlight.
Three girls in the group had their beautiful eyes fixed on Zheng Bin the entire time he talked, their eyes filled with adoration.
However, when they s.h.i.+fted their gazes onto Nie Tian, their faces suddenly turned grim, and the adoration in their eyes was immediately replaced by aversion.
Nie Tian walked relaxedly towards them as he answered, “I’m also a trial taker. I entered the Green Illusion dimension with An Ying.”
A girl with an oval-shaped face suddenly became interested. Eyes glittering, she said, “Are you from the Spiritual Treasure sect? Did you guys slaughter the Frost Python in the glacier area?”
Upon hearing her words, the other trial takers from the Mystic Mist sect also grew intrigued.
The glacier area, the desert, and the volcano area weren’t located in a straight line.
That was why the Mystic Mist sect’s disciples didn’t pa.s.s the desert and glacier region to return to this place after killing their target spirit beast in the volcano area.
They had taken a different route to return.
Months had pa.s.sed, and they knew that even if they had gone to the glacier area and the desert to kill the Frost Python and Lurker Lizard, they wouldn’t be successful, so they gave up long ago.
However, the Green Illusion dimension’s rules only prohibited killing, but not battles among themselves. The reason they came back early was to replenish their power and s.n.a.t.c.h the spirit beast head from the other three sects.
The way they saw it, since Nie Tian was with the Spiritual Treasure sect, he had just served himself up as prey by coming alone.
“No, we didn’t.”
Nie Tian frowned. Just as he was about to tell them about the Ghost sect and Blood sect’s disciples, Zheng Bin snorted coldly and said with an indifferent face, “Tie him up and search him. We don’t want him to join the Spiritual Treasure sect’s force to fight us when they arrive.”
The girl with the oval-shaped face agreed. “Okay, let’s do it as we planned.”
After that, two white-garbed boys of the Mystic Mist sect sprung to their feet excitedly, and dashed forward to capture Nie Tian without saying a word.
They a.s.sumed that since Nie Tian had shown up, An Ying and others from the Spiritual Treasure sect must be right behind him.
They wanted to capture Nie Tian at the first possible moment, so that he wouldn’t be able to a.s.sist An Ying in the future.