Since he had known Lou Hongyan, Nie Tian had never seen her so sad and down.
Other than Yang Fan, Lou Hongyan had only one Saint domain and seven Void domain subordinates by her side now.
Back when Nie Tian had met her in the Void Spirit Society before this operation, she had had twice as many subordinates beside her.
Needless to say, the lost ones had most likely died.
Huang Jinnan smiled bitterly and said, “I’m doing okay. Even though I’ve been separated from my subordinates, I think most of them escaped. What about you, senior martial sister? What happened to you?”
Lou Hongyan sighed. “We ran into the sectmaster of the Nether Spirit Society.”
Nie Tian and the others gasped with astonishment. “The sectmaster of the Nether Spirit Society?!”
None of them had thought that Lou Hongyan’s team would be so unlucky that they had actually encountered their primary target of this trip to the Domain of Nether Heaven: the sectmaster of the Nether Spirit Society.
Qi Lianshan, a middle Saint domain elder of the Void Spirit Society, turned to Pei Qiqi and said, “Realm number five happened to be the place where the sectmaster of the Nether Spirit Society was hiding. We didn’t find any trace of him when we first entered it. Only after I failed to get us out of there with Void Travel did I realize that he had sealed realm number five with his secret magic.
“It was too late.
“After the sectmaster of the Nether Spirit Society showed himself, he found that we couldn’t possibly contend against him in battle. But the worst part was that I couldn’t get in touch with our vice sectmaster.
“Luckily, Senior Lu Jiefeng happened to be in a nearby realm. He sensed the anomaly and traveled through the starry river to our aid.
“He entered realm number five, and only with his help was I able to cast Void Travel. Even so, we lost more than half of our people.”
Qi Lianshan sighed in frustration.
Huang Jinnan’s expression flickered as he said, “What happened to Uncle Lu?”
“I... Umm... I don’t think he got out of there,” Lou Hongyan said, sorrow filling her eyes. “To buy us time, Uncle Lu got into a fierce battle against the sectmaster of the Nether Spirit Society. Also, I sensed the aura of a Phantasm grand monarch when we left. That means Uncle Lu was facing the sectmaster of the Nether Spirit Society and a Phantasm grand monarch at the same time. Both of them were at the same level as him.
“I had a feeling that they put all of their energy in fighting Uncle Lu instead of chasing after us, as if he was their target the whole time.”
Nie Tian remained silent, yet his expression grew very grim.
He was well-aware that Lu Jiefeng from the Five Elements Sect would probably die, if he hadn’t died already.
After all, he couldn’t possibly get any a.s.sistance from Mo Heng or Ji Yuanquan.
While Mo Heng was caught up in a fierce battle against Grand Monarch Withered Bones, Pei Qiqi hadn’t been able to get in touch with Ji Yuanquan the whole time, which meant that he had probably encountered an expert at his level as well.
Mo Heng was the strongest of the three. Grand Monarch Withered Bones might not be able to defeat him. Ji Yuanquan was well-versed in spatial magics, which made him very hard to kill.
Among the three G.o.d domain experts that had come to the Domain of Nether Heaven, Lu Jiefeng was the one that was fairly easy to deal with.
Both the sectmaster of the Nether Spirit Society and that Phantasm grand monarch must be experts in soul magics and incantations. If Lu Jiefeng died at their hands, it was almost guaranteed that his soul wouldn’t be able to escape.
The G.o.d domain represented humanity’s peak strength. It would take an astronomical amount of cultivation resources for a human to advance to such a level.
From the Void domain to the Saint domain, and eventually the G.o.d domain, each of these advances would require an unimaginable amount of cultivation materials. Normally, it would take all of the precious treasures that a few domains had acc.u.mulated over hundreds of thousands of years in order to produce a G.o.d domain Qi warrior.
Furthermore, the breakthrough into the G.o.d domain was always full of danger. One mishap, and the cultivator might die beyond salvation.
All of these factors contributed to the fact that even the four great sects only had a handful of G.o.d domain experts. Losing any of them would be a heavy blow to all mankind.
“Elder Qi, you must have cast Void Travel a few times to get here, right?” Pei Qiqi asked with a grim face. “Can you cast it again?”
Qi Lianshan shook his head. “I wouldn’t have stopped here if I could...”
Their conversation went on briefly, from which Nie Tian learned that Lou Hongyan was planning the same thing as they were. They also intended to reach the border of the Domain of Nether Heaven, cross the ultimate barrier of the grand monarchs’ flesh auras, and leave this d.a.m.ned place as soon as possible.
The grand monarchs’ flesh auras had practically sealed the Domain of Nether Heaven. Even though powerful experts from the four great sects might have sensed that something wasn’t right, even G.o.d domain experts from the Void Spirit Society couldn’t cast their secret spells to get here in a flash.
Meanwhile, Pei Qiqi, Qi Lianshan, Fan Wen, and other experts from the Void Spirit Society could only flee from place to place within the cage that the Domain of Nether Heaven had become.
Their only way to escape the Domain of Nether Heaven was to sail through the sea of flesh aura on transportation spiritual tools like ancient stars.h.i.+ps or the Voidheaven Boat while the outsider grand monarchs were caught up in battle against Mo Heng, Ji Yuanquan, and Lu Jiefeng.
As soon as they broke out from the Domain of Nether Heaven, Qi Lianshan’s middle Saint domain cultivation base would allow him to get into contact with the Void Spirit Society immediately.
Pei Qiqi suddenly turned to Nie Tian and asked, “Would you help treat Elder Qi’s wounds, Nie Tian? Once his wounds are healed, he should be able to cast Void Travel again. Am I right, Elder Qi?”
Qi Lianshan nodded and fixed Nie Tian with a confused look. “Miss Pei, is he...?”
“He can help you heal the wounds caused by the backlash of Void Travel within a short time,” Pei Qiqi said with certainty in her eyes.
Qi Lianshan’s eyes lit up. “If he can do that, then I’ll be able to cast Void Travel more than a few times!”
Pei Qiqi then explained to Nie Tian, “Aside from significant power consumption, our sect’s Void Travel also comes with strong backlashes. However, my uniqueness allows me to greatly neutralize them. What limits the times I can cast it is actually my power reserve. Unlike me, Elder Qi has more than enough power to cast it, but is limited by his delicate body.”
It was also at this moment that Nie Tian noticed that Qi Lianshan’s qi and blood were rather weak, and that his insides were covered in fine cuts.
With a knowing look in his eyes, Nie Tian beckoned Qi Lianshan with a wave of his hand.
Qi Lianshan looked rather suspicious as he flew over and landed on the Voidheaven Boat.
Without any hesitation, Nie Tian cast Heavenly Wood Heal and fused his refined wood power into Qi Lianshan. He didn’t use even a shred of his bloodline power.
Under the magical effect of Heavenly Wood Heal, the numerous fine cuts in Qi Lianshan’s internal organs healed in a very short period of time.
A shudder ran through him as ecstasy filled his flickering face.
He knew that masters of wood power incantations could heal other people’s injuries. As alchemists, they could also make powerful healing pills.
In fact, he had already taken a few pills, and his body was already slowly healing.
But apparently, such healing ability was nothing when compared to the wondrous, life force-regenerating effect of Heavenly Wood Heal.
Nie Tian had a feeling that Heavenly Wood Heal must be a top healing magic of the Floragrims. Coupled with his wood power, it could achieve incredible healing effects when used on regular humans.
This was a case in point.
Before long, Qi Lianshan exclaimed, “It’s enough! My injuries are mostly healed!”
Nie Tian then withdrew his hands.
Lou Hongyan, Yang Fan, and many other powerful experts fixed him with astonished looks.
With mixed emotions, Lou Hongyan said, “I thought you were wasting your time practicing multiple powers, and that all it would do was limit the speed at which you made advances in cultivation. Who would have thought… But still, very few masters of wood power incantations can completely heal a person like you did within such a short time.”
“I guess I’m different,” Nie Tian said.
Fully convinced, Qi Lianshan nodded vigorously. “Indeed, very different.”
With these words, he summoned his power and split open a spatial rift for everyone to enter.
Then, after he was healed, he repeated the act. After casting Void Travel a few more times, he finally got everyone to the border of the Domain of Nether Heaven.
In front of them, a rolling mixture of Demon qi and a Demon grand monarch’s flesh aura stretched like a sea.
Spirited, Qi Lianshan said, “Once we cross this sea of flesh aura, we’ll be out of the Domain of Nether Heaven, and we’ll be able to inform our sects of the calamity that has happened here.” With these words, he turned to Nie Tian. “But I’ll have to ask you to treat my injuries one last time before we go.”
“Okay, no problem,” Nie Tian responded.
Without delay, he cast the healing incantation once again, hoping they would finish this one last step as soon as possible.
However, just as he began, Pei Qiqi frowned deeply, as if she had discovered something terrible. “There’s a special teleportation portal in the vicinity!”
“A teleportation portal?!” Qi Lianshan exclaimed. “Is it one of the outsiders’?”
“It appears so.” Pei Qiqi took a deep breath. “We’ve got to destroy it first. Otherwise, when we enter the sea of flesh aura, it’ll alarm that Demon grand monarch, and powerful experts from his clan might descend through it.”