In a place that was wreathed in misty, cyan Phantasm Qi, a group of Phantasms were gathered around an activated teleportation portal.
They were none other than the same ones that had attacked Nie Tian and Hou Chulan’s team earlier.
“Where is Froste?!” Lamson’s angry roar echoed out as his surging sea of flesh aura that contained countless toxins spread over.
Gett, a ninth grade Phantasm grand patriarch, hastily said with a frown, “Please don’t be angry, Lord Lamson. Our young monarch was taken back to our domain.”
“What killed that member of my clan?” Lamson asked with a grim face. “Why aren’t there any of his Domain-corroding Flames left? You had Froste there to amplify your power, and the Domain-corroding Flames to weaken the humans. Yet you failed to kill the Divine Daughter of the wood element sect. What a bunch of losers!
“If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have agreed to come to the Domain of Heaven’s Origin in the first place!”
The Fiends behind him also glowered at Gett.
The eighth grade Fiend who Nie Tian had killed had been an important member of their clan. Now that he had died in the Domain of Heaven’s Origin, they would have to atone for their failure to protect him to an elder of their clan after their return.
Knowing that they were in the wrong, Gett apologized repeatedly. “Sorry, we didn’t expect the seventh Son of the Stars of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace to be capable of not only suppressing the Domain-corroding Flames, but refining them too. Even our young monarch was seriously injured by him, and had to leave the battlefield early with the help of the Soul Ferry Battle Armor.”
“What?!” Lamson exclaimed. “Some human can refine the Domain-corroding Flames? Are you sure you’re not talking about melting them with lava?”
“I’m completely certain,” Gett replied with decisiveness that could sever nails and chop iron.
Still skeptical, Lamson said, “Everything in this world has things that enhance and inhibit them. We’ve long since learned that lava can melt our Domain-corroding Flames. But to this day, I haven’t heard of anything or anyone that has the ability to refine them! You’re not using this as an excuse for your failure, are you?”
“You can see for yourself,” Gett said.
A series of images suddenly appeared in the prismatic crystal between his eyebrows, which were his memories visualized by his condensed flesh aura.
Soon, the scenes of Nie Tian refining the Domain-corroding Flames with the orange flame spark were displayed without leaving any details out.
Lamson and the other Fiends stared blankly into the crystal for a long while without making a sound.
SHEW!
The images vanished. Gett withdrew his flesh aura, spread his hands slightly and said with a bitter face, “Do you believe me now?”
Lamson was astounded. “There... There really is a human that can refine our Domain-corroding Flames with a strange flame spark… And if I’m not mistaken, that human seems to only be at the Profound realm, right?”
Gett nodded. “How can someone as powerful as you be mistaken?”
Confused, Lamson said, “The Profound realm! How was he even able to travel in the starry river? Don’t humans have to be at the Void domain or higher to be able to fend off the impurities in the starry river with their domains? Human bodies are too weak to handle the impurities directly, aren’t they?”
“He’s a hybrid,” Gett explained.
“A hybrid? What grade is his bloodline at? And what race does his bloodline belong to?” Lamson asked, eager to know the answers.
Gett took a deep breath and answered, “According to our young monarch, his bloodline is at the seventh grade. As for the source of his bloodline... our young monarch didn’t know that either. He only said that his bloodline is very special and full of wonders. It seems to carry the profound truths of life. He unleashed a strange bloodline magic which suppressed our young monarch to the point where he couldn’t even circulate his flesh aura and the Blood Essence within him.
“Besides that, he has a bone, which seems to have been taken from a Star Behemoth.”
Lamson gasped with astonishment. “His bloodline carries the profound truths of life?! And he has a Star Behemoth bone? What background did this seventh Son of the Stars come from?”
Gett shook his head. “We don’t know much about his background either. Our young monarch only told us that one of our people’s Spirit Pearls has somehow ended up in his hands, and he has vested it with a soul and become its acknowledged master.”
Disbelief and confusion filled Lamson’s face as he said, “What?! He can actually use that unique treasure of your race? Don’t tell me that guy is the descendant of one of your deceased grand monarchs and some female human.”
“Do you think that’s possible?” Gett asked rhetorically.
Lamson pondered in silence for a few seconds before realizing that his speculation was wild and laughable. “It’s even hard for grand monarchs to reproduce with powerful experts of their own race. It’s indeed impossible for feeble humans to bear a grand monarch’s bloodline. But what the h.e.l.l is the deal with that Son of the Stars?”
“We’ll throw in more time and people to investigate him. You can count on it.” Gett said with a serious look in his eyes. “Alright, I don’t think we should stay in the Domain of Heaven’s Origin anymore. After all, we’ve been exposed. The four great sects will probably be much more prepared the next time they send their powerful experts here. It’s not safe for us to stay here for too long.
“I’ll destroy this teleportation portal after we leave. We don’t want to leave any trace for the humans.”
The conversation between the Phantasms and Fiends went on for a while, where Lamson asked more questions about Nie Tian. Only after that did he enter the teleportation portal with his people under Gett’s repeated urging.
Gett was the last one to enter the teleportation portal. After he did, the Phantasm Qi pervading the area rapidly poured into the portal as well.
After sucking all of the Phantasm Qi in its surroundings into itself, the teleportation portal burst like an overly expanded balloon, leaving nothing but lingering spatial fluctuations.
...
On their way back, Hou Chulan and all of her subordinates remained silent, losing all interest in talking.
Even He Lianxiong became unusually quiet, as if his flame of arrogance had been completely extinguished by his defeat in the Domain of Heaven’s Origin.
When he had first arrived, he had held his head high. High-spirited and vigorous, he had total confidence that he would be able to help Hou Chulan kill all of the Phantasms and destroy the teleportation portal.
But now, he had lost most of his subordinates, which he had acc.u.mulated and cultivated for many years, and failed to kill a single Fiend.
He seemed clearly downhearted.
It wasn’t very long before the ancient stars.h.i.+p that belonged to Wei Botao, the sectmaster of the Martial Spirit Sect, entered everyone’s sight in the peaceful, silent starry river.
Standing at the prow of the stars.h.i.+p, Wei Botao’s expression flickered as soon as he spotted those who had returned.
There were simply too few of them, so few that he couldn’t believe his eyes.
“Divine Daughter!” Wei Botao took the initiative to fly off his ancient stars.h.i.+p towards them, and asked before even reaching them, “What happened? How come only the few of you came back?”
Instead of answering him, Hou Chulan turned to Ruan Qingliu and said with a stern face, “Aunt Ruan, take a few people with you to investigate every disciple of the Martial Spirit Sect and the Earth Spirit Sect that’s at the Void domain or higher. Leave no one!”
Ruan Qingliu nodded, her face as grim as a silent lake.
Those who the Phantasms might choose to work as their informants had to be at the Void domain at the very least. Those with low cultivation bases wouldn’t even be able to get in touch with them, let alone provide them with the kind of information they needed.
This time, only the elders of the Martial Spirit Sect knew about He Lianxiong’s arrival.
The revelation of such information must have something to do with the Martial Spirit Sect.
Upon hearing that Hou Chulan was going to investigate every Void domain member of his sect, Wei Botao asked with shock written all over his face, “What on earth happened?”
“Someone secretly informed the Phantasms of He Lianxiong’s arrival. Because of that, we were respectively ambushed by a group of Phantasms and a group of Fiends, and suffered terrible losses.” After a brief explanation, Ruan Qingliu urged him impatiently to activate the teleportation portal so that she could go investigate the elders of the Martial Spirit Sect who knew about He Lianxiong’s arrival one by one.
Soon, everyone streamed into the teleportation portal in the ancient stars.h.i.+p, and appeared in a grand hall inside the Martial Spirit Sect’s headquarters.
Soon after they did, one of the Martial Spirit Sect elders rushed into the grand hall to report to Wei Botao, “Sectmaster! The vice sectmaster has disappeared!”
A bad feeling struck Wei Botao. “What?! Gan Xi disappeared?! When?”
“Soon after the Heaven Span Pavilion experts arrived,” The man explained, burying his head. “The vice sectmaster left without leaving any messages. He didn’t even take the other ancient stars.h.i.+p of our sect.”
“Find him!!!” Wei Botao roared.
Nie Tian exchanged a look with Jing Feiyang. Both of them realized that the missing vice sectmaster of the Martial Spirit Sect was most likely another traitor who had been secretly working with the Phantasms.
Yue Yanxi let out a long sigh and said in a low voice, “The Domain of Heaven’s Origin only has three Saint domain experts, yet two of them crossed over to the Phantasms’ side. No wonder we lost this battle.”
“Aunt Ruan, go with the Martial Spirit Sect disciples and do everything you can to ferret that Gan Xi out!” Hou Chulan ordered.
“Go with them too, Uncle Shen,” He Lianxiong said gnas.h.i.+ng his teeth. “Find that b.a.s.t.a.r.d at all costs! I’ll refine his soul wisp by wisp and make him suffer for a hundred years before letting him die!”
Ruan Qingliu and Shen Jing then left with a few Martial Spirit Sect elders and started looking for any traces Gan Xi might have left when he escaped.
“I doubt that they’ll be able to find anything.” Nie Tian shook his head, thinking that even though that Gan Xi had defected and escaped, given that he was a Saint domain expert, finding him in this vast starry river would be as difficult as finding a needle in a sea.